The Power of the Authoratative Command for Healing - Part 2

This amazing sermon was preached by Rob at City Church on Sunday 17th September 2006. I did Part 1 a while back and it was such profound revelation to me as to how we can much more effectively pray for the sick. The transcript of Part 1 is here.

"Open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 3. This is our eighth teaching on the series - "God's willingness to heal". If you have missed it, it really is worth getting the series from the beginning. This is our second teaching on; "The Power of the Authoratative Command". A lot of positive feedback from people saying how much they learnt from last weeks teaching and how faith rose in their hearts.

I want to now talk about the dynamics behind the authoratative command. For those who weren't here, let me simply say this in 20 seconds. In the New Testament, in the Book of Acts and in the Gospels you see Jesus very seldom asking the Father to heal people. The same with the Book of Acts. What they did most of the time was to command healing to come and sickness to go. They commanded cripples to get up and walk. They commanded blind eyes to open, deaf ears to open and it was done by the authoratative command. We went into detail and we looked at Scripture to substantiate that.

This morning I want to talk about what is the dynamic behind that authoratative command. What can we do in our own hearts in order to nuture the outflow of the authoratative command? I learnt about the authoratative command in 1981 not in a Bible school or by reading a book or by some mentor. I learnt really by the Holy Spirit who helped me and I want to tell you this - the only way you are going to grow in effective ministry to the sick is that you have got to start! You learn on the job! The trouble with Bible schools is that they take people away from the life of the local church and then professors who have never planted local churches themselves - professors that have never prayed for the sick or raised the dead or have seen blind eyes opened or cripples walk - they teach people the academic principles and information about these things but have never done it themselves! There are professors at Harvard University who have never started a business but who teach people on how to start a business! These are just concepts! But the Hebrew model of life - the Christian model of life and the Kingdom of heaven model is about God-encounters and teaching out of experience and that is the model we need!

That is why I say don't wait to go away to Bible college and get all the Bible information dumped on you and then you come out of there puffed up with a lot of Bible knowledge but it is all academic and not experiential. I have to say which Bible college did Peter, James and John go to? They raised the dead! Where did the 12 disciples go to? They went to the college of the Holy Spirit! They learned by making mistakes!

If you learn to fail forward then you are going to grow! But if you are a person that is so perfectionist you will be frightened of making mistakes. And he that doesn't make mistakes - makes nothing!

It is impossible to learn how to do this except by making mistakes. I had to pray for a lot of blind eyes and rebuke a lot of blindness before I saw blind eyes opening. Some people will never see blind eyes opening because they never try to do it - once! You will learn while you are doing it! So in 1981 as a young man in the ministry, there was a young lady in our church called Dawn. She came to Glenda and I and said; "The doctors have just diagnosed me with breast cancer. I have got a tumour the size of a pigeons egg and they want to remove it in 3 weeks time - emergancy surgery". And she was going to lose her breast. So we said come on Sunday morning where there is a corporate anointing and we will pray for you! We were very new in this and had just started out. All our background upto then had not prepared us - the church we were a part of did not pray for the sick. They were just very conservative about it. We hadn't been mentored in this. But for 3 days I had been listening to Kenneth Hagin on faith and so I had come back armed with 3 days of experience.

I want to say to you that you may think you don't know the Bible well enough. Rob really knows it well. There is no one on the planet that knows the Bible perfectly! Bonnie is doing a theology correspondance degree at the moment and she is asking me some very testing questions! I am amazed at how much I don't know! But it doesn't intimidate me!

Because it is not how much of the Bible you know - it is how many God encounters you have had in portions of Scripture!

I know people that know the Bible from back to front but do not have a supernatural manifestation going on in their lives! The Pharisees and Sadducees knew the Bible! Jesus said "You search the Scriptures but they speak of Me! Here I am!". Knowledge of the Bible can just puff you up! Now it is important to know the Word of God. But if you just listen to the Word of God on Sunday morning, get the CDS, look at your notes during the week, turn up on Thursday nights where we don't do lectures on praying - we get God encounters where people learn how to petition, the prayer of faith, supernatural warfare - not by lecture but by Hebrew style of doing it! Doing it! I have just had a fellow elder from South Africa who planted the church with me in 1979 and he is an older man than me - he turned 70 yesterday. I gave him a call and he said "I just so wanted you to be in South Africa so I could publicly honour you for being my father and mentor in the faith". I was going; "Hold on now - I am 51 and you are 70!".

He said; "It's got nothing to do with age! Fathering in natural secular society is biological fathering. In the kingdom you can be younger and father someone and you did it because you invited me to come and do things. And I learnt more by doing things with you than by sitting in a lecture hall!". So this church is only 2 years old and we have got people who can pray now better than most Christians I have met. They have learned "doing"! That's why I get people out to pray for the sick because I want them to learn how to pray for the sick rather than spectate the guru doing it. That's why you have got churches around the world with a big man at the front or a woman who can do miracles and in the congregation you have got people who don't have a clue. That is not the Kingdom of heaven. All you have to do is be here on a Sunday morning. We teach the Word and you learn by God encounters experientially under the anointing - you grow in the understand of grace, faith, kingdom, godly government, how to run your home, management, family life in the kingdom. You are learning that week by week and over several years when you look back you will have grown in a whole lot of stuff!

Or you can go somewhere where there is no life and spend in an academic world with professors who have never "done the stuff" and come out armed with a whole lot of academic understanding and in my opinion that is the WORST thing that could have ever happened to the church that is led by people that have learned the ministry in an academic world of non-practice of the supernatural.

That is why they are academic and they have equipped millions of people to be like them - academics! Cerebral knowledge of doctrine and theology! And knowledge just puffs up.

"Rob so you are saying Bible schools are wrong?". Personally I think they are wrong! I can't see them in Scripture! Where did they learn their theology in the Book of Acts? They learnt it on the job! The apostles trained, taught and equipped! There are certain prophetic schools that are temporary where you go for a 2 or 3 month period but anything that takes you out of the life of a local church is wrong! The Bible has got nothing to teach about individual piety. Some Christians say; "I don't want to worship God in a local church - I just want to go and worship God on a mountain all by myself". They are talking about individual piety and you ask them; "Do you believe the Bible?". Well they are lying! Because the Bible says "Encourage one another!". The Bible says "Forgive one another - serve another!". How do you do that unless you are in a community of believers where you have got to work out your piety through relationships that get difficult at times. You can live in a fools paradise of how spiritual you are - you can be an expert in how to raise kids and be an expert - until you HAVE kids!

