I mentioned in the last post that I am using a few spare days to catch up with some archived sermons and the month of June 2007 was particularly significant for City Church International. In this sermon Rob explains exactly WHAT happened on the 10th June 2007 and the significance it carries.
This was preached on Sunday 17th June 2007;
"Please open your Bibles to Genesis 28. I have what I think is going to be a short message. I want to talk about something that happened here last Sunday and bring some interpretation to it. I really think it is for today and we would lose something of it next week. So I want to talk about the "Downloads of God's Glory". God is downloading glory into our church. Dion and the rainbow - you look in the Book of Revelation and chapter 4 and John was caught up into the heavens and he described the throne room of God and the first thing he said was; "I saw a rainbow encircling the throne". As Dion prophesied, a rainbow means that judgement is over! That is a sign of the covenant at the end of the flood when God judged the world - the rainbow said that judgement is over. There is no judgement but a throne of grace with a rainbow over it where our God sits and rules the universe and we sing praises to our reconciling God who is redeeming the earth and the planet.
Let's have a look at what the house of God is. What is it? It is the church! It is great to be in church where everyone is alive! We are living stones the Bible says. People think that the church is a cathedral in the corner with a few old grannies going to it!
But the church is the most relevant thing on the planet! It is the gateway to heaven! It is where the glory of God finds a portal to manifest into the earth!
Genesis 28:10;
"And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven".
(John 1:47) Jesus said the same thing to Nathaniel. That the house of God is the gate of heaven where angels ascend and descend.
Last Sunday morning while I was talking I was aware that there was like a static electricity in the air. Something rather unusual but nothing overwhelming - just an awareness of the Presence of God. When I came to the end of the speaking and I invited people forward and we came and knelt down in the tenderness of God's Presence and let God align us and adjust our allegiances so that we were in proper alignment for the anointing to flow in unhindered power through our lives, I thought we do that for a few minutes and then we would close the service. But as those who were here remember the glory of God came into this place. When we were in the military we were trained what to do if we were in the bush and if we walked into an ambush, we were trained how to get down to the ground as quickly as possible. I said to Dion that I have never seen people fall so fast. I knew something was happening as people began to weep and others began to explode with joy.n
Afterwards I was talking to Marina. She is a very intelligent lady! She thinks - she is not weird. We were talking about the glory of God and every time I said the word "glory" I felt like I was being stung but in a nice way with a thousand beautiful stings. I was shivering and my hair was standing up every time I said the word "glory". So I said; "Marina everytime I say the word "glory" I feel voltage going through me". And very matter of factly she said; "Oh when you got up to speak, 5 minutes after you started speaking 2 very large angels assembled themselves one in one corner and one in the other".
Now this is where some people take a departure from the meeting and say; "Okay! Angels!? These are weird people! They believe in angels?!". No we don't believe in angels! We believe in the Bible and the BIBLE believes in angels! Angels were a common occurance! I want to get out of churches where angels never turn up because if angels never turn up then it is a sign that God has left the place! The House of God is a stairway where angels ascend and descend!
1. She said that they were LARGE angels.
Immediately I knew because I have studied the angelic Scriptures in the Old and New Testament and the Bible is full of the activity of angels - they come on assignment from the heavenly realm through the church and into the nations doing the will of God! They never preach the Gospel - they are not assigned to preach the Gospel. They are assigned to help human beings preach the Gospel! You won't find one angel preaching the Gospel in the Old or New Testament - they help human beings. After Jesus went through His wilderness temptation in Matthew 4 it says that He was exhausted and angels came and refreshed Him. If He needed angels when He was limited to His human body then you and I need angels! Hebrews 1:14 says angels are ministering spirits of fire sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation! We need them! We don't worship angels and will never worship angels. We worship Jesus Christ!
But I knew they were high-ranking angels - she said "large" angels. And she said they had trumpets in their mouthes. And I want to give interpretation on that. I want to say this - when angels descend they come on assignment in answer to the churches prayers. When angels ascend it means that their assignment is over and they go back for R and R in heaven. They will stay there until the church prays again and asks the Father to help us break into Hong Kong, break into China, to get marriages right, finances right, health right. And you get prosperity angels, warring angels, communication angels, guardianship angels - every human being whether they are saved or not are assigned a guardian angel. That's why the angels in heaven rejoice when someone gets saved becase they know at least if he dies he will go to heaven!
Every human being has an angel - from the time you are born to the time you die, you have an angel assigned to you! As the church prays - we do not command angels around - we pray to the Father and He commands the angels to do the command of His Word. He assigns angels! But many angels are so bored in heaven - they are tired of their harps! They have played their harps this way and that way! They want a church that will get out the boat and walk on the water and take some risks and stop being so religiously conservative and playing it safe and don't want to make a fool of themselves! They want a church that steps out in the authority of God and gets out the boat and says we want to see miracles happen, we are tired of normal Christianity, we want to see signs and wonders!
And God says "Wow - look at them they are praying! Angels go and help them before they make fools of themselves!". Go! And God is starting to dispatch angels that have been on assignment to other groups and other peoples and they are not using them so God will use them on assignment for people who want to change the world around them!
I would not have been in the earth today if it were not for angels. I would have been dead some time ago! I would have been killed in my bedroom in Hong Kong! Demon powers would come into my room from the time I got to Hong Kong and try and push me into my bed and paralyse me and throttle me in my bed and one night Geoff came and layed hands on me and said; "From this night God says that His angels will come around and guard you and stand around you". Angels came on assignment from heaven and guard me when I go to sleep now! Isn't that wonderful?! I am a university graduate and some say I am intellectual! I as a so-called intellectual believe that God has angels in the earth and I believe those angels will activate and move out when God's people believe in the supernatural and believe in the invisible world and stand up and say "God come and help us - come and support us!".
2. Why would they have trumpets in their mouths?
If you look in the book of Exodus, Israel when they were going to their freedom, when they were going to inherit the promises of God in the Promised Land and were going to inherit vineyards, houses, prosperity, land, estate, fruitfulness - God said "I give you the power to get wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:18). And they were on their way following a cloud of glory that they could see with their eyes! During the day a cloud of glory was moving across the desert and they would follow it. At night it would become a pillar of fire. Every now and then the cloud of glory would stop and wait in a place for days sometimes even weeks. When the cloud of glory stopped then 3 million Israelites stopped and waited there until the cloud moved again.
A great lesson for us to know - God is on the move! Move when He moves but stop when He stops! Some Christians don't even know that God is moving! Some people make things happen! Some people watch things happen! And some people don't know what happened! The church is full of people that don't know what God is doing! Get on assignment with God! Get purpose and vision and destiny to change nations and you will be the happiest person on the earth while you walk through hell! But if you want to sit on your blessed assurance for the rest of your life and get happy then you will be the most miserable person on the planet! But when you get on assignment for God and angels come to help you and God gets behind you and financial miracles take place!
They waited under the cloud of glory and that cloud of glory was like a shelter from the desert heat during the day! It gets very hot in the wilderness and it is boiling hot - the light is so glaring. There is no moisture in the air! So they would have air conditioning under the cloud of glory during the day and then during the night it would turn to a pillar of fire. How many of you know that in a desert the nights become freezing cold and drop down to freezing? So the pillar of fire kept them warm at night and they were following that. When it stopped they stopped. They knew that they could not go anywhere without the Presence of God. Some Christians do not know where the Presence of God is going and don't know when to stop or when to go! So they go out in the wilderness and say "Where's God?" and they wonder why it is so hot in the day and so cold at night spiritually speaking! The Bible says as soon as the cloud of glory began to move then God spoke to Moses and He said "As soon as the cloud begins to move - I want trumpets to sound. Awaken and get Israel aware!". The prophetic! Get Israel aware that the cloud is now moving! Get up and break camp! Get going!
Some of the Jews said; "No business is good here - we are not moving!". We are staying here! So the cloud went and everyone went off and they stayed but within days there was hot sun and freezing desert and drying up! You have got to keep moving with the glory of God! You can't get offended and get hurt and say "No I am just going to stay here and camp here and I am tired of following the cloud and I will do what I want with my family, my marriage!". Fine - but when that cloud moves and if you don't move with it then you are in serious trouble! I have not moved sometimes when the cloud moved - I got too comfortable. Business was good in Adelaide or in Durban! It takes a few days without the Presence of God and you start running back; "Wait for me - I am coming!". In 1st Corinthians 14 Paul says that the prophetic must make a clear trumpet sound in order for people to assemble. What he is saying is that the assembly is something wonderful - the cloud is about to move! You are going to go into greater dimensions of My Presence!
It is not just about us moving geographically. I personally don't think I will move from Hong Kong for many years. It is about moving on with God into new dimensions and new encounters and realities of the supernatural.
Bethel - the house of God - the gateway of heaven! Gates are access points and when you go through a gate you go from one dimension into another dimension. The Church is a gateway into realms of the glory! It is a gateway into the realms of what is happening in heaven!
And God says "I am beginning to move again in CCI - you have come through months and months of testing and trials and people analysing and questioning". But the cloud is beginning to move! The trumpets are sounding! It is time to move! The house of God!
John 14 - Jesus says in my Fathers house there are many mansions ... so that where I am, there you may be also. We have always said; "Well that just means going to heaven one day". I don't believe that at all! I believe we will die one day and go to heaven and that will be great. But I am in no rush to get there. Home is heaven! But we must read Scripture in context! Jesus was not talking to the disciples about going to heaven - the whole context was that Jesus was going to heaven but the Holy Spirit is coming to replace Him in the earth and the miracles that I have been doing then you will do also and greater works. Anyone believes in Me - I am going to the Father and He will send the Holy Spirit to you!
Then He goes on throughout the whole chapter talking the church moving in the power of the Holy Spirit. So that "where He is - you may be also".
So last Tuesday when I was praying for the service, I said "Holy Spirit You are an eternal being and You are not locked into time! You are the Alpha and the Omega. You see the beginning and the end simultaneously. You live outside of time! You created time! So Holy Spirit please go ahead to Sunday and be there already and be there for five days perfuming this place and preparing a place for us so that where You are we may be also! Then won't You break back into Tuesday and start working on the hearts of everyone in this church and supernaturally align us to be positioned properly to receive what You have been preparing for us on Sunday". That's why I believe being at church is so vitally important for divine encounters in what God is doing.
3. Now the question I have to ask is why were there TWO angels?
Why couldn't there have been one angel? Why two? One angel could have sounded their trumpet! So this week I began to pray and ask why two? Your head only can catch up with spiritual reality later! Education means you can study for hours and after much study and effort you learn something. But with spirit revelation you can have divine information into your spirit that you just KNOW something that is quite large information but you got it in a split second. So divine information from heaven can come instantly and suddenly you know it!
So I heard God say something very obvious to me. "While you were speaking on covenant - one angel represented the Old Covenant and one angel represented the New Covenant. And this church knows with our heads and some degree with our hearts that we are not under the Old Covenant at all! We are not under law at all - we are totally under grace and under the New Covenant. I am announcing in the spirit realm that there is a moving of the people of God out of long held conditioned positions of Old Covenant thinking and mentality of condemnation and insecurity and guilt and I am releasing this church in the spirit realm to step out from Old Covenant thinking. We know we are not under the Old Covenant but Old Covenant thinking still remains like shadows in our minds. And the New Covenant trumpet is sounding - step into the glory of New Covenant thinking!".
2 Corinthians chapter 3 speaks of two glories! We often say we are being changed from one degree of glory to the next. We try to say by that the New Covenant is going up with ever-increasing glory. That is not good interpretation of that chapter because that chapter in it's context only speaks of two glories! It talks about the glory of the Old Covenant which was a fading glory and no glory at all compared to the glory of the New Covenant! The glory of the Old Covenant was a ministry of death and condemnation written on tablets of stone but the glory of the New is that we get a free gift of righteousness, we get boldness, we lose all condemnation and it is a glory that brings a spirit of life and energy into our lives! The glory is God's view and position of you! The Old Covenant glory is how God sees you through the law. So all He sees is the perfect standards of the law and His righteous holiness must judge you and me because the law demands a perfect righteousness of us all the time. The moment you are below the standards of the law then the wrath of God must come and judge.
In New Covenant God provides His righteousness for us permamently for 24 hours every single day we are seen by God as perfectly righteous in Christ Jesus! The New Testament glory is God's opinion and view of you through only grace. God never looks at you through the law. He never shifts His position of you from the Old back to the New. God is in a perfect position looking at you only through grace and only through the New Covenant glory all the time every second - even when you fail and SIN! Even though we don't want to sin and we hate sin. God doesn't put you back under law when you sin! What would be the point? No God said that the law would crush us and condemn us and judge us! So the New Covenant even when we sin and mess up God can relate to us with authenticity because His wrath was already poured out on Jesus Christ in your place forever and ever - it's not even an issue anymore under the Old Covenant!
This is the point I want to make - if you find your confidence before God is based on your performance and based on how well you are doing then you have put yourself in an incredible place of pressure. Because only when you are doing perfectly well will you feel that the Father loves you and accepts you and approves of you. The moment you start doing bad you will feel you have divine disapproval over your life. How do you know when you are doing good enough to have the Father happy with you? How do you know when you have done enough to keep the Father happy? There is always a pressure to do more!
I want to go more and love Him more! I want to! But if I live in confidence based on me fulfilling all my want-tos then when I don't fulfill all my want-tos then I will feel insecure before the Father. It is not about you and me having to do more! Jesus did it ALL! He was enough! In Him you are accepted! In Jesus it is finished! All the things I do are never to get His approval - I have already got it in Jesus Christ under the New Covenant and that liberates me to have the right motive in what I do for Him! Every week Glenda and I get letters like this from our website and most of them we have never met. Most of them are saying "The grace message has set us free". I don't know this couple - they are from the UK and from Watford.
"Dear Rob and Glenda,
We just have been so passionately stirred - the last two weeks to write this email and tell you what the grace of God has done for us. There are no words to describe what is happening to us. It is a freedom and liberty that has lifted us off our feet with joy. We are truly FREE!!!!!! It has been the most amazing thing to truly understand God as Father and His sweet Presence. I had this revelation a month ago and I had a life-changing experience with the Holy Spirit in my quiet time where it was so tangible it was upon me. The room was so bright that I was afraid to open my eyes. Trembling, laughing and weeping at the same time I don't know what is happening to me - all I know is that I just want to know Him more and more and fall deeper in love with Him. For Rory it is freedom to rise up and boldly speak the gospel to his collegues at work. His journey is at least an hour there and an hour back on the M25 (the biggest parking lot in the world because no cars move there) and the teachings from your website refresh him every day and he says that it feels like he has been born again again! It has helped us understand the Scriptures in such a profound way that you just want to read and read and read!".
It is amazing that people keep asking me if I am under grace then I won't read the Bible, pray or nothing! No! No! No! When the grace of God truly sinks in and you hear that trumpet sound to get out of an Old Covenant mentality and come here - you cannot learn grace with your head, you must learn it with your spirit and when it hits your spirit then you will know! Let me encourage if it hasn't hit your spirit yet then it is going to sooner or later! When it does you will know! You will be changed! You will have confidence before God!
"Our friends have noticed the change in us! Some have said we are drunk??? So as a result our CD writer has been working overtime as we continue to pass the message onto others. We just want to encourage you and thank you as you continue to teach the message of God's grace. Please let us know when you plan to have a conference in Hong Kong! We would love to come! Love in Christ, Rory and Cindy".
Lets read 1st Corinthians. You will never move from that Old Covenant mentality into the freedom of the New Covenant mentality by trying to analyse it with human wisdom. It is too big. You and I have been indoctrinated since we were children that nothing is for free and you have got to earn everything! If you are thirty or forty years of age then you have had thirty or forty years of brainwashing and indoctrination. Nothing is for free! In this world's system that is absolutely the truth! Nothing is for free! You work for it by the sweat of your brow and that is the judgement that came on Adam and Eve. Before the Fall they could think where they wanted to be and be there - from one geographical location to another. They named the animals and had governing power over the earth. They thought let's have prosperity and prosperity came. They thought let the fruits come and fruit came. After the judgement God said that by the sweat of your brow will you work. In the New Covenant sure we have to work in the world's system but in the Kingdom miracles come FREELY!
Not how much you prayed or how holy you are or how good you are or how nice you are. You could have just messed up and a download of glory comes. A promotion at work, a healing in your body, a miracle in your marriage. You say "I didn't deserve this!" - yep! Never ask God for what you deserve! If you do then warn me so I can get out of Hong Kong! The New Covenant is all about receiving the generosity of a Father freely! Worldly wisdom will never let you move from Old Covenant thinking. You will stay in bondage. The trumpet has sounded! If you just say "God I repent of worldly wisdom and worldly ways of thinking and I just come into the foolishness of the Cross and at the Cross it is enough!". He did it! It is finished! Worldly wisdom says the Cross wasn't enough! Religious systems say that you can't have free things from God! The wisdom of God is the Cross! Worldly wisdom is working by the sweat of your brow to earn it!
Chinese communities have been brainwashed to earn it! A worldly wisdom has to be broken! Let's read 1st Corinthians chapter 1:17;
"For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent?".
The Bible is going to speak in a minute about the spirit of this world. We will see that the Holy Spirit can show your spirit what God has given FREELY to you without you earning or deserving it.
(2:1); "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.".
Now Paul is about to say that we do have a wisdom in the church! It is God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that planned the Cross before time began!
When Adam rebelled God didn't have a nervous breakdown! Before time began God knew what was coming and He planned the secret wisdom of the Cross destined for our glory! He says that the powers of darkness, the rulers of this world did not know God's secret wisdom and operated in the spirit of this world and had they known the secret wisdom of God they would have NEVER crucified Jesus because if they had found out that at the Cross you and I would be liberated to the New Covenant and into the glory of the New Covenant then they would have let Jesus live to old age! Jesus didn't come to the earth to live forever and ever He came to the earth to die as a perfect virgin born Son of God.
Jesus is unique in the entire earth as the virgin born Son of God and when He died on that Cross He ambushed every demonic power and ruler of darkness, all their clever intellectualism could not see the secret wisdom of God at the Cross! Neither can any human being but for those who believe "It is finished!" and God's glory is for me and I am out of the Old Covenant and not under law but in grace - from that moment on we live in the trumpet sound of the New Covenant!
(v6); "Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory".
Your mind can't work this out in natural wisdom. It must be heard inside. Your brain cannot contact an infinite God and your ears can hear beautiful melodies but only your inner being, your spirit can hear the wisdom downloaded directly by the Holy Spirit. We must be so sensitive to the Spirit of God! No one knows the thoughts of Rob Rufus apart from my spirit and you don't know the deep things of God. It is impossible to know the deep things of God by your natural mind but the Spirit of God who is God equal with the Father and Son searches everything even the deep things of God and we have received the Spirit so that we may know the things that God has FREELY (not earning or deserving) given to us!
When that starts to sink in then you have been delivered from the wisdom of this age which is satanic and delivered into the wisdom of the age to come. You are on your way for deliverance from condemnation and you are going to be a wonder-worker, a miracle worker! Lets read (v9);
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ".
That is absolutely phenomenal!
Demons are about to break and be cast out who are hating this message. My spirit knows these things. Those little demons know that I know that they know that they are already defeated and our power is of infinite phenomenal strength. I am fed up of demons! They just come out now in the presence of the anointing. Straight out. Stand and lift your hands and welcome the Holy Spirit. None of us are 100% in the New Covenant mentality yet - but we are moving there. We are first fruits of generations that will never be born into Old Covenant law teaching and will be born in grace and will never have to struggle with what most of the church has had to struggle with. The next generation will be liberated congregations! We are walking into the rainbow of God and leaving behind chains and bondage and entering into the trumpet sound of the New Covenant! Is Jesus good enough?! Yes He is so therefore I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ!"
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Friday, 27 February 2009
Aligning Our Allegiances For The Anointing To Flow at Full Volume
Now that my transcribing output has been able to increase and speed up I thought I would use the time to start going back into the wealth of the archives of City Church International and typing them up too as well as keeping in step with the preaching output from this incredible church in Hong Kong this year. And where else or better to start than the very significant time in June 2007? I heard Rob mention this event when angels turned up at City Church International in July 2007 in Brighton and I was absolutely riveted! This was new to me.
So this is the transcript of the actual sermon that Rob preached the Sunday that the angels turned up. Fortunately the recording was left running and it is possible to get a strong sense of the anointing that was falling on the church. The sermon itself is incredible. I've heard many sermons on "unity" that seek to blackmail the church of God. This doesn't even have a hint of it. There is some amazingly humble teaching mid-way through on marriage as well. I can honestly say it is the first teaching on marriage that I have benefited from as a single person.
So here it is! Preached on Sunday 10th June 2007 - the day that two angels arrived at City Church International!
"Why don't you open your Bibles please to Psalm 133. This week while I was training in the gym I felt God gave me a very clear word for this morning. He said "I am bringing City Church International into allegiances of alignment for the anointing to increase". Psalm 133;
"How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity - it is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, down on .... even life forevermore".
See the anointing comes when there is a unity. The blessings of God are commanded when the people of God live together in unity. Turn to Romans chapter 15. I want to give four Scriptures here on how important unity is. Reading from (vv1, 5, 7);
"We who are strong ... give you a spirit of unity ... with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ". (v7) is a MASSIVE verse; "Accept one another then just as Christ accepted you".
Then 1st Corinthians chapter 12;
(v12); "The body is a unit ... form one body ... we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body ...". (v25); "one part suffers then every part suffers with it".
Then Ephesians chapter 4:2-4;
" ... with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling".
Then Philippians 2:1-7;
"Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ" - Notice those words "from united with Christ" - we relate to other people to the degree we realise we are united with Christ. We do not preach the brotherhood of man - we preach the Fatherhood of God. The brotherhood of man can have no unity if there is no fatherhood of God to which we are related to in Christ. "... if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men".
When there is a spirit of unity in the body then God causes the anointing to flow down and then it pervades the body and drips down our tunic and there He commands the blessing. The unlimited power of God to do the works that Jesus did and greater works is available now to the church! That anointing has been available for two thousand years since the finished work of the Cross and Resurrection. The power that Jesus operated in His human body is available to the body of Christ in the earth right now. It is not how much you pray that makes it flow or how holy you are or you meriting it or deserving it - since the Cross God turned the tap of the supernatural power of God on and it has been flowing constantly for two thousand years!
I wanted to show you a five inch hosepipe and the tap turned on full! I have had this experience before in Australia while watering my garden. The tap is on full and the water is coming out the hosepipe! It is spraying the dogs and cats and everything! Suddenly nothing happens! I check the tap and it is on full blast! But I notice in my excitement and fun that the pipe has got bends and twists and kinks in it. I didn't need to turn the tap on but get the kinks out of the hosepipe and get them straight again! I believe as a local body this is a pretty well united church! We are known in different parts of the world for the Presence of God that comes into our meeting.
The Lord says there are four areas that we need to work on getting the kinks out of our relationships so the full volume of the anointing can flow.
Winners play on teams and losers hide in crowds. Lots of people come to church but very few people BECOME the church. The tragedy is not that people are dying but that so many people are living for nothing. There is nothing more important on the earth than the church! By you building this church with Jesus you are doing the most important thing in the world because the church is the main agency of the Kingdom. If we get thousands of people saved out there but no strong mature church to add them to then they will be baby Christians for the rest of their lives. The church is the passion of Jesus! Not people coming to church but people becoming the church united with the common purpose of seeing Jesus glorified!
Four kinks in our hosepipes;
1. Our relationship with the Living God.
How do you have continual perfect peace with the living God? He is absolutely perfect and everyone is imperfect! How do you have no kinks in your relationship with God? No condemnation but perfect peace 24 hours a day? If you have a kink in your relationship with God then He can't download the fullness of His anointing in your life. How do we have no separation every split second of every second? It is very simple to have that kind of relationship with God! We have to repent! Repent of our self-righteousness! The false religious system in this world says if you will do good and try and avoid doing evil then you will get so close to God. That lie preached in all religions is from Satan himself and not God! When Satan came to Eve and tempted her to eat, he said; "You will be LIKE God". Without trying to be insulting to Mr Devil I have never heard anything so stupid in my entire life. The Bible says that Adam and Eve were already made in the image and likeness of God! They didn't need to eat to become like God - they were already like God! Eating of the knowledge of good and evil did not bring the power and Presence of God on their lives - it made them hide from God, it made them confused and scared of God!
So for thousands of years mankind lived with a big kink in their hosepipe with God. Then God introduced the law of God during the time of Moses.
The law is the knowledge of good and evil! The law is perfect, holy and good. It shows you what is good and the evil that you shouldn't do. But what does the Bible say? Why did God introduce the law? Did God introduce the law to make us more holy and righteous and to bring us closer to God? Not at all! Romans 5:20 says that God introduced the law to increase sin in mankind! Romans 7:5 says that God introduced the law to arouse sinful passion in man! The law drove people further away from God! The law made people judgemental and harsh with each other! The Bible says the law condemned and cursed men! Then when Jesus came 1700 years after the law He came with grace and truth.
But to the Pharisees who believed they could be made right through God by the law - Jesus taught the law even HIGHER than Moses taught the law! He did this to show the Pharisees that they weren’t living up to the law and the law condemned them and none of them were righteous whatsoever! To the humble and broken Jesus taught grace, mercy and favour. Because God wants the human race to know that He isn't interested in our religious attempts to impress Him with our law keeping one bit! God is only interested in His infallible righteousness that is given to us as a gift freely through His Son! Romans 5:19 says through the disobedience of the one man all were condemned but through the obedience of the one Man many were made righteous!
Your obedience and my obedience never ever produces righteousness! It is the obedience of the one Man that has given us the gift of right standing with God forever! This is a fool proof, failure proof and Satan proof righteousness! Because if it depended on the level of my performance then it wouldn't be failure proof because there is not one day where I can keep the law 100% but I live in faith that every split second of every day I am right with God because my righteousness is based on Jesus Christ obedience and never on mine!
Your obedience and my obedience is important but if you ever shift the ground of your confidence before God from Jesus obedience on your behalf to your obedience then you have just put a big kink in your hosepipe! It is called becoming self-righteous. Self-righteous people are judgemental, critical and legalistic and they do not have the power of God. On the Cross Jesus absorbed you into Himself. Colossians 2 says He absorbed the laws and codes that stood opposed to you and He CANCELLED them! He redeemed you and me from the curse of the law so the blessings can come to us freely! Everything about you that could be judged was swallowed up and absorbed into Jesus Christ! Everything you have done past, present and future was totally removed from the memory of God! Jesus who never sinned once was made your sin so that you and I who don't live obediently all the time can be seen as TOTALLY righteous ALL the time in God's eyes!
You died in the body of Jesus! That is what the Bible teaches in Romans 6 and Galatians 2. You were buried with Jesus, united with Him in His resurrection. When He came out the grave so did you. You were co-ascended to the heavenly realms with Jesus and are currently coseated with Jesus in heavenly places! You are not trying to get to heaven - you are in heaven already with Jesus! Romans 5:20 says that where sin increased grace did MUCH MORE abound! What it is saying is that the law of the Old Covenat made people sin more but the grace of the New Covenant empowers us to get strength and mastery over sinning as well!
Romans 6:14 says that sin will not have mastery over you because you are not under law but under grace! When sin increased through the law grace came in abundance to take away the mastery of sin off our lives. When people say that if you take the law off me then nothing is left to restrain me from sinning - people say but if you take the law off me then I can go out and commit adultery! They are giving a revelation of the adultery that is in their hearts. Because the law stirs up sin but grace gives us mastery over sin. Galatians 3:24 says that the law was put in charge to lead the human race to Jesus Christ. The law was to be so severe, perfect, holy, harsh and beyond the standards of man so that we would admit we have absolutely no hope but to depend on Jesus Christ.
The Bible says in Galatians 3 that now we have come to Christ we are no longer prisoners of the law and Romans 7 says we are dead to the law so that we may bear fruit to God. So we must love the law of God for the REASON that God gave the law. If you love the law because you know that the law was meant to lead you to God then you will get closer to God and more humble and more anointed. But if you love the law because you think it makes you more holy and more righteous then you will get further from God and you will get more self-righteous. The law has gone! All I have got is grace and love and mercy and blessing! Not dependant on my performance but on Jesus! What is left?! Permanent joy, happiness, signs and wonders, unity! 100% of your relational problems is based on what I am talking about today. From the Old Covenant to the New God totally changed the way that He relates to you. Under the Old Covenant God only relates to you through the law and never by grace. Under the New Covenant God NEVER relates to you through the law but ONLY through grace!
Hebrews 8:6 says we have a better covenant with better promises and a superior Mediator!
Under the law God demanded of you a perfect righteousness but under grace He provides for you His perfect righteousness.
The law says do - do - do but grace says it is done - done - done! You have perfect peace with God! At the Cross Jesus Christ identified with you and me at our very worst so that we can identify with Him at His very best. There is no height of intimacy and close communion with God that you cannot ascend to because there was no depravity that Jesus would not descend to on our behalf.
One of the most ungodly selfish sinning churches in the New Testament was the Corinthian church. They were having sex with temple prostitutes, getting drunk and were divided, they were very immature. You would have thought that Paul would have written to them, put them under the law and put rules and regulations on them. Paul does not do that because he understood as an apostle better than any other ministry that they did not understand grace but had law thinking! The clearest teaching in the entire New Testament about the superiority of grace over law is given to the most sinful churches in 2 Corinthians 3. Paul says in this chapter that those in the law - that was written on tablets of stone was a ministry of death and condemnation that drives people away from God. We are competent ministers of the New Covenant not of the letter that kills but of the Spirit that gives life. The glory of the Old Covenant was a fading glory compared to the glory of the New Covenant that gave the gift of righteousness! Paul says under law Moses had to hide his face with a veil so the people could not see the glory shining out from his face.
The glory of the Old Covenant revealed God's opinion and view of you through the law. People didn’t want to see that glory. They hid from God! The glory of the New Covenant shining in the face of Jesus is His opinion of you through grace. We are nearly finished point 1! The next 3 are going to be much quicker! This was my most exciting day in Hong Kong because the message of grace is being preached in clear Chinese today! Thousands of Chinese can hear the message of grace in their own language! Now Paul as an apostle noticed false teachers were continually seeking to blur and mix the Old and the New into confusion.
For many of God's people didn't know whether we were under the Old or the New Covenant. It was a confusing mixture! It seemed like nothing else made Paul as passionate in his anger as when people mixed the Old and New Covenant. Paul warns in Galatians 5 that if you try to get close to God through law then you have made Christ of no value and have alienated grace. Today it is the same. I really say this with pain. Today many are hearing a mixture of the Old and New confusingly blurred together. You are either under total law or total grace but you cannot be in between! It doesn't exist in the Bible! In Deuteronomy 28 God said if you will keep the law perfectly then you will be blessed but if you don't keep the law perfectly then you will be cursed!
You see the precious people of Israel cursed and cursed and cursed. It wasn't just Hitler that killed six million. It is the normal story of the people of Israel. Through the obedience of the one man many will be given the gift of righteousness! How many of you believe that the obedience of Jesus was full! Where are you positioned today? You are positioned in the one who was perfectly obedient and ALL His obedience is credited to you! In Christ Jesus all the blessings of Deut 28 belong to the church and all the curses do NOT belong to the church in Christ! If you look at the church today you cannot say they are walking in all the blessings promised!
When you hear someone say if you obey this and do this and pray a bit longer and do this and don't do that and do this and if you do that then God will love you and bless you more - then you have just heard the Old Covenant and you have NOT heard the New Covenant.
The New Covenant says that God accepts you, loves you, favours you, accepts you not because of your performance but because of Jesus obedience and performance on your behalf. That is the New Covenant! Jesus is the superior Mediator! Where the ministry of death and condemnation finishes forever and the ministry of blessing starts forever!
The entire New Covenant can be summed up in this; Jesus is ENOUGH! All Paul's writings to Romans and Galatians can be summed up in this; Jesus plus anything equals NOTHING. Jesus plus nothing equals EVERYTHING!
The church world today is being challenged by the Spirit as to how they will align their relationship to God - a mixture of law and grace which is nothing at all or a pure atmosphere of grace of New Covenant.
I hate sin and I don't encourage sin! I hate it if it come to me! I forgive it in you! As you do to me! I do not encourage sin at all! But the time you are under the most pressure to go back to the law is when you have just done something wrong! You think if I can do enough and pray enough then I may earn my way back to God! You do not earn your way back to God - Jesus already earned your way back to God! You are ALWAYS the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! If you have just sinned don't go into gloom or condemnation then thank the Father that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and;
My disobedience does not disqualify Christ's obedience on my behalf!
I am going to talk about the other three kinks in the pipe very quickly now. Before we go to the next three points let's lift our hands and say "Father I want to transition fully into that realm of grace". Thank Him! Thank You Jesus for the New Covenant! Wonderful Jesus! We have a covenant of peace!
2. The second relationship we need to take the kinks out of is our marriage relationships.
Marriage is a wonderful picture of Christ and the church - us married people say enjoy your singleness while you can. Don't think it will complete your life because it won't! It is not for the faint hearted! Some days it doesn't feel like heaven but hell! In order to get a car license you have to study and take a test. In order to get a degree you have to study for years. But to get married all you have to do is go down the local registry office. Marriage is the most important relationship after God. It is the most sacred covenant on the planet. The covenant of marriage is left in tatters by the world and sadly the church. The divorce rate in the church in the USA is worse than the divorce rate in the world. It may be similar in other countries. Jesus showed the New Covenant by breaking bread and pouring wine and He wanted His disciples to enter into the New Covenant right there. When a married couple get married they break cake, exchange rings - that is a covenant!
The reason why God gives us a sex drive before we can express it in marriage, is that our victory in holding onto it is the victory trophy we can give to our partner. Those that have lost their trophy of sexual virginity - God can restore that trophy of virginal purity before marriage.
At the covenant meal Judas did not take part of it. He got up and walked out.
Later he betrayed Jesus with an intimate kiss. There are people who want intimacy without covenant. Then there are people that want covenant without inconvenience. But covenant means death! When you come into covenant you die to yourself to live to make that person you have entered into covenant with happy and joyful. That is why many Christians avoid water baptism because they know what water baptism means. When we are buried in that water we die to ourselves and rise to a new life living only to please God. The only way to have true life is to first have true self-death. If you do not die to self you will only smile from your face and not from your heart. People who enter a covenant of marriage with the idea that I am going into this for them to make me happy have not got the first idea of what biblical marriage is about. It is guaranteed that thing will not work unless an alignment of covenant life and God's government comes over that marriage. Unless that happens that marriage has got no hope under the sun. Married brothers and sisters - you have never given covenantal love until you have loved beyond inconvenience into sacrifice.
Love is not love until it costs you your entire life to give it away.
In 1997 Glenda and I had been married 22 years. We had a really good marriage and people saw a pretty good marriage. In 1997 God said that He would bring our marriage into covenant pattern and order. Without realising it we are absorbing the patterns from the world around us and not from the Holy Spirit. God said He would bring Kingdom order into our marriage so He could increase the anointing and authority on our lives. I want to talk about the three years of hell that we went through from 1997 to 2000. Don't think I am exaggerating. I have Glenda's permission to say this and wouldn't dare say this without it. There was no adultery or affair or third party - that had nothing to do with it. It was all about God wanting to order our marriage according to Kingdom pattern and government. There wasn't one day in three years without horror and tension and anger in our home. If you had walked past our street you would have never thought a pastor and his wife lived there. They would have heard the way Glenda shouted at me!! We shouted at each other! The anger and frustration! Every time God reminded us what we were going through this for we found temporary peace and the next day the war would start again and this went on for 3 years every day.
I didn't hurt her physically but words can hurt more sometimes. Words that she would say to me would be devastating. We would repent and cry and ask each other for forgiveness and then the war would start again. I felt the manifestation of tangible presence of demons as they tried to take advantage of the reason why we were going through this. I nearly walked out of my marriage several times during those years. Where do you go when you have been preaching marriage for all those years? Glenda knows this is the truth! I wanted to leave Australia and go and study biology and be a ranger in the wilderness of Africa. Glenda was so traumatised that she almost stopped eating very little for 3 years. The rumour went around our city that she had anorexia and that I was beating her up. The doctor was desperately trying to put her on anti-depressants. Several times she walked down to the railway line thinking strongly about throwing herself in front of the train. Every day the devil would say that I should compromise and back off or my wife would end up killing herself.
The Spirit of God said I want to realign your relationship so I can increase the anointing on your life. In the year 2000 we smelt the first permanent peace on our marriage and knew the government of God take place in our marriage and our relationship. Month after month the kingdom order of male and female government began to come into God's alignment and we felt God's peace come and stay and the trauma and pain become a thing of the past. 2003 - four years before we came to plant the church year and it was our 25th wedding anniversary. We didn't know we were coming to plant the church in Hong Kong but we decided to come to Hong Kong to celebrate it. We took a wonderful hotel overlooking the view on Central Island. On our 25th anniversary we ordered room service in our hotel. A table next to the view looking out on Hong Kong. Glenda dressed up in the most stunning dress and I put a suit and a tie on. We had three years of horror and three months of daily government of peace in our marriage. And we sat at the table and exchanged new rings and we re-stated our vows and we read our poems that we had written for each other. In the middle of that without exaggerating we both burst into tears and sob looking into each others eyes.
Because we knew the war was over and the Father was endorsing the government on our marriage. From that anniversary for the next three years we led tens of thousands of people to Christ in the crusades. None of the people knew the hell we had been through and the price we had paid for the anointing. In 2004 we came to plant the church here in July. If we didn't get this marriage right and come into kingdom government then not only would Glenda and I be divorced and our kids and grandkids be robbed, not only would people not be saved - but you wouldn't even be sitting in a church today and would be on your way to a Christ-less eternity. Not only that but a relationship that is tender and deep right now would have been lost for all time because regularly we wanted to take the easy route out.
When I look at the fruit of God getting the government right then I say to you today; "Please fight for your marriage - there is more at stake than just you being happy". It is not about your happiness - there is more about your marriage than just you being happy.
God wants to set something in order!
How did we survive the 3 years? By understanding the message of grace!
3. Our relationships with every person in this local congregation.
If your relationship is kinked in any way with anyone in this congregation then you are buckling the full flow of the anointing upon us. We all irritate each other at some point! There are people in this church that are so gracious that even when they are irritating they don't know because I am so gracious back! I am that way to some of you! But the truth is whether we are living in delusion or not - not only do people irritate you but you irritate others! That's why I believe in the church! There is no such thing as individual piety! We have love one another, accept one another! How many people have left church after church because someone offended them and now they are sitting somewhere else in some other church!?
That is fine if God has called you here - but if you left the church because someone offended you then you are sitting with a kink and left to avoid pain instead of letting the government of God sort out that relationship. And it is called being immature. There is no place for jealousy! There is no place for competing and comparing! There is no place for politics in the church! There is no place for putting on a mask or a face that is not telling the truth! Neither am I saying that you should manipulate everyone with your sulky face either! Mature people deal with their pain and ask for prayer and move on! I want to live so authentically that when I compliment a person then they know that I mean it not to just get something out of them! I want everyone to know that if I have a problem then I will come to you personally and not use the pulpit to get at you personally!
Remember Romans 15:7 says accept one another just as Christ has accepted you! How has Christ accepted you? Remember the message of grace and not law! Christ holds nothing against you at all! You are permanently forgiven! The thief on the Cross says Lord remember me when You come into Your Kingdom today! A criminal! Jesus says to this criminal TODAY you will be with Me in Paradise! Jesus went into the waiting place for three days and rose with all the people with Him! As Jesus walks back into heaven after being away for 33 years the trumpets are playing! All the angels are saying open up the gates! The King of glory is coming back! The Lion of the tribe of Judah mighty in battle! Jesus walks in His robes of majesty and glory! Arch angels singing hosanna in the highest! Right next to Jesus there is a little thief walking along! The angels say; "Jesus who's he?". "I don’t know but he asked me to accept him and I did!". "Did he speak in tongues on the Cross?". "Has he been water baptised yet?". "No there was no water!". "What's his education, his pedigree, his ancestry?". "I don't know!". "He asked me to accept him and I did! Have you got a problem with that any of the angels?!". "No Lord Jesus! If You accept him then we accept him!".
Accept one another just as Christ accepted you! Rejection and pride is because we don't understand grace and still live under the law! If you have any bitterness with anyone outside of this church - any ministry - any person, saved or not saved - if you have criticised them unjustly or gossiped about them and they don't know about it then don't go tell them! Ask the Father to forgive you and go ask those persons you gossiped to to forgive you so that kink can get right. I learnt a hard lesson here. When people come into this church and criticise other churches I should realise that sooner or later they will be criticising me! 100% it will take place. If the person knows you have gossiped about them or if you defrauded them financially by wrong business transactions or done something that is wrong to a person whether they are saved or unsaved, write to them or email them and ask them to forgive you and apologise if they know that you have done it to them.
Lets get every kink undone so that His volume of anointing can flow at full volume!
Father we thank You that Your prophesied 3 Sundays ago that a move of the Spirit is coming whether we are ready or not. That means that people that are not ready for it will not participate in it. It will come and those that are ready with their oil lamps full will go into the inner chambers of the Bridegroom but the foolish virgins who did not make themselves ready will miss the visitation of the Bridegroom. Spirit of God move! Awaken us with a holy righteous urgency! Where there is any haughtiness or high-mindedness or pride then soften it Lord before it is too late. When there is fear of submitting to You, fear of integrity and humility, fear of taking the mask off and being humble and real and honest then deliver us from stubbornness and pride in Jesus Name.
May we stand in the fullness of Your grace. Lord as we make these commitments to You to live in grace, to fight for our marriages and not give up, to be perfectly united in Christ with each other and to not gossip or be judgemental or do harm to others outside this church - we believe for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to come rushing unhindered for everyone who prepares themselves. As you order our marriages we know there is a process of pain. We will not be surprised by that pain! Deliver us from the idea of quick shallow fixes and help us to be people who persevere and endure for Your Kingdom. May the sacred honour of the covenant of marriage come upon us in joy, liberty and the genuine fear of God. I pray for every marriage here who's husband or wife is not saved or backslidden and is making it difficult then I pray that person will get saved in Jesus Name! You are the God of miracles and we believe You can do it! I pray for every single person here who is not married but wants to be married - lead them with wisdom O God to find the right person who is going on the same journey with You as they are! That the covenant of marriage would be something of Your destiny and that everyone who wants to get married in You may be married as soon as possible!
Let's stand and lift our hands. This is my desire to honour You in every area of life. Not just in one section but every part of my life. Some of you - the Holy Spirit is going to come and lovingly baptise you in death. Not the ministry of death of the Old Covenant but the revelation that you DIED and are in Christ - in covenant with your God! That your marriage covenant - you died and you are going to live for the happiness of your partner whether they appreciate it or not!"
So this is the transcript of the actual sermon that Rob preached the Sunday that the angels turned up. Fortunately the recording was left running and it is possible to get a strong sense of the anointing that was falling on the church. The sermon itself is incredible. I've heard many sermons on "unity" that seek to blackmail the church of God. This doesn't even have a hint of it. There is some amazingly humble teaching mid-way through on marriage as well. I can honestly say it is the first teaching on marriage that I have benefited from as a single person.
So here it is! Preached on Sunday 10th June 2007 - the day that two angels arrived at City Church International!
"Why don't you open your Bibles please to Psalm 133. This week while I was training in the gym I felt God gave me a very clear word for this morning. He said "I am bringing City Church International into allegiances of alignment for the anointing to increase". Psalm 133;
"How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity - it is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, down on .... even life forevermore".
See the anointing comes when there is a unity. The blessings of God are commanded when the people of God live together in unity. Turn to Romans chapter 15. I want to give four Scriptures here on how important unity is. Reading from (vv1, 5, 7);
"We who are strong ... give you a spirit of unity ... with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ". (v7) is a MASSIVE verse; "Accept one another then just as Christ accepted you".
Then 1st Corinthians chapter 12;
(v12); "The body is a unit ... form one body ... we were all baptised by one Spirit into one body ...". (v25); "one part suffers then every part suffers with it".
Then Ephesians chapter 4:2-4;
" ... with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling".
Then Philippians 2:1-7;
"Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ" - Notice those words "from united with Christ" - we relate to other people to the degree we realise we are united with Christ. We do not preach the brotherhood of man - we preach the Fatherhood of God. The brotherhood of man can have no unity if there is no fatherhood of God to which we are related to in Christ. "... if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men".
When there is a spirit of unity in the body then God causes the anointing to flow down and then it pervades the body and drips down our tunic and there He commands the blessing. The unlimited power of God to do the works that Jesus did and greater works is available now to the church! That anointing has been available for two thousand years since the finished work of the Cross and Resurrection. The power that Jesus operated in His human body is available to the body of Christ in the earth right now. It is not how much you pray that makes it flow or how holy you are or you meriting it or deserving it - since the Cross God turned the tap of the supernatural power of God on and it has been flowing constantly for two thousand years!
I wanted to show you a five inch hosepipe and the tap turned on full! I have had this experience before in Australia while watering my garden. The tap is on full and the water is coming out the hosepipe! It is spraying the dogs and cats and everything! Suddenly nothing happens! I check the tap and it is on full blast! But I notice in my excitement and fun that the pipe has got bends and twists and kinks in it. I didn't need to turn the tap on but get the kinks out of the hosepipe and get them straight again! I believe as a local body this is a pretty well united church! We are known in different parts of the world for the Presence of God that comes into our meeting.
The Lord says there are four areas that we need to work on getting the kinks out of our relationships so the full volume of the anointing can flow.
Winners play on teams and losers hide in crowds. Lots of people come to church but very few people BECOME the church. The tragedy is not that people are dying but that so many people are living for nothing. There is nothing more important on the earth than the church! By you building this church with Jesus you are doing the most important thing in the world because the church is the main agency of the Kingdom. If we get thousands of people saved out there but no strong mature church to add them to then they will be baby Christians for the rest of their lives. The church is the passion of Jesus! Not people coming to church but people becoming the church united with the common purpose of seeing Jesus glorified!
Four kinks in our hosepipes;
1. Our relationship with the Living God.
How do you have continual perfect peace with the living God? He is absolutely perfect and everyone is imperfect! How do you have no kinks in your relationship with God? No condemnation but perfect peace 24 hours a day? If you have a kink in your relationship with God then He can't download the fullness of His anointing in your life. How do we have no separation every split second of every second? It is very simple to have that kind of relationship with God! We have to repent! Repent of our self-righteousness! The false religious system in this world says if you will do good and try and avoid doing evil then you will get so close to God. That lie preached in all religions is from Satan himself and not God! When Satan came to Eve and tempted her to eat, he said; "You will be LIKE God". Without trying to be insulting to Mr Devil I have never heard anything so stupid in my entire life. The Bible says that Adam and Eve were already made in the image and likeness of God! They didn't need to eat to become like God - they were already like God! Eating of the knowledge of good and evil did not bring the power and Presence of God on their lives - it made them hide from God, it made them confused and scared of God!
So for thousands of years mankind lived with a big kink in their hosepipe with God. Then God introduced the law of God during the time of Moses.
The law is the knowledge of good and evil! The law is perfect, holy and good. It shows you what is good and the evil that you shouldn't do. But what does the Bible say? Why did God introduce the law? Did God introduce the law to make us more holy and righteous and to bring us closer to God? Not at all! Romans 5:20 says that God introduced the law to increase sin in mankind! Romans 7:5 says that God introduced the law to arouse sinful passion in man! The law drove people further away from God! The law made people judgemental and harsh with each other! The Bible says the law condemned and cursed men! Then when Jesus came 1700 years after the law He came with grace and truth.
But to the Pharisees who believed they could be made right through God by the law - Jesus taught the law even HIGHER than Moses taught the law! He did this to show the Pharisees that they weren’t living up to the law and the law condemned them and none of them were righteous whatsoever! To the humble and broken Jesus taught grace, mercy and favour. Because God wants the human race to know that He isn't interested in our religious attempts to impress Him with our law keeping one bit! God is only interested in His infallible righteousness that is given to us as a gift freely through His Son! Romans 5:19 says through the disobedience of the one man all were condemned but through the obedience of the one Man many were made righteous!
Your obedience and my obedience never ever produces righteousness! It is the obedience of the one Man that has given us the gift of right standing with God forever! This is a fool proof, failure proof and Satan proof righteousness! Because if it depended on the level of my performance then it wouldn't be failure proof because there is not one day where I can keep the law 100% but I live in faith that every split second of every day I am right with God because my righteousness is based on Jesus Christ obedience and never on mine!
Your obedience and my obedience is important but if you ever shift the ground of your confidence before God from Jesus obedience on your behalf to your obedience then you have just put a big kink in your hosepipe! It is called becoming self-righteous. Self-righteous people are judgemental, critical and legalistic and they do not have the power of God. On the Cross Jesus absorbed you into Himself. Colossians 2 says He absorbed the laws and codes that stood opposed to you and He CANCELLED them! He redeemed you and me from the curse of the law so the blessings can come to us freely! Everything about you that could be judged was swallowed up and absorbed into Jesus Christ! Everything you have done past, present and future was totally removed from the memory of God! Jesus who never sinned once was made your sin so that you and I who don't live obediently all the time can be seen as TOTALLY righteous ALL the time in God's eyes!
You died in the body of Jesus! That is what the Bible teaches in Romans 6 and Galatians 2. You were buried with Jesus, united with Him in His resurrection. When He came out the grave so did you. You were co-ascended to the heavenly realms with Jesus and are currently coseated with Jesus in heavenly places! You are not trying to get to heaven - you are in heaven already with Jesus! Romans 5:20 says that where sin increased grace did MUCH MORE abound! What it is saying is that the law of the Old Covenat made people sin more but the grace of the New Covenant empowers us to get strength and mastery over sinning as well!
Romans 6:14 says that sin will not have mastery over you because you are not under law but under grace! When sin increased through the law grace came in abundance to take away the mastery of sin off our lives. When people say that if you take the law off me then nothing is left to restrain me from sinning - people say but if you take the law off me then I can go out and commit adultery! They are giving a revelation of the adultery that is in their hearts. Because the law stirs up sin but grace gives us mastery over sin. Galatians 3:24 says that the law was put in charge to lead the human race to Jesus Christ. The law was to be so severe, perfect, holy, harsh and beyond the standards of man so that we would admit we have absolutely no hope but to depend on Jesus Christ.
The Bible says in Galatians 3 that now we have come to Christ we are no longer prisoners of the law and Romans 7 says we are dead to the law so that we may bear fruit to God. So we must love the law of God for the REASON that God gave the law. If you love the law because you know that the law was meant to lead you to God then you will get closer to God and more humble and more anointed. But if you love the law because you think it makes you more holy and more righteous then you will get further from God and you will get more self-righteous. The law has gone! All I have got is grace and love and mercy and blessing! Not dependant on my performance but on Jesus! What is left?! Permanent joy, happiness, signs and wonders, unity! 100% of your relational problems is based on what I am talking about today. From the Old Covenant to the New God totally changed the way that He relates to you. Under the Old Covenant God only relates to you through the law and never by grace. Under the New Covenant God NEVER relates to you through the law but ONLY through grace!
Hebrews 8:6 says we have a better covenant with better promises and a superior Mediator!
Under the law God demanded of you a perfect righteousness but under grace He provides for you His perfect righteousness.
The law says do - do - do but grace says it is done - done - done! You have perfect peace with God! At the Cross Jesus Christ identified with you and me at our very worst so that we can identify with Him at His very best. There is no height of intimacy and close communion with God that you cannot ascend to because there was no depravity that Jesus would not descend to on our behalf.
One of the most ungodly selfish sinning churches in the New Testament was the Corinthian church. They were having sex with temple prostitutes, getting drunk and were divided, they were very immature. You would have thought that Paul would have written to them, put them under the law and put rules and regulations on them. Paul does not do that because he understood as an apostle better than any other ministry that they did not understand grace but had law thinking! The clearest teaching in the entire New Testament about the superiority of grace over law is given to the most sinful churches in 2 Corinthians 3. Paul says in this chapter that those in the law - that was written on tablets of stone was a ministry of death and condemnation that drives people away from God. We are competent ministers of the New Covenant not of the letter that kills but of the Spirit that gives life. The glory of the Old Covenant was a fading glory compared to the glory of the New Covenant that gave the gift of righteousness! Paul says under law Moses had to hide his face with a veil so the people could not see the glory shining out from his face.
The glory of the Old Covenant revealed God's opinion and view of you through the law. People didn’t want to see that glory. They hid from God! The glory of the New Covenant shining in the face of Jesus is His opinion of you through grace. We are nearly finished point 1! The next 3 are going to be much quicker! This was my most exciting day in Hong Kong because the message of grace is being preached in clear Chinese today! Thousands of Chinese can hear the message of grace in their own language! Now Paul as an apostle noticed false teachers were continually seeking to blur and mix the Old and the New into confusion.
For many of God's people didn't know whether we were under the Old or the New Covenant. It was a confusing mixture! It seemed like nothing else made Paul as passionate in his anger as when people mixed the Old and New Covenant. Paul warns in Galatians 5 that if you try to get close to God through law then you have made Christ of no value and have alienated grace. Today it is the same. I really say this with pain. Today many are hearing a mixture of the Old and New confusingly blurred together. You are either under total law or total grace but you cannot be in between! It doesn't exist in the Bible! In Deuteronomy 28 God said if you will keep the law perfectly then you will be blessed but if you don't keep the law perfectly then you will be cursed!
You see the precious people of Israel cursed and cursed and cursed. It wasn't just Hitler that killed six million. It is the normal story of the people of Israel. Through the obedience of the one man many will be given the gift of righteousness! How many of you believe that the obedience of Jesus was full! Where are you positioned today? You are positioned in the one who was perfectly obedient and ALL His obedience is credited to you! In Christ Jesus all the blessings of Deut 28 belong to the church and all the curses do NOT belong to the church in Christ! If you look at the church today you cannot say they are walking in all the blessings promised!
When you hear someone say if you obey this and do this and pray a bit longer and do this and don't do that and do this and if you do that then God will love you and bless you more - then you have just heard the Old Covenant and you have NOT heard the New Covenant.
The New Covenant says that God accepts you, loves you, favours you, accepts you not because of your performance but because of Jesus obedience and performance on your behalf. That is the New Covenant! Jesus is the superior Mediator! Where the ministry of death and condemnation finishes forever and the ministry of blessing starts forever!
The entire New Covenant can be summed up in this; Jesus is ENOUGH! All Paul's writings to Romans and Galatians can be summed up in this; Jesus plus anything equals NOTHING. Jesus plus nothing equals EVERYTHING!
The church world today is being challenged by the Spirit as to how they will align their relationship to God - a mixture of law and grace which is nothing at all or a pure atmosphere of grace of New Covenant.
I hate sin and I don't encourage sin! I hate it if it come to me! I forgive it in you! As you do to me! I do not encourage sin at all! But the time you are under the most pressure to go back to the law is when you have just done something wrong! You think if I can do enough and pray enough then I may earn my way back to God! You do not earn your way back to God - Jesus already earned your way back to God! You are ALWAYS the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! If you have just sinned don't go into gloom or condemnation then thank the Father that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and;
My disobedience does not disqualify Christ's obedience on my behalf!
I am going to talk about the other three kinks in the pipe very quickly now. Before we go to the next three points let's lift our hands and say "Father I want to transition fully into that realm of grace". Thank Him! Thank You Jesus for the New Covenant! Wonderful Jesus! We have a covenant of peace!
2. The second relationship we need to take the kinks out of is our marriage relationships.
Marriage is a wonderful picture of Christ and the church - us married people say enjoy your singleness while you can. Don't think it will complete your life because it won't! It is not for the faint hearted! Some days it doesn't feel like heaven but hell! In order to get a car license you have to study and take a test. In order to get a degree you have to study for years. But to get married all you have to do is go down the local registry office. Marriage is the most important relationship after God. It is the most sacred covenant on the planet. The covenant of marriage is left in tatters by the world and sadly the church. The divorce rate in the church in the USA is worse than the divorce rate in the world. It may be similar in other countries. Jesus showed the New Covenant by breaking bread and pouring wine and He wanted His disciples to enter into the New Covenant right there. When a married couple get married they break cake, exchange rings - that is a covenant!
The reason why God gives us a sex drive before we can express it in marriage, is that our victory in holding onto it is the victory trophy we can give to our partner. Those that have lost their trophy of sexual virginity - God can restore that trophy of virginal purity before marriage.
At the covenant meal Judas did not take part of it. He got up and walked out.
Later he betrayed Jesus with an intimate kiss. There are people who want intimacy without covenant. Then there are people that want covenant without inconvenience. But covenant means death! When you come into covenant you die to yourself to live to make that person you have entered into covenant with happy and joyful. That is why many Christians avoid water baptism because they know what water baptism means. When we are buried in that water we die to ourselves and rise to a new life living only to please God. The only way to have true life is to first have true self-death. If you do not die to self you will only smile from your face and not from your heart. People who enter a covenant of marriage with the idea that I am going into this for them to make me happy have not got the first idea of what biblical marriage is about. It is guaranteed that thing will not work unless an alignment of covenant life and God's government comes over that marriage. Unless that happens that marriage has got no hope under the sun. Married brothers and sisters - you have never given covenantal love until you have loved beyond inconvenience into sacrifice.
Love is not love until it costs you your entire life to give it away.
In 1997 Glenda and I had been married 22 years. We had a really good marriage and people saw a pretty good marriage. In 1997 God said that He would bring our marriage into covenant pattern and order. Without realising it we are absorbing the patterns from the world around us and not from the Holy Spirit. God said He would bring Kingdom order into our marriage so He could increase the anointing and authority on our lives. I want to talk about the three years of hell that we went through from 1997 to 2000. Don't think I am exaggerating. I have Glenda's permission to say this and wouldn't dare say this without it. There was no adultery or affair or third party - that had nothing to do with it. It was all about God wanting to order our marriage according to Kingdom pattern and government. There wasn't one day in three years without horror and tension and anger in our home. If you had walked past our street you would have never thought a pastor and his wife lived there. They would have heard the way Glenda shouted at me!! We shouted at each other! The anger and frustration! Every time God reminded us what we were going through this for we found temporary peace and the next day the war would start again and this went on for 3 years every day.
I didn't hurt her physically but words can hurt more sometimes. Words that she would say to me would be devastating. We would repent and cry and ask each other for forgiveness and then the war would start again. I felt the manifestation of tangible presence of demons as they tried to take advantage of the reason why we were going through this. I nearly walked out of my marriage several times during those years. Where do you go when you have been preaching marriage for all those years? Glenda knows this is the truth! I wanted to leave Australia and go and study biology and be a ranger in the wilderness of Africa. Glenda was so traumatised that she almost stopped eating very little for 3 years. The rumour went around our city that she had anorexia and that I was beating her up. The doctor was desperately trying to put her on anti-depressants. Several times she walked down to the railway line thinking strongly about throwing herself in front of the train. Every day the devil would say that I should compromise and back off or my wife would end up killing herself.
The Spirit of God said I want to realign your relationship so I can increase the anointing on your life. In the year 2000 we smelt the first permanent peace on our marriage and knew the government of God take place in our marriage and our relationship. Month after month the kingdom order of male and female government began to come into God's alignment and we felt God's peace come and stay and the trauma and pain become a thing of the past. 2003 - four years before we came to plant the church year and it was our 25th wedding anniversary. We didn't know we were coming to plant the church in Hong Kong but we decided to come to Hong Kong to celebrate it. We took a wonderful hotel overlooking the view on Central Island. On our 25th anniversary we ordered room service in our hotel. A table next to the view looking out on Hong Kong. Glenda dressed up in the most stunning dress and I put a suit and a tie on. We had three years of horror and three months of daily government of peace in our marriage. And we sat at the table and exchanged new rings and we re-stated our vows and we read our poems that we had written for each other. In the middle of that without exaggerating we both burst into tears and sob looking into each others eyes.
Because we knew the war was over and the Father was endorsing the government on our marriage. From that anniversary for the next three years we led tens of thousands of people to Christ in the crusades. None of the people knew the hell we had been through and the price we had paid for the anointing. In 2004 we came to plant the church here in July. If we didn't get this marriage right and come into kingdom government then not only would Glenda and I be divorced and our kids and grandkids be robbed, not only would people not be saved - but you wouldn't even be sitting in a church today and would be on your way to a Christ-less eternity. Not only that but a relationship that is tender and deep right now would have been lost for all time because regularly we wanted to take the easy route out.
When I look at the fruit of God getting the government right then I say to you today; "Please fight for your marriage - there is more at stake than just you being happy". It is not about your happiness - there is more about your marriage than just you being happy.
God wants to set something in order!
How did we survive the 3 years? By understanding the message of grace!
3. Our relationships with every person in this local congregation.
If your relationship is kinked in any way with anyone in this congregation then you are buckling the full flow of the anointing upon us. We all irritate each other at some point! There are people in this church that are so gracious that even when they are irritating they don't know because I am so gracious back! I am that way to some of you! But the truth is whether we are living in delusion or not - not only do people irritate you but you irritate others! That's why I believe in the church! There is no such thing as individual piety! We have love one another, accept one another! How many people have left church after church because someone offended them and now they are sitting somewhere else in some other church!?
That is fine if God has called you here - but if you left the church because someone offended you then you are sitting with a kink and left to avoid pain instead of letting the government of God sort out that relationship. And it is called being immature. There is no place for jealousy! There is no place for competing and comparing! There is no place for politics in the church! There is no place for putting on a mask or a face that is not telling the truth! Neither am I saying that you should manipulate everyone with your sulky face either! Mature people deal with their pain and ask for prayer and move on! I want to live so authentically that when I compliment a person then they know that I mean it not to just get something out of them! I want everyone to know that if I have a problem then I will come to you personally and not use the pulpit to get at you personally!
