One to One with Rob Rufus and Nigel Ring

I found this interview between Nigel Ring and Rob Rufus taken just after the "Together on a Mission Conference" in Brighton in 2006. It's so stirring.

NR: Were you brought up in a Christian family?

RR: I had an incredibly happy childhood but my mother was an agnostic and my dad was an atheist but a very good father. From about three years of age I was conscious of God's Presence and about the age of seven or eight, I began to read the gospels. However in my high school years I really went out of my way to undermine Christian faith; but I was longing for them to win the argument. When I finished high school my dad had convinced me that Christianity was a modern form of sophisticate superstition but I had the privilege of leading my dad to Christ many, many years later, three weeks before he passed on!

On "call-up" in the military I began to ask questions about the meaning of life even more. Then at university I got very involved with the Hare Krishna movement. I even joined a Hindu Ashram full time.

NR: Had you met Glenda at this stage?

RR: We met at university and got married. We had our first son Jay (Hindu for victory) by the time we had joined the Hare Krishna movement. In the meantime Glenda had an amazing encounter with God and was "born again". I ridiculed that a martyr could save the world. It seemed foolish that Jesus died on a cross; He could have done better as a teacher. One day a man wanted to join our community. I asked him how long he wanted to stay and he said as long as was necessary! That night he suddenly sat straight up and pointed at a picture of Krishna, shook his head and just said; "Jesus Christ is the pure sacrifice of God and He is the only way" - a pretty courageous thing to say in a Hare Krishna temple!

I was suddenly aware that I was not right with God. When I got up at 2am he had gone and I never saw him again.

NR: Angelic?

RR: I don't know Nigel. For months I tried to increase my performance in Hindu rituals. Then in the Ashram on my own, Jesus came and said; "My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Come follow Me!". So I was "born again" in a Hindu temple! That was in 1977.

NR: Did you walk straight out?

RR: I did leave as I was called up again by the South African military. But I went back and witnessed to every single one there. I heard later that some I had spoken to had left the movement.

NR: I think your second child had been born by this stage?

RR: Yes, Ryan was conceived whilst we were in the Hare Krishna movement. He is now part of our leadership team. We also have a daughter Bonnie who leads worship in our church.

NR: When you left Hare Krishna, how did you engage with a church?

RR: We went back to the university on a post-graduate course. I met Christians who had fasted for forty days for us when they heard we were going to the Hare Krishna people. They burst into tears and were amazed! We joined them as a community of people.

NR: How did you plant a church?

RR: After I graduated God called me to plant in our home town but there was nothing supernatural there. I began to read Acts and God asked me; "Do you believe everything that is My will will automatically happen?". I said; "Yes Lord!". "Do you believe it is My will to save people every week and add them to you?". I said; "Yes Lord!". "Do you believe it is My will that people get healed miraculously?". I said; "Yes Lord!". "Then how come it isn't happening?".

He spoke to me about going to sit under the ministry of Kenneth Hagin for three days. Initially I was quite critical and analytical but I watched the miraculous happening. Then God said; "Lift your hands - you can do this!". The Presence of God came on me overwhelmingly and powerfully for the first time in my life. The next Sunday our church was hit by the power of God. People with deaf ears began to hear, different people began to cry out. I felt God say; "Pray a blessing over the people". So I asked them to stand and said; "Father would you bless ..." and I didn't get any further.

I heard this amazing rushing sound through the building and saw people being picked up and carried two to three rows through the air. We had never seen anything like this. I called out and said; "You have seen that God is real. Come and get saved!". People literally ran to get saved that day. Even the local rugby team visited and broken bones were healed. The church grew by hundreds. Then God said; "I am going to lift this heavy anointing off you for a season and I want you to get to know me. I am going to link you with people that I want you to be accountable to. I want you to develop your doctrine and knowledge of Scripture. I am going to bring this power back on you at a later stage".

It was at that stage I met Dudley Daniel.

NR: Has God brought that power back to you?

RR: Every year I asked God; "Is this the year?". Every year He would say; "Be faithful - this is not the year". By 2001, 2002 I wondered if God would ever do this again but at the beginning of 2006 I heard God say; "This is the year not just for you but for much of the wider body of Christ". He promised He would restore this power at a higher level and I feel certain that as the year progresses we will see this more and more.

NR: Is this world-wide?

RR: There is fresh expectation in many parts of the world and reports of some unusual signs and wonders. I think 2006 is the year our Lord is taking His finger off the "pause" button.

NR: Such ministry comes out of an intimacy with God. How did you deepen your personal walk with God?

RR: I love to get out to solitary places; the mountains and the forests. When I first planted a church I would spend a day or two every week alone with God, not trying to prepare messages but wanting to get to know Him. I learned to fine-tune my spirit to hear His voice and talk to Him about who He is. He said; "Rob I want you to ask Me questions about Me. If you open your heart to me, I will open My heart totally to you - and reveal things to you". I found that if you develop a depth of relationship with God in the solitary places I could start hearing His voice in the noisy places. I can even stand in Mongkok - one of the densest population areas in Hong Kong and hear the voice of God.

NR: Many leaders would ask; "How did you carve out that time? Did you have a team with you?".

RR: Yes I did have a good team but there is also unnecessary guilt that comes. One day sitting on a mountain looking out over factories where members of my congregation were working, God said;

"Son those people want you here - they want you to come with dew of heaven on your shoulders and speak the living word of God".

NR: Moving in these dimensions, do you experience opposition?

RR: Yes! The enemy is against the anointing because it destroys the yokes, lifts the burdens off people's shoulders and breaks his strategies and attacks. There are anti-Christspirits trying to get the church to be more secular, to run programmes, entertainment with human wisdom. Reaction is mainly from religious people; the world longs to experience something that is supernaturally authentic. We need to redeem the supernatural back to sound theology, basing it on good doctrine, expressed by people who have healthy marriages, healthy families and so forth.

NR: Where do you find your own peer relationship that will keep you secure and where you weigh each other's ministry?

RR: A very good question! When God exploded into our church I had no understanding of proper Biblical government foundations or biblical wineskins. I had difficulty in hosting a big crowd! As I mentioned, it was then in 1984 that I was introduced to Dudley Daniel. I first met him on his day off. He came out of his study in a pair of shorts and hugged me. I got the shock of my life! I felt God say; "I have joined you to this man forever!". I began to realise that Dudley had an apostolic wisdom, understanding and grace on his life. He helped us lay proper New Testament patterns and Victory Faith Church is still very healthy today.

NR: How did New Covenant Ministries begin?

RR: When Dudley was baptised in the Holy Spirit, his denomination kicked him out. He was invited by a small group in Bryanstone, Johannesburg to pastor them. He also felt God say he should build relationships with pastors who are lonely, wanting friendship and looking for togetherness. Out of that came the phrase; "Friendship before function". This began to reflect what Jesus revealed so wonderfully with His friends who were disciples.

There were many BBQs with humour and laughter. Slowly the idea of a trans-local team began to develop; that is when I got involved. God began to open up the oath He made to Abraham to bless all nations. We began to see that we would have to plant New Testament local churches in every nation.

NR: Did you have a particular strategy?

RR: In Scripture proven ministries took the initiative to break new territory. For example Paul and Barnabas having established Antioch moved on. Dudley relocated to Australia. This sent a big signal to us all. We thought South Africa was going to fall apart but God actually blessed us. Then God called Glenda and me to join him.

NR: Were you creating South African churches?

RR: Not at all! As we planted we started working with indigenous people and they started coming on team. We wanted to reflect the culture of the kingdom not a religious sub-culture.

NR: Have you found that God has given you favour with particular sections of the community?

RR: In certain countries, doors open through situations of poverty. In others, it has come through Christian businessmen and women like Priscilla and Aquila.

NR: How did your next transition come about?

RR: When Dudley felt called to work into the USA, he handed the visionary leadership of Coastlands International Christian Centre over to me. In 2002 after seven years God called us to go full-time trans-local equipping churches in evangelism, signs and wonders and miracles so we handed the church over to Dudley's son Tyrone. Then our hearts began to turn to Asia and Glenda and I planted a church in Hong Kong.

NR: Did you know people on the ground?

RR: There were five people in Hong Kong and five young people from South Africa to help us for 6-12 months.

NR: How have you grown?

RR: Originally I thought we would build primarily with ex-pats using the medium of English. However Chinese people started coming because they heard about the Presence of God and were attracted to the message of grace. One young, very intelligent and hi-tech Buddhist man came. The Presence of God was so powerful in the meeting that he began to weep and said; "They are not singing about Buddha, they are singing about Jesus so He must be alive!". He gave his life to Christ and we baptised him very soon after that. We are, probably about 95 adults at this time plus children.

NR: Do you have any comments on multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-lingual church?

RR: When diverse ethnic groups come together that reflects the wonderful finished work of the Cross! The idea of the homogenous church for me is foreign to the Scripture. We are enjoying being a rainbow church.

NR: Has the signs and wonders ministry opened doors for you in Hong Kong?