You can teach people on relationships and how to work out relational conflict from not being part of a local church until you become part of a local church and realise to your shock that other people are just as imperfect as you are. So I cannot see in the New Testament anywhere where they have Bible schools. You know what they did? They raised the dead, got cripples walking and turned the world upside down because they moved in the supernatural.

Under the Old Covenant there were prophetic schools. I would prefer to see prophets and apostles come to a local church and stay there for a few months and equip and train that local church. You take a few people out of a local church to go to a prophetic school and they come back all frustrated because everyone else hasn't caught it and they have got it! I think the New Testament does not have prophetic schools - the Old Covenant did. I am not saying people should not go to a prophetic conference for a while but I think in Hong Kong, that Hong Kong Christians are addicted to conferences and seminars. I have found that people who run after conferences and seminars and run after the latest en-vogue speaker coming to town are the most rebellious when it comes to local church and are the most independent and unhappy people often living under witchcraft because they do not have proper grace government of a local church where there are gates put in there by God.

People are not growing and advancing unless they are part of a grace government of a local church.

So Dawn came to us with a pigeon egg tumour. I had never dealt with a woman who unless God healed her could lose her breast and lose her life through cancer! So she came up on the Sunday morning and Glenda and I laid hands on her. I laid hands on her head! And we prayed "Father would You please heal Dawn in the Name of Jesus?". That week she phoned and said that the lump was still there and nothing had changed and I could hear the panic in her voice. I thought "Oh God what's happened? When you pray for the sick they are meant to be healed!". So I said "Come back next week Dawn!". Jesus prayed for someone twice! So she came back the next week and we prayed "Father heal Dawn! Heal her of this cancer! Heal her of this lump so she doesn't have to have it operated on! In Jesus Name!". The next week Dawn phones us in real panic now and says she only has a few days left and then needs surgery - her breast needs to be cut off. We are going "God what's going on!?". So I said; "Dawn please come and we will pray for you and He doesn't heal you then we will at least pray that He will guide the surgeons hands". If you are a woman and are going to lose a breast, that is big in terms of their sense of value and dignity or beauty - that is very serious psychologically. So she comes the next week and is due to have the operation in a few days.

So we lay hands on her and I am about to say; "Father please would You heal Dawn". But just before I pray I feel the Holy Spirit rise up in my spirit and He says; "Don't pray for Dawn! Command the spirit that is within that tumour and keeping that tumour alive! Command that force life to go and curse what is in that tumour and demand that the tumour shrivel up and die! Don't pray for her!". And before I knew what I was doing, I said; "I CURSE this tumour!". No asking! "I CURSE this tumour and I demand that the very life that is within this tumour that is demonic and it leave right now and I command that it vanish and disappear in Jesus Name!". That was the first time I had prayed a prayer like that! The second I prayed it - she got smacked through the air under the power of God.

So we finished the service and went home and the next Monday morning very early the phone rings. Picked it up and I answered and I couldn't make any sense because all I could hear was hysterical joy. "AGGGGHHHH!!". I thought it was Cantonese! She had her sister there and they were screaming and I thought "Oh no she is dying!". So I said; "Now Dawn calm down - what's happening?". And she said; "It's gone! It's gone! We have checked it! It's gone! It's totally disappeared!". And I am going; "It has?! It has!?". Now I am getting hysterical! So she went to the doctor and got it checked out and all surgery was not necessary and absolutely unnecessary!

Since then I have COMMANDED sickness to go and COMMANDED demons to go and seen greater increase of the miraculous!

Now when eagles make love - and have intimacy for conception they don't do it in the nest. They don't do it in the Bible school. They literally fly 5,000 feet into the air and lock their talons and then freefall towards the earth and somewhere between heaven and earth conception takes place! And in this meeting right now the Holy Spirit is calling us to lock in with Him and be raised up into the heights of revelation and we will conceive an increase of the supernatural in our lives. A greater authority to deal with the opposition and the miserable things that try to rob us of the quality of our lives and then they will help us to get people free from cancer, blindness, cripple-ness, pain in their backs!

Do you know that the word "conception" comes from the word "concept"? That the wrong concepts can cause a problem with conception! In fact you get the word "contraception" from the word "concepts". Wrong concepts can cause contraception to the conception of the miraculous. Wrong concepts about God! If you think God is just a mean angry Judge and if you think He doesn't love you or if you sin and mess up then God says; "That's it - I will use someone else". Those kinds of concepts will cause contraception to conceiving the supernatural of God in your heart!

In the Old Covenant the glory of God was hidden behind a veil and when Jesus died on the Cross, all your sins - past, present and future - were blotted out and God is not ever going to see sin in your life again! He has declared you righteous as a gift! You stand before Him with the very obedience of Jesus Christ being credited to your account as a free gift! Isn't it amazing that we got saved we understood that we couldn't deserve it or earn it and there was nothing we could do to get it. It was all grace! We received it as all grace and then from then on we tried to earn it and deserve everything else that God gives us. If you could not earn or deserve the greatest gift which is the righteousness of God then you can't earn anything else - it is ALL grace! A wrong concept of law and grace will stop conception like a spiritual contraception!

When Jesus said "It is finished!" - the veil in the Temple was split from top to bottom so that the Presence of God could come out to the people of faith! Now in the New Covenant it talks about a veil too! In 2 Corinthians 3. It speaks of a veil over the mind. What is that? It is having wrong concepts in your head about God, His Word and His grace. God has to strip the veil off our minds by enabling our minds to rid us of the conceptions or concepts that religion has brainwashed the church with for nearly 1,500 years so we can go back to where the church was in the book of Acts. Full of miracles, signs, wonders with no hierarchies, popes, archdeacons but humility and servant-hearted friends standing together and serving God.