Remember Romans 15:7 says accept one another just as Christ has accepted you! How has Christ accepted you? Remember the message of grace and not law! Christ holds nothing against you at all! You are permanently forgiven! The thief on the Cross says Lord remember me when You come into Your Kingdom today! A criminal! Jesus says to this criminal TODAY you will be with Me in Paradise! Jesus went into the waiting place for three days and rose with all the people with Him! As Jesus walks back into heaven after being away for 33 years the trumpets are playing! All the angels are saying open up the gates! The King of glory is coming back! The Lion of the tribe of Judah mighty in battle! Jesus walks in His robes of majesty and glory! Arch angels singing hosanna in the highest! Right next to Jesus there is a little thief walking along! The angels say; "Jesus who's he?". "I don’t know but he asked me to accept him and I did!". "Did he speak in tongues on the Cross?". "Has he been water baptised yet?". "No there was no water!". "What's his education, his pedigree, his ancestry?". "I don't know!". "He asked me to accept him and I did! Have you got a problem with that any of the angels?!". "No Lord Jesus! If You accept him then we accept him!".
Accept one another just as Christ accepted you! Rejection and pride is because we don't understand grace and still live under the law! If you have any bitterness with anyone outside of this church - any ministry - any person, saved or not saved - if you have criticised them unjustly or gossiped about them and they don't know about it then don't go tell them! Ask the Father to forgive you and go ask those persons you gossiped to to forgive you so that kink can get right. I learnt a hard lesson here. When people come into this church and criticise other churches I should realise that sooner or later they will be criticising me! 100% it will take place. If the person knows you have gossiped about them or if you defrauded them financially by wrong business transactions or done something that is wrong to a person whether they are saved or unsaved, write to them or email them and ask them to forgive you and apologise if they know that you have done it to them.
Lets get every kink undone so that His volume of anointing can flow at full volume!
Father we thank You that Your prophesied 3 Sundays ago that a move of the Spirit is coming whether we are ready or not. That means that people that are not ready for it will not participate in it. It will come and those that are ready with their oil lamps full will go into the inner chambers of the Bridegroom but the foolish virgins who did not make themselves ready will miss the visitation of the Bridegroom. Spirit of God move! Awaken us with a holy righteous urgency! Where there is any haughtiness or high-mindedness or pride then soften it Lord before it is too late. When there is fear of submitting to You, fear of integrity and humility, fear of taking the mask off and being humble and real and honest then deliver us from stubbornness and pride in Jesus Name.
May we stand in the fullness of Your grace. Lord as we make these commitments to You to live in grace, to fight for our marriages and not give up, to be perfectly united in Christ with each other and to not gossip or be judgemental or do harm to others outside this church - we believe for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to come rushing unhindered for everyone who prepares themselves. As you order our marriages we know there is a process of pain. We will not be surprised by that pain! Deliver us from the idea of quick shallow fixes and help us to be people who persevere and endure for Your Kingdom. May the sacred honour of the covenant of marriage come upon us in joy, liberty and the genuine fear of God. I pray for every marriage here who's husband or wife is not saved or backslidden and is making it difficult then I pray that person will get saved in Jesus Name! You are the God of miracles and we believe You can do it! I pray for every single person here who is not married but wants to be married - lead them with wisdom O God to find the right person who is going on the same journey with You as they are! That the covenant of marriage would be something of Your destiny and that everyone who wants to get married in You may be married as soon as possible!
Let's stand and lift our hands. This is my desire to honour You in every area of life. Not just in one section but every part of my life. Some of you - the Holy Spirit is going to come and lovingly baptise you in death. Not the ministry of death of the Old Covenant but the revelation that you DIED and are in Christ - in covenant with your God! That your marriage covenant - you died and you are going to live for the happiness of your partner whether they appreciate it or not!"
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Becoming a Lightning Conductor - Part 2
This was the main sermon preached on Sunday 22nd February 2009 and it ... is ... AMAZING!!
"What Is Sin In The New Covenant?"
Something that is burning in my heart and all of your hearts I trust is that we are persuaded that;
The church is meant to be a heavenly society residing on earth - a community of people that embody the understanding that God is with us and that we are the temple of God, we are the people who are the walking embassys of God, that we carry heaven's Presence here on the earth because we have learnt how to conduct heaven's influence onto the earth.
This series is simply called; "Faith is Conducting Heaven's Influence into the Earth". The more members of this congregation that learn how to conduct heaven's influence into the earth, the easier and higher and greater will be the miracles.
I am of the persuasion in reading the Bible that we are not meant to sweat and struggle to see the miracles of God. If sweat and struggle is required on our behalf then that means we have got something in our natural soul that can make supernatural miracles happen - but we don't. Every miracle is totally of God and all He wants is partnership with man to do that.
God doesn't work in a vacuum - God works with human beings that cooperate with Him. So I have known over years that something is wrong with church and I couldn't figure it out. Particularly Sunday morning congregations were the hardest to preach into. You go there on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night and at first it is tough because the ceiling for supernatural miracles is very low in the average church. Then by Thursday night they start to get faith and believe a bit and God is delivering them from hang ups and condemnation and by Saturday night they are rocking and the heavens are starting to come down. The same crowd turn up Sunday morning and they dress and talk and act differently because they have gone straight back into their religious traditions that they have been brainwashed with. So I would go and fast 2 to 3 days in the early 80s. I just was in my room alone with God going without food day and night. I would get as much of the power of God that I could and with all of these downloads. I lost many friends, wouldn't watch TV, denying my wife and wouldn't have fun - just locked in with God and came out and did miracles.
And the people loved it! They just turned up in any state of mind that they wanted and their pastor was full of anointing oil that miracles would happen. Eventually it became unhealthy because we developed like a movie house where the congregation just watches and were entertained or it was a preaching hall and they would come in and watch the pastor do miracles. And I mean miracles! When any of them were sick they would call me and when an aunty was sick they would tell me to go and when I nearly burned out like many pastors - 80% pastors leave the ministry within 7 years because they are finished. They are burned out and their marriage is in trouble because they did it the wrong way like I was doing. And I couldn't figure out how to do miracles without having to get Reinhard Bonke in for a crusade and how you got miracles like the early church had. People were being saved every single day and getting healed every single day and they were meeting every day and had miracles all the time!
And Peter, John, Paul weren't burned out! Why? What was going on there?
They understood that there was no seperation between clergy and laity and they understood that there is a royal priesthood and every believer is to be equipped and trained by apostles, by prophets, by evangelists and pastor/teachers and every believer can learn the trade secrets from these ministries and every believer is to be a conductor of heavens influence.
I am almost embarressed to say that I have only seen in the last few months how easy it is to have a church that is so full of the glory of God that someone can walk in that door with crutches and look at them and while they are standing there in the worship there is so much condensity of heaven's presence in the meeting that before they know it the crutches are gone and they are dancing and no one even prayed for them because 70-80% of the members know how to conduct heaven's presence into the room! Though I still fast and spend hours with God it won't be at the expense of a normal sane life and neither will you have to burn yourself out praying hours and hours a day because what we are learning in this series is how to be a conductor of heaven's influence - not earning it or deserving it but by getting free from condemnation and free from guilt and all the lies of the devil that says; "You are disqualified because of the sin in your life - God cannot use you". Yes He can use you!
If He is only using people with no sin in their lives then there is not one person He can use on the planet!
How would you like to die one day and when you look back on your life the Father says; "You played your part in partnering with others in that local church and turned up regularly not through legalism!". There is no religious date in the Christian calendar by the way! I would do this on Monday morning if you had it of or Saturday! But you come regularly because you are being equipped and trained and when you miss meetings you get the downloads of the website and the CDs because you want to keep on-page with all your partners in bringing heaven to earth! So that it is so easy and effortless - every member in the congregation is worshipping God and bringing their sacrifice of praise. That pain they had during the week - they are not sulking! They are saying; "The pleasure You get Father when I praise You in difficult times - I WILL praise You! I will not sit here and analyse and criticise!".
We are not going to allow fanaticism in this church! What is fanaticism? It is doing things without the anointing and doing things without faith. Whenever you go beyond the anointing and go beyond faith then that is fanaticism!
Every member knows how to conduct heaven. Every member walks in and says; "I will pull heaven down!". The Bible says one can a thousand to flight but two can put ten thousand to flight! There is release of anointing in unity! When people come together who all know that they are royal priests and know they have got equality of faith within their spirits that attracts heaven's presence into the room then the whole thing goes up expenetially! Then we can sneeze and someone jumps out of a wheelchair! I promise you that if we can understand what we are saying in this series then it is this close! It is not complicated! When I fasted in the early 80s because I thought that I had to produce the miracles then I robbed my family and robbed them of their destiny! Now I am including you! I am saying to you that we understand that we get revelation and are regular in involvement in this church! How busy can you be to be distracted from something that will bring heaven to earth! I know that one day you think I am going to heaven and that is so far away and a lot of people will die and go to hell before you go to heaven!
We have got to get heaven to earth so multitudes get saved and multitudes get healed!
Hong Kong is not going to be saved by great preaching or great theology or great cemetaries ... I mean seminaries! Or great churches! If it is just religion and tradition it won't work! Hong Kong will be saved when heaven comes down so beautiful and intense! The people know that God Almighty is there in power! And there is no great evangelist or guru there - just a royal priesthood! And people come and say; "Who is doing this?". Jesus is doing this! Jesus is our leader! Jesus is the leader of this royal band and we are co-ordinated by the Holy Spirit who is anointing us and leading us! We are people of the Holy Spirit!
How many of you remember multiple choice questions as a student? I used to like them because when you didn't study at least you could guess! You get a question and there are 4 or 5 possible answers! God gives you and me a multiple question today! Galatians 3:5.
Question: Does God give you His Spirit and work miracles through the evangelist, clergy, among you?
Answer: Because you observe the law.
Or because you believed what you heard?
Only one is right! One is totally wrong and one is totally right! The Spirit moves through and among the people of God by hearing the message of the Cross and they are relieved from the curse of the law. (v8). Those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith. (v12). The law is not based on faith. I am going to say something that some of you have never seen or heard before. It will be a major departure from years of religious tradition. I am going to set you up before I say it and I will warn you before I say it. This revelation that I am going to say I did not get from books. God gave it to me. It will make you a better conductor. (Hebrews 11:6); "Without faith it is impossible to please God". Anything without faith doesn't please God. You can keep all 10 Commandments 100% - no one has except Jesus - but even if you did, God wouldn't be pleased and it wouldn't make Him happy because the law is not based on faith.
So what is faith? Faith is the recognition that God is so good and He is good all the time and His whole nature and His whole being is constantly positioned and His demenour is to constantly bless you without you earning it or deserving it. His nature is so good that even if you are sinning He STILL wants to bless you.
That isn't even the big thing that will shock people! While you are still sinning, the nature of God is to still heal you, bless you, anoint you and love you and show compassion and kindness to you!
Abraham was a lying, cheating Iraqui and God came to him and said; "I am going to bless you". Abraham said; "I believe that!". God said; "You are righteous" because Abraham believed. The nature of God is so good that He wants to bless me and He wants to make my name great! I don't have to earn a thing - I don't have the law! The law is 430 years in the future! But El-Shaddi manifested Himself and I encountered the living God! I didn't encounter religion or a church service! I was an Iraqui and was out in the desert and the God of heavens and earth came to me in manifest glory and said "I will bless you and make your name great! All nations will be blessed through you!". Abraham didn't say; "Oh I don't deserve it, I sinned this week, I haven't been having a good week". He just said; "Yes sure!". And God said "I declare you to be righteous".
Who are the righteous? Those who have faith that God is good and that His desire to bless you is not based on the law.
Now the law will blind you and blind millions of church-goers. Romans 4 - Paul said the law DECEIVED him! The law will BLIND you to the goodness of God and get you into a religious, driven-works programme to try and make you good enough to earn the blessing. That is sin against God. God hates that! It is an accusation against the goodness of His character that He is mean and wants to punish you and judge you and if you aren't being good enough then He doesn't want to bless you but if you really try hard enough then He may get around to blessing you. That unbelief is evil!
To think of God through the law - to think that God wants you to keep the law to earn the blessing is partnership with demonic powers.
I don't believe that Rob! Go check John chapter 8. Jesus is talking to people under the law and who believe that the law earns them the blessing of heaven. "Our father is Abraham". The answer? "Your father is not Abraham! Your father is the devil!". These were people that prided themselves that they were the elite of the religious orthodox of the day! Jesus said; "If Abraham was your father then you would do the things that Abraham did. Your father is the devil and when the devil speaks he lies because lying is his native language".
People who are under the law are liars and they are in partnership with the devil because the devil is their father while they carry their Bibles to their Sunday morning services.
That's terrible then why did God bring the law in the first place!? If being under the law blinds you! You saw from Hebrews 10 and Galatians 3 that God NEVER wanted to bring the law but to relate to man from the generous nature of His heart because He knew that if He continued to bless people in their sin then they would begin to adjust and DEAL with their sin and get victory over their sin and get more holy in their lifestyle! He brought them out of Egypt and slavery under Abraham blessing them and providing for them but they kept on being grumpy and complaining against His goodness and they insulted Him by their unbelief and were in partnership with satanic lies.
Until eventually God said; "Alright if you don't believe in My goodness and are in unbelief against My goodness then I will now give you church and religion full of unbelief - what you want - something not based on faith".
Does God give you His Spirit and work miracles based on law or because you believe? All those who believe are blessed along with Abraham - the man of faith! It is the most difficult thing to understand that God NEVER wanted to bring the law! He brought it because man's evil heart of unbelief in His goodness!
We have religion today so full of moral pride and they are telling everyone about the successful formulas and steps to be an effective person - you have ATHEISTS who are just as successful as they are and are doing it with their sole power.
But it comes to curse and it all comes into misery. Abraham's descendants are walking in joy because they know their God! Faith knows that God is good all the time! Let me give you a Scripture - 2 Peter 1:2; "Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and the Lord Jesus Christ". So as you get knowledge of the nature of God then grace and peace is multiplied to you. Grace is heaven's influence on your life. It is influencing and capacitating your life to do things that you have never done before. It is a confidence to be so close to the Father and to know the Father! What does the devil say? "Grace and peace will be taken away from you the less you know the nature of God". Grace and peace will be subtracted drastically the more wrong ideas that I - the devil - can put into their minds!
Why does 2 Corinthians 10:4 talk about the weapons we fight with are not carnal but mighty for the demolishing of strongholds that exalt themselves above the knowledge of God? Who puts these imaginations in your mind that is seeking to exalt itself above the image of God? Satan! Most people live on the planet utterly disillusioned with the goodness of God - they try harder and harder and get tired. Remember what this is about? This is about getting more of heaven to earth! This is about getting heaven in - this is about a faith conducting heaven in! Faith isn't something you switch on and switch off. If you have got faith then heaven is attracted to you! Not because you are doing rules and laws! But because you have got faith! There are atheists that are more moral than Christians but there is nothing miraculous in their lives because they have no faith in the goodness of God!
If you want heaven's power by the Holy Spirit then Luke 11 talks about "you who are evil know how to give good things to your children then how much MORE will your heavenly Father?". When you are a dad and you look at your children and sometimes you just want to give them everything! There are times you just want to bless them not because they have earned it!
How much more does a perfect Father full of love just want to dump the Holy Spirit in power on us who come together?!
Now we are getting close to the warning okay!? Go to Galatians 3 and let's look at this well known verse. (v23); "Before this faith came we were held prisoners by the law and locked up until faith should be revealed". Faith should be revealed! That is the important thing!
FAITH SHOULD BE REVEALED!
Something that is revealed is not something your head analyses through academic study. You can study about glasses and learn academic education about glasses but they have never been revealed to you. Glasses are only revealed when you wear them! Until faith is revealed you are locked up and a prisoner of the law! Until faith is revealed you are locked up whether you like it or not! Like the majority of Christians on our planet you are locked up in the limitations of earthly experiences and earthly encounters and you don't know the heavens.
It is not talking about the idea of faith. Paul is talking about the difference between the Old Covenant of Moses law and the New Covenant! This is the big one. The easy one comes first and then the big one.
1. Under the Old Covenant the law was given so that you would do your best to keep it but you would have to keep it 100% to earn the blessing. No one did. Everyone became cursed and Romans 2 says that there was none righteous. Under the New Covenant the law is taken away and cancelled at the Cross.
Under the New Covenant promises are given to believe to get the blessing.
Why are there people who seem to strive to get the blessing but don't get much? Firstly because they are under the law. While they are under the law they have no capacity to have faith. The law has locked them up. You give them the promises and you announce what God has for them but they have no capacity to believe the promises because they are locked up to academic human talents and earthly prison limitations.
When faith is revealed and promises are presented then they don't even think of the law but just believe God is good and just believe that God wants to give this to them!
Here it comes:
SIN IS DEFINED DIFFERENTLY ACCORDING TO THE CONTEXT OF THE COVENANT. UNDER LAW SIN IS DEFINED AS FALLING SHORT OF THE LAW.
Missing the target. Not keeping the law.
UNDER THE NEW COVENANT SIN IS NOT DEFINED THAT WAY AT ALL. UNDER THE NEW COVENANT SIN IS DEFINED AS UNBELIEF IN THE GOODNESS OF GOD.
Everyone who does not believe in the grace of God is in sin! Everyone who is in unbelief is in sin. They are keeping the law but are in sin because the law is not based on faith.
Romans 4:5 says where there is NO law there is NO sin! So the law has been taken off you - it has been cancelled at the Cross! So there is nothing to fall short of! So sin under the New Covenant is unbelief!
SO LEGALISTIC CHURCHES ARE THE MOST SINNING CHURCHES ON THE PLANET!
It is sad! Legalistic churches do not believe God wants to bless them just because of who God is despite their failures or lack of holiness that God wants to bless them like He did Abraham. They don't believe that! They believe you have got to do things to earn the blessing! They are in sin while they think that they are so holy. Let's go to Colossians 2. I want to encourage you - once you are in Christ where do you have to confess your sin? Don't give me 1 John1:8,9 - we have dealt with that! The Bible talks about only one form of repentance in the New Covenant and that is repentance from dead works.
What are dead works? Works done without faith! Dead works are useless religious ceremonies!
All through the book of Hebrews the writer is saying you must repent from UNBELIEF! Repent from DEAD WORKS! So whenever Hebrews talks about sin for those that are in Christ or those that have heard the Gospel but some haven't come to Christ - he is talking about unbelief. Hebrews 3 talks about having an "evil heart of unbelief" - what in? The grace and goodness of God! Hebrews 10 and it says that they are continually deliberately sinning (v26) - why are they trampling Jesus blood under foot? Because they don't have faith that Jesus blood can save them. They believe that the blood of shadow and symbolism and the Temple system is worthy of relying on. They have rejected the blood of Jesus because they don't have faith in the Gospel and are relying on the law and the temple system and priesthood which is what millions of believers around the world are doing! They are sinning and deliberately so!
If you die in Moses then you are going straight to hell. You can only be in Christ to go to heaven. Every sin is taken off and Christ has destroyed every sin but there was just one sin that He could not die for and that is unbelief in the grace of God. To die in Moses is to die in unbelief of the grace of God. Hebrews 11 starts about faith - the substance. And he goes on to give a list of dozens of people who did mighty things. "Through faith". Then it is those who through faith were persecuted and endured! All about faith! Hebrews 12:1; "Since we are surrounded by so great a crowd of witnesses" - who are all the people of faith! "And THE sin that so easily entangles us and run ... the Author and Perfector of our faith". One single sin! Religious people's obsession with themselves and their effort are locked up in a prison of earth. No ability to pull heaven into the earth! The sin that was constantly entangling the Hebrews was unbelief!
Everyone always thinks that the sin that "so easily entangles" must be pornography or lying or some other sin that I have done. We are not encouraging pornography!
I would rather have someone struggling with pornography but with strong faith in the love and glory of a loving Father - because if he keeps believing in the goodness of God then somewhere pornography will lose it's allure and desire and they will be free by the power of the Gospel!
The one full of unbelief is the one so easily entangled and they are putting people in bondage! Colossians 2. How many of you want to see fulness in your life? There is nothing more the Father can give you because He has already given you everything in Christ. Your journey is to grow in revelation of faith revealed - a revelation of what the gospel and law and sin under law and sin under the New Covenant is. A faith revealed! Colossians 2:8. Paul knows that the grace of God is driving the Pharisees into hysterical frothing at the mouth anger! "See to it that noone takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy that depends on human tradition of this world ...". The basic principle of this world is not Christ! (v9); "ALL the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form and you HAVE been given" - it has already taken place!
(v11); "You were circumcised in the putting of the sinful nature". That happened when you were born again. (v13); "Forgave us ALL our sins having cancelled the written code with it's regulations that is AGAINST us". The law is AGAINST you! "He took it AWAY nailing it to the Cross and having disarmed the powers and authorities triumphing over them by the Cross".
What is fullness in Christ that you have been given?
1. Your sinful nature was cut away when you were born again.
"But Rob I still sin!". Oh you still live in unbelief? "Oh I forgot what sin in the New Covenant is!". He cut away your sinful nature! What is the sinful nature of man? The sinful nature of fallen man is that nature that is suspicious about the integrity of God and secretly believe that God is evil and doesn't really want to do good to you unless you do well. How did it get in there? God had given Adam everything except one restriction - one tree. The devil came and said "Hey God is restricting you - you can't eat from the tree of religion - try to do good, try to avoid evil. God is trying to stop you! What did he do? He created a credibility gap in Adam's conciousness as to the integrity of God's goodness. He said you can do better than what God has given you. God had made Adam in His likeness - he had nothing to aspire to! He had government of the whole planet! But the devil succeeded in making Adam think that God wasn't good and He was holding out on Adam and was being stingy! So Adam ate and the conciousness that dropped into him and the sinning nature - an evil nature that suspected God was not good. A nature of unbelief in the goodness of God.
The sinful nature means that the day you got born again that was cut out - all of that suspicion - and a new nature put inside you that capacitates you to know that God is good all the time in fullness! What is the problem? Our heads! The way we were regenerated! Our heads are still programmed with inferiority and our mind thinks but we must listen to our new nature, our born again nature and it will say "God is good!".
2. He forgave ALL your sins!
When did He forgive our sins? After we have confessed our sins and repented? Ten hail Marys? When? 2, 000 years before you ever sinned! You arrived on the planet with all your sins totally wiped out - the slate clean and can never be dirtied again! The sins are all gone! I have got a new nature! Fully all sins gone!
3. All the Law of Moses - the 10 Commandments - the ministry of death that rates and condemns you was cancelled at the Cross.
Fullness of the law has gone! When that happened principalities and powers had nothing left to condemn you so you are not measuring up! "You are not measuring up!". To what?! The law! Come here devil you haven't been to a good church! Cancelled! As a result they were disarmed! What are preachers doing today? They are preaching the law back on the church and are re-arming a disarmed enemy and then they get the church to fast and pray to do spiritual warfare and bombard the powers operating in this area. No they are operating in this area because you are partnering with them through your unbelief and preaching of the law. YOU empowered principalities! Hong Kong doesn't need any more lies! It doesn't need anyone more telling us that if we fast and pray enough then we will bind principalities and authorities! How much more is fullness DISARMED? They have NO more power or authority! They are disarmed but the church RE ARMS them! People in unbelief love something that is not of faith because you don't have to get out the boat or step out in the supernatural - you can do everything by earthly control based on earthly talent. That is being locked up under the law!
If you have an inner heart that constantly struggles to believe God is good then maybe you are not saved. If you are constantly suspicious of God's goodness then maybe you have been a church-goer all your life but have never had your heart fully saved.
Your conditioning is different. If your inner nature constantly suspects God then you are still under law. How do I get born again? Jesus I believe you are good and that at that Cross you cut away that nature! Give me a circumcision of my heart! Cut religion out of me today! You can't receive it until you believe it! There will a people in hell who have been forgiven all their sins. Because there was one sin that Jesus couldn't die for. Unbelief. The only sin that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of; "because they do not believe on Me". What is the law? Not based on faith! What else did you do? Took away the law - sin conciousness is all gone! Powers and authorities are disarmed! You don't have to fast to disarm them! Just believe! Does God move by His Spirit and do miracles because you are under the law or because you believe!
There is a momentum of grace on the planet - it is so difficult to be a legalist now! There are grace congregations being raised up!
This is too important to not let the Holy Spirit water the seed. The devil tries to steal the seed by hardship so your mind says "This stuff doesn't work". But when the Holy Spirit waters the seed then it starts to produce multiple-fold. It has gone over the website today - the seed of heaven has gone into your heart. This is God's seed and it will keep producing for the rest of your life crops of blessing! Lies have been broken off your life! You are partnering with God conducting heaven's influence into the earth! You are not a pauper but an ambassador! A conductor that we might see the increase of heaven come into Hong Kong!
I am righteous in Him! I am righteous in Him! I am the righteousness of God in Christ!
I am righteous in Him! I am righteous in Him! I am the righteousness of God in Christ!
All my trangressions have been removed and all my mistakes are made new!
All my trangressions have been removed and all my mistakes are made new!
I am righteous in Him! I am righteous in Him! I am the righteousness of God in Christ!
I am righteous in Him! I am righteous in Him! I am the righteousness of God in Christ!
No more condemnation - no accusation now! I am free from the power of sin and death!
I have had a revelation of the glorious grace of God and I am living in perfect grace!
Heaven come to Hong Kong! Heaven come to City Church!
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Turning Disappointments into Divine Appointments for Greater Miracles
Rob brought this short exhortation before the notices on Sunday 22nd February 2009 in response to a personal tragedy that has obviously deeply affected City Church International. I was profoundly moved by it but I found it such an important message to transcribe. I'm sure Rob gets accused of preaching a "health, wealth and prosperity" gospel of triumphalism in which suffering is rejected. Nothing could be further from the truth. When suffering and trial comes along - this prophetic exhortation is a strong reminder that Rob is more than confident to face tragedy head on and to lift his people's heads to the risen and ruling Jesus Christ.
Because suffering and trial affects us all whether we like it or not (usually not). But there is a glorious hope throughout this! We don't have to go to the excesses of "health, wealth and prosperity" teachers who claim that suffering equals a complete lack of 'faith'. But neither do we have to go the rather foolish excesses of the "Together for the Gospel" four who claim;
"We further deny that any teaching that offers health and wealth as God's assured promises in this life can be considered a true Gospel".
I think anyone who hears the care and compassion and love in his voice will find their hearts warmed by a caring father's breaking heart. Rob isn't some distant "Christian celebrity" using Hong Kong as a platform to further his status. You listen to this message and you will hear his heart breaking for these people that he clearly loves.
So here is the 20 minutes of what he said;
"Well - well done to the worship team for once again just leading us in and well done as a congregation for not being conservative or formalistic or cautious in your expression of love for Jesus. The Bible is full of a culture of extravagant expression and the nature of God is of extravagance. I really need your faith and help over the next few minutes before Glenda gives the announcements - I want to speak some "faith" things but I really need your support and I need your faith expressions all the way through! I would rather have "please be quiet!" than you just sit there and listen quietly while I say these things. This is very important.
We need these times to see them as defining opportunities that can be defining moments or watershed times - crisis that can often precipate or catalyse greater advancement of the Kingdom of heaven depending on how the people of God respond to tragedy and respond to things they don't understand.
I have been a pastor for over 30 years now and it is still amazingly mysterious to me how some human beings can face the most terrible grief and pain and cry their tears and then move forward almost with a greater sense of confidence on their face.
It is almost like the departure of their loved one created a slip-stream of glory that enveloped them with a concious awareness of that celestial realm of safety and glory that their loved one had gone to.
And Paul the apostle writes that they never referred to someone in Christ dying. Not once! Both Jesus and Paul said that they fell asleep. If you are in Christ you have already died and He said; "Those who believe in Me shall never perish". You have already died with Christ - you died with Him on that Cross and died to the old life and died to the law and was raised with Jesus and are seated with Him - you are alive!
So the Christian in Christ does not die! Ever again! You fall asleep and you just shift conciousness from the planet earth into the heavenly realm - the glory realm!
So he writes to the Thessalonian church that is suffering from losses of loved ones and he says; "Do not grieve as the world does". He didn't say; "Don't grieve". Grieving is a very important part and process anytime you lose anything! Especially a loved one. The world grieves without hope. Unbelief grieves without hope. That grief is then contaminated by tormented by demonic powers that will snap people's minds and move them into morbidity and psychological breakdown that is destructive.
The grieving with hope is painful but redemptive and brings you through a process where you have greater confidence and greater strength in life because death is not a fear to you!
I have been at the bedside of a number of dear ones come near to exiting this planet and there is always glory! I watched my own dad go that way and you are left with wonder at the glory of God! And you look at that body and you know that is just the earth suit - they have departed! And there is a grieving afterwards because there is a temporary recognition of the abscence of that person. Only temporary! There is a heavenly hope that we all will see that precious baby in our eternal future! There is a grieving as well because maybe that person who fell asleep in Christ didn't fulfill all their hopes and their desires and all their dreams and aspirations! And you grieve that was not given opportunity to be fulfilled! But if you have this hope and grieve with hope then there is a guarantee that heaven will give everything that didn't have an opportunity to fulfill on this earth - heaven will more than compensate and fully satisfy and fulfill in eternity!
So heaven is not some glib excuse or silly cliche to dismiss or surpress grieving. But heaven is this hope that everything we have been robbed of on earth will be fully satisfied in eternity and in the realms of heaven's glory! Heaven is real!
This is not to say it was God's will to take that little baby. I promise you with all the venom and anger and strength of my hatred of that demonic lie that God kills. There is a song that says "God gives and God takes away". That is Old Covenant and a statement out of Job's mouth. Jesus never taught that! God did not take that baby! God did not take her but He received her! God didn't contribute or cause the situation at all!
There is a robbing and a stealing there! Yet in it all God's victory prevails because of heaven's hope and because of the Cross! Jesus Christ is Perfect Theology! And He proved beyond doubt or debate the revelation that His Father's will is to bring life and power and to heal and restore and do miracles!
It is a blasphemous deception to credit God with Satan's works! That is a deception that much of the church has come under!
There are only job descriptions in the Bible - Jesus and the Devil's! Both are in John 10:10. "I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly". Satan's job description is to rob, to kill and to destroy. Wherever you see death - life that has been ended early then that does not fit Jesus job description but whereever you see healing, miracles, abundance of blessing then that is Jesus in operation! God didn't cause this or contribute to this! It is the fallen state of the cosmos reaching back to Eden's betrayal through Adam that there is frustration in our mortal planet.
But we will never stop contending to conduct more of the beauty of heaven's influence into this earth! For Jesus still means what He means; "Father Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!". They are not killing babies in heaven! The Father didn't do it!
We will enquire from God, we will request from God, we will investigate revelationary realms and Scripture and we will seek God to know how to do this better so that future babies will live their whole lives on this planet! But we will never question the goodness of God because He has already proved irreversibly that truth on an old rugged cross and on a hill called Golgotha.
We will aggressively and passionately pursue more of the Presence and power of God so that we come to a place where our minds are so renewed from the traditions of men and the corrupt wisdom of this age - we will not partner with unbelief which is partnering with the devil - we will contend and pursue until our minds are so renewed that we look at seemingly impossible situations that our minds are in harmony with heaven and our hearts are in harmony with heaven and we can say; "THAT is not the will of God - THIS is the will of God!" and BANG instant healing takes place!
We will never tire or allow ourselves to grow weary of our quest and our pursuit to see the power of God in not partial manifestation - not a 2/10 but a 9/10 or a 10/10 and full manifest power of God healing everyone of sickness and disease! We will weep our tears and hug one another and deal with our sorrow then we will lift our heads and rejoice that we are alive in 2009 by God's appointment to discover the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven that will help us release more miracle power according to what we see in Acts which the early church had so that future, future, future generations will say of us in Hong Kong and CCI that they did not flag or fail or fade in their faith in the face of setbacks but they set their hearts to the heavenly Jerusalem and that they released and unleashed so much of heaven's glory and power into the earth that evil was broken and every manner of sickness and disease was healed by the power of God!
They will say of us that because of what we did that heaven's love and gracious justice rained down on planet earth and heaven's perfect peace and justice kissed a guilty earth in love and earth lifted it's face to heaven and gave thanks for a generation in Hong Kong that did not give up in setbacks and did not allow disappointments to surrender but saw every disappointment as a divine appointment to release more of heaven into the earth! The devil should not pick on us! He should not choose to hurt people in our ranks! He should know better but he's brain-damaged and he will pay seven times for what he has done! We have had two situations - Phil who died of cancer over a year ago and know this little baby before we even met her - that to me is unacceptable!
There was a man and he was commissioned to raise an expedition to climb Mount Everest. The first team he took up failed because the weather closed in. They tried again and they too failed and had to come back. They tried a third time and this time they did more training and exercise and equipped themselves with higher standard equipment to get themselves better placed to succeed. They went up and half the way up there was a terrible avalanche that wiped out most of the team and even the leader was killed in this avalanche. When they came down the survivors went to a banquet in honour of their comrades who died on that mountain.
The leader of the survivors got up at the end of the banquet and stood up to speak with dignity and boldness and he spoke as if Mount Everest was in that room. And he pointed at an imaginary Everest and he said; "Everest - you have defeated us once. Everest you then defeated us a second time. Then even a third time Everest you defeated us by taking the lives of our friends but Everest we will defeat you because you cannot get any bigger! And we CAN!".
Cancer is not getting any bigger, the devil is not getting any bigger, disease is not getting any bigger but we are growing into the measure of the full stature of Christ - we are getting bigger in the power of our God and we will conquer!
I was speaking in London and was doing some training for evangelism to go out and heal the sick and on the third day I heard the Lord say; "They think too much of you and too little of themselves - they think that they are useless and you get everyone healed and that you have never had disappointments or struggles because all they have heard is of the cancers healed and the wheelchair cases that walked. And they think you just lay hands on anything and it happens!". God said; "Tell them of every failure you can remember - all the people that died - all the people I prayed for that got worse". So I went and gave an hours talk on every person that I prayed for and failed.
Then I said; "Okay I want to pray for the sick - who wants to come and be prayed for by a failure?!". They all came and that day Steve was supernaturally healed of a serious back problem. That night we went after a testimony of my failures and Glenda and I prayed for a woman in a wheelchair who said we were wasting our time - the doctors said she was in the last chronic stages of M.E. You will not walk ever again. After fifteen minutes of praying for her she starting feeling divine voltage and heaven's influence and began tingling all over. She could feel feeling coming back in her legs. Within minutes she got up and jogged around the building to people rejoicing!
You cannot get confused about this! God good! Devil bad!
But we need to walk in such humility - everytime someone doesn't get healed don't form a theology to accomodate failure! Don't lower the Word of God down to your bad experience! Trust God to lift your bad experience upto the level of His promises in His good and keep contending! Bill Johnson sees thousands healed but he will equally tell you of thousands that aren't healed. Thousands! Many medically verified! Yet Bill Johnson's own dad died. He said; "I declare Reading a cancer-free zone!". In a short space of time his own dad was diagnosed with cancer and died in four months and it was humiliating to do that in front of his congregation. His own secretary died of cancer. His son is deaf in both ears! To this day they see hundreds of deaf ears healed, cripples walking! But they keep contending!
Because every time you face disappointment, it's another divine appointment to go through that crisis and it is a question of "Do I believe God is good all the time and yes we haven't figured it out how to get everyone healed all the time like Jesus did and the book of Acts did". But we are learning the ways of the Spirit. Most of the church has been taught religious traditions and have not been taught the mysteries of the Kingdom or ways of the Spirit and how to walk in the supernatural. They have not been taught the supernatural! That's why you have got to train Christians who haven't got a clue how the anointing works or how to release this authority! But many in this church DO have a clue how to do this and most in this church are lightning conductors!".
Because suffering and trial affects us all whether we like it or not (usually not). But there is a glorious hope throughout this! We don't have to go to the excesses of "health, wealth and prosperity" teachers who claim that suffering equals a complete lack of 'faith'. But neither do we have to go the rather foolish excesses of the "Together for the Gospel" four who claim;
"We further deny that any teaching that offers health and wealth as God's assured promises in this life can be considered a true Gospel".
I think anyone who hears the care and compassion and love in his voice will find their hearts warmed by a caring father's breaking heart. Rob isn't some distant "Christian celebrity" using Hong Kong as a platform to further his status. You listen to this message and you will hear his heart breaking for these people that he clearly loves.
So here is the 20 minutes of what he said;
"Well - well done to the worship team for once again just leading us in and well done as a congregation for not being conservative or formalistic or cautious in your expression of love for Jesus. The Bible is full of a culture of extravagant expression and the nature of God is of extravagance. I really need your faith and help over the next few minutes before Glenda gives the announcements - I want to speak some "faith" things but I really need your support and I need your faith expressions all the way through! I would rather have "please be quiet!" than you just sit there and listen quietly while I say these things. This is very important.
We need these times to see them as defining opportunities that can be defining moments or watershed times - crisis that can often precipate or catalyse greater advancement of the Kingdom of heaven depending on how the people of God respond to tragedy and respond to things they don't understand.
I have been a pastor for over 30 years now and it is still amazingly mysterious to me how some human beings can face the most terrible grief and pain and cry their tears and then move forward almost with a greater sense of confidence on their face.
It is almost like the departure of their loved one created a slip-stream of glory that enveloped them with a concious awareness of that celestial realm of safety and glory that their loved one had gone to.
And Paul the apostle writes that they never referred to someone in Christ dying. Not once! Both Jesus and Paul said that they fell asleep. If you are in Christ you have already died and He said; "Those who believe in Me shall never perish". You have already died with Christ - you died with Him on that Cross and died to the old life and died to the law and was raised with Jesus and are seated with Him - you are alive!
So the Christian in Christ does not die! Ever again! You fall asleep and you just shift conciousness from the planet earth into the heavenly realm - the glory realm!
So he writes to the Thessalonian church that is suffering from losses of loved ones and he says; "Do not grieve as the world does". He didn't say; "Don't grieve". Grieving is a very important part and process anytime you lose anything! Especially a loved one. The world grieves without hope. Unbelief grieves without hope. That grief is then contaminated by tormented by demonic powers that will snap people's minds and move them into morbidity and psychological breakdown that is destructive.
The grieving with hope is painful but redemptive and brings you through a process where you have greater confidence and greater strength in life because death is not a fear to you!
I have been at the bedside of a number of dear ones come near to exiting this planet and there is always glory! I watched my own dad go that way and you are left with wonder at the glory of God! And you look at that body and you know that is just the earth suit - they have departed! And there is a grieving afterwards because there is a temporary recognition of the abscence of that person. Only temporary! There is a heavenly hope that we all will see that precious baby in our eternal future! There is a grieving as well because maybe that person who fell asleep in Christ didn't fulfill all their hopes and their desires and all their dreams and aspirations! And you grieve that was not given opportunity to be fulfilled! But if you have this hope and grieve with hope then there is a guarantee that heaven will give everything that didn't have an opportunity to fulfill on this earth - heaven will more than compensate and fully satisfy and fulfill in eternity!
So heaven is not some glib excuse or silly cliche to dismiss or surpress grieving. But heaven is this hope that everything we have been robbed of on earth will be fully satisfied in eternity and in the realms of heaven's glory! Heaven is real!
This is not to say it was God's will to take that little baby. I promise you with all the venom and anger and strength of my hatred of that demonic lie that God kills. There is a song that says "God gives and God takes away". That is Old Covenant and a statement out of Job's mouth. Jesus never taught that! God did not take that baby! God did not take her but He received her! God didn't contribute or cause the situation at all!
There is a robbing and a stealing there! Yet in it all God's victory prevails because of heaven's hope and because of the Cross! Jesus Christ is Perfect Theology! And He proved beyond doubt or debate the revelation that His Father's will is to bring life and power and to heal and restore and do miracles!
It is a blasphemous deception to credit God with Satan's works! That is a deception that much of the church has come under!
There are only job descriptions in the Bible - Jesus and the Devil's! Both are in John 10:10. "I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly". Satan's job description is to rob, to kill and to destroy. Wherever you see death - life that has been ended early then that does not fit Jesus job description but whereever you see healing, miracles, abundance of blessing then that is Jesus in operation! God didn't cause this or contribute to this! It is the fallen state of the cosmos reaching back to Eden's betrayal through Adam that there is frustration in our mortal planet.
But we will never stop contending to conduct more of the beauty of heaven's influence into this earth! For Jesus still means what He means; "Father Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!". They are not killing babies in heaven! The Father didn't do it!
We will enquire from God, we will request from God, we will investigate revelationary realms and Scripture and we will seek God to know how to do this better so that future babies will live their whole lives on this planet! But we will never question the goodness of God because He has already proved irreversibly that truth on an old rugged cross and on a hill called Golgotha.
We will aggressively and passionately pursue more of the Presence and power of God so that we come to a place where our minds are so renewed from the traditions of men and the corrupt wisdom of this age - we will not partner with unbelief which is partnering with the devil - we will contend and pursue until our minds are so renewed that we look at seemingly impossible situations that our minds are in harmony with heaven and our hearts are in harmony with heaven and we can say; "THAT is not the will of God - THIS is the will of God!" and BANG instant healing takes place!
We will never tire or allow ourselves to grow weary of our quest and our pursuit to see the power of God in not partial manifestation - not a 2/10 but a 9/10 or a 10/10 and full manifest power of God healing everyone of sickness and disease! We will weep our tears and hug one another and deal with our sorrow then we will lift our heads and rejoice that we are alive in 2009 by God's appointment to discover the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven that will help us release more miracle power according to what we see in Acts which the early church had so that future, future, future generations will say of us in Hong Kong and CCI that they did not flag or fail or fade in their faith in the face of setbacks but they set their hearts to the heavenly Jerusalem and that they released and unleashed so much of heaven's glory and power into the earth that evil was broken and every manner of sickness and disease was healed by the power of God!
They will say of us that because of what we did that heaven's love and gracious justice rained down on planet earth and heaven's perfect peace and justice kissed a guilty earth in love and earth lifted it's face to heaven and gave thanks for a generation in Hong Kong that did not give up in setbacks and did not allow disappointments to surrender but saw every disappointment as a divine appointment to release more of heaven into the earth! The devil should not pick on us! He should not choose to hurt people in our ranks! He should know better but he's brain-damaged and he will pay seven times for what he has done! We have had two situations - Phil who died of cancer over a year ago and know this little baby before we even met her - that to me is unacceptable!
There was a man and he was commissioned to raise an expedition to climb Mount Everest. The first team he took up failed because the weather closed in. They tried again and they too failed and had to come back. They tried a third time and this time they did more training and exercise and equipped themselves with higher standard equipment to get themselves better placed to succeed. They went up and half the way up there was a terrible avalanche that wiped out most of the team and even the leader was killed in this avalanche. When they came down the survivors went to a banquet in honour of their comrades who died on that mountain.
The leader of the survivors got up at the end of the banquet and stood up to speak with dignity and boldness and he spoke as if Mount Everest was in that room. And he pointed at an imaginary Everest and he said; "Everest - you have defeated us once. Everest you then defeated us a second time. Then even a third time Everest you defeated us by taking the lives of our friends but Everest we will defeat you because you cannot get any bigger! And we CAN!".
Cancer is not getting any bigger, the devil is not getting any bigger, disease is not getting any bigger but we are growing into the measure of the full stature of Christ - we are getting bigger in the power of our God and we will conquer!
I was speaking in London and was doing some training for evangelism to go out and heal the sick and on the third day I heard the Lord say; "They think too much of you and too little of themselves - they think that they are useless and you get everyone healed and that you have never had disappointments or struggles because all they have heard is of the cancers healed and the wheelchair cases that walked. And they think you just lay hands on anything and it happens!". God said; "Tell them of every failure you can remember - all the people that died - all the people I prayed for that got worse". So I went and gave an hours talk on every person that I prayed for and failed.
Then I said; "Okay I want to pray for the sick - who wants to come and be prayed for by a failure?!". They all came and that day Steve was supernaturally healed of a serious back problem. That night we went after a testimony of my failures and Glenda and I prayed for a woman in a wheelchair who said we were wasting our time - the doctors said she was in the last chronic stages of M.E. You will not walk ever again. After fifteen minutes of praying for her she starting feeling divine voltage and heaven's influence and began tingling all over. She could feel feeling coming back in her legs. Within minutes she got up and jogged around the building to people rejoicing!
You cannot get confused about this! God good! Devil bad!
But we need to walk in such humility - everytime someone doesn't get healed don't form a theology to accomodate failure! Don't lower the Word of God down to your bad experience! Trust God to lift your bad experience upto the level of His promises in His good and keep contending! Bill Johnson sees thousands healed but he will equally tell you of thousands that aren't healed. Thousands! Many medically verified! Yet Bill Johnson's own dad died. He said; "I declare Reading a cancer-free zone!". In a short space of time his own dad was diagnosed with cancer and died in four months and it was humiliating to do that in front of his congregation. His own secretary died of cancer. His son is deaf in both ears! To this day they see hundreds of deaf ears healed, cripples walking! But they keep contending!
Because every time you face disappointment, it's another divine appointment to go through that crisis and it is a question of "Do I believe God is good all the time and yes we haven't figured it out how to get everyone healed all the time like Jesus did and the book of Acts did". But we are learning the ways of the Spirit. Most of the church has been taught religious traditions and have not been taught the mysteries of the Kingdom or ways of the Spirit and how to walk in the supernatural. They have not been taught the supernatural! That's why you have got to train Christians who haven't got a clue how the anointing works or how to release this authority! But many in this church DO have a clue how to do this and most in this church are lightning conductors!".
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Ryan Rufus - Hebrews 6
This sermon was preached by Ryan Rufus at City Church International in Hong Kong on Sunday 8th February 2009. I have decided in light of the exciting prophecies about the year that City Church International is going to have to follow their sermons weekly and transcribe each sermon.
"Can You Lose Your Salvation?"
I've got no time for introductions this morning so we are getting straight into it! Turn in your Bible to Hebrews 6:4 and I am reading from the King James Bible this morning. It is never good to just have one version. Always look at many versions and cross-reference and always look at the Greek. That way you avoid error. Hebrews 6:4;
"For it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good Word of God and have tasted of the world to come - if they shall fall away, to renew them again seeing as they crucify again to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame".
Now - what does it sound like that Scripture is saying? If we read just those Scriptures without the context? That you can lose your salvation! It sounds like if you fall away then you are toast. Many people have preached these Scriptures out of context and have butchered these Scriptures and have butchered the Body of Christ as a result. There is a context here that you have to understand otherwise you are guaranteed to get these verses wrong.
(v4) actually starts with the word "For" - which shows what it is there for. He has just said a whole bunch of things and now says; "For it is impossible". So there is a context that we cannot ignore! I am going to go back where I feel the context begins to start. We are going to go back and build the context right back to these verses and by the time we get there you guys will know what these verses mean in their proper context without me even having to say. You can start in Hebrews chapter 1 but you don't have to go back that far. You can go back to Hebrews 4:14. I am going to read a few verses and then explain them and then move on;
"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that has passed through the heavens - Jesus the Son of God - let us hold fast our profession".
Chapter 5:1;
"For every high priest taken from among men is ordained of men of things pertaining to God that he may offer gifts and sacrifices to God for sins".
Chapter 5:5;
"So Christ glorified not Himself to be made a high priest but He said unto Him; 'Thou art My Son - today I have begotten Thee' (v6) - 'Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizadek".
So here we start seeing the context being revealed. The writer of Hebrews introduces Jesus Christ as the superior high priest of a better covenant - a superior mediator of a better covenant and he is contrasting Jesus with the old Levitical priesthood and the old order of sacrifices and inferior priests with the new order of Jesus and the better sacrifices that Jesus offered. So we have to see that! The book of Hebrews does that a lot - it contrasts the inferior with the superior. The Old Testament Levitical priests are inferior - why? Because they offer an inferior sacrifice and they keep dying! Their sacrifice could never remove your sins - it could only temporarily cover them. They kept dying! That means God could never wrap up time and take people to heaven because the sacrifice could never remove their sins and you cannot have sins in heaven. The priest could not go to heaven and keep offering sacrifices because they weren't holy either. So if things continued under that old order of priesthood then no one could go to heaven!
That is why Jesus is superior because He offers a superior sacrifice - His own blood - that by one sacrifice He has dealt with EVERY sin for ALL time.
He is a High Priest and is revealed in the order of Melchizadek. You can read about him in Genesis 14. The big deal about Melchizadek is that he is a high priest forever. The actual big thing about him is that he has an indestructable life. Jesus is a high priest in the order of Melchizadek because He has an indestructable life and that means He will never die again! He offered a better sacrifice and He is an eternal High Priest! That means He mediates for us. 1 John 2 says that if we sin we have One who speaks in our defence - Jesus Christ and Hebrews 13 says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forevermore! Often we use that for healing - which we can if we wanted. But He is not going to be healing forevermore in all eternity. There will be no need for healing in eternity. The Book of Hebrews reveals Jesus as the superior mediator for our sins and speaks on our behalf and He is the same yesterday, today and forever!
Yesterday He dealt with our sins in the past. Today He is our mediator and deals with all our present sins and forevermore He is our mediator and deals with all our possible future sins!
So here we see the context starting to evolve. I want to read a few Scriptures. (v8); "Though He was a son yet learnt He obedience by the things which He suffered". What does that sound like!? Because people have also butchered that Scripture! It sounds like Jesus turned obedient through the things that He suffered. Well let me ask you the question - was Jesus ever disobedient? Did Jesus ever need to learn obedience? No! And if you actually study the original Greek it doesn't say that! It actually says that He REMAINED obedient through the sufferings. Why? Because He knew He was a son! He knew who He was in God! So He had great strength to persevere through anything He suffered, any persecution and He remained faithful and obedient to God.
The book of Hebrews is written to a people that are facing persecution. It gives them encouragement and strength in their faith and not to shrink back and throw away their confidence - but when you know you are a son of God and you know your place in the Kingdom in Christ Jesus then you can persevere through anything! (v9);
"And being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him".
Another Scripture that has been messed up by people! See when you have a legalistic mindset you read the Scriptures wrong. But when you have a New Covenant mindset then you will unlock the Scriptures! Let me explain that one. Jesus was made perfect and we are in Him! Therefore we are made perfect! It is not a case of wondering if I am saved. Once we are in Him we receive ETERNAL salvation! "To all them that obey Him". Ah you see you have to obey Him to make sure you receive eternal salvation! It is talking about obedience to the truth. You can obey Moses and be obedient to the law or you can be obedient to Christ and be obedient to faith! Romans 1:5 says it gives an apostolic call to call Gentiles to the "obedience of faith". Faith is obedience! Works is disobedience as is unbelief! He is the Author of Salvation to everyone who has FAITH in Him! And faith only in Jesus. If you are in anyone else then you are imperfect just like they are.
Hebrews 13:20. How many of you thought that Jesus died for our sins and how come He didn't stay dead but was raised back to life? Hebrews 13:20 says He was raised back to life through the blood. Once that blood had been offered it was a perfect and acceptable sacrifice to God and once it had been offered it was a done deal and Jesus could be raised to life. The wrath of God was satisfied and sin had been dealt with once and forevermore! The one sacrifice for all sins for all time had been offered and therefore it was impossible for death to keep it's hold on Him. He was the Resurrection and the life. Once that sacrifice had been offered then resurrection life came forward and He came back to life.
(v10); "Called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizadek". See again he is trying to reveal Melchizadek. Then he stops for a while and explains a few things and then explains the incredible sacrifice and the high priest that is Jesus. The book of Hebrews is a very relevant Scripture for today because it was written to Hebrews - people under the law who were trying to do things to make themselves right with God. It was written to people in grace who had received the gospel and believed and had faith in Jesus. And it was written to Jews who were caught in between and thought they could have both. A mixture of law and grace. So sometimes they would try and offer sacrifices and sometimes they would try and believe in Jesus. That is exactly what is happening in the church today. There are people trying to keep the law and those who are born again and saved by grace and those caught in between and not sure where they are at.
(v11) - this is a key verse which many of us miss - "Of which we have many things to say and be uttered seeing as we are dull of hearing". So here Paul - sorry the writer of Hebrews! - which I believe was Paul. There was no one around at the time that had such a revelation of grace as this book reveals. He was trying to bring this incredible revelation of Melchizadek and of Jesus as a high priest forever and the sacrifice. He said it is hard to explain these things to you because you are dull of hearing! Dull of hearing - what does that mean?
Dull of hearing is a legalistic mindset and it is a law-based mindset! It is that Scripture in 2 Corinthians 3 that when the law of Moses is read, a veil covers their minds so that they cannot grasp the glory of the gospel of Christ. It is a legalistic mindset that makes them think that when they sin they must offer a sacrifice and then to be restored back to righteousness. That is a mind that is dull!
(v12); "The first principles of the oracles of God". The first things you hear when you hear the Gospel about Jesus. He is telling them that they cannot even accept the Gospel properly and think that one week you get saved, and the next week you sin and remember the law and then don't feel saved. So you go to church the next week and respond to an altar call again! It is because they sin and feel guilty and feel they should offer something to get rid of the guilt of that sin. If that was the case and one week you get saved and then sin and then get saved again - if you did need to get saved again then it means that Jesus needed to be crucified again. Because you are trying to offer the sacrifice of Christ again.
So when you have a dull mind or a legalistic mind it is hard to accept the first principles of the Gospel which is turning away from repentance from dead works and putting your faith in Jesus. Turning away from dead works - they are offering sacrifices to make yourself acceptable to God! They are dead works. Why? A once for all sacrifice has already been offered!
Under the Old Covenant you could offer sacrifices for your sin. That was a license to sin! You could go and sin and then go and take a lamb and offer it to the priest and get forgiveness for that sin! But when you come into Christ all that stops because His once for all sacrifice was offered and never ever needs to be re-offered and it cleanses you from sin and it covers every single sin once and forevermore!
So he is trying to tell them that you need to keep away from these dead works! That sacrifice has already been offered and if you continue in those dead works then no sacrifice exists. That is what is what Dad was talking about last week in Hebrews 10. Turn away from dead works and put your faith in Jesus. Only He offered the perfect sacrifice and is the eternal mediator for our sins forever!
(v13); "For everyone that uses milk is unskilled in the teachings of righteousness" (NIV). What is the teaching of righteousness? This is what Dad has been preaching about for the last 5 weeks - being established in the gift of righteousness. But he is saying here that you are struggling with the first principles of the Gospel. How can I go on and explain the incredible revelation of the gift of righteousness when you are not even established in it?
There are only two kinds of righteousness. Your righteousness (which is self-righteousness, legalism and works) and God's righteousness which is perfect righteousness and it is the GIFT of righteousness!
When you are behaving righteously it is not your righteousness - it is the gift of righteousness bearing fruit! Whose righteousness do you want to be in?! He is trying to get them established in the teaching of righteousness so that they will move away from self-rightousness and rest in God's righteousness!
(v14); "Strong meat belongs to those who are of age". What is that all about!? Some people get this Scripture wrong! They say that the more you study righteousness the more you will do more good and less evil. That is not what this Scripture is all about. It is saying that the more you get established in the gift of righteousness the more you will be able to discern between good and evil. Eating the meat of the Word is the teaching of righteousness - it is not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He is talking about eating from the tree of life! The more you do that the more you can discern between what is good - God, the gift of righteousness, faith, God speaking to you and telling you you are righteous in Him - and evil which is legalism, the devil speaking lies to you.
Hebrews 6:1; "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on to maturity .... doctrines .... ". Those are all the things you hear when you first hear the Gospel. He is saying that you need to move on from them. A lot of people use this Scripture to say "Come on you need to move on from grace. You taught us grace and now you need to tell us what to do! Let's move on to what we need to do!". That is not what the Word of God is saying here. He is speaking to a people that are struggling with the principles of the gospel. They don't even know whether they are saved or not. They are trying to offer Jesus again and again! And he is saying to them that we need to move on and understand that we don't need to offer Jesus again and again and again but ONCE was enough!
"For" (v4) "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened" - those who were born again - "... because you are crucifying the Son of God twice".
This Scripture is not trying to scare us with the possibilty that we can lose our salvation. It is trying to fill us with an absolute assurity that it is completely and utterly impossible to ever lose your salvation!
And I am going to tell you why! It is because when we got saved and came into Christ, we were united with Christ! It is because you and I when we got saved, when we came into Christ - we were united with Christ. This is good news! You are going to be blessed here! It is impossible for you to lose your salvation! We need to be filled with a confidence that it is impossible for us to lose our salvation! Imagine going through life wondering if we are actually saved or not and thinking when we die will we go to heaven? I don't know if I could live with that - the possibility of spending eternity in hell!
God wants us to be filled with a confidence and a boldness so that we can endure any sufferings and any persecutions and be filled with incredible strength and courage.
You were united with Christ and that word is much more powerful than you realise! "United" with Christ - you were united with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection the book of Romans says. Again in Ephesians it says we were united with Him in His ascension and even when He sat down on the throne, we are seated in heavenly places with Him!
In order for you to lose your salvation, God would have to kick you off the throne, He would have to descend you down to earth, He would have to kill you, put you in the grave, put your corpse back on the Cross and resurrect you back to spiritual death! But that's not all. Because you are united with Christ He would have to kick Christ off the throne, descend Christ, kill Christ again, put Him in the grave and then put Him back on the Cross. That will NEVER happen because Jesus has an indestructable life and it is impossible for Him to ever die again!
If Jesus can't die again then you can't die again! If you can't die again then you can never fall away! You can never lose your salvation!
I can keep going on and on saying that!
It is impossible for you to fall away because the life of Jesus won't allow it!
You are united with Him and He has an indestructable life! He is a high priest in the order of Melchizadek! For you to lose your salvation means you would have to die again but you cannot! That means you cannot fall away! If you could fall away to your shame you would be crucifying Jesus again. Do you see what that Scripture is saying?
Let me move on because it keeps getting better and better and better! There are a few verses after that which talk about those which are saved and those that aren't. Those that aren't saved cannot produce any fruit to God - anything they do isn't righteous but those who are saved can produce fruit. Read that along with Romans chapter 7 - they kind of tie in there. Then (v11) - and if you have an NIV then don't read it in the NIV because it gets it wrong. I have actually crossed out a line in my NIV because it interprets concepts and not the literal translation. So they interpret the concept wrong and have created an error in the Word. It is not the NIV that is the infalliable Word, it is the original writings that are - the Greek!
The NIV is good but in some places it gets it wrong because they are interpretations. Anytime you go from Greek to English then things get lost. I am going to read (v11) in the KJV;
"And we desire that everyone of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end".
"The full assurance of hope" is the hope that you and I can never fall away and that we are in Christ, children of God and that God will never reject us or turn us away. We have an incredible hope because we know that we can go through this life knowing that we are going to be with God forever and ever in all eternity and that He will never hold our sins against us. This is an incredible hope that we have.
Some people have interpreted this Scripture to say; "You need to hold onto this hope to make the hope sure and certain". That is absolute RUBBISH - they have missed the point completely! Let me read (v11) - what must we show the same diligence to? To the full assurance of hope unto the end. You have full assurance of hope and you can hold onto it through anything you face because you already have it! Let me prove that by going to (v19); "Which hope we HAVE as an anchor for the soul both sure and steadfast". See we have this hope! It can never move! Even if you don't hold out to the end and for some reason you bail out - God doesn't bail out on you because you have this hope as a guarantee and it has already anchored you.
You are in Christ and that is it! We have this hope as an anchor for our soul and our minds so that when we do face persecution and temptation - we can stand strong because we know God will not kick us out and judge us! God is for us and not sending punishment but He is endorsing us and is for us! How can we have this guarantee? How can we have this hope? What gives us such confidence?
(v17); "the immutability" - that means the unchanging nature - "of His counsel" - that is this hope. "Confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie - we might have a strong consolation" - that is we might be greatly encouraged - "who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set upon us". We can be greatly encouraged and fully assured in this hope of eternal salvation because of two things God promised us on oath. What are those two things he is talking about? He swore on an oath about these two things and it is impossible to lie! Once He swears an oath it WILL happen!
These two things are the New Covenant code that we need to crack and until we crack it our minds will still be dark. Until we crack this code we still see things through a legalistic mindset. Once you crack that code you will be able to interpret any Scriptures that are difficult and see them through New Covenant lenses.
1. The first one is the once for all sacrifice that completely deals with all of our sins and makes us perfect.
(Hebrews 10:12); "But this Man Jesus after He had offered one sacrifice for sins" - that's for all sins - "forever, sat down at the right hand of God until His enemies be made His footstool". (v14); "For by one offering He had perfected forever them that are sanctified". By one sacrifice He has made us perfect ... for how long? As long as we hold onto the hope? Forever! If God has made you perfect then nothing and noone can make you unperfect! (v15); "wherefore the Holy Ghost is a witness". He is a witness in a court of law! The Holy Spirit is our counsellor and our defence and when the devil comes and accuses us of this sin or that sin then He stands up and says; "Father remember You swore an oath to never, ever relate to them through their sins and their performance but through Christ's performance on their behalf".
2. The second is that Jesus Christ is in the order of Melchizadek.
The book of Hebrews reveals Jesus as the superior Mediator of a better covenant. (Hebrews 7); "God swore an oath that Jesus is a high priest forever under the order of Melchizadek". That means "forever" He has an indestructable life. And He mediates for us EVERY sin! We have an eternal Mediator - one who goes to the Father in our defence! We never even have to fear again! What a hope we have!
God will open your eyes and you will see something and will no longer be fearful about this message. If you tell people that by one sacrifice then God got rid of your sins and there is no more punishment then what's to stop them going out and sinning? That will produce Christians who want to commit crazy sins surely! That's taking restraints off them Ryan! What about the warning Scriptures?!
There is not ONE warning Scripture about losing your salvation to New Covenant believers.
It is rubbish to couple the grace of God with the warning passages!
Why are people so scared of this message of grace? I will tell you why - because they haven't seen their salvation. They haven't seen the supernatural miracle that took place in the Spirit of a person when they got born again. So many Christians still believe that the heart of a Christian is evil beyond cure and quote Jeremiah 17:9. Our hearts were evil beyond cure and God didn't cure it! He replaced it! He removed our hearts of stone and gave us hearts of flesh!