RR: Yes! There is a lot of idol worship that opens people up to demonic influences so when God sets people free they go and tell their friends. The potential to have exponential growth in Hong Kong and into mainland China is enormous. The secular humanistic money culture has left a real emptiness in people's lives.

The Presence and power of God is a major means to impact that part of the world.

NR: Can you disciple others into this ministry or impart it to others?

RR: Both! The main way is through impartation. It is through association with people that are moving in the supernatural like Elijah to Elisha or Paul to Timothy or Moses to Joshua and so on. There also needs to be practical instruction; how to co-operate with God; how to co-labour with God; how to partner with God. I love to coach even in services on a Sunday morning - "This is why we are doing this".

NR: You referred earlier to what God was saying about 2006. Can you expand on that?

RR: I came to London in 2005 and I was praying in Richmond Park and suddenly I felt the clear voice of God saying He is going to come with a visitation of His glory to the British Isles. It may seem unlikely or like wishful thinking but I just felt it so strongly. He said He was going to call me back and have some involvement in facilitating, in a small way, some of those things. Something would rise up within these British Isles. It would be for everyone who is hungry for God. It would require people to look at wineskins to avoid another charismatic movement that will run for a while and then burst.

Those who have been faithfully establishing wineskins for years need to start looking with expectation that they have not laboured in vain. Others will need to be looking at Scripture and to people who have built according to a Biblical pattern. This is the time to prepare for this visitation by building proper Biblical government and pattern into the church.

A Biblical wineskin embraces three elements:

1. Biblical authority structures which is proper government based on what the Bible teaches not on democracy.

2. Biblical vision which involves going to the nations and involves reaching the lost.

3. Biblical values - how we do it, with integrity, humility, with team, accountability etc.

Prophetic ministries around the world are picking up an excited expectation of something significant. This time hopefully we won't have a Philistine cart with our Uzzah's and Ahios. We will receive this visitation with a lot more reverence and honour who this is for. This is for the honour and pleasure of our great God not to make certain movements more famous or our churches grow faster. This is to see the glory of God come into the nations that multitudes can be saved.

NR: Thank you so much Rob - An excellent place to conclude!

Imperfect Faith Can STILL Bring You Face to Face with Jesus!

I'm back! My apologies for the long break - I can no longer let life interfere with the power of the teaching of grace and glory! This sermon was preached by Rob Rufus

"Let’s open to 2nd Corinthians chapter 1. I am so excited about this message that I have just got to control myself. We are getting an increasing number of emails from around the world from people thanking us for our stand on grace and some emails you think are exaggerated. The gratitude has shifted from simply thanking me to thanking the people of City Church International. There are tens of thousands of people out there realising it is not simply about preaching a message but a message being embodied and incarnated in a people.

The price you pay to stand for a message of grace when there are anti-grace spirits – grace-hating spirits that want to discourage and confuse us and cause difficulties are realising that the price we are paying is producing life for the churches out there.

There is an apostolic thing Paul speaks about where he says; “We die daily that you may experience life”. We are experiencing life here in abundance but there is a price in our stand that is causing thousands of people around the world to take hope and come out from guilt, condemnation, law and bondage into freedom of grace in Christ Jesus. People are moving from a mixture of Old and New Covenant through the finished work of the Cross into the liberty of the blessing of the New Covenant. So they are getting revelation – a theological revolution. Churches and regions are being changed! Our 5 and a half years has literally impacted nations around the world. I can’t read all of them to you because they speak of details and I don’t want to reveal their names. Years of pressure, performance and guilt – and they all speak about coming into the freedom found in Jesus Christ! And they all mention you guys!

I want to talk about how imperfect faith – even imperfect faith – can bring you face to face with Jesus, into supernatural encounters with the Presence and power of God.

I want 2nd Corinthians to be a foundation to what I say;

2 Corinthians 1:2-4; “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father of all mercies and the God of all comfort … that we may be able to comfort those who are in trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God”.

Within your sorrow is a seed that becomes the life and key that unlocks other people out of the pain of their problems.

If we don’t understand that the pain we go through and the sorrow we experience are to gain deeper intimacy with the comfort of God, that we would see our calling is to comfort people in their troubles by the comfort we receive in our troubles. If we don’t understand this then sooner or later we will allow our troubles and sorrow to define us. When we allow trouble to define us we become melancholic, morbid and very negative people.

The way to make the devil pay for the trouble he puts on you is to see your troubles as becoming a seed of grace that you can sow into someone else’s life.

Many people are within you that will benefit from the comfort you experience in your trouble and your understanding of the goodness of God to bring that comfort into their lives.

When a woman has a baby, she forgets the pain because inside that pain is a treasure that is given to someone else.

If we forget this then we think that pain, sorrow and difficulties are there to just to talk about all the time. That is like a mother getting off the birthing table and disregarding the baby there and going to the phone and calling all her family and friends and relatives and telling them about the terrible pain she has been through without once mentioning the baby! She has forgotten that the pain is not about trouble itself, but within the trouble is a seed of grace for someone else. In your trouble there is a life-saving seed of grace for someone else.

I have been counselled in the lowest moments of my life by two groups of people. Those who have ideals, never been through trouble or pain and have lots of Bible verses to quote and lots of inexperienced knowledge. When you have come out of their presence you feel worse! The other people bear the scars of pain, disappointment and difficulties and when they comfort you they sow seeds of grace into your life so you are freed up from self-pity, discouragement, deception that was trying to take you out in your disillusionment.

We are a people that don’t teach that if you have faith you will not go through trouble. Paul the apostle went through all kinds of troubles but he said; “These are working for me an exceeding weight of glory! Compared to the weight of glory they are building up for me – these troubles are light and momentary afflictions”. So we don’t say if you have faith, you won’t go through trouble. We are saying if you have faith you will find the God of all comfort in your trouble that will make you a humble, tender-hearted person that will sow grace into other people’s trouble.

Turn to Mark chapter 5. Let’s bow our heads in prayer – I can really sense the Presence of God here and the presence of angels. When Glenda was getting up to give the announcements I could feel the angelic presence in this room.

“Father we want to thank You for assigning angels to minister in this room – the ministers of winds and fire – we ask they would refresh the people of God. We want to thank You for Your greatest and most wonderful gift – Jesus Christ Your Son. Every spiritual blessing we have is in Christ Jesus. We thank You that every promise you have made to us are YES in Christ Jesus. Holy Spirit we invite You to come and reveal Jesus in this place, reveal Your glory – that we would know that abiding place of intimacy – that we in our sorrows would be able to discover the seed of grace to sow into other people’s lives here in Hong Kong and around the world”.

I want to read this passage in Mark 5 because it is my favourite passage for speaking on the transference of the anointing. But I don’t want to look at it from that point of view today, but a different point of view and I believe some gold nuggets will come out of this today that will bring you into a greater place of intimacy with Jesus Himself. I will draw your attention to certain phrases and words and will comment on them.

(v21); “21 Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him; and He was by the sea. 22 And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet 23 and begged Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.” 24 So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed Him and thronged Him. 25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse”.

The Bible honours doctors as do we but here it didn’t work for this dear one.

27 “When she heard about Jesus”

That is the pivotal phrase for this message. She had never met Him or been in His meetings, she had just heard about Him.

“She came behind Him”.

Also very important – she didn’t come in front of Him to His face. She came behind Him.

“In the crowd and touched His garment. 28 For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” 29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”
31 But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’” 32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him”.

She came behind Him but now was before Him.

34 And He said to her, “Daughter”.

That is identity.

“Your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

The Greek is literally; “Go into peace”. “Soterio” – completeness, salvation, protection. Go into peace – you have been made well. God wants to make your emotions, your soul, your spirit, your finances, your relationships well. Go into soterio “daughter”. Your faith has made you well!

35 "While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” 36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not be afraid; only believe.” 37 And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James".

Very pivotal – only Peter, James and John.

39 When He came in, He said to them, “Why make this commotion and weep? The child is not dead, but sleeping.” 40 And they ridiculed Him.

What does Jesus do with people who ridicule His faith?

“But when He had put them all outside He took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and entered where the child was lying. 41 Then He took the child by the hand, and said to her, “Talitha, cumi,” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” 42 Immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age”.

The lady who had the bleeding, had it for 12 years. The little girl was 12. It is not a coincidence.

“And they were overcome with great amazement. 43 But He commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat”. (chapter 6:56); “Wherever He entered into villages … they begged Him that they could touch the hem of His garment and as many touched Him were made well”.

Now in the previous chapter we saw thousands touching Him and none were healed or experienced what this one woman experienced. The seed of her 12 years of sorrow became a sowing of grace into multitudes of thousands of people that found a way to touch Him differently to the way they had touched Him before. God hasn’t caused any tragedy or trouble in your life – it is the devil behind that. He turns that sorrow into a seed of life that unlocks someone else out of the pain of their problems. She had never met Him or been in one of His meetings. Many who read the gospels (and I have thought this) if only we could have been on the earth when He walked it and could have been in His meetings and heard His gracious words from His mouth or seen His face as He spoke of the love of His Father and the Kingdom coming to earth! Oh if only I could have heard Jesus speak and been on the front row within touching distance!