When Jesus spat in His hand and put it onto the man's eyes and the man's eyes were opened to a new dimension of seeing - there are two places in a man's body where his DNA is most strongly represented or carried. That's in his saliva and in his sperm. There is a spiritual saliva from heaven that God wants to rub onto our eyes so that we can enter into a new dimension of seeing through concepts that have been working as contraception against us conceiving the supernatural of God! When we talk about this language; "Bridegroom" and "Bride" - please don't misunderstand that we are talking about physical sex between us and Jesus. That is not what Adam is saying or what I am saying. We are talking about the symbolism that the Scripture uses of the Bride of Christ and Jesus as the heavenly Bridegroom. Let me say this - in the book of Revelation and in chapter 17 there are two women identified in that chapter. There is what is called the harlot/whore of Babylon and the Bride of Christ. Now the harlot/whore of Babylon represents churchgoers who just want to go to church and be religious and have a gratifying religious experience but don't want conception. They don't want the responsibility of being impregnated. They are the harlot/whore - give me that good religion and positive experience! "I am not coming to church unless people make me feel good and treat me just like I want!". Indulgant gratification - that's the harlot/whore posturing and posing to be the Bride.

But the Bride of Christ - as much as the bride wants intimacy and gratification and enjoyment of her heavenly Bridegroom - she wants to conceive His DNA! She wants to conceive and reproduce His miracles! That is the difference!

You will see that difference between sheep and goats. God right now in the world - hear me now - I tell you the truth under the Spirit - God is seperating sheep nations and those that are goat nations. Goats represent those that are rebellious. He is seperating sheep Christians from goat Christians and is declaring and identifying those are goat churches and those that are sheep churches. He is taking goats out of sheep churches and sheep out of goat churches. He is bringing sheep from goat churches to sheep churches and taking goat churches out of sheep churches and relocating them to goat churches! You mark my words! There is a realignment happening in the Body of Christ worldwide.

The 11th September 2006 - last Monday - the prophetic anointing increased in the earth and prophets will speak much more confidently now. And pastor/teachers that have dominated the church in a pastor/teacher culture are going to have to move aside so the apostolic and prophetic can once again in signs and wonders - and not in academics! We have had too many apostles just teach and teach. New Testament apostles came in signs and wonders and raised the dead! No one should ever call themselves an apostle again from last Monday unless they are moving in the miraculous supernatural signs and wonders. No one who really is an apostle should even pronounce themselves as one - I know Paul says "Paul, called to be an apostle". But he said it as a calling. He didn't pronounce himself and neither did he call "that one and that one" and voted himself to announcing who is an apostle and who isn't! A lot of books that have been written on apostolic ministry by sincere people - but it may be better that they are burnt now and we just go and read the Bible and see what apostles are.

From the 11th Septemer - Monday - there is a seperation from pretenders to authenticity. Counterfeit Christians to the genuine. Contraception Christians to conceiving Christians. 11th September - I woke up on that morning which was when the Twin Towers came down five years ago and I just felt instantly inside my spirit that I knew that I knew. I knew that I knew that I knew that I knew that I knew that some things are just the Kingdom on the inside of us! I believe in science but if you reduce the Kingdom down to what science alone can show in a laboratory - science is a product of the invisible realm of God. The prophets have been so complexed about their subjectivity and the teachers that have been so objective teaching line upon line principles and have been so certain - so the prophets have begun to back off! But they need to stand up! Don't tell people you are a prophet or an apostle and definately don't put it as your title! Just stand up in confidence and say; "The word of the Lord is ... He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying".

The fruit is in the eating! God encounters! Real signs and wonders of fulfillment! Prophets have almost disappeared off the scene of the church for the last 10 years because of the moral collapse of some major prophets and because the church readily pushed them aside and made them have prophets conferences which a few go out from the church to get all excited about and come back to a church dominated by pastor/teachers. The pastors and teachers are important but they need to come in humility and bring teaching and revelation and teachers need to step up and start praying for the sick and stop hiding behind their theology! Paul was the greatest theologian this world has ever seen apart from Jesus! But he raised the dead and opened blind eyes and got cripples walking! You don't have to fight this or get intense about it because God is going to do it anyway! You just have to say; "Lord take the veil away from my eyes and my mind - put Your spiritual saliva on my mind - I want to have a new dimension of seeing". Prophets will say on that day a new release came!

If the Holy Spirit had not put spiritual saliva on my eyes as I stood in front of Dawn for the third time and helped me to have a new dimension of seeing - that concept in my mind that you have got to pray for the sick would have caused a contraception so that her miracle could not have been conceived and at least she would have lost a breast. At worst that cancer would have taken her life. So what I am saying is - this isn't playing church anymore! It's not about coming to church and hearing a little sermon from the guru or the vicar! It is "Lord I want the veil off my mind!".

I want you to look at Ephesians 3. I laid that as a foundation and I could almost stop where I am. (v20); "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine according to His power that is at work". The Bible has just said that God is able to do immeasurably more than our greatest prayer meetings could ask or think or imagine according to the power that is at work within US! Not at work just within a prophet or an apostle! But is at work within US! The Church! US! The Bible is saying that this power that can do immeasurably more than we can ask is not going to work from heaven. There is a power at work within us that is going to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine!

Some of you heard me tell the story of a man who took a day off sitting by the lakeside and watching a man fish. Every time a man caught a beautiful fish and he would get it up on the bank and measure it and shake his head and throw this beautiful fish back. And he did that with every fish after measuring it with a six centimeter stick. Finally he caught an emaciated little fish and got his stick out and measured this small fish and he was so happy and put the fish in his bag and the stick in his bag and put his hat on and started to go home. The man watching couldn't take it anymore and ran up and said; "Excuse me sir - why did you throw all those beautiful fish back after measuring them with that six cm stick?". The man said; "It's very simple. At home I have only got a six cm frying pan". Because of wrong concepts Christians sit while the beauty of the New Covenant is taught and take their concepts or six cm measuring sticks and measure the promises. Measure up what they are hearing under the anointing and say; "It doesn't fit into my concept". And they don't even know they are dismissing it! "Count me out God!". Because concepts are contraceptives to the supernatural. Hong Kong is going directly to hell. There are only a few thousand born again people here. There is seven million in this city of which most worship some style of idol. It is going to hell unless the church gets free from it's six cm measuring stick and wrong concepts.