They think that Christians have got this evil in them and a sinful nature and that sinful nature will drive them into sin! Colossians 2:11 says He circumcised us of the sinful nature through Christ - that means He REMOVED it! That means He took it out! It is gone! Circumcision doesn't come back or reattach! It's dead! Romans 6:6; "For we know that our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be done away with". I hear people saying; "That's the body that wanted to sin". No it's not! The body of sin is the entity that was living inside of us! Indwelling sin - the personality of sin - the driving force of sin that Adamic nature and the fallen nature produces that wants to sin.
That was an evil nature but then God circumcised us of that nature and cut it out of us! Sin was not the effect. It was the cause. God removed the cause - the sinful nature. Temptation is external and God has regenerated your spirit and made your spirit perfect. 2 Corinthians 5:17; "A New Creation". Our body is still a part of the old creation order that was subject to frustration so it will still decay. Your mind will still be embedded in the corrupt wisdom of this world. But our spirit is a NEW creation! It has been alive with Christ!
It means that our spirit has become a part of the new creation order! That means our spirit is perfect and nothing else needs to happen to our spirit. One day our minds and our bodies will become a part of the new creation order. And will catch up - but nothing will happen in our spirits because we have already received perfection in our spirits and have already received the new creation order in our spirit. Colossians 2:8, 10 - "In Christ all the fullness of the deity dwell ... and you have been given fullness in Christ". Your spirit has come into the new creation order!
Nothing of the old creation order was put back in your spirit! The sinful nature was not put back in your spirit! Evil was not put back in your spirit! You have the fullness of God's love, His faith, His power, His character, His nature. It says in Ephesians 3 that our spirits have His nature in our spirits! Our spirit wants to live absolutely righteous for God. If you could live just by your spirit then you would live absolutely righteous, absolutely obedient and fruitful unto God! It is our body and our mind that get in the way.
Preaching the law takes people out of the spirit and back into the flesh and into their mind. Preaching grace awakens our spirit and causes our spirits to rise up in who we are in Christ and we begin to live by our spirits and the things that are in our spirits! So preach grace and don't preach law!
This year we are going to live more and more from our spirits and all the riches of God and it will just come out.
Terry Virgo says that this year is going to be a tough year for the legalists!
"Can You Lose Your Salvation?"I've got no time for introductions this morning so we are getting straight into it! Turn in your Bible to Hebrews 6:4 and I am reading from the King James Bible this morning. It is never good to just have one version. Always look at many versions and cross-reference and always look at the Greek. That way you avoid error. Hebrews 6:4;
"For it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good Word of God and have tasted of the world to come - if they shall fall away, to renew them again seeing as they crucify again to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame".
Now - what does it sound like that Scripture is saying? If we read just those Scriptures without the context? That you can lose your salvation! It sounds like if you fall away then you are toast. Many people have preached these Scriptures out of context and have butchered these Scriptures and have butchered the Body of Christ as a result. There is a context here that you have to understand otherwise you are guaranteed to get these verses wrong.
(v4) actually starts with the word "For" - which shows what it is there for. He has just said a whole bunch of things and now says; "For it is impossible". So there is a context that we cannot ignore! I am going to go back where I feel the context begins to start. We are going to go back and build the context right back to these verses and by the time we get there you guys will know what these verses mean in their proper context without me even having to say. You can start in Hebrews chapter 1 but you don't have to go back that far. You can go back to Hebrews 4:14. I am going to read a few verses and then explain them and then move on;
"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that has passed through the heavens - Jesus the Son of God - let us hold fast our profession".
Chapter 5:1;
"For every high priest taken from among men is ordained of men of things pertaining to God that he may offer gifts and sacrifices to God for sins".
Chapter 5:5;
"So Christ glorified not Himself to be made a high priest but He said unto Him; 'Thou art My Son - today I have begotten Thee' (v6) - 'Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizadek".
So here we start seeing the context being revealed. The writer of Hebrews introduces Jesus Christ as the superior high priest of a better covenant - a superior mediator of a better covenant and he is contrasting Jesus with the old Levitical priesthood and the old order of sacrifices and inferior priests with the new order of Jesus and the better sacrifices that Jesus offered. So we have to see that! The book of Hebrews does that a lot - it contrasts the inferior with the superior. The Old Testament Levitical priests are inferior - why? Because they offer an inferior sacrifice and they keep dying! Their sacrifice could never remove your sins - it could only temporarily cover them. They kept dying! That means God could never wrap up time and take people to heaven because the sacrifice could never remove their sins and you cannot have sins in heaven. The priest could not go to heaven and keep offering sacrifices because they weren't holy either. So if things continued under that old order of priesthood then no one could go to heaven!
That is why Jesus is superior because He offers a superior sacrifice - His own blood - that by one sacrifice He has dealt with EVERY sin for ALL time.
He is a High Priest and is revealed in the order of Melchizadek. You can read about him in Genesis 14. The big deal about Melchizadek is that he is a high priest forever. The actual big thing about him is that he has an indestructable life. Jesus is a high priest in the order of Melchizadek because He has an indestructable life and that means He will never die again! He offered a better sacrifice and He is an eternal High Priest! That means He mediates for us. 1 John 2 says that if we sin we have One who speaks in our defence - Jesus Christ and Hebrews 13 says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forevermore! Often we use that for healing - which we can if we wanted. But He is not going to be healing forevermore in all eternity. There will be no need for healing in eternity. The Book of Hebrews reveals Jesus as the superior mediator for our sins and speaks on our behalf and He is the same yesterday, today and forever!
Yesterday He dealt with our sins in the past. Today He is our mediator and deals with all our present sins and forevermore He is our mediator and deals with all our possible future sins!
So here we see the context starting to evolve. I want to read a few Scriptures. (v8); "Though He was a son yet learnt He obedience by the things which He suffered". What does that sound like!? Because people have also butchered that Scripture! It sounds like Jesus turned obedient through the things that He suffered. Well let me ask you the question - was Jesus ever disobedient? Did Jesus ever need to learn obedience? No! And if you actually study the original Greek it doesn't say that! It actually says that He REMAINED obedient through the sufferings. Why? Because He knew He was a son! He knew who He was in God! So He had great strength to persevere through anything He suffered, any persecution and He remained faithful and obedient to God.
The book of Hebrews is written to a people that are facing persecution. It gives them encouragement and strength in their faith and not to shrink back and throw away their confidence - but when you know you are a son of God and you know your place in the Kingdom in Christ Jesus then you can persevere through anything! (v9);
"And being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him".
Another Scripture that has been messed up by people! See when you have a legalistic mindset you read the Scriptures wrong. But when you have a New Covenant mindset then you will unlock the Scriptures! Let me explain that one. Jesus was made perfect and we are in Him! Therefore we are made perfect! It is not a case of wondering if I am saved. Once we are in Him we receive ETERNAL salvation! "To all them that obey Him". Ah you see you have to obey Him to make sure you receive eternal salvation! It is talking about obedience to the truth. You can obey Moses and be obedient to the law or you can be obedient to Christ and be obedient to faith! Romans 1:5 says it gives an apostolic call to call Gentiles to the "obedience of faith". Faith is obedience! Works is disobedience as is unbelief! He is the Author of Salvation to everyone who has FAITH in Him! And faith only in Jesus. If you are in anyone else then you are imperfect just like they are.
Hebrews 13:20. How many of you thought that Jesus died for our sins and how come He didn't stay dead but was raised back to life? Hebrews 13:20 says He was raised back to life through the blood. Once that blood had been offered it was a perfect and acceptable sacrifice to God and once it had been offered it was a done deal and Jesus could be raised to life. The wrath of God was satisfied and sin had been dealt with once and forevermore! The one sacrifice for all sins for all time had been offered and therefore it was impossible for death to keep it's hold on Him. He was the Resurrection and the life. Once that sacrifice had been offered then resurrection life came forward and He came back to life.
(v10); "Called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizadek". See again he is trying to reveal Melchizadek. Then he stops for a while and explains a few things and then explains the incredible sacrifice and the high priest that is Jesus. The book of Hebrews is a very relevant Scripture for today because it was written to Hebrews - people under the law who were trying to do things to make themselves right with God. It was written to people in grace who had received the gospel and believed and had faith in Jesus. And it was written to Jews who were caught in between and thought they could have both. A mixture of law and grace. So sometimes they would try and offer sacrifices and sometimes they would try and believe in Jesus. That is exactly what is happening in the church today. There are people trying to keep the law and those who are born again and saved by grace and those caught in between and not sure where they are at.
(v11) - this is a key verse which many of us miss - "Of which we have many things to say and be uttered seeing as we are dull of hearing". So here Paul - sorry the writer of Hebrews! - which I believe was Paul. There was no one around at the time that had such a revelation of grace as this book reveals. He was trying to bring this incredible revelation of Melchizadek and of Jesus as a high priest forever and the sacrifice. He said it is hard to explain these things to you because you are dull of hearing! Dull of hearing - what does that mean?
Dull of hearing is a legalistic mindset and it is a law-based mindset! It is that Scripture in 2 Corinthians 3 that when the law of Moses is read, a veil covers their minds so that they cannot grasp the glory of the gospel of Christ. It is a legalistic mindset that makes them think that when they sin they must offer a sacrifice and then to be restored back to righteousness. That is a mind that is dull!
(v12); "The first principles of the oracles of God". The first things you hear when you hear the Gospel about Jesus. He is telling them that they cannot even accept the Gospel properly and think that one week you get saved, and the next week you sin and remember the law and then don't feel saved. So you go to church the next week and respond to an altar call again! It is because they sin and feel guilty and feel they should offer something to get rid of the guilt of that sin. If that was the case and one week you get saved and then sin and then get saved again - if you did need to get saved again then it means that Jesus needed to be crucified again. Because you are trying to offer the sacrifice of Christ again.
So when you have a dull mind or a legalistic mind it is hard to accept the first principles of the Gospel which is turning away from repentance from dead works and putting your faith in Jesus. Turning away from dead works - they are offering sacrifices to make yourself acceptable to God! They are dead works. Why? A once for all sacrifice has already been offered!
Under the Old Covenant you could offer sacrifices for your sin. That was a license to sin! You could go and sin and then go and take a lamb and offer it to the priest and get forgiveness for that sin! But when you come into Christ all that stops because His once for all sacrifice was offered and never ever needs to be re-offered and it cleanses you from sin and it covers every single sin once and forevermore!
So he is trying to tell them that you need to keep away from these dead works! That sacrifice has already been offered and if you continue in those dead works then no sacrifice exists. That is what is what Dad was talking about last week in Hebrews 10. Turn away from dead works and put your faith in Jesus. Only He offered the perfect sacrifice and is the eternal mediator for our sins forever!
(v13); "For everyone that uses milk is unskilled in the teachings of righteousness" (NIV). What is the teaching of righteousness? This is what Dad has been preaching about for the last 5 weeks - being established in the gift of righteousness. But he is saying here that you are struggling with the first principles of the Gospel. How can I go on and explain the incredible revelation of the gift of righteousness when you are not even established in it?
There are only two kinds of righteousness. Your righteousness (which is self-righteousness, legalism and works) and God's righteousness which is perfect righteousness and it is the GIFT of righteousness!
When you are behaving righteously it is not your righteousness - it is the gift of righteousness bearing fruit! Whose righteousness do you want to be in?! He is trying to get them established in the teaching of righteousness so that they will move away from self-rightousness and rest in God's righteousness!
(v14); "Strong meat belongs to those who are of age". What is that all about!? Some people get this Scripture wrong! They say that the more you study righteousness the more you will do more good and less evil. That is not what this Scripture is all about. It is saying that the more you get established in the gift of righteousness the more you will be able to discern between good and evil. Eating the meat of the Word is the teaching of righteousness - it is not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He is talking about eating from the tree of life! The more you do that the more you can discern between what is good - God, the gift of righteousness, faith, God speaking to you and telling you you are righteous in Him - and evil which is legalism, the devil speaking lies to you.
Hebrews 6:1; "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on to maturity .... doctrines .... ". Those are all the things you hear when you first hear the Gospel. He is saying that you need to move on from them. A lot of people use this Scripture to say "Come on you need to move on from grace. You taught us grace and now you need to tell us what to do! Let's move on to what we need to do!". That is not what the Word of God is saying here. He is speaking to a people that are struggling with the principles of the gospel. They don't even know whether they are saved or not. They are trying to offer Jesus again and again! And he is saying to them that we need to move on and understand that we don't need to offer Jesus again and again and again but ONCE was enough!
"For" (v4) "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened" - those who were born again - "... because you are crucifying the Son of God twice".
This Scripture is not trying to scare us with the possibilty that we can lose our salvation. It is trying to fill us with an absolute assurity that it is completely and utterly impossible to ever lose your salvation!
And I am going to tell you why! It is because when we got saved and came into Christ, we were united with Christ! It is because you and I when we got saved, when we came into Christ - we were united with Christ. This is good news! You are going to be blessed here! It is impossible for you to lose your salvation! We need to be filled with a confidence that it is impossible for us to lose our salvation! Imagine going through life wondering if we are actually saved or not and thinking when we die will we go to heaven? I don't know if I could live with that - the possibility of spending eternity in hell!
God wants us to be filled with a confidence and a boldness so that we can endure any sufferings and any persecutions and be filled with incredible strength and courage.
You were united with Christ and that word is much more powerful than you realise! "United" with Christ - you were united with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection the book of Romans says. Again in Ephesians it says we were united with Him in His ascension and even when He sat down on the throne, we are seated in heavenly places with Him!
In order for you to lose your salvation, God would have to kick you off the throne, He would have to descend you down to earth, He would have to kill you, put you in the grave, put your corpse back on the Cross and resurrect you back to spiritual death! But that's not all. Because you are united with Christ He would have to kick Christ off the throne, descend Christ, kill Christ again, put Him in the grave and then put Him back on the Cross. That will NEVER happen because Jesus has an indestructable life and it is impossible for Him to ever die again!
If Jesus can't die again then you can't die again! If you can't die again then you can never fall away! You can never lose your salvation!
I can keep going on and on saying that!
It is impossible for you to fall away because the life of Jesus won't allow it!
You are united with Him and He has an indestructable life! He is a high priest in the order of Melchizadek! For you to lose your salvation means you would have to die again but you cannot! That means you cannot fall away! If you could fall away to your shame you would be crucifying Jesus again. Do you see what that Scripture is saying?
Let me move on because it keeps getting better and better and better! There are a few verses after that which talk about those which are saved and those that aren't. Those that aren't saved cannot produce any fruit to God - anything they do isn't righteous but those who are saved can produce fruit. Read that along with Romans chapter 7 - they kind of tie in there. Then (v11) - and if you have an NIV then don't read it in the NIV because it gets it wrong. I have actually crossed out a line in my NIV because it interprets concepts and not the literal translation. So they interpret the concept wrong and have created an error in the Word. It is not the NIV that is the infalliable Word, it is the original writings that are - the Greek!
The NIV is good but in some places it gets it wrong because they are interpretations. Anytime you go from Greek to English then things get lost. I am going to read (v11) in the KJV;
"And we desire that everyone of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end".
"The full assurance of hope" is the hope that you and I can never fall away and that we are in Christ, children of God and that God will never reject us or turn us away. We have an incredible hope because we know that we can go through this life knowing that we are going to be with God forever and ever in all eternity and that He will never hold our sins against us. This is an incredible hope that we have.
Some people have interpreted this Scripture to say; "You need to hold onto this hope to make the hope sure and certain". That is absolute RUBBISH - they have missed the point completely! Let me read (v11) - what must we show the same diligence to? To the full assurance of hope unto the end. You have full assurance of hope and you can hold onto it through anything you face because you already have it! Let me prove that by going to (v19); "Which hope we HAVE as an anchor for the soul both sure and steadfast". See we have this hope! It can never move! Even if you don't hold out to the end and for some reason you bail out - God doesn't bail out on you because you have this hope as a guarantee and it has already anchored you.
You are in Christ and that is it! We have this hope as an anchor for our soul and our minds so that when we do face persecution and temptation - we can stand strong because we know God will not kick us out and judge us! God is for us and not sending punishment but He is endorsing us and is for us! How can we have this guarantee? How can we have this hope? What gives us such confidence?
(v17); "the immutability" - that means the unchanging nature - "of His counsel" - that is this hope. "Confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie - we might have a strong consolation" - that is we might be greatly encouraged - "who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set upon us". We can be greatly encouraged and fully assured in this hope of eternal salvation because of two things God promised us on oath. What are those two things he is talking about? He swore on an oath about these two things and it is impossible to lie! Once He swears an oath it WILL happen!
These two things are the New Covenant code that we need to crack and until we crack it our minds will still be dark. Until we crack this code we still see things through a legalistic mindset. Once you crack that code you will be able to interpret any Scriptures that are difficult and see them through New Covenant lenses.
1. The first one is the once for all sacrifice that completely deals with all of our sins and makes us perfect.
(Hebrews 10:12); "But this Man Jesus after He had offered one sacrifice for sins" - that's for all sins - "forever, sat down at the right hand of God until His enemies be made His footstool". (v14); "For by one offering He had perfected forever them that are sanctified". By one sacrifice He has made us perfect ... for how long? As long as we hold onto the hope? Forever! If God has made you perfect then nothing and noone can make you unperfect! (v15); "wherefore the Holy Ghost is a witness". He is a witness in a court of law! The Holy Spirit is our counsellor and our defence and when the devil comes and accuses us of this sin or that sin then He stands up and says; "Father remember You swore an oath to never, ever relate to them through their sins and their performance but through Christ's performance on their behalf".
2. The second is that Jesus Christ is in the order of Melchizadek.
The book of Hebrews reveals Jesus as the superior Mediator of a better covenant. (Hebrews 7); "God swore an oath that Jesus is a high priest forever under the order of Melchizadek". That means "forever" He has an indestructable life. And He mediates for us EVERY sin! We have an eternal Mediator - one who goes to the Father in our defence! We never even have to fear again! What a hope we have!
God will open your eyes and you will see something and will no longer be fearful about this message. If you tell people that by one sacrifice then God got rid of your sins and there is no more punishment then what's to stop them going out and sinning? That will produce Christians who want to commit crazy sins surely! That's taking restraints off them Ryan! What about the warning Scriptures?!
There is not ONE warning Scripture about losing your salvation to New Covenant believers.
It is rubbish to couple the grace of God with the warning passages!
Why are people so scared of this message of grace? I will tell you why - because they haven't seen their salvation. They haven't seen the supernatural miracle that took place in the Spirit of a person when they got born again. So many Christians still believe that the heart of a Christian is evil beyond cure and quote Jeremiah 17:9. Our hearts were evil beyond cure and God didn't cure it! He replaced it! He removed our hearts of stone and gave us hearts of flesh!
They think that Christians have got this evil in them and a sinful nature and that sinful nature will drive them into sin! Colossians 2:11 says He circumcised us of the sinful nature through Christ - that means He REMOVED it! That means He took it out! It is gone! Circumcision doesn't come back or reattach! It's dead! Romans 6:6; "For we know that our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be done away with". I hear people saying; "That's the body that wanted to sin". No it's not! The body of sin is the entity that was living inside of us! Indwelling sin - the personality of sin - the driving force of sin that Adamic nature and the fallen nature produces that wants to sin.
That was an evil nature but then God circumcised us of that nature and cut it out of us! Sin was not the effect. It was the cause. God removed the cause - the sinful nature. Temptation is external and God has regenerated your spirit and made your spirit perfect. 2 Corinthians 5:17; "A New Creation". Our body is still a part of the old creation order that was subject to frustration so it will still decay. Your mind will still be embedded in the corrupt wisdom of this world. But our spirit is a NEW creation! It has been alive with Christ!
It means that our spirit has become a part of the new creation order! That means our spirit is perfect and nothing else needs to happen to our spirit. One day our minds and our bodies will become a part of the new creation order. And will catch up - but nothing will happen in our spirits because we have already received perfection in our spirits and have already received the new creation order in our spirit. Colossians 2:8, 10 - "In Christ all the fullness of the deity dwell ... and you have been given fullness in Christ". Your spirit has come into the new creation order!
Nothing of the old creation order was put back in your spirit! The sinful nature was not put back in your spirit! Evil was not put back in your spirit! You have the fullness of God's love, His faith, His power, His character, His nature. It says in Ephesians 3 that our spirits have His nature in our spirits! Our spirit wants to live absolutely righteous for God. If you could live just by your spirit then you would live absolutely righteous, absolutely obedient and fruitful unto God! It is our body and our mind that get in the way.
Preaching the law takes people out of the spirit and back into the flesh and into their mind. Preaching grace awakens our spirit and causes our spirits to rise up in who we are in Christ and we begin to live by our spirits and the things that are in our spirits! So preach grace and don't preach law!
This year we are going to live more and more from our spirits and all the riches of God and it will just come out.
Terry Virgo says that this year is going to be a tough year for the legalists!
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Becoming a Lightning Conductor!
One of the things that makes this sermon particularly wonderful was the time that Rob took to report on his recent trip to Dubai. It's well worth the careful read! I had goosebumps while I was typing this out. The implications of actually becoming a heavenly lightning conductor in our locality - is just amazing!
So here is; "Becoming a Lightning Conductor!" preached by Rob on Sunday 15th February 2009.
It's good to be back. We had a great trip but it's always good to be home and it is always wonderful to say when you are preaching in other nations that if you want to see how these truths are embodied in a community then just look to Hong Kong and you will see a group of people who are progressively living this more and more and more. So I do boast about you with integrity! Because some people will say "Okay we will take you up" and they will come and check out what I am saying and they will find a people that are after God's heart and love Him and love one another And who are generous in their giving and in their commitment to China. Many are here not out of convinience or to make money but have come from other nations to be based here to serve the purposes of God. So I do boast in you and you are well worth boasting about! "Glory and Grace" is going to be glorious!
After preaching in Dubai there, there were people from the Middle East who came to me afterwards and said "We have decided today that we are coming to Glory and Grace! We have GOT to learn more about this stuff! We have got to get into this stuff!". Then Patricia King gave us $1000 Canadian dollars which is about 7000 Hong Kong for "Glory and Grace" and she advertised through her email mailing list which goes to thousands of people around the world and encouraged them to come. She said that Joshua Mills and Fini and Isi and Rob and Glenda Rufus will be here and she gave a write up on each of us and said that Joshua is feeling that is well worth people coming because this is going to be a "unusual" time with God! So God is backing these things! Mentally I am challenged about these things - my heart is at rest and our God can sort this but my head gets worried every now and then because I said with my big mouth that if we don't make budget then I will make it up from my pocket. We could have a several hundred dollar defecit. So thank you Patricia!
Open your Bibles to Matthew 6.
Some of you know that we were in Dubai for 6 days. They put me up in this beautiful hotel and it was embarressing! I said this year that God is going to bless us so much that we will get embarressed and feel guilty. They put me up for 10 days in this huge hotel room with a massive lounge and flat tv screen. A big kitchen and entrance hall. Two bathrooms! I got on the phone and said first thing; "Glenda you have GOT to get here!". It was an incredible blessing. We went to some of Bill Johnson's meetings - he was in town and then we had lunch with him which was great. Then we spent four days with some friends I have known for 20 years. We just sat together talking about how we can ally in global partnership to see this gospel get to the multitudes and how we can plant churches.
And there is a whole new way of doing apostolic ministry. There is a whole fresh way that is taking place at the same time that denominations are disintegrating and religious institutions are fading as something of a post-modern thing. Something new is breaking into the earth that is more connected to the book of Acts and the church birthed by Jesus.
And we brain stormed and worked for hours a day and it was very exciting seeing God give new fresh ideas on how to do church. Not just local church but how to work with apostles, prophets, evangelists and teachers that are in the earth now and how to recognise these gifts and how to best position themselves with one another. No more Popes, or denominational heads or one static leader of an organisation! But different leaders with different giftings in different contexts lead with those - so it is dynamic and not static!
Then we spent five days doing a "Power Encounters" conference for pastors and leaders from all over the Middle East. Someone asked if I got a great download from Bill Johnson and it was great being there but the greatest download was from a man called Kia Taylor who I have known for 20 years and Kia before he was a Christian was in the Zulu scouts that fought in the Rhodesian War. His group - 70 of them - went in against 5000 soldiers. That sounds like biblical stuff doesn't it?! They coloured themselves in the colour of the enemy which was cheating and is horrible actually and broke his heart but he wasn't saved. They went in with big machine guns and drove in and they just opened up fire. They killed 3000 men. In the middle of that he was shot through his hips - a fatal wound and was bleeding over the jeep - and he said "God if You are real then save me". And he said with the smell of cordite, blood and death the power of God came on him. People think God can't come on the streets or in an evil temple. They are wrong! His whole unit got out and he was the only one shot. Now he goes back into those areas to love those people and take food and supplies and care for the orphans with great signs, wonders and miracles.
But he stood up with such authority as an evangelist and there was such power on him with such urgency and he kind of rebuked us but in a way you thought; "Hit us again - that really feels good!". With the urgency of heaven pressing in while the multitudes are lost.
And while he was speaking I saw into the realm of the Spirit and I saw multiple mantles - layers of mantles of power on him and God said; "Those are up for grabs today so when Kia invites people forward then you go forward to get a greater evangelist anointing". Because you can catch these anointings!
Kia had said to me before the meeting; "Rob when I am done and invite people to come forward, I want you to come and pray with me because you have got faith". So when he said "Come up" I just went forward and stood in the crowd with my head bowed! He said "No Rob come up!" and I said "No way!" because I had seen those mantles upon him! And I was knocked flying off my feet and was on the ground for at least half an hour to forty five minutes just having heaven's voltage bouncing through me - seeing visions of China and having people coming up and prophesying over me. When I got up I was a changed man! Divine encounters! I went there to preach divine encounters but I was ambushed by God by an ex-Zulu scout! He shot me and some of the flesh died there and more of a heart to see billions of Chinese people saved!
I wept for most of that forty five minutes as God's love touched my heart! You are not going to reach the multitudes out there by trying to love. If you don't know how much God loves you then you will never make the sacrifice. When you know how much He loves YOU then you are willing to give up everything to follow Him. And you can't give up everything because the more you try to give up then the more He gives and He puts you in these expensive hotels and so on and blesses you! He wants to bless you because He loves you! He doesn't want to bless me because of my fasting and how holy I am! No! He wants to bless you because He loves you! Some people fast a lot and look very holy but they have got no blessing! In fact they suck the blessing out of the atmosphere as soon as they walk in and bring death and negativity and gloom!
It was such a joy to be there and have many pastors come to me and say "Rob where did you get this stuff from?! We have never heard this! We have been leaders for years and that is in the Bible! It is so obvious!". I got it from my heavenly Father! Same as Ryan last week! He didn't get that from his earthly dad because I was learning when I was listening to it at 02:00 this morning with jet lag! I was listening to Ryan's message from last Sunday! I was learning and had never seen that! When we come to preaching with a heart of humility we can truly learn - you will never learn anything unless you come and say "God I don't know!". The more I think I know, the more I realise I don't know!
There is so much to learn - all the things we have learnt in the past we have to unlearn and then relearn what God is saying. We have to unlearn the traditions of men that have been in the Church for one and a half thousand years. The Church hasn't been in a place of great revelation for 1, 500 years! It has been in a place of great tradition, great unbelief, of everything that strips signs, wonders, miracles and healings have been operating for that long. You don't step out and learn after 1, 500 years of religious lies and learn how to do signs and wonders just like that. It is a process of humility and constantly learning.
On Friday morning I preached there on how faith operates and how to release the anointing. And at the end they gave me three hours to preach! These people have come from all over the Middle East and arrived dry and burnt out after working in the Middle East!
So I then said "There are people who know how to be lightning conductors" - which is what I want to talk on today. How to be a Lightning Conductor. Heaven's Lightning Conductor of Faith. What is faith? Faith is conducting heaven's influence into the earth. That is all faith is. All faith does is to conduct heaven's influence into the earth.
You either have faith or you don't have faith and if you don't have faith then all you do is have an exchange of an earthly realm. You fellowship with the earthly realm, with the natural realm, with what you can smell, what you can hear, what you can taste, what you can feel and think with your brain. It is mere human encounter with earthly experiences. There is nothing wrong with earthly experiences because God creates the cosmos - but a Christian lives in both worlds simultaneously. We are citizens of heaven, we are seated in heavenly places, we are heavenly people and ambassadors of a heavenly kingdom bringing heaven into the earth.
Because heaven once ruled the earth. In the Garden of Eden the fullness of the kingdom ruled the earth. When undiluted heaven ruled the earth there were no famines, no wars, no sickness, the cosmos was perfect, no hatred or economic downturns - perfection! That is heaven and earth co labouring. Earth's condition was made the same as Heaven's condition. Earth was made in the image of heaven! You were created in the image of God and earth was created in the image of heaven and when Adam committed high treason against God, then heaven left and Satan became the Governor of this earth, he became the ruler of this world the Bible says. He is the one causing the wars and the storms.
How many storms did Jesus look at coming at Him or at a town or a country and say; "Praise God for the storm - it will bless that city with destruction and evil and kill people and it will teach people to be more godly and they are going to repent!". No! How many storms did Jesus bless? Not one! To every storm He said; "Peace be still! Stop it!". It is such nonsense - He was causing no storms. The insurance companies talk about "An act of God" - what a lie against our Father in heaven! Demonic storms!
To train God's people how not to just be earthly and go about their lives like practical atheists trying to sort out the problems on natural counselling and earthly wisdom - you may be born again and live like an atheist. But Christians - sons of God - are those that conduct heaven's influence into the earth. One day the Bible promises that at the end of this age "the kingdoms of this earth will become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ". Every nation will give up their President and King and Jesus will be once again the Governor of all nations and of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end! For the government will be on His shoulders! The Prince of peace!
That will be at the end of the age - not the end of earth! The end of the age of evil governing the earth! In the meantime God says we are to occupy and advance the kingdom and bring as much of heaven's influence into the earth as we can. There is no sickness in heaven! When you bring heaven's influence into the earth then sickness goes away! When you come into a radiation zone called "Heaven on Earth" then it manifests healing!
The trouble is that most Christians don't know a thing about what I have just said. They don't know how to conduct and don't have the conciousness to conduct or release the anointing. Their unbelief is binding and hindering and putting the breaks on heaven coming in!
Because it is not a matter of getting the heavens open. Jesus did that at the Cross! The problem is closed religious heads.
So as you preach the Word, heads get renewed to how you think and then changes the way to how heaven influences us and if you have got 70% of the people in the room knowing how to conduct heaven in it then you have got a 7/10 power. But most congregations - the best that you can get from most congregations is about 20% in those congregations who know how to conduct heaven into the meeting. The power is therefore operating at a 2/10. You can get the odd deaf ear opened but you aren't going to get cripples jumping out of chairs or mighty works. That is the Nazareth syndrome!
Jesus went to His home town and Mark 5 says that He could there do no mighty works. I love quoting that because it just smacks into people's heads! It can't be Jesus - surely He could do anything!? Well go read Mark 5. It says He COULD there do no mighty works! Apart from a few minor ailments and the next verse says that He marvelled at their unbelief. I love that!
Because I have been in some places where it was so easy to do miracles and I have succeeded better than Jesus did in Nazareth!
Do you think that is arrogant? No it's not! Listen to my point! I have been in some places where I got better results than Jesus did at Nazareth! Think about it! I went to a place where70% of the sick were healed in that meeting. But those leaders had 20 years of grace teaching under Terry Virgo. So their hearts weren't under law - the law is not based on faith - they weren't under condemnation ("I am not worthy") and they became conductors. When you know grace you can say "Father I don't care how much I messed up - I am the righteousness of God in Christ and therefore I am a conductor! I have a conciousness of certainity of what I am in Christ!". So Jesus didn't get 70%! I got mighty works and miracles - people came out of wheelchairs! Much more than Jesus got in Nazareth! What is that saying? That Jesus was subject to the same limitations as you and I are!
He couldn't just get miracles wherever He went and it didn't matter how desperate people were! "Look my brother or my sister is going to die if they don't get healed of this cancer". Sorry I can't do here any mighty works. There are not enough heavenly conductors - this crowd is full of bitterness, offended, religious, self-righteous and arrogant! And until you kill all those people you won't get any results! So I told the people in Hong Kong that I am not looking for a big congregation! I am preaching to offend the religious! They won't stay long and it breaks my heart! But it is worth the price because I want a congregation one day that are 100% of the members are all conductors! Then we will get 100% of miracles!
Can you see how easy this thing is? You say "Well Rob what happens if a lot of visitors come who don't know about this?". If we get 100% of conductors then it doesn't matter how many visitors come in with unbelief they will get healed whether they want to or not because there is enough divine radiation within the zone! Even if they want to be depressed and like being depressed then they will get joyfully laughing and can't stay depressed in a divine radiation zone! But if you only have 5% of the people as divine conductors then you have got the Nazareth syndrome there and Jesus Himself could be in the meeting and He can't do mighty works.
So there were dozens of people needing to be healed in this meeting on Friday morning. And I said; "Okay I am going to call all the conductors up". Not the people who WANT to be conductors - although that is a noble thing. "All of you who KNOW and you just hear the word "anointing" and something gets triggered inside them! They just get triggered by words like the anointing, the glory realm, heavens!". You see goosebumps starting and it is not just emotion! It is tangible heavenly voltage - electricity from heaven!
So about 100 people came out from a pretty big crowd - the place was packed and there were people everywhere up the aisles. I released the anointing over them and then I got the international team to come and lay hands. About half of them were flat out on the floor bouncing around and unconcious and I said "Pick them up and carry them back into the crowd and position them all over the crowd". It was unusual stuff! You don't learn this stuff in Bible school but they don't get miracles either!
They got among the crowd and I said "Okay we have got these conductors all over the meeting pulling heaven into the meeting. NOW we are going to pray for the sick". I called Kia Taylor up and I said "We are not going to pray for the sick of course - we are going to SPEAK to the sickness and command it to go". So I said to him; "You go and pray" and I got revelations of blood diseases. We got 40 people INSTANTLY able to verify that change had taken place in their body. Others had to go to the doctors and get it verifed because they won't know until it is checked. 40 people instantly said yes I have been healed!
After that meeting Chris and Merrill took me out to lunch in a beautiful resturant and it was a South African resturant selling SA meat in the Middle East! So we came to try and pay and the waiter said no you can't pay - that table over there have paid for you! And I thought this is definately heaven on earth - blessings that are an embarressment! Do it more Lord! So we walked over to the table and there were a whole bunch of leaders who had come to the conference and said they just wanted to bless us. One lady said "Look at my shoulder! I couldn't lift it up and now it is healed!". And someone else had a crippled ankle! And I just thought; "This is the normal Christian life - how every Christian should walk because faith is conducting heaven's influence into the earth!".
You don't have to have faith to get someone healed. You don't have to have faith to get a blind eye opened. I don't have faith to get a blind eye healed - yet God has used me to heal blind eyes over the years. I don't have faith to heal the blind! But what I have faith for is to release heaven's influence. Heaven has got the faith to heal blind eyes!
If you look at someone's blind eye then your mind will take over and you will say "Logically and medically this can't happen!". So don't worry about having faith! I am telling you the secrets of the trade here! If you look at a cripple don't try and drum up the faith! All you will do is psych your non-supernatural soul up.
Your spirit is supernatural and is the riverbed of the Holy Spirit's power.
You will psych up only that which is natural and earthly and it is pathetic! The natural soul can't touch heaven but your spirit can! Don't be passive either!
It is a conciousness of certainity that doesn't come by clever instructions but comes by being exposed to the message of grace.
Too many pastors teach the message of grace and they sit there and analyse and think "Okay what does this mean?". They haven't heard it properly! "Okay Rob how do we then discipline people who are immoral in the church?". Shut up! There is a place for disciplining predators who are immoral or who are stealing by guilt manipulation or seducing people into bed who are not their husbands or wives. There is a place for discipline. If your first thought when you hear the message of grace is but how do I discipline sin then you are still under such bondage - forget about what you do and just forget about the practical outworkings and let the message renew your soul and let it renew the way you think and you will then instinctively know how to discipline. You will do it redemptively and you will do it protectively and you will do it to keep them secure and you will protect a whole church while you are dealing with a few predators.
So the whole church is safe but you have been slapping people so hard as the pastor and you think you are a moral policeman and you have got to keep the church from sinning! That is not your job! It is the job of the Holy Spirit who can move out on the congregation and even the Holy Spirit can't stop everyone from sinning! Because everyone in the church still sins! If you bring the law back on God's people then that sinning goes out of control and gossip, envy will grow alongside the sexual predators!
So don't worry about it! Just let the message work into you! "How do I pray for someone in a wheelchair?". Don't worry about it!
Did you get Matthew 6? Let's read this. (v9-10); "Your Kingdom come" - Your government, Your rule, Your influence. "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". That is very clear what the will of God is! His will is that as things are in heaven so they should be done on earth! That is why Jesus came to mediate between heaven and earth and bring heaven into the earth. How do you do that? (6:28). You don't worry about what is lacking in the earth because heaven has got resources that supply all your needs. Out of the riches of His glory He meets all your needs - not according to your needs but according to His riches in the glory realm! The heavenly concious people are very earthly good!
"Oh he is so heavenly minded he is of no earthly good". No he was just religious and legalistic bigot. The more heavenly minded you are the more earthly good you are. Those who bring heaven's influence will get creative ideas for new inventions and creative scientific ideas that didn't come from logic but from the creativity of heaven! Heaven knows every answer to earth's problems! What is unbelief? Unbelief is a conciousness that attempts to govern the earth without heaven's influence. So unbelief actively RESISTS the power of God. Because the power of God brings heaven in. Unbelief is partnership with Satan not wanting heavens influence into the world. Why doesn't he want heaven's influence in the earth? Because he was Lucifier, the covering cherub in heaven and iniquity and selfish ambition was found in his heart and he wanted to rule over God.
Selfish ambition is the origin of unbelief - that is where unbelief comes from. It is all about me. Satan found selfish ambition (which James 3 calls "earthly wisdom". There is a wisdom from heaven and a wisdom from earth. James says where there is selfish ambition, there you will find every kind of evil for earthly wisdom is both sensual and devilish). Earthly reasoning outside of heaven's influence is demonic. It is the origin of unbelief.
Satan wanted to exalt himself over the throneof God. God threw Satan out and he came to the earth and tried to get control without authority. God had given Adam subduing, dominion authority over the earth. So he went to Eve and lied to her and then she came to Adam and he submitted. We cannot be hard on Eve - God put woman in that garden for a very important reason. Adam lost anything then she would help him find! If he needed a doctors appointment, who would tell him to go?! Who was he going to blame after he fell!? Woman fell but God chose woman's womb to give birth to last Adam - Jesus. Women are not more guilty than man - they fell together. Satan made Adam and Even religious and when he deceived them to fall he was able to steal the dominion that God gave them over the earth. So 2 Corinthians 4:4 says that Satan is the god of this world. He had temporarily influence over this earth.
How did the Father remedy this problem? He created this earth to be the image of heaven and put man to have dominion over everything that walks on this planet. Man could speak and things would come into order. Man was a son of God - his words had creative power! Adam was given dominion power so that he could speak and heaven's influence would keep and maintain the garden! There was no sickness, no thorns. After the Fall sweating and curse began. Adam was the Governor of the earth out of his connection to God and Satan stole that. Once Satan stole that, now the earth is under Satan.
What does God do? He could have destroyed the planet and started again! But He wasn't taken by surprise - He knew this was going to happen! How did He remedy it? He remedied it by another Adam who did not get kicked out of heaven for selfish ambition. He was already equal to God but didn't hold onto it as something to be grasped but gave it up and was willing to humble himself and become a man! He became a humble servant not kicked out of heaven but giving up equality voluntarily and coming to elevate every man to the status that first Adam had! And to reintroduce the beauty of heaven's influence on earth!
After Jesus was raised from the dead He could say (because He couldn't say it before) "All authority in heaven and on earth is given to Me - now go in My Name and My authority and influence the entire earth with heaven's influence". Christian religion isn't heaven's influence! Did Jesus say all authority has been given as God or a Man? God ALWAYS had all authority! He said it as a man! As a man He reinherited the authority He gave up as God and now He reinherited it as a man on your behalf so Paul can write to Timothy and say "The MAN Christ Jesus!".
Conductors are not mediators! That is the weird psychic mediums! We are not listening to demonic familiar spirits! We are not mediums! There is only one Mediator - the Man Christ Jesus! As conductors of heavens influence we are conducting what our Mediator has mediated for us! All authority in heaven and on earth to disciple nations!
So many Christians settle for nice religion and a cup of tea and lifting a little pinky and being religious! We were called to change the shape of history and influence the world! Influence politics and education! Influence the way people in sick beds lie!
This year we are going to 7/10 in the power! We have been 2/10 but this year we are going to 7/10! And next year we are going to 10/10!
You can feel it! It is in the atmosphere! The power of God won't get bigger because how do you get bigger than infinite!? It will only come when we get a revelation of the height, breadth, length and width of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that is revealed by the Spirit and those that grasp that which was completed at the Cross - when we grasp that not that which comes by knowledge but by revelation by the Spirit then you will be filled beyond measure of all the fullness of God and then God is able to able to do exceedingly above beyond what we ask or think according to the power at work in us! What is that power within us? The power of all the fullness of God - 10/10 - that is which gets every cripple healed, cancer healed, deaf ears opened! He needs congregation all over Hong Kong where everyone in that church are heavenly lightning conductors!
That is what God needs and God wants! We will labour with God and people can spit on us but we will labour with God! The unsaved are my friends! The unsaved pagans are my friends and God's friends! The prostitutes, the homosexuals, the pagans, the Muslims - they are my friends and God's friends! The religious people? They will fight this message but those who are desperate just want relief from their pain and relief from their suffering. They don't want church! They don't want religion! They want miracles! They want God and heaven! They want to go to heaven!
70% of Australians don't go to church that includes the whole bunch! Yet if you speak to the average Australian they want to go to heaven! They just don't want to go to church! And I don't blame them! Church is dangerous! They will gossip about you and judge you and criticise you behind your back!
Legalists are always trying to catch grace people in sin. If they catch you sinning then they will say "It's the message!". The devil says to me; "You better walk so holy man - if you fall the legalists will say; "Yes! Got him!". That' not why I want to walk so holy! Because of the legalists! I want to walk holy because I love Him and He loves me! If I make a mistake and they catch me then I will feel safe in His arms! And I don't care if they catch me!
The legalists caught the woman in adultery and yet they left the man! That's bigoted for a start! They got her in front of Jesus and while they were pointing at her, Jesus wrote in the sand with all their sins.
The legalists who try and catch people in sin - they will be caught in sin themselves! It's going to be a hard year for the legalists - 2009! For many will put their rocks down and join the message!
I thank God for a church where there is vulnerabilty and excess! I'd rather have that any day than works of the flesh!
What defines little faith? People who are more concious of earth than of heaven.
"Seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness (that's His gift!) and ALL these things will be added to you". Your first conciousness should be heaven! This has been preached so manipulatively! "Get more committed!". People aren't really committed - they are just afraid to miss meetings! No! Seek the glorious government of God! The demonic wants to govern the earth in the abscence of heaven's influence!
The only way you can seek a heavenly conciousness is in the Person of the Holy Spirit! You walk and live in the Spirit! And the revelation of My righteousness as a gift to you will act as a magnet to draw blessing to you!
You can store up through hard work but it will all come down. Seek first the conciousness of heaven's realm! The evidence of darkness, evil, sickness, cancer, crippledness, mental problems looks so established and powerful in parts of the earth. But it is fakery! It is illegal illegitimate authority! The only reason that in parts of the earth they look like such bastions of strength is because there is not enough heavenly conductors residing there and pulling heaven's influence into that region of the earth.
The heavens are open but God needs portals. Human believers that seek the Kingdom first are portals.
The existance of darkness does not prove that darkness is so powerful! It just shows that there is not enough light from heaven that has come there. When light is turned on then darkness has to flee at the speed of light! Light is so superior that you bring heaven's light through conductors and it HAS to go! There is no contest between cancer and the light! The contest is in the hearts of believers as to whether they will conduct God's power or not. If people are under the law then they will lose the contest because the Law will tell them they are not worthy enough. But when we stand and realise that we are righteous in Christ and He loves me unconditonally then we know - hey I am a conductor! Heaven can come flashing through me!
What is faith? Faith is a recognition of the total goodness of God - that there is no evil in God - that God is not smashing people or destroying the planet. In heaven every creature has undiluted perfect faith in God's goodness! In the earth - unbelief. They think God is doing these evil things. But those who have faith in the goodness of God become conductors and attract the influence of heaven to come and reorientate their region. "Thy Kingdom come!".
What is my mission? Bring heaven to earth. Yere but should I stay married or single?! Well make up your mind, choose a good one and bring heaven to earth! Should I live in Hong Kong or Perth - make up your mind and go and live in that city or this but bring heaven to earth! Rob I don't know if I am a prophet or a pastor! Well make up your mind and bring heaven to earth! I don't know if I should be a man or a woman! Well make up your mind and bring heaven to earth!! Just check your plumbing out and you will know!
We haven't finished the series on being established in righteousness yet - we will pick it up but we are moving into faith bringing heaven to earth right up until Glory and Grace so that by the time our international delegates come to Glory and Grace there is a congregation here who is conducting heaven's influence into Hong Kong!"
So here is; "Becoming a Lightning Conductor!" preached by Rob on Sunday 15th February 2009.
It's good to be back. We had a great trip but it's always good to be home and it is always wonderful to say when you are preaching in other nations that if you want to see how these truths are embodied in a community then just look to Hong Kong and you will see a group of people who are progressively living this more and more and more. So I do boast about you with integrity! Because some people will say "Okay we will take you up" and they will come and check out what I am saying and they will find a people that are after God's heart and love Him and love one another And who are generous in their giving and in their commitment to China. Many are here not out of convinience or to make money but have come from other nations to be based here to serve the purposes of God. So I do boast in you and you are well worth boasting about! "Glory and Grace" is going to be glorious!
After preaching in Dubai there, there were people from the Middle East who came to me afterwards and said "We have decided today that we are coming to Glory and Grace! We have GOT to learn more about this stuff! We have got to get into this stuff!". Then Patricia King gave us $1000 Canadian dollars which is about 7000 Hong Kong for "Glory and Grace" and she advertised through her email mailing list which goes to thousands of people around the world and encouraged them to come. She said that Joshua Mills and Fini and Isi and Rob and Glenda Rufus will be here and she gave a write up on each of us and said that Joshua is feeling that is well worth people coming because this is going to be a "unusual" time with God! So God is backing these things! Mentally I am challenged about these things - my heart is at rest and our God can sort this but my head gets worried every now and then because I said with my big mouth that if we don't make budget then I will make it up from my pocket. We could have a several hundred dollar defecit. So thank you Patricia!
Open your Bibles to Matthew 6.
Some of you know that we were in Dubai for 6 days. They put me up in this beautiful hotel and it was embarressing! I said this year that God is going to bless us so much that we will get embarressed and feel guilty. They put me up for 10 days in this huge hotel room with a massive lounge and flat tv screen. A big kitchen and entrance hall. Two bathrooms! I got on the phone and said first thing; "Glenda you have GOT to get here!". It was an incredible blessing. We went to some of Bill Johnson's meetings - he was in town and then we had lunch with him which was great. Then we spent four days with some friends I have known for 20 years. We just sat together talking about how we can ally in global partnership to see this gospel get to the multitudes and how we can plant churches.
And there is a whole new way of doing apostolic ministry. There is a whole fresh way that is taking place at the same time that denominations are disintegrating and religious institutions are fading as something of a post-modern thing. Something new is breaking into the earth that is more connected to the book of Acts and the church birthed by Jesus.
And we brain stormed and worked for hours a day and it was very exciting seeing God give new fresh ideas on how to do church. Not just local church but how to work with apostles, prophets, evangelists and teachers that are in the earth now and how to recognise these gifts and how to best position themselves with one another. No more Popes, or denominational heads or one static leader of an organisation! But different leaders with different giftings in different contexts lead with those - so it is dynamic and not static!
Then we spent five days doing a "Power Encounters" conference for pastors and leaders from all over the Middle East. Someone asked if I got a great download from Bill Johnson and it was great being there but the greatest download was from a man called Kia Taylor who I have known for 20 years and Kia before he was a Christian was in the Zulu scouts that fought in the Rhodesian War. His group - 70 of them - went in against 5000 soldiers. That sounds like biblical stuff doesn't it?! They coloured themselves in the colour of the enemy which was cheating and is horrible actually and broke his heart but he wasn't saved. They went in with big machine guns and drove in and they just opened up fire. They killed 3000 men. In the middle of that he was shot through his hips - a fatal wound and was bleeding over the jeep - and he said "God if You are real then save me". And he said with the smell of cordite, blood and death the power of God came on him. People think God can't come on the streets or in an evil temple. They are wrong! His whole unit got out and he was the only one shot. Now he goes back into those areas to love those people and take food and supplies and care for the orphans with great signs, wonders and miracles.
But he stood up with such authority as an evangelist and there was such power on him with such urgency and he kind of rebuked us but in a way you thought; "Hit us again - that really feels good!". With the urgency of heaven pressing in while the multitudes are lost.
And while he was speaking I saw into the realm of the Spirit and I saw multiple mantles - layers of mantles of power on him and God said; "Those are up for grabs today so when Kia invites people forward then you go forward to get a greater evangelist anointing". Because you can catch these anointings!
Kia had said to me before the meeting; "Rob when I am done and invite people to come forward, I want you to come and pray with me because you have got faith". So when he said "Come up" I just went forward and stood in the crowd with my head bowed! He said "No Rob come up!" and I said "No way!" because I had seen those mantles upon him! And I was knocked flying off my feet and was on the ground for at least half an hour to forty five minutes just having heaven's voltage bouncing through me - seeing visions of China and having people coming up and prophesying over me. When I got up I was a changed man! Divine encounters! I went there to preach divine encounters but I was ambushed by God by an ex-Zulu scout! He shot me and some of the flesh died there and more of a heart to see billions of Chinese people saved!
I wept for most of that forty five minutes as God's love touched my heart! You are not going to reach the multitudes out there by trying to love. If you don't know how much God loves you then you will never make the sacrifice. When you know how much He loves YOU then you are willing to give up everything to follow Him. And you can't give up everything because the more you try to give up then the more He gives and He puts you in these expensive hotels and so on and blesses you! He wants to bless you because He loves you! He doesn't want to bless me because of my fasting and how holy I am! No! He wants to bless you because He loves you! Some people fast a lot and look very holy but they have got no blessing! In fact they suck the blessing out of the atmosphere as soon as they walk in and bring death and negativity and gloom!
It was such a joy to be there and have many pastors come to me and say "Rob where did you get this stuff from?! We have never heard this! We have been leaders for years and that is in the Bible! It is so obvious!". I got it from my heavenly Father! Same as Ryan last week! He didn't get that from his earthly dad because I was learning when I was listening to it at 02:00 this morning with jet lag! I was listening to Ryan's message from last Sunday! I was learning and had never seen that! When we come to preaching with a heart of humility we can truly learn - you will never learn anything unless you come and say "God I don't know!". The more I think I know, the more I realise I don't know!
There is so much to learn - all the things we have learnt in the past we have to unlearn and then relearn what God is saying. We have to unlearn the traditions of men that have been in the Church for one and a half thousand years. The Church hasn't been in a place of great revelation for 1, 500 years! It has been in a place of great tradition, great unbelief, of everything that strips signs, wonders, miracles and healings have been operating for that long. You don't step out and learn after 1, 500 years of religious lies and learn how to do signs and wonders just like that. It is a process of humility and constantly learning.
On Friday morning I preached there on how faith operates and how to release the anointing. And at the end they gave me three hours to preach! These people have come from all over the Middle East and arrived dry and burnt out after working in the Middle East!
So I then said "There are people who know how to be lightning conductors" - which is what I want to talk on today. How to be a Lightning Conductor. Heaven's Lightning Conductor of Faith. What is faith? Faith is conducting heaven's influence into the earth. That is all faith is. All faith does is to conduct heaven's influence into the earth.
You either have faith or you don't have faith and if you don't have faith then all you do is have an exchange of an earthly realm. You fellowship with the earthly realm, with the natural realm, with what you can smell, what you can hear, what you can taste, what you can feel and think with your brain. It is mere human encounter with earthly experiences. There is nothing wrong with earthly experiences because God creates the cosmos - but a Christian lives in both worlds simultaneously. We are citizens of heaven, we are seated in heavenly places, we are heavenly people and ambassadors of a heavenly kingdom bringing heaven into the earth.
Because heaven once ruled the earth. In the Garden of Eden the fullness of the kingdom ruled the earth. When undiluted heaven ruled the earth there were no famines, no wars, no sickness, the cosmos was perfect, no hatred or economic downturns - perfection! That is heaven and earth co labouring. Earth's condition was made the same as Heaven's condition. Earth was made in the image of heaven! You were created in the image of God and earth was created in the image of heaven and when Adam committed high treason against God, then heaven left and Satan became the Governor of this earth, he became the ruler of this world the Bible says. He is the one causing the wars and the storms.
How many storms did Jesus look at coming at Him or at a town or a country and say; "Praise God for the storm - it will bless that city with destruction and evil and kill people and it will teach people to be more godly and they are going to repent!". No! How many storms did Jesus bless? Not one! To every storm He said; "Peace be still! Stop it!". It is such nonsense - He was causing no storms. The insurance companies talk about "An act of God" - what a lie against our Father in heaven! Demonic storms!
To train God's people how not to just be earthly and go about their lives like practical atheists trying to sort out the problems on natural counselling and earthly wisdom - you may be born again and live like an atheist. But Christians - sons of God - are those that conduct heaven's influence into the earth. One day the Bible promises that at the end of this age "the kingdoms of this earth will become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ". Every nation will give up their President and King and Jesus will be once again the Governor of all nations and of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end! For the government will be on His shoulders! The Prince of peace!
That will be at the end of the age - not the end of earth! The end of the age of evil governing the earth! In the meantime God says we are to occupy and advance the kingdom and bring as much of heaven's influence into the earth as we can. There is no sickness in heaven! When you bring heaven's influence into the earth then sickness goes away! When you come into a radiation zone called "Heaven on Earth" then it manifests healing!
The trouble is that most Christians don't know a thing about what I have just said. They don't know how to conduct and don't have the conciousness to conduct or release the anointing. Their unbelief is binding and hindering and putting the breaks on heaven coming in!
Because it is not a matter of getting the heavens open. Jesus did that at the Cross! The problem is closed religious heads.
So as you preach the Word, heads get renewed to how you think and then changes the way to how heaven influences us and if you have got 70% of the people in the room knowing how to conduct heaven in it then you have got a 7/10 power. But most congregations - the best that you can get from most congregations is about 20% in those congregations who know how to conduct heaven into the meeting. The power is therefore operating at a 2/10. You can get the odd deaf ear opened but you aren't going to get cripples jumping out of chairs or mighty works. That is the Nazareth syndrome!
Jesus went to His home town and Mark 5 says that He could there do no mighty works. I love quoting that because it just smacks into people's heads! It can't be Jesus - surely He could do anything!? Well go read Mark 5. It says He COULD there do no mighty works! Apart from a few minor ailments and the next verse says that He marvelled at their unbelief. I love that!
Because I have been in some places where it was so easy to do miracles and I have succeeded better than Jesus did in Nazareth!
Do you think that is arrogant? No it's not! Listen to my point! I have been in some places where I got better results than Jesus did at Nazareth! Think about it! I went to a place where70% of the sick were healed in that meeting. But those leaders had 20 years of grace teaching under Terry Virgo. So their hearts weren't under law - the law is not based on faith - they weren't under condemnation ("I am not worthy") and they became conductors. When you know grace you can say "Father I don't care how much I messed up - I am the righteousness of God in Christ and therefore I am a conductor! I have a conciousness of certainity of what I am in Christ!". So Jesus didn't get 70%! I got mighty works and miracles - people came out of wheelchairs! Much more than Jesus got in Nazareth! What is that saying? That Jesus was subject to the same limitations as you and I are!
He couldn't just get miracles wherever He went and it didn't matter how desperate people were! "Look my brother or my sister is going to die if they don't get healed of this cancer". Sorry I can't do here any mighty works. There are not enough heavenly conductors - this crowd is full of bitterness, offended, religious, self-righteous and arrogant! And until you kill all those people you won't get any results! So I told the people in Hong Kong that I am not looking for a big congregation! I am preaching to offend the religious! They won't stay long and it breaks my heart! But it is worth the price because I want a congregation one day that are 100% of the members are all conductors! Then we will get 100% of miracles!
Can you see how easy this thing is? You say "Well Rob what happens if a lot of visitors come who don't know about this?". If we get 100% of conductors then it doesn't matter how many visitors come in with unbelief they will get healed whether they want to or not because there is enough divine radiation within the zone! Even if they want to be depressed and like being depressed then they will get joyfully laughing and can't stay depressed in a divine radiation zone! But if you only have 5% of the people as divine conductors then you have got the Nazareth syndrome there and Jesus Himself could be in the meeting and He can't do mighty works.
So there were dozens of people needing to be healed in this meeting on Friday morning. And I said; "Okay I am going to call all the conductors up". Not the people who WANT to be conductors - although that is a noble thing. "All of you who KNOW and you just hear the word "anointing" and something gets triggered inside them! They just get triggered by words like the anointing, the glory realm, heavens!". You see goosebumps starting and it is not just emotion! It is tangible heavenly voltage - electricity from heaven!
So about 100 people came out from a pretty big crowd - the place was packed and there were people everywhere up the aisles. I released the anointing over them and then I got the international team to come and lay hands. About half of them were flat out on the floor bouncing around and unconcious and I said "Pick them up and carry them back into the crowd and position them all over the crowd". It was unusual stuff! You don't learn this stuff in Bible school but they don't get miracles either!
They got among the crowd and I said "Okay we have got these conductors all over the meeting pulling heaven into the meeting. NOW we are going to pray for the sick". I called Kia Taylor up and I said "We are not going to pray for the sick of course - we are going to SPEAK to the sickness and command it to go". So I said to him; "You go and pray" and I got revelations of blood diseases. We got 40 people INSTANTLY able to verify that change had taken place in their body. Others had to go to the doctors and get it verifed because they won't know until it is checked. 40 people instantly said yes I have been healed!
After that meeting Chris and Merrill took me out to lunch in a beautiful resturant and it was a South African resturant selling SA meat in the Middle East! So we came to try and pay and the waiter said no you can't pay - that table over there have paid for you! And I thought this is definately heaven on earth - blessings that are an embarressment! Do it more Lord! So we walked over to the table and there were a whole bunch of leaders who had come to the conference and said they just wanted to bless us. One lady said "Look at my shoulder! I couldn't lift it up and now it is healed!". And someone else had a crippled ankle! And I just thought; "This is the normal Christian life - how every Christian should walk because faith is conducting heaven's influence into the earth!".
You don't have to have faith to get someone healed. You don't have to have faith to get a blind eye opened. I don't have faith to get a blind eye healed - yet God has used me to heal blind eyes over the years. I don't have faith to heal the blind! But what I have faith for is to release heaven's influence. Heaven has got the faith to heal blind eyes!
If you look at someone's blind eye then your mind will take over and you will say "Logically and medically this can't happen!". So don't worry about having faith! I am telling you the secrets of the trade here! If you look at a cripple don't try and drum up the faith! All you will do is psych your non-supernatural soul up.
Your spirit is supernatural and is the riverbed of the Holy Spirit's power.
You will psych up only that which is natural and earthly and it is pathetic! The natural soul can't touch heaven but your spirit can! Don't be passive either!
It is a conciousness of certainity that doesn't come by clever instructions but comes by being exposed to the message of grace.
Too many pastors teach the message of grace and they sit there and analyse and think "Okay what does this mean?". They haven't heard it properly! "Okay Rob how do we then discipline people who are immoral in the church?". Shut up! There is a place for disciplining predators who are immoral or who are stealing by guilt manipulation or seducing people into bed who are not their husbands or wives. There is a place for discipline. If your first thought when you hear the message of grace is but how do I discipline sin then you are still under such bondage - forget about what you do and just forget about the practical outworkings and let the message renew your soul and let it renew the way you think and you will then instinctively know how to discipline. You will do it redemptively and you will do it protectively and you will do it to keep them secure and you will protect a whole church while you are dealing with a few predators.
So the whole church is safe but you have been slapping people so hard as the pastor and you think you are a moral policeman and you have got to keep the church from sinning! That is not your job! It is the job of the Holy Spirit who can move out on the congregation and even the Holy Spirit can't stop everyone from sinning! Because everyone in the church still sins! If you bring the law back on God's people then that sinning goes out of control and gossip, envy will grow alongside the sexual predators!
So don't worry about it! Just let the message work into you! "How do I pray for someone in a wheelchair?". Don't worry about it!
Did you get Matthew 6? Let's read this. (v9-10); "Your Kingdom come" - Your government, Your rule, Your influence. "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". That is very clear what the will of God is! His will is that as things are in heaven so they should be done on earth! That is why Jesus came to mediate between heaven and earth and bring heaven into the earth. How do you do that? (6:28). You don't worry about what is lacking in the earth because heaven has got resources that supply all your needs. Out of the riches of His glory He meets all your needs - not according to your needs but according to His riches in the glory realm! The heavenly concious people are very earthly good!
"Oh he is so heavenly minded he is of no earthly good". No he was just religious and legalistic bigot. The more heavenly minded you are the more earthly good you are. Those who bring heaven's influence will get creative ideas for new inventions and creative scientific ideas that didn't come from logic but from the creativity of heaven! Heaven knows every answer to earth's problems! What is unbelief? Unbelief is a conciousness that attempts to govern the earth without heaven's influence. So unbelief actively RESISTS the power of God. Because the power of God brings heaven in. Unbelief is partnership with Satan not wanting heavens influence into the world. Why doesn't he want heaven's influence in the earth? Because he was Lucifier, the covering cherub in heaven and iniquity and selfish ambition was found in his heart and he wanted to rule over God.
Selfish ambition is the origin of unbelief - that is where unbelief comes from. It is all about me. Satan found selfish ambition (which James 3 calls "earthly wisdom". There is a wisdom from heaven and a wisdom from earth. James says where there is selfish ambition, there you will find every kind of evil for earthly wisdom is both sensual and devilish). Earthly reasoning outside of heaven's influence is demonic. It is the origin of unbelief.