This lady was in none of His meetings and had never met Him – only HEARD about Him! What could she have heard? Never anything about the Moses law concerning Him. John 1 says the law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Leviticus 15 says any woman any woman with an issue of blood is forbidden from going into a public place. The sentence is immediate stoning and Jarius – the synagogue ruler – had authority to exercise that and he was right there next to Jesus. Leviticus says a woman going into a public place makes everywhere she goes unclean and everything she touches she makes unclean. But this woman touched Jesus in her unclean state and was healed! What did she hear about Jesus?

She would have heard that this rabbi was touching unclean people.

Lepers were being touched by Jesus and being healed. Under the law leprosy was considered unclean. Jesus touched lepers and laid His hands on lepers and they were immediately healed. Jesus went into the synagogue where a woman was bound over for 18 years with a demonic spirit and the synagogue rulers were teaching the law to her – and the law was telling her you are crippled because you failed the law. Jesus came in and called her a daughter of Abraham – because 430 years before the Law Abraham was a covenant of grace! He said; “You are a daughter of Abraham – you ought to be healed on the Sabbath day”. He laid His hands on her and she straightened up. She would have heard that Jesus laid His hands on a prostitute called Mary Magdalene and when Jesus laid His hands on Mary, the Bible says seven devils came out of her and she was set free from prostitution. She would have heard some marvellous things.

Now – when the crowd was touching Jesus, why weren’t they healed? Why weren’t they changed or benefited? They hadn’t heard about Jesus the way this woman had heard about Jesus. They would have heard He was a rabbi and was demanding you keep standards to earn and deserve.

But when they found out that an unclean woman actively breaking the Levitical law touched Him and was healed, the multitudes from that day began to touch Him in a different way – and you could say that the seed of her sorrow was a seed of grace that influenced thousands of people to get healed in the very next chapter!

The more people that touched Jesus differently, the more people will see that the seed of our sorrow is becoming a seed of grace to touch thousands of churches around the world and touch thousands of people in Hong Kong. It is very important that people hear about the true Jesus. A lot of people struggle to have faith for healing. I am not sure if I even understand faith anymore. Kathryn Kuhlman had a ministry that got far more people healed and some of the worst crippled people and blind people – thousands of them. She said;

“I don’t understand faith but I know my wonderful Jesus suddenly comes and fills the room and people get healed without me even praying for them!”. I don’t think it’s about faith for hearing as much as hearing about the true Jesus.

I believe this woman had imperfect faith – how do I know that? She came behind Him, not to the front of His face. Under the law you couldn’t see the face of God. Moses said; “God – show me Your glory!”. God said; “No man can see My face and live so I will hide you in the cleft of the rock and will walk by and you will see My hind parts”. She had imperfect faith – she came to His hind parts. She heard about Jesus and touched Him and the next minute she was healed, and the next minute He was calling her to His face. Through grace God in Christ came to reveal His face to humanity. Imperfect faith came to touch His hind parts like Moses. But once she was healed, she was called to His face and when she looked into His face the first thing she heard was “Daughter”. God said “Daughter”.

I also know something very special here – we must understand something. What we say about Jesus. People think I criticise everything that moves under the sun and some have called me a divisive man. Someone has to get passionate! Someone has to get stirred up and a righteous anger because multitudes of mesmerised, hypnotised Christians sit in pews having been sold a bill of lies Sunday after Sunday, century after century with arrears of doctrinal deception about God. We have got people saying that God makes you sick to make you more holy! People want to know why we don’t see more healings – we have got hundreds of years of the traditions of men that have deceived people into unbelief and have misrepresented Jesus. The devil is behind it! “Did God really say?”. I have done all the things wrong and have preached things wrong and have misrepresented God in my past.

But when I came to Hong Kong I was determined to faithfully reveal the New Covenant and the true nature of God where the people of God are in New Covenant and no longer under law and are in 100% grace and grace alone with no condemnation to those that are in Christ. I said I am going to do that God no matter how much I am mis-understood and I am going to hold my line".

Quickly go to Romans chapter 3:3-4. “Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true and every man a liar”. What is so important today is that we need to see there is a difference between facts and truth.

So many people in the church are believers in theory. But the reality is that the administration of their life is closer to a practical atheist. There is very little in these Christians lives that you have to say they are solving problems through faith. They are solving their problems by “what is” and are dealing with “what is” by “what is”. So they are multiplying their problems.

This creates so much controversy and pain and I wanted to deal with this so sensitively and I just don’t have the time. Let me say I am dealing with this from a sensitive heart.

The fact is that you may have sickness in your body. The truth is that by His stripes - you WERE healed. The fact is you may be in financial debt - the truth is that at the Cross He has ALREADY redeemed you from the curse of poverty that the prosperity of Abraham may come upon you. The fact is that you may have sinned and done something seriously wrong - you may have failed God - that is the fact. The truth is you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

There is coming a defining and dividing dispensation in our time of the people of God who chose to be wrapped up in the facts or be wrapped up in the truth. If you focus on the facts then you will chose the things that are to nullify the things that are. But if you focus on the truth then you will chose the things that are not to nullify the things that are. You will seek the covering presence of the cherubims and the glory to get into the Presence of the God who calls things that be not as though they were.

I want you to look in John chapter 8 very quickly. Any fact that does not line up with the truth of God’s Word is a fact waiting to be nullified by the things that are not. I want you to look quickly at John chapter 8. I want to show you that Jesus constantly spoke about the two worlds - the superior world of heaven and the world that is from below that is temporarily corrupted by satanic deception. Satan has a system of politics, economics and education of doing things and God has a heavenly system of doing things and He says - let Your kingdom come, let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. When we begin to get into the world’s system, we begin to try to deal with problems of what is - by dealing with what is.

Jesus says here - in John chapter 8 and verse 23; “I am from above, I am not of this world”. If you go to verse 28, Jesus said; “I am the One I claim to be … but speak what the Father has taught Me … He has not left Me alone”. That is the key theme of what I want to talk about in the coming weeks. He has not left me alone. “The truth will set you free”. What will the truth set you free from? It will set you free from the facts. Are you wrapped up in the truth of God’s Word or are you wrapped up in the facts? Now we are not to deny the facts - we have to face the facts and recognise that they are there. But we are then to look on the things that are unseen and get wrapped up in the truth.

It is not a waste of time to be lying on the floor soaking under the manifest glory of God - it is not a waste of time to go into the secret place and let God love you and manifest His glory over you and saturate you so every cell in your body is vibrating with eternal life, divine virtue and divine quickening of your mortal body so that God can then do the things that are impossible to do.

I wonder has God really called us to have faith for miracles? Or has He called us to have faith to surrender our whole life to come under His hovering Presence? Because when you want to have faith for miracles, it puts all the pressure on you to have faith. If all you are saying is; “God I know I can have faith for Your manifest Presence” - then the God who does miracles does the miracle.

I can’t do the miracle and neither can you. What do we need to have faith for? His hovering Presence. God has to come out of the invisible and manifest tangibly. No miracle can happen unless the Presence of God manifests tangibly in reality so that your very physical body can feel His Presence. Go to Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah 32 is God’s announcement of the superiority of the New Covenant. Most of you have heard me read this and quote it but I want to read it again. Verse 40. We no longer earn or deserve the blessing, Jesus Christ earned the blessings on our behalf and redeemed us from the curse of the law that the blessings may come on our lives through faith and faith alone. So Jeremiah 32:40 says; “I will never stop doing good to them”. How long is never? Does never ever run out? “I will rejoice …”. The Hebrew word means; “To turn and twist with deep emotions of ecstasy and joy in doing us good”. V41 again.

Let me put these two verses together - then the will of God is to NEVER stop doing you good! 24/7 every second He wants to do you good! How does He do us good? With rejoicing! So if He never wants to stop doing you good then it means that He never wants to stop dancing with deep emotions and twists and turns and ecstasy in doing you good. The greatest fun God gets - is doing you good!

Why do so few Christians feel a consciousness that the Creator is not remote and a distant deity but He is a very engaged Being that is literally dancing over me and you with ecstasy and deep feelings of wanting to do us good and never will stop doing us good? How come that is not reflected in the life of the church?

I think it was when Jesus said - your traditions have nullified the Word of God. I don’t think people believe this. I don’t think people have the faith to surrender to the covering Presence of the God that calls the things that be not as though they were. I think people have got caught up in rituals and religion and ceremonies. Religious principles and protocol - but have we got caught up in revelation and eternal intuition and insight into this God dancing over you all the time? We have been told that when God manifests over us it is a sovereign initiative and there is nothing you can do about it and He will just come. Now the gifts of the Spirit operate as the Spirit wills but I am not talking about the gifts here today. Jeremiah 32 is not God talking about the gifts - it is God talking about Himself dancing over you all the time!