Unless Hong Kong idol worshipping people see the dead raised, the blind eyes opened, the deaf ears hear, cripples, paralysed and lame walking in the Name of Jesus they are not by the millions going to believe!

So what we are talking about is not just a nice little church morning! God has been looking for decades for a church that will believe this stuff and He will dump His glory in them! How do we break the six cm stick? Very simple - by the power of revelation! Go back to (v14). Let's find out how to break that stick! "For this reason I kneel before the Father, from His family in heaven and on earth derives it's name. I pray that out of His glorious riches, He may strengthen you with power by His Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith and I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have power with all the members of all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that goes beyond knowledge - that you may be filled to all the measure of all the fullness of God". Not just for the early church! "Throughout all generations for ever and ever!".

So you say; "Rob are you saying that an increase of the power within us is linked to a revelation of how much God loves us?". That is EXACTLY what the Scripture is saying! It says height, length, width and breadth of the love of God! A four-dimensional understanding of God's love! Why does he use all four? Hebrew people understood what a cube was! They understood that a cube represented perfection in all dimension! When God told Moses how to build the Holy of Holies He gave him the exact dimensions. 10 metres by 10 metres by 10 metres. When Solomon built the Temple he built it as a cube but expanded it to 20 metres height length and depth. The New Jerusalem in Revelation is 200, 000 km in a perfect cube! What does it represent? It means that the love of Christ is not short in one area towards you. It is a PERFECT cube - a full perfect total love towards you! In other words in some area in your life you are more holy and have got success in that area - you are tempted to believe that in that area God's love for you is a bit longer but in that area where you are still struggling with sin or failure or problems - in that area God's love is a bit shorter. What Paul is saying by revelation is that the love of God for you has to surpass knowledge and you have to get revelation that He has a perfect cube of love for you. He loves you in all four dimensions and His love for you is not short in one area towards you! He loves you unconditionally!

Romans 5 says that while you were yet a sinner and a rebel in your mind against God, God demonstrated His love for you in that He died for you. In John 17 Jesus said that the Father loves US the SAME way He loves Jesus! That is the end of people saying that He loved Jesus because Jesus was so perfect and so holy. No - He loves us! With the same perfection and it is every second of every moment of every hour of every week of every month of every decade! And when the veil of the wrong concept of God's love is removed from your mind and you go into that which surpasses knowledge and the power reveals to your heart together with all the believers by the power of the Spirit the height, length, breadth and depth of the love of Christ then you and I are filled to all the fullness of the measure of God on the inside of us - that God is able to do exceedingly above what we are able - to do - not that is at work in heaven! But that is at work within us! Out of that internal reality we speak healing commands and it manifests in external reality! If the power within us is condemnation, insecurity, inferiority complexes and condemnation, feelings of guilt - then what we will speak on the inside will come out on our external reality.

When we get a revelation of this perfect love of God for us - no matter if your father or someone else abused you - if you get a revelation that THIS father loves you then that which comes into your inner being is the measure of all the fullness of who God is! He was writen to the Ephesian church and they were saved, justified, baptised in the Spirit and spoke in tongues! He is speaking about something way beyond that!

That is why Jesus could stand up against a storm and say "Peace - be still!". Because storm out there was no match for the peace that was in here. His internal reality came out through words and then everything - cancer, cripples - has to surrender to the internal reality that is in the Church!

And ALL these concepts can be taken away - the veil - and the church walks in New Testament freedom and New Testament life.

If you read the New Testament with an Old Testament veil over your mind you will be in more bondage than if you just stayed under the Old Covenant! I have heard people say this and I did it myself years ago - that if they tithe under law how much more shall we do under grace. If you go a bit further then everything you see in the New Testament that looks like a command; "Avoid evil, don't do this, don't do that" - and the New Testament does talk like that - then you are talking on more law than you could ever imagine! The New Testament is meant to be spirit and life and the grace of God! You cannot mimic Christ's behaviour in the abscence of eternal encounters of the love of God and the grace of God!

These days are so exciting!

The Power of the Authoritative Command For Healing - Part 1

Rob, Glenda and Bonnie Rufus are away for over a week in Sydney at the "Grace and Glory Conference" hosted by Fini and Isi de Gersigny and then Rob is sharing a conference with Bill Johnson (an awesome combo!). So this break in the "Invading the Impossible" series gives me the chance to look back into the Archives of City Church International and select a sermon or two that desperately require typing up! And what more eye-catching a sermon title than this:

"Power Of Authoratative Command For Healing - Part 1" - Sunday 10th September 2006.

"Father we come to the Word of God and we thank You that it is not written by the mentality of men - we thank You that it is God-breathed, it is a supernatural Book, it was written over a period of thousands of years by people who never met one another and yet the theme is so supernaturally consistent. We thank You that the promises and the prophecies that were given thousands of years ago were fulfilled exactly in the geographical regions like You said they would be. And we have no doubt that everything in this Book is alive and vibrating with divine life. We thank You that these are God-generated words useful for instruction in daily living and in supernatural lifestyles. We thank You that the entrance of Your word brings light and instructs the simple. So we open our hearts to revelation in Jesus Name. Amen".

This is our eighth teaching in the series on healing. I am going to talk today on a subject that is more empowering than any other subject you will ever hear on healing. This is the best speech you are going to hear! This is the best message you will ever hear on healing - but I am telling the truth! We are probably going to do this over 3 sessions. I can safely say (and I say this in no unkind way) that it seems to me in my limited observation from travelling to different nations and observing the way that people pray for the sick that this is an area that is pretty much hidden and not understood! I think Christians have got some insight into this but it is not crystal clear.

Now friends until you see something with clear vision you cannot possess it - you cannot gain the inheritance of that. If you can see the invisible - you can do the impossible. But if you can't see something without a vision - people perish. Without a vision you won't even aim for it. Without a target you don't even know it exists!

But once you know something is there and it is God's will for you to have it - in fact He desires PASSIONATELY for you to walk in it, then you are going to inherit it!