Satan wanted to exalt himself over the throneof God. God threw Satan out and he came to the earth and tried to get control without authority. God had given Adam subduing, dominion authority over the earth. So he went to Eve and lied to her and then she came to Adam and he submitted. We cannot be hard on Eve - God put woman in that garden for a very important reason. Adam lost anything then she would help him find! If he needed a doctors appointment, who would tell him to go?! Who was he going to blame after he fell!? Woman fell but God chose woman's womb to give birth to last Adam - Jesus. Women are not more guilty than man - they fell together. Satan made Adam and Even religious and when he deceived them to fall he was able to steal the dominion that God gave them over the earth. So 2 Corinthians 4:4 says that Satan is the god of this world. He had temporarily influence over this earth.
How did the Father remedy this problem? He created this earth to be the image of heaven and put man to have dominion over everything that walks on this planet. Man could speak and things would come into order. Man was a son of God - his words had creative power! Adam was given dominion power so that he could speak and heaven's influence would keep and maintain the garden! There was no sickness, no thorns. After the Fall sweating and curse began. Adam was the Governor of the earth out of his connection to God and Satan stole that. Once Satan stole that, now the earth is under Satan.
What does God do? He could have destroyed the planet and started again! But He wasn't taken by surprise - He knew this was going to happen! How did He remedy it? He remedied it by another Adam who did not get kicked out of heaven for selfish ambition. He was already equal to God but didn't hold onto it as something to be grasped but gave it up and was willing to humble himself and become a man! He became a humble servant not kicked out of heaven but giving up equality voluntarily and coming to elevate every man to the status that first Adam had! And to reintroduce the beauty of heaven's influence on earth!
After Jesus was raised from the dead He could say (because He couldn't say it before) "All authority in heaven and on earth is given to Me - now go in My Name and My authority and influence the entire earth with heaven's influence". Christian religion isn't heaven's influence! Did Jesus say all authority has been given as God or a Man? God ALWAYS had all authority! He said it as a man! As a man He reinherited the authority He gave up as God and now He reinherited it as a man on your behalf so Paul can write to Timothy and say "The MAN Christ Jesus!".
Conductors are not mediators! That is the weird psychic mediums! We are not listening to demonic familiar spirits! We are not mediums! There is only one Mediator - the Man Christ Jesus! As conductors of heavens influence we are conducting what our Mediator has mediated for us! All authority in heaven and on earth to disciple nations!
So many Christians settle for nice religion and a cup of tea and lifting a little pinky and being religious! We were called to change the shape of history and influence the world! Influence politics and education! Influence the way people in sick beds lie!
This year we are going to 7/10 in the power! We have been 2/10 but this year we are going to 7/10! And next year we are going to 10/10!
You can feel it! It is in the atmosphere! The power of God won't get bigger because how do you get bigger than infinite!? It will only come when we get a revelation of the height, breadth, length and width of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that is revealed by the Spirit and those that grasp that which was completed at the Cross - when we grasp that not that which comes by knowledge but by revelation by the Spirit then you will be filled beyond measure of all the fullness of God and then God is able to able to do exceedingly above beyond what we ask or think according to the power at work in us! What is that power within us? The power of all the fullness of God - 10/10 - that is which gets every cripple healed, cancer healed, deaf ears opened! He needs congregation all over Hong Kong where everyone in that church are heavenly lightning conductors!
That is what God needs and God wants! We will labour with God and people can spit on us but we will labour with God! The unsaved are my friends! The unsaved pagans are my friends and God's friends! The prostitutes, the homosexuals, the pagans, the Muslims - they are my friends and God's friends! The religious people? They will fight this message but those who are desperate just want relief from their pain and relief from their suffering. They don't want church! They don't want religion! They want miracles! They want God and heaven! They want to go to heaven!
70% of Australians don't go to church that includes the whole bunch! Yet if you speak to the average Australian they want to go to heaven! They just don't want to go to church! And I don't blame them! Church is dangerous! They will gossip about you and judge you and criticise you behind your back!
Legalists are always trying to catch grace people in sin. If they catch you sinning then they will say "It's the message!". The devil says to me; "You better walk so holy man - if you fall the legalists will say; "Yes! Got him!". That' not why I want to walk so holy! Because of the legalists! I want to walk holy because I love Him and He loves me! If I make a mistake and they catch me then I will feel safe in His arms! And I don't care if they catch me!
The legalists caught the woman in adultery and yet they left the man! That's bigoted for a start! They got her in front of Jesus and while they were pointing at her, Jesus wrote in the sand with all their sins.
The legalists who try and catch people in sin - they will be caught in sin themselves! It's going to be a hard year for the legalists - 2009! For many will put their rocks down and join the message!
I thank God for a church where there is vulnerabilty and excess! I'd rather have that any day than works of the flesh!
What defines little faith? People who are more concious of earth than of heaven.
"Seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness (that's His gift!) and ALL these things will be added to you". Your first conciousness should be heaven! This has been preached so manipulatively! "Get more committed!". People aren't really committed - they are just afraid to miss meetings! No! Seek the glorious government of God! The demonic wants to govern the earth in the abscence of heaven's influence!
The only way you can seek a heavenly conciousness is in the Person of the Holy Spirit! You walk and live in the Spirit! And the revelation of My righteousness as a gift to you will act as a magnet to draw blessing to you!
You can store up through hard work but it will all come down. Seek first the conciousness of heaven's realm! The evidence of darkness, evil, sickness, cancer, crippledness, mental problems looks so established and powerful in parts of the earth. But it is fakery! It is illegal illegitimate authority! The only reason that in parts of the earth they look like such bastions of strength is because there is not enough heavenly conductors residing there and pulling heaven's influence into that region of the earth.
The heavens are open but God needs portals. Human believers that seek the Kingdom first are portals.
The existance of darkness does not prove that darkness is so powerful! It just shows that there is not enough light from heaven that has come there. When light is turned on then darkness has to flee at the speed of light! Light is so superior that you bring heaven's light through conductors and it HAS to go! There is no contest between cancer and the light! The contest is in the hearts of believers as to whether they will conduct God's power or not. If people are under the law then they will lose the contest because the Law will tell them they are not worthy enough. But when we stand and realise that we are righteous in Christ and He loves me unconditonally then we know - hey I am a conductor! Heaven can come flashing through me!
What is faith? Faith is a recognition of the total goodness of God - that there is no evil in God - that God is not smashing people or destroying the planet. In heaven every creature has undiluted perfect faith in God's goodness! In the earth - unbelief. They think God is doing these evil things. But those who have faith in the goodness of God become conductors and attract the influence of heaven to come and reorientate their region. "Thy Kingdom come!".
What is my mission? Bring heaven to earth. Yere but should I stay married or single?! Well make up your mind, choose a good one and bring heaven to earth! Should I live in Hong Kong or Perth - make up your mind and go and live in that city or this but bring heaven to earth! Rob I don't know if I am a prophet or a pastor! Well make up your mind and bring heaven to earth! I don't know if I should be a man or a woman! Well make up your mind and bring heaven to earth!! Just check your plumbing out and you will know!
We haven't finished the series on being established in righteousness yet - we will pick it up but we are moving into faith bringing heaven to earth right up until Glory and Grace so that by the time our international delegates come to Glory and Grace there is a congregation here who is conducting heaven's influence into Hong Kong!"
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
Foundation Stone Teaching on Righteousness!!
After a few months of quiet on the "Rob Rufus - Grace and Glory Blog" - it's back to more and more glorious business as usual! I've just finished transcribing Rob's five part series on "Established in the Gift of Righteousness" that he begun in January 2009 and I cannot recommend it enough. It certainly has finally made me "see the light" personally into the glories of the promises of the Word of God and is reaping fruit in my life that I couldn't have dreamed of. For a year that started off so badly with work and everything, I am amazed at how quickly God can turn a situation around!
Here they are;
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 1
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 2 - ("How to Increase in the Blessing")
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 3 - ("The Law is Not Based on Faith")
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 4 - ("How to Fly Your Life by the Instruments of Grace")
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 5 - ("Living Free from Fear of Judgement")
I also wrote out the transcript of a glorious sermon last year while I was on holiday in Lanzarote that I was struggling to get typed out. Last night I finished it as well and it complements this teaching so well.
Here it is;
"Sonship vs Christianity".
I am running out of adjectives to describe the preaching that is coming out from City Church International in Hong Kong! But surely the proof of good preaching is in the fruit it bears. Intellectual, academic preaching is all well and good - but I sat under it for the last 30 years of my life and found myself helplessly struggling with issues. I stand as a personal testimony that far from this preaching encouraging antinominanism - this preaching on the gift of righteousness is actually increasing love and affection for the Lord as well as opening my eyes to see the utter inadequacy of law to accomplish any holiness in life.
Here they are;
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 1
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 2 - ("How to Increase in the Blessing")
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 3 - ("The Law is Not Based on Faith")
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 4 - ("How to Fly Your Life by the Instruments of Grace")
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 5 - ("Living Free from Fear of Judgement")
I also wrote out the transcript of a glorious sermon last year while I was on holiday in Lanzarote that I was struggling to get typed out. Last night I finished it as well and it complements this teaching so well.
Here it is;
"Sonship vs Christianity".
I am running out of adjectives to describe the preaching that is coming out from City Church International in Hong Kong! But surely the proof of good preaching is in the fruit it bears. Intellectual, academic preaching is all well and good - but I sat under it for the last 30 years of my life and found myself helplessly struggling with issues. I stand as a personal testimony that far from this preaching encouraging antinominanism - this preaching on the gift of righteousness is actually increasing love and affection for the Lord as well as opening my eyes to see the utter inadequacy of law to accomplish any holiness in life.
"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.
"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.
Established in Righteousness - Part 2
This is the second in the series "Established in Righteousness" preached by Rob Rufus at City Church International in Hong Kong. The sub-title is:
"How to Increase in the Blessing".
"We are in a series - number 2 - of being established in the gift of righteousness. I want to talk this morning on how to increase in the blessings of God. I really believe God intended for us to live incredibly joyful lives! That doesn't mean He guarantees that in this world we won't have some serious challenges - in fact Jesus promises us that - so you should put it on your fridge as one of the promises! "Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all". Jesus said in this world we will suffer tribulation but be of good cheer - I have overcome the world.
(1 John 5:4) says; "This is the victory that overcomes the world - even our faith". So faith is important!
There is an attitude I believe we should have that no matter what the challenges - I can win every time. There is not one battle I need to lose because we have unfair advantages! I am convinced that many, many Christians struggle with living happy because secretly they don't like themselves. Now this is off the point (I want to talk about blessing and how to increase in the blessing) but I feel like God is stirring these things up in my heart this morning! These things come to mind!
Some years ago living in Oz and I had something in my life that I didn't like. I had something in my life and I really began to believe that my intensity and my passion must really look weird to people and so I didn't like that about myself so I took 3 days off and told Glenda I was going to a place outside Adelaide and I was going to pray for 3 days. I didn't tell her what I was going to pray for - she thought I was going to pray for revival but I was actually going to pray that God would deliver me from my intensity and passion. I spent 3 days and 1 day I fasted and went without food and tried to manipulate God to deliver me from me!
Not knowing He had wired me this way - because in His original design and intension - I would fit into the purpose I had to fulfill. Not everyone has to be intense! I repented and cried out; "God take this intensity away! It must be so exhausting for people to put up with as a pastor!". At the end of 3 days I drove back up to Adelaide in the Friday afternoon and went straight to a prayer meeting at Coastlands Church. As I walked in there was a prophet there who didn't know me at this stage. He has since come to "Glory and Grace" - but at that stage he didn't know me well and says;
"Rob - the Lord says to you that He loves you and He doesn't want you to apologise for your intensity".
I am quoting it exactly! So I began to realise - enjoy yourself! Sometimes no one is going to do it for you! Have you ever gone through a time when no-one is celebrating you? Hong Kong is not self-friendly. Hong Kong will make you feel like you should crawl on the ground like a worm in the dirt and you shouldn't say; "I'm on the bottom - but the bottom is on me". That is the spirit that is operating in this place! It will suck your self-image and inner sense of security and your sense of well-being celebrating; "I am special and precious in the Father's eyes" because we have listened to so many lies!
When we perceive someone as important - if they reject us then we assume that is because there is something in us that is perhaps not likeable! A parent, a school teacher, a pastor, a boyfriend or girlfriend - hopefully not a husband or wife! But when someone important to us rejects us - the devil begins to make us believe that there is something about you that is not likeable because if someone important doesn't like you then you are not likeable and how, therefore can you like yourself?
Jesus was the most wonderful and glorious Person that walked the earth and many rejected Him and He stayed completely secure in His Father's love.
Often when people reject you it is because there is some fear on the inside of them and has got very little to do with you.
We listen to the devil's lies too often. I have got something very important to preach but I want to get this out the way because if you don't like yourself then stuff will just go over your head and you get happy for a little while in the worship and then go out and spend 2 or 3 hours out there and you are with yourself again. That's why in Hong Kong people love noise, they will make radios play, noise in their ears when they walk in the country park.
They don't want to think of the realities of who they are because they don't like themselves so they don't want to meet with themselves. Someone who likes themself enjoys absolute silence and hours on their own with God because they enjoy their own company. If you don't have places of silence and peace and rest and celebrating who you are and letting the Father love and Jesus love you and the Holy Spirit put His arms around you and affirm you and endorse you and approve you then your identity is in other people's approval and that makes you vulnerable to compromise your call in God, compromise your commission in God - all to get people to like you.
Jesus couldn't get everyone to like Him because He was on a mission to do what His Father called Him to do. He wouldn't let Peter distract Him when Peter tried to stop Him going to the Cross, He said; "Get behind Me Satan!". He had a mission and if people didn't like Him, He would still stay on focus with it. Many Christians today sell out and compromise because they want people to like them. That is Satan's biggest tool and weapon against you. Every morning the devil accuses the brethren. He has got a list of all your faults. Now often when he points them out he is telling the truth in a way - but he is lying!
Because you can tell the truth in a way that is a lie. He is pointing out your faults - you've got a mess in this area of your life - relational problems in your marriage, financial problems, sick problems, sin problems, character issues and he will point them out every day! If you don't like yourself you will suck all that stuff in and believe the lies. You need to talk back to the devil!
And say; "Mr Devil - you think I've got problems? I recognise I have got a few messes here but let me tell you - you've got serious problems. I will tell you what the Bible promises. Jesus said at the Cross that you are condemned. The Bible promises you are heading for the bottomless pit. Now the Bible promises ME that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!". Then you will hear the tone in his voice change and he will sulk. I have heard the devil sulk!
And he will say; "Okay yere - but you've got still messes in your life!". You can then say; "Oh thank you so much Mr Devil for reminding me of how good God is because even with these messes in my life God loves me and sees me as righteous ALL the TIME!".
Why does the Bible invite us to come and drink the new wine? Maybe God is just cruel! I don't know - I've never seen people drink and drink and drink and stay sober, morbid, unhappy and critical and grumpy! People drink to get rid of their sorrow! Now the Bible invites us over and over again in many passages to come and drink of the new wine. The reason is because it tastes so good?! It makes you happy?! And not only does it make you forget your problems - trust me this is true whether you believe this or not - not only do you get drunk in the new wine and forget your problems but your problems start going away!
All because of the power of the new wine!
Last week we did Isaiah 53 and 54 and we saw the incredible oath that God swore regarding the New Covenant - that He will never be angry again and never withdraw His love and never withdraw His peace and establish you in righteousness and no weapon formed against you will prosper - every accusing tongue will fail because your heritage is of the Lord and your righteousness is of Me says God!
In Isaiah 55 God invites us as the New Covenant people to come and drink the new wine! He is basically saying in that passage that drinks are on the house!
You know what most Christians do?! Say that it's too early to drink! It's only 11:00! Well God will will say to you from Acts 2 - they had been drinking from who-knows-when but they were drunk at 09:00 because when they came out of the Upper Room and people said; "These people are drunk with new wine!". Peter said; "They are not drunk as you suppose but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel - in the last days I will pour out My Spirit".
Please don't tell me that the Holy Spirit has been poured out in a place where you have got conservative, cautious, self-concious, introspective, analytical, critical people! DRUNK PEOPLE ARE HAPPY! DRUNK PEOPLE ARE FRIENDLY! DRUNK PEOPLE ARE UNINHIBITED! DRUNK PEOPLE ARE CRAZY! It's not too early - it's too late! It is a SHOCK that we are still sober!
I was drunk at 04:00 this morning - and at 05:00 I was so drunk in the Holy Spirit and then I came to church and sobered up! Because I had to get with Christians - no just joking! Why is it acceptable to sulk and be grumpy in church? Why?! "Well we've got so many problems". Why did you stop drinking?! Have you ever seen a drunk who is aware of their problems? They drank because they had problems and now they can't remember their problems and their happy! The problems don't go away until they sober up and then the problems are stil there. But for you and me - we are meant to stay drunk and happy and joyful in the Holy Spirit!
How do you drink Rob? Well you can't think and drink at the same time! I double-dog dare you today instead of thinking to stay drinking in the Holy Spirit. Do your thinking later! Reason with God according to the revelations you receive today!
So I want to talk about increasing in the blessing. How many want to receive more blessing in their lives? Do you know that there are people who have a problem with Christians getting blessed? It's like; "Ah there they go again - running after the blessing". Who said anything about running after the blessing?! God said that in 2009 the blessing will run after you! The Bible says that blessing will come on you and overtake you! "There's too much blessing - we've got to try and get away!". No it will keep coming and overtaking you! There is a real potential to live like that this year! But Rob - isn't the blessing bad? No the curse is bad!
Let me put it very simply. BLESSING = GOOD. CURSE = BAD!
I believe God wants to bless us so much in 2009 that it will actually embarress some of us! If you ask yourself why you are so embarressed - it is because you are thinking that; "I don't deserve this!".
Then God will show you more and more grace - that it has got nothing to do with us deserving it and everything to do wth us believing that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!
God said to me this week; "Go and study all the famines in the Bible and every famine - those people that had faith in the goodness of God got more and more wealthy during the times of economic downturn than those who did not have a covenant or faith in God". Isaac saved during a famine (Genesis 6) and in that year he had a hundred-fold and multiplied his wealth!
The Hebrew word for "blessing" is the word "favour of God" which actually means "to be envied"!
The Philistines envied Isaac because he got so wealth in a time when others were going down and he was going up in financial abundance. That is because he was the seed of Abraham and Galatians 3:29 says; "If you are in Christ then you are the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise". The blessings are meant to come on us and overtake us! We are not called to run after blessings! I have lived with Glenda for 34 years as my wife and she knows that I have never run after blessing or pursued blessing - I pursue Jesus and the reality of the New Covenant.
But in the revelation of who Jesus is and the revelation of who I am in Christ - when you get established greater and greater in the revelation that you are the righteousness of God then the blessings start coming on you and overtaking you!
God says for 2009 that this will make every other year look like POVERTY compared to this year! This is an amazing year and He says I want to bless City Church International people so much that the fear of God will come on the city - the fear of God will come on nations when they hear how God is blessing us! This is scary stuff to say because if I am wrong then it looks like my credibility is going down the line. But I am telling you - I felt God say this and this fear of God is not a "run away and hide" sort of fear. It is a reverential awe and wonder at how awesome is this God - wow! Look at the blessing on that church! We want that! Not one person without a job! Everyone getting promotion - everyone getting double portion! Everyone like themselves! Everyone full of joy - everyone in blessing on their marriages and blessing on their children! Blessing on their finances!
Blessing is the power to succeed - it is the empowerment to succeed!
Go to John 1 and if you haven't got there by now then don't try. Let's look at the revelation of God's Word. I believe that theology brings reformation to a way that we think - good theology positions us to receive a constant sustainable flow of blessing. You can come to a meeting and someone can say exciting things but without any good theology in it - they can preach from the Readers Digest and preach from the latest movies and do it so enthusiastically but without clear biblical theology - there will be no sustained blessing.
When you are sitting in a service and the Word of God is coming - 10, 20, 30 minutes - you are sitting there with something renewing your thinking and positioning you to see an increase of the blessing. It isn't a guru coming and laying his hands on your head and abracadabra - go and be blessed! That is not how it works in the Kingdom! You will get a blessing that is temporary and you will walk out but your thinking will still be stinking thinking.
You need to change the way you think - start liking yourself and start believing you are no longer under that Old Covenant - you have come over into a superior better covenant with a superior mediator Jesus Christ!
(John 1:16 and 17); "One blessing after another". Isn't that amazing that the law was given but grace CAME? The law was given - that's impersonal - it is a powerless moral structure. It tells you what to do but doesn't help you do it. It judges you, it curses you and makes you concious of sin and makes you hate yourself. That's why religious people hate themselves even more than an atheist does. Even though an atheist believes he is a product of impersonal time - impersonal chance - impersonal matter - all organising itself in an impersonal way that somehow became a personal complexity - thus contradicting the 2nd law of thermodynamics. The atheist believes that he came out of a swamp gas and is the product of a frog but still has more value in that existential insanity than a Christian who does not understand grace but is under law.
The law was given but grace came in a Person. So many are living in the absolute shallows of grace - they have hardly got their little toe wet and they are still too worried that they are being too indulgent. "One blessing after another" - ah no not another one! Yere another one and another one! The active word there is "received". You lay hands on some Christians and they don't know how to receive the anointing! They starting shouting; "Yere! Amen!". Just shut up and receive! You can't transmit and receive at the same time! Receive! That is the operative word. They received blessings - one after another.
We need to develop in 2009 a receptive attitude - an attitude of receptivity to the goodness and blessings of God. Let's get out of this thing - well I've got enough now! My job pays for my rent, food and travel. That is like living in slavery! The land of "just enough"! God is El-Shaddi - the God who is "more than enough"! Blessing after blessing after blessing! God wants to bless us so that the nations will fear Him!
God wants to release millions of dollars into this church so we will invade the nations and so we will bless! Money says to land; "I can buy you!". Money says to buildings; "I can buy you!". Money says to missionaries; "I can pay you". Money says to the poor; "I can feed you". Money says to the wealthy that God is not against money - He is against the love of money. I don't love money - I love Jesus! I tell you people in this hour who are not greedy are going to be entrusted with the stewardship of great wealth because we will not consume it upon ourselves but release finances to feed the poor and help as the economic downturn gets worse - we are just going to get better!
God will bless your job and bless you with FAR MORE than just to pay your rent! We are not going to finance the gospel in these last days just by salary! Salary will not be enough! It's got to be more! You will find money just coming in - all your richest uncles and aunties are going to die!
Having a receptive attitude means to be living with a confident expectation of good coming into your life. Every day I have got to discipline my mind to stop the negativity, the foreboding, the sense of dread, the sense of this could happen or that could happen, or that loved one could die, or this may happen. This could happen to my church or that could happen to me. I have got to live with a spirit of receptivity - a confident expectation of God that I have come into fulness of grace and from that fulness of grace I am receiving one blessing after another!
Well how do we go into the increased blessing? "Well Rob I have got the answer for that - we have to pursue righteousness. We have to pursue being more righteous. And if we can reach a certain level of obedience and holiness and righteousness then God will bless us!". (*City Church begins booing and cat-calling at this point and shouting "No!"*). You are too well taught! Who is your pastor in this place!? His Name is Jesus and the Spirit of God! If you pursue trying to be more righteous - if you pursue righteousness then that is stupid! The way to get more blessing is contrary to this world's system of economics. It is ridiculous!
The way to get more blessed is to do the opposite - you do not pursue righteousness. You simply stop trying and you submit to God's gift of righteousness and get established in that revelation.
If you try and pursue being righteous enough to get the blessing then every time you hear a promise that it is God's will to bless you then your whole thinking will go something like this - alright I had better get right with God to get that blessing. You know how your mind works if you monitor it! I hope you are monitoring it because if you don't monitor your thinking then you are passive and the devil loves you. He can lay all his lies on a passive mind! I tell you - I have been into this revelation of grace for some years now and there are still vulnerable moments when I hear a great promise of God of a blessing and think; "Well I had just better get right with God!" in some area of my life otherwise I am disqualified!
THAT is pursuing your righteousness and not submitting to His gift of righteousness.
The Bible says in Proverbs 10:6; "Blessings crown the head of the righteous!". In many places where you say that people look at their life if there is financial debt or relational problems or sickness issues in their life that are re-occuring - the first thing that someone who is not established in the gift of New Covenant righteousness thinks is - look at all the problems in my life - obviously I am not righteous enough so God can't crown my head with the blessing because He only does that for the righteous and look at the problems in my life so obviously I am not righteous enough!
No, my friend, if you are in Christ then you can't improve on the righteousness you have got because it is absolute, infinite and perfect righteousness - it is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! The reason those problems are going on is not because you are not righteous enough in Christ - it is because you are still pursuing your righteousness and trying to be right with God by your behaviour and by your good works!
It is a big step to make this move out from the boat of religion and walk on the waters of grace and start seeing blessing after blessing flowing in your life. Go to Romans chapter 9.
I woke up yesterday morning and heard the audible voice of God say to me; "Rob - are you pursuing righteousness or submitting to My gift of righteousness?". I said; "Well Lord I am not pursuing righteousness!". He said; "Son you still are in some areas". I was shocked!
I thought hey - I am the faith and grace preacher! He said;
"No there are still areas in your life and in your thinking where you still think I am not good enough for that or not good enough for this". So I repented! He said; "Now you ask My people at City Church International". So I am going to obey God. City Church International - are you still pursuing righteousness? Or are you submitting to God's gift of righteousness?
(Romans 9:30); "What then shall we say? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it - a righteousness that is by faith. But Israel who pursued a law of righteousness have not obtained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as it were by works - they stumbled over the stumbling stone". Then chapter 10:3; "Since they did not know that the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own - they did not submit to God's righteousness". Think about this.
Last week we read from Isaiah 54:14 - that God said I will establish you in righteousness and you will have nothing to fear - terror will not come near you, tyranny won't come near you - anyone that attacks you will surrender to you and no weapon formed against you can prevail - you will be established in righteousness! Now you know He was not talking about your being established in our righteousness but established in Isaiah 53 - the death of Jesus on the Cross in His righteousness. Israel tried to establish themselves in their righteousness by keeping the law. (v4); Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes!
Now go back to (v33) because we didn't read that. "As it is written; 'See I lay in Zion, a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame". What is the Spirit of God talking about there? What is this stumbling stone? He is Jesus! This stumbling stone is Jesus!
There are religious people zealous and pursuing their own self-righteousness and trying to be good enough to get the blessing and position themselves to be right with God so God can bless them and they are so busy doing this that they are stumbling over the revelation of grace and are constantly falling but it says here - those who trust in the Lord will never be put to shame!
What is this issue of shame? In religious communities if someone had to get up and say; "I am the righteousness of God" - the religious community would make them feel shamed. The religious community would say; "Blasphemy!" and tear their clothes! Blasphemy?! How DARE you say that?! That is the stone the religious world stumbles over and so when people feel that pressure, they say; "Oh no - you are right - I am not the righteousness of God". And they stumble over that stone and go after trying to improve themselves and become better in order to get the blessing.
Paul the apostle was the Pharisee of Pharisees, he was driven to get righteousness by law but he encountered Jesus Christ in a supernatural way and from that day he was established in the revelation of righteousness so from that day he could say; "I am trusting in the Lord - I am not ashamed to say in front of all my Jewish countrymen - I was a Rabbi of Rabbis, a Pharisee of Pharisees, everything that Israel would want in a man - born of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised on the eighth day - according to legalistic righteousness - I am faultless'. He says; "I count all of that dung and all rubbish that I may be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own that is by the law but a righteousness that is by faith in Jesus Christ that I may know Him" (Romans 1:16).
If you are struggling to rest and submit to God's gift of righteousness - if the struggle comes on your mind now and again - "How can God bless me when I know I've got something wrong in my life?" - just think of Paul and the transition he had to make from Pharisee of Pharisees - king of all kings regarding legalism - what happened to him that he could come to the place where he could say; "I am not ashamed" of this gospel! That is a radical transition that gives everyone hope in this place. (Romans 1:16-17); "Salvation" means "soterio" and that doesn't mean going to heaven. It includes that but it really means; "peace, protection, prosperity".
What do we live by faith in? We live by faith in the fact that we are the righteousness of God - that this is a righteousness that is from God revealed - not from man or revealed by the keeping of the law. It is a righteousness from God revealed in the Gospel and people who believe this righteousness - that they are the righteousness of God and don't stumble over the stumbling stone but believe they are the righteousness of God and are not ashamed to say that boldly and confidently - to them, the power of protection, peace and prosperity comes to those people that don't stumble!
Notice he says it is "by faith from first to last". This isn't just justifying righteousness. This is the righteousness that you come into the Kingdom in and it is the first thing you believe and it is the last thing you believe at the end of your life - you never go back to saying; "I will add another kind of righteousness to the righteousness I have found revealed in the Gospel". I don't pursue any other righteousness because that is the stumbling block! I am not going to be put to shame!
Now the religious world may shame me and attack me and attack the grace message and even lie about you and even if you make a mistake they will love it and pounce upon your mistakes and say; "THAT is because of the grace message!". But even though you may be accused of things and maybe you do things wrong that the religious world tries to make you ashamed of - if you trust in this gift of righteousness - in the eyes of God you will never be put to shame by your Father.
Every time you get sin going on in churches that peace, grace and law abide - they mix grace and law, Old and New together - there is lots of sin going on in those churches but every time someone sins and it is exposed, they say; "It's not our fault - we also preach law - we balance grace with law". Legalistic churches - sometimes people are sinning a lot more than in grace churches but when they sin the preacher doesn't get the blame because he preached law to them! He told them not to! But in grace churches when they sin? "Ah it is the grace message". I want to say to the legalistic churches; "Have a look in your back yard!".
I know churches where grace was preached for a long time and people got established to a degree in grace and the level of sin was pretty low. Then other preachers came in and began to preach; "Do better, try harder, hasn't Jesus done enough for you?!". And they manipulate people with what Jesus did at the Cross. "You owe Him something now". No - you DID owe Him something and then He cancelled everything at the Cross!
Now you don't have to have a whole load of "have-tos" but a whole load of "want-tos"! I want to love Him! I want to serve Him! I want to pray! I want to give! I want to be generous! Because - I just want to!
These guys come in and preach "have-tos" and if you want the blessing then try harder and I see adultery come into those churches and see unmarried couples begin to sleep together and I want to go back and slap those leaders and say; "Go back to preaching what Paul preached - stop trying to put law on the people to stop them sinning!". I guarantee if you have got two glass houses in the street and the first one has got no signs up on the outside and little boys come outside and will not even notice the first glass house. But the second - big signs say "Do not throw stones! Do NOT throw stones at the glass house!". Everything in me - the law stirs up sin! Go to Romans chapter 3. I love the law of God. The law of God is wonderful but I love it for what it was written for. The law was never written to give you the blessing!
Obeying the law was NEVER in God's mind! God never gave the law to make you holy - never! It was written to make you feel like hell! It was written to make you feel like a worm in the dust! It was written to silence all our arrogance to God and all our self-righteousness. It was written to make you concious of sin and once you realise that you are so ugly in your arrogant religious self-righteousness then you repent of pursuing a righteousness of your own and submit!
You stop stumbling over the rock and submit with all my imperfections!"I thank You that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!".
And when you do that, the peace of God comes, the power, fullness of grace - one blessing after another! You start hearing God's voice a lot easier! (Romans 10:4) - Christ is the end of the law. Once you realise the law is useless and can't save you - it is powerless! Paul says in Romans 7; "the law taking advantage of your sin deceived you even further". The written code stood opposed to you and God cancelled it at the Cross in Christ Jesus on behalf of the believer. Once you come to Christ that is it. No more law for you! No more measuring up. Jesus measured up for you and you are complete in Christ! You are the righteousness of God in Christ!
(Romans 3:19); "Whatever the law says - it says to those under the law". Thank God I am not under the law in Christ! This is what it says to those under the law (although it won't say it to you!); "So that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God". That's why no one will get to heaven by their own righteousness. (v20) - Therefore noone will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law we become concious of sin. But now a righteousness from God APART FROM THE LAW has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
Go to Romans 5:17; "If by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive (there's the active word again - active expectation of good) God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness".
That is so important! "Gift!". The gift of righteousness reigns in life through the one Man Christ Jesus. Now this is the problem here and this is how the devil is arguing this with false theology.
This is a gift of righteousness. The Greek tense is the present continuous tense. So God sees you CONTINUALLY as righteous!
Rob - what happens if I sin? Well shock of all shocks! Like I said last week - if the main purpose of Jesus dying on the Cross was to stop Christians sinning, then I reverently say this - He failed. Because I don't know one Christian on the planet who doesn't sin. But if the main reason why Jesus died on the Cross was so that our sin will never be imputed to us - so that our sinning will never be charged against us - "there is now therefore NO condemnation to those in Christ Jesus" - if the main reason He died was so my sin and sinning will never seperate me from God again then He was an utter success.
Jesus died on the Cross to lift condemnation completely off His people and when condemnation is lifted completely off His people then you are empowered to have greater authority against sin.
Some of the most obedient people on the planet today - the most holy, humble, pleasures to be with are people who are honest and transparent about their weaknesses and their short-comings and their failures and they are trusting in the grace of God and loving God and they know how many times they fail or make a mistake - yet they know they are still the righteousness of God!
Some say; "No you have got the robe of righteousness on and if you sin there are stains on that robe". What a disgusting blasphemy. How do you think that the righteousness of God can be stained by your sin?! No - Jesus was stained with your sin on the Cross once and for all time to make you perfect forever and no stain can stick to the righteousness you have!
Now if you are self-righteous then your sin adds all kinds of stains but you don't have any righteousness you have because it is a righteousness that is perfect because that's the one revealed in the Gospel. People say; "Oh yes we know it's a gift and you get a gift - Jesus come into my life". That's justification. But any sin you do after that you are no longer righteous and you have to confess your sin and repent and then you get your righteousness back. Well that's the problem isn't it - you get your righteousness back!
Well that's the problem - you will get your righteousness back! No - Romans 8 says no condemnation and nothing can seperate us! Nothing! Not your sinning! Your sinning seperated Jesus! "My God, My God - why have you forsaken Me?". So you will never be forsaken! If you confessing every sin was keeping your righteousness and open fellowship with God then you are in big trouble because you don't even know all the time when you sin. Because you have the religious sins of some cultures. God talks about being critical self-promoting, gossip.
Anything that is not of faith is sin!
So if being cut off from God happens because you haven't confessed your sin then every Christian on the planet is already cut off from God! Then they say; "Ah well we're cut off from God but we will go to heaven when we die hopefully". Oh pleaseeeee! This is a gift - it is not the reward of your obedience. It is a gift of Jesus' obedience on your behalf. Go to (v19);
"For just as through the disobedience of the one many, many were made siners so also through the obedience of the one man - the many (are imputed) or made righteous".
This is a fascinating thing that people say; "Yes you are righteous when you first get saved and then after that you have got to maintain your righteousness". We need to go back to the great preachers of 100 years ago - Charles Haddon Spurgeon and all who preached Colossians 2 that says; "And Christ forgave all your sins - at the Cross cancelling the written sins - at the Cross cancelling code".
When did Christ forgive all your sins? Before you had committed ONE! When Colossians 2 says past tense; "At the Cross, He forgave ALL your sins". Under the Old Covenant and under the Law you only get forgiveness when you confessed! In Christ - when did He forgive your sins? At the Cross you know what modern evangelicals believe? He only forgave your sins from the day you got born again to the day you got saved. Then after you got saved if sinned again then your righteousness is no longer as shining as it was before. WHERE do they get that theology?! If He can forgive all your sins from the day you were born to the day you got saved but can't forgive your sins after you got saved - then I would rather get saved the second before I die!!
He forgave ALL your sins at that glorious Cross! Gone! Blotted out! Finished! The sin issue is not even an issue anymore! The Father is not relating to you on that - you are the righteousness of God! This righteousness is NOT a reward of your obedience! It is a gift from God! That we submit to! We do not pursue it - we submit to it and we say; "I agree God! I am righteous in your sight forever!".
It is through the obedience of the one Man. Now it says through the disobedience of the one man, many (that is everyone) were made sinners. In other words Adam's disobedience brought condemnation and made you a sinner. You are not going to hell because of your sin - you are going to hell because of Adam's sin. People say; "That's not fair - if I want to go to hell, I want to go for my sin! Why should I go to hell for Adam's sin?".
Well God set it up as unfair because you are not going to heaven because of your righteousness or because of your obedience. You are going to heaven and you are righteous through a gift through the obedience of the one Man. Before you were in Christ and when you are in Adam and his disobedience - you are made a sinner and you were condemned by Adam's disobedience. Did you sin all the time? No! Everyone of us before we were Christians did good things. We fed the poor and gave to the hungry. Rock stars get philanthropic and give money and help and do good things. I did good things before I was a Christian!
My good things that I did were righteous acts but I could not "righteous" away my sinhood because I was in first Adam! Now they say that you are in the obedience of the last Adam - Jesus - and you have HIS gift of righteousness. You are meant to be able to "sin away" this righteousness but you can't "righteous" away your sin-hood in first Adam!?! That is blasphemy and what they are saying is that first Adam's disobedience is far more powerful than last Adam's obedience.
Now we are righteous and we have got to perform righteously? Well that means you have got to add to God's righteousness and how will you be established in righteousness if you don't know where God's righteousness ends and your performance of righteousness begins? On what are you established?
The Gospel is not about you changing. The Gospel is about how GOD changed the way He relates to you from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.
When I say "Old Covenant" I mean the law covenant of Moses - I don't mean Abraham. As I keep saying and people are saying around the world now - the Gospel is not about right living. My dad was an atheist most of his life and he lived a better moral life than most Christians. But he was on his way to hell - till I led him to Christ! The Gospel is not about right living. Buddhists live good lives as do Muslims. Atheists lead good lives and so do religious people and Hinduis! The Gospel is about right believing.
"For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed to all who believe - it is by faith from first to last".
Right believing will progressively lead to right living.
I think some people have come into our meetings and heard what we are saying now and say; "Is this a bunch of immoral people and are they all committing adultery all over the place?". I have been married for 34 years and Glenda and I have never committed adultery and never want to. I am too frightened of Glenda and will never do that! I want to live a life of integrity and authenticity - I want to obey God and lay my life down and die for Him if I need to. But no guilt! Just freedom and joy and getting drunk at 04:00 on a Sunday morning! When I do make mistakes I just thank God that I am the righteousness of God!
Go to Galatians. Obviously we are repeating and reinforcing things. I want to teach on how to hear God still and teach on the high priestly garments of Jesus and on the Benjamin generation - a prophetic word on that! But God said to start the year off by going back and reinforcing and establishing the foundations. If I have found God saying; "What are you pursuing Rob?" then I realise I hear a promise and think "okay I have got to do a bit to qualify mysefl a bit more" - then I know that some of you think that way. It is more than just hearing; "I am the righteousness of God" - it is being established in it that when the devil comes and says; "Now that sin you did there - that's it - God has had enough, no more blessing" - you will be so established that you will find that the funniest thing you have ever heard!
You will fall on your back and scream with laughter that the devil thinks you can "sin away" the obedience of Jesus - that means I couldn't "righteous" away my sinhood when I was in 1st Adam! Ha ha! You think I can sin away Jesus' righteousness?! Ha ha! Devil - what a joke! I AM the righteousness of God - no weapon can prevail against me! From the fullness of His grace I am receiving one blessing after another - hang around devil! Wait and you will see! Hang around here long enough and you will see the blessing!
I remember when we first got saved and we were university students at Rhodes and came into Christ and saw something of grace and we were living - every day I had to trust God for money. I knew this God was good. I would run up the forest - any excuse I could get. Before I was saved I was in the pub all day and then I got saved and any gap I had I am up into the bush to meet with the God I loved!
At the end of the day you can't just learn from hearing a preacher - you have got to meet with this God.
I would go meet with this God I loved and I got to know Him in the forests. That's where faith comes! I remember telling a cynic that every day I live by faith and have to believe God for money. Every day to live as a student! My wife had a baby and I had no income! While I was telling him the story this Afrikaan came up to me that we hardly knew at all at this time and he said; "Here this is for you - the Lord told me to give you this". Then he walked off. The cynic is looking at me and I just told him how God keeps providing and his eyes were coming out on stalks!
I opened the packet and money came pouring out! I felt like saying; "I told you so!". Our faith has grown since those days - one blessing after another! From the fullness of His grace.
You have got to like yourself and have this attitude that God likes me and He wants to bless me! I want to say to you - God loves you! He loves you! God doesn't want to bless you just so you are a greater minister! God wants to bless me because He loves me! Just because of the heaven of it - He loves me! He sees you as righteous!
Let's go to 2 Scriptures - what are you relying on and depending on for the blessing? I want to tell you with authority and with full persuasion that the vast majority of people in Christ in the earth do not have clarity on this and still have ambiguity and confusion and are still not established. They kind of think they are righteous in Christ but they kind of think they are disqualified for the blessing and have to try and keep the law a little better. In City Church International we are not going to have that mix of stinking thinking! We are going to stick with the Scriptures!
We will cover some of the certain verses - the "difficult verses" such as James 5; "Confess your sins to one another". But Rob - you just said that you didn't have to confess! We will cover that. We will cover all of those difficult Scriptures and you will get so excited! You will believe even stronger! You can't depend on even mix a little bit. You can't depend on your righteousness and His a bit. You can't pursue your righteousness to be qualified for the blessing and submit to His righteousness! It is one or the other! That's why some Christians are only blessing partially - they partially believe grace and partially believe law!
When you move over from law to grace fully - you will come into the fullness of the blessing of God.
(Galatians 3:10); "All who rely on observing a law are under a curse for it is written; cursed is everyone who doesn't continue to do everything written in the book of the Law".
If you are thinking that praying one hour extra a day will give you the blessing then you have MISSED it! If you want to pray for an hour then pray for an hour - I love praying for hours!
(v11); "Clearly no one is justified by God through the law because the righteous will live by faith. The law is not based on faith - on the contrary the man who does these things will live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written; 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a true' - He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit".
Now it doesn't make any snese to say that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law - to say that if I break the law and fail the law then God won't curse me if I keep the law 100%!
If Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law that means even when we fail at times and fall short of the law there is NO CURSE coming our way because Christ has redeemed us from law's curse by satisfying the integrity of the High Court of Justice in heaven - He was cursed in our place with the curse of the law that we deserve - He was cursed so that the blessing given to Abraham could come to the Gentiles by the promise of the Spirit through faith!
It is so clear! There is no ambiguity - except the religious world blurs it on purpose to keep control over the people of God with guilt manipulation.
What are we depending on? Your behaviour? Or are you depending on your faith in Jesus behaviour?! If you are depending on your behaviour then you are pursuing a righteousness and establishing a righteousness of your own - which will bring the curse on you. The curse of the law - but if you are in faith that you have a faith righteousness that's not based on your fluctuating performance but your faith in the performance of Jesus Christ who performed perfect obedience for you then you will be secure.
I don't have to have perfect faith in first Adam - I was born into this world into the lineage of first man and I was born into his disobedience.
No matter how many good things I did - all my good things were like filthy rags - I could not "righteous" away my sinhood in first Adam! But to come out of first Adam took faith and I have to believe that there is a righteousness I cannot sin away ever - it is from first to last - a righteousness from God that is not a reward for my obedience - it is a GIFT for my faith!
(v5); "Does God give you His Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard?". Paul told them that he clearly preached the Cross and revelation of righteousness. (v6); "Consider Abraham - he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness ... those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham - the man of faith". (Romans 4:3); "What does the Scripture say? ... faith is credited as righteousness" = right standing with God. How do we increase the blessing in our lives? (v8); "Blessed is the man who's sin the Lord will never count against him!". He is not counting your sins! There is no sense of heaven going; "I saw that! I saw you!". No all He sees is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!
(Deuteronomy 28) - this is a famous Scripture of blessings and curses that is often read out in churches but not explained clearly enough. The context is that God is going to announce to Israel the blessings and the curses. I will not read all the curses to you - they are too depressing. The curses are poverty - you can NEVER say that poverty is a blessing! I highly respect Francis of Assisi and his poverty oath but he was walking in the lights that he had. He was an awesome man of God but in Deuteronomy 28 poverty is a sign of the curse. There is a great controversy about what is called the "prosperity message".
I am not preaching it - I am preaching the Gospel which INCLUDES prosperity because God made Abraham very rich! The controversy with the prosperity message is that in some cases it was preached wrong because they did not understand law and grace. So the inference in the prosperity message is that if your life is right - do good and get good. Do bad and get bad. Which is the law! The prosperity message will sound like this - if your life is right and you are praying enough and giving enough and going to church enough and reading your Bible enough and living righteously enough then the Lord will bless you! Well what does that say? To those that aren't blessed and who do have poverty and are poor and are suffering? Well it must be because you are so sinful! No.
Many of the people who preached the prosperity message went into debt and borrowed so much money they were living in false prosperity. Many of them have disappeared off the face of the earth. You would drive to church in a big car because I am prospering! What are you trying to say to people? This car is a sign of my right doing and that produces arrogance and pride and shame and pain in the people who are in places where they are disenfranchised and don't have access to banks and loans and opportunities. We preach that this message will help people in India, Africa - anywhere in the world where they will stop putting the law on people and saying; "Your good acts and living obediently enough will get you prosperity and your good health and your blessing is a sign of you praying enough and being holy enough and giving enough and jumping through all the right steps and hoops".
No! There is just one step. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that you are the righteousness of God from the fullness of His grace, we have received one blessing after another! You can tell that to poor people in Africa and if they stay in this message and hold on and get through all the stuff that we have got through and evey spirit that has tried to hinder this message and stop us believing this and making us feel afraid if we believe this - that this is a false gospel and we must be deceived! No - the one that has the law in it - Paul says if anyone preaches a Gospel with alw in, may he be doubly condemned! This is the Good News! This is the New Covenant! This is Jesus!
The other one is the false one and I would rather be criticised by man than doubly condemned by God for preaching a gospel that has the law in it!
When we see someone in poverty, we don't say; "That is your sinful life - you sowed and now you have reaped!". That is an Old Covenant teaching and when you read sowing and reaping, you had better read it in it's context and make sure you are not transferring Old Covenant sowing and Old Covenant reaping into New Covenant.
Everything from the Old Covenant must go through the Cross! If it passes cleanly through the Cross the apostles make very little comment on it but if it doesn't pass cleanly through the Cross then the Jewish apostles make commentary on it and re-interpret Old Covenant truths into higher revelation New Covenant truths.
Like I said on Thursday night Old Covenant was a "snip on the tip" - it didn't pass cleanly through the Cross so Paul says; "Our hearts are circumcised" - the re-birth! He uses the words; "the circumcision of the heart" - that old nature has been cut out and the new creation nature of Christ is put in.
Sowing and reaping - I am not getting what I sow! I am getting what the Father sowed in Jesus on my behalf.
Now Galatians 5:6 says "Don't be deceived ... whatever a man sows to the flesh, he will from the flesh reap destruction". Read the context! Don't read the NIV - read most of the other translations when you read Galatians. It says "flesh" not "sinful nature". The context is clear - what is "flesh"? It is not just "sinful nature" - the flesh is my human effort - my sweat - my trying to keep the law - my trying to earn. He said; "You have given up on the Spirit and gone back to human effort. You are trying now in human effort to be good enough and you aren't believing what Abraham believed and believing you are righteous. Now you are trying to get righteous and you pursuing righteousness instead of submitting to what you got as a gift".
That is the flesh! He said; "I am warning you - if you keep sowing to that human effort - that law-keeping stuff, you will reap from it destruction! But if you sow to the Spirit - which is the revelation of righteousness in Christ - from the Spirit you will reap eternal life!". Eternal life is not living forever! People will live eternally in hell as well. Eternal life is a quality of life - the life of God lived now in the flesh in this body!
Your house didn't burn down because you sowed something bad 3 years ago! When Jesus died on the Cross, He caused a total crop failure of every negative seed I have sowed and every bad thing I have done since getting saved! I am not waiting for a bad harvest to catch up with me!
People are looking over their shoulders thinking, "I didn't forgive enough or do enough - I was bitter - I did wrong there!". That is still Old Covenant thinking! Under the Old Covenant you only get forgiveness as you forgive others! That is Old Covenant! The New Covenant (Colossians 3:13) says; "Forgive one another just as Christ HAS forgiven you!". He has TOTALLY forgiven you past, present and future and it is not conditional on you forgiving others - it has already taken place at the Cross!
You can't mess it up! You have got full forgiveness! And because I know that even if I don't forgive them I am still already forgiven past, present and future then that empowers me to WANT to forgive them. People fear; "If I don't forgive them then God will not forgive me and He will hand me over to the tormentors". That is Jesus preaching before the Cross and before the New Covenant! That is a terrible motive! I forgive so easily because I have been totally forgiven by the Father and nothing bad I am sowing out there can get me to reap bad stuff today.
You may as well go and join a Buddist church if you are going to do the sowing and reaping thing - that is totally Old Covenant! (2 Corinthians 8); You have got to re-think traditions of men.
Now let's read Deuteronomy 28 - ready for a revelation? If the majority of Christians were believing the truth they would be drunk in the joy of God and would be blessed and would be walking in confidence and would be so happy and would love themselves and forgive everyone and wouldn't hold grudges or be analytical or self-concious! The traditions of men have been nullifying the power of God's Word and some bulldozers in Hong Kong has to start announcing the good enwsin Jesus Christ and break through all these strongholds and wrong ways of thinking. There are seminars that you can go to that will turn you into a inward looking maniac! Analysing everything that has been causing the problems in your life!
There is only one thing causing the problems in your life and that is unbelief that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!
The devil has got people running back into their mothers womb and running down this formula and that and taking you there and into your past. Your house burnt down because you didn't tithe! If I was a psychiatrist then I would do a thesis on Christians!
The religious traditions of men is the worst cause for mental health problems!
Here is God about to give the law - curse and blessing. Israel were slaves in Egypt and were under bondage. The Bible says in Exodusthat God remembered His covenant with Abraham. What is the covenant with Abraham? Grace and faith and no law! There was no law under Abraham! When Israel was in Egypt there was no Moses hearing the law at Mount Sinai. No law between Adam and Moses! Just a covenant of grace with Abraham! So He stirs up Moses to go to His people (Exodus 3:13) and say; "I am speaking on behalf of Abraham (covenant of God) and He will bring you out of Egypt with signs and wonders and miracles, and open up the Red Sea". They murmered and complained and sinned yet God turned the bitter waters sweet with the wood - the symbol of the Cross. They complained of not enough food and He brought down manna from heaven. And He never judged them! Why? They were under Abraham and under grace. They are sinning and yet God sees them as righteous in Abraham and in grace and in that covenant.
They do wrong and wrong and wrong and eventually Galatians 3 says that because of the sin of UNBELIEF - they did not believe in the grace of God! - God said "I will give you the law so the transgressions will increase".
So God brought the law to them and He gives them the opportunity to receive the law and the people should have got up as one and said; "We repent oh God! We don't want the law! We don't want to be blessed according to us keeping the law! We want what Abraham got! Abraham got blessed through faith in your goodness and we want that!". They didn't. They said to God; "Everything you tell us to do - we will do". Moses was still getting the law on Mount Sinai when they were already worshipping a golden calf.
Once the law came, curse after curse after curse came to Israel. From the time of Moses till the time of Christ redeeming Jew and Gentile from the curse; "ALL who will believe". (Deuteronomy 28:2); "You wanted the law? Not grace? Right you got it!". (v1); Can you see a problem in that? The Lord said "IF you obey these laws and commands THEN I will fully bless you". It is not about how much you try or how good your intentions are. It is to FULLY obey. That is 100% and there is no room to drop! (Galatians 3:10); "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse". (Deuteronomy 28:15); "IF ... all these curses will come and overtake you". We have read today that there is good news!
ONE fully obeyed on our behalf. One fully did it as last Adam on our behalf. One FULLY redeemed us from the curse of the law that the blessing given to Abraham can come tous. That means that NONE of the curses in Deuteronomy 28 belong to us - not even one. Christians should not be living under any curse of poverty, sickness, disease or broken relationships. Many Christians are living under the curse as people not in Christ because they are trying to pursue righteousness rather than submitting to the gift. None of the curses belong to us but ALL the blessings belong to us because in Christ we have FULLY obeyed the law! God wanted to relate to His people on grace and faith - not on our performance but HIS!
Now the day that any church moves into this level of blesssing then the world will know about it. And why not us!?! 2009 is the year - we are positioned for it!
"How to Increase in the Blessing".
"We are in a series - number 2 - of being established in the gift of righteousness. I want to talk this morning on how to increase in the blessings of God. I really believe God intended for us to live incredibly joyful lives! That doesn't mean He guarantees that in this world we won't have some serious challenges - in fact Jesus promises us that - so you should put it on your fridge as one of the promises! "Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all". Jesus said in this world we will suffer tribulation but be of good cheer - I have overcome the world.
(1 John 5:4) says; "This is the victory that overcomes the world - even our faith". So faith is important!
There is an attitude I believe we should have that no matter what the challenges - I can win every time. There is not one battle I need to lose because we have unfair advantages! I am convinced that many, many Christians struggle with living happy because secretly they don't like themselves. Now this is off the point (I want to talk about blessing and how to increase in the blessing) but I feel like God is stirring these things up in my heart this morning! These things come to mind!
Some years ago living in Oz and I had something in my life that I didn't like. I had something in my life and I really began to believe that my intensity and my passion must really look weird to people and so I didn't like that about myself so I took 3 days off and told Glenda I was going to a place outside Adelaide and I was going to pray for 3 days. I didn't tell her what I was going to pray for - she thought I was going to pray for revival but I was actually going to pray that God would deliver me from my intensity and passion. I spent 3 days and 1 day I fasted and went without food and tried to manipulate God to deliver me from me!
Not knowing He had wired me this way - because in His original design and intension - I would fit into the purpose I had to fulfill. Not everyone has to be intense! I repented and cried out; "God take this intensity away! It must be so exhausting for people to put up with as a pastor!". At the end of 3 days I drove back up to Adelaide in the Friday afternoon and went straight to a prayer meeting at Coastlands Church. As I walked in there was a prophet there who didn't know me at this stage. He has since come to "Glory and Grace" - but at that stage he didn't know me well and says;
"Rob - the Lord says to you that He loves you and He doesn't want you to apologise for your intensity".
I am quoting it exactly! So I began to realise - enjoy yourself! Sometimes no one is going to do it for you! Have you ever gone through a time when no-one is celebrating you? Hong Kong is not self-friendly. Hong Kong will make you feel like you should crawl on the ground like a worm in the dirt and you shouldn't say; "I'm on the bottom - but the bottom is on me". That is the spirit that is operating in this place! It will suck your self-image and inner sense of security and your sense of well-being celebrating; "I am special and precious in the Father's eyes" because we have listened to so many lies!
When we perceive someone as important - if they reject us then we assume that is because there is something in us that is perhaps not likeable! A parent, a school teacher, a pastor, a boyfriend or girlfriend - hopefully not a husband or wife! But when someone important to us rejects us - the devil begins to make us believe that there is something about you that is not likeable because if someone important doesn't like you then you are not likeable and how, therefore can you like yourself?
Jesus was the most wonderful and glorious Person that walked the earth and many rejected Him and He stayed completely secure in His Father's love.
Often when people reject you it is because there is some fear on the inside of them and has got very little to do with you.
We listen to the devil's lies too often. I have got something very important to preach but I want to get this out the way because if you don't like yourself then stuff will just go over your head and you get happy for a little while in the worship and then go out and spend 2 or 3 hours out there and you are with yourself again. That's why in Hong Kong people love noise, they will make radios play, noise in their ears when they walk in the country park.
They don't want to think of the realities of who they are because they don't like themselves so they don't want to meet with themselves. Someone who likes themself enjoys absolute silence and hours on their own with God because they enjoy their own company. If you don't have places of silence and peace and rest and celebrating who you are and letting the Father love and Jesus love you and the Holy Spirit put His arms around you and affirm you and endorse you and approve you then your identity is in other people's approval and that makes you vulnerable to compromise your call in God, compromise your commission in God - all to get people to like you.
Jesus couldn't get everyone to like Him because He was on a mission to do what His Father called Him to do. He wouldn't let Peter distract Him when Peter tried to stop Him going to the Cross, He said; "Get behind Me Satan!". He had a mission and if people didn't like Him, He would still stay on focus with it. Many Christians today sell out and compromise because they want people to like them. That is Satan's biggest tool and weapon against you. Every morning the devil accuses the brethren. He has got a list of all your faults. Now often when he points them out he is telling the truth in a way - but he is lying!
Because you can tell the truth in a way that is a lie. He is pointing out your faults - you've got a mess in this area of your life - relational problems in your marriage, financial problems, sick problems, sin problems, character issues and he will point them out every day! If you don't like yourself you will suck all that stuff in and believe the lies. You need to talk back to the devil!
And say; "Mr Devil - you think I've got problems? I recognise I have got a few messes here but let me tell you - you've got serious problems. I will tell you what the Bible promises. Jesus said at the Cross that you are condemned. The Bible promises you are heading for the bottomless pit. Now the Bible promises ME that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!". Then you will hear the tone in his voice change and he will sulk. I have heard the devil sulk!
And he will say; "Okay yere - but you've got still messes in your life!". You can then say; "Oh thank you so much Mr Devil for reminding me of how good God is because even with these messes in my life God loves me and sees me as righteous ALL the TIME!".
Why does the Bible invite us to come and drink the new wine? Maybe God is just cruel! I don't know - I've never seen people drink and drink and drink and stay sober, morbid, unhappy and critical and grumpy! People drink to get rid of their sorrow! Now the Bible invites us over and over again in many passages to come and drink of the new wine. The reason is because it tastes so good?! It makes you happy?! And not only does it make you forget your problems - trust me this is true whether you believe this or not - not only do you get drunk in the new wine and forget your problems but your problems start going away!
All because of the power of the new wine!
Last week we did Isaiah 53 and 54 and we saw the incredible oath that God swore regarding the New Covenant - that He will never be angry again and never withdraw His love and never withdraw His peace and establish you in righteousness and no weapon formed against you will prosper - every accusing tongue will fail because your heritage is of the Lord and your righteousness is of Me says God!
In Isaiah 55 God invites us as the New Covenant people to come and drink the new wine! He is basically saying in that passage that drinks are on the house!
You know what most Christians do?! Say that it's too early to drink! It's only 11:00! Well God will will say to you from Acts 2 - they had been drinking from who-knows-when but they were drunk at 09:00 because when they came out of the Upper Room and people said; "These people are drunk with new wine!". Peter said; "They are not drunk as you suppose but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel - in the last days I will pour out My Spirit".
Please don't tell me that the Holy Spirit has been poured out in a place where you have got conservative, cautious, self-concious, introspective, analytical, critical people! DRUNK PEOPLE ARE HAPPY! DRUNK PEOPLE ARE FRIENDLY! DRUNK PEOPLE ARE UNINHIBITED! DRUNK PEOPLE ARE CRAZY! It's not too early - it's too late! It is a SHOCK that we are still sober!
I was drunk at 04:00 this morning - and at 05:00 I was so drunk in the Holy Spirit and then I came to church and sobered up! Because I had to get with Christians - no just joking! Why is it acceptable to sulk and be grumpy in church? Why?! "Well we've got so many problems". Why did you stop drinking?! Have you ever seen a drunk who is aware of their problems? They drank because they had problems and now they can't remember their problems and their happy! The problems don't go away until they sober up and then the problems are stil there. But for you and me - we are meant to stay drunk and happy and joyful in the Holy Spirit!
How do you drink Rob? Well you can't think and drink at the same time! I double-dog dare you today instead of thinking to stay drinking in the Holy Spirit. Do your thinking later! Reason with God according to the revelations you receive today!
So I want to talk about increasing in the blessing. How many want to receive more blessing in their lives? Do you know that there are people who have a problem with Christians getting blessed? It's like; "Ah there they go again - running after the blessing". Who said anything about running after the blessing?! God said that in 2009 the blessing will run after you! The Bible says that blessing will come on you and overtake you! "There's too much blessing - we've got to try and get away!". No it will keep coming and overtaking you! There is a real potential to live like that this year! But Rob - isn't the blessing bad? No the curse is bad!
Let me put it very simply. BLESSING = GOOD. CURSE = BAD!
I believe God wants to bless us so much in 2009 that it will actually embarress some of us! If you ask yourself why you are so embarressed - it is because you are thinking that; "I don't deserve this!".
Then God will show you more and more grace - that it has got nothing to do with us deserving it and everything to do wth us believing that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!
God said to me this week; "Go and study all the famines in the Bible and every famine - those people that had faith in the goodness of God got more and more wealthy during the times of economic downturn than those who did not have a covenant or faith in God". Isaac saved during a famine (Genesis 6) and in that year he had a hundred-fold and multiplied his wealth!
The Hebrew word for "blessing" is the word "favour of God" which actually means "to be envied"!
The Philistines envied Isaac because he got so wealth in a time when others were going down and he was going up in financial abundance. That is because he was the seed of Abraham and Galatians 3:29 says; "If you are in Christ then you are the seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise". The blessings are meant to come on us and overtake us! We are not called to run after blessings! I have lived with Glenda for 34 years as my wife and she knows that I have never run after blessing or pursued blessing - I pursue Jesus and the reality of the New Covenant.
But in the revelation of who Jesus is and the revelation of who I am in Christ - when you get established greater and greater in the revelation that you are the righteousness of God then the blessings start coming on you and overtaking you!
God says for 2009 that this will make every other year look like POVERTY compared to this year! This is an amazing year and He says I want to bless City Church International people so much that the fear of God will come on the city - the fear of God will come on nations when they hear how God is blessing us! This is scary stuff to say because if I am wrong then it looks like my credibility is going down the line. But I am telling you - I felt God say this and this fear of God is not a "run away and hide" sort of fear. It is a reverential awe and wonder at how awesome is this God - wow! Look at the blessing on that church! We want that! Not one person without a job! Everyone getting promotion - everyone getting double portion! Everyone like themselves! Everyone full of joy - everyone in blessing on their marriages and blessing on their children! Blessing on their finances!