Some of you have heard my account of when I went to Brighton two years ago and I was invited to be the main speaker at a conference for about 5000 leaders. The weekend before the conference Terry Virgo invited me to come to the church he is based at that he has planted - it is quite a large church - and minister Sunday morning and Sunday night. So I preached Sunday morning and came back Sunday night and it was packed out. People had come from all over and they had brought lots of sick people and I preached again in the evening but realised I had to pace myself because I had to preach seven times in the week to thousands of people. At the end of the evening service I thought I had to get out of the door and then saw this long queue lining up and the first one had crippled hips and I just knew that it was not going to happen. I couldn’t do it. Someone said “Will you come over?” and as I am walking over I suddenly felt over my physical body, my head and everywhere the dancing God. He was wanting to rejoice over doing me good and anyone that got into my radius.

Any time you watch a DVD of an evangelist or a preacher and see someone bringing them out of the wheelchair with boldness and no lack of confidence - anytime you see that, don’t think that is their natural temperament. They are under something. I am tired of ministering to broken lives if I am not under something. It is just flesh and religion. “Come out in Jesus Name!”. “I am not coming out”.

As I got closer I could just feel the intensifying dancing of a God who just wanted to do me good and anyone around me - this God of perfect love. I walked up to the first lady and I said; “Lady what do you need?”. That’s all I did. I didn’t put my hands on her or pray and I felt this all around me. She started to describe her symptoms and about 30 seconds into her describing the symptoms (I had said nothing - just fixed my eyes on her) she started shaking. I hadn’t prayed for her, hadn’t said “In the Name of Jesus” or put my hands on her and she started shaking and vibrating and then she falls over! I just was standing there listening to the symptoms. A minute or two later she got up and her hips were totally straight. I said “Next!”. 20 people - about 8 out of 10 - the exact same thing happened. I never prayed for them - it was effortless! I didn’t have to speak! While giving me their symptoms they were healed!

I think that is closer to the Jesus ministry than what I see. Mark chapter 1 He walked into the temple and a demonised man started screaming. “Aaagh why have You come before our time?”. He hadn’t preached yet! Shut up - and come out. They marvelled at His authority.

In Eastbourne in southern England quite recently I went to speak at a conference there with Glenda and Millie was there. On the last night I was tired. The pastor came and in the large hall there was a bunch of people there who had the worst crippling conditions I had seen. I know if you are trying to get cripples healed and that thing is not over you - it is shocking. You are trying to pretend you know what you are doing but you don’t have a hope of getting them healed! You can go through the religious formulas and pretend something has happened but everyone with the know-how knows that nothing is happening. It is almost disgusting and discrediting the real ministry of Jesus!

So I walk over there and as I get closer the dancing God comes over me. Suddenly I am not Clarke Kent - I am now Superman. But it is not me! As I am walking it is getting stronger and stronger and I see this woman who is crippled and as I get closer and closer the demons start screaming; “Aaagh leave us! Leave us!”. Literally! And they are out. They are gone. She topples over and gets up healed. Everyone I step towards are healed. Many of you saw the DVD I brought back of dozens of people. One lady was so crippled she couldn’t pick up her child - and her husband had to leave his career to look after her children full time. She went down under the power and the next morning she came dancing into church.

How many of you think this is the love of God - how many of you think it is shocking and disgusting that we do not see more of these things?

Because of the traditions of men! Let me tell you honestly and vulnerably - I have been doing this for 30 years. I want to tell you what I have just described today has only happened to me maybe about 100 times. I have daily anointing! I am not talking about anointing here or the gifts of the Spirit but God coming. Actually He is not coming - He is always there. But why isn’t He always manifested? He said I will never stop doing you good - I will rejoice and dwell to do you good! If I can come under the dancing God all the time then maybe you and me can start approximating the promise of John 14:12; “Anyone who believes in Me .. And even greater works”. Acts 10:38 said that God anointed Jesus with power and He went about doing good and healing ALL. If Jesus could go about any time of day, any second if anyone touched Him in the crowd, anyone that asked for healing, He could give healing on the spot!

I suspect that Jesus walked under the glory Presence of the Father all the time! The religious world has told me that any time He comes and does that it is just a sovereign mood of God. I think you and I have got something to do. I am now convinced that the will of the Father by the witness of the Spirit in my heart - the inheritance of every person that says Jesus is my Lord are meant to walk for most of our time under the manifest Presence.

I have said before that you wouldn’t be able to get to sleep it is so powerful. If you have never experienced this I wish I could put it on you today because you can never describe it - you don’t know what it is like to walk up to crippled people without that and know the fear that comes over you. The terror of knowing you are going to disappoint them. You have no idea what that is like if you havent done it. Neither do you have any idea what it is like when you are moving towards them and He comes over you - there is NO fear just utter, reckless boldness! You just know that nothing can get in the way, just an invincible sense of God over you.


People have watched people with that power over them and when they don’t have that power have tried to copy as a formula and have tried to pull people out of wheelchairs and then they just fall on the ground. When you are under that power you do things that you would never do. You are not copying. You are not mimicking someone else under the power - just because God is on you! Maybe it will lift slightly in intensity every now and again so you can relax a bit but I believe it should be there on call so quick! Imagine how your mortal body would be renewed in your youth with resurrection life. The grey hair turned dark again! Cellular regeneration! Rob how do you live in that all the time? You want to know? There are people who lecture in Harvard on how to run a business who have never run a business. You have theology professors teaching on the gifts of the Spirit in seminaries who have never moved in the gifts of the Spirit.

You cannot give away what you don’t have.

I don’t want people giving me information on the Kingdom - I am sick and tired of Bible information. I know the Bible pretty much well from back to front - but my biggest need right now is to learn from someone who has got the goods. It is a sign of hunger that you say you want to know - but to tell you the truth, I don’t really know. I have never met a person who does know. Except One. This is what I suspect He is whispering to me (and I am just giving you my suspicion). Two words; “Total surrender to the Holy Spirit”. Not less of me and more of you. NONE of me and ALL of you! Every part of my life, everything that I am - whatever you want me to do and give up - everything I surrender. I want to be branded by your jealous love and possessed by your jealous love. Rob how do you surrender?

How do you come to that place of surrender? I don’t know but this is what I suspect - you have to become so disillusioned with your failures to get the sick healed and so horrified at the lack of knowledge of the revelation of God chosing the things that be not to nullify the things that are and so horrified with your failure. You have to come to the end of your reputation in the eyes of men and so utterly embarrassed. I think you have to go through pain and try to get the sick healed and misunderstood and accused by those who didn’t get healed that it was your fault and you are a failure. And live with the rejection and misunderstanding. You have to live with the agony and lay on your face at night and say I am a failure in so many areas of supernatural ministry.

Dear Jesus all I have left is my love for You and if you can take that and take something that is not and nullify the things that are then I offer my body and soul and spirit as a living sacrifice that something I have only seen 100 times will become something that happens all the time. That the millions in Hong Kong do not need to be deprived of a church that has fully surrendered. I know not everyone wants to surrender like that. The vast majority of Christians are more caught up in the things that are and more caught up in their careers.

I can't describe to people the pain and rejection I have walked through in the last few months - the rejection involving thousands of people, people we have known for 25 years, the lies and cold shoulders. That could make you paranoid and reactionary and bitter or it can backfire on the devil and precipitate in you a face on the ground, a laid down lover that surrenders all. I live with eternity with nothing and surrender. We have to be emptied of every fleshly delusional arrogance and pride and all controversy against God and come to trust Him. When you sin and make mistakes and lose your temper, you look to God who chooses the things that are not to nullify the things that are. His grace to me is abounding - He will never reject me or disapprove of me - He is for me! What can be against me? He so sees you as precious that He doesn’t want you to have any idols or distractions - He wants you because you are such a jewel and precious. He wants you completely! And we don’t!

We think we have surrendered all but we have had hostility and defences and complaints and pride and self-promotion against Him! But pain takes that away. It either makes you bitter or makes you better. Every time Satan comes, he comes to make you bitter. If you chose to use the things that are to make the things that are then you are going to get bitter. But if you get revelation to use the things that are not and get into the Presence of the Living God who uses the things that be not as though they are then this good God will manifest His dancing over you. And when you walk through a place that place will be benefited because you were there. People in your radius will feel the unseen world touching you.

Close your eyes - He is here now.

Kathryn Kuhlman used to say “God isn’t looking for golden vessels or silver vessels - but yielded vessels”.

"Laying on of Hands" - Together on a Mission 2006

This conference was my first encounter with Rob Rufus - a life-changing encounter although I have yet to meet the man! But I had such an incredible touch from God and was so moved by his teaching that I wrote to Terry Virgo to thank him for inviting Rob and enthusing about what I had heard. Terry was gracious enough to write back and made particular mention as to how Rob's teaching on the "Laying on of Hands" was really useful and revelational to him. I listened again to that session while I was driving back from my parents last night and agreed - and felt it had to be transcribed.