As we see this way of releasing healing to the sick and the dying and the hurting and the dead (even releasing resurrection life) then faith is going to errupt in our hearts and we are going to walk in it.

I think it is going to take at least 3 sessions to teach on it and this teaching is on; "The Power of an Authoritative Command" - "The Power of an Authoritative Healing Command".

If you want to see a dramatic increase in the miracles through your life then STOP praying for the sick! If you want to see a dramatic increase in miracles through your life STOP doing what most of the Church does - stop praying for the sick and start releasing authoritative healing commands!

Let us align up with the Word of God. There is a place to pray for the sick but I can only find one verse in the entire Bible. It is the exception! In James chapter 5 it says for the elders the prayer of faith will save the sick and raise them up. Everywhere else it is healing commands! Jesus didn't ask us to go out in the world and ask Him to do what He asked us to do. He told us in Matthew 10:7; "Tell people the Kingdom of Heaven is near". The Kingdom of heaven is not a distant place that you will get to one day where you will be safe, secure, healed and whole. The Kingdom of heaven is near. It is tangible, it is touchable, it is manifesting right here! Then tell them; "The Kingdom of heaven is near - heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely you have received - freely give". He never said "Pray for the sick" - He said; "HEAL the sick"! And He said; "Do it the way I did it". So let's see the way He did it.

Mark 1:21; "Then He went to Capernaum and the people were amazed at His teaching because He taught them as one who had authority not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man who was in the synagogue possessed by an evil spirit cried out; 'What do you want with us Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know Who You are! You are the Holy One of God!'. 'Be quiet' said Jesus sternly. 'Come out of him!'. The evil spirits shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek". Because they were so frightened. "The people were all so amazed that they asked each other; 'What is this? A new teaching with authority? He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey Him!'. News of Him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee". As soon as miracles start happening the news spreads very quickly! Do you know what miracles are?

Miracles are God coming down out of His realm (the faith realm) down into the human realm (the reason realm) and doing things that are normal in His realm but abnormal in the human realm. Miracles are God intervening in the general order of things - to heal knees and backs and so on - to meet a need by the supernatural means of power.

The true desire for miracles should not be the obsession of a few fringe fanatics because it is the central consistent current of God's compassion throughout all ages and generations. Those who truly live and walk close to the living God will certainly manifest this theme of His heart. His miracles are often manifested into the earth realm by the authoritative command or announcement of faith. Proverbs 18:21; "The power of life and death is in the tongue" - no country is complete without it's language without the dialect of it's own. The people of France speak French and the people of Germany speak German. All Chinese nations speak Chinese and as citizens of heaven we are called to speak the language of our homeland.

It is the language of faith! In faith's lexicon - there are no words for; "I will never get out of this" or "I am going to die of this sickness" or "Why did I get this sickness?". That is not in faith's vocabulary!

Faith has seen the face of Jesus and fills the human soul with dominion over demons and death! It is a tangible conciousness of conquest that masters sickness and death with the language of the authoritative command.

Let me give you my definition of an authoritative command;

An authoritative command is not prayer - and I believe in prayer and pray every day. An authoritative command is not a petition or a request heaven-ward. It is an authoritative command that flows out of your spirit by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is an anointed annoucement that releases the power of God's government and demands that circumstances immediately align themselves with God's will.

The Church is the gateway of heaven according to Jacob's experience! The authoritative command releases things from one world into the other world.

We are brokers of the heavenly realm and when we say what God is saying - realities are released into the environment that were not there before.

The overwhelming vast majority of miraculous healings in the New Testament occured by the authoritative command. In fact in the New Testament you will see very little praying or petitioning God to heal people.

The authoritative command is the primary prescribed way to heal the sick. It is obviously the most effective for results! As the Church begins to rediscover her authority in Christ, she will step into the flow of the anointing of authoritative commands and see spectacular results. Remember this authority is not our personal condition on the earth but it comes from our personal position in Christ in heavenly places! That His obedience was downloaded as a free gift to us - His absolute perfection in life is our credibility, is our standing, and is our status before God!

That is why Jesus could say in John 14:12; "Anyone who has faith in Me will do ... even greater works". Jesus was both fully God and man but His divinity was fully restrained in His humanity and He handcuffed His life to His humanity so that He could become the new norm of humanity manifesting miracles that are the inheritance for every believer who is in Christ Jesus. Now Luke 13 we saw last week that Jesus saw a woman in the synagogue who was bowed over by a spirit and was crippled for 18 years by Satan it says. He does not pray for her to be healed, He does not implore the Father or make request for God to put His power on her. He said; "Woman! You are set free of your infirmity". He lays His hands on her and immediately she straightens up and begins to praise God. Now there is nothing in the Scripture to say that when He laid His hands on her, He begged His Father to put power on her. He just announced that she was set free from her infirmity and immediately there was a power transaction and she stood up.

We saw in Luke chapter 5 when men came with a paralysed man and ripped a hole in the roof and lowered him down to where the power of God was present to heal and Jesus was there. When Jesus saw what they were doing, it says He saw their faith and said; "Your sins are forgiven you". The Pharisees said in their hearts; "Who can forgive sins but God?". Jesus knowing what was in their hearts said; "What is easier to say - your sins are forgiven you or stand up and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins - I tell you get up, take your mat and go home". And immediately the man got up and walked and the crowds were amazed. No prayer or petition asking God to heal the man. An authoritative command heals the man and the man gets up.

In Mark chapter 5 towards the end of that chapter, Jesus puts the mourners out. They are screaming hysterically and there is a 12 year old girl dead. He takes Peter, James and John with Him because He is going to have a class on healing and raising the dead. He is going to show them how to do it. He will show them not just by preaching but by doing it in front of their eyes. He brings the mother and father in out of respect for them and walks up to the girl and says; "I say to you little girl, get up!". She immediately gets up and He says; "Give her some food". Another day! Another one raised! No praying! "Oooh God put Your power on them!". God will say; "Listen! I told YOU to go raise the dead, pray for the sick - I didn't ask you to ask Me to do what I told YOU to do!".