Blessing is the power to succeed - it is the empowerment to succeed!
Go to John 1 and if you haven't got there by now then don't try. Let's look at the revelation of God's Word. I believe that theology brings reformation to a way that we think - good theology positions us to receive a constant sustainable flow of blessing. You can come to a meeting and someone can say exciting things but without any good theology in it - they can preach from the Readers Digest and preach from the latest movies and do it so enthusiastically but without clear biblical theology - there will be no sustained blessing.
When you are sitting in a service and the Word of God is coming - 10, 20, 30 minutes - you are sitting there with something renewing your thinking and positioning you to see an increase of the blessing. It isn't a guru coming and laying his hands on your head and abracadabra - go and be blessed! That is not how it works in the Kingdom! You will get a blessing that is temporary and you will walk out but your thinking will still be stinking thinking.
You need to change the way you think - start liking yourself and start believing you are no longer under that Old Covenant - you have come over into a superior better covenant with a superior mediator Jesus Christ!
(John 1:16 and 17); "One blessing after another". Isn't that amazing that the law was given but grace CAME? The law was given - that's impersonal - it is a powerless moral structure. It tells you what to do but doesn't help you do it. It judges you, it curses you and makes you concious of sin and makes you hate yourself. That's why religious people hate themselves even more than an atheist does. Even though an atheist believes he is a product of impersonal time - impersonal chance - impersonal matter - all organising itself in an impersonal way that somehow became a personal complexity - thus contradicting the 2nd law of thermodynamics. The atheist believes that he came out of a swamp gas and is the product of a frog but still has more value in that existential insanity than a Christian who does not understand grace but is under law.
The law was given but grace came in a Person. So many are living in the absolute shallows of grace - they have hardly got their little toe wet and they are still too worried that they are being too indulgent. "One blessing after another" - ah no not another one! Yere another one and another one! The active word there is "received". You lay hands on some Christians and they don't know how to receive the anointing! They starting shouting; "Yere! Amen!". Just shut up and receive! You can't transmit and receive at the same time! Receive! That is the operative word. They received blessings - one after another.
We need to develop in 2009 a receptive attitude - an attitude of receptivity to the goodness and blessings of God. Let's get out of this thing - well I've got enough now! My job pays for my rent, food and travel. That is like living in slavery! The land of "just enough"! God is El-Shaddi - the God who is "more than enough"! Blessing after blessing after blessing! God wants to bless us so that the nations will fear Him!
God wants to release millions of dollars into this church so we will invade the nations and so we will bless! Money says to land; "I can buy you!". Money says to buildings; "I can buy you!". Money says to missionaries; "I can pay you". Money says to the poor; "I can feed you". Money says to the wealthy that God is not against money - He is against the love of money. I don't love money - I love Jesus! I tell you people in this hour who are not greedy are going to be entrusted with the stewardship of great wealth because we will not consume it upon ourselves but release finances to feed the poor and help as the economic downturn gets worse - we are just going to get better!
God will bless your job and bless you with FAR MORE than just to pay your rent! We are not going to finance the gospel in these last days just by salary! Salary will not be enough! It's got to be more! You will find money just coming in - all your richest uncles and aunties are going to die!
Having a receptive attitude means to be living with a confident expectation of good coming into your life. Every day I have got to discipline my mind to stop the negativity, the foreboding, the sense of dread, the sense of this could happen or that could happen, or that loved one could die, or this may happen. This could happen to my church or that could happen to me. I have got to live with a spirit of receptivity - a confident expectation of God that I have come into fulness of grace and from that fulness of grace I am receiving one blessing after another!
Well how do we go into the increased blessing? "Well Rob I have got the answer for that - we have to pursue righteousness. We have to pursue being more righteous. And if we can reach a certain level of obedience and holiness and righteousness then God will bless us!". (*City Church begins booing and cat-calling at this point and shouting "No!"*). You are too well taught! Who is your pastor in this place!? His Name is Jesus and the Spirit of God! If you pursue trying to be more righteous - if you pursue righteousness then that is stupid! The way to get more blessing is contrary to this world's system of economics. It is ridiculous!
The way to get more blessed is to do the opposite - you do not pursue righteousness. You simply stop trying and you submit to God's gift of righteousness and get established in that revelation.
If you try and pursue being righteous enough to get the blessing then every time you hear a promise that it is God's will to bless you then your whole thinking will go something like this - alright I had better get right with God to get that blessing. You know how your mind works if you monitor it! I hope you are monitoring it because if you don't monitor your thinking then you are passive and the devil loves you. He can lay all his lies on a passive mind! I tell you - I have been into this revelation of grace for some years now and there are still vulnerable moments when I hear a great promise of God of a blessing and think; "Well I had just better get right with God!" in some area of my life otherwise I am disqualified!
THAT is pursuing your righteousness and not submitting to His gift of righteousness.
The Bible says in Proverbs 10:6; "Blessings crown the head of the righteous!". In many places where you say that people look at their life if there is financial debt or relational problems or sickness issues in their life that are re-occuring - the first thing that someone who is not established in the gift of New Covenant righteousness thinks is - look at all the problems in my life - obviously I am not righteous enough so God can't crown my head with the blessing because He only does that for the righteous and look at the problems in my life so obviously I am not righteous enough!
No, my friend, if you are in Christ then you can't improve on the righteousness you have got because it is absolute, infinite and perfect righteousness - it is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! The reason those problems are going on is not because you are not righteous enough in Christ - it is because you are still pursuing your righteousness and trying to be right with God by your behaviour and by your good works!
It is a big step to make this move out from the boat of religion and walk on the waters of grace and start seeing blessing after blessing flowing in your life. Go to Romans chapter 9.
I woke up yesterday morning and heard the audible voice of God say to me; "Rob - are you pursuing righteousness or submitting to My gift of righteousness?". I said; "Well Lord I am not pursuing righteousness!". He said; "Son you still are in some areas". I was shocked!
I thought hey - I am the faith and grace preacher! He said;
"No there are still areas in your life and in your thinking where you still think I am not good enough for that or not good enough for this". So I repented! He said; "Now you ask My people at City Church International". So I am going to obey God. City Church International - are you still pursuing righteousness? Or are you submitting to God's gift of righteousness?
(Romans 9:30); "What then shall we say? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it - a righteousness that is by faith. But Israel who pursued a law of righteousness have not obtained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as it were by works - they stumbled over the stumbling stone". Then chapter 10:3; "Since they did not know that the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own - they did not submit to God's righteousness". Think about this.
Last week we read from Isaiah 54:14 - that God said I will establish you in righteousness and you will have nothing to fear - terror will not come near you, tyranny won't come near you - anyone that attacks you will surrender to you and no weapon formed against you can prevail - you will be established in righteousness! Now you know He was not talking about your being established in our righteousness but established in Isaiah 53 - the death of Jesus on the Cross in His righteousness. Israel tried to establish themselves in their righteousness by keeping the law. (v4); Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes!
Now go back to (v33) because we didn't read that. "As it is written; 'See I lay in Zion, a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall and the one who trusts in Him will never be put to shame". What is the Spirit of God talking about there? What is this stumbling stone? He is Jesus! This stumbling stone is Jesus!
There are religious people zealous and pursuing their own self-righteousness and trying to be good enough to get the blessing and position themselves to be right with God so God can bless them and they are so busy doing this that they are stumbling over the revelation of grace and are constantly falling but it says here - those who trust in the Lord will never be put to shame!
What is this issue of shame? In religious communities if someone had to get up and say; "I am the righteousness of God" - the religious community would make them feel shamed. The religious community would say; "Blasphemy!" and tear their clothes! Blasphemy?! How DARE you say that?! That is the stone the religious world stumbles over and so when people feel that pressure, they say; "Oh no - you are right - I am not the righteousness of God". And they stumble over that stone and go after trying to improve themselves and become better in order to get the blessing.
Paul the apostle was the Pharisee of Pharisees, he was driven to get righteousness by law but he encountered Jesus Christ in a supernatural way and from that day he was established in the revelation of righteousness so from that day he could say; "I am trusting in the Lord - I am not ashamed to say in front of all my Jewish countrymen - I was a Rabbi of Rabbis, a Pharisee of Pharisees, everything that Israel would want in a man - born of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised on the eighth day - according to legalistic righteousness - I am faultless'. He says; "I count all of that dung and all rubbish that I may be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own that is by the law but a righteousness that is by faith in Jesus Christ that I may know Him" (Romans 1:16).
If you are struggling to rest and submit to God's gift of righteousness - if the struggle comes on your mind now and again - "How can God bless me when I know I've got something wrong in my life?" - just think of Paul and the transition he had to make from Pharisee of Pharisees - king of all kings regarding legalism - what happened to him that he could come to the place where he could say; "I am not ashamed" of this gospel! That is a radical transition that gives everyone hope in this place. (Romans 1:16-17); "Salvation" means "soterio" and that doesn't mean going to heaven. It includes that but it really means; "peace, protection, prosperity".
What do we live by faith in? We live by faith in the fact that we are the righteousness of God - that this is a righteousness that is from God revealed - not from man or revealed by the keeping of the law. It is a righteousness from God revealed in the Gospel and people who believe this righteousness - that they are the righteousness of God and don't stumble over the stumbling stone but believe they are the righteousness of God and are not ashamed to say that boldly and confidently - to them, the power of protection, peace and prosperity comes to those people that don't stumble!
Notice he says it is "by faith from first to last". This isn't just justifying righteousness. This is the righteousness that you come into the Kingdom in and it is the first thing you believe and it is the last thing you believe at the end of your life - you never go back to saying; "I will add another kind of righteousness to the righteousness I have found revealed in the Gospel". I don't pursue any other righteousness because that is the stumbling block! I am not going to be put to shame!
Now the religious world may shame me and attack me and attack the grace message and even lie about you and even if you make a mistake they will love it and pounce upon your mistakes and say; "THAT is because of the grace message!". But even though you may be accused of things and maybe you do things wrong that the religious world tries to make you ashamed of - if you trust in this gift of righteousness - in the eyes of God you will never be put to shame by your Father.
Every time you get sin going on in churches that peace, grace and law abide - they mix grace and law, Old and New together - there is lots of sin going on in those churches but every time someone sins and it is exposed, they say; "It's not our fault - we also preach law - we balance grace with law". Legalistic churches - sometimes people are sinning a lot more than in grace churches but when they sin the preacher doesn't get the blame because he preached law to them! He told them not to! But in grace churches when they sin? "Ah it is the grace message". I want to say to the legalistic churches; "Have a look in your back yard!".
I know churches where grace was preached for a long time and people got established to a degree in grace and the level of sin was pretty low. Then other preachers came in and began to preach; "Do better, try harder, hasn't Jesus done enough for you?!". And they manipulate people with what Jesus did at the Cross. "You owe Him something now". No - you DID owe Him something and then He cancelled everything at the Cross!
Now you don't have to have a whole load of "have-tos" but a whole load of "want-tos"! I want to love Him! I want to serve Him! I want to pray! I want to give! I want to be generous! Because - I just want to!
These guys come in and preach "have-tos" and if you want the blessing then try harder and I see adultery come into those churches and see unmarried couples begin to sleep together and I want to go back and slap those leaders and say; "Go back to preaching what Paul preached - stop trying to put law on the people to stop them sinning!". I guarantee if you have got two glass houses in the street and the first one has got no signs up on the outside and little boys come outside and will not even notice the first glass house. But the second - big signs say "Do not throw stones! Do NOT throw stones at the glass house!". Everything in me - the law stirs up sin! Go to Romans chapter 3. I love the law of God. The law of God is wonderful but I love it for what it was written for. The law was never written to give you the blessing!
Obeying the law was NEVER in God's mind! God never gave the law to make you holy - never! It was written to make you feel like hell! It was written to make you feel like a worm in the dust! It was written to silence all our arrogance to God and all our self-righteousness. It was written to make you concious of sin and once you realise that you are so ugly in your arrogant religious self-righteousness then you repent of pursuing a righteousness of your own and submit!
You stop stumbling over the rock and submit with all my imperfections!"I thank You that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!".
And when you do that, the peace of God comes, the power, fullness of grace - one blessing after another! You start hearing God's voice a lot easier! (Romans 10:4) - Christ is the end of the law. Once you realise the law is useless and can't save you - it is powerless! Paul says in Romans 7; "the law taking advantage of your sin deceived you even further". The written code stood opposed to you and God cancelled it at the Cross in Christ Jesus on behalf of the believer. Once you come to Christ that is it. No more law for you! No more measuring up. Jesus measured up for you and you are complete in Christ! You are the righteousness of God in Christ!
(Romans 3:19); "Whatever the law says - it says to those under the law". Thank God I am not under the law in Christ! This is what it says to those under the law (although it won't say it to you!); "So that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God". That's why no one will get to heaven by their own righteousness. (v20) - Therefore noone will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law we become concious of sin. But now a righteousness from God APART FROM THE LAW has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
Go to Romans 5:17; "If by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive (there's the active word again - active expectation of good) God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness".
That is so important! "Gift!". The gift of righteousness reigns in life through the one Man Christ Jesus. Now this is the problem here and this is how the devil is arguing this with false theology.
This is a gift of righteousness. The Greek tense is the present continuous tense. So God sees you CONTINUALLY as righteous!
Rob - what happens if I sin? Well shock of all shocks! Like I said last week - if the main purpose of Jesus dying on the Cross was to stop Christians sinning, then I reverently say this - He failed. Because I don't know one Christian on the planet who doesn't sin. But if the main reason why Jesus died on the Cross was so that our sin will never be imputed to us - so that our sinning will never be charged against us - "there is now therefore NO condemnation to those in Christ Jesus" - if the main reason He died was so my sin and sinning will never seperate me from God again then He was an utter success.
Jesus died on the Cross to lift condemnation completely off His people and when condemnation is lifted completely off His people then you are empowered to have greater authority against sin.
Some of the most obedient people on the planet today - the most holy, humble, pleasures to be with are people who are honest and transparent about their weaknesses and their short-comings and their failures and they are trusting in the grace of God and loving God and they know how many times they fail or make a mistake - yet they know they are still the righteousness of God!
Some say; "No you have got the robe of righteousness on and if you sin there are stains on that robe". What a disgusting blasphemy. How do you think that the righteousness of God can be stained by your sin?! No - Jesus was stained with your sin on the Cross once and for all time to make you perfect forever and no stain can stick to the righteousness you have!
Now if you are self-righteous then your sin adds all kinds of stains but you don't have any righteousness you have because it is a righteousness that is perfect because that's the one revealed in the Gospel. People say; "Oh yes we know it's a gift and you get a gift - Jesus come into my life". That's justification. But any sin you do after that you are no longer righteous and you have to confess your sin and repent and then you get your righteousness back. Well that's the problem isn't it - you get your righteousness back!
Well that's the problem - you will get your righteousness back! No - Romans 8 says no condemnation and nothing can seperate us! Nothing! Not your sinning! Your sinning seperated Jesus! "My God, My God - why have you forsaken Me?". So you will never be forsaken! If you confessing every sin was keeping your righteousness and open fellowship with God then you are in big trouble because you don't even know all the time when you sin. Because you have the religious sins of some cultures. God talks about being critical self-promoting, gossip.
Anything that is not of faith is sin!
So if being cut off from God happens because you haven't confessed your sin then every Christian on the planet is already cut off from God! Then they say; "Ah well we're cut off from God but we will go to heaven when we die hopefully". Oh pleaseeeee! This is a gift - it is not the reward of your obedience. It is a gift of Jesus' obedience on your behalf. Go to (v19);
"For just as through the disobedience of the one many, many were made siners so also through the obedience of the one man - the many (are imputed) or made righteous".
This is a fascinating thing that people say; "Yes you are righteous when you first get saved and then after that you have got to maintain your righteousness". We need to go back to the great preachers of 100 years ago - Charles Haddon Spurgeon and all who preached Colossians 2 that says; "And Christ forgave all your sins - at the Cross cancelling the written sins - at the Cross cancelling code".
When did Christ forgive all your sins? Before you had committed ONE! When Colossians 2 says past tense; "At the Cross, He forgave ALL your sins". Under the Old Covenant and under the Law you only get forgiveness when you confessed! In Christ - when did He forgive your sins? At the Cross you know what modern evangelicals believe? He only forgave your sins from the day you got born again to the day you got saved. Then after you got saved if sinned again then your righteousness is no longer as shining as it was before. WHERE do they get that theology?! If He can forgive all your sins from the day you were born to the day you got saved but can't forgive your sins after you got saved - then I would rather get saved the second before I die!!
He forgave ALL your sins at that glorious Cross! Gone! Blotted out! Finished! The sin issue is not even an issue anymore! The Father is not relating to you on that - you are the righteousness of God! This righteousness is NOT a reward of your obedience! It is a gift from God! That we submit to! We do not pursue it - we submit to it and we say; "I agree God! I am righteous in your sight forever!".
It is through the obedience of the one Man. Now it says through the disobedience of the one man, many (that is everyone) were made sinners. In other words Adam's disobedience brought condemnation and made you a sinner. You are not going to hell because of your sin - you are going to hell because of Adam's sin. People say; "That's not fair - if I want to go to hell, I want to go for my sin! Why should I go to hell for Adam's sin?".
Well God set it up as unfair because you are not going to heaven because of your righteousness or because of your obedience. You are going to heaven and you are righteous through a gift through the obedience of the one Man. Before you were in Christ and when you are in Adam and his disobedience - you are made a sinner and you were condemned by Adam's disobedience. Did you sin all the time? No! Everyone of us before we were Christians did good things. We fed the poor and gave to the hungry. Rock stars get philanthropic and give money and help and do good things. I did good things before I was a Christian!
My good things that I did were righteous acts but I could not "righteous" away my sinhood because I was in first Adam! Now they say that you are in the obedience of the last Adam - Jesus - and you have HIS gift of righteousness. You are meant to be able to "sin away" this righteousness but you can't "righteous" away your sin-hood in first Adam!?! That is blasphemy and what they are saying is that first Adam's disobedience is far more powerful than last Adam's obedience.
Now we are righteous and we have got to perform righteously? Well that means you have got to add to God's righteousness and how will you be established in righteousness if you don't know where God's righteousness ends and your performance of righteousness begins? On what are you established?
The Gospel is not about you changing. The Gospel is about how GOD changed the way He relates to you from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.
When I say "Old Covenant" I mean the law covenant of Moses - I don't mean Abraham. As I keep saying and people are saying around the world now - the Gospel is not about right living. My dad was an atheist most of his life and he lived a better moral life than most Christians. But he was on his way to hell - till I led him to Christ! The Gospel is not about right living. Buddhists live good lives as do Muslims. Atheists lead good lives and so do religious people and Hinduis! The Gospel is about right believing.
"For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed to all who believe - it is by faith from first to last".
Right believing will progressively lead to right living.
I think some people have come into our meetings and heard what we are saying now and say; "Is this a bunch of immoral people and are they all committing adultery all over the place?". I have been married for 34 years and Glenda and I have never committed adultery and never want to. I am too frightened of Glenda and will never do that! I want to live a life of integrity and authenticity - I want to obey God and lay my life down and die for Him if I need to. But no guilt! Just freedom and joy and getting drunk at 04:00 on a Sunday morning! When I do make mistakes I just thank God that I am the righteousness of God!
Go to Galatians. Obviously we are repeating and reinforcing things. I want to teach on how to hear God still and teach on the high priestly garments of Jesus and on the Benjamin generation - a prophetic word on that! But God said to start the year off by going back and reinforcing and establishing the foundations. If I have found God saying; "What are you pursuing Rob?" then I realise I hear a promise and think "okay I have got to do a bit to qualify mysefl a bit more" - then I know that some of you think that way. It is more than just hearing; "I am the righteousness of God" - it is being established in it that when the devil comes and says; "Now that sin you did there - that's it - God has had enough, no more blessing" - you will be so established that you will find that the funniest thing you have ever heard!
You will fall on your back and scream with laughter that the devil thinks you can "sin away" the obedience of Jesus - that means I couldn't "righteous" away my sinhood when I was in 1st Adam! Ha ha! You think I can sin away Jesus' righteousness?! Ha ha! Devil - what a joke! I AM the righteousness of God - no weapon can prevail against me! From the fullness of His grace I am receiving one blessing after another - hang around devil! Wait and you will see! Hang around here long enough and you will see the blessing!
I remember when we first got saved and we were university students at Rhodes and came into Christ and saw something of grace and we were living - every day I had to trust God for money. I knew this God was good. I would run up the forest - any excuse I could get. Before I was saved I was in the pub all day and then I got saved and any gap I had I am up into the bush to meet with the God I loved!
At the end of the day you can't just learn from hearing a preacher - you have got to meet with this God.
I would go meet with this God I loved and I got to know Him in the forests. That's where faith comes! I remember telling a cynic that every day I live by faith and have to believe God for money. Every day to live as a student! My wife had a baby and I had no income! While I was telling him the story this Afrikaan came up to me that we hardly knew at all at this time and he said; "Here this is for you - the Lord told me to give you this". Then he walked off. The cynic is looking at me and I just told him how God keeps providing and his eyes were coming out on stalks!
I opened the packet and money came pouring out! I felt like saying; "I told you so!". Our faith has grown since those days - one blessing after another! From the fullness of His grace.
You have got to like yourself and have this attitude that God likes me and He wants to bless me! I want to say to you - God loves you! He loves you! God doesn't want to bless you just so you are a greater minister! God wants to bless me because He loves me! Just because of the heaven of it - He loves me! He sees you as righteous!
Let's go to 2 Scriptures - what are you relying on and depending on for the blessing? I want to tell you with authority and with full persuasion that the vast majority of people in Christ in the earth do not have clarity on this and still have ambiguity and confusion and are still not established. They kind of think they are righteous in Christ but they kind of think they are disqualified for the blessing and have to try and keep the law a little better. In City Church International we are not going to have that mix of stinking thinking! We are going to stick with the Scriptures!
We will cover some of the certain verses - the "difficult verses" such as James 5; "Confess your sins to one another". But Rob - you just said that you didn't have to confess! We will cover that. We will cover all of those difficult Scriptures and you will get so excited! You will believe even stronger! You can't depend on even mix a little bit. You can't depend on your righteousness and His a bit. You can't pursue your righteousness to be qualified for the blessing and submit to His righteousness! It is one or the other! That's why some Christians are only blessing partially - they partially believe grace and partially believe law!
When you move over from law to grace fully - you will come into the fullness of the blessing of God.
(Galatians 3:10); "All who rely on observing a law are under a curse for it is written; cursed is everyone who doesn't continue to do everything written in the book of the Law".
If you are thinking that praying one hour extra a day will give you the blessing then you have MISSED it! If you want to pray for an hour then pray for an hour - I love praying for hours!
(v11); "Clearly no one is justified by God through the law because the righteous will live by faith. The law is not based on faith - on the contrary the man who does these things will live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written; 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a true' - He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit".
Now it doesn't make any snese to say that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law - to say that if I break the law and fail the law then God won't curse me if I keep the law 100%!
If Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law that means even when we fail at times and fall short of the law there is NO CURSE coming our way because Christ has redeemed us from law's curse by satisfying the integrity of the High Court of Justice in heaven - He was cursed in our place with the curse of the law that we deserve - He was cursed so that the blessing given to Abraham could come to the Gentiles by the promise of the Spirit through faith!
It is so clear! There is no ambiguity - except the religious world blurs it on purpose to keep control over the people of God with guilt manipulation.
What are we depending on? Your behaviour? Or are you depending on your faith in Jesus behaviour?! If you are depending on your behaviour then you are pursuing a righteousness and establishing a righteousness of your own - which will bring the curse on you. The curse of the law - but if you are in faith that you have a faith righteousness that's not based on your fluctuating performance but your faith in the performance of Jesus Christ who performed perfect obedience for you then you will be secure.
I don't have to have perfect faith in first Adam - I was born into this world into the lineage of first man and I was born into his disobedience.
No matter how many good things I did - all my good things were like filthy rags - I could not "righteous" away my sinhood in first Adam! But to come out of first Adam took faith and I have to believe that there is a righteousness I cannot sin away ever - it is from first to last - a righteousness from God that is not a reward for my obedience - it is a GIFT for my faith!
(v5); "Does God give you His Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard?". Paul told them that he clearly preached the Cross and revelation of righteousness. (v6); "Consider Abraham - he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness ... those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham - the man of faith". (Romans 4:3); "What does the Scripture say? ... faith is credited as righteousness" = right standing with God. How do we increase the blessing in our lives? (v8); "Blessed is the man who's sin the Lord will never count against him!". He is not counting your sins! There is no sense of heaven going; "I saw that! I saw you!". No all He sees is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!
(Deuteronomy 28) - this is a famous Scripture of blessings and curses that is often read out in churches but not explained clearly enough. The context is that God is going to announce to Israel the blessings and the curses. I will not read all the curses to you - they are too depressing. The curses are poverty - you can NEVER say that poverty is a blessing! I highly respect Francis of Assisi and his poverty oath but he was walking in the lights that he had. He was an awesome man of God but in Deuteronomy 28 poverty is a sign of the curse. There is a great controversy about what is called the "prosperity message".
I am not preaching it - I am preaching the Gospel which INCLUDES prosperity because God made Abraham very rich! The controversy with the prosperity message is that in some cases it was preached wrong because they did not understand law and grace. So the inference in the prosperity message is that if your life is right - do good and get good. Do bad and get bad. Which is the law! The prosperity message will sound like this - if your life is right and you are praying enough and giving enough and going to church enough and reading your Bible enough and living righteously enough then the Lord will bless you! Well what does that say? To those that aren't blessed and who do have poverty and are poor and are suffering? Well it must be because you are so sinful! No.
Many of the people who preached the prosperity message went into debt and borrowed so much money they were living in false prosperity. Many of them have disappeared off the face of the earth. You would drive to church in a big car because I am prospering! What are you trying to say to people? This car is a sign of my right doing and that produces arrogance and pride and shame and pain in the people who are in places where they are disenfranchised and don't have access to banks and loans and opportunities. We preach that this message will help people in India, Africa - anywhere in the world where they will stop putting the law on people and saying; "Your good acts and living obediently enough will get you prosperity and your good health and your blessing is a sign of you praying enough and being holy enough and giving enough and jumping through all the right steps and hoops".
No! There is just one step. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that you are the righteousness of God from the fullness of His grace, we have received one blessing after another! You can tell that to poor people in Africa and if they stay in this message and hold on and get through all the stuff that we have got through and evey spirit that has tried to hinder this message and stop us believing this and making us feel afraid if we believe this - that this is a false gospel and we must be deceived! No - the one that has the law in it - Paul says if anyone preaches a Gospel with alw in, may he be doubly condemned! This is the Good News! This is the New Covenant! This is Jesus!
The other one is the false one and I would rather be criticised by man than doubly condemned by God for preaching a gospel that has the law in it!
When we see someone in poverty, we don't say; "That is your sinful life - you sowed and now you have reaped!". That is an Old Covenant teaching and when you read sowing and reaping, you had better read it in it's context and make sure you are not transferring Old Covenant sowing and Old Covenant reaping into New Covenant.
Everything from the Old Covenant must go through the Cross! If it passes cleanly through the Cross the apostles make very little comment on it but if it doesn't pass cleanly through the Cross then the Jewish apostles make commentary on it and re-interpret Old Covenant truths into higher revelation New Covenant truths.
Like I said on Thursday night Old Covenant was a "snip on the tip" - it didn't pass cleanly through the Cross so Paul says; "Our hearts are circumcised" - the re-birth! He uses the words; "the circumcision of the heart" - that old nature has been cut out and the new creation nature of Christ is put in.
Sowing and reaping - I am not getting what I sow! I am getting what the Father sowed in Jesus on my behalf.
Now Galatians 5:6 says "Don't be deceived ... whatever a man sows to the flesh, he will from the flesh reap destruction". Read the context! Don't read the NIV - read most of the other translations when you read Galatians. It says "flesh" not "sinful nature". The context is clear - what is "flesh"? It is not just "sinful nature" - the flesh is my human effort - my sweat - my trying to keep the law - my trying to earn. He said; "You have given up on the Spirit and gone back to human effort. You are trying now in human effort to be good enough and you aren't believing what Abraham believed and believing you are righteous. Now you are trying to get righteous and you pursuing righteousness instead of submitting to what you got as a gift".
That is the flesh! He said; "I am warning you - if you keep sowing to that human effort - that law-keeping stuff, you will reap from it destruction! But if you sow to the Spirit - which is the revelation of righteousness in Christ - from the Spirit you will reap eternal life!". Eternal life is not living forever! People will live eternally in hell as well. Eternal life is a quality of life - the life of God lived now in the flesh in this body!
Your house didn't burn down because you sowed something bad 3 years ago! When Jesus died on the Cross, He caused a total crop failure of every negative seed I have sowed and every bad thing I have done since getting saved! I am not waiting for a bad harvest to catch up with me!
People are looking over their shoulders thinking, "I didn't forgive enough or do enough - I was bitter - I did wrong there!". That is still Old Covenant thinking! Under the Old Covenant you only get forgiveness as you forgive others! That is Old Covenant! The New Covenant (Colossians 3:13) says; "Forgive one another just as Christ HAS forgiven you!". He has TOTALLY forgiven you past, present and future and it is not conditional on you forgiving others - it has already taken place at the Cross!
You can't mess it up! You have got full forgiveness! And because I know that even if I don't forgive them I am still already forgiven past, present and future then that empowers me to WANT to forgive them. People fear; "If I don't forgive them then God will not forgive me and He will hand me over to the tormentors". That is Jesus preaching before the Cross and before the New Covenant! That is a terrible motive! I forgive so easily because I have been totally forgiven by the Father and nothing bad I am sowing out there can get me to reap bad stuff today.
You may as well go and join a Buddist church if you are going to do the sowing and reaping thing - that is totally Old Covenant! (2 Corinthians 8); You have got to re-think traditions of men.
Now let's read Deuteronomy 28 - ready for a revelation? If the majority of Christians were believing the truth they would be drunk in the joy of God and would be blessed and would be walking in confidence and would be so happy and would love themselves and forgive everyone and wouldn't hold grudges or be analytical or self-concious! The traditions of men have been nullifying the power of God's Word and some bulldozers in Hong Kong has to start announcing the good enwsin Jesus Christ and break through all these strongholds and wrong ways of thinking. There are seminars that you can go to that will turn you into a inward looking maniac! Analysing everything that has been causing the problems in your life!
There is only one thing causing the problems in your life and that is unbelief that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!
The devil has got people running back into their mothers womb and running down this formula and that and taking you there and into your past. Your house burnt down because you didn't tithe! If I was a psychiatrist then I would do a thesis on Christians!
The religious traditions of men is the worst cause for mental health problems!
Here is God about to give the law - curse and blessing. Israel were slaves in Egypt and were under bondage. The Bible says in Exodusthat God remembered His covenant with Abraham. What is the covenant with Abraham? Grace and faith and no law! There was no law under Abraham! When Israel was in Egypt there was no Moses hearing the law at Mount Sinai. No law between Adam and Moses! Just a covenant of grace with Abraham! So He stirs up Moses to go to His people (Exodus 3:13) and say; "I am speaking on behalf of Abraham (covenant of God) and He will bring you out of Egypt with signs and wonders and miracles, and open up the Red Sea". They murmered and complained and sinned yet God turned the bitter waters sweet with the wood - the symbol of the Cross. They complained of not enough food and He brought down manna from heaven. And He never judged them! Why? They were under Abraham and under grace. They are sinning and yet God sees them as righteous in Abraham and in grace and in that covenant.
They do wrong and wrong and wrong and eventually Galatians 3 says that because of the sin of UNBELIEF - they did not believe in the grace of God! - God said "I will give you the law so the transgressions will increase".
So God brought the law to them and He gives them the opportunity to receive the law and the people should have got up as one and said; "We repent oh God! We don't want the law! We don't want to be blessed according to us keeping the law! We want what Abraham got! Abraham got blessed through faith in your goodness and we want that!". They didn't. They said to God; "Everything you tell us to do - we will do". Moses was still getting the law on Mount Sinai when they were already worshipping a golden calf.
Once the law came, curse after curse after curse came to Israel. From the time of Moses till the time of Christ redeeming Jew and Gentile from the curse; "ALL who will believe". (Deuteronomy 28:2); "You wanted the law? Not grace? Right you got it!". (v1); Can you see a problem in that? The Lord said "IF you obey these laws and commands THEN I will fully bless you". It is not about how much you try or how good your intentions are. It is to FULLY obey. That is 100% and there is no room to drop! (Galatians 3:10); "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse". (Deuteronomy 28:15); "IF ... all these curses will come and overtake you". We have read today that there is good news!
ONE fully obeyed on our behalf. One fully did it as last Adam on our behalf. One FULLY redeemed us from the curse of the law that the blessing given to Abraham can come tous. That means that NONE of the curses in Deuteronomy 28 belong to us - not even one. Christians should not be living under any curse of poverty, sickness, disease or broken relationships. Many Christians are living under the curse as people not in Christ because they are trying to pursue righteousness rather than submitting to the gift. None of the curses belong to us but ALL the blessings belong to us because in Christ we have FULLY obeyed the law! God wanted to relate to His people on grace and faith - not on our performance but HIS!
Now the day that any church moves into this level of blesssing then the world will know about it. And why not us!?! 2009 is the year - we are positioned for it!
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 3
Here is Part 3 in this awesome series. Still not chronological I know but one more day and then the five parts will be complete in all their glory!
“The Currency of Heaven - Faith”
Why don’t you open your Bibles for the heaven of it to Galatians chapter 3. For our international listeners, the good news is that Joshua and Janet Mills will be coming to “Grace and Glory” and will be here for the whole time and it will really create a powerful synergy with the prophetic anointing on Fini and Isi who are having a real move of God in Australia. Glenda, myself, Joshua, Janet - I really believe that we are going to go further into the cloud of glory than any of our previous “Grace and Glory” conferences that we have had in Hong Kong or Australia before. When a whole congregation comes or the majority comes it is far more than what you can get from one Sunday to the next.
What you have is four days - 2 meetings in the glory and we just focus on the Person of Jesus Christ, grace and glory, signs, wonders and miracles. You have one meeting and it takes you to another level in the anointing. Come back and have another meeting and it takes you further. That’s Day 1! And then you go to Thursday, Friday and Saturday! Last time we had it here, whole churches were changed and never have gone back and are still moving the move of God around the world. I want to encourage everyone in City Church International to take some leave and make some arrangements to be here.
Galatians 3. I am so excited about this message! We are talking about a series on being established in the gift of righteousness. I want to say this - we have done two messages in the series so far. Both are pivotal and foundational for the way that God is positioning this church this year. I believe they are prophetic and pivotal for the church around the world, as I gave that message on the first Sunday of this year and last week about being established in the gift of righteousness - it will answer a lot of questions about why Isaiah 54 is relevant. How no weapon formed against you will prosper and all those promises God makes that are not working in many Christians lives because there is one condition;
Not that you are holy enough or obey enough or are good enough but that you are established in the gift of righteousness.
Isaiah 53 is the picture of the Cross and the fact that Jesus was punished for our peace, He took our transgressions and our judgements - He was smitten for us and Isaiah 54 - God took an oath never to be angry with the New Covenant church again. Never to withdraw His love or His peace. And He says;
“You will be established in righteousness- your righteousness is of Me”.
He is talking about the gift of righteousness - not your works and when you hear about righteousness and hear a bit of teaching on it so it is in your sphere of thinking it will not reside and stay with you until you are ESTABLISHED in it! Those are pivotal messages for 2009 to position you to inherit what God is planning. But today is even more pivotal! Get today! Today pivotal to connect you to the last two. Today what we are talking about is the currency of heaven that connects you to the fullness of grace. What we are talking about is the currency of heaven that connects you to the blessing of the power of God. Just because I speak calmly doesn’t mean that you have to be calm in your response! You can know about grace and you can know about the gift of righteousness but if you don’t have the currency of heaven to connect and plug into those realities then all they are is academic theories to you. All they are is Bible information that you can win arguments and religious debates with.
God is not interested in us winning religious debates on grace and beating the Pharisees up[ with religious theological debates. God wants us to have the currency of heaven that connects with the manifest power of God and the blessing of God and when we walk in the blessing and walk in that power then the fruit is seen in our lives and THAT is the most convincing argument of all. I am so tired of the Western world mentality of thinking - where its engineering and architecture of theological ideas or debates. That is not Hebrew culture and it is not Kingdom culture!
Kingdom culture is “Can you do it? Can you demonstrate the power of signs and wonders? Can you demonstrate that God can meet all your needs according to His riches in Christ? Can you demonstrate the prosperity of God? Can you demonstrate how to have good relationships and a good marriage and a good life? Can you demonstrate joy when going through the tough times? Can you demonstrate happiness and miracle healing in you’re your body? That’s all I am interested in! I am not going to seminars that talk about theories and theological debates. The greatest debate is raising the dead, opening blind eyes, seeing the deaf hear and seeing God pour in multiplied millions of dollars that we can resource orphans and feed the poor and do whatever God has called us to do! We can put many men and women out on the field in China!
Millions is too small! I am talking about BILLIONS while the economic downturn goes down, the church will go up while we have this currency!
The exchange between heaven and earth is a currency of heaven called “FAITH”. If you haven’t got faith it doesn’t matter how much knowledge you have got about grace and righteousness or how much Bible knowledge you have got - there are people who know the Bible back to front but have zero faith. In this room everyone would believe and recognise how important faith is - I know that. Do we realise how important faith is? Most know that the Bible says in Hebrews 11:6;
“Now without faith, it is impossible to please God“.
Do we realise how impossible it is to please God without faith? The Bible says there is only two things that God cannot do. God is sovereign-ly by His unlimited capacity of His own self-existence - He has chosen to limit Himself in only two areas. 1. The Bible says it is impossible for God to lie. 2. The other area is actions into the earth - “Without faith it is impossible to please God”. I don’t care how moral or religious you are or how much Bible you know - that doesn’t please Me. That doesn’t produce a currency that produces a supernatural exchange into the earth realm.
The Bible doesn’t even say without love it is impossible to please God. Love is more important than faith (Galatians 5:6) - the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. If you don’t have love then the only thing that can please God won’t work. Because faith expresses itself through love. If I have got faith that can move mountains but I have not love - I have nothing. Faith is the only thing that pleases God. And it has to be expressed through love otherwise it won’t work. We have got a modern charismatic church that just says; “It’s love”. And they turn biblical godly love into a sentimental, syrupy, passive, shallow niceness. People with no authority to press into miracles, no authority to press through opposition or rejection. They are just sweet.
We don’t need the love that dies on a Cross. The love that lays its life down for friends and Gospel - that can forgive people when they spit on you and reject you. We don’t need a sweet sentimental love. We need a love that loves the world so much that we will press into God to get this currency of faith - that when we have faith in something, the love of God expresses itself in a way that carries the faith to the target itself and it manifests because God is love and then you will connect with Him - the God who is love.
You can love one another and if its not done in faith then it doesn’t please God. It is impossible to please God without faith. (Romans 14) “Anything that is not of faith is sin”. So all around the world where religious things are happening today and are singing songs and reading Scripture and doing religious things - if there isn’t a faith in a miracle working God - a faith to connect with the living God and pull heaven down to earth then it is sin. And it is not pleasing God. All the law obedience and external trappings of religious holiness - it is IMPOSSIBLE for that to please God!
This great God is a loving just God and for Him to require us to have faith to please Him is not unfair and unjust because faith is not irrational. Neither is faith intellectual because children can have faith and uneducated people can have faith - but faith is not irrational. Faith is not believing what you know is not true.
The reason why I believe certain things is because I have researched it intellectually and have enough evidence to know it is not true. I don’t have faith to just “make it be true“. Things are either true or not true. Faith doesn’t make things true because you just believe. That is modern existentialism. “Truth is whatever you want truth to be” - wrong answer. I have heard Christians say; “If the archaeology and science proved that the Bible isn’t true then I would still believe” - No! I will take the Bible and throw it away! I have heard His voice and seen His miracles! For 32 years I have heard His voice too many times! I was standing in Jerusalem years ago and such unbelief came over me and I had unbelief in Jesus in the Bible, in the existence of God and I am standing and have to go through all my intellectual evidence where I researched the Bible and went through the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, all the intellectual evidence. Then I went through all the times I have heard the audible voiceof God and what He told me was so true and accurate.
And faith rose up in me! At the end of the day faith is not illogical or irrational. Faith is not a blind leap into the dark but a leap into the light. (Hebrews 11:1) says faith is the evidence of things not seen. Faith has to do with evidence.
This is what faith is - faith is from the heart - a recognition by you of the goodness of God. Faith is a recognition that God is absolutely good all the time! That God’s nature is fully to bless you! If you have thoughts going through your head that argue with that then it shows that you still have trouble with heavenly currency. True faith is absolutely fully persuaded that God is good all the time and that He never acts in evil or makes you sick. God never curses and never judges you. God’s whole disposition and His whole being - His whole attributes and His entire nature wants to love you and do you good and bless you and help you fulfill your destiny. That’s what faith is!
How come so many Christians struggle with faith for miracles? Probably the majority of Christians in this world today have retreated into a rationalistic camp - a camp that says miracles have passed away - a camp that reasons away the supernatural.
Why is it that so many Christians struggle to have faith in the God of miracles? The answer to that question is the title to this sermon: “The Law Is Not Based on Faith”. Lets read it. (Galatians 3:2); “The law is not based on faith - herein is the ultimate insight to the real issue and the real problem as to the absence of true faith in many Christians lives. The law is not of faith - the law of God - the moral law - the 10 Commandments - the ministry of death written on tablets of stone that brought death - that law is not of faith. It’s not based on faith - it cannot produce faith in fact the law will KILL faith. The law will destroy faith (Romans 4:14) - says the law makes faith of no value.
Last year we had 3 healing meetings where we advertised healing. Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning and we had an amazing turnout with a lot of visitors. In the testimonies in the week after we had several dozen healings - certainly 12 that were clear and undisputable miracle healings. What was interesting to me was that most of the people healed were from City Church International even though we had many other precious, precious Christians from other churches come and join us for those 3 or 4 meetings. When we were praying for the sick, one of the things I began to diagnose very quickly was that many of our visitors were struggling to have the faith that connects with the power to get the healing. It is very simple and not derogatory or unkind but compassionate. The religious world that they were visiting us from - the context they were coming out of for a little visit into City Church International.
Their world was a world of law and rules and performances and the have-too’s to earn the blessing and the law is not based on faith. The law doesn’t produce faith and it kills faith. The law says you have to be good enough to get good from God all the time and He gives me what I don’t deserve so the law can never produce faith! It is anti-faith!
There were only two people in the entire Bible who Jesus commended for having great faith -not just good faith or big faith but great faith. He said; “I have never seen such great faith in all of Israel”. There was a Syro-Phonecian woman - she pressed into Jesus and said; “My daughter is vexed with demons, she is oppressed with demonic powers”. The disciples pushed her away and yet she pushed through the disciples - the thugs - the henchmen - the bouncers and she pushed into Jesus and said; “My daughter!”. He said “What have I got to do with you? I haven’t come for the dogs (meaning the Gentiles)” yet the next verse said that she worshipped Him and said; “But even the dogs eat the scraps from the Masters table”. He said; “Go your way, your daughter is made well - I have never seen such great faith in all of Israel!”. What a miracle!
The other was the Roman centurion that came to Jesus and said; “I am a man under authority and so I say go and they go and you need to just speak the word and my servant will be healed”. Jesus said “I have never seen such great faith in all Israel”. Now I hear people say an erroneous thing - they say the reason the centurion had great faith was because he was a man under authority so he knew Jesus would speak the word with authority. There is a truth in that faith dynamic. But what has a Roman centurion got to do with a home-maker Syro-Phonecian woman? What do they have in common that Jesus could say; “They have the greatest faith in all Israel” - greater than the high priests, priests, bishops, ach-bishops, arch-deacons and arch-demons. Greater than all the hierarchy of the Pharisees and Sadducee, Couldn’t-Sees and Wouldn’t-Sees! These two people had the greatest faith in Israel and what did they have in common?
They were both Gentiles and they never grew up into the law because the law is not based on faith, the law kills faith.
If you grew up in Israel in the time, the law was like your mothers milk. They would strap it to your wrists and your forehead and recite law. It was all about the law but the law is not based on faith! In Galatians 3:23 it says that before faith came we were held prisoners by the law - law will lock you up. It will kill your faith - it is not based on faith but on human effort, human earning, human deserving which is all anti-Gospel and it is anti-Christ and anti-anointing and it opposes the reality of the purpose why Jesus came to the earth.
Yet today there is a Gospel being preached around the world that mixes that which kills faith with grace. So they have got the thing that will give you some help mixed with poison that will kill what you have.
You will have faith for a while and then you will hear the next half of the message and that half will be the antidote that will kill it. So you will have faith for a while and then the law will kill it. That’s why around the world today there are people who can fast and pray for 40 days and come out and produce a week or two of a few miracles and signs and wonders because they are operating in a fading glory. They are operating under an Old Covenant fading glory that gives you a momentary glory.
We need to have miracles everyday - not once a week but every single day for the next sixty to seventy years! If you have got to go and fast for 40 days to produce a miracle then you may as well go and live with Moses and go and put on sackcloth and ashes and practice all the rituals and go and get circumcised and go to Jerusalem and pray at a certain place at a certain time and do all of that stuff! Or you can come over to what a Jewish apostle saw by revelation when he was caught up into the 3rd heaven. The champion of all champions who hated grace and opposed grace and killed and persecuted Christians and breathed out threats and slaughters against the church then ran into Jesus and fell to the ground under the power!
Is falling under the power biblical?!!?
The man that wrote most of the New Testament fell under the power and he heard a voice saying; "Saul, Saul why are you persecuting Me?". The man that was opposing grace was opposing Jesus and Jesus got a bit upset by it. So He opened the glory realm just a little bit and such piercing light came out at mid-day. What kind of light could out-shine the mid day desert sun!? And a voice came and Paul said; "Who are you Lord?". He asked and answered his own question inthe same sentence. Later on when he gave his testimony to the religious hierarchy, he said; "I met Jesus on the road to Damascus". He met Grace Himself who said; "You who are against grace are against Me".
Grace is not a theology - Grace is a Person. He is Jesus.
Now if this great legalist Paul can get saved and become the greatest champion of grace then there is hope for every person in Hong Kong who has grown up under law. Whether you are a Christian in Hong Kong or not, the majority grow up under secular humanistic controlled laws or religious laws. If you grow up in Great Britain then you will have grown up under religious laws. If you grew up in South Africa in most denominations thenyou would have grown up under religious laws. You would have to keep religious calendars and ceremonies and certain things, fast on certain holy days of themonth to become good enough for God.
All of that is not based on faith and what is not of faith is IMPOSSIBLE to please God!
All those billions of dollars spend on religion have got nothing to do with eternity - it is just dead works and nowhere in the New Testament does it say that we must repent for our sins. It says we must repent of dead works (Hebrews 10). The Church is confessing their sin and repenting of their sin. No - repent of unbelief! The only sin in the New Covenant is unbelief! Every other sin was dealt with at the Cross. This sounds radical but this is the New Testament!
Look at Galatians 3:5-6; "Does God give you His Spirit" - the Greek word there is "supply" which is the present, continous tense. "Does God continually keep moving in power by His Spirit and work signs and wonders among you - because you observed the law or because you believed what you heard?". This faith currency in grace and not being under law is about the moving of the Spirit and the working of miracles that God KEEPS (present, continous tense) supplying. We shouldn't have occasional miracles! There should be daily healings of the sick, daily miracles of financial provision, daily deliverance from depression, daily miracles in marriages, daily miracles of people being saved, of people living in joy, of acts of love and kindness and service!
But when you go back under law then it is not based on faith and without faith it is impossible to please God.
What do you think is the number 1 hindrance to signs, wonders and miracles and the power and Presence of God in the earth today? It is LAW. If you take the law off God's people long enough (and it takes years because they have been under it for centuries) thoughit comes back regularly, you keep getting it off. The preacher must keep preaching and eventually you get it off them completely. There is NO more condemnation, no more law thinking, no more earning and deserving and thinking to get the blessing! Once that has gone then; "I have never seen such GREAT FAITH in all of Hong Kong". That church will get such commendation in Hong Kong one day that FULLY gets the law off God's people.
Why can you go to a country like South Africa and grow churches into the thousands without being a book of Acts church? Without signs and wonders and miracles? Because they are preachinga mixture of law and grace - but then if you have slick services that are short, not too inconvinient for people with sophisticated musicians that are up-tempo, no heavy powerful anointing, just a light anointing to make you feel good - then a nice little talk and people will come in because it is not distracting for their week. That is not the Kingdom and that is not what Jesus died for! He died for what you see in Acts 5! A church full of glory, full of Presence, full of signs, full of wonders!
I don't want to go on T.V and argue theologically about grace in Hong Kong. I want to see this church so broken free from the law thatwe have such great faith that miracles become like pop corn and signs and wonders and then go on T.V and give the testimony of the miracles! I am tired of theological debates!
Go to Luke 13. Luke 13 is one of my favourite passges. I have to stay calm because if I don't I would get so angry when I read some of these things. And I shouldn't get angry because I was nearly a Pharisee once! I never quite became a Pharisee but about 12 years ago God said to me; "You are nearly becoming a Pharisee" and that was the turn around of my lifeThis year many Pharisees like Paul are going to be turned around and many churches that are labouring under that which kills faith will be turned around! Go to Luke 13:16.
Sorry oh sorry my goodness go back to Galatians 3! This is going to leap in your heart and will help you understand what this grace thing is really all about. (Galatians 3:9) - "So those who have faith" - heavenly currency. The thing that without it is impossible to please God. " ... those that without faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith".
What is faith again? Faith is a recognition that God's whole being and desire is one of TOTAL goodness to you and His desire is to heal you, give you blessing, give you health, establish you, strengthen you and give you success in the destiny that He has called you for.
"Those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith". How many years before the law of Moses did Abraham live? About 430 years. There was nothing in the earth when Abraham was there that killed faith. There was nothing there that was not based on faith, that nullified faith. There was no law for 430 years! Abraham was not a Jew - he was a pagan and an Iraqui. He is a heathen more than likely worshipping idols and living an unholy life. He doesn't even know what it is to be obedient to God and is minding his own business when one day the Bible says that El-Shaddi (the God who is more than enough) showed up. Not the God who is "just enough". Not El-Cheapo! El-Shaddi! We always try and do things the cheapest way as Christians. This is the church and let's save money and have cake sales because God cannot provide.
He blesses people when they bring tithes and offerings into the house of God - there is enough! I repeat that we do not tithe under Malachi 3 but we do tithe the way that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob tithed 430 years before the law. We do not tithe to get the curse off us. Jesus got it off us at the Cross. We tithe into the local church where we are fed because we are partners with God investing into eternity so that the storehouses always have more than enough for the purposes of God. Abraham meets with the living God and the opening words of God to him (who doesn't know anything about law) is;
"I will bless you - I will make your name great - I will make you a blessing - I will bless all that bless you and all that curse you I will curse and I will make you a blessing to all nations".
Abraham does not have any law to measure up to whether he thinks he deserves it or not. He is not thinking law - the law is not based on faith! He is having a promise that is coming in the Presence of God and Abraham just says; "YES! I believe it!".
If he had been under the law he would have said; "Can't you see that I am not good enough or not deserving enough?". But he had GREAT faith BECAUSE he was not under the law!
He was like those two Gentiles in Israel who just believed and the Bible said that "God credited it to him as righteousness".
What is a righteous man? A righteous man in the New Covenant is someone that believes that the nature of God is to bless you.
That's what faith is! I believe that the nature of God is not to judge me or to kill me or to beat me up - but to make me a blessing, to make my name great, to make my name influential in the nations of the earth and to protect me when people come against me and curse me so that they get dealt with by God. Be careful when you attack righteous people! I am not talking about self-righteous people, law-keeping people but someone who has got faith that they are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus because their faith says; "I know God is good to me all the time!". (Genesis 13:1) says that God made Abraham very wealthy in livestock, in silver and gold. Genesis 14 and 15 - Abraham is winning battles over greater armies than him. He is prospering and expanding - he is a friend of God and living in the blessing of God - there is no law! 25 years of total blessing and then in Genesis 17 God requires him to be circumcised.
Then the legalists jump in! "See! He earned it through circumcision". Paul argues against this so well in the New Covenant. That circumcision came 25 years after God had already declared Abraham to be righteous and had already made him wealthy and a friend of God and given him victories. He was not being circumcised to be a keeper of the law. The law was still 430 years away! The circumcision in Genesis 17 is about his connection to the land of Israel that God was promising to his descendants. Then Abraham dies and Isaac is born and unbelievably blessed as was Jacob. Then we have got Joseph and the12 brothers who became the 12 tribes of Israel. Joseph ends up as the Prime Minister of Egypt and a descendant of Abraham so that his brothers come down in a time of famine because a seed of Abraham is giving wisdom to a secular, ungodly nation who have stored up grain though 7 years of abundance and have saved for the 7 years of famine so that they can resource the nations of the earth because they are not in debt through greed but a wise descendant of Abraham was there who knew how to prosper an ungodly nation.
When you are blessed, Hong Kong is blessed. When you are blessed, the company that you work for is blessed. Whoever is with you will be blessed if you have faith like Abraham had faith! But if you have faith like the people of Israel hadfaith under law - then it is not based on faith but on how hard you can work to deserve it. Now all of Israel is prospering in Egypt and growing and becoming wealthy and increasing in number. Then a Pharoh emerged that knew not Joseph. Joseph had been dead for a while and now a Pharoh appears on the scene. He says to his government; "Look how these Israelites are prospering!". Why? They were still under the covenant of Abraham! "Look how they are prospering - we have got to do something or they will take over Egypt!". I wish that Hong Kong would say; "Look how the church is prospering in the economic downturn! They are becoming more wealthy! Miracles! Healings! Blessing on their marriages and on their children!". So this Pharoh says; "We had better put them into slavery".
When grace brings prosperity into your life - the devil says; "We had better put them into slavery. Let's bring them into the slavery of religion. The slavery of churches that look successful (because they have got a lot of people turning up) but there is no book of Acts signs and wonders! Or the mighty Presence of God!". Slavery!
So they are in slavery and are crying out to God and the Bible says in Exodus that; "God heard their groans and He remembered His covenant with Abraham". What was that covenant? Law? No Mount Sinai had not arrived yet! Just grace! He raises up Moses in Exodus 3:3 and says; "Go and tell the people of Israel that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will bring them out of slavery". God brought them out with signs and wonders and miracles and split the Red Sea open! He did miracles in the desert in grace - He poured down manna from heaven and turned the bitter waters sweet.
Yet Israel murmered and complained and rebelled and not once did God judge them or punish them or reject them but He continued to bless them becasue they were in Abraham!
But eventually Galatians 3 tells us why the law was introduced. "Because of the sin of unbelief". Romans 5 says that the law was introduced to increase the transgressions. Why did God introduce the law? Do you think He wanted to bring the law in? I hear people say that God brought the law for the moral government of society. No! God brought the law in because of their unbelief. They did not believe in Abraham or the grace and goodness of God - they did not believe in His kindness so finally God said "Okay if you won't believe in grace then I will give you something that is not based on faith and grace - I will give you the law". Paul says that the law was introduced to increase sinning because of their unbelief in Abraham. After they took the law they started to sin more - while the law was still being given on Mount Sinai they were already worshipping a golden calf! They were already into idolatry because they said to Moses; "If God wants to give us thelaw then we will do whatever He tells us!". That is self-righteous arrogance.
Galatians 3:15-17 brings good news however! When the law was introduced - the covenant of Moses did not nullify the covenant that God made with Abraham which is grace and faith. So now God has got two covenants that Israel can relate to Him through. 1. A covenant of grace and faith and be blessed along with Abraham with faith like Abraham that God is good all the time. 2. The law.
They chose primarily to relate to Him through the law. Every now and then you see prophets of faith rising up and you see seasons of revival - temporary seasons but then a whole long period of low level anointing. You know what little seasons of revival are? Not the fasting that they went through or the warfare and the beating themselves up. Somewhere in the middle of that they got a glimpse of grace and they believed in the goodness of God and that pulled heaven down and for a year or two there were miracles and you then you watched while every revival STOPPED. It was because legalism came in. The law is not based on faith and without faith it is impossible to please God.
So Israel goes through little seasons of signs and wonders and revival and then back to law and death. By the time Jesus arrived - and remember that all four Gospels are still under the Old Covenant. The Cross hasn't happened yet! The New Covenant started on the Day of Pentecost just as Moses covenant of law started on the Day of Pentecost. Pentecost is 50 days after Passover after they came out of Egypt through the Passover they arrived at Mount Sinai. There they were given the law and it was called Pentecost! After the Passover of Passovers when the Lamb of God was slain on Golgotha - instead of the law being given from Zion, the Spirit of God was poured out on Jewish people!
In the Gospels Jesus was still preaching under an Old Covenant. He came to a society that had the option to go the Abrahamic way or go the law way but the Pharisees and the Sadducees had so blotted out Abraham that they had moved all Israel into the law. How do I know that? No miracles had happened for 400 years. No one had heard God for 400 years! What is that? That is law and it is not based on faith.
To hear God you have got to have faith.
No miracles in Israel for 400 years! In Luke 11:52 Jesus said; "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees - woe to you experts in the law - you have taken away the key to knowledge". What is the key to knowledge? Abraham! He had disappeared off the scope to Israelites as a way to get blessingfrom God. They were now fully under the covenant of law even though the law (Paul says in Galatians 3 did not nullify the covenant that God made with Abraham and any Israelite during those centuries could have said; "I am not going to live under law - I am going to live under Abraham! God gives a promise and I believe the promise with faith and grace gives me a manifestation of the power". The Pharisees and Sadducees had taken away the key of knowledge - the revelation of Abraham and they did not enter in themselves as well as stopping others who were trying to enter in.
The biggest break of my heart is to go to conferences and only have a few shots at believers who have been under law for years. You se them come up to you and say; "For years I have known something was wrong and I wanted to get into the Presence of God but I just couldn't seem to get into it". I want to ask - who are your leaders and what is the contentthey are preaching? I am not anti-leadership! I am for leadership! But I am anti-controlling leadership. John Maxwell said; "Leadership is influence". Yes that is true but only up to a point. We need to be careful!
Leadership is primarily to give people influence to empower the people and take control off the people and have fewer leaders in the church and have a mighty powerful priesthood of all believers - a royal priesthood!
Under Old Covenant they were called just priests. Under the New we are a royal priesthood!
Experts in the law don't enter into the miraculous or grace or the supernatural. They hold slick, well-oiled and well run effective services with a lot of loud music and sophisticated music that is impressive but you have an encounter with music and not an encounter with anointing! I have been in meetings where the music is so good that even the world can't do it that good but I come out crying and saying; "I didn't feel Your Presence at all - You weren't there. There was a lot of sweat and dancing and sophisticated music (which I love) but when I go to church, I don't want to encounter good music. I want to encounter God!
I will go and watch the Rolling Stones if I want good music! Leaders must get so full of grace and must get their hearts so free from fear of condemnation and so free from fear that maybe I am being deceived. "Maybe I am preaching a false gospel, maybe I am going too far in this". No you aren't going far enough!
One of the leading theologians in the world today - Michael Eaton - sat with Glenda and I at breakfast in July last year and he looked across, having listened to me preach the whole week. He had studied transcripts from the website that people had sent him hoping that he would criticise me. After a week of hearing me preach, he looked acorss the table and got up - walked over and said this - the leading theologian in the world today who reads his Bible in Greek and Hebrew - and he said; "Rob you are not preaching grace extreme enough!". Then he gave Glenda and I a prayer and left.
The law covenant never set aside the Abrahamic covenant. It came in because of Israel's unbelief in the goodness of God because the law is not based on faith whereas Abraham was based on faith and those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham. (Luke 13:16) " ... a daughter of Abraham". Abraham had been dead near 2000 years! " ... 18 long years" - Jesus could have said, "18 years" but He was making a point. "On the Sabbath Day" - that is the law! How did this woman find out that she was a daughter of Abraham? The synagogues would have been full when Jesus was preaching. The woman sat at the back and was bowed over and crippled and had been so for 18 years and it wasn't by God but by Satan. As a woman back in the male chauvinistic society wouldn't have even been visible to Jesus. But while He is preaching He was preaching about Abraham. Jesus would have preached the law to the self-righteous and Abraham to the broken and to the hungry.
How did she find out that she was a daughter of Abraham? It was the content of His messag.e He would have been telling them about the covenant of grace. He preached first to remove unbelief and wrong thinking! That is why long preaching is good! Thinking needs to be changed. (v10). Jesus taught, explained and unpacked truth. (vv7-9) - He is talking about the fig tree that needs to be cut down because it is not producing fruit. The fig tree represents Israel. There are two trees that represent Israel in the Bible. The olive tree and the fig tree. The fig tree represents the death of the law - the abscence of the supernatural, dead religion of Israel. Adam and Even covered themselves with fig leaves. It was their human effort. Jesus cursed a fig tree in Mark 11. If you want to talk about the supernatural however - the line of Abraham in Israel then you look to the olive tree.
The olive tree is the life of God. If you go to Romans 9, 10, 11 then you will see that it talks about the descendants of Abraham - not all are descended from Abraham. He had Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael was the child of human effort and the flesh. Issac was born through the power of the Spirit in the supernatural of God. In Romans 11 it says that we - the Gentiles - have been grafted into the olive tree.
The olive tree is the anointing - the life of God.
If you read the context going back to Romans 9 then he is saying not about the law - the olive tree is a result of Abraham. True Israelites are descendants of the faith that Abraham had not the law! We are grafted not into the fig tree but the olive tree! We are not grafted into the law of Israel but into the faith of Abraham! We have got Christians today trying to be grafted back into the fig tree. How will Israelites get saved if we get grafted into the fig tree? They will get saved and envy us when we get saved and grafted into the inheritance of Abraham! The olive tree!