Here it is:

"Training Track - Session 2" - "Together on a Mission in Brighton" - 2006

I want talk about the laying on of hands today and raising the significance of this incredible truth to a higher level of expectation. The doctrine of laying on of hands needs to be raised up to a higher level. I believe currently it is operating in the church at a very low level. I don't believe we are seeing the level of apostolic understanding as to what it means to lay hands on people. It has become almost too cheap and done too quickly and carelessly and casually and we need to encourage and train and equip people. Never come up and ask people to lay hands on you lightly. Never ask hands to be laid on you without expecting to receive something. It is a foundation doctrine of Christ. Hebrews chapter 6. The laying on of hands is equal to baptism, baptism in the Spirit, judgements, resurrection from the dead, repentance and faith towards God. Alongside that is laying on of hands and you can't go on to maturity without a clear revelation of the importance of the doctrine of the laying on of hands.

We look here in Habbakkuk chapter 3 and let's read from verse 2. "Lord I have heard of Your fame - I stand in awe of Your deeds oh Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known. In wrath remember mercy ... His glory covered the heavens and His praise filled the earth, His splendour was like the sunrise. Rays flashed from His hands where His power was hidden".

I am not trying to make out that God is reduced to human shape but it does say that "rays flashed from His hands" so there is this divine image that the power of God is flashing from the hands of God. I believe that when God's immortal hands come on our mortal hands then there is a divine flash - there is a discharge of heavenly voltage that needs to be restored back to the Church in dimension that was there in the Book of Acts and we have got to recapture today!

Go to Acts chapter 8 please. There are many passages on this. Dave Holden quoted it yesterday - Romans 1:11 and Paul says; "I have come to you so that I may impart a gift to you - a gift that makes you strong". Then in 2nd Timothy chapter 1:6-7 Paul says; "Stir up the gift that is within you through the laying on of my hands ... a spirit of power, love and a sound mind".

In other words Timothy was a timid man but he got something that made him amazingly strong when Paul laid his hands on him and got something amazingly powerful that Paul put into him through the apostolic laying on of hands so that Timothy was standing up and starting to lead well but people didn't like that so intimidation was coming back on him and Paul was saying; "Stir up what you received through the laying on of my hands".

Here Philip goes down to Samaria and has the most amazing signs and wonders and miracles - the whole city filled with joy. The cripples and the paralysed were walking - demons coming out - people getting saved! Then the apostles come down and they don't start off with line upon line teaching.

They add MORE to the supernatural by the laying on of hands for the impartation of the Holy Spirit!

Here is Simon the sorcerer who had just got saved through seeing some amazing supernatural phenomeon and he had moved in psychic counterfeit demonic power and in counterfeit miracles and had impressed the village. But when Philip came down he was amazed at the power of God at work and then he sees the apostles come down and apostles lay their hands on the new converts and here is what it says; (v18); "When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of hands, he offered them money and said 'Give me also this ability'". There are many witchdoctors in Africa and some of them are cons but I have met many that are really moving in dark demonic power. I have heard from pretty good witnesss of some who could reverse the flow of a river. Their curses on people would have power. I never knew of any of those witchdoctors that came to us Christians and offered us money so they could have the power that when I lay my hands on people something happens that is so powerful!

Peter said "Your money perish with you - you will die and even if you repent" and he gets heavy on him.

A witchdoctor or a sorcerer is not going to be impressed with hands being laid on people and nothing happening! He MUST have seen SOMETHING. He must have seen the miracles that Philip did but now he is willing to offer money to get the power to lay hands on people and something is given to them!

Today you see people lay their hands on people and pray for the sick and nothing. We must recover what it means to lay hands on people. John G Lake came to South Africa in 1905 and in five years, 500 churches were planted. It is the biggest denomination in South Africa today and sadly some of it has gone into terrible heresy because unfortunately John G Lake didn't build a proper biblical wineskin and that is the sad legacy of the power without a proper wineskin. But in terms of the power - phenomenal power! Signs and wonders and miracles! When he got back to America they hooked him upto machinery and put all kinds of gadgets on him and saw electrical powers on him. He said; "Gentlemen the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is quickening my mortal body with life!".

One day he laid hands on someone who had a massive festering sore and they had to scrape the maggots of it. So he came in and laid hands on that person in one of their healing schools and he prayed these kinds of prayers; "You foul devil of infirmity - I curse you by the authority of heaven - let the lightning flashes of heaven break through and manifest the power of healing in this body!".

The person went off and two days later they got a telegram back from this person from another city. The open wound was completely healed miraculously! But there is a clear imprint burn-mark about 1mm deep and the full imprint of that hand over where that open wound was!

We don't understand! That was someone who knew how to impart something! That may not be what God wants as the norm but we have to raise the level of the miraculous impartation with the laying on of hands. I know that if I can get people to lower their resistance to the anointing and get it right down low then I know that; "Such as I have - I can give". I know that! The great One lives inside of us and in the Kingdom of heaven;

Wealth is not measured so much by what you have but how much you give away.

So in a sense I believe that when the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, we ALL have the Spirit without measure! But that doesn't measure our wealth. What measures our wealth is how much we can give away. I love what Peter says; "Such as we HAVE - we GIVE to you". So if we can help lower people's resistance then when we help lay our hands on them - there comes an impartation that is so powerful it can heal any disease. What about unforgiveness and bitterness in their lives? I think we have gone too hard on that and said "People with unforgivness can't get healed". I know of people that got miraclously healed and they still were bitter! It is like God healed them and delivered them of their sins. Some need to confess their sins of bitterness but there is no formula or checklist! "Any unforgivenss or any bitterness in your life?". Then you don't get healed!

The 1st thing I am going for is to lower their resistance on their faith fuse. Because when the power of God comes into people, He can heal them of bitterness as much as He can drive cancer out their body! Some people don't have the power to get free from their bitterness! But when the power of God comes on them it destroys that root of bitterness that is defiling them and heals their body. I know sometimes that bitterness can block the power of God sometimes and be a resistance but I am not wanting to make a type category here. If we can lower their resistance and lay hands on them then great healings can take place.

I learnt this at what we called in Durban a, "New Africa Celebration". We did a protest against apartheid, sang songs about a new South Africa but we also wanted to see a demonstration of God's power. So I preached a message in this big hall with a whole load of unsaved people there and I preached on God's will to heal and God's desire to heal and called people forward. There was such a corporate anointing that I literally ran down this row just slapping people on the head! About 98% of people got flung back like a baseball bat had hit them on the head and it knocked them and the catchers over! I didn't ask them what their sickness was because you see - I don't have faith to open blind eyes or deaf ears or miracles of healing cripples. I HAVE faith to GIVE the power of God! And it makes it so much simpler! That took 30 seconds to run down this row and then an elder came to me with a woman screaming "I can see! I can see" and a totally blind eye had been opened! How long have you been blind? She said "I was born blind in that eye". I said "I am so glad that you didn't tell me that before I prayed for you".

What I am saying is that I had faith to IMPART the power and she had faith to RECEIVE it. The power of God is like a heat seeking missile and it went and did the job.

Another guy came up and said "I can hear! I can hear!". How long have you been deaf? "I was born without an ear drum!". I am so thankful I didn't know that either! Because if I had known about this ear or eye then I would have gone back to my secular university days and literally tried to work out how God was going to put an ear drum in there and how that would happen.

But I developed my faith in "Such as I have" and I laid my hands upon people and I expect power to go into them! And I had prepared them to receive power.

I have found in the last 20 years that if we don't prepare people with faith to receive then we get about 5-10% healed but if we teach the Word of God clearly then they can be raised up to about 80% and higher. Let me give you several things here and then we can close. Here is some of the things that happen when we lay hands on people and we need to raise expectations. I have watched in services and no one is prepared to EXPECT something to happen when hands are laid on. So you see begging and pleading but I don't see Jesus ever (and I could be wrong) begging the Father to heal people or even asking the Father to heal people. What I do see is Him commanding sickness to go and demons of infirmity to go and healing to come. He just commands it! When I see hands laid on and there is begging and pleading I just don't think it looks like the New Testament! Jesus said to His disicples; "Go to a village and tell them that the Kingdom of heaven is touchable and it is reachable and it is at hand and you can change the way you think - then lay hands on the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons". THAT simple! He is training them to prepare people to receive.

I think once we raise this doctrine of the laying on of hands we are going to see manifestations of God! Now I think laying on of hands is one of the lowest levels of the impartation of the supernatural. But I think if we don't get the lowest foundational Hebrews 6 doctrine right then we can't go on to the greater manifestations. We look at Peter laying hands on the cripple at the Gate Beautiful and him walking to 2 chapters later and his shadows heal the sick. I have watched when we have laid hands on a few in a meeting and suddenly the glory of God covers a whole meeting and suddenly you go into a higher level and people are getting healed in their chairs and we can go onto spitting on people's eyes! Waving clothes around! We can just speak and heal them with our words wrapped in the anointing and people get healed 200 meters back in the hall. But if we don't get the laying on of hands then we are not going to get very far.

The more we lay hands on people to impart the power of God the more we will see the corporate manifestation getting stronger.