How many people would keep their jobs if they kept asking their boss to do what they were employed to do!? The Church keeps asking God to do what He told us to do! He said; "You heal the sick, you raise the dead, you cast out demons, you cleanse lepers!". Wherever the Church just sidelines miracles and healings to a little fanatical fringe group or occasionally once every 5 years teaches half a message on it - to overcome 300-500-1000 years of solid unbelief that is encamped over the Church in strongholds of unbelief and heresy and false theology!

Demons and doctrines of devils that have gripped the Church in a spirit of unbelief - the Church has legitimised theologies that rationalise the absence of a God of miracles!

And if you only preach half a message once every 5 years you will not demolish those strongholds and those wrong ways of thinking. Most churches need to preach for 3 months on signs, wonders and miracles and the covenant of healing and redemption and healing in the Cross before the Church starts to slowly move out of it's deception. But many will not even teach one Sunday on it, never mind months! So when dying people or cancer people are in their midst, it is so embarressing! Suddenly the reality of the real world has pushed in and theology is now going mad. Do we pray "If it be Thy will?". Friends we are not where the New Testament book of Acts church was but we are meant to be further than them because they were starting out! We have just got to be aware that we have got to learn the ways of God in these things.

We must stay humble because we haven't arrived and we are not elite!

But we are going to see in City Church International - the cripples walking, the blind eyes opening, the deaf hear, the cancer people healed, the people with HIV healed and we will see even the dead raised!

In John chapter 11 Jesus stands before the grave of Lazarus and he is stinking already. You say; "But Rob He prayed there!". Yes He did pray but He didn't pray; "Oh Father in heaven what am I going to do now!? Put Your power! Put Your power on Lazarus!". No - He said, "Oh Father I know that You always hear Me. I am just saying this for the people's sake". He talks to His Father and doesn't once ask Him to raise Lazarus from the dead. Then He turns to the tomb and says; "Lazarus! Come out!". That is an authoritative command! That is the Government of God!

The Church of God has bowed it's head to a vanquished enemy - an enemy that is parading it's arrogance across the earth and many Christians don't want to get into the supernatural ministry or into miracle ministry or into aggressive stance in warfare because they say, 'If I do - the devil will start hunting me and killing me and my family'.

We give authoritative commands as ambassadors of the highest government in the universe authorised and assigned to advance the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus said in Luke 10; "I give you power over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means harmy you". It is living in submission to God, it is living in humility and it is living concious that the blood cleanses us daily, it is confessing any known sin and the blood cleansing us and that we are the righteousness of God through that wonderful blood - but there should be no spirit of fear to a defeated enemy! It is not us who are the hunted - we are the hunters! We don't just defend our little home and our family - we actively go out and look for demonised people to drive demons out of them! We don't thank God that we had a week free from demon attack; "Oh I am so happy!". No - no we don't wait to defend our little plot - how selfish! No we defend our plot but we go out and advance and attack and pursue the enemy and we take him out! We are on a seek and destroy mission! Where is he hiding?!

I remember in 1981 when Lester Sumrall came to South Africa and I was so amazed because we went to pick up from the airport and he said; "Show me where the witchdoctors are! I hear there are a lot of witchdoctors in Africa! Let's go!". We said; "Oh don't you want to go to the hotel?". "No I don't want to go to the hotel - show me a witchdoctor!". So we went to the witchdoctors and we cast demons out of them - on ARRIVING in the nation! That is a man who knows his authority - and he didn't have any more special gifts than you have got or me! Hunting out the devils and casting them out! That is Jesus Christ - every single day Jesus healed the sick and cast out demons.

Today for the church it is a side-lined thing. It is an occasional message but it was central to Jesus. Hong Kong will never be saved unless we rise up in the methadology of the Kingdom. You can bring all the evangelists into this place who preach without signs and wonders and we will not see this place saved! You can even have the signs and wonders evangelists come in every 2 years and we will still not see this city saved because most people who go are already Christians. But when local churches all over the city rise up in signs, wonders and miracles and in the Jesus style of ministry, Hong Kong will become aware that the dead are being raised, cripples are walking, blind eyes are opening! The early Church turned the world upside down - not by telling people that; "Your sins have seperated you from God - now if you repent you can become a Christian and live demonised and sick lives and hang in there till you get to heaven and you will be okay". That was not their message.

Let me tell you - people did not walk 3 days to hear Jesus preach or to hear Him say; "Love your enemies". He preached that but that isn't why they walked miles and went days without food. They were coming because the sick were being healed, cripples were walking, blind eyes were opening and the deaf were hearing!

So they would listen to "Love your enemies" and they would hear the Beatitudes. Jesus was not an academic or a theologian of concepts - He was a practioner of the power of the Kingdom!

Jesus wasn't a teacher that had healing. He was a prophetic demonstration of the Kingdom. The invasion of God against the illegitimate, pseudo king called the devil who has taken over the planet and the Church let him for the last 1, 500 years!

When the Church moves in these kind of things then the world says; "Here comes the people who turned the world upside down!". The biggest of Jerusalem said to Peter and John when they raised the guy at Gate Beautiful said, "Man you filled the whole of Jerusalem with the teaching of Jesus". What did they call the teaching of Jesus? Healing the cripple! How did Peter and John heal the cripple when they walked past the Gate Beautiful. They saw him beg for alms and did you see Peter and John say; "Oh God do you see this cripple? Oh my heart is moved with mercy and he is begging for mercy - won't you reach out from heaven and put your power on him?". They didn't! It's there in our face and we don't see it! They said; "Silver and gold we do not have - look at us. What we have - we give to you. In the Name of Jesus - rise up and walk!". An authoritative command - and he gets up and walks and they are stunned! And they call that; "Filling Jerusalem with the teaching of Jesus!".

They said; "We don't want you to preach in His Name anymore" and the apostles replied; "You choose for yourself what is better - to obey them or Him - as for us, we must obey what we have seen and heard". The most Christians do not see or hear anything except more teaching and more teaching and more teaching.

Rodney Howard-Browne says that the Church; "Has had a feast in teaching and a famine in signs, wonders and miracles". People that will not step out and demonstrate what the Bible says. God is a God of demonstration!