So Jesus is preaching Abraham! But when He gets to the arrogant self-righteous then He lays the law on them to expose how arrogant they are in not keeping it!
Don't take the outlandish things that Jesus says in the gospel and say 'I've got to live by that!'. See the context is that He is saying this to the arrogant people! Christians say; 'That is the new law of the New Covenant!'. Jesus Christ is preaching under the Old Covenant that you must not commit adultery but under the New Covenant even if you look you have committed it! Oh pleaseeeeee! There is no faith in that! We are all dead if that is the case! He was preaching Abraham to the broken and the hungry for God and He was preaching the law to the self-righteous and to the arrogant". He was preaching Abraham to the broken and hungry for God.
(v11); "Bent over" - she could not straighten up at all. You will never be able to straighten up under the law. "When Jesus saw her". How did He see her? She was sitting at the back, crippled and bent over. "You are set free from your infirmities". He is speaking in past tense but she is still bent over. (v15); "Praised God". As Jesus was preaching the wonder of Abraham suddenly in this woman's mind she realised that I don't have to be a daughter of the law! This wonderful Messiah is saying that I am a daughter of Abraham! Abraham's covenant is still available! I don't have to come to God through the law - I can come to God through Abraham! And I imagine that she got a little angry. She probably thought; "I have never heard the synagogue rulers tell me that I am a daughter of Abraham. All they told me was that I am a daughter of the law! They told me that to get the blessing I have got to keep the law and deserve it and be good enough and they told me that the reason I am sick is that God is against me and punishing me!". (Because the law is not of faith but rather kills faith).
But she said; "Today I realise that I am a daughter of Abraham! This means I can get healed today without deserving it!". I can get out of financial debt without deserving it! I can get out of depression today without deserving it! I can get out of bondage and addiction today without deserving it! When you reaon and think in your heart that I can get the blessing without deserving it then you are thinking the thoughts of faith - you are thinking faith. The law is not based on faith. The law will just tell you; "Forget about faith - just get good enough to deserve". When you preach Abraham - people realise that they can get the blessing without deserving it! That is what produces faith! Smith Wigglesworth said "God will ignore 10 million people in a crowd that don't have faith and find that one in the crowd that does have faith".
There was a whole synagogue full and Jesus found the one woman! She was sitting there and thinking; "Wow I am a daughter of Abraham! I am not a daughter of the law! I can get things from the Father who loves me! Things I don't deserve and they are available now through the currency of faith!".
This is the tragedy although the story ends well. On the first day that this daughter of Abraham got sick - healing was available that day. The 2nd year healing was available. The 3rd year healing was available and the 4th. But she never got it because only when she had a clear message on grace did healing kick in. For 18 years she had no capacity to have faith for her healing because the law is not based on faith. She saw herself as the daughter of the law not a daughter of Abraham. 18 years of bondage ended the day she understood grace! 18 years of bondage ended the day that she understood I am the daughter of Abraham. I am no longer a daughter of the law!
I hate it when I hear pepole say that miracles are only for a certain time. "One day in the right time". The right time for this lady was 18 years ago! Why did Jesus say "18 long years?". Isn't it amazing that Grace Himself said; "Should not this daughter of Abraham be healed on the Sabbath?". Why is He saying that? Who is He saying that to? He is saying that to the synagogue rulers. Jesus is saying that to the law people who have robbed the church of faith. Should not this person have come out of financial debt? Should not this person have a healing in their body? Should not they get a better job? Should not they prosper? He is saying that they SHOULD but theyare saying you should NOT! All heaven is obligated once they come out of law and rise up then heaven can't help but heal!
I don't care how big the tumour is or how crippled the person is- we cannot bring them in here after years of law and lay our hands on them and they are sons or daughters of law in their mind and not thinking they are good enough and faith will not and cannot work because they are under the law. Those who are of Abraham's faith are blessed along with Abraham - when the law is taken off people then we can get them all healed. That's why we preach this message year after year - it is important that you and I get to know this message. I pray every day that God will show how to share this message with the lost - how to share it with the unsaved. How to share it with Christians! I cry out to God - give me multitudes of people who are on their way to hell and a Christ-less eternity. Help me to move in the revelation of grace as a son of Abraham - that we may bring all the hindrances of faith off people.
It THEN doesn't matter how big the tumour is because it is no problem to God! It doesn't matter how many years he has been crippled - it is no problem to God!
Let me say - God doesn't do miracles because man has needs. I say that categorically. God never does miracles because people have needs. If that is the case then God is a cruel God. If God would just do miracles because we have a need then why doesn't He do it? Why are so many crippled and broken and poor? The Spirit of God only moves where there is faith! I am sorry to say that - but that is the truth! Without faith it is impossible to please God. With law over your mind it is impossible to have faith.
You may have faith for some minor miracles such as a sore shoulder or an ear ache but to see tumours drop off people's faces without effort? It takes not a great preacher coming to Hong Kong to hold a crusade. I welcome someone doing that. But that is not what it takes for they are just men and women with a powerful gif on them and while they are here miracles happen and when they go, the church goes back to normal. It takes local churches to consistently embody the New Covenant and consistently look to God to have their minds cleansed of the stinking thinking of the law. So that in community God will anchor a lightening rod of unprecidented miracles. When that happens you won't need to go on T.V. There won't be buildings big enough. Have you been to the hospitals in Hong Kong recently? They are like war zones. People lying in the corridors at 02:00. People are dying!
There are so many dying of incurable diseases. All of those that died this year and last year didn't have to. 18 long years. She couldhave been healed on the first year. I hate law and I hate it because of what it does to God's people. We are living with a hangover of Israel that God had to bring the law in. Now Jesus came on the Cross to redeem us from the law that the blessing given to Abraham can come on the Gentiles through the power of the Spiritby faith. We are still living under the law 2000 years later in the abscence of the greatest signs and wonders and miracles. 18 long years. 18 years is the number for bondage. In the book of Judges it says that Israel will be in captivity for 18 years. 6-6-6. 3 = perfection. 6 = human pride and human effort. The mark of the beast is 666 so what is the mark of the beast? Legalism. Human effort. Babylonian religion. Not the Gospel of the New Covenant!
She was bowed over for 18 years by a demonic spirit. She attended church for 18 years and the Pharisees didn't heal her. They made her a daughter of the law not a daughter of Abraham. When Jesus came she discovered that she was a daughter of Abraham. 18 years! What was she looking at for 18 years? Dust. The Bible says in the book of Genesis that God said to the serpant; "Dust you shall eat". She spent 18 years looking at the food of Satan. All she saw was human effort and people's feet. When Jesus touched her with grace, the first thing she saw in 18 years was Jesus. Messiah! When you live under the law you spend your life psychologically looking at dust and human effort and condemnation and disappointment and struggles. When the revelation that you are not a son or daughter of the law but a son of Abraham comes - when that revelation comes to you you will see that lovely face shining on you every day and you will move in a new realm of freedom and glory.
Can you believe that these synagogue leaders tried to oppose Jesus and stop Him bringing a member of their congregation out of bondage? That's how this religious demon has opposed you and me for 4 and a half years in Hong Kong as we preach this message. A pastor in the synagogue tried to oppose grace to keep a member of his congregation crippled! In the name of religion! (v14); "Indignant". Jesus responded? (v15); "You hypocrites!". Don't you like Jesus attitude to religious people?! He doesn't get sweet and back off. He just says; "You hypocrites!". This is the Jesus we love. I love Him! "All His opponentswere humiliated but all the people were delighted". In any culture Jesus was not ashamed of humiliating people that oppose grace because His eyes were on the broken multitudes that need grace.
He didn't hold a board meeting and discuss law and grace. He just preached grace and produced faith in the people. I promise you this lady would have got healed if Jesus had preached the law there because the law is not based on faith. He preached Abraham and she realised in that flash of revelation that I am a daughter of Abraham and that God gives me what I don't deserve!
“The Currency of Heaven - Faith”
Why don’t you open your Bibles for the heaven of it to Galatians chapter 3. For our international listeners, the good news is that Joshua and Janet Mills will be coming to “Grace and Glory” and will be here for the whole time and it will really create a powerful synergy with the prophetic anointing on Fini and Isi who are having a real move of God in Australia. Glenda, myself, Joshua, Janet - I really believe that we are going to go further into the cloud of glory than any of our previous “Grace and Glory” conferences that we have had in Hong Kong or Australia before. When a whole congregation comes or the majority comes it is far more than what you can get from one Sunday to the next.
What you have is four days - 2 meetings in the glory and we just focus on the Person of Jesus Christ, grace and glory, signs, wonders and miracles. You have one meeting and it takes you to another level in the anointing. Come back and have another meeting and it takes you further. That’s Day 1! And then you go to Thursday, Friday and Saturday! Last time we had it here, whole churches were changed and never have gone back and are still moving the move of God around the world. I want to encourage everyone in City Church International to take some leave and make some arrangements to be here.
Galatians 3. I am so excited about this message! We are talking about a series on being established in the gift of righteousness. I want to say this - we have done two messages in the series so far. Both are pivotal and foundational for the way that God is positioning this church this year. I believe they are prophetic and pivotal for the church around the world, as I gave that message on the first Sunday of this year and last week about being established in the gift of righteousness - it will answer a lot of questions about why Isaiah 54 is relevant. How no weapon formed against you will prosper and all those promises God makes that are not working in many Christians lives because there is one condition;
Not that you are holy enough or obey enough or are good enough but that you are established in the gift of righteousness.
Isaiah 53 is the picture of the Cross and the fact that Jesus was punished for our peace, He took our transgressions and our judgements - He was smitten for us and Isaiah 54 - God took an oath never to be angry with the New Covenant church again. Never to withdraw His love or His peace. And He says;
“You will be established in righteousness- your righteousness is of Me”.
He is talking about the gift of righteousness - not your works and when you hear about righteousness and hear a bit of teaching on it so it is in your sphere of thinking it will not reside and stay with you until you are ESTABLISHED in it! Those are pivotal messages for 2009 to position you to inherit what God is planning. But today is even more pivotal! Get today! Today pivotal to connect you to the last two. Today what we are talking about is the currency of heaven that connects you to the fullness of grace. What we are talking about is the currency of heaven that connects you to the blessing of the power of God. Just because I speak calmly doesn’t mean that you have to be calm in your response! You can know about grace and you can know about the gift of righteousness but if you don’t have the currency of heaven to connect and plug into those realities then all they are is academic theories to you. All they are is Bible information that you can win arguments and religious debates with.
God is not interested in us winning religious debates on grace and beating the Pharisees up[ with religious theological debates. God wants us to have the currency of heaven that connects with the manifest power of God and the blessing of God and when we walk in the blessing and walk in that power then the fruit is seen in our lives and THAT is the most convincing argument of all. I am so tired of the Western world mentality of thinking - where its engineering and architecture of theological ideas or debates. That is not Hebrew culture and it is not Kingdom culture!
Kingdom culture is “Can you do it? Can you demonstrate the power of signs and wonders? Can you demonstrate that God can meet all your needs according to His riches in Christ? Can you demonstrate the prosperity of God? Can you demonstrate how to have good relationships and a good marriage and a good life? Can you demonstrate joy when going through the tough times? Can you demonstrate happiness and miracle healing in you’re your body? That’s all I am interested in! I am not going to seminars that talk about theories and theological debates. The greatest debate is raising the dead, opening blind eyes, seeing the deaf hear and seeing God pour in multiplied millions of dollars that we can resource orphans and feed the poor and do whatever God has called us to do! We can put many men and women out on the field in China!
Millions is too small! I am talking about BILLIONS while the economic downturn goes down, the church will go up while we have this currency!
The exchange between heaven and earth is a currency of heaven called “FAITH”. If you haven’t got faith it doesn’t matter how much knowledge you have got about grace and righteousness or how much Bible knowledge you have got - there are people who know the Bible back to front but have zero faith. In this room everyone would believe and recognise how important faith is - I know that. Do we realise how important faith is? Most know that the Bible says in Hebrews 11:6;
“Now without faith, it is impossible to please God“.
Do we realise how impossible it is to please God without faith? The Bible says there is only two things that God cannot do. God is sovereign-ly by His unlimited capacity of His own self-existence - He has chosen to limit Himself in only two areas. 1. The Bible says it is impossible for God to lie. 2. The other area is actions into the earth - “Without faith it is impossible to please God”. I don’t care how moral or religious you are or how much Bible you know - that doesn’t please Me. That doesn’t produce a currency that produces a supernatural exchange into the earth realm.
The Bible doesn’t even say without love it is impossible to please God. Love is more important than faith (Galatians 5:6) - the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. If you don’t have love then the only thing that can please God won’t work. Because faith expresses itself through love. If I have got faith that can move mountains but I have not love - I have nothing. Faith is the only thing that pleases God. And it has to be expressed through love otherwise it won’t work. We have got a modern charismatic church that just says; “It’s love”. And they turn biblical godly love into a sentimental, syrupy, passive, shallow niceness. People with no authority to press into miracles, no authority to press through opposition or rejection. They are just sweet.
We don’t need the love that dies on a Cross. The love that lays its life down for friends and Gospel - that can forgive people when they spit on you and reject you. We don’t need a sweet sentimental love. We need a love that loves the world so much that we will press into God to get this currency of faith - that when we have faith in something, the love of God expresses itself in a way that carries the faith to the target itself and it manifests because God is love and then you will connect with Him - the God who is love.
You can love one another and if its not done in faith then it doesn’t please God. It is impossible to please God without faith. (Romans 14) “Anything that is not of faith is sin”. So all around the world where religious things are happening today and are singing songs and reading Scripture and doing religious things - if there isn’t a faith in a miracle working God - a faith to connect with the living God and pull heaven down to earth then it is sin. And it is not pleasing God. All the law obedience and external trappings of religious holiness - it is IMPOSSIBLE for that to please God!
This great God is a loving just God and for Him to require us to have faith to please Him is not unfair and unjust because faith is not irrational. Neither is faith intellectual because children can have faith and uneducated people can have faith - but faith is not irrational. Faith is not believing what you know is not true.
The reason why I believe certain things is because I have researched it intellectually and have enough evidence to know it is not true. I don’t have faith to just “make it be true“. Things are either true or not true. Faith doesn’t make things true because you just believe. That is modern existentialism. “Truth is whatever you want truth to be” - wrong answer. I have heard Christians say; “If the archaeology and science proved that the Bible isn’t true then I would still believe” - No! I will take the Bible and throw it away! I have heard His voice and seen His miracles! For 32 years I have heard His voice too many times! I was standing in Jerusalem years ago and such unbelief came over me and I had unbelief in Jesus in the Bible, in the existence of God and I am standing and have to go through all my intellectual evidence where I researched the Bible and went through the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, all the intellectual evidence. Then I went through all the times I have heard the audible voiceof God and what He told me was so true and accurate.
And faith rose up in me! At the end of the day faith is not illogical or irrational. Faith is not a blind leap into the dark but a leap into the light. (Hebrews 11:1) says faith is the evidence of things not seen. Faith has to do with evidence.
This is what faith is - faith is from the heart - a recognition by you of the goodness of God. Faith is a recognition that God is absolutely good all the time! That God’s nature is fully to bless you! If you have thoughts going through your head that argue with that then it shows that you still have trouble with heavenly currency. True faith is absolutely fully persuaded that God is good all the time and that He never acts in evil or makes you sick. God never curses and never judges you. God’s whole disposition and His whole being - His whole attributes and His entire nature wants to love you and do you good and bless you and help you fulfill your destiny. That’s what faith is!
How come so many Christians struggle with faith for miracles? Probably the majority of Christians in this world today have retreated into a rationalistic camp - a camp that says miracles have passed away - a camp that reasons away the supernatural.
Why is it that so many Christians struggle to have faith in the God of miracles? The answer to that question is the title to this sermon: “The Law Is Not Based on Faith”. Lets read it. (Galatians 3:2); “The law is not based on faith - herein is the ultimate insight to the real issue and the real problem as to the absence of true faith in many Christians lives. The law is not of faith - the law of God - the moral law - the 10 Commandments - the ministry of death written on tablets of stone that brought death - that law is not of faith. It’s not based on faith - it cannot produce faith in fact the law will KILL faith. The law will destroy faith (Romans 4:14) - says the law makes faith of no value.
Last year we had 3 healing meetings where we advertised healing. Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning and we had an amazing turnout with a lot of visitors. In the testimonies in the week after we had several dozen healings - certainly 12 that were clear and undisputable miracle healings. What was interesting to me was that most of the people healed were from City Church International even though we had many other precious, precious Christians from other churches come and join us for those 3 or 4 meetings. When we were praying for the sick, one of the things I began to diagnose very quickly was that many of our visitors were struggling to have the faith that connects with the power to get the healing. It is very simple and not derogatory or unkind but compassionate. The religious world that they were visiting us from - the context they were coming out of for a little visit into City Church International.
Their world was a world of law and rules and performances and the have-too’s to earn the blessing and the law is not based on faith. The law doesn’t produce faith and it kills faith. The law says you have to be good enough to get good from God all the time and He gives me what I don’t deserve so the law can never produce faith! It is anti-faith!
There were only two people in the entire Bible who Jesus commended for having great faith -not just good faith or big faith but great faith. He said; “I have never seen such great faith in all of Israel”. There was a Syro-Phonecian woman - she pressed into Jesus and said; “My daughter is vexed with demons, she is oppressed with demonic powers”. The disciples pushed her away and yet she pushed through the disciples - the thugs - the henchmen - the bouncers and she pushed into Jesus and said; “My daughter!”. He said “What have I got to do with you? I haven’t come for the dogs (meaning the Gentiles)” yet the next verse said that she worshipped Him and said; “But even the dogs eat the scraps from the Masters table”. He said; “Go your way, your daughter is made well - I have never seen such great faith in all of Israel!”. What a miracle!
The other was the Roman centurion that came to Jesus and said; “I am a man under authority and so I say go and they go and you need to just speak the word and my servant will be healed”. Jesus said “I have never seen such great faith in all Israel”. Now I hear people say an erroneous thing - they say the reason the centurion had great faith was because he was a man under authority so he knew Jesus would speak the word with authority. There is a truth in that faith dynamic. But what has a Roman centurion got to do with a home-maker Syro-Phonecian woman? What do they have in common that Jesus could say; “They have the greatest faith in all Israel” - greater than the high priests, priests, bishops, ach-bishops, arch-deacons and arch-demons. Greater than all the hierarchy of the Pharisees and Sadducee, Couldn’t-Sees and Wouldn’t-Sees! These two people had the greatest faith in Israel and what did they have in common?
They were both Gentiles and they never grew up into the law because the law is not based on faith, the law kills faith.
If you grew up in Israel in the time, the law was like your mothers milk. They would strap it to your wrists and your forehead and recite law. It was all about the law but the law is not based on faith! In Galatians 3:23 it says that before faith came we were held prisoners by the law - law will lock you up. It will kill your faith - it is not based on faith but on human effort, human earning, human deserving which is all anti-Gospel and it is anti-Christ and anti-anointing and it opposes the reality of the purpose why Jesus came to the earth.
Yet today there is a Gospel being preached around the world that mixes that which kills faith with grace. So they have got the thing that will give you some help mixed with poison that will kill what you have.
You will have faith for a while and then you will hear the next half of the message and that half will be the antidote that will kill it. So you will have faith for a while and then the law will kill it. That’s why around the world today there are people who can fast and pray for 40 days and come out and produce a week or two of a few miracles and signs and wonders because they are operating in a fading glory. They are operating under an Old Covenant fading glory that gives you a momentary glory.
We need to have miracles everyday - not once a week but every single day for the next sixty to seventy years! If you have got to go and fast for 40 days to produce a miracle then you may as well go and live with Moses and go and put on sackcloth and ashes and practice all the rituals and go and get circumcised and go to Jerusalem and pray at a certain place at a certain time and do all of that stuff! Or you can come over to what a Jewish apostle saw by revelation when he was caught up into the 3rd heaven. The champion of all champions who hated grace and opposed grace and killed and persecuted Christians and breathed out threats and slaughters against the church then ran into Jesus and fell to the ground under the power!
Is falling under the power biblical?!!?
The man that wrote most of the New Testament fell under the power and he heard a voice saying; "Saul, Saul why are you persecuting Me?". The man that was opposing grace was opposing Jesus and Jesus got a bit upset by it. So He opened the glory realm just a little bit and such piercing light came out at mid-day. What kind of light could out-shine the mid day desert sun!? And a voice came and Paul said; "Who are you Lord?". He asked and answered his own question inthe same sentence. Later on when he gave his testimony to the religious hierarchy, he said; "I met Jesus on the road to Damascus". He met Grace Himself who said; "You who are against grace are against Me".
Grace is not a theology - Grace is a Person. He is Jesus.
Now if this great legalist Paul can get saved and become the greatest champion of grace then there is hope for every person in Hong Kong who has grown up under law. Whether you are a Christian in Hong Kong or not, the majority grow up under secular humanistic controlled laws or religious laws. If you grow up in Great Britain then you will have grown up under religious laws. If you grew up in South Africa in most denominations thenyou would have grown up under religious laws. You would have to keep religious calendars and ceremonies and certain things, fast on certain holy days of themonth to become good enough for God.
All of that is not based on faith and what is not of faith is IMPOSSIBLE to please God!
All those billions of dollars spend on religion have got nothing to do with eternity - it is just dead works and nowhere in the New Testament does it say that we must repent for our sins. It says we must repent of dead works (Hebrews 10). The Church is confessing their sin and repenting of their sin. No - repent of unbelief! The only sin in the New Covenant is unbelief! Every other sin was dealt with at the Cross. This sounds radical but this is the New Testament!
Look at Galatians 3:5-6; "Does God give you His Spirit" - the Greek word there is "supply" which is the present, continous tense. "Does God continually keep moving in power by His Spirit and work signs and wonders among you - because you observed the law or because you believed what you heard?". This faith currency in grace and not being under law is about the moving of the Spirit and the working of miracles that God KEEPS (present, continous tense) supplying. We shouldn't have occasional miracles! There should be daily healings of the sick, daily miracles of financial provision, daily deliverance from depression, daily miracles in marriages, daily miracles of people being saved, of people living in joy, of acts of love and kindness and service!
But when you go back under law then it is not based on faith and without faith it is impossible to please God.
What do you think is the number 1 hindrance to signs, wonders and miracles and the power and Presence of God in the earth today? It is LAW. If you take the law off God's people long enough (and it takes years because they have been under it for centuries) thoughit comes back regularly, you keep getting it off. The preacher must keep preaching and eventually you get it off them completely. There is NO more condemnation, no more law thinking, no more earning and deserving and thinking to get the blessing! Once that has gone then; "I have never seen such GREAT FAITH in all of Hong Kong". That church will get such commendation in Hong Kong one day that FULLY gets the law off God's people.
Why can you go to a country like South Africa and grow churches into the thousands without being a book of Acts church? Without signs and wonders and miracles? Because they are preachinga mixture of law and grace - but then if you have slick services that are short, not too inconvinient for people with sophisticated musicians that are up-tempo, no heavy powerful anointing, just a light anointing to make you feel good - then a nice little talk and people will come in because it is not distracting for their week. That is not the Kingdom and that is not what Jesus died for! He died for what you see in Acts 5! A church full of glory, full of Presence, full of signs, full of wonders!
I don't want to go on T.V and argue theologically about grace in Hong Kong. I want to see this church so broken free from the law thatwe have such great faith that miracles become like pop corn and signs and wonders and then go on T.V and give the testimony of the miracles! I am tired of theological debates!
Go to Luke 13. Luke 13 is one of my favourite passges. I have to stay calm because if I don't I would get so angry when I read some of these things. And I shouldn't get angry because I was nearly a Pharisee once! I never quite became a Pharisee but about 12 years ago God said to me; "You are nearly becoming a Pharisee" and that was the turn around of my lifeThis year many Pharisees like Paul are going to be turned around and many churches that are labouring under that which kills faith will be turned around! Go to Luke 13:16.
Sorry oh sorry my goodness go back to Galatians 3! This is going to leap in your heart and will help you understand what this grace thing is really all about. (Galatians 3:9) - "So those who have faith" - heavenly currency. The thing that without it is impossible to please God. " ... those that without faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith".
What is faith again? Faith is a recognition that God's whole being and desire is one of TOTAL goodness to you and His desire is to heal you, give you blessing, give you health, establish you, strengthen you and give you success in the destiny that He has called you for.
"Those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham the man of faith". How many years before the law of Moses did Abraham live? About 430 years. There was nothing in the earth when Abraham was there that killed faith. There was nothing there that was not based on faith, that nullified faith. There was no law for 430 years! Abraham was not a Jew - he was a pagan and an Iraqui. He is a heathen more than likely worshipping idols and living an unholy life. He doesn't even know what it is to be obedient to God and is minding his own business when one day the Bible says that El-Shaddi (the God who is more than enough) showed up. Not the God who is "just enough". Not El-Cheapo! El-Shaddi! We always try and do things the cheapest way as Christians. This is the church and let's save money and have cake sales because God cannot provide.
He blesses people when they bring tithes and offerings into the house of God - there is enough! I repeat that we do not tithe under Malachi 3 but we do tithe the way that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob tithed 430 years before the law. We do not tithe to get the curse off us. Jesus got it off us at the Cross. We tithe into the local church where we are fed because we are partners with God investing into eternity so that the storehouses always have more than enough for the purposes of God. Abraham meets with the living God and the opening words of God to him (who doesn't know anything about law) is;
"I will bless you - I will make your name great - I will make you a blessing - I will bless all that bless you and all that curse you I will curse and I will make you a blessing to all nations".
Abraham does not have any law to measure up to whether he thinks he deserves it or not. He is not thinking law - the law is not based on faith! He is having a promise that is coming in the Presence of God and Abraham just says; "YES! I believe it!".
If he had been under the law he would have said; "Can't you see that I am not good enough or not deserving enough?". But he had GREAT faith BECAUSE he was not under the law!
He was like those two Gentiles in Israel who just believed and the Bible said that "God credited it to him as righteousness".
What is a righteous man? A righteous man in the New Covenant is someone that believes that the nature of God is to bless you.
That's what faith is! I believe that the nature of God is not to judge me or to kill me or to beat me up - but to make me a blessing, to make my name great, to make my name influential in the nations of the earth and to protect me when people come against me and curse me so that they get dealt with by God. Be careful when you attack righteous people! I am not talking about self-righteous people, law-keeping people but someone who has got faith that they are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus because their faith says; "I know God is good to me all the time!". (Genesis 13:1) says that God made Abraham very wealthy in livestock, in silver and gold. Genesis 14 and 15 - Abraham is winning battles over greater armies than him. He is prospering and expanding - he is a friend of God and living in the blessing of God - there is no law! 25 years of total blessing and then in Genesis 17 God requires him to be circumcised.
Then the legalists jump in! "See! He earned it through circumcision". Paul argues against this so well in the New Covenant. That circumcision came 25 years after God had already declared Abraham to be righteous and had already made him wealthy and a friend of God and given him victories. He was not being circumcised to be a keeper of the law. The law was still 430 years away! The circumcision in Genesis 17 is about his connection to the land of Israel that God was promising to his descendants. Then Abraham dies and Isaac is born and unbelievably blessed as was Jacob. Then we have got Joseph and the12 brothers who became the 12 tribes of Israel. Joseph ends up as the Prime Minister of Egypt and a descendant of Abraham so that his brothers come down in a time of famine because a seed of Abraham is giving wisdom to a secular, ungodly nation who have stored up grain though 7 years of abundance and have saved for the 7 years of famine so that they can resource the nations of the earth because they are not in debt through greed but a wise descendant of Abraham was there who knew how to prosper an ungodly nation.
When you are blessed, Hong Kong is blessed. When you are blessed, the company that you work for is blessed. Whoever is with you will be blessed if you have faith like Abraham had faith! But if you have faith like the people of Israel hadfaith under law - then it is not based on faith but on how hard you can work to deserve it. Now all of Israel is prospering in Egypt and growing and becoming wealthy and increasing in number. Then a Pharoh emerged that knew not Joseph. Joseph had been dead for a while and now a Pharoh appears on the scene. He says to his government; "Look how these Israelites are prospering!". Why? They were still under the covenant of Abraham! "Look how they are prospering - we have got to do something or they will take over Egypt!". I wish that Hong Kong would say; "Look how the church is prospering in the economic downturn! They are becoming more wealthy! Miracles! Healings! Blessing on their marriages and on their children!". So this Pharoh says; "We had better put them into slavery".
When grace brings prosperity into your life - the devil says; "We had better put them into slavery. Let's bring them into the slavery of religion. The slavery of churches that look successful (because they have got a lot of people turning up) but there is no book of Acts signs and wonders! Or the mighty Presence of God!". Slavery!
So they are in slavery and are crying out to God and the Bible says in Exodus that; "God heard their groans and He remembered His covenant with Abraham". What was that covenant? Law? No Mount Sinai had not arrived yet! Just grace! He raises up Moses in Exodus 3:3 and says; "Go and tell the people of Israel that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will bring them out of slavery". God brought them out with signs and wonders and miracles and split the Red Sea open! He did miracles in the desert in grace - He poured down manna from heaven and turned the bitter waters sweet.
Yet Israel murmered and complained and rebelled and not once did God judge them or punish them or reject them but He continued to bless them becasue they were in Abraham!
But eventually Galatians 3 tells us why the law was introduced. "Because of the sin of unbelief". Romans 5 says that the law was introduced to increase the transgressions. Why did God introduce the law? Do you think He wanted to bring the law in? I hear people say that God brought the law for the moral government of society. No! God brought the law in because of their unbelief. They did not believe in Abraham or the grace and goodness of God - they did not believe in His kindness so finally God said "Okay if you won't believe in grace then I will give you something that is not based on faith and grace - I will give you the law". Paul says that the law was introduced to increase sinning because of their unbelief in Abraham. After they took the law they started to sin more - while the law was still being given on Mount Sinai they were already worshipping a golden calf! They were already into idolatry because they said to Moses; "If God wants to give us thelaw then we will do whatever He tells us!". That is self-righteous arrogance.
Galatians 3:15-17 brings good news however! When the law was introduced - the covenant of Moses did not nullify the covenant that God made with Abraham which is grace and faith. So now God has got two covenants that Israel can relate to Him through. 1. A covenant of grace and faith and be blessed along with Abraham with faith like Abraham that God is good all the time. 2. The law.
They chose primarily to relate to Him through the law. Every now and then you see prophets of faith rising up and you see seasons of revival - temporary seasons but then a whole long period of low level anointing. You know what little seasons of revival are? Not the fasting that they went through or the warfare and the beating themselves up. Somewhere in the middle of that they got a glimpse of grace and they believed in the goodness of God and that pulled heaven down and for a year or two there were miracles and you then you watched while every revival STOPPED. It was because legalism came in. The law is not based on faith and without faith it is impossible to please God.
So Israel goes through little seasons of signs and wonders and revival and then back to law and death. By the time Jesus arrived - and remember that all four Gospels are still under the Old Covenant. The Cross hasn't happened yet! The New Covenant started on the Day of Pentecost just as Moses covenant of law started on the Day of Pentecost. Pentecost is 50 days after Passover after they came out of Egypt through the Passover they arrived at Mount Sinai. There they were given the law and it was called Pentecost! After the Passover of Passovers when the Lamb of God was slain on Golgotha - instead of the law being given from Zion, the Spirit of God was poured out on Jewish people!
In the Gospels Jesus was still preaching under an Old Covenant. He came to a society that had the option to go the Abrahamic way or go the law way but the Pharisees and the Sadducees had so blotted out Abraham that they had moved all Israel into the law. How do I know that? No miracles had happened for 400 years. No one had heard God for 400 years! What is that? That is law and it is not based on faith.
To hear God you have got to have faith.
No miracles in Israel for 400 years! In Luke 11:52 Jesus said; "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees - woe to you experts in the law - you have taken away the key to knowledge". What is the key to knowledge? Abraham! He had disappeared off the scope to Israelites as a way to get blessingfrom God. They were now fully under the covenant of law even though the law (Paul says in Galatians 3 did not nullify the covenant that God made with Abraham and any Israelite during those centuries could have said; "I am not going to live under law - I am going to live under Abraham! God gives a promise and I believe the promise with faith and grace gives me a manifestation of the power". The Pharisees and Sadducees had taken away the key of knowledge - the revelation of Abraham and they did not enter in themselves as well as stopping others who were trying to enter in.
The biggest break of my heart is to go to conferences and only have a few shots at believers who have been under law for years. You se them come up to you and say; "For years I have known something was wrong and I wanted to get into the Presence of God but I just couldn't seem to get into it". I want to ask - who are your leaders and what is the contentthey are preaching? I am not anti-leadership! I am for leadership! But I am anti-controlling leadership. John Maxwell said; "Leadership is influence". Yes that is true but only up to a point. We need to be careful!
Leadership is primarily to give people influence to empower the people and take control off the people and have fewer leaders in the church and have a mighty powerful priesthood of all believers - a royal priesthood!
Under Old Covenant they were called just priests. Under the New we are a royal priesthood!
Experts in the law don't enter into the miraculous or grace or the supernatural. They hold slick, well-oiled and well run effective services with a lot of loud music and sophisticated music that is impressive but you have an encounter with music and not an encounter with anointing! I have been in meetings where the music is so good that even the world can't do it that good but I come out crying and saying; "I didn't feel Your Presence at all - You weren't there. There was a lot of sweat and dancing and sophisticated music (which I love) but when I go to church, I don't want to encounter good music. I want to encounter God!
I will go and watch the Rolling Stones if I want good music! Leaders must get so full of grace and must get their hearts so free from fear of condemnation and so free from fear that maybe I am being deceived. "Maybe I am preaching a false gospel, maybe I am going too far in this". No you aren't going far enough!
One of the leading theologians in the world today - Michael Eaton - sat with Glenda and I at breakfast in July last year and he looked across, having listened to me preach the whole week. He had studied transcripts from the website that people had sent him hoping that he would criticise me. After a week of hearing me preach, he looked acorss the table and got up - walked over and said this - the leading theologian in the world today who reads his Bible in Greek and Hebrew - and he said; "Rob you are not preaching grace extreme enough!". Then he gave Glenda and I a prayer and left.
The law covenant never set aside the Abrahamic covenant. It came in because of Israel's unbelief in the goodness of God because the law is not based on faith whereas Abraham was based on faith and those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham. (Luke 13:16) " ... a daughter of Abraham". Abraham had been dead near 2000 years! " ... 18 long years" - Jesus could have said, "18 years" but He was making a point. "On the Sabbath Day" - that is the law! How did this woman find out that she was a daughter of Abraham? The synagogues would have been full when Jesus was preaching. The woman sat at the back and was bowed over and crippled and had been so for 18 years and it wasn't by God but by Satan. As a woman back in the male chauvinistic society wouldn't have even been visible to Jesus. But while He is preaching He was preaching about Abraham. Jesus would have preached the law to the self-righteous and Abraham to the broken and to the hungry.
How did she find out that she was a daughter of Abraham? It was the content of His messag.e He would have been telling them about the covenant of grace. He preached first to remove unbelief and wrong thinking! That is why long preaching is good! Thinking needs to be changed. (v10). Jesus taught, explained and unpacked truth. (vv7-9) - He is talking about the fig tree that needs to be cut down because it is not producing fruit. The fig tree represents Israel. There are two trees that represent Israel in the Bible. The olive tree and the fig tree. The fig tree represents the death of the law - the abscence of the supernatural, dead religion of Israel. Adam and Even covered themselves with fig leaves. It was their human effort. Jesus cursed a fig tree in Mark 11. If you want to talk about the supernatural however - the line of Abraham in Israel then you look to the olive tree.
The olive tree is the life of God. If you go to Romans 9, 10, 11 then you will see that it talks about the descendants of Abraham - not all are descended from Abraham. He had Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael was the child of human effort and the flesh. Issac was born through the power of the Spirit in the supernatural of God. In Romans 11 it says that we - the Gentiles - have been grafted into the olive tree.
The olive tree is the anointing - the life of God.
If you read the context going back to Romans 9 then he is saying not about the law - the olive tree is a result of Abraham. True Israelites are descendants of the faith that Abraham had not the law! We are grafted not into the fig tree but the olive tree! We are not grafted into the law of Israel but into the faith of Abraham! We have got Christians today trying to be grafted back into the fig tree. How will Israelites get saved if we get grafted into the fig tree? They will get saved and envy us when we get saved and grafted into the inheritance of Abraham! The olive tree!
So Jesus is preaching Abraham! But when He gets to the arrogant self-righteous then He lays the law on them to expose how arrogant they are in not keeping it!
Don't take the outlandish things that Jesus says in the gospel and say 'I've got to live by that!'. See the context is that He is saying this to the arrogant people! Christians say; 'That is the new law of the New Covenant!'. Jesus Christ is preaching under the Old Covenant that you must not commit adultery but under the New Covenant even if you look you have committed it! Oh pleaseeeeee! There is no faith in that! We are all dead if that is the case! He was preaching Abraham to the broken and the hungry for God and He was preaching the law to the self-righteous and to the arrogant". He was preaching Abraham to the broken and hungry for God.
(v11); "Bent over" - she could not straighten up at all. You will never be able to straighten up under the law. "When Jesus saw her". How did He see her? She was sitting at the back, crippled and bent over. "You are set free from your infirmities". He is speaking in past tense but she is still bent over. (v15); "Praised God". As Jesus was preaching the wonder of Abraham suddenly in this woman's mind she realised that I don't have to be a daughter of the law! This wonderful Messiah is saying that I am a daughter of Abraham! Abraham's covenant is still available! I don't have to come to God through the law - I can come to God through Abraham! And I imagine that she got a little angry. She probably thought; "I have never heard the synagogue rulers tell me that I am a daughter of Abraham. All they told me was that I am a daughter of the law! They told me that to get the blessing I have got to keep the law and deserve it and be good enough and they told me that the reason I am sick is that God is against me and punishing me!". (Because the law is not of faith but rather kills faith).
But she said; "Today I realise that I am a daughter of Abraham! This means I can get healed today without deserving it!". I can get out of financial debt without deserving it! I can get out of depression today without deserving it! I can get out of bondage and addiction today without deserving it! When you reaon and think in your heart that I can get the blessing without deserving it then you are thinking the thoughts of faith - you are thinking faith. The law is not based on faith. The law will just tell you; "Forget about faith - just get good enough to deserve". When you preach Abraham - people realise that they can get the blessing without deserving it! That is what produces faith! Smith Wigglesworth said "God will ignore 10 million people in a crowd that don't have faith and find that one in the crowd that does have faith".
There was a whole synagogue full and Jesus found the one woman! She was sitting there and thinking; "Wow I am a daughter of Abraham! I am not a daughter of the law! I can get things from the Father who loves me! Things I don't deserve and they are available now through the currency of faith!".
This is the tragedy although the story ends well. On the first day that this daughter of Abraham got sick - healing was available that day. The 2nd year healing was available. The 3rd year healing was available and the 4th. But she never got it because only when she had a clear message on grace did healing kick in. For 18 years she had no capacity to have faith for her healing because the law is not based on faith. She saw herself as the daughter of the law not a daughter of Abraham. 18 years of bondage ended the day she understood grace! 18 years of bondage ended the day that she understood I am the daughter of Abraham. I am no longer a daughter of the law!
I hate it when I hear pepole say that miracles are only for a certain time. "One day in the right time". The right time for this lady was 18 years ago! Why did Jesus say "18 long years?". Isn't it amazing that Grace Himself said; "Should not this daughter of Abraham be healed on the Sabbath?". Why is He saying that? Who is He saying that to? He is saying that to the synagogue rulers. Jesus is saying that to the law people who have robbed the church of faith. Should not this person have come out of financial debt? Should not this person have a healing in their body? Should not they get a better job? Should not they prosper? He is saying that they SHOULD but theyare saying you should NOT! All heaven is obligated once they come out of law and rise up then heaven can't help but heal!
I don't care how big the tumour is or how crippled the person is- we cannot bring them in here after years of law and lay our hands on them and they are sons or daughters of law in their mind and not thinking they are good enough and faith will not and cannot work because they are under the law. Those who are of Abraham's faith are blessed along with Abraham - when the law is taken off people then we can get them all healed. That's why we preach this message year after year - it is important that you and I get to know this message. I pray every day that God will show how to share this message with the lost - how to share it with the unsaved. How to share it with Christians! I cry out to God - give me multitudes of people who are on their way to hell and a Christ-less eternity. Help me to move in the revelation of grace as a son of Abraham - that we may bring all the hindrances of faith off people.
It THEN doesn't matter how big the tumour is because it is no problem to God! It doesn't matter how many years he has been crippled - it is no problem to God!
Let me say - God doesn't do miracles because man has needs. I say that categorically. God never does miracles because people have needs. If that is the case then God is a cruel God. If God would just do miracles because we have a need then why doesn't He do it? Why are so many crippled and broken and poor? The Spirit of God only moves where there is faith! I am sorry to say that - but that is the truth! Without faith it is impossible to please God. With law over your mind it is impossible to have faith.
You may have faith for some minor miracles such as a sore shoulder or an ear ache but to see tumours drop off people's faces without effort? It takes not a great preacher coming to Hong Kong to hold a crusade. I welcome someone doing that. But that is not what it takes for they are just men and women with a powerful gif on them and while they are here miracles happen and when they go, the church goes back to normal. It takes local churches to consistently embody the New Covenant and consistently look to God to have their minds cleansed of the stinking thinking of the law. So that in community God will anchor a lightening rod of unprecidented miracles. When that happens you won't need to go on T.V. There won't be buildings big enough. Have you been to the hospitals in Hong Kong recently? They are like war zones. People lying in the corridors at 02:00. People are dying!
There are so many dying of incurable diseases. All of those that died this year and last year didn't have to. 18 long years. She couldhave been healed on the first year. I hate law and I hate it because of what it does to God's people. We are living with a hangover of Israel that God had to bring the law in. Now Jesus came on the Cross to redeem us from the law that the blessing given to Abraham can come on the Gentiles through the power of the Spiritby faith. We are still living under the law 2000 years later in the abscence of the greatest signs and wonders and miracles. 18 long years. 18 years is the number for bondage. In the book of Judges it says that Israel will be in captivity for 18 years. 6-6-6. 3 = perfection. 6 = human pride and human effort. The mark of the beast is 666 so what is the mark of the beast? Legalism. Human effort. Babylonian religion. Not the Gospel of the New Covenant!
She was bowed over for 18 years by a demonic spirit. She attended church for 18 years and the Pharisees didn't heal her. They made her a daughter of the law not a daughter of Abraham. When Jesus came she discovered that she was a daughter of Abraham. 18 years! What was she looking at for 18 years? Dust. The Bible says in the book of Genesis that God said to the serpant; "Dust you shall eat". She spent 18 years looking at the food of Satan. All she saw was human effort and people's feet. When Jesus touched her with grace, the first thing she saw in 18 years was Jesus. Messiah! When you live under the law you spend your life psychologically looking at dust and human effort and condemnation and disappointment and struggles. When the revelation that you are not a son or daughter of the law but a son of Abraham comes - when that revelation comes to you you will see that lovely face shining on you every day and you will move in a new realm of freedom and glory.
Can you believe that these synagogue leaders tried to oppose Jesus and stop Him bringing a member of their congregation out of bondage? That's how this religious demon has opposed you and me for 4 and a half years in Hong Kong as we preach this message. A pastor in the synagogue tried to oppose grace to keep a member of his congregation crippled! In the name of religion! (v14); "Indignant". Jesus responded? (v15); "You hypocrites!". Don't you like Jesus attitude to religious people?! He doesn't get sweet and back off. He just says; "You hypocrites!". This is the Jesus we love. I love Him! "All His opponentswere humiliated but all the people were delighted". In any culture Jesus was not ashamed of humiliating people that oppose grace because His eyes were on the broken multitudes that need grace.
He didn't hold a board meeting and discuss law and grace. He just preached grace and produced faith in the people. I promise you this lady would have got healed if Jesus had preached the law there because the law is not based on faith. He preached Abraham and she realised in that flash of revelation that I am a daughter of Abraham and that God gives me what I don't deserve!
Friday, 13 February 2009
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 5
Last night I transcribed the most awesome sermon from this series. Part 5 was "Living Free from the Fear of Judgement". Yes Parts 2 and 3 are still coming I do promise! I have almost finished typing up Part 2 while at home. But my wonderful new laptop is serving me well and seems to be anointed with the charisma of express typing!
Oh that this sermon would set thousands free from the fear of judgement! Once again as I typed it, I just sat there laughing in sheer wonder that I must go through a dramatic mind-change. To start thinking constantly and continually that God is thrilled over me rather than being angry with me!
Here it is;
"Living Free from the Fear of Judgement".
"Please open your bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We are in a series and this is number 5 on being established in righteousness and I wanted to start teaching on a lot of other things like how faith works and how the anointing works yet God said 2009 is going to be the best year you have seen. Last year was the best year we have had in momentum in the 4 years in Hong Kong but God said that this year we are going way beyond that in being established in grace and on that foundation the power of God is going to move even stronger. So today in number 5 I want to talk about “living free from the fear of judgement”. many Christians have heard a bit about grace and heard a bit about the gift of righteousness but really aren’t free from the sense that maybe God will judge me and maybe God will be angry with me but lurking behind that conscious thought is the worry that if I sin or make a mistake or mess up then God will be angry with me and make me pay for that.
I know that Jesus died on the Cross but somehow years of conditioning of do wrong = get wrong, that law of cause and effect has conditioned us in a propaganda that robs us of a posture of peace and calmness to operate from. God wants us to be free from even a hint of fear of judgement. I believe today He can do that! When you go to a conference you often leave very tired because communication is not just speaking. Listening to someone speak is a high level form of communication. The way you listen is good communication. Communication technicians are not just about the transmission but are also about the receivers. Communication means focus and concentration on working to listening. When I have finished speaking like I do every Sunday I will stand here and look like I am okay but I will be exhausted, all my adrenal glands will be used up, I will fight a mild form of depression because of the anti-climax of being up at 04:00 preparing in the Presence of God to speak but if I have delivered what God called me to deliver and you have received it then it is all worth it!
THIS meeting can be the change of your life! It can literally bring you into greater joy and confidence than you have ever had!
The Bible talks about the foolishness of preaching - while I am speaking divine words, while I am speaking Gods heart to you I am going to be changed and I am going to be ministered to. Are you ready? Bring it on Lord! 2 Corinthians 5:21;
“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God“.
We can see that God gave the gift of your sin to Jesus who had never sinned so that God can give the gift of Jesus righteousness to you and me who have never done anything righteously. So we have this great exchange - the perfect righteousness of Jesus has been given permanently, irreversibly and eternally to me!
2 Corinthians 8:9; “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor so that you through His poverty might become rich”.
Now the word “rich“ there I know it angers religious people but if you look in 1st Timothy 4:16 it is the same word that Paul is using when he commands rich people not to put their trust in uncertain money but to put their joy in God who gives us all things to enjoy in life. That money is powerful and you cant live without money - you cant do the gospel without money - it will take billions to reach the lost around the world. So money is a powerful servant but a terrible master. Jesus said you cannot serve money and God. Those that are greedy for money are finished and will never be able to walk with God. He said if you are not faithful with finances then you will not be able to be faithful with true riches.
So money is the lowest form of wealth and the anointing is the highest form of wealth. Having a love for people is a wealthy thing. Money is a form of wealth although it’s the lowest level. The word here for “riches” and the context of the chapter is money. So when did Jesus become poor? When He was in heaven He was wealthy and had infinite wealth. When He walked this earth He could pay for thousands of people and could feed thousands of people just by multiplying loaves. He had a treasurer but when He was on the Cross in the same place where He became your sin He became poor with your poverty so that you can become rich through what He did at the Cross and rich in every area of life.
So simply summarising - what is the heart of the Father through you to Jesus? He loves and cares about you so much and He is so committed to you that He has a desire to bring you through into the security that you have a sons righteousness and that you have the sons prosperity and the sons riches as you receive and you believe - you begin to walk increasingly in that abundance.
Now every religion in the world - and I have studied Islam, Buddism and Hinduism and I lived as a Hindu priest for nearly a year so every religion has a God that requires you to suffer to make that God happy. In the Kingdom of heaven our God is willing to suffer for us to be happy. He who became rich became poor so you can be rich.
God is not trying to take away from you or trying to steal from you or judge you or curse you -God is trying to make you rich, make you secure, fill you with peace and give you calmness and bless your life with a well-being that is psychological peace, emotional peace, joy, happiness, inner security!
This is the issue - if you have any traces of the fear of being judged by God then all of what I have just said gets neutralised. All of what I said becomes in your mind a nice idea or we live confused and schizophrenic wavering between thinking that God wants to bless us but suspecting He also wants to judge us when we sin and mess up.
That fear of judgement is what hinders your faith. Do you know that I have given up trying to have more faith? Do you know that you have enough faith to raise the dead today and open the blind eyes and see financial miracles happen through your life. You have got enough faith to do the works of Jesus and greater works. It is not lack of faith - the issue in your heart is the unbelief that hinders the operation of the faith that is in your heart. The man said to Jesus; “Lord I believe - help me overcome my unbelief“. So you can have faith and unbelief in the same heart at the same time. The unbelief you have got is neutralising or lessening the operation of your faith.
Don’t try to get more faith - focus on dealing with the elements of unbelief in your heart. When unbelief leaves, faith leaps into full operation and you will see the power of God in your life.
Andrew Wormack said that and it was a great revelation the other day but it is something that God has been speaking to me for many years. Don’t try to get more faith - get rid of unbelief. Now if you want to get rid of unbelief you have got to rid of the fear of judgement. I will show you in a moment the Scripture that shows that is the problem. It is the fear of judgement that squashes the operation of your faith in God. How can you have unlimited faith in an unlimited God when you suspect He may be angry with you and may want to judge you?
As soon as this fear of judgement totally leaves your life, you will have full assurance of faith and your faith will operate at the level it was designed.
Go to Hebrews chapter 10. The Bible says in 1 John 4:17; “When love is made complete among us we will have confidence on the day of Judgement for perfect love drives out fear of judgement“. What people don’t realise is that the entire Old Covenant of Moses law was deliberately written to drive fear of punishment into your heart. The New Covenant was deliberately written to fill you with a revelation of the Cross and the love of the Father and the change into the New Covenant that would drive all fear of punishment out of your heart. The fact that there is any fear of punishment in your heart means there is not enough revelation about what the New Covenant is and you are still operating with Old Covenant thinking. It is that thinking that stinking and the Holy Spirit wants to come by the power of His word and eradicate. 2nd Timothy 1:7 says that God has not given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. Romans 8:15 says you did not receive again to be in slavery of the bondage of fear again but you received a spirit of son ship by which we cry Abba! Daddy!
Now why is he saying that we didn’t receive a spirit of fear again? When was the first time you feared? The first time you lived in fear of judgement was when you realised that God was angry with all those who had broken the law. That fear then came on you and me before we were Christians. As a Hare Krishna I was nearly totally celibate in marriage. I was so committed to not having any fun! Ryan as you know exists today because I backslid as a Hare Krishna devotee and my wife tempted me and I sinned and Ryan was literally conceived and I know because we only had physical intimacy once in 10 months as a married couple!
Don’t tell me I haven’t tried legalism!
I was 23 and when you are 23 as when you are 54 you have got a lot of red blood! I knew when I saw the Law and I saw how way below I fall in my arrogant self-righteousness, not even in marriage, no alcohol, no meat, no bed, only a few hours sleep a night because too much is too indulgent! 7 days a week working for Krishna, farming, evangelising on the streets! Then in my self-righteousness the Holy Spirit showed me the law of God and how far I fell - and for 3 months I was nauseous with terror and fear of the judgement of God because under that Law you are facing genuine wrath and genuine judgement!
With the Law God has to judge you because He is holy. But we saw a few weeks ago that God never wanted to bring the Law into the earth at all. It was through Israel’s unbelief in the grace of God and Israel’s unbelief in the grace that God gave Abraham that made God finally have to give them the Law to show them how useless the Law is for the blessing to come. The Law will only bring curse but it is grace that brings blessing. Now the Cross was to redeem us from the curse of the Law - to remove all possibility of Law bringing wrath on your life again! When I got a revelation of the grace of God and got born again in a Hindi temple with clay and Hindi clothes on me - from that day the Spirit of God came into me in 1977 and I have never again feared judgement! Because the Spirit on the inside of me let me know that I don’t have to fear again!
I heard Bill Johnson say something interesting recently at a conference in Australia. He said we are in a grace revival in the church today. He said wherever the church turns its focus away from grace and back onto judgement, the anointing for miracles lifts.
Why doesn’t Hong Kong have plenty of churches where people are regularly having healing miracles? Why do we have to wait for Reinhard Bonke to come in and then a few miracles take place? Why aren’t we seeing every week in all the churches in Hong Kong signs and wonders and miracles?
Whenever fear of judgement or a judgemental spirit comes into the church the anointing lifts. Then the judgemental people say the anointing lifted because of the sin in the church. The anointing would have never come if it was waiting for our absence of sinning! If God anointed us because we weren’t sinning then we would boast that we deserved the anointing!
No - He became poor so that we can become rich. He became our sin so we could be seen perfectly righteous in the Father’s eyes. This church is going to a new, much higher level of the anointing. We are going from a 2 to a 7/10 this year as we deal with the fear of judgement and any judgementalness towards one another.
I want to read two verses out of Hebrews 10 and when we read them you are going to be terrified and are going to panic and think everything you have heard for the last few years is a complete lie and these two verses will seemingly contradict everything I have said. I am going to do what some preachers do. I will do it for a little while and test you. I will read verses in the Bible out of context and then I will preach them in context.
When you take a text out of its context then that text will con you.
That is what happens! When you take texts out of context then you are the worst criminal on the planet. There is no greater crime than taking the Bible out of context. It is like choosing to write your own Bible and it is saying the Bible isn’t finished - that is what preachers are doing! They are quoting the Bible but writing their own because a text out of context is a text that will con you, condemn you and confuse you. They are putting their opinions above the opinion of God. These two verses have bullied and abused God’s precious sons and daughters and held them hostage to fear for centuries. Fear always has the same evil effect on God’s people.
Faith can only gaze at grace. Faith has got no eyes for gloom and doom and judgement. Faith watches with wonder and awe because faith is focused and fixed on the Lamb of God. Faith looks at the perfection of Jesus sufficiency and sacrifice and fills the soul of that person with peace and calmness and no fear. Faith takes the focus off your unworthiness and puts the focus on His worthiness and the fact that you are in Him safe and secure and that releases a grace in your life that literally empowers you to be far more loving to others and far more good and very kind to people and you develop a sensitivity of considering others greater than yourselves and actually understanding them in a completely non-judgemental way that attracts the anointing into your life and through your life and attracts people around you to Jesus Christ.
It is impossible to live in faith in Christ and in the New Covenant and not attract heathens and pagans to Jesus Christ. It is impossible! If heathens and pagans aren’t attracted to us when we are with them for more than a few days then we are not living as people totally free from the fear of judgement. Because fear always has this opposite effect.
Fear of judgement brings the focus off Jesus and brings the focus onto you and your insufficiencies and your inadequacies and your failures and releases in your soul a frustration that gives you a striving and an unhealthy drive to try and improve yourself - that causes you to judge everyone else and try and control everyone else. They can feel it even if you are acting lovingly to them. Even if you say “No I don’t judge you” they can feel what is in your heart is measuring them and disapproving them. But when you are full of calmness because you have got faith and no unbelief or fear in your heart then there is something that tangibly comes out of your life that people around you feel and want to know this Jesus.
If you have been working for months with them and know them and they don’t sense this calmness and this peace anointing then something has gone wrong. We are here to see the lost saved. We are not here to be introspective and analysing our performance. We are here to look away from ourselves and look to the Lamb and let that peace come into your life.
Hebrews 10:26; “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left but only a fearful expectation of judgement and of a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God”.
What a verse! Some people try to get out of that by saying “Yes but its if you keep on DELIBERATLY sinning”. But if you sin by accident then that is okay. There is no sin by accident. All sin requires the operation of your will. You make a choice - all sinning is deliberate! In the book of Exodus when Israel sinned with the sin of idolatry Moses was up on the mountain getting the :Law and came down Mt Sinai and there they were worshipping a golden calf. Moses went to Aaron and said “What is going on?!”. Aaron said; “I don’t know! All we did was take our gold and threw it in the fire and this golden calf came out!”. No - they deliberately made that calf. No sin is an accident - it is deliberate. Since you got born again and you received the knowledge of the truth - how many of you have sinned?
Everyone who is born again since you got saved in thought, attitude or deed if you were judged by the Law have sinned - and sinned deliberately and therefore this verse applies to you. And you must live your life with a fearful expectation of judgement and the fury and the wrath of God coming after you.
This Scripture bothers so many people! The devil has got them in fear and wrecked them and no one is being led to Christ through them because they are driven with a fury to improve themselves! And they are being judgemental to the lost! So let me push it a bit further as I take it right out of context. How do you KNOW when you have done enough deliberate sinning? Obviously people know that God doesn’t kill the first or second time we sin but there is an invisible line and if we cross that line then He will kill us!
People think that is how Jesus is treating the Bride of Christ - that there comes a point where grace will let you get away with one or two deliberate sins but then there comes a point where if you have done too many deliberate sins and especially of a particular kind … whoever defines which are the worst ones I don’t know because the Bible doesn’t … but finally you come across a line and when you cross it - all you can wait for is a fearful expectation of judgement! Who defines where the line is? There is nothing in the New Covenant to show me where that line is. So who defines the line? The Pharisees define where the line is! The Pharisees decide a circle where it is “safe sinning”. In this circle there is safe sinning. They never exclude the sin from this circle that Galatians 4 speaks about as the “works of the flesh” - gossip, lying, jealousy, envy, selfish ambition. Those are put on the same category as having sexual orgies in Galatians 5!
But in the Pharisees mind - just one sexual orgy and that is it! Let me say this - I have been married for 33 years and never committed adultery and neither has my wife so I am not promoting sin.
Anyone in this church or around the world who thinks that Rob Rufus is preaching to promote sin - I just want to say to you go and have a brain operation because you are an idiot.
So there are safe circles. The trouble is that everyone outside their circle is in danger of wrath. They begin to warn you - its okay to sin but in the safe circle! And they start getting self-righteous because they are keeping the laws in that circle. There are whole churches that are defined by circles! Some denominations have quite wide circles and some have quite small circles. I promise you in that denomination most of the churches will have the same circle. Eventually if you live outside the circle for so long and the demonic spirit begins to make you fear again and you think it’s the Holy Spirit then you are mistaken!
The Holy Spirit only ever convicts you of one sin and that is the sin of unbelief in Jesus. Then He convinces you that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and the devil has been judged (John 14:8).
So when you feel so unworthy and in danger of wrath then you know it is not the Holy Spirit. That is a demonic spirit. But under pressure and coercion and guilt and you may finally come in without faith or joy. Then you start thinking that you are better than those guys out there. Judgement! And anointing lifting off the church. We in this circle talk about how we have got to get the people in the outer circle into the safe circle of sinning. There is no faith in that! But then the devil comes to you in your circle and says “This circle is too big and you are still in danger!”. And without faith and without joy and being incredibly unhappy because you are looking at yourself alone being motivated by fear - you make that circle smaller.
As soon as you make your circle smaller then it increases the number of people outside your circle and now you have more people to judge. In the Christian world today there are Christians and are born again but they are a cult. In their circle they believe they are the only ones going to heaven. Everyone else born again has deliberately sinned too much and they will face the wrath of God. You may say well look at that religious cult but if you look and point but still think incorrectly about these verses then you are only a few circles from them. Your circle is only a bit bigger by degree. If someone doesn’t get to these people with grace then the devil will make sure you keep shrinking your circles and then you cant stand being in the circles because it is spiritual claustrophobia and you break out and have some rip-roaring sin! And your life is a fear of judgement and is not calm or peaceful!
I want to show you now how to read the Bible.
Context Number 1: What covenant is this? I know that Rob - it’s Old Covenant or New Covenant. Wrong! You have got two covenants under the Old Covenant. You have got the Abrahamic covenant of grace and the Moses covenant of law. When you read Abraham - you read grace. As soon as Mt Sinai comes read law and wrath! When you read New Covenant read that Jesus suffered everything so that you can have everything and be safe forever.
What is the New Covenant? Isaiah 54:8-9; “God takes an oath in predicting the coming of the New Covenant and He said it will be like in the times of Noah never to judge the world with a flood”. Now God says; “I swear by Myself in this New Covenant that I will never condemn you again and I will never be angry with you again!”. Under the New Covenant if God gets angry with you then He has broken an oath that He swore and a promise He made under oath. Remember Romans 5:20 and when you fly into a storm - you fly by your instruments of grace! “Where sin increased, grace did much more increase”. How can there be a limit to the deliberate sinning?
The word for “increase“ regarding sin is different to the word regarding grace. Where sin increased, grace already existed in superabundance and over and upon that superabundance, grace did even more increase! So there is absolute infinite increases of grace and sin has got total limitation! There can be no way that an invisible line in the sand comes that makes deliberate sinning finally wear the grace of God out.
When you have sinned you are actually in the most advantageous of places because if sin comes then grace is already existing and in superabundance and even more grace upon that superabundance!
Fly your life by that Scripture and you wont crash and burn!
Context Number 2: Who was this book written to? To Jews. It was written to Hebrews. It was written to people living in the time that Jesus had come, died and been raised, the Day of Pentecost had come and the power of the Spirit had been poured out and the temple still stood in Jerusalem. Do you know that before Jesus went to the Cross He told the people that all of these stones will be torn down? He prophesied that! And it happened 40 years after Jesus death on the Cross. It happened in A.D 70 and the Roman armies came in under General Titus and came with a clear agenda and smashed the Temple and pillaged and raped and stole the gold and overturned every stone. The Western wall is still there but all of that was below ground. No stone was left standing!