Kathryn Kuhlman would go and stay in a hotel prior to a meeting and the people on the floor above and below her would get healed spontaneously even though they didn't know that she was in the hotel! I know of one very well documented case of her speaking at a Full Gospel Businessmen's meeting in a great forum and at the end the anointing was so strong on her and they took her out through the kitchen area so she wouldn't have to work her way out through the crowds and so as they escorted her through the kitchen area and these chefs and unsaved people in the kitchen area were falling under the power! Unsaved people just falling under the power! I think we have got to grow in the laying on of hands and then we can grow to higher levels of the greater manifestations.

Nine or ten things that happen with the laying on of hands:

1. There is an impartation of Supernatural Life.

We become supercharged with the life and vitality of almighty God. For some people it is like the divine defibrillators at work bringing them back to life! That is a heartbeat! Why can't we use a 10v battery? No some people need 10 000 volts to bring a revival into another level of the glory of God!

2. There is an impartation of a gift that makes us strong (Romans 11).

3. Vision can come.

There are five levels of vision and the highest is open vision in front of your very eyes and you can see things happening! I have had a few of those and mostly to do with my children. They used to get so angry! Both my sons got saved properly in their late teens! They were upto all kinds of nonsense although they are all serving God now. My son is a leader with us in Hong Kong and my daughter is a worship leader and my oldest son is serving God in Australia. They would try and get upto all kinds of naughty things. I would be at home worshipping and I would see a vision of my son Ryan and he is meant to be at school. And I would see him standing under a post smoking a cigaratte. So I would come home and Ryan would be there and I would say; "Ryan where were you this morning?" and he said; "Oh Dad I was at school". "No you weren't - you were standing up that post with a cigarette!". He said; "That's not fair - why does God tell on us! Why can't we get away with it!?". I said "Because He loves you and so do I!".

When you lay hands on some people they have instant vision. Revelations of God's plans and purposes for your life! An inward quiet impression is just as powerful as an open vision. Some of the most dramatic breakthroughs I have had, have not been with open vision but with quiet vision! Vision comes through the laying on of hands! People get caught up into the heavenly realm. I don't understand that - that has never happened to me but I have laid hands on people and mainly teenagers have seen the throne room! This is an amazing thing that ten to fifteen years later their lives are still changed. They saw something! I loved what Dave Holden said yesterday - don't try to catch the youth up with a whole load of entertainment to get them related to the church! They are so ready for the supernatural, the young people! When I first went to Australia, all the young people sat at the back cutting up the benches and talking to the girls. These were the youth! Within several months of releasing the power of God they were all near the front and all on the front rows turned unto God. They got under the defibrillator and said "God is real".

Trances are not just New Age - trances are also biblical. The devil is not a creator but a counterfeiter. We have so overreacted to the counterfeit that we withdraw from the genuine. I think it is Acts chapter 10 verse 10 and Peter fell into a trance! He saw things and it opened up the gospel in a wonderful way into Cornelius's home. How many of you have heard of Maria Woodworth-Etter? Amazing ministry. She was standing preaching in the United States and made a point and fell into a trance and was like that for 3 days. It was like her bodily functions were suspended. She stepped over into the realm of the glory. For 3 days! And after that she carried on with the end of her sentance and wondered why the crowd had grown! They reckoned that tens of thousands had come in those 3 days to come and see this lady frozen - a sign and a wonder and they felt the Presence of God was so sacred that they fell to their knees and repented and they reckoned that for a 100 mile radius the glory of God radiated around that whole region.

Many religious traditions would say; "That's demonic". We are so quick to label everything as demonic. It is easy to pick up when it is demonic! When it is demonic it draws attention to the fact that it is the flesh, it is irritating. When it is the glory of God it edifies you and makes you wonder. When God comes in signs and wonders - it is a wonder! What is the point? People realise God is real and it is sacred!

4. Healing both physical and emotions.

5. Darkness is removed.

Demonic presence is driven out and great peace and clarity comes. Because there were extremes in the deliverance ministry many years ago we kind of backed off casting out demons. I don't believe that any individual has a deliverance ministry. I would never categorise myself as that - I believe that ALL believers are to cast out demons. Soon as you classify yourself as having a deliverance ministry the devil says "Great I will send thousands of demonised people that don't want to be delivered to your house and destroy you and burn you out!". Your identity is not in casting demons out but in God's grace. We just cast demons out as a normal way of life! It is just the Kingdom of heaven breaking in!

6. Visitations of Jesus - intimacy, closeness with Jesus.

He becomes so real and His love becomes so real and it carries over into daily living. Many people live for the rest of their life carried by the wonder of that encounter of how real Jesus was.

7. Callings and Commissionings.

God first calls you and then He prepares you over days and weeks and months or even years and then He suddenly commissions you and activates the calling and from that moment we walk in the authority and anointing of that calling through the laying on of hands.

I don't believe someone can actually function properly as an elder unless apostles lay hands upon them - there is a missing ingredient.

8. Conferring Blessings.

"The rod of instruction drives out foolishness from the child". We never want to smack our children with our hands. I know that is a bit controversial issue today biut it says spare the rod and spoil the child. So we would never use our hands to smack our children but a rod.

Hands are not to punish - hands are to bless with. Hands are for conferring blessing, success, favour, promotion, prosperity and peace - all transferred by the laying on of hands.

9. Ordaining Leaders.

10. You bring relief and an impartation of rest.

It brings a relief from striving that can build up internally over days and even years. Often this pressure does not come out until the anointing accesses those areas like a safety valve being opened.

11. The Personality of the Holy Spirit rubs off on you.

(Galatians 5:22).

The laying on of hands is not an immunisation. It doesn't guarantee you against challenges. But it sure is a powerful doctrine of the Bible that God wants to elevate to a whole new level of faith.

Do Our Diaries Reflect The Priorities Of Heaven?

Rob Rufus returned from Australia and preached yesterday a much anticipated sermon; "Invading the Impossible - Part 12" called "The Power of Testimony". I can't WAIT to hear it and even more transcribe it to share it! But while Rob was away I have listened to a couple of sermons and there was one sermon that must be transcribed and shared. After Rob returned from Brighton last July in 2007 - he preached one called; "Do Our Diaries Reflect the Priorities of Heaven" - on Sunday 22nd July.

Here it is:

"How many of you find life easy? How many of you find that life has got a few challenges? Everyone finds life easy do they?! Some of you will not put up your hands for anything because you think it is a trick question? Have I been so hard on you that you are frightened to put up your hand?

Why did God hide some of the best promises and riches and blessing in the Promised Land among some of the biggest giants? There were blessings and riches in the Promised Land that it was God's will for His people to go in and inherit. God did it - God arranged it! Because He did not want the casual pursuer of God, the coward, the self-pitying person, the self-concious person, the self-centred person, the person of unbelief to have access to His greatest blessing.

So He hides His greatest blessings amongst His greatest challenges so that the people who are going to receive the blessings of God have to repent of all self-righteousness, all delusions of self-sufficiency, to throw themselves completely onto God and to come into the Presence of God every single day and make a choice that no matter demanding life is and no matter how many pressures come, I will make my calendar a priority that I am going to engage God on a daily basis.

If we don't engage God on a daily basis and get into His Presence then we are going to have to find our lives are being lived out of the barren or insufficient resources of grace - in other words we are living our life on an empty, emotional soul tank. Amen? God wants us to have our cups overflowing. "The Lord anoints my head with oil - my cup overflows".

How does it come? Through grace - but I have to position myself in a place of receptivity to receive grace.

I want to say to you that over the summer break we are not going to allow ourselves to go passive like many other churches do. "Just close down - so many people are away - lose momentum and let the devil take back ground he lost from us". I say no - we are not giving the devil any ground. He doesn't even deserve one millimeter and we have fought blood and nails and guts for 3 years - I don't know about you but Glenda and I have war stories that some of you wouldn't believe. You would think I was exaggerating! You would feel so sorry for me that you would pray and fast for days for Glenda and me! Unbelievable stuff!

I was on the phone for hours and hours dealing with international stuff (not with the UK - that was such a mighty time and I told you last week about the miracles that happened. It was mind-blowing stuff). But I was dealing with issues and there just came a point where I was sweating under my armpits with the adrenaline sweat - focused for hours and hours dealing with horrific issues and somewhere I had to stop and say; "As important as this is - I have to pull the phone out and go into my bedroom and spend 3 hours alone with God". Because if you do not do that devil will keep you on the run and if your outgoing of emotion, energy exceeds your income then that is how we define nervous breakdowns!

The reason Glenda and I have not had a nervous breakdown in 28 years of ministry is not because we are strong. I learnt that secret many years ago that this world is relentless in it's pursuit of your time. It will eat your time and invade your world with things that seem so urgent that if you do not give into them now, then you will have big problems. But if you really go back in your thinking and ask yourself those things that seemed so urgent - were they that urgent?! I will tell you why they weren't urgent but seemed urgent. It was the fear of man. It was "If I don't pander to man's demands and if I don't fit into man's requests of me then they won't like me" and it is the fear of rejection and fear of not being understood that makes us go beyond the grace of God to try and fit in with man's new role and once we are delivered from the fear of man and man-made rejection - they may reject us and misunderstand us;

But we will come to a place when the most important thing in our lives is that we have got heaven's approval, heaven's endorsement and heaven's endorsement is the supernatural on your life. Heaven's endorsement is divine authority!