Paul the apostle said; "I do not come to you with wise and eloquent words or persuasive human speech so that your faith would not be in human wisdom -but I came to you with a demonstration of power and the Holy Spirit - that your faith would be in God". Demonstration! Demonstration! There has been church in Hong Kong for over 100 years and the same legalistic spirit is there as I am driving to the airport to pick up my wife. I am driving at the speed limit - 100mph in the fast lane. No cars for kms in front or behind me. I am always checking in my mirror - a very alert driver, checking my mirror and keeping to the speed limit and not holding anyone up. Then! Flashing lights and pull me to the side - hundreds of dollars fine for what? Did I hinder traffic? Did I? No - no but you were in the fast lane and you mustn't. Folks the law is right but the interpretation is so legalistic! I didn't danger or hinder anything and that same spirit is in the church in Hong Kong.

It is in the Church and it bullies and manipulates them. It controls people in the city and the Cantonese culture needs to rise up and say; "I will not be bullied by that spirit - I am going to live in the kingdom of heaven not the culture of the Cantonese but in the culture of the kingdom of heaven".

I don't want a South African culture or an Australian culture - I want the culture of the Kingdom! When these apostles said; "We will not listen to what you are saying - we will keep preaching in the Name". It is not civil disobedience - it is just a higher government we are walking under. Please don't go out on the freeway and break all the laws because Rob said! I didn't say that and you didn't hear me say that. You heard the spirit of what I said! Alright?

In Mark 4 Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the waves; "Quiet! Be still!". He didn't ask; "Oh Father we are in a storm - please stop the storm!". But that is how Christians pray! You hear; "Quiet! Peace - be still!" to the wind and waves and they were. I have heard great teachers recognised in the church say; "Yes but that was Jesus - that's why He could give that authoritative command and He was proving His identity as divine".

If He did His miracles by virtue of His identity as God then why did He need to be anointed with the Holy Spirit and power? Why did He do no miracles until He was baptised in the Holy Spirit at the age of 30? Why did He say; "If you believe in me and have faith the works I have been doing and greater works?!". And just to nail that lie down as Mark 11:23 Jesus Christ said; "I tell you the truth if ANYONE ...". I have studied the Greek and Hebrew here - very heavily - and the word "Anyone" means "ANYone".

"Who says to this mountain" - who gives an authoritative command to this mountain. "Go and throw yourself into the sea and does not doubt in his heart but believes what he says will happen - it will be done for him". Now people are saying; "Okay Rob I was with you up until now but ... !". No Jesus never threw one mountain into the sea so I think we can safely that He was letting us know that the mountain is symbolic of opposition and that we have authoritative commands to speak to things that are opposing us. In Scripture you will see that. (Zechariah 4:6-7) They were having trouble building the temple walls of Jerusalem with much opposition. "Not by might nor by power , but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts - what are you oh mighty mountain?". Through the authoritative command the mountain of cancer becomes level ground, the mountain of blindness, deafness, cripples, Chrones - all become level ground.

The mountain spoken to in an authoritative command becomes level ground.

Now had Jesus cast mountains into the sea and said; "The works I do and greater works ..." - then we could do it but He never did it so we are not going into fanaticism. But we will speak to mountains with the unlimited authority of God. In 1 Kings 17:1 Elijah walks into the palace of the most evil king ruling Israel - he was the demonised King Ahab and his wife Jezebel was totally manipulating him and controlling him. He was just a coward and would not lead as a godly man in holiness or stand up and say; "This is the Word of God". His wife has a demon on him and is manipulating him so she takes over the kingdom through controlling her husband and they release through that illegitimate authority a demonic idol worship into Israel. There comes Elijah into that evil king's palace and says; "As the Lord the God of Israel lives whom I serve ... except at my word".

In other words the heavens are locked up by the authoritative command of a mere human being who is under the authority of God.

Ahab and Jezebel and their whole family line comes down. To protect us from fanaticism let me balance from Scripture - but I am not going to spend too long balancing because I think we have gone too far to the other side and need to swing a bit this way! I am not saying we necessarily need to speak to every natural storm the way Jesus spoke to the waves and wind. I have done that.

I remember just I was out in the bush somewhere praying just before a very important meeting in another country and I saw these huge storm clouds coming up and I had lived in that country for many years and knew what that storm front meant. I knew it would hail and destroy the attendance at that meeting. I suddenly felt the anointing of God come on me and I stuck my finger up and said; "In the Name of Jesus I command you storm clouds - to go back and not come any further!". God is my witness - bright sunlight!

But that doesn't mean every time I see a storm cloud and want to surf that I can say; "Hey!" and it goes. Wouldn't that be great? But on those issues there is a revelation that needs to come to your heart from God. The clear will of God is revealed from the Word of God that it is ALWAYS God's will to heal. It isn't always God's will to stop a storm! But it is ALWAYS God's will to heal! Jesus didn't die for us to stop being insulted or persecuted - that is part of life. But He died on the Cross to redeem us from the curse of poverty, sickness, disease, judgement and sin. It is ALWAYS the will of God to heal - it is ALWAYS the will of God to prosper - it is ALWAYS the will of God to bless - it is ALWAYS the will of God to forgive and save and deliver from judgement. But sometimes there are other things God allows like persecution, insults and betrayals to sharpen our character.

He never uses sickness to sharpen our character. He heals sickness. So you never have to pray; "Is this sickness something for me to grow?". No you can ALWAYS give an authoritative command when sickness comes. But when it comes to a storm you need to hear God. In Acts chapter 27, Paul was en-route as a prisoner on his way to Rome and a storm comes and the whole place goes dark and they are all terrified. Paul doesn't get up and command the storm to stop. He doesn't tell the waves to stop. Why? Acts 27 - because he had told the captain of the ship before he left the harbour and said God had shown him a storm was coming and not to leave the harbour. But the captain said, no we are going. They went anyway. The angel of the Lord appeared to Paul and told him that the entire ship would get wrecked and finished but no lives will be lost and to tell the people that. Paul told the people that and he has just got their attention. The ship got shipwrecked on the Isle of Malta and they all got saved as Paul prophesied and as the angel of the Lord told Paul and then Paul heals every sick person on that island!