But there was a 40 year window from the time Jesus died in about 30 A.D to the time that the Temple was destroyed. In those 40 years they were having blood sacrifices of bulls and goats every single day in that Temple. A priesthood of an Old Covenant order was operating in that Temple. They were preaching the Law in that temple. They were the shadow and the symbol but not the reality. On the Day of Passover Jesus the ultimate final sacrifice died on that Cross for which afterwards there is no sacrifice for sins needed or can be EVER AGAIN and when Jesus died - the Bible said He cancelled the Law and took away the Law and abolished the Law for those in Christ. He gave you His righteousness, His blood wiped away all sin in the Father’s eyes in time and eternity and that blood forever cleansed you from all sin for all time. On that Cross the Bible said that Jesus fulfilled the burnt offerings of the Temple and fulfilled the meal offerings, peace offerings, transgression offerings and everything of shadow and type of the Temple were made instantly obsolete!
They were the Nothing that was pointing to the Substance and when the Substance came and people saw the Substance - and then Hebrew apostles like Paul and Peter preached to them the Substance that the Law is over and offerings are over - blood has come! Stephen preached to these Hebrews and they stoned him and rejected him!
The Bible says if you keep on deliberately sinning. What is the deliberate sin? It is not general sinning - it is specific sinning, it is choosing the inferior blood of bulls and of goats and choosing the inferior priesthood and inferior Temple and choosing shadow and symbols above Substance and Reality that is in God! That is the deliberate sin!
You in Christ can never commit that sin! It is something people don’t even think about!
Under the Old Covenant the blood of bulls and of goats could temporarily cover you from the wrath of God. As Ryan said - they had license to sin! They went and sinned and went to the priest and got goats blood and stopped wrath. But your guilt didn’t go - you constantly felt guilty and out of touch with God but at least that shadow blood could stop the wrath of God coming on you! But once the ultimate sacrifice for which there are no more sacrifices for sin left - when that sacrifice happened at the Cross from that moment, when the Day of Pentecost came and the New Covenant began the blood of bulls and goats no longer worked, no longer covered you from wrath, no longer would protect you - it is obsolete, redundant and passed away! The New has come!
What was this deliberate sin? Not general sin! (v29) Not generic sinning. Not living in a safe circle of safe sinning. It had nothing to do with general sin. It had to do with a specific sin of choosing animal sacrifices above Jesus and choosing animal blood above Jesus and that was what was insulting to the Spirit of grace.
(Hebrews 10:29); “How much more severely do you think a man needs to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot and treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, who has insulted the Spirit of grace“.
To insult the Spirit of grace is legalistic, law-preaching, guilt manipulating preachers who have no idea how seriously dangerous it is to insult the Spirit of grace. How do you insult the Spirit of grace? Legalists will tell you it is by sinning too much. You cannot insult the Spirit of grace by sinning because the Bible says that where sin increases, grace does much more abound. So you cannot insult the Spirit of grace by the amount of sin because God gave you superabundant grace because He knew that you weren’t going to act perfectly overnight and He knew that it would take you years and years to change and when you are 98 there will still be some areas that you need to change so that at the end of your days you will still need superabundance of grace! So you cannot insult grace by your sin.
How do you fall from grace? Galatians 5:4 says you who are trying to be made right with God through the law have alienated yourself from Christ - YOU have fallen from grace!
Who is insulting the Spirit of grace? The grace preachers of the New Covenant or those who are telling people to rely on a religious system of priests, to rely on the Law and on keeping the Law and on self-righteousness. They are deliberately sinning against the Body and blood of the :Lord and they are mixing Old and New Covenant together. Paul says in Galatians 1 that if you preach a gospel that mixes the Old Covenant and New together then may you be eternally condemned! You are insulting the Spirit of grace, you are misrepresenting the New Covenant, writing your own Bible and putting millions of people in confusion and fear and in unbelief.
And that judgemental spirit is stopping miracles, signs and wonders and the healing power of God in the world today which is stopping millions of people getting saved! It is a dangerous thing to insult the Spirit of grace!
Look at (v8). I said to Ryan yesterday I wanted prayer that I won’t look too angry! When I talk about religion I get so angry - not because I am taking it personally but I have seen the effects of religion around the world. I want you to see that these are passages that you need to become familiar with. You need to know these passages not to win religious debates but for hungry and frightened people and show them in context to help them. (vv8-14) show Jesus talking to His Father and saying look I know that the Old Covenant is not what you wanted or desired. I hope the legalists listening to this website find that it proved that the Father never desired to bring the law. He never desired to bring the Temple system and He never desired to bring the priesthood system or burnt offerings. He wanted all of Israel to be priests of God under the power of the grace He gave Abraham! There was a constant self-righteous arrogance not believing in the grace of God that God finally had to do what He didn’t want and bringing the Temple system.
(v8); “Nor were you pleased with them although the Law required them … He sets aside the first (covenant) to establish the second … once for ALL … the same sacrifices which can never take away sins … one sacrifice for sins … since that time He waits … by one sacrifice He has made perfect FOREVER those who are being made holy”.
If you are in Christ then the Father sees you as perfectly righteous all the time and there is no more confessing your sin like under the Old Covenant because all sin has been blotted out and dealt with and can never separate us from the love of God ever again - you are perfect forever in the Father’s eyes!
There are still Christians on the planet today who if Israel re-built the Temple on the Dome of the Rock - they will be excited about that? Israel already has plans to build the Temple on the Dome of the Rock. Top orthodox Rabbis and leaders have already got the plans and have already declared once they do that they will start blood sacrifices again. Many Christians know about this and think it is fantastic. When they do that they will be insulting the Spirit of Messiah and the Spirit of grace. Animals blood being seen as superior to the blood of Jesus! That is the wrath of God! He blew that thing down with the Roman armies who came in and smashed it. He doesn’t want a Temple in Israel - Jesus was the final temple - we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit! Both Jew and Gentile in Christ - WE are the seed of Abraham! Jew and Gentile in Christ!
Becoming like Abraham (Romans 10) makes you more Jewish and more Christian! Those very same Christians that will rejoice at a temple being built will turn to fellow Christians and tell them to stay in this particular circle of sinning otherwise you are in serious danger. Why do they teach that? Because they do not understand the book of Hebrews and do not understand the New Testament and they are preaching a false and a confused gospel. I want to read Hebrews 10:1-4.
It is in some of your religious thinking and religious programming that God actually wants you to be sin-conscious. I want to prove it to you again that He does not want you to be sin-conscious but grace-conscious, life of God-conscious and conscious of the Lamb. Keep looking to the Lamb and you will keep changing from glory to glory! Don’t be conscious of yourself or your sin but keep looking to Him!
What about if I do something wrong to Wesley over there and sin against him? Do I have to confess my sin to God? No I have to confess my sin to Wesley! I need to say sorry to him! When we talk about not confessing your sin or being sin-conscious like under the Old Covenant we are talking about God-ward! James says confess your sins one to another! Let me tell you if you are looking at the Lamb and living in that peace of no fear of judgement you will find it easier to say I am sorry to someone. You are not defensive anymore because there is just grace! If I know I have done someone wrong and treated them badly in a financial deal or a business deal and said something behind their back then I will go and say sorry! I will keep grace alive in my life!
But when it comes to my relationship with God there is no desire to have a covenant that makes you feel guilty for sin. He had to institute a covenant under law that He didn’t want or desire it and He calls it weak and useless! He did it because of mans unbelief in the grace of God! He brought in something that He doesn’t want us to live under but rather something that we will never feel uneasy or guilty every again!
Hebrews 10:1-4. “ ... it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin”.
He didn’t want a covenant that reminded people of their sins! The Church is full of reminding people about their sins! We think God is reminding us of our sins because we have not understood which covenant we are in and the devil took advantage of that and speaks to us in an audible voice and tells us; “I am God and I am angry with you”. He is not God, he is the devil! If I hear a voice saying he is God and he is going to bring fury for that sin - then I say “Well you are not worth serving because Isaiah 54:9 says you took an oath that you will never be angry with me - how can I trust a God who lies under oath? You are guilty of perjury! I am angry with You!”. My God can never be angry with me - if He is then He hates His Son for His full anger was poured out on His Son so He has got no anger left for me! Jesus was made poor so I am made rich! He was made sin so I am made righteous!
By one sacrifice - perfect forever! Why are so many Christians struggling with guilt problems and condemnation problems? Inferiority problems - self conscious in the worship - cant worship God extravagantly? “I feel unworthy”. Why? Didn’t pray enough this week. This week I hardly read my Bible and sinned a bit and had ugly thoughts so I don’t deserve to worship. Old Covenant deception! You have got a default setting that is so dangerous when you read this Bible without a proper teacher who is the Holy Spirit then you will read vv26, 27 and think there is some point if I keep sinning then wrath is coming my way! It is not just about you that I care but those who could get saved through you if you are free!
The Old Covenant prophets saw the New Covenant by revelation hundreds of years before Jesus died on the Cross.
(Jeremiah 31:17); “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more, and where these have been forgiven there is no longer any sacrifice for sin”.
You don’t have to confess your sin to the Father or make right with God. God will not remember your sin - this one sacrifice has made you PERFECT FOREVER!
When I sin do I ignore it? If I sin against a brother or sister then I make right and repent and say sorry. What do I do if I sin in God’s eyes? I say; “Father I thank You that in 1st John 1:9 speaks about before I was saved and while I was trying to be righteous by the Law and the priests system of temples - while I was doing that I was under wrath and under judgement. And there came a place where I had to realise that I am a sinner, no matter how many laws I am keeping as a Hare Krishna and I cant deny it. I confess my sins to you and ask you to cleanse me from ALL unrighteous and You are faithful and just. And on that day I confessed ONCE and He cleansed me ONCE and there is no other verse in the whole New Covenant that says Christians must confess their sins to get right with God.
I challenge you - go find one in Paul’s writing to confess your sins to God. That was an Old Covenant mentality and the more they did it, the more guilty they got because it reminded them of how sinful they are. Under the New Covenant it is written to remind you of how perfect in Christ you are, how safe you are and how bold you can be before God all the time!
Ryan will take Hebrews 6 next week and show you it in context and you will sing and dance and then you have got Hebrews 10 and 6 sorted and the whole book is open to you! He has got amazing insight - it blew me away - I had never seen the context like that!
When God says (and it is a promise) “Their sins and lawless deeds I will never remember“ - that in the Greek is the double affirmative. It is a double NEVER! It is not just forgetting your past sins! Jesus died before you sinned once. That means He has died for all sins (Colossians 2)! If you are in Christ then God will never, ever remember anything you do that is wrong or any transgression. All He sees and all He remembers is every act of holiness and obedience and love and humility you did. That He will reward you for! You don’t get blessings as rewards! They come as part of the New Covenant! But when you go to heaven you are sowing up acts of obedience that will have rewards!
God will never look at you or relate to you or have vision of you with the knowledge of your sins. He wont relate to you thinking about your sins - He never remembers them. Under the Old Covenant of law God says He will remember sins and will visit them on the 3rd and 4th generations. That will go even further because the 3rd and 4th sin and it continues. Ancestral cursing!? Absolutely for those not in Christ! But when I came into Christ I came into the perfect genealogy of Christ and my past, present and future was redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. I am NOT part of a cursed lineage and I don’t care how many alcoholics are in my past - I am not living in that but in the genology of Christ. I am redeemed with the genology blessing of Jesus Christ!
In the New Covenant it is the opposite - God promises He will not remember our sins or lawless acts and therefore will not pass them on to our seed! By one sacrifice! The law was a shadow of the good things that are in Jesus.
Under the law God was righteous to remember your sins. Under the finished work of the Cross, the New Covenant God is holy and just to remember your sins no more and your lawless acts no MORE!
(v23) “Hope” - confident, expectation of good. You can walk into the Presence of God and can say that we hold unswervingly to this hope. Fear will come automatically. Most days I get up and somewhere within the first 20 minutes I tell my Father I expect GOOD things to happen today because I am in the New Covenant. I don’t have any fearful expectation of judgement because judgement is passed! I expect good today!
Who is insulting the Spirit of grace? Those who are preaching the finished work of the Cross or those who are making the people weird in church but outside in the real world they are far more relaxed. This should be what you look forward to all week! At least when we get to church we can let rip and go mad - I have got no sin against me! The more you believe this, the more you will pray, and do His will! The world is your parish and you walk through territory free from wrath and the fear of judgement! My Father loves me and doesn’t remember what I have done! He took an oath never to remember but only to bless! His Son became poverty on my behalf! We are princes and royal priests in the house of God!
I did not come to Hong Kong to have a nice little church - I came as a divine bulldozer - I came as a prophet and came with the call of God, came in weakness, fear and trembling but I came to rip Hong Kong open - to see it broken! I don’t want to see people with emptiness in their eyes! No destiny, no power of God! Just living for something that is not the power of the gospel but empty religion! We have GOT to see the power of God move! Stir your faith! Let all unbelief in the gospel get out of our hearts, let our hearts be full of absolute freedom from the fear of judgement!
City Church International - what are you hoping in? The blood of bulls, goats, priests, Law, self-righteousness? No! Therefore you are not committing the deliberate sin! You are honouring the blood! That blood declares we are righteous forever! We are going to stay free in the power of God and honour the Spirit of grace!
Oh that this sermon would set thousands free from the fear of judgement! Once again as I typed it, I just sat there laughing in sheer wonder that I must go through a dramatic mind-change. To start thinking constantly and continually that God is thrilled over me rather than being angry with me!
Here it is;
"Living Free from the Fear of Judgement".
"Please open your bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We are in a series and this is number 5 on being established in righteousness and I wanted to start teaching on a lot of other things like how faith works and how the anointing works yet God said 2009 is going to be the best year you have seen. Last year was the best year we have had in momentum in the 4 years in Hong Kong but God said that this year we are going way beyond that in being established in grace and on that foundation the power of God is going to move even stronger. So today in number 5 I want to talk about “living free from the fear of judgement”. many Christians have heard a bit about grace and heard a bit about the gift of righteousness but really aren’t free from the sense that maybe God will judge me and maybe God will be angry with me but lurking behind that conscious thought is the worry that if I sin or make a mistake or mess up then God will be angry with me and make me pay for that.
I know that Jesus died on the Cross but somehow years of conditioning of do wrong = get wrong, that law of cause and effect has conditioned us in a propaganda that robs us of a posture of peace and calmness to operate from. God wants us to be free from even a hint of fear of judgement. I believe today He can do that! When you go to a conference you often leave very tired because communication is not just speaking. Listening to someone speak is a high level form of communication. The way you listen is good communication. Communication technicians are not just about the transmission but are also about the receivers. Communication means focus and concentration on working to listening. When I have finished speaking like I do every Sunday I will stand here and look like I am okay but I will be exhausted, all my adrenal glands will be used up, I will fight a mild form of depression because of the anti-climax of being up at 04:00 preparing in the Presence of God to speak but if I have delivered what God called me to deliver and you have received it then it is all worth it!
THIS meeting can be the change of your life! It can literally bring you into greater joy and confidence than you have ever had!
The Bible talks about the foolishness of preaching - while I am speaking divine words, while I am speaking Gods heart to you I am going to be changed and I am going to be ministered to. Are you ready? Bring it on Lord! 2 Corinthians 5:21;
“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God“.
We can see that God gave the gift of your sin to Jesus who had never sinned so that God can give the gift of Jesus righteousness to you and me who have never done anything righteously. So we have this great exchange - the perfect righteousness of Jesus has been given permanently, irreversibly and eternally to me!
2 Corinthians 8:9; “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor so that you through His poverty might become rich”.
Now the word “rich“ there I know it angers religious people but if you look in 1st Timothy 4:16 it is the same word that Paul is using when he commands rich people not to put their trust in uncertain money but to put their joy in God who gives us all things to enjoy in life. That money is powerful and you cant live without money - you cant do the gospel without money - it will take billions to reach the lost around the world. So money is a powerful servant but a terrible master. Jesus said you cannot serve money and God. Those that are greedy for money are finished and will never be able to walk with God. He said if you are not faithful with finances then you will not be able to be faithful with true riches.
So money is the lowest form of wealth and the anointing is the highest form of wealth. Having a love for people is a wealthy thing. Money is a form of wealth although it’s the lowest level. The word here for “riches” and the context of the chapter is money. So when did Jesus become poor? When He was in heaven He was wealthy and had infinite wealth. When He walked this earth He could pay for thousands of people and could feed thousands of people just by multiplying loaves. He had a treasurer but when He was on the Cross in the same place where He became your sin He became poor with your poverty so that you can become rich through what He did at the Cross and rich in every area of life.
So simply summarising - what is the heart of the Father through you to Jesus? He loves and cares about you so much and He is so committed to you that He has a desire to bring you through into the security that you have a sons righteousness and that you have the sons prosperity and the sons riches as you receive and you believe - you begin to walk increasingly in that abundance.
Now every religion in the world - and I have studied Islam, Buddism and Hinduism and I lived as a Hindu priest for nearly a year so every religion has a God that requires you to suffer to make that God happy. In the Kingdom of heaven our God is willing to suffer for us to be happy. He who became rich became poor so you can be rich.
God is not trying to take away from you or trying to steal from you or judge you or curse you -God is trying to make you rich, make you secure, fill you with peace and give you calmness and bless your life with a well-being that is psychological peace, emotional peace, joy, happiness, inner security!
This is the issue - if you have any traces of the fear of being judged by God then all of what I have just said gets neutralised. All of what I said becomes in your mind a nice idea or we live confused and schizophrenic wavering between thinking that God wants to bless us but suspecting He also wants to judge us when we sin and mess up.
That fear of judgement is what hinders your faith. Do you know that I have given up trying to have more faith? Do you know that you have enough faith to raise the dead today and open the blind eyes and see financial miracles happen through your life. You have got enough faith to do the works of Jesus and greater works. It is not lack of faith - the issue in your heart is the unbelief that hinders the operation of the faith that is in your heart. The man said to Jesus; “Lord I believe - help me overcome my unbelief“. So you can have faith and unbelief in the same heart at the same time. The unbelief you have got is neutralising or lessening the operation of your faith.
Don’t try to get more faith - focus on dealing with the elements of unbelief in your heart. When unbelief leaves, faith leaps into full operation and you will see the power of God in your life.
Andrew Wormack said that and it was a great revelation the other day but it is something that God has been speaking to me for many years. Don’t try to get more faith - get rid of unbelief. Now if you want to get rid of unbelief you have got to rid of the fear of judgement. I will show you in a moment the Scripture that shows that is the problem. It is the fear of judgement that squashes the operation of your faith in God. How can you have unlimited faith in an unlimited God when you suspect He may be angry with you and may want to judge you?
As soon as this fear of judgement totally leaves your life, you will have full assurance of faith and your faith will operate at the level it was designed.
Go to Hebrews chapter 10. The Bible says in 1 John 4:17; “When love is made complete among us we will have confidence on the day of Judgement for perfect love drives out fear of judgement“. What people don’t realise is that the entire Old Covenant of Moses law was deliberately written to drive fear of punishment into your heart. The New Covenant was deliberately written to fill you with a revelation of the Cross and the love of the Father and the change into the New Covenant that would drive all fear of punishment out of your heart. The fact that there is any fear of punishment in your heart means there is not enough revelation about what the New Covenant is and you are still operating with Old Covenant thinking. It is that thinking that stinking and the Holy Spirit wants to come by the power of His word and eradicate. 2nd Timothy 1:7 says that God has not given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. Romans 8:15 says you did not receive again to be in slavery of the bondage of fear again but you received a spirit of son ship by which we cry Abba! Daddy!
Now why is he saying that we didn’t receive a spirit of fear again? When was the first time you feared? The first time you lived in fear of judgement was when you realised that God was angry with all those who had broken the law. That fear then came on you and me before we were Christians. As a Hare Krishna I was nearly totally celibate in marriage. I was so committed to not having any fun! Ryan as you know exists today because I backslid as a Hare Krishna devotee and my wife tempted me and I sinned and Ryan was literally conceived and I know because we only had physical intimacy once in 10 months as a married couple!
Don’t tell me I haven’t tried legalism!
I was 23 and when you are 23 as when you are 54 you have got a lot of red blood! I knew when I saw the Law and I saw how way below I fall in my arrogant self-righteousness, not even in marriage, no alcohol, no meat, no bed, only a few hours sleep a night because too much is too indulgent! 7 days a week working for Krishna, farming, evangelising on the streets! Then in my self-righteousness the Holy Spirit showed me the law of God and how far I fell - and for 3 months I was nauseous with terror and fear of the judgement of God because under that Law you are facing genuine wrath and genuine judgement!
With the Law God has to judge you because He is holy. But we saw a few weeks ago that God never wanted to bring the Law into the earth at all. It was through Israel’s unbelief in the grace of God and Israel’s unbelief in the grace that God gave Abraham that made God finally have to give them the Law to show them how useless the Law is for the blessing to come. The Law will only bring curse but it is grace that brings blessing. Now the Cross was to redeem us from the curse of the Law - to remove all possibility of Law bringing wrath on your life again! When I got a revelation of the grace of God and got born again in a Hindi temple with clay and Hindi clothes on me - from that day the Spirit of God came into me in 1977 and I have never again feared judgement! Because the Spirit on the inside of me let me know that I don’t have to fear again!
I heard Bill Johnson say something interesting recently at a conference in Australia. He said we are in a grace revival in the church today. He said wherever the church turns its focus away from grace and back onto judgement, the anointing for miracles lifts.
Why doesn’t Hong Kong have plenty of churches where people are regularly having healing miracles? Why do we have to wait for Reinhard Bonke to come in and then a few miracles take place? Why aren’t we seeing every week in all the churches in Hong Kong signs and wonders and miracles?
Whenever fear of judgement or a judgemental spirit comes into the church the anointing lifts. Then the judgemental people say the anointing lifted because of the sin in the church. The anointing would have never come if it was waiting for our absence of sinning! If God anointed us because we weren’t sinning then we would boast that we deserved the anointing!
No - He became poor so that we can become rich. He became our sin so we could be seen perfectly righteous in the Father’s eyes. This church is going to a new, much higher level of the anointing. We are going from a 2 to a 7/10 this year as we deal with the fear of judgement and any judgementalness towards one another.
I want to read two verses out of Hebrews 10 and when we read them you are going to be terrified and are going to panic and think everything you have heard for the last few years is a complete lie and these two verses will seemingly contradict everything I have said. I am going to do what some preachers do. I will do it for a little while and test you. I will read verses in the Bible out of context and then I will preach them in context.
When you take a text out of its context then that text will con you.
That is what happens! When you take texts out of context then you are the worst criminal on the planet. There is no greater crime than taking the Bible out of context. It is like choosing to write your own Bible and it is saying the Bible isn’t finished - that is what preachers are doing! They are quoting the Bible but writing their own because a text out of context is a text that will con you, condemn you and confuse you. They are putting their opinions above the opinion of God. These two verses have bullied and abused God’s precious sons and daughters and held them hostage to fear for centuries. Fear always has the same evil effect on God’s people.
Faith can only gaze at grace. Faith has got no eyes for gloom and doom and judgement. Faith watches with wonder and awe because faith is focused and fixed on the Lamb of God. Faith looks at the perfection of Jesus sufficiency and sacrifice and fills the soul of that person with peace and calmness and no fear. Faith takes the focus off your unworthiness and puts the focus on His worthiness and the fact that you are in Him safe and secure and that releases a grace in your life that literally empowers you to be far more loving to others and far more good and very kind to people and you develop a sensitivity of considering others greater than yourselves and actually understanding them in a completely non-judgemental way that attracts the anointing into your life and through your life and attracts people around you to Jesus Christ.
It is impossible to live in faith in Christ and in the New Covenant and not attract heathens and pagans to Jesus Christ. It is impossible! If heathens and pagans aren’t attracted to us when we are with them for more than a few days then we are not living as people totally free from the fear of judgement. Because fear always has this opposite effect.
Fear of judgement brings the focus off Jesus and brings the focus onto you and your insufficiencies and your inadequacies and your failures and releases in your soul a frustration that gives you a striving and an unhealthy drive to try and improve yourself - that causes you to judge everyone else and try and control everyone else. They can feel it even if you are acting lovingly to them. Even if you say “No I don’t judge you” they can feel what is in your heart is measuring them and disapproving them. But when you are full of calmness because you have got faith and no unbelief or fear in your heart then there is something that tangibly comes out of your life that people around you feel and want to know this Jesus.
If you have been working for months with them and know them and they don’t sense this calmness and this peace anointing then something has gone wrong. We are here to see the lost saved. We are not here to be introspective and analysing our performance. We are here to look away from ourselves and look to the Lamb and let that peace come into your life.
Hebrews 10:26; “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left but only a fearful expectation of judgement and of a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God”.
What a verse! Some people try to get out of that by saying “Yes but its if you keep on DELIBERATLY sinning”. But if you sin by accident then that is okay. There is no sin by accident. All sin requires the operation of your will. You make a choice - all sinning is deliberate! In the book of Exodus when Israel sinned with the sin of idolatry Moses was up on the mountain getting the :Law and came down Mt Sinai and there they were worshipping a golden calf. Moses went to Aaron and said “What is going on?!”. Aaron said; “I don’t know! All we did was take our gold and threw it in the fire and this golden calf came out!”. No - they deliberately made that calf. No sin is an accident - it is deliberate. Since you got born again and you received the knowledge of the truth - how many of you have sinned?
Everyone who is born again since you got saved in thought, attitude or deed if you were judged by the Law have sinned - and sinned deliberately and therefore this verse applies to you. And you must live your life with a fearful expectation of judgement and the fury and the wrath of God coming after you.
This Scripture bothers so many people! The devil has got them in fear and wrecked them and no one is being led to Christ through them because they are driven with a fury to improve themselves! And they are being judgemental to the lost! So let me push it a bit further as I take it right out of context. How do you KNOW when you have done enough deliberate sinning? Obviously people know that God doesn’t kill the first or second time we sin but there is an invisible line and if we cross that line then He will kill us!
People think that is how Jesus is treating the Bride of Christ - that there comes a point where grace will let you get away with one or two deliberate sins but then there comes a point where if you have done too many deliberate sins and especially of a particular kind … whoever defines which are the worst ones I don’t know because the Bible doesn’t … but finally you come across a line and when you cross it - all you can wait for is a fearful expectation of judgement! Who defines where the line is? There is nothing in the New Covenant to show me where that line is. So who defines the line? The Pharisees define where the line is! The Pharisees decide a circle where it is “safe sinning”. In this circle there is safe sinning. They never exclude the sin from this circle that Galatians 4 speaks about as the “works of the flesh” - gossip, lying, jealousy, envy, selfish ambition. Those are put on the same category as having sexual orgies in Galatians 5!
But in the Pharisees mind - just one sexual orgy and that is it! Let me say this - I have been married for 33 years and never committed adultery and neither has my wife so I am not promoting sin.
Anyone in this church or around the world who thinks that Rob Rufus is preaching to promote sin - I just want to say to you go and have a brain operation because you are an idiot.
So there are safe circles. The trouble is that everyone outside their circle is in danger of wrath. They begin to warn you - its okay to sin but in the safe circle! And they start getting self-righteous because they are keeping the laws in that circle. There are whole churches that are defined by circles! Some denominations have quite wide circles and some have quite small circles. I promise you in that denomination most of the churches will have the same circle. Eventually if you live outside the circle for so long and the demonic spirit begins to make you fear again and you think it’s the Holy Spirit then you are mistaken!
The Holy Spirit only ever convicts you of one sin and that is the sin of unbelief in Jesus. Then He convinces you that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and the devil has been judged (John 14:8).
So when you feel so unworthy and in danger of wrath then you know it is not the Holy Spirit. That is a demonic spirit. But under pressure and coercion and guilt and you may finally come in without faith or joy. Then you start thinking that you are better than those guys out there. Judgement! And anointing lifting off the church. We in this circle talk about how we have got to get the people in the outer circle into the safe circle of sinning. There is no faith in that! But then the devil comes to you in your circle and says “This circle is too big and you are still in danger!”. And without faith and without joy and being incredibly unhappy because you are looking at yourself alone being motivated by fear - you make that circle smaller.
As soon as you make your circle smaller then it increases the number of people outside your circle and now you have more people to judge. In the Christian world today there are Christians and are born again but they are a cult. In their circle they believe they are the only ones going to heaven. Everyone else born again has deliberately sinned too much and they will face the wrath of God. You may say well look at that religious cult but if you look and point but still think incorrectly about these verses then you are only a few circles from them. Your circle is only a bit bigger by degree. If someone doesn’t get to these people with grace then the devil will make sure you keep shrinking your circles and then you cant stand being in the circles because it is spiritual claustrophobia and you break out and have some rip-roaring sin! And your life is a fear of judgement and is not calm or peaceful!
I want to show you now how to read the Bible.
Context Number 1: What covenant is this? I know that Rob - it’s Old Covenant or New Covenant. Wrong! You have got two covenants under the Old Covenant. You have got the Abrahamic covenant of grace and the Moses covenant of law. When you read Abraham - you read grace. As soon as Mt Sinai comes read law and wrath! When you read New Covenant read that Jesus suffered everything so that you can have everything and be safe forever.
What is the New Covenant? Isaiah 54:8-9; “God takes an oath in predicting the coming of the New Covenant and He said it will be like in the times of Noah never to judge the world with a flood”. Now God says; “I swear by Myself in this New Covenant that I will never condemn you again and I will never be angry with you again!”. Under the New Covenant if God gets angry with you then He has broken an oath that He swore and a promise He made under oath. Remember Romans 5:20 and when you fly into a storm - you fly by your instruments of grace! “Where sin increased, grace did much more increase”. How can there be a limit to the deliberate sinning?
The word for “increase“ regarding sin is different to the word regarding grace. Where sin increased, grace already existed in superabundance and over and upon that superabundance, grace did even more increase! So there is absolute infinite increases of grace and sin has got total limitation! There can be no way that an invisible line in the sand comes that makes deliberate sinning finally wear the grace of God out.
When you have sinned you are actually in the most advantageous of places because if sin comes then grace is already existing and in superabundance and even more grace upon that superabundance!
Fly your life by that Scripture and you wont crash and burn!
Context Number 2: Who was this book written to? To Jews. It was written to Hebrews. It was written to people living in the time that Jesus had come, died and been raised, the Day of Pentecost had come and the power of the Spirit had been poured out and the temple still stood in Jerusalem. Do you know that before Jesus went to the Cross He told the people that all of these stones will be torn down? He prophesied that! And it happened 40 years after Jesus death on the Cross. It happened in A.D 70 and the Roman armies came in under General Titus and came with a clear agenda and smashed the Temple and pillaged and raped and stole the gold and overturned every stone. The Western wall is still there but all of that was below ground. No stone was left standing!
But there was a 40 year window from the time Jesus died in about 30 A.D to the time that the Temple was destroyed. In those 40 years they were having blood sacrifices of bulls and goats every single day in that Temple. A priesthood of an Old Covenant order was operating in that Temple. They were preaching the Law in that temple. They were the shadow and the symbol but not the reality. On the Day of Passover Jesus the ultimate final sacrifice died on that Cross for which afterwards there is no sacrifice for sins needed or can be EVER AGAIN and when Jesus died - the Bible said He cancelled the Law and took away the Law and abolished the Law for those in Christ. He gave you His righteousness, His blood wiped away all sin in the Father’s eyes in time and eternity and that blood forever cleansed you from all sin for all time. On that Cross the Bible said that Jesus fulfilled the burnt offerings of the Temple and fulfilled the meal offerings, peace offerings, transgression offerings and everything of shadow and type of the Temple were made instantly obsolete!
They were the Nothing that was pointing to the Substance and when the Substance came and people saw the Substance - and then Hebrew apostles like Paul and Peter preached to them the Substance that the Law is over and offerings are over - blood has come! Stephen preached to these Hebrews and they stoned him and rejected him!
The Bible says if you keep on deliberately sinning. What is the deliberate sin? It is not general sinning - it is specific sinning, it is choosing the inferior blood of bulls and of goats and choosing the inferior priesthood and inferior Temple and choosing shadow and symbols above Substance and Reality that is in God! That is the deliberate sin!
You in Christ can never commit that sin! It is something people don’t even think about!
Under the Old Covenant the blood of bulls and of goats could temporarily cover you from the wrath of God. As Ryan said - they had license to sin! They went and sinned and went to the priest and got goats blood and stopped wrath. But your guilt didn’t go - you constantly felt guilty and out of touch with God but at least that shadow blood could stop the wrath of God coming on you! But once the ultimate sacrifice for which there are no more sacrifices for sin left - when that sacrifice happened at the Cross from that moment, when the Day of Pentecost came and the New Covenant began the blood of bulls and goats no longer worked, no longer covered you from wrath, no longer would protect you - it is obsolete, redundant and passed away! The New has come!
What was this deliberate sin? Not general sin! (v29) Not generic sinning. Not living in a safe circle of safe sinning. It had nothing to do with general sin. It had to do with a specific sin of choosing animal sacrifices above Jesus and choosing animal blood above Jesus and that was what was insulting to the Spirit of grace.
(Hebrews 10:29); “How much more severely do you think a man needs to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot and treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, who has insulted the Spirit of grace“.
To insult the Spirit of grace is legalistic, law-preaching, guilt manipulating preachers who have no idea how seriously dangerous it is to insult the Spirit of grace. How do you insult the Spirit of grace? Legalists will tell you it is by sinning too much. You cannot insult the Spirit of grace by sinning because the Bible says that where sin increases, grace does much more abound. So you cannot insult the Spirit of grace by the amount of sin because God gave you superabundant grace because He knew that you weren’t going to act perfectly overnight and He knew that it would take you years and years to change and when you are 98 there will still be some areas that you need to change so that at the end of your days you will still need superabundance of grace! So you cannot insult grace by your sin.
How do you fall from grace? Galatians 5:4 says you who are trying to be made right with God through the law have alienated yourself from Christ - YOU have fallen from grace!
Who is insulting the Spirit of grace? The grace preachers of the New Covenant or those who are telling people to rely on a religious system of priests, to rely on the Law and on keeping the Law and on self-righteousness. They are deliberately sinning against the Body and blood of the :Lord and they are mixing Old and New Covenant together. Paul says in Galatians 1 that if you preach a gospel that mixes the Old Covenant and New together then may you be eternally condemned! You are insulting the Spirit of grace, you are misrepresenting the New Covenant, writing your own Bible and putting millions of people in confusion and fear and in unbelief.
And that judgemental spirit is stopping miracles, signs and wonders and the healing power of God in the world today which is stopping millions of people getting saved! It is a dangerous thing to insult the Spirit of grace!
Look at (v8). I said to Ryan yesterday I wanted prayer that I won’t look too angry! When I talk about religion I get so angry - not because I am taking it personally but I have seen the effects of religion around the world. I want you to see that these are passages that you need to become familiar with. You need to know these passages not to win religious debates but for hungry and frightened people and show them in context to help them. (vv8-14) show Jesus talking to His Father and saying look I know that the Old Covenant is not what you wanted or desired. I hope the legalists listening to this website find that it proved that the Father never desired to bring the law. He never desired to bring the Temple system and He never desired to bring the priesthood system or burnt offerings. He wanted all of Israel to be priests of God under the power of the grace He gave Abraham! There was a constant self-righteous arrogance not believing in the grace of God that God finally had to do what He didn’t want and bringing the Temple system.
(v8); “Nor were you pleased with them although the Law required them … He sets aside the first (covenant) to establish the second … once for ALL … the same sacrifices which can never take away sins … one sacrifice for sins … since that time He waits … by one sacrifice He has made perfect FOREVER those who are being made holy”.
If you are in Christ then the Father sees you as perfectly righteous all the time and there is no more confessing your sin like under the Old Covenant because all sin has been blotted out and dealt with and can never separate us from the love of God ever again - you are perfect forever in the Father’s eyes!
There are still Christians on the planet today who if Israel re-built the Temple on the Dome of the Rock - they will be excited about that? Israel already has plans to build the Temple on the Dome of the Rock. Top orthodox Rabbis and leaders have already got the plans and have already declared once they do that they will start blood sacrifices again. Many Christians know about this and think it is fantastic. When they do that they will be insulting the Spirit of Messiah and the Spirit of grace. Animals blood being seen as superior to the blood of Jesus! That is the wrath of God! He blew that thing down with the Roman armies who came in and smashed it. He doesn’t want a Temple in Israel - Jesus was the final temple - we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit! Both Jew and Gentile in Christ - WE are the seed of Abraham! Jew and Gentile in Christ!
Becoming like Abraham (Romans 10) makes you more Jewish and more Christian! Those very same Christians that will rejoice at a temple being built will turn to fellow Christians and tell them to stay in this particular circle of sinning otherwise you are in serious danger. Why do they teach that? Because they do not understand the book of Hebrews and do not understand the New Testament and they are preaching a false and a confused gospel. I want to read Hebrews 10:1-4.
It is in some of your religious thinking and religious programming that God actually wants you to be sin-conscious. I want to prove it to you again that He does not want you to be sin-conscious but grace-conscious, life of God-conscious and conscious of the Lamb. Keep looking to the Lamb and you will keep changing from glory to glory! Don’t be conscious of yourself or your sin but keep looking to Him!
What about if I do something wrong to Wesley over there and sin against him? Do I have to confess my sin to God? No I have to confess my sin to Wesley! I need to say sorry to him! When we talk about not confessing your sin or being sin-conscious like under the Old Covenant we are talking about God-ward! James says confess your sins one to another! Let me tell you if you are looking at the Lamb and living in that peace of no fear of judgement you will find it easier to say I am sorry to someone. You are not defensive anymore because there is just grace! If I know I have done someone wrong and treated them badly in a financial deal or a business deal and said something behind their back then I will go and say sorry! I will keep grace alive in my life!
But when it comes to my relationship with God there is no desire to have a covenant that makes you feel guilty for sin. He had to institute a covenant under law that He didn’t want or desire it and He calls it weak and useless! He did it because of mans unbelief in the grace of God! He brought in something that He doesn’t want us to live under but rather something that we will never feel uneasy or guilty every again!
Hebrews 10:1-4. “ ... it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin”.
He didn’t want a covenant that reminded people of their sins! The Church is full of reminding people about their sins! We think God is reminding us of our sins because we have not understood which covenant we are in and the devil took advantage of that and speaks to us in an audible voice and tells us; “I am God and I am angry with you”. He is not God, he is the devil! If I hear a voice saying he is God and he is going to bring fury for that sin - then I say “Well you are not worth serving because Isaiah 54:9 says you took an oath that you will never be angry with me - how can I trust a God who lies under oath? You are guilty of perjury! I am angry with You!”. My God can never be angry with me - if He is then He hates His Son for His full anger was poured out on His Son so He has got no anger left for me! Jesus was made poor so I am made rich! He was made sin so I am made righteous!
By one sacrifice - perfect forever! Why are so many Christians struggling with guilt problems and condemnation problems? Inferiority problems - self conscious in the worship - cant worship God extravagantly? “I feel unworthy”. Why? Didn’t pray enough this week. This week I hardly read my Bible and sinned a bit and had ugly thoughts so I don’t deserve to worship. Old Covenant deception! You have got a default setting that is so dangerous when you read this Bible without a proper teacher who is the Holy Spirit then you will read vv26, 27 and think there is some point if I keep sinning then wrath is coming my way! It is not just about you that I care but those who could get saved through you if you are free!
The Old Covenant prophets saw the New Covenant by revelation hundreds of years before Jesus died on the Cross.
(Jeremiah 31:17); “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more, and where these have been forgiven there is no longer any sacrifice for sin”.
You don’t have to confess your sin to the Father or make right with God. God will not remember your sin - this one sacrifice has made you PERFECT FOREVER!
When I sin do I ignore it? If I sin against a brother or sister then I make right and repent and say sorry. What do I do if I sin in God’s eyes? I say; “Father I thank You that in 1st John 1:9 speaks about before I was saved and while I was trying to be righteous by the Law and the priests system of temples - while I was doing that I was under wrath and under judgement. And there came a place where I had to realise that I am a sinner, no matter how many laws I am keeping as a Hare Krishna and I cant deny it. I confess my sins to you and ask you to cleanse me from ALL unrighteous and You are faithful and just. And on that day I confessed ONCE and He cleansed me ONCE and there is no other verse in the whole New Covenant that says Christians must confess their sins to get right with God.
I challenge you - go find one in Paul’s writing to confess your sins to God. That was an Old Covenant mentality and the more they did it, the more guilty they got because it reminded them of how sinful they are. Under the New Covenant it is written to remind you of how perfect in Christ you are, how safe you are and how bold you can be before God all the time!
Ryan will take Hebrews 6 next week and show you it in context and you will sing and dance and then you have got Hebrews 10 and 6 sorted and the whole book is open to you! He has got amazing insight - it blew me away - I had never seen the context like that!
When God says (and it is a promise) “Their sins and lawless deeds I will never remember“ - that in the Greek is the double affirmative. It is a double NEVER! It is not just forgetting your past sins! Jesus died before you sinned once. That means He has died for all sins (Colossians 2)! If you are in Christ then God will never, ever remember anything you do that is wrong or any transgression. All He sees and all He remembers is every act of holiness and obedience and love and humility you did. That He will reward you for! You don’t get blessings as rewards! They come as part of the New Covenant! But when you go to heaven you are sowing up acts of obedience that will have rewards!
God will never look at you or relate to you or have vision of you with the knowledge of your sins. He wont relate to you thinking about your sins - He never remembers them. Under the Old Covenant of law God says He will remember sins and will visit them on the 3rd and 4th generations. That will go even further because the 3rd and 4th sin and it continues. Ancestral cursing!? Absolutely for those not in Christ! But when I came into Christ I came into the perfect genealogy of Christ and my past, present and future was redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. I am NOT part of a cursed lineage and I don’t care how many alcoholics are in my past - I am not living in that but in the genology of Christ. I am redeemed with the genology blessing of Jesus Christ!
In the New Covenant it is the opposite - God promises He will not remember our sins or lawless acts and therefore will not pass them on to our seed! By one sacrifice! The law was a shadow of the good things that are in Jesus.
Under the law God was righteous to remember your sins. Under the finished work of the Cross, the New Covenant God is holy and just to remember your sins no more and your lawless acts no MORE!
(v23) “Hope” - confident, expectation of good. You can walk into the Presence of God and can say that we hold unswervingly to this hope. Fear will come automatically. Most days I get up and somewhere within the first 20 minutes I tell my Father I expect GOOD things to happen today because I am in the New Covenant. I don’t have any fearful expectation of judgement because judgement is passed! I expect good today!
Who is insulting the Spirit of grace? Those who are preaching the finished work of the Cross or those who are making the people weird in church but outside in the real world they are far more relaxed. This should be what you look forward to all week! At least when we get to church we can let rip and go mad - I have got no sin against me! The more you believe this, the more you will pray, and do His will! The world is your parish and you walk through territory free from wrath and the fear of judgement! My Father loves me and doesn’t remember what I have done! He took an oath never to remember but only to bless! His Son became poverty on my behalf! We are princes and royal priests in the house of God!
I did not come to Hong Kong to have a nice little church - I came as a divine bulldozer - I came as a prophet and came with the call of God, came in weakness, fear and trembling but I came to rip Hong Kong open - to see it broken! I don’t want to see people with emptiness in their eyes! No destiny, no power of God! Just living for something that is not the power of the gospel but empty religion! We have GOT to see the power of God move! Stir your faith! Let all unbelief in the gospel get out of our hearts, let our hearts be full of absolute freedom from the fear of judgement!
City Church International - what are you hoping in? The blood of bulls, goats, priests, Law, self-righteousness? No! Therefore you are not committing the deliberate sin! You are honouring the blood! That blood declares we are righteous forever! We are going to stay free in the power of God and honour the Spirit of grace!
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Rob Rufus Archive - 2009
2009
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 1 - Sunday 4th January.
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 2 - Sunday 11th January.
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 3 - Sunday 18th January.
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 4 - Sunday 25th January.
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 5 - Sunday 1st February.
Ryan Rufus - Hebrews 6 - Sunday 8th February.
"Being a Lightning Conductor" - Sunday 15th February.
"Turning Disappointments into Divine Appointments for Greater Miracles" - Sunday 22nd February.
"Becoming a Lightning Conductor - Part 2 - What is Sin in the New Covenant?" - Sunday 22nd February.
"Becoming a Lightning Conductor - Part 3 - How to Speed up in the Supernatural" - Sunday 1st March 2009.
"Becoming a Lightning Conductor - Part 4 - Positioning Yourself for Heaven to Kiss Earth" - Sunday 8th March 2009.
"Becoming a Lightning Conductor - Part 5 - Operating in Greater Faith" - Sunday 15th March 2009.
"Faith is Conducting Heaven's Influence Into The Earth - Part 6" - Sunday 29th March.
"Faith is Conducting Heaven's Influence Into The Earth - Part 7" - Sunday 5th April.
"Rest" by Ryan Rufus - Sunday 9th April.
"Re-defining Holiness" by Ryan Rufus - Sunday 2nd May.
"Pioneers in the Miraculous" - Sunday 10th May.
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 1 - Sunday 4th January.
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 2 - Sunday 11th January.
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 3 - Sunday 18th January.
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 4 - Sunday 25th January.
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 5 - Sunday 1st February.
Ryan Rufus - Hebrews 6 - Sunday 8th February.
"Being a Lightning Conductor" - Sunday 15th February.
"Turning Disappointments into Divine Appointments for Greater Miracles" - Sunday 22nd February.
"Becoming a Lightning Conductor - Part 2 - What is Sin in the New Covenant?" - Sunday 22nd February.
"Becoming a Lightning Conductor - Part 3 - How to Speed up in the Supernatural" - Sunday 1st March 2009.
"Becoming a Lightning Conductor - Part 4 - Positioning Yourself for Heaven to Kiss Earth" - Sunday 8th March 2009.
"Becoming a Lightning Conductor - Part 5 - Operating in Greater Faith" - Sunday 15th March 2009.
"Faith is Conducting Heaven's Influence Into The Earth - Part 6" - Sunday 29th March.
"Faith is Conducting Heaven's Influence Into The Earth - Part 7" - Sunday 5th April.
"Rest" by Ryan Rufus - Sunday 9th April.
"Re-defining Holiness" by Ryan Rufus - Sunday 2nd May.
"Pioneers in the Miraculous" - Sunday 10th May.
Rob Rufus Archive - 2008
2008
"What to Expect in 2008!" - CCI, Hong Kong - 6th January.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 1" - CCI, Hong Kong - 13th January.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 2" - CCI, Hong Kong - 20th January (Part 1 and Part 2).
"Invading the Impossible - Part 3" - CCI, Hong Kong - 27th January.
"Grace and Glory Conference" - Dubai
"Session 1" - 29th January.
"Session 3" - "He will Come Upon You" - 31st January.
"Session 4 - Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost" - 1st February.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 4" - CCI, Hong Kong - 3rd February.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 5" - CCI, Hong Kong - 17th February.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 6" - CCI, Hong Kong - 24th February.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 7" - CCI, Hong Kong - 24th February.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 8" - CCI, Hong Kong - 2nd March.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 9" - CCI, Hong Kong - 9th March.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 10" - CCI, Hong Kong - 15th March.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 11" - CCI, Hong Kong - 23rd March.
"Grace and Glory Conference" - Sydney 26-29th March, 2008
"Session 1" - Righteousness as a Gift.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 12" - CCI, Hong Kong - 6th April.
"There is a Flood of Glory Coming!" - CCI, Hong Kong - 13th April.
"Condemning Condemnation and Glory Testimonies" - CCI, Hong Kong - 20th April.
"Fully Free from Guilt in Order to Be Fully Covered by the Glory" - 27th April.
"Newfrontiers Europe Conference with Dave Holden" - Session 1 - 10 May 2008
"Newfrontiers Europe Conference with Dave Holden" - Session 2 - 11th May 2008.
"Testimonies From Europe Ministry Trip" - 25th May.
"The Blood - Substance or Shadow?" - 1st June.
"Do Christians Need To Confess Their Sins To God?" - 8th June.
"What to Expect in 2008!" - CCI, Hong Kong - 6th January.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 1" - CCI, Hong Kong - 13th January.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 2" - CCI, Hong Kong - 20th January (Part 1 and Part 2).
"Invading the Impossible - Part 3" - CCI, Hong Kong - 27th January.
"Grace and Glory Conference" - Dubai
"Session 1" - 29th January.
"Session 3" - "He will Come Upon You" - 31st January.
"Session 4 - Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost" - 1st February.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 4" - CCI, Hong Kong - 3rd February.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 5" - CCI, Hong Kong - 17th February.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 6" - CCI, Hong Kong - 24th February.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 7" - CCI, Hong Kong - 24th February.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 8" - CCI, Hong Kong - 2nd March.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 9" - CCI, Hong Kong - 9th March.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 10" - CCI, Hong Kong - 15th March.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 11" - CCI, Hong Kong - 23rd March.
"Grace and Glory Conference" - Sydney 26-29th March, 2008
"Session 1" - Righteousness as a Gift.
"Invading the Impossible - Part 12" - CCI, Hong Kong - 6th April.
"There is a Flood of Glory Coming!" - CCI, Hong Kong - 13th April.
"Condemning Condemnation and Glory Testimonies" - CCI, Hong Kong - 20th April.
"Fully Free from Guilt in Order to Be Fully Covered by the Glory" - 27th April.
"Newfrontiers Europe Conference with Dave Holden" - Session 1 - 10 May 2008
"Newfrontiers Europe Conference with Dave Holden" - Session 2 - 11th May 2008.
"Testimonies From Europe Ministry Trip" - 25th May.
"The Blood - Substance or Shadow?" - 1st June.
"Do Christians Need To Confess Their Sins To God?" - 8th June.
"The Administration Of Healing Authority" - 15th June 2008.
"Attitudes that Attract the Empowering Grace of God - Part 2" - 27th July 2008
Ryan Rufus - "Keys to Understanding Romans 5, 6, 7 and 8" - 24th August 2008.
"The Struggle for the Authentic - Part 2" - 14th September.
"The Struggle For The Authentic - Part 3 - "Qualifications For The Blessings - Faith or Works?" - 21st September.
"Taking Away the Veil" - Sunday 28th September.
"Hearing the Voice of God" - Sunday 7th December.
Rob Rufus Archive - 2007
2007
"Aligning Our Allegiances For The Anointing To Flow at Full Volume" - Sunday 10th June.
"Why Angels Visited Our Service" - Sunday 17th June.
"Confident Ministers Of Life" - Sunday 24th June.
Rob Rufus at Church of Christ the King, Brighton - "Marrying Grace and Glory!".
"Together on a Mission 2007" - Brighton UK
Main Session 1 - "How To Be Filled With The Holy Spirit of Faith and Power".
Main Session 2 - "The Working Of His Mighty Power".
Main Session 3 - "The Timelessness in the Glory".
Mobilise Main Session.
"Competent ministers of the Spirit!' - (2 Cor. 3:4-6)" - THE Rob Rufus Seminar!
"Do Our Diaries Reflect the Priorities of Heaven?" - CCI, Hong Kong - 22nd July.
"Face to Face Intimacy with God" - CCI, Hong Kong - 5th August 2007.
"Knowing The Person Of The Holy Spirit" - Part 1 - CCI, Hong Kong - 9th September.
"Knowing The Person Of The Holy Spirit" - Part 2 - CCI, Hong Kong - 16th September.
"Knowing The Person of the Holy Spirit" - Part 3 - CCI, Hong Kong - 23rd September.
"Knowing The Person of the Holy Spirit" - Part 5 - Sunday 7th October.
"Knowing The Person of the Holy Spirit" - Part 6 - Sunday 14th October.
"Dealing with the Spirit of Conservatism" (an exhortation after Fini de Gersigny's sermon; "The Father's Love") - CCI, Hong Kong - 21st October.
"Grace and Glory Conference - Hong Kong" - Archive here.
"Knowing the Person of the Holy Spirit" - Part 7 - CCI, Hong Kong - 28th October.
"Prayer Meeting and Conference De-brief" - CCI, Hong Kong - 1st November.
"Knowing the Person of the Holy Spirit" - Part 8 - CCI, Hong Kong - 4th November.
Self Righteousness vs the Gift of Righteousness" - CCI, Hong Kong - 9th December.
"Aligning Our Allegiances For The Anointing To Flow at Full Volume" - Sunday 10th June.
"Why Angels Visited Our Service" - Sunday 17th June.
"Confident Ministers Of Life" - Sunday 24th June.
Rob Rufus at Church of Christ the King, Brighton - "Marrying Grace and Glory!".
"Together on a Mission 2007" - Brighton UK
Main Session 1 - "How To Be Filled With The Holy Spirit of Faith and Power".
Main Session 2 - "The Working Of His Mighty Power".
Main Session 3 - "The Timelessness in the Glory".
Mobilise Main Session.
"Competent ministers of the Spirit!' - (2 Cor. 3:4-6)" - THE Rob Rufus Seminar!
"Do Our Diaries Reflect the Priorities of Heaven?" - CCI, Hong Kong - 22nd July.
"Face to Face Intimacy with God" - CCI, Hong Kong - 5th August 2007.
"Knowing The Person Of The Holy Spirit" - Part 1 - CCI, Hong Kong - 9th September.
"Knowing The Person Of The Holy Spirit" - Part 2 - CCI, Hong Kong - 16th September.
"Knowing The Person of the Holy Spirit" - Part 3 - CCI, Hong Kong - 23rd September.
"Knowing The Person of the Holy Spirit" - Part 5 - Sunday 7th October.
"Knowing The Person of the Holy Spirit" - Part 6 - Sunday 14th October.
"Dealing with the Spirit of Conservatism" (an exhortation after Fini de Gersigny's sermon; "The Father's Love") - CCI, Hong Kong - 21st October.
"Grace and Glory Conference - Hong Kong" - Archive here.
"Knowing the Person of the Holy Spirit" - Part 7 - CCI, Hong Kong - 28th October.
"Prayer Meeting and Conference De-brief" - CCI, Hong Kong - 1st November.
"Knowing the Person of the Holy Spirit" - Part 8 - CCI, Hong Kong - 4th November.
Self Righteousness vs the Gift of Righteousness" - CCI, Hong Kong - 9th December.
Rob Rufus Archive - 2006
2006
"Grace for Freedom and Fruitfulness Series - (1) - Freedom from Dead Works." - 19th February.
"Grace versus Law" - (Part 1 and Part 2) - CCI, Hong Kong - 5th March.
"Together on a Mission 2006" - Brighton UK
"Living Daily under the Miraculous Mantle of God's Increased Power" - (Track Part 1).
Main Session 1.
"Living Daily under the Miraculous Mantle of God's Increased Power" - (Track Part 2).
"The Laying on of Hands" - (Track Part 2)
"Living Daily under the Miraculous Mantle of God's Increased Power" - (Track Part 3).
"The Power of the Authoritative Command - Part 1" - CCI, Hong Kong - 10th September.
"The Power of the Authoritative Command - Part 2" - CCI, Hong Kong - 17th September.
"Grace for Freedom and Fruitfulness Series - (1) - Freedom from Dead Works." - 19th February.
"Grace versus Law" - (Part 1 and Part 2) - CCI, Hong Kong - 5th March.
"Together on a Mission 2006" - Brighton UK
"Living Daily under the Miraculous Mantle of God's Increased Power" - (Track Part 1).
Main Session 1.
"Living Daily under the Miraculous Mantle of God's Increased Power" - (Track Part 2).
"The Laying on of Hands" - (Track Part 2)
"Living Daily under the Miraculous Mantle of God's Increased Power" - (Track Part 3).
"The Power of the Authoritative Command - Part 1" - CCI, Hong Kong - 10th September.
"The Power of the Authoritative Command - Part 2" - CCI, Hong Kong - 17th September.
Rob Rufus Archive - 2004
2004
"The Presence of God" (Part 1 and Part 2) - CCI, Hong Kong - 30th June.
"Heavenly Churches or Earthly Churches?" - CCI, Hong Kong - 4th July.
"The Grace-Hating Spirit - Part 1" - CCI, Hong Kong - 22nd August.
"The Grace-Hating Spirit - Part 2" ("FREEDOM!") - CCI, Hong Kong - 25th August.
"Authorised/Unauthorised Fire" - CCI, Hong Kong - 22nd September.
"The Presence of God" (Part 1 and Part 2) - CCI, Hong Kong - 30th June.
"Heavenly Churches or Earthly Churches?" - CCI, Hong Kong - 4th July.
"The Grace-Hating Spirit - Part 1" - CCI, Hong Kong - 22nd August.
"The Grace-Hating Spirit - Part 2" ("FREEDOM!") - CCI, Hong Kong - 25th August.
"Authorised/Unauthorised Fire" - CCI, Hong Kong - 22nd September.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Established in the Gift of Righteousness - Part 4
I realise that Parts 2 and 3 are missing from this series but there is an explanation. My normal transcribing "process" is to listen to the sermon and write it out word for word from my IPOD into one of my numerous notebooks. Then I type up the written transcript onto the blog. However God has been awesomely gracious (fruits of believing in this great gift of righteousness!??!) and I brought a new laptop yesterday which I could take to work. So rather than writing, I typed straight from the IPOD onto the screen and as a result found to my delight that I can transcribe a whole sermon in one night. Which means that my blogging output of sermons should improve and I stand a chance of catching Rob Rufus up!
So I do promise that Parts 2 and 3 are on their way - they are just waiting to be typed up.
For now - here is Part 4.
“How to Fly Your Life by the Instruments of Grace”
How many of you know that the most precious commodity that you have got is time? Once it has gone - then it has gone. You can lose money and get it back. If you are a millionaire on the inside and have a million and lose it then you will get a million back. If you are not a millionaire on the inside - by your attitude and confident expectation - then you can inherit a million from your parents but in a short space of time you will lose it and never get it back unless you are a millionaire on the inside. Once time is gone then it is gone. Time for me is the most precious commodity you have got on the planet and we need to spend it and steward time very wisely. Another year has gone and we are on the threshold of a new Chinese year and look back and there is nothing that we can do about our past if we have wasted it or made less than wise decisions. If we have done things that ended up in disaster or debt or struggle or disappointment then there is nothing you can do about the past.
The way you deal with your past is to look into your future with great hope and great expectation that God can turn the things from the past into good for your future.
So we want to use this time we have got now in this meeting very effectively. We want to use it with excellence. I give you this guarantee - I will speak to you with all the grace and all the anointing of the Spirit of God that I can produce by faith. I am not here to speak casually to you or to waste your time. I am here to invest into you the excellence of the treasures of heaven that will give you advantages in life to succeed and overcome in every area of life. But that is all I can guarantee you. I can’t guarantee that you will listen with the same excellence that I speak to you with! That is up to you! I guarantee that I will not speak to you with unbelief or with the poison of a sceptical mind or a cynical attitude or the attitudes of negativity. I will speak to you from being in the Presence of God from 04:00 this morning. I will speak to you from the Presence of the Throne Room of grace. I will speak to you by faith and with the love of God. I will speak to you with a vision of great success and blessing for your life. If you will listen with the same excellence then we will connect and kiss in the Spirit and there will be an explosion of the glory and liberation in this place today!
The grace of God simply means two things;
1. It means God though the New Covenant and through Christ accepts you and loves you and wants to bless you and wants to deal towards you with such kindness and such favour - not because of what you deserve and not because of what you merit but because of what Jesus deserved and merited for you. Grace means God’s riches to you at Christ’s expense. It means God will never stop loving you. He is always for you and He will never judge you or criticise you or disapprove of you. God is for you all the time!
2. Grace also means God’s empowering Presence in your life so that He can empower you by grace to do things you never thought you could do. With grace you can love people you never thought you could love. You can have attitudes that you never thought you could have and you can do signs and wonders - you can lay your hands on the sick and they can be healed and you can do things by grace that you never thought you could do. In grace!
Today’s message is called; “How to Fly your Life by the Instruments of Grace”. The pilots here will understand exactly what I am saying - how to fly your life not by your feelings but by instruments of grace. And to look at your life through the lenses of grace. Jesus said in Luke 8:18; “Be careful HOW you hear”. He did not say; “Be careful WHAT you hear”. We regularly question what we hear but we seldom question how we hear. We regularly question what we see but seldom question how we see. If I have got scratches on my glasses then everywhere I look I will see scratches until I question how I am seeing. I can then take the glasses off and remove the scratches. If I have got scratches over my heart then I will see scratches everywhere I look and if I don’t question how I am seeing then I will condemn myself to sabotage my success by the scratches I continue to see because I am not obeying what Jesus said.
He said; “Be careful HOW you see“. The legalistic church is in the bondage of “WHAT”. Don’t look and don’t touch! They are not saying what Jesus said - He said; “How”. You can pride yourself on wearing New Covenant glasses but if you have got Old Covenant scratches on your New Covenant lenses then you will see Old Covenant legalistic law of Moses - condemnation - judgement - wrath - discouragement - isolation - I will never make it. If you have got scratches on your New Covenant lenses then that will cause you to see God in an erroneous way. It will cause you to see God through the lenses of the law and God is not relating to you through law anymore but always through grace. If you have got scratches then you will look at circumstances happening in your life and you will see them in a way that is not accurate and not helpful to you.
If you are a New Covenant believer and you believe you are in the New Covenant but you still believe that if you sin then you think God will be angry with me because I never confessed my sin and you think God wants to punish me - because you are looking at it through the wrong lenses.
When you are late for an appointment and you drive and get a flat tyre half way there you will think that it is God who arranged your flat tyre. If you are looking through the wrong scratches on your lenses and you get sick, you will think it is God who is giving you that sickness because you didn’t confess your sin when you did something wrong. If your business goes into bankruptcy you will believe it is God punishing you or your marriage gets into difficulty then you think it is God! But when you look at it through the right lenses and are careful HOW you see and HOW you hear then you will look at life through different lenses - scratch-free lenses!
There is another condition that (and we have six pilots in our church who could explain this better) I understand at ground school in your first week in pilot training, they will train you when you fly into storm clouds you NEVER trust your feelings - you trust your instruments. If you trust your feelings in that storm you will feel like you are flying upside down.