The political spirit - the fear of man, the placating of man, the wanting man to like you - that is what drives people in every kind of career and workplace into overload and into nervous breakdown. You cannot hear God when you are exhausted! You can like Elijah in the wilderness hear the still quiet voice. But it wasn't the Elijah calling down fire from heaven and taking on Jezebel. No he was exhausted and running.

I am determined that I cannot afford to let the devil to catch me on a day that I am so exhausted I have no divine resources to resist him.

When you run out of resources to resist the devil then you become prone to deception and make very bad decisions. You make very bad decisions that take you off your highway of destiny and onto a road of disaster. Never take the easy way out of pressure! Get before God and let Him fill you with His Presence and His joy and get up on a mountainside! You have to shut the noise of Hong Kong down sometimes! I promise you by the integrity of God's Word - if Jesus was here in Hong Kong, like He was in Jerusalem 2000 years ago, then I promise you that He would get out of the noisy city and get out to the mountaintops. Over and over in the Gospels it says "Jesus withdrew to a solitary place!".

He understood that He was operating - though He was fully God - His divinity was restrained within His humanity so He had to operate from His humanity 100% of the time - never out of His divinity. As a man He would have burnt out and had a nervous breakdown unless ...

Some of you walked into this place so exhausted and I want to tell you exhaustion comes to all of us but when it comes over a prolonged period we need a loving correction to say we are making wrong choices. We either left the TV on too long or went to a party (and by the way I am not against parties - Jesus went to parties!) or we had one more late night that we couldn't afford to have but we are afraid of offending people. So we chose man and man's programmes rest in being with God.

So we give Sunday morning our leftovers and I am not prepared as the host of the service with you to host Him who is all-glorious and to allow the potential God had for this meeting to be robbed or diluted because of human exhaustion. God has an agenda for every week and every Sunday He opens prophetic windos for us to get through and if we don't go through these windows we may have to wait for 10 or 7 years or even 40 years for those same windows to open again.

God is unfolding eternal agendas sequentially by supernatural purpose. God is not a human that He should lie and is not a man that He should live in haphazard purpose. God is moving by sovereign intention to the climax of the ages and He is moving history to a purpose. People are either moving in partnership with Him or they are moving as survivors trying to look for a way out of pressure.

There is no way out of pressure at all.

Pressure is going to be here and intensify till the end of the age. The way to handle pressure is to get into the Presence of God and then God capacitates you to handle peace in the midst of pressure.

Some of you are underestimating your value - you are underestimating how important you are to God. You are underestimating your preciousness, you are underestimating the call of God on your life. Some people say; "Rob is a superstar". No Rob is a pathetic little man! If I went one week without spending time alone with God, the very next week I got into the pulpit you would be embarrassed for me! Because I would stand here full of self-pity and weariness and confusion and demonised but you see me week after week standing in this pulpit because week after week I have made decisions sometimes to stop working 12 hours a day, turn the phone off and get alone with God and it is a deliberate decision that could be misunderstood! Not only by people in this community but by people in the international community.

I make a decision sometimes that I am going to spend romantic time with my wife. And I am going to take my daughter out for a meal and I am going to shut work out and focus on you! In a way I am speaking seriously but don't be so sober! I am not a superstar but under the anointing of God we are called to be superstars! I am so tired of people saying; "We don't want superstars in the Church!". Are you crazy?! I want superstars! I want superstars leading our children! I don't want just anyone leading our children! I want superstars leading the worship and greeting at the door! I don't want someone; "I'm so unworthy ... I am doing this because no one else will!". Do it as a superstar! Do it under the anointing! Do it under authority!

You know in the past people have said; "Oh well you know Rob - you are a superstar and so everyone depends on you". And I am left thinking; "Well what must I do? Must I glow less?! Must I stand looking depressed in the worship like others? Must I come down to the level of unbelief and conservatism and formalism? If I glow less - will others glow more?!". Because I would glow less that others would glow more then I would GLADLY glow less! But I find if I glow less the people glow less! But if I glow more and get on fire then people come to watch me BURN!

I can't handle passivity! I can't handle in the pulpit people who have got no passion - no volcano - what is that?! It's blasphemy! When you meet with the living God and He fills your being with the glory of His Presence, the God who created the heavens and earth and He expands your being with His living conciousness and when you speaks, you must speak from that authority. I can't handle mealy-mouthed little words and little apologies! Oh I am so sorry - I am breathing the air in the place! Jesus is called the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and knows when to use the rod and when to use the staff! He is not always using the staff as a Mr Nice-Guy. Sometimes He will use the rod in discipline and correction because He disciplines those that He loves and then He uses the staff.

Some people always use the rod always correcting and rebuking everyone. Some people just use the staff - always Mr Nice-Guy - don't want to upset. If we volunteer let's do it as superstars shining for Jesus and we are doing it for eternal purposes.

When we greet people at the door, we are impact nations by just being faithful!

If it takes being a superstar and shining and getting more bold to lift the church then I am going to go up another level! You put me leading the junior church and after 3 weeks look in and there will be no superstars.

Because we are only superstars when we are operating in our place, in our gifting and in our calling.

But we have got some superstars in that junior church! You put me in a mechanics shop, drive your car in and see - in fact in some areas I am actually retarded. I am not joking. I don't even rate on the scale of capability. But in my place I can shine. But I want to tell you that I would not shine if I don't know my place and get alone with God and recharge my batteries. If you find your place in this church (and everyone has a place in this church - God has placed you where your best gifts and anointings can operate) and when you find your place and realise that you are breaking out of religious tradition that has sat in pews and listened to "superstars" speak -

Church is a place where every believer - every member - has a contribution, a function and a purpose to make that church shine like a superstar church.

I don't know how people can come to church and not know their purpose! "Oh yere I've got to go and sit in that chair in church". But if you know - I am coming to be a greeter at the door, I'm coming to be an usher or to work in junior church or to work on the computers or in music. I'm coming to make sure during tea that no one is left out and everyone has had some contact with someone - some love! I am coming to prophesy - I am going to get up early Sunday morning and wait on God and come full of God and I am going to go beyond Rob and be a greeter superstar and dance and praise the glory of our great King! I am going to show off my love for God in front of everyone else! I am not going to just stand there in the worship!

"Rob you don't know what kind of week I had!". You don't know what kind of week I had. I want to talk about the glory of God - the Presence of God. I am so desperate for God's glory!

I want to be among a people that love God and His glory more than they love anything else! They want God - they want to know His voice and hear His voice! We live in a generation of people who don't know God and if He walked in they wouldn't know what His Presence is. They never heard His voice once audibly on the inside of them! They don't know the character of God - the nature of God - they are not even friends with God! God is just a concept to them.

"The Big Man upstairs - some being up there runs the universe by remote control like a robotic kind of technocrat".

Every believer under the New Covenant is meant to hear the voice of God - know God - walk with God - have His Presence in their lives.

I want to give you a 10 minute showing of when I was in Brighton in the last main session and I want to show you what it takes if you walk with God - how foolish you can look sometimes and I know some of you do not enter into the Presence of God because of a false sense of dignity or a fear of man and a conservative culture that contradicts the liberty of the kingdom of heaven.

I want you to know that when you walk in the Presence of God there is a price! When you know His Presence, His Presence may come on you and manifest on you in ways that may make you look stupid in the eyes of man. So you can shut that down because God is a gentleman and if you say; "Oh Lord I don't want Your Presence on me to make me do things that make you look stupid". Then you grieve the Holy Spirit and He will leave you alone.

But years ago I said; "Lord You come upon me and You do anything You want - if it's You, I will take it!". I am not afraid of the devil or false miracles and counterfeit signs and wonders because I am a Christian! I am anointed! I have God in me and I can discern the moment a devil does something that is a miracle! I KNOW it is not the Presence of God! I know it and can feel it. I don't live in fear and neither should any of you if you are born again. You should discern and detect the presence of false miracles INSTANTLY when they happen.

Let me say this: All genuine miracles from God come out of His Presence - then His power manifests from His Presence. If there is no Presence of God there and a miracle happens - then be careful. It is a devil miracle. You have got to know the Presence of God and when you know it then you will know whether a miracle is from God because the Presence will first manifest and then the power will come out of the Presence and do the miracle. If a miracle happens and no Presence is there - watch out! Counterfeit! It is EASY to detect!

So in these days you need to know two things:

1. You and I need to get to know the New Testament at least - slowly and gradually - fairly well.

2. But more important than that we need to get to know the Presence of God. THAT is how you will know the false!

Hong Kong get ready! The most bizarre miracles and signs and wonders are about to hit this planet!

The most awesome angelic visitations the planet has ever had - the Bible predicts this! If falling and shaking confuses people and they think; "Can God do this?!" - what are they going to do when awesome things start happening?! That we walk on water and raise the dead!? When angels suddenly appear and we all see them with our own eyes and the angel speaks with the voice of the Ancient of Days! He says; "I am Gabriel - sent from the Third Heaven!". Those who have been walking in the Presence for for years will hear and simply lift their heands and worship the God of glory. Those who don't know the Presence and God and are just being religious will run out the room and not be ready for what is going to hit this planet!

I was speaking in front of 4, 500 people and there were another couple of hundred in the overflow room (at Brighton) and the minister of Westminster Chapel - one of the most prestigious known-to-be-conservative churches where R T Kendall and Martyn Lloyd-Jones came out of - the man that took over from R T Kendall, was in the overflow room! And the power of God hit him and others so they fell off their chairs. The minister of Westminster Chapel fell over and hit his head on the concrete and he has got a bald patch at the back of his head. He grazed it and he came up afterwards and gave me a big hug and said; "I needed that!".

Stop thinking because you have got a professional career that you work for a company that you work for a company and I work for God. Someone in this church told me this week - "Rob I am so glad you told me that you've had problems with your children when they were younger teenagers in the past - it makes me feel like there is hope for me because you work for God and I don't!". I wanted to scream with despair and say; "Have I been here so long - 3 years - to tell you that everyone of us are full time priests of God!".

You are full time servants of God as much as I am - whatever your career is! I want to PUKE on this distinction between clergy and laity! I hate that - it is unbiblical - it flies in the face and blasphemes the Cross! On the Cross, Jesus said; "It is finished" and He destroyed the Levitical priesthood and brought God's eternal plan into being that He tried to bring into Israel and Israel rejected being a nation of priests so God had to raise up a professional priesthood! But He wanted all of Israel to be priests. When He died on the Cross He destroyed the Levitical priests and the apostle Peter says; "We are a nation of priests!". The Christian church are ALL priests under God!

I believe when you come into a Sunday morning service, I believe you should come into this place with as much concern for the welfare and success of this meeting as I do - oh fellow priest! Did you do that this morning? Did you come into this meeting thinking;

"Oh God as a priest, I have the privilidge of standing before You to pull Your Presence and bring You into the meeting!".

Or did you think; "Rob will do that. He's the superstar!". No - you are all superstars! Your job may be not to preach. That's my job. But your job is to do a whole lot of other things as superstars. This Church is an incredible powerful Church for how young it is. This Church is one of the best churches I have been personally a part of and I mean that from my heart with integrity. This Church is operating through - at about 10% of it's potential. But we will see 90% release of talents and gifts and power in this church when every priest stands up and says; "I hate the distinction between clergy and laity! It came in about 400 A.D and was part of the demonic Dark Ages and was never there in the New Testament! I reject it - I am a priest!

Even though I work in education, the medical world, in mechanical world - you are a priest of God and you can hear God and walk with God and know His voice! And you carry His Presence!

And somewhere you have to repent and say; "Father I repent of a cynical skeptical mind - I repent of fear and I say, Father would You come on me with Your Presence and would You come on me with Your glory? Would You manifest Your glory to me in such a mighty way and whatever it means - if I get drunk in the Spirit, if I shake or if I fall - I don't care God! I want that more than anything else in my life!".

Here I was standing in front of 4, 500+ people and I am wanting to make a good impression and I go up to the room before I went into the meeting and I am praying to myself and the Lord's Presence comes into that room in such a glorious way and I started laughing and crying. Eventually I tried to pray and got up to walk but could hardly walk because the Presence of God was on me and I was walking all funny and bowed over. Glenda came in and said; "Have you been crying?" and I said; "Yes but because I am so happy". I said; "I am coming to the meeting - 4, 500 waiting!". And you know what? I didn't care about the 4, 500! I don't mean that in an unkind way. I didn't want to leave the room because His Presence was so beautiful and so attractive that I just wanted to stay with Him. He eventually had to tell me - "Go down Rob and speak to them". When I went down there, I spoke for about 10 minutes and suddenly the Presence of God came over me in such a way that I just lost it and started laughing in front of 4, 500 British people and other nations! I made a complete fool of myself but if I have to make a fool of myself to release foolishness in you then I am happy to do so!

I would normally hide this but I am going to let you see it. Don't think you are insulting if you laugh. 4, 500 were laughing - I wish the camera had panned over the congregation because dignified people were laughing. Leaders of high influence internationally were falling off their chairs under the power of God - some unconcious! God hit that place and all I did was stand there and get drunk in the Holy Spirit! I promise you I had touched no alcohol. Thanks Ryan - can we try and get that on there?

(DVD recording begins):

"If you have your Bibles please turn to Acts chapter 9 but please don't try and take notes again. Most of you will have worked that out by now. Well I have so enjoyed my time here and I feel a bit sad that this is my last one because I think I have been enjoying myself more than most people. So we are with the Mobilise wild ones tomorrow morning and we really are looking forward to that! Just in the room out there preparing for this meeting, I was just sitting on the couch relaxing and the Presence of God so came into the little room I was in relaxing - the manifest Presence of God came - and I just began to weep. Glenda came in a bit later and said; "Are you okay? You look like you have been crying". I said; "Yes I have but because I am so happy!". The Presence of God came in and began to remind me of things in the past. He began to remind me that I grew up in a home where my dad was an atheist - a total atheist - and got saved many years later. My mum was an agnostic - she didn't know if God existed or not. Our house had no faith in God at all.

It was a happy home - a great mother and dad but no faith in God at all. No legacy in our generations. No legacy in any of our ancestral lineage. We only had legacy of spiritists and witchcraft, alcoholics - no one! As I said last year we go back to William Rufus of southern England who was King and we do trace ourselves directly back to him which is the truth! I know people laugh but we have traced our lineage back to him! So like I said last year, not many noble, not many wise but a few are of noble descent. William Rufus assassinated in the forest by William Torrell. Anyway! There was no legacy of Christianity in our home at all.

I remember as a 5 year old boy walking around in my parents garden without any expectation. I hadn't read the Bible and hadn't been to Sunday school at that point and had not heard anything about Christianity at all. The Presence of God came on me and instantly I knew as a little boy that this was God! I could feel His Presence and I have to tell you - the way I describe it was the way I felt when I was up in the room. I suddenly as a little 5 year old felt so special and so precious!

Because when God's glory comes over you He brings His favour and all His manifest goodness shines on you and the divine attention is appreciating you and loving you not for what you have done or can but just as your intrinsic value as part of His creation and I remember just being amazed in the Presence of God!
I never felt the Presence of God again for 18 years! I lived a life of total "Thou shalt not deny thyself" - that was my command. The body is a push button pleasure machine and I became a total hedonist but I always in my heart while doing wilder and wilder things and was nearly killed a number of times in initiatives I was doing.

Something in me wanted to experience that Presence again. I went to churches and never experienced it. I went to places of religion and never felt it.

Then finally I joined the Hare Krishna movement and became a strict Hindui keeping laws and rules and became an asethic sleeping on the concrete - keeping the law. Celibate within marriage. Vegetarian. During that time I started to experience the Presence of God again and knew it was God's Presence. He had come into the temple but it wasn't that Presence I had felt as a little boy. It was a Presence that terrified my heart and it was so frightening. It wasn't like He was mean or harsh or horrible - I felt so different to God and felt something of the awe and nature and character of God. It wasn't like I was afraid of going to hell because I didn't really know about hell.

I just felt deeply convicted for 3 months every day that Presence would come upon me and I felt nauseous at times and got hysterical with fear of the Presence coming upon me. And after 3 months in a Hindu temple on my own wearing a monk's clothing and with my head shaved with clay from the Ganges River and standing in the temple - I knew Who was chasing me down and I just said;

"Jesus I give up running from You and I surrender my life to You" and as I did that (in 1977) the whole room in this temple that I was alone in filled up with the Presence and glory of God! But this time it wasn't terrifying - it was a Presence I remembered as a little boy and I felt so precious and special and favoured again.

From that moment I was born again and left the movement immediately and began to seek God and found a church where they loved the Presence. From then on the pursuit of my life became - I want the Presence of God. Because you see if you seek the power of God - and I have just done a seminar on the "Workings of His Mighty Power" and I advertise it not to promote the ministry but because it complements the teaching on faith I have been giving. And just a degree of that power that is at work within us and how to be strengthened in your innermost being so you can operate in that power.

You see I will never promote seeking the power of God because that will lead to utter unfulfillment. You need to seek the Presence of God and the glory of God because God hides His power in His glory. He hides His power in His Presence. But His power is what He DOES. His glory is Who He IS. You will never be satisfied with His power but you will find Your heart's satisfaction in Who He is. His Presence and in His glory.

So when you come into the glory of God - the Presence of God - not seeking His power ... many of the healing evangelists in the 1950's Healing Revival burned out and I do not judge them but they died in immorality and collapse. They would go on 40 day fasts seeking the power of God and have six week crusades