That is the invasion of the kingdom to a bunch of pagans who were sick and diseased and confused. It starts with a snake biting him and they are absolutely amazed and he heals the headman of the whole island! They then bring every sick man on the island and it says; "Paul healed them all". This is normal Christianity - what is the other stuff about?!

Look at three Scriptures and then we close:

1. Acts 9:32. Next week I want to teach on how you walk in the authoritative command and how Jesus walked in it. What are the dynamics - what is the release of it in your heart practically? How does it operate? (Acts 9:32-35) -

"Now as Peter was traveling through all those regions, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years, for he was paralyzed. Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed." Immediately he got up. Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed." Immediately he got up".

Again great salvations! Notice Jesus said to the cripples; "Take up your bed and go home" and the cripples got up and walked. Peter said; "Jesus Christ heals you - get up and take care of your mat". Who did he learn from?

He is not just copying - he has caught the anointing. There is a difference between mimicking a person and flowing in an anointing you have caught.

Notice Peter doesn't pray! "Oh God ... heal him!". It is just not there!

2. Acts 2:36-39 - "Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which translated in Greek is called Dorcas); this woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did. And it happened at that time that she fell sick and died; and when they had washed her body, they laid it in an upper room. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, having heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him, imploring him, "Do not delay in coming to us". So Peter arose and went with them. When he arrived, they brought him into the upper room; and all the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing all the tunics and garments that Dorcas used to make while she was with them".

Peter sent them all out of the rooom and then he got down on his knees and prayed. Ah he prayed Rob! Yes but Jesus prayed before raising Lazarus as well. "Turning towards the dead woman, he said; "Tabitha - get up!". That is an authoritative command. "She opened her eyes and sat up. He helped her to her feet ... and presented her. This became known all over Joppa and many people believed".

How is Hong Kong going to get saved? By the evangelical message that is; "Just your sins seperate you from God - repent and get saved - keep the demons and be sick and depressed and be miserable and one day it will all be worth it because you will get to heaven"?

That is not what the early church in Acts did and they turned the world upside down! They prayed every now and then and asked God to heal the sick but that was the exception. The norm was to give authoritative commands and today we have made the exception the norm and the norm the exception. And we wonder why we don't have a higher level of miracles!

3. Look at Acts 13. Look at the authority of the authoritative command! (Acts 13:6) - "They travelled through the entire island till they came to Paphos ... proconsol". The Roman proconsol was a very important man. "was an intelligent man". Intelligent people want to hear about the Gospel! "He believed for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord". How many believe that there are demonic powers with people who do not want you and me to preach the gospel? How many of you think they have ugly demon faces and high headresses? Did you know that people wear smiles and speak nicely? They are the worst ones because they deceive you!

You know something is not normal if someone comes up to you with demons coming out of their mouths! But what about the ones who come to you and say; "I don't think you should be so passionate about Jesus! I think this commitment to lay down your life is really wrong and religion is like politics - you should keep it to yourself". That is a demon speaking! The Soviet Union had decades and decades of religion of God and killed! In the last 100 years atheistic governments have killed 100 million Christians! They were societies built on; "We don't want God!". Just up our road 70 million were killed under an atheistic governments. The Soviet Union killed 10 million people in religious wars over the last 5, 000 years.

I hate religion but I hate atheism and people who think they can live without the supernatural are deluded. The air they breathe was designed by God and the lungs they use to get that air was a creation of Almighty God.

Yet straight into that eternal hell believing they are good enough. I watched a brilliant Australian on TV debate macro-evolution versus creation. I wish every person who says there is no god can hear that. He used science and Scripture in a fantastic way. He made people who say that there is no god look absolutely stupid! He attacked some of the bishops of the UK who say you can believe that there is a God and macroevolution from Scripture and how diabolic and dangerous that is to bring it into our schools and into our churches.

Acts 14 - I just don't know why some Christians aren't bold about they believe. I am amazed at how Christians can hide their faith. I am amazed at how Christians don't stand up and pray for the sick and cast out demons. (Acts 14:3) - "So Paul and Barnabus spent considerable time there ... signs and wonders". (v8) "and began to walk".

One miracle is worth a thousand sermons!

Again an authoritative command - I lovingly challenge you - look through the gospels and Acts and look for them asking God to heal. Look for Jesus saying; "Father would You come and heal". He cast out devils of blindness, devils of muteness and said; "Leave! Go!". They left and the blind could see and the deaf could hear and the mute could speak! What a wonderful Gospel! The Bible says in the book of Malachi that Jesus is the desire of all nations!

God has wired the hearts of this end-day generation to desire Christ and they don't know they desire Him but He has wired their hearts! All the Body of Christ has to do is reveal the authentic Gospel - the authentic demonstration of the power of the Kingdom - the authentic and I tell you much of the Church will be swept to the sidelines because there will be a whole new generation of heathens, pagans, ex-Moslems and ex-Buddhis who will find the Christ of miracle-working power and be born again and a new DNA will come that was there in the book of Acts will be restored in those last days and if I can be a servant of those people then that is what I want to be!

I don't want to spend the rest of my life trying to change sick old denominational people who just want to have KFC on Sunday lunch and sweet fellowship mentality and say; "The hell with the rest of the world - we are full of unbelief and excuses for lack of miracles". I don't want to change old wineskins. I want to go with people who will be Kingdom - cast out the sick, preach good news, heal marriages, heal families and break demonic power off deliquent teenagers, break rebellion in homes and bring the peace and government of God into homes and romance.

My heart is much more for the lost than large sections who say they are the Church. If they are the Church and believe they are going to heaven then that is fantastic and let them go to heaven. But I am concerned with those out there who have never had an opportunity - millions of Hong Kong people never had an opportunity to see the authentic Christ, the miracle working Son of God in action. I believe millions of them will believe He is the Christ and turn from Buddhism, Shintoism, Islam, atheists - they will turn to Jesus!

Very few when they see an authentic miracle reject Jesus. They take it and believe on Him because that is the way that God created the human heart to believe it - this God of miracles who say you worship then He should come and show up in demonstration of miracles!