I have got a case as to how we should fly our lives into the storms of life by the instruments of grace and not by feeling. Your feelings - if you are flying by feelings - could make you flip your life over when God has got you right side up in the cloud. The grace of God has got you right side up but because of your failures, your sins, your mistakes, your disappointments, the breakup of relationship, financial pressures - grace says “You are okay - I have got you coming through the storm”. Your instruments of grace are telling you that it is okay - God still loves you and is with you and will never give up on you but your feelings and the religious world is telling you and most of the church is telling you and the devil is telling you that you are wrong. He doesn’t have to flip your life upside down - you do that all by yourself and you crash and burn. The casualties are strewn across the wayside of the world and millions of Christians are not walking with joy and glory and peace in God. They are bitter and cynical and have crashed and burned not because they are bad people but because their leaders taught them so.
The leaders may have known the message of grace but out of fear of being criticised about preaching grace - they pull back and preach a bit of law and a bit of grace and mix them together. You can see now why we have to be established in grace and God’s free gift of righteousness because it has nothing to do with religion or being a good church-goer. It is about being successful in your marriage, your kids, your life, your health, your career, and in advancing the kingdom of God in the earth - it has nothing to do with churchianity! It is about enjoying life and inheriting blessing.
How many of you want to hear about the instruments of grace that you should fly your life by? Imagine saying to a pilot; “Don’t be radical - this thing about flying ONLY by your feelings - that is a bit extreme! Balance it with a few feelings as well”. That will be a life lived like a rollercoaster! Lets fly with instruments of grace but lets also fly with feelings!?! That is schizophrenia and the church is full of schizophrenics that go from Old Covenant law to New Covenant grace. James 1 says; “The double minded man will receive nothing from God”. To try and mix Old Covenant law of Moses and the New Covenant grace of Jesus is INSANE! I have spent 3 years teaching you the difference!
Let me say this because it help you some that are still wondering what is so bad about the law of Moses? Let me give you one today. Under the law of Moses you showed your zeal for God by killing sinners and I can show you many examples of that and God would say; “Well done that is great”. Under Old Covenant law you showed your zeal for God by hating people that sinned and wanting to kill them and stone them and spear them. Extreme Islamic jihadists are simply being consistent with Old Covenant law. They will kill everyone who doesn’t want to surrender to Allah because they are sinners and must be killed! It is in the Koran! They are flying their lives by the instruments of the Old Covenant law. Jesus said; “It has been said to you”. Where was it said? Under the Old Covenant. “It has been said to you hate your enemies - but I say to you love your enemies and do good so you will shine like your Father in heaven”. It is a New Covenant! It is not the Old Covenant! The disciples thought that they were under the Old Covenant so when they came to Samaria and the people didn’t come out and worship Jesus - Peter and John said “Should we call down fire from heaven to destroy Samaria?”.
Jesus said; “No you don’t understand - you are of the wrong spirit”.
When you want to prophesy judgement on people and see God judge and kill people, when you want to see God burn Hong Kong because of the prostitutes or the homosexuals - when you want to see judgement and hate people who are sinning then I promise you that you are of another spirit and He is not the Holy Spirit.
Anyone operating under an Old Covenant - when the Old Covenant is redundant (Hebrews says it is obsolete - it has gone - it is nullified - it doesn’t exist) then you are not operating by the Holy Spirit but a demonic spirit that is flying your life. When we judge others we put ourselves back under the law. When you fly your life by the law, you are going to crash and burn because law is all about how you feel and how you are doing.
The law will condemn you all the time - no matter how much good you are doing - the law will say it is never good enough because it is NEVER good enough! The law demands absolute perfection off you. Jesus gave you perfection - the free gift of righteousness - He measured up for you and He redeemed you from the curse of the law.
(John 1:16-17) We see that the law was given through Moses but grace came through Jesus and from the fullness of His grace we have received one blessing after another blessing! Under that Old Covenant law if a leper touched you then you were unclean. Under the New Covenant if you touch a leper then they are healed. The Old Covenant was a message of judgement. Under law there had to be judgement. The New Covenant message is that the judgement has passed! Because judgement happened at the Cross and judgement is satisfied and fulfilled.
John 3 says that Jesus didn’t come into the world to judge the world but He came into the world to BE judged FOR the world. These people saying that God is pouring out judgements around the world haven’t read their New Testaments. The New Testament - 2 Corinthians 5:19 - says God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself NOT COUNTING MENS SINS AGAINST THEM. The Bible does not speak about days and days of judgements on the earth - it speaks a lot about the last day and every time it talks about the last days it is talking about the great outpouring and power of the Holy Spirit! The great ingathering of harvest!
Whenever the Bible talks about judgement it talks about a day - singular - of judgement. The Day of Judgement comes at the end of this age. God is not judging the planet or causing earthquakes. He is not destroying people or bringing diseases. He doesn’t want half of California to drop off into the sea although half the church would want that because they are of the wrong spirit. One day I will teach you about the book of Revelation and how to interpret that correctly. You cannot live in schizophrenia! It has to be decided - is God predisposed to judge sinners because if He asks you to love them but He wants to kill them but God is confused! God is asking you to be holier than He is! You cannot live in this - God is judging sinners and hating sinners but God loves the world! God is not wanting to judge one city on this planet - God doesn’t want to judge the Muslim world and He didn’t send earthquakes to Indonesia. This whole planet is groaning and creaking through the fall of man in the Garden of Eden where God brought frustration on the very DNA of the planet.
God is not judging individual people and whole nations. He is here to see billions come into the kingdom of heaven. There is a day at the very end of the age that those who have rejected Jesus or neglected Jesus or didn’t show any interest in receiving Jesus - there is an eternal hell - a Christ-less eternity. But God is doing everything in His will to save every person on the planet from that one single day of judgement that is coming.
For the Christian 1 Corinthians 3 says we do not face a Day of Judgement but a day of prize-giving and we will be praised by God because we have already been judged in the Person of Jesus Christ. We died with Christ on death, burial and resurrection and we are ascended with Him and we are co-seated with Him in heavenly realms!
We have been justified, sanctified and glorified already - past tense - according to Romans 8:31. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus! No separation from the love of God to those in Christ Jesus! You have got to fly your life by the instruments of grace!
That flat tyre wasn’t God punishing you because you didn’t confess your sin! Your sin was dealt with past, present and future before you were EVER born! It was ALL dealt with at the Cross! Colossians 2 says having forgiven (past tense) all your sin - He took away the rules and regulations that were opposed to you, He disarmed them and gave you His gift of righteousness as a permanent standing before God.
Do you want me to show you what your instrument panel is? It is just one verse. Romans 5:20. Here is the instrument panel that shows the difference between law and grace. “The law was added so that the trespass (that’s sinning) might increase but where sin increased - GRACE INCREASED ALL THE MORE”. Put that on your instrument panel and fly your life into storms! When sin increased then grace increased all the more!
When your sin and Gods grace met in the boxing ring - grace wins every time easily! That word for “increase”- the word associated with the increase of sin is a different word in Greek from the word for “increased” grace. The word “sin increased” simply means that sin increased. But “grace increased” is the word “hupo” in the Greek and it means “superabundantly”.
Kenneth Wuest is one of the leading Greek scholars and he said that Romans 5:20 literally says; “Where sin increased, grace already existed in super abundance and even more grace over and above and upon that abundance of grace!”.
How many Christians enjoy the integrity of the inheritance that Jesus gave them legitimately on His death on the Cross? People ask me why I am extravagant? I was born again at the age of 23 and I conceived in my spirit the DNA of an extremist God. He is extremely good and extremely gracious and extremely joyful and in an extremely good mood all the time!
He really likes me and He really enjoys being with me! “How can He like me - I am a sinner!”. That issue has gone! The sin issue was dealt with at the Cross! The more you focus on trying not to sin, but I have found out the harder I try, the more I do. Because when law comes - then sin increases! Get the law off the church - get guilt and condemnation off the church! Come into the New Covenant! Lets translate that to all the redemptive richness of the finished work of the Cross.
“Where sickness and disease increased - health and healing already exist in superabundance and even much more health and healing for you over and above and upon superabundance of healing and health!”. When SARS hit Hong Kong a few years ago those who knew this verse in signs and wonders know that whenever the devil does something, then it means that God has already from heaven released a new and higher move of healing. Whenever I see economic downturns I know in the heavenly and spirit realm for those with ears to hear what the Spirit is saying and are careful HOW they hear and HOW they see - there is access for them into the abundance of heaven. I am not a citizen of earth - I am a citizen of heaven the Bible says!
I am passing through this world creaking and groaning because of man’s rebellion against the goodness of God. “Where financial debt, difficulty and pressure increases then Gods prosperity for you already exists in superabundance of prosperity for you and even much more and over and above and upon does that prosperity exist for you above even super prosperity!”.
Remember I taught last week what faith is - very important what faith is! If you missed last week, you have got to get what is faith because faith is the currency that connects you to heavenly materiality’s. lets put it this way - because we all live in a real world. Where people rejecting you - where people misunderstanding you - where people side-lining you - where people taking you out of the loop because of some bitter political agenda, some conspiracy of unkindness, some demonic strategy - a plot, a scheme and a ploy to make you feel like you want to flip your plane upside down and crash and burn.
When rejection from man increases against you - glorious, tender, kindness of acceptance already exists in superabundance from the Father and from many gracious people and even upon that great acceptance and inclusion and love and understanding, over and above and upon that acceptance of superabundance does the Father! Everyone will not like you - I am sorry, but there is also going to be a lot of people that do like you! Don’t worry about those that don’t like you -stop running after them! Your value and your esteem does not depend on a few shrivelled up and distorted people that live in fear and duplicity and double-faced chameleons that change their colour to suit the crowd they are in! I like consistent people - what you see is what you get!
The reason why these last years the devil’s strategy has been for Christians - has been to so overwhelm us with the extent of looking at, scrutinising and investigating our sins. Listen - to the day you die, you will always have some sin going on in your life. When you inherit your immortal body - when you go to the realms of glory, you will never sin again! But in the meantime God has adequately with all sufficiency of all abundance dealt with the sinning issue! The more you live in grace - the less you sin! But if you do sin, then grace already exists in superabundance and much moreover and above and upon that does grace exist!
The devil wants you to think sickness and disease and plagues - I cant stand these eschatology teachers that are fear-mongers. They are making Christians so afraid that the world is going to be so evil. The Anti-Christ is going to take over! The mark of the Beast is going to be on your forehead - oh please! Stop it now! Read the book of Revelation properly - the Anti-Christ and the Beast don’t take over - Jesus takes over! The Kingdom takes over! Have a look at Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and the statue with the little stone cut without human hands. That smashed all these five kingdoms! That little stone cut without human hands is the virgin-born not conceived by the sperm of man - and He grows and the Kingdom of heaven will take the world! I am not saying that everyone will be a Christian when Jesus comes again - I am just saying that Anti-Christ and the mark of the Beast and the European Alliance will not have taken over the world! They will try to and not succeed for the book of Revelation says - and you need to read it to reveal Jesus to you and the blessing of Who He is!
There is only one day of judgement. It is not months and years of God judging and wrath. When that day comes it says people won’t repent, they will just even be more angry. God doesn’t pour out wrath and judgement to make people become Christians! That is a lot of nonsense. Romans 2 says the goodness of God leads people to repentance. Repentance is not “oh sorry sorry sorry! I will never sin again - I am so disgusting and so horrible!”. no repentance means just to change the way that you think. We are not under law - we are under the grace of the New Covenant that where sin abounds. How many Christians have committed suicide - they have flipped their plane because they did not go by instruments of Romans 5:20 but they went by the instruments of their religious feelings. And their church helped them to feel condemned! It is criminal! We should have some people put in courts of law for what they have done to people! Now many don’t commit actual suicide but they commit emotional suicide or relational suicide. They commit going to a good church suicide and don’t go to church anymore because they have been burnt! They crashed and burnt their own life! They withdraw from God, withdraw from the Kingdom, withdraw from His purposes and eat food, take up space, pass it through their body and die.
We have got destiny - we are here to leave footprints in the sand of history. We are here to change history - there are history books waiting to be written! History is waiting in the balance to people who will not fly their lives by their feelings but by the instruments of grace! People are not so concerned with what they here and what they see but how they here and how they see and get those old covenant scratches off your new covenant lenses and be established in the gift of righteousness once and for all!
Let me try to close with a few bible back ups on this. David was a man after the heart of God. The Bible says that in the last days God will restore the fallen tent of David. That has got nothing to do with how you govern the church but to do with law and grace! Under that Old Covenant they were under law but James says that in the New Covenant anyone that comes to Christ are not under the law - they are in grace and he used Davids tent of Zion as an example. David was living under the law and under those judgements before the Cross. But David was a prophet in many places in that Old Covenant and he saw down the corridors of time and in prophetic insight he saw the New Covenant coming and his faith pulled dynamics of the New Covenant into his time/space world. God does not live in time otherwise He would be limited by time. God lives outside of time and He breaks into time and faith affects the actions of God into the earth. Whether God does something now or something later, faith often is the administrator.
When Mary came to Jesus and said turn the water into wine, He said “My time has not yet come”. But Mary gave Him that look that only mothers can! And Jesus looked up to heaven and said “Father I know You are not doing the wine thing now - its not our time - Mary after all changed My nappy!”. She would have because He pooed like anyone else! The Father said; “I will do it”. Mary’s faith pulled something for the future into the now.
God wants revival in Hong Kong NOW - He wants signs and wonders NOW - He wants the blind eyes and deaf ears and the cripples and those with AIDS to be healed NOW in Hong Kong! The Church is saying no - in the Millennium He will do it. We have no right to put off to the future what God says is NOW! All God is looking for is one congregation. He doesn’t need a thousand - He just needs one that understands this New Covenant and fly their lives by the instruments of grace.
David saw into the New Covenant and pulled it into the now and put up a tent that had instant access to the Presence of God without the law. Moses Tabernacle was still down there and they were doing blood of bulls and of goats - but David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Zion - He didn’t bring it back to Moses tent. Yet this great man of God - this king who God said is a man after My own heart. God looks at your heart. Politicians look at your exterior whereas God looks at your heart and He sees what you are after. David loved God and he knew God’s love because he was a man who understood grace. He lived a gloriously holy life and gave everything he had. But one night David went up onto the rooftop to just have a look. He didn’t go up there to perv or to spy - just to get some clean air. And while he was there he saw a U.F.O. an undressed female opportunity. And he did a stupid thing that he later deeply regretted. Let me repeat that - he regretted. I have heard people preach against sin and yet it doesn’t help! It doesn’t stop the sinning - it just makes the sinning go underground!
He committed adultery and she conceived a child that later died. He had her husband Uriah killed in battle - so adultery and murder. The lady that was undressed and having a bath was Bathsheba. If you look in the geneology of Jesus - the ancestral lineage of Jesus the Messiah - those people in His lineage you will see that Bathsheba is there. God is not ashamed to use Bathsheba. The very womb that was used in an adulterous relationship was the same womb that conceived Solomom and the line that produced Jesus the Messiah! You will see four women in Jesus ancestral lineage. We want to see that everyone in our lineage is highly educated, good, got a great life and those that were really bad - we cut them off from the family tree! Parents disown their child if their child has done something wrong. But in Jesus lineage He says - put them all in!
In Jesus lineage in Luke and Matthew you will see four women. One woman seduced her father-in-law in Jesus lineage! You have got Rahab - she was a prostitute in Jesus lineage! You have got Ruth - a Moabite woman and you have got Bathsheba. I think that where sin increased, grace did in superabundance.
In religious life and much of Church life when people’s moral wings break - we want to shoot them and kick them out. Even in the military in South Africa when we were in action, in contact with enemy - you NEVER left your wounded behind! It was a thing we were drilled - you carry your wounded out! You never shoot your wounded and you certainly don’t leave them for the enemy to shoot! As swearing soldiers surely we should not be superior to the Church! But in the Church if you get caught in some act of adultery or immorality or even homosexuality or whatever - my God! Run for the sinners and the atheists because they will give you more love than the Church!
Find those who don’t believe in God at all - they will love you more! In the religious world - if you break your wings then they will hate you. They will dress it up as “I am disciplining you - this is for your good”. Yes but they will have you under a cloud of disapproval and watchfulness and now you are under their control. When you are ready to be released they will still remind you; “We are watching you!”. In the grace of God and in the Kingdom of God when your wings break and God’s grace comes in superabundance much more above your sin - when He fixes your wings again, you will be able to fly higher than you could before your wings broke.
In Romans 8 - not Romans 6:1. People misquote Romans 6:1 where Paul says; “Shall we sin more that grace may abound? God forbid“. he was not talking about sinning - it is a noun there and a whole other argument! In Romans 3 - Paul does refer to what people think he is saying in Romans 6:1. In Romans 3 he says that some people are saying he was teaching should we do more evil that more good should come? And he says what a scandal! That is not what we are teaching! What Paul is teaching that this gospel is so good. This champion of grace - Paul the apostle - is that this grace is so super-abounding that it gives everyone hope all the time! That no one has to ever doubt that their sinning can EVER supersede the grace of God! There’s no second, third, fourth chances - no He gives you infinite chances! It was all dealt with at the Cross! Where sin increases, grace already exists in superabundance and much more grace over and above and upon that - that is the end of all arguments! So that when you are flying through moral storms and mistakes and sickness and disease and failure, you don’t flip your plane because you are going by your feelings. Fly by the instruments of revelation and grace!
Let me say this and we are finished. You need to have an encounter with the love of God - you need to experience His love personally. That is the bottom line. No one can persuade you into it. You have got to experience that.
When Jesus took five loaves and two fish and He had five thousand to feed from five loaves - He took the loaves and blessed them. Why was He blessing them? Because He could see where hunger has increased in this crowd, provision has already existed for superabundance. He broke five loaves and through the disciples fed five thousand. We think that’s the only time He did it - but did you know that He did another of those miracles? The other time there was only four thousand there! One thousand less! Four loaves? Five did for five thousand? No - He took seven loaves to feed a thousand less!
Because in the economy of God the more difficulties you are facing, the worse the situation you are dealing with, the easier it is for God to come up with a miracle!
It was easier for God to destroy the enemies of Israel - a hundred, thousand Mideanites by reducing the army of Israel down to three hundred from thirty thousand. He said to the thirty thousand - go home, you are afraid, have a holiday, put your feet up - I just need three hundred. Because God would get more glory with three hundred than with thirty thousand. We are living with an arithmetic that does not calculate by grace but calculates by the strategies of humanistic logic. That is the problem with the Church - it lives out of it’s mental, academic, religious faculties and not from the heart.
Everything to do with the supernatural comes from the spirit of man, the heart of man and NOT from the head of man. Head is for thinking and heart is for drinking and revelation!
People say why don’t I see more miracles in my life and more signs and wonders and greater breakthroughs of the power of God in my life? Very easy! When Jesus came to this earth and He walked on this planet and He walked amongst people - would He say “Go on the Mediterranean diet, that’s a good healthy diet?”. Stop being so stupid! Jesus healed thousands of people and they were ALL on the Mediterranean diet! You may as well eat red meat and enjoy it! They were there and eating fish and vegetables and olive oil and they were very sick! These Christians come up with these ideas as to how you should live and it’s all based on laws and principles. If you want to stay healthy because you exercise you are relying on works to stay healthy. Not faith! Some people are going praise God! You have got people exercising every day and they die young because they are focussing on what they can do and not what Jesus did at the Cross. They are man-centered and they are religious and go to church! Now do you exercise Rob? Yes regularly because I enjoy it. I do it as an outlet and get some endorphins flowing and love the walk after a good hard run up the hills, love talking to God. I love being with my Father after exercise out in the bush with no cars or noise. That’s why I love exercise.
Should you eat wisely? Yes of course. But if your faith is in that then your faith is working for health and not receiving from the eternal realm what happened at the Cross. There is so much works programme in the Church! When Jesus walked this earth in Jerusalem these places were full of sick and oppressed people and paralysed and broken and in financial debt and suicidal and depressed - and He did great signs and wonders and miracles amongst them! Can you imagine if Jesus came to Israel and while He was walking through the streets of Jerusalem, through villages and towns, every person covered up and pretended that they weren’t sick and they weren’t struggling with sin and were all okay to everyone all the time and to Jesus and came to church and sat in church like this. During the worship they were formal and religious. “Yes I am doing fine!”. If they all did that then Jesus would have been utterly useless. Utterly useless! The Pharisees and experts of the law asked Him why He sat with the sinners and the prostitutes and the tax collectors and He said; “Only sick people need a doctor - I have not come for the self-righteous but for the sinners”.
If you don’t see the power of God flowing in your life - miracles and breakthroughs - then you are flying your life by your feelings not by the instruments of grace. You are being religious and trying to pretend you are holy. You are trying to pretend you have got it altogether. For you Jesus can’t do a thing but for you who don’t what others think of you and you are not self-conscious and not all about you but all about how good He is …
See the Presence of God is coming on me right now. He likes what I am saying.
You humble yourself and stay open to God and say “I don’t care if people see me jumping around and waving my arms around - I am not showing off how holy I am or pretending how spiritual I am but showing how good God is. My side is winning and Jesus is my champion and He won the victory at the Cross!”. As religious people sit in church while people fall under the power and get drunk with the joy of God and the power of God comes into the room, they frown and say “This is weird” - I want to say, “No you are weird because you are just like a Pharisee that would have sat there while Jesus brought forgiveness and love and miracles and you are rejecting that saying you are okay and a self-made man or woman. Then you will never see miracles or signs and wonders but eat food, pass it through your body, make money that passes through your pockets and you will not have access into the glory of God!”. But those who like Paul the apostle say; “When I am weak then His power is made strong in me!”.
People think Samson was a strong man and took those big gates and ran with gates weighing tons. Imagine you are the Philistines behind gates of hell that cant prevail and a man runs up and pulls them off their hinges and smashes them up! Another time he killed a thousand Philistines with a jawbone of his mother in law. I mean of a donkey. And people say well Samson must have looked like ten Arnold Schwarzenegger put together. He must have been a brute of a man! No he wasn’t - he was pathetic and weak. How do I know that? Because Delilah didn’t know the secret of his strength and she was a spy trying to work out how is this man so strong! Everyone would have known if he was big! It was because of his covenant with God - and the Bible said that the Spirit of God would come upon him with power! Then after the Spirit was off him he would be weak again! Then when he needed it the Spirit would come. I felt the Spirit come on me last year in front of wheelchair cases and I am standing there weak and know I cant do it but then I feel like fire - heavenly voltage - comes! And they come out the wheelchair! And you are as shocked as everyone else is because it works! It is too late to tell me that God doesn’t do miracles - I have stood in front of wheelchairs just months ago! I have seen them! Samson was weak but the Spirit came on him in power. One day he was walking by and a lion came out and roared at him. And the Spirit of God came on him and he went to the lion and ripped him apart!
When the power of God comes on you - you just start having fun! How many of you know what happened last Thursday night? When the power of God comes down, joy and liberty comes and you don’t care what people think - you are so full of love for God and you know that grace is super abounding and you are safe! Safe from the storm! You are watching your instruments and then my feelings start feeling good!
The Bible says that Samson came walking by a little later and he saw that the carcass of the lion had a swarm of bees had made their hive inside its dead carcass. And Samson wrote a riddle that said; “Out of the devourer came something sweet”. In 1st Peter 5 it says “Be vigilant, be watchful, and live a well balanced life of joy because your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he MAY …”. May I devour you? No! You may not! Christians who are not careful how they hear and how they see and what the instruments are saying say - yes you may. Thank you very much - I will take your marriage and your health. Yes take more - I am so bad, I’ve failed God, take it all, I don’t deserve any blessings. That is someone who has flipped their life upside down! He goes around like a roaring lion seeking who he “may” devour. Who he may! He may not devour me! I have been going for 32 years and I haven’t backslidden! I am not a casualty on the side. And it is not because I am so strong - I am a coward going somewhere to manifest! I am not brave! I am not holy! If it wasn’t for the grace of God I would have murdered by now and robbed banks! I am red-blooded and I feel tempted and it is the grace of God! That is all!
For 30 years I haven’t backslidden because I was born again into a church that had quite a good insight into grace and I heard Terry Virgo teach on grace in 1984 and my life became a quest to understand grace. I look at people who have backslidden and hate the church and are bitter and have given up on Christianity. I don’t judge them and know exactly why they are in that state - because they flew their lives by their feelings and not the instruments of grace. They need to get off the self pity trip because they didn’t need to suck everything that preacher said.
You don’t have to believe a thing I say until you have checked what I am saying from the Bible in context and challenge me if I am preaching out of context and I mean that! Challenge me!
You have to take responsibility for those listening by the website if some pastor deceived you with legalism.
Something sweet came out of the devourer. Where the devils attacks increase, the victory already exists in superabundance and out of the devourer will come something sweet. Out of every negative experience you have gone through God can bring something sweet! Isn’t God good? Think about this! This jumps up in my heart! You that don’t like trials and tests - you wouldn’t know a great king like David existed if it wasn’t for Goliath. David was a no body. He didn’t grow up in the palace of King Saul - he wasn’t groomed or recognised by his dad. He was hated by his brothers! If anyone had a right to have a hangover and a woe-is-me-my-dad and my brothers-my brothers accused me! When Samuel came to choose a king I wasn’t even included among the choice! I was just out there - an uneducated boy looking after sheep. But David had a heart for God because he found out that God is good.
All political and double-faced people trying to climb the hierarchial ladder and look good wont worship God extravagantly because they are bound by the law. They are! Look at anyone who can’t worship God extravagantly and you can know a stronghold of law is there.
Jesus is sitting in a Pharisees house and He was eating. And a woman came in who was in serious sin and Jesus forgave her and wept over His feet and dried His feet with her hair. Don’t you think that is extravagant? Don’t you think that is like dancing? Simon didn’t have the guts to say out loud but in his heart, he said; “If this man were a true prophet He would know this woman is a sinner - why would He let a sinner touch His feet?”. Jesus knew His thoughts supernaturally and said; “Simon if a man is forgiven 50 denarii debt and another 50, 000 denarius debt - who would be most grateful”. Simon said the one with 50, 000. Jesus said; “He who is forgiven much - worships much. I came into your house and you didn’t even give me a bowl of water to wash My feet!”. The Pharisees think that they are holy. They pretend they are holy but their lives are full of secret sin. Those that live in grace know they are not perfect and know they have got sin. They know that they have got problems. But they are honest about it and tell people they can trust about it. They don’t cover it!
If you don’t think you have been forgiven much because you think you are holy enough then you wont worship God extravagantly - it is a sin. Here is David rejected and hated. He was a nobody and when Goliath appeared, the people saw Goliath. They were terrified. But where a giant increased, the increase of grace and the authority to destroy giants was in a simple unknown boy called David. And David came in with a giant killing anointing on his life. When he killed Goliath, he didn’t just kill him but he took Goliath’s own weapon and cut his head off and ran through Israel with a bloodied giants head shouting the triumph and greatness of our God. God said that is the champion I want governing my people! A passionate man - a man after my own heart but later committed adultery. And God cleansed him, forgave him and David went onto greater greatness because his broken wings were fixed and he flew Israel higher in the grace of God and expanded the territory of Israel in his generation!
How are you going to live? You have got one life and it is dangerous to play it safe. Israel kept on the wrong side of Goliath. They were all panicking and wanted to give David their armour! He didn’t want it - if it doesn’t work for you then don’t give it to me. The church and the religious world and denominational world - don’t give me the stuff that isn’t working, I don’t want to be under your fences. Don’t give me your armour! I will take what works for me - the anointing. The anointing of the Spirit of God! I don’t care who rejects me or misunderstands me or runs away from me because where rejection increases, then the acceptance of God’s love and many others around the world and in Hong Kong is constantly increasing!
Oh Father I want to live this life by the instruments of grace and don’t want to waste one more moment in folly or conceited vanity or self-righteousness. I don’t want to boast anymore or trust in luck. it’s the grace and goodness of God! Father we open our hearts to you right now and we pray that the abundance of the finished work of the Cross will manifest in our hearts and minds right now. And that from this day we will fly our lives only by the instruments of grace and when we have those feelings of condemnation and feel upside down then we will declare that we are not upside down. Circumstances may be going crazy and moving and feel upside down but I am not upside down and God is bringing me through this.
A champion has arrived! One who is greater than David came to the Cross and triumphed on my behalf and delivered me from all judgement and all sin and all consequences of sin - I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and I am going on to greatness in my God - I am going to make a difference in human history! I am not just living for me or for my little world. But I am here to touch the world around me by the power of Gods grace. I am for signs and wonders and miracles to see the blessing and power of Abraham overtake me. To be full of the supernatural! Father when I am weak and failing and struggling, I will be weak and vulnerable and be transparent and then Your power will increase even more in my life!!
So I do promise that Parts 2 and 3 are on their way - they are just waiting to be typed up.
For now - here is Part 4.
“How to Fly Your Life by the Instruments of Grace”
How many of you know that the most precious commodity that you have got is time? Once it has gone - then it has gone. You can lose money and get it back. If you are a millionaire on the inside and have a million and lose it then you will get a million back. If you are not a millionaire on the inside - by your attitude and confident expectation - then you can inherit a million from your parents but in a short space of time you will lose it and never get it back unless you are a millionaire on the inside. Once time is gone then it is gone. Time for me is the most precious commodity you have got on the planet and we need to spend it and steward time very wisely. Another year has gone and we are on the threshold of a new Chinese year and look back and there is nothing that we can do about our past if we have wasted it or made less than wise decisions. If we have done things that ended up in disaster or debt or struggle or disappointment then there is nothing you can do about the past.
The way you deal with your past is to look into your future with great hope and great expectation that God can turn the things from the past into good for your future.
So we want to use this time we have got now in this meeting very effectively. We want to use it with excellence. I give you this guarantee - I will speak to you with all the grace and all the anointing of the Spirit of God that I can produce by faith. I am not here to speak casually to you or to waste your time. I am here to invest into you the excellence of the treasures of heaven that will give you advantages in life to succeed and overcome in every area of life. But that is all I can guarantee you. I can’t guarantee that you will listen with the same excellence that I speak to you with! That is up to you! I guarantee that I will not speak to you with unbelief or with the poison of a sceptical mind or a cynical attitude or the attitudes of negativity. I will speak to you from being in the Presence of God from 04:00 this morning. I will speak to you from the Presence of the Throne Room of grace. I will speak to you by faith and with the love of God. I will speak to you with a vision of great success and blessing for your life. If you will listen with the same excellence then we will connect and kiss in the Spirit and there will be an explosion of the glory and liberation in this place today!
The grace of God simply means two things;
1. It means God though the New Covenant and through Christ accepts you and loves you and wants to bless you and wants to deal towards you with such kindness and such favour - not because of what you deserve and not because of what you merit but because of what Jesus deserved and merited for you. Grace means God’s riches to you at Christ’s expense. It means God will never stop loving you. He is always for you and He will never judge you or criticise you or disapprove of you. God is for you all the time!
2. Grace also means God’s empowering Presence in your life so that He can empower you by grace to do things you never thought you could do. With grace you can love people you never thought you could love. You can have attitudes that you never thought you could have and you can do signs and wonders - you can lay your hands on the sick and they can be healed and you can do things by grace that you never thought you could do. In grace!
Today’s message is called; “How to Fly your Life by the Instruments of Grace”. The pilots here will understand exactly what I am saying - how to fly your life not by your feelings but by instruments of grace. And to look at your life through the lenses of grace. Jesus said in Luke 8:18; “Be careful HOW you hear”. He did not say; “Be careful WHAT you hear”. We regularly question what we hear but we seldom question how we hear. We regularly question what we see but seldom question how we see. If I have got scratches on my glasses then everywhere I look I will see scratches until I question how I am seeing. I can then take the glasses off and remove the scratches. If I have got scratches over my heart then I will see scratches everywhere I look and if I don’t question how I am seeing then I will condemn myself to sabotage my success by the scratches I continue to see because I am not obeying what Jesus said.
He said; “Be careful HOW you see“. The legalistic church is in the bondage of “WHAT”. Don’t look and don’t touch! They are not saying what Jesus said - He said; “How”. You can pride yourself on wearing New Covenant glasses but if you have got Old Covenant scratches on your New Covenant lenses then you will see Old Covenant legalistic law of Moses - condemnation - judgement - wrath - discouragement - isolation - I will never make it. If you have got scratches on your New Covenant lenses then that will cause you to see God in an erroneous way. It will cause you to see God through the lenses of the law and God is not relating to you through law anymore but always through grace. If you have got scratches then you will look at circumstances happening in your life and you will see them in a way that is not accurate and not helpful to you.
If you are a New Covenant believer and you believe you are in the New Covenant but you still believe that if you sin then you think God will be angry with me because I never confessed my sin and you think God wants to punish me - because you are looking at it through the wrong lenses.
When you are late for an appointment and you drive and get a flat tyre half way there you will think that it is God who arranged your flat tyre. If you are looking through the wrong scratches on your lenses and you get sick, you will think it is God who is giving you that sickness because you didn’t confess your sin when you did something wrong. If your business goes into bankruptcy you will believe it is God punishing you or your marriage gets into difficulty then you think it is God! But when you look at it through the right lenses and are careful HOW you see and HOW you hear then you will look at life through different lenses - scratch-free lenses!
There is another condition that (and we have six pilots in our church who could explain this better) I understand at ground school in your first week in pilot training, they will train you when you fly into storm clouds you NEVER trust your feelings - you trust your instruments. If you trust your feelings in that storm you will feel like you are flying upside down.
I have got a case as to how we should fly our lives into the storms of life by the instruments of grace and not by feeling. Your feelings - if you are flying by feelings - could make you flip your life over when God has got you right side up in the cloud. The grace of God has got you right side up but because of your failures, your sins, your mistakes, your disappointments, the breakup of relationship, financial pressures - grace says “You are okay - I have got you coming through the storm”. Your instruments of grace are telling you that it is okay - God still loves you and is with you and will never give up on you but your feelings and the religious world is telling you and most of the church is telling you and the devil is telling you that you are wrong. He doesn’t have to flip your life upside down - you do that all by yourself and you crash and burn. The casualties are strewn across the wayside of the world and millions of Christians are not walking with joy and glory and peace in God. They are bitter and cynical and have crashed and burned not because they are bad people but because their leaders taught them so.
The leaders may have known the message of grace but out of fear of being criticised about preaching grace - they pull back and preach a bit of law and a bit of grace and mix them together. You can see now why we have to be established in grace and God’s free gift of righteousness because it has nothing to do with religion or being a good church-goer. It is about being successful in your marriage, your kids, your life, your health, your career, and in advancing the kingdom of God in the earth - it has nothing to do with churchianity! It is about enjoying life and inheriting blessing.
How many of you want to hear about the instruments of grace that you should fly your life by? Imagine saying to a pilot; “Don’t be radical - this thing about flying ONLY by your feelings - that is a bit extreme! Balance it with a few feelings as well”. That will be a life lived like a rollercoaster! Lets fly with instruments of grace but lets also fly with feelings!?! That is schizophrenia and the church is full of schizophrenics that go from Old Covenant law to New Covenant grace. James 1 says; “The double minded man will receive nothing from God”. To try and mix Old Covenant law of Moses and the New Covenant grace of Jesus is INSANE! I have spent 3 years teaching you the difference!
Let me say this because it help you some that are still wondering what is so bad about the law of Moses? Let me give you one today. Under the law of Moses you showed your zeal for God by killing sinners and I can show you many examples of that and God would say; “Well done that is great”. Under Old Covenant law you showed your zeal for God by hating people that sinned and wanting to kill them and stone them and spear them. Extreme Islamic jihadists are simply being consistent with Old Covenant law. They will kill everyone who doesn’t want to surrender to Allah because they are sinners and must be killed! It is in the Koran! They are flying their lives by the instruments of the Old Covenant law. Jesus said; “It has been said to you”. Where was it said? Under the Old Covenant. “It has been said to you hate your enemies - but I say to you love your enemies and do good so you will shine like your Father in heaven”. It is a New Covenant! It is not the Old Covenant! The disciples thought that they were under the Old Covenant so when they came to Samaria and the people didn’t come out and worship Jesus - Peter and John said “Should we call down fire from heaven to destroy Samaria?”.
Jesus said; “No you don’t understand - you are of the wrong spirit”.
When you want to prophesy judgement on people and see God judge and kill people, when you want to see God burn Hong Kong because of the prostitutes or the homosexuals - when you want to see judgement and hate people who are sinning then I promise you that you are of another spirit and He is not the Holy Spirit.
Anyone operating under an Old Covenant - when the Old Covenant is redundant (Hebrews says it is obsolete - it has gone - it is nullified - it doesn’t exist) then you are not operating by the Holy Spirit but a demonic spirit that is flying your life. When we judge others we put ourselves back under the law. When you fly your life by the law, you are going to crash and burn because law is all about how you feel and how you are doing.
The law will condemn you all the time - no matter how much good you are doing - the law will say it is never good enough because it is NEVER good enough! The law demands absolute perfection off you. Jesus gave you perfection - the free gift of righteousness - He measured up for you and He redeemed you from the curse of the law.
(John 1:16-17) We see that the law was given through Moses but grace came through Jesus and from the fullness of His grace we have received one blessing after another blessing! Under that Old Covenant law if a leper touched you then you were unclean. Under the New Covenant if you touch a leper then they are healed. The Old Covenant was a message of judgement. Under law there had to be judgement. The New Covenant message is that the judgement has passed! Because judgement happened at the Cross and judgement is satisfied and fulfilled.
John 3 says that Jesus didn’t come into the world to judge the world but He came into the world to BE judged FOR the world. These people saying that God is pouring out judgements around the world haven’t read their New Testaments. The New Testament - 2 Corinthians 5:19 - says God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself NOT COUNTING MENS SINS AGAINST THEM. The Bible does not speak about days and days of judgements on the earth - it speaks a lot about the last day and every time it talks about the last days it is talking about the great outpouring and power of the Holy Spirit! The great ingathering of harvest!
Whenever the Bible talks about judgement it talks about a day - singular - of judgement. The Day of Judgement comes at the end of this age. God is not judging the planet or causing earthquakes. He is not destroying people or bringing diseases. He doesn’t want half of California to drop off into the sea although half the church would want that because they are of the wrong spirit. One day I will teach you about the book of Revelation and how to interpret that correctly. You cannot live in schizophrenia! It has to be decided - is God predisposed to judge sinners because if He asks you to love them but He wants to kill them but God is confused! God is asking you to be holier than He is! You cannot live in this - God is judging sinners and hating sinners but God loves the world! God is not wanting to judge one city on this planet - God doesn’t want to judge the Muslim world and He didn’t send earthquakes to Indonesia. This whole planet is groaning and creaking through the fall of man in the Garden of Eden where God brought frustration on the very DNA of the planet.
God is not judging individual people and whole nations. He is here to see billions come into the kingdom of heaven. There is a day at the very end of the age that those who have rejected Jesus or neglected Jesus or didn’t show any interest in receiving Jesus - there is an eternal hell - a Christ-less eternity. But God is doing everything in His will to save every person on the planet from that one single day of judgement that is coming.
For the Christian 1 Corinthians 3 says we do not face a Day of Judgement but a day of prize-giving and we will be praised by God because we have already been judged in the Person of Jesus Christ. We died with Christ on death, burial and resurrection and we are ascended with Him and we are co-seated with Him in heavenly realms!
We have been justified, sanctified and glorified already - past tense - according to Romans 8:31. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus! No separation from the love of God to those in Christ Jesus! You have got to fly your life by the instruments of grace!
That flat tyre wasn’t God punishing you because you didn’t confess your sin! Your sin was dealt with past, present and future before you were EVER born! It was ALL dealt with at the Cross! Colossians 2 says having forgiven (past tense) all your sin - He took away the rules and regulations that were opposed to you, He disarmed them and gave you His gift of righteousness as a permanent standing before God.
Do you want me to show you what your instrument panel is? It is just one verse. Romans 5:20. Here is the instrument panel that shows the difference between law and grace. “The law was added so that the trespass (that’s sinning) might increase but where sin increased - GRACE INCREASED ALL THE MORE”. Put that on your instrument panel and fly your life into storms! When sin increased then grace increased all the more!
When your sin and Gods grace met in the boxing ring - grace wins every time easily! That word for “increase”- the word associated with the increase of sin is a different word in Greek from the word for “increased” grace. The word “sin increased” simply means that sin increased. But “grace increased” is the word “hupo” in the Greek and it means “superabundantly”.
Kenneth Wuest is one of the leading Greek scholars and he said that Romans 5:20 literally says; “Where sin increased, grace already existed in super abundance and even more grace over and above and upon that abundance of grace!”.
How many Christians enjoy the integrity of the inheritance that Jesus gave them legitimately on His death on the Cross? People ask me why I am extravagant? I was born again at the age of 23 and I conceived in my spirit the DNA of an extremist God. He is extremely good and extremely gracious and extremely joyful and in an extremely good mood all the time!
He really likes me and He really enjoys being with me! “How can He like me - I am a sinner!”. That issue has gone! The sin issue was dealt with at the Cross! The more you focus on trying not to sin, but I have found out the harder I try, the more I do. Because when law comes - then sin increases! Get the law off the church - get guilt and condemnation off the church! Come into the New Covenant! Lets translate that to all the redemptive richness of the finished work of the Cross.
“Where sickness and disease increased - health and healing already exist in superabundance and even much more health and healing for you over and above and upon superabundance of healing and health!”. When SARS hit Hong Kong a few years ago those who knew this verse in signs and wonders know that whenever the devil does something, then it means that God has already from heaven released a new and higher move of healing. Whenever I see economic downturns I know in the heavenly and spirit realm for those with ears to hear what the Spirit is saying and are careful HOW they hear and HOW they see - there is access for them into the abundance of heaven. I am not a citizen of earth - I am a citizen of heaven the Bible says!
I am passing through this world creaking and groaning because of man’s rebellion against the goodness of God. “Where financial debt, difficulty and pressure increases then Gods prosperity for you already exists in superabundance of prosperity for you and even much more and over and above and upon does that prosperity exist for you above even super prosperity!”.
Remember I taught last week what faith is - very important what faith is! If you missed last week, you have got to get what is faith because faith is the currency that connects you to heavenly materiality’s. lets put it this way - because we all live in a real world. Where people rejecting you - where people misunderstanding you - where people side-lining you - where people taking you out of the loop because of some bitter political agenda, some conspiracy of unkindness, some demonic strategy - a plot, a scheme and a ploy to make you feel like you want to flip your plane upside down and crash and burn.
When rejection from man increases against you - glorious, tender, kindness of acceptance already exists in superabundance from the Father and from many gracious people and even upon that great acceptance and inclusion and love and understanding, over and above and upon that acceptance of superabundance does the Father! Everyone will not like you - I am sorry, but there is also going to be a lot of people that do like you! Don’t worry about those that don’t like you -stop running after them! Your value and your esteem does not depend on a few shrivelled up and distorted people that live in fear and duplicity and double-faced chameleons that change their colour to suit the crowd they are in! I like consistent people - what you see is what you get!
The reason why these last years the devil’s strategy has been for Christians - has been to so overwhelm us with the extent of looking at, scrutinising and investigating our sins. Listen - to the day you die, you will always have some sin going on in your life. When you inherit your immortal body - when you go to the realms of glory, you will never sin again! But in the meantime God has adequately with all sufficiency of all abundance dealt with the sinning issue! The more you live in grace - the less you sin! But if you do sin, then grace already exists in superabundance and much moreover and above and upon that does grace exist!
The devil wants you to think sickness and disease and plagues - I cant stand these eschatology teachers that are fear-mongers. They are making Christians so afraid that the world is going to be so evil. The Anti-Christ is going to take over! The mark of the Beast is going to be on your forehead - oh please! Stop it now! Read the book of Revelation properly - the Anti-Christ and the Beast don’t take over - Jesus takes over! The Kingdom takes over! Have a look at Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and the statue with the little stone cut without human hands. That smashed all these five kingdoms! That little stone cut without human hands is the virgin-born not conceived by the sperm of man - and He grows and the Kingdom of heaven will take the world! I am not saying that everyone will be a Christian when Jesus comes again - I am just saying that Anti-Christ and the mark of the Beast and the European Alliance will not have taken over the world! They will try to and not succeed for the book of Revelation says - and you need to read it to reveal Jesus to you and the blessing of Who He is!
There is only one day of judgement. It is not months and years of God judging and wrath. When that day comes it says people won’t repent, they will just even be more angry. God doesn’t pour out wrath and judgement to make people become Christians! That is a lot of nonsense. Romans 2 says the goodness of God leads people to repentance. Repentance is not “oh sorry sorry sorry! I will never sin again - I am so disgusting and so horrible!”. no repentance means just to change the way that you think. We are not under law - we are under the grace of the New Covenant that where sin abounds. How many Christians have committed suicide - they have flipped their plane because they did not go by instruments of Romans 5:20 but they went by the instruments of their religious feelings. And their church helped them to feel condemned! It is criminal! We should have some people put in courts of law for what they have done to people! Now many don’t commit actual suicide but they commit emotional suicide or relational suicide. They commit going to a good church suicide and don’t go to church anymore because they have been burnt! They crashed and burnt their own life! They withdraw from God, withdraw from the Kingdom, withdraw from His purposes and eat food, take up space, pass it through their body and die.
We have got destiny - we are here to leave footprints in the sand of history. We are here to change history - there are history books waiting to be written! History is waiting in the balance to people who will not fly their lives by their feelings but by the instruments of grace! People are not so concerned with what they here and what they see but how they here and how they see and get those old covenant scratches off your new covenant lenses and be established in the gift of righteousness once and for all!
Let me try to close with a few bible back ups on this. David was a man after the heart of God. The Bible says that in the last days God will restore the fallen tent of David. That has got nothing to do with how you govern the church but to do with law and grace! Under that Old Covenant they were under law but James says that in the New Covenant anyone that comes to Christ are not under the law - they are in grace and he used Davids tent of Zion as an example. David was living under the law and under those judgements before the Cross. But David was a prophet in many places in that Old Covenant and he saw down the corridors of time and in prophetic insight he saw the New Covenant coming and his faith pulled dynamics of the New Covenant into his time/space world. God does not live in time otherwise He would be limited by time. God lives outside of time and He breaks into time and faith affects the actions of God into the earth. Whether God does something now or something later, faith often is the administrator.
When Mary came to Jesus and said turn the water into wine, He said “My time has not yet come”. But Mary gave Him that look that only mothers can! And Jesus looked up to heaven and said “Father I know You are not doing the wine thing now - its not our time - Mary after all changed My nappy!”. She would have because He pooed like anyone else! The Father said; “I will do it”. Mary’s faith pulled something for the future into the now.
God wants revival in Hong Kong NOW - He wants signs and wonders NOW - He wants the blind eyes and deaf ears and the cripples and those with AIDS to be healed NOW in Hong Kong! The Church is saying no - in the Millennium He will do it. We have no right to put off to the future what God says is NOW! All God is looking for is one congregation. He doesn’t need a thousand - He just needs one that understands this New Covenant and fly their lives by the instruments of grace.
David saw into the New Covenant and pulled it into the now and put up a tent that had instant access to the Presence of God without the law. Moses Tabernacle was still down there and they were doing blood of bulls and of goats - but David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Zion - He didn’t bring it back to Moses tent. Yet this great man of God - this king who God said is a man after My own heart. God looks at your heart. Politicians look at your exterior whereas God looks at your heart and He sees what you are after. David loved God and he knew God’s love because he was a man who understood grace. He lived a gloriously holy life and gave everything he had. But one night David went up onto the rooftop to just have a look. He didn’t go up there to perv or to spy - just to get some clean air. And while he was there he saw a U.F.O. an undressed female opportunity. And he did a stupid thing that he later deeply regretted. Let me repeat that - he regretted. I have heard people preach against sin and yet it doesn’t help! It doesn’t stop the sinning - it just makes the sinning go underground!
He committed adultery and she conceived a child that later died. He had her husband Uriah killed in battle - so adultery and murder. The lady that was undressed and having a bath was Bathsheba. If you look in the geneology of Jesus - the ancestral lineage of Jesus the Messiah - those people in His lineage you will see that Bathsheba is there. God is not ashamed to use Bathsheba. The very womb that was used in an adulterous relationship was the same womb that conceived Solomom and the line that produced Jesus the Messiah! You will see four women in Jesus ancestral lineage. We want to see that everyone in our lineage is highly educated, good, got a great life and those that were really bad - we cut them off from the family tree! Parents disown their child if their child has done something wrong. But in Jesus lineage He says - put them all in!
In Jesus lineage in Luke and Matthew you will see four women. One woman seduced her father-in-law in Jesus lineage! You have got Rahab - she was a prostitute in Jesus lineage! You have got Ruth - a Moabite woman and you have got Bathsheba. I think that where sin increased, grace did in superabundance.
In religious life and much of Church life when people’s moral wings break - we want to shoot them and kick them out. Even in the military in South Africa when we were in action, in contact with enemy - you NEVER left your wounded behind! It was a thing we were drilled - you carry your wounded out! You never shoot your wounded and you certainly don’t leave them for the enemy to shoot! As swearing soldiers surely we should not be superior to the Church! But in the Church if you get caught in some act of adultery or immorality or even homosexuality or whatever - my God! Run for the sinners and the atheists because they will give you more love than the Church!
Find those who don’t believe in God at all - they will love you more! In the religious world - if you break your wings then they will hate you. They will dress it up as “I am disciplining you - this is for your good”. Yes but they will have you under a cloud of disapproval and watchfulness and now you are under their control. When you are ready to be released they will still remind you; “We are watching you!”. In the grace of God and in the Kingdom of God when your wings break and God’s grace comes in superabundance much more above your sin - when He fixes your wings again, you will be able to fly higher than you could before your wings broke.
In Romans 8 - not Romans 6:1. People misquote Romans 6:1 where Paul says; “Shall we sin more that grace may abound? God forbid“. he was not talking about sinning - it is a noun there and a whole other argument! In Romans 3 - Paul does refer to what people think he is saying in Romans 6:1. In Romans 3 he says that some people are saying he was teaching should we do more evil that more good should come? And he says what a scandal! That is not what we are teaching! What Paul is teaching that this gospel is so good. This champion of grace - Paul the apostle - is that this grace is so super-abounding that it gives everyone hope all the time! That no one has to ever doubt that their sinning can EVER supersede the grace of God! There’s no second, third, fourth chances - no He gives you infinite chances! It was all dealt with at the Cross! Where sin increases, grace already exists in superabundance and much more grace over and above and upon that - that is the end of all arguments! So that when you are flying through moral storms and mistakes and sickness and disease and failure, you don’t flip your plane because you are going by your feelings. Fly by the instruments of revelation and grace!
Let me say this and we are finished. You need to have an encounter with the love of God - you need to experience His love personally. That is the bottom line. No one can persuade you into it. You have got to experience that.
When Jesus took five loaves and two fish and He had five thousand to feed from five loaves - He took the loaves and blessed them. Why was He blessing them? Because He could see where hunger has increased in this crowd, provision has already existed for superabundance. He broke five loaves and through the disciples fed five thousand. We think that’s the only time He did it - but did you know that He did another of those miracles? The other time there was only four thousand there! One thousand less! Four loaves? Five did for five thousand? No - He took seven loaves to feed a thousand less!
Because in the economy of God the more difficulties you are facing, the worse the situation you are dealing with, the easier it is for God to come up with a miracle!
It was easier for God to destroy the enemies of Israel - a hundred, thousand Mideanites by reducing the army of Israel down to three hundred from thirty thousand. He said to the thirty thousand - go home, you are afraid, have a holiday, put your feet up - I just need three hundred. Because God would get more glory with three hundred than with thirty thousand. We are living with an arithmetic that does not calculate by grace but calculates by the strategies of humanistic logic. That is the problem with the Church - it lives out of it’s mental, academic, religious faculties and not from the heart.
Everything to do with the supernatural comes from the spirit of man, the heart of man and NOT from the head of man. Head is for thinking and heart is for drinking and revelation!
People say why don’t I see more miracles in my life and more signs and wonders and greater breakthroughs of the power of God in my life? Very easy! When Jesus came to this earth and He walked on this planet and He walked amongst people - would He say “Go on the Mediterranean diet, that’s a good healthy diet?”. Stop being so stupid! Jesus healed thousands of people and they were ALL on the Mediterranean diet! You may as well eat red meat and enjoy it! They were there and eating fish and vegetables and olive oil and they were very sick! These Christians come up with these ideas as to how you should live and it’s all based on laws and principles. If you want to stay healthy because you exercise you are relying on works to stay healthy. Not faith! Some people are going praise God! You have got people exercising every day and they die young because they are focussing on what they can do and not what Jesus did at the Cross. They are man-centered and they are religious and go to church! Now do you exercise Rob? Yes regularly because I enjoy it. I do it as an outlet and get some endorphins flowing and love the walk after a good hard run up the hills, love talking to God. I love being with my Father after exercise out in the bush with no cars or noise. That’s why I love exercise.
Should you eat wisely? Yes of course. But if your faith is in that then your faith is working for health and not receiving from the eternal realm what happened at the Cross. There is so much works programme in the Church! When Jesus walked this earth in Jerusalem these places were full of sick and oppressed people and paralysed and broken and in financial debt and suicidal and depressed - and He did great signs and wonders and miracles amongst them! Can you imagine if Jesus came to Israel and while He was walking through the streets of Jerusalem, through villages and towns, every person covered up and pretended that they weren’t sick and they weren’t struggling with sin and were all okay to everyone all the time and to Jesus and came to church and sat in church like this. During the worship they were formal and religious. “Yes I am doing fine!”. If they all did that then Jesus would have been utterly useless. Utterly useless! The Pharisees and experts of the law asked Him why He sat with the sinners and the prostitutes and the tax collectors and He said; “Only sick people need a doctor - I have not come for the self-righteous but for the sinners”.
If you don’t see the power of God flowing in your life - miracles and breakthroughs - then you are flying your life by your feelings not by the instruments of grace. You are being religious and trying to pretend you are holy. You are trying to pretend you have got it altogether. For you Jesus can’t do a thing but for you who don’t what others think of you and you are not self-conscious and not all about you but all about how good He is …
See the Presence of God is coming on me right now. He likes what I am saying.
You humble yourself and stay open to God and say “I don’t care if people see me jumping around and waving my arms around - I am not showing off how holy I am or pretending how spiritual I am but showing how good God is. My side is winning and Jesus is my champion and He won the victory at the Cross!”. As religious people sit in church while people fall under the power and get drunk with the joy of God and the power of God comes into the room, they frown and say “This is weird” - I want to say, “No you are weird because you are just like a Pharisee that would have sat there while Jesus brought forgiveness and love and miracles and you are rejecting that saying you are okay and a self-made man or woman. Then you will never see miracles or signs and wonders but eat food, pass it through your body, make money that passes through your pockets and you will not have access into the glory of God!”. But those who like Paul the apostle say; “When I am weak then His power is made strong in me!”.
People think Samson was a strong man and took those big gates and ran with gates weighing tons. Imagine you are the Philistines behind gates of hell that cant prevail and a man runs up and pulls them off their hinges and smashes them up! Another time he killed a thousand Philistines with a jawbone of his mother in law. I mean of a donkey. And people say well Samson must have looked like ten Arnold Schwarzenegger put together. He must have been a brute of a man! No he wasn’t - he was pathetic and weak. How do I know that? Because Delilah didn’t know the secret of his strength and she was a spy trying to work out how is this man so strong! Everyone would have known if he was big! It was because of his covenant with God - and the Bible said that the Spirit of God would come upon him with power! Then after the Spirit was off him he would be weak again! Then when he needed it the Spirit would come. I felt the Spirit come on me last year in front of wheelchair cases and I am standing there weak and know I cant do it but then I feel like fire - heavenly voltage - comes! And they come out the wheelchair! And you are as shocked as everyone else is because it works! It is too late to tell me that God doesn’t do miracles - I have stood in front of wheelchairs just months ago! I have seen them! Samson was weak but the Spirit came on him in power. One day he was walking by and a lion came out and roared at him. And the Spirit of God came on him and he went to the lion and ripped him apart!
When the power of God comes on you - you just start having fun! How many of you know what happened last Thursday night? When the power of God comes down, joy and liberty comes and you don’t care what people think - you are so full of love for God and you know that grace is super abounding and you are safe! Safe from the storm! You are watching your instruments and then my feelings start feeling good!
The Bible says that Samson came walking by a little later and he saw that the carcass of the lion had a swarm of bees had made their hive inside its dead carcass. And Samson wrote a riddle that said; “Out of the devourer came something sweet”. In 1st Peter 5 it says “Be vigilant, be watchful, and live a well balanced life of joy because your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he MAY …”. May I devour you? No! You may not! Christians who are not careful how they hear and how they see and what the instruments are saying say - yes you may. Thank you very much - I will take your marriage and your health. Yes take more - I am so bad, I’ve failed God, take it all, I don’t deserve any blessings. That is someone who has flipped their life upside down! He goes around like a roaring lion seeking who he “may” devour. Who he may! He may not devour me! I have been going for 32 years and I haven’t backslidden! I am not a casualty on the side. And it is not because I am so strong - I am a coward going somewhere to manifest! I am not brave! I am not holy! If it wasn’t for the grace of God I would have murdered by now and robbed banks! I am red-blooded and I feel tempted and it is the grace of God! That is all!
For 30 years I haven’t backslidden because I was born again into a church that had quite a good insight into grace and I heard Terry Virgo teach on grace in 1984 and my life became a quest to understand grace. I look at people who have backslidden and hate the church and are bitter and have given up on Christianity. I don’t judge them and know exactly why they are in that state - because they flew their lives by their feelings and not the instruments of grace. They need to get off the self pity trip because they didn’t need to suck everything that preacher said.
You don’t have to believe a thing I say until you have checked what I am saying from the Bible in context and challenge me if I am preaching out of context and I mean that! Challenge me!
You have to take responsibility for those listening by the website if some pastor deceived you with legalism.
Something sweet came out of the devourer. Where the devils attacks increase, the victory already exists in superabundance and out of the devourer will come something sweet. Out of every negative experience you have gone through God can bring something sweet! Isn’t God good? Think about this! This jumps up in my heart! You that don’t like trials and tests - you wouldn’t know a great king like David existed if it wasn’t for Goliath. David was a no body. He didn’t grow up in the palace of King Saul - he wasn’t groomed or recognised by his dad. He was hated by his brothers! If anyone had a right to have a hangover and a woe-is-me-my-dad and my brothers-my brothers accused me! When Samuel came to choose a king I wasn’t even included among the choice! I was just out there - an uneducated boy looking after sheep. But David had a heart for God because he found out that God is good.
All political and double-faced people trying to climb the hierarchial ladder and look good wont worship God extravagantly because they are bound by the law. They are! Look at anyone who can’t worship God extravagantly and you can know a stronghold of law is there.
Jesus is sitting in a Pharisees house and He was eating. And a woman came in who was in serious sin and Jesus forgave her and wept over His feet and dried His feet with her hair. Don’t you think that is extravagant? Don’t you think that is like dancing? Simon didn’t have the guts to say out loud but in his heart, he said; “If this man were a true prophet He would know this woman is a sinner - why would He let a sinner touch His feet?”. Jesus knew His thoughts supernaturally and said; “Simon if a man is forgiven 50 denarii debt and another 50, 000 denarius debt - who would be most grateful”. Simon said the one with 50, 000. Jesus said; “He who is forgiven much - worships much. I came into your house and you didn’t even give me a bowl of water to wash My feet!”. The Pharisees think that they are holy. They pretend they are holy but their lives are full of secret sin. Those that live in grace know they are not perfect and know they have got sin. They know that they have got problems. But they are honest about it and tell people they can trust about it. They don’t cover it!
If you don’t think you have been forgiven much because you think you are holy enough then you wont worship God extravagantly - it is a sin. Here is David rejected and hated. He was a nobody and when Goliath appeared, the people saw Goliath. They were terrified. But where a giant increased, the increase of grace and the authority to destroy giants was in a simple unknown boy called David. And David came in with a giant killing anointing on his life. When he killed Goliath, he didn’t just kill him but he took Goliath’s own weapon and cut his head off and ran through Israel with a bloodied giants head shouting the triumph and greatness of our God. God said that is the champion I want governing my people! A passionate man - a man after my own heart but later committed adultery. And God cleansed him, forgave him and David went onto greater greatness because his broken wings were fixed and he flew Israel higher in the grace of God and expanded the territory of Israel in his generation!
How are you going to live? You have got one life and it is dangerous to play it safe. Israel kept on the wrong side of Goliath. They were all panicking and wanted to give David their armour! He didn’t want it - if it doesn’t work for you then don’t give it to me. The church and the religious world and denominational world - don’t give me the stuff that isn’t working, I don’t want to be under your fences. Don’t give me your armour! I will take what works for me - the anointing. The anointing of the Spirit of God! I don’t care who rejects me or misunderstands me or runs away from me because where rejection increases, then the acceptance of God’s love and many others around the world and in Hong Kong is constantly increasing!
Oh Father I want to live this life by the instruments of grace and don’t want to waste one more moment in folly or conceited vanity or self-righteousness. I don’t want to boast anymore or trust in luck. it’s the grace and goodness of God! Father we open our hearts to you right now and we pray that the abundance of the finished work of the Cross will manifest in our hearts and minds right now. And that from this day we will fly our lives only by the instruments of grace and when we have those feelings of condemnation and feel upside down then we will declare that we are not upside down. Circumstances may be going crazy and moving and feel upside down but I am not upside down and God is bringing me through this.
A champion has arrived! One who is greater than David came to the Cross and triumphed on my behalf and delivered me from all judgement and all sin and all consequences of sin - I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and I am going on to greatness in my God - I am going to make a difference in human history! I am not just living for me or for my little world. But I am here to touch the world around me by the power of Gods grace. I am for signs and wonders and miracles to see the blessing and power of Abraham overtake me. To be full of the supernatural! Father when I am weak and failing and struggling, I will be weak and vulnerable and be transparent and then Your power will increase even more in my life!!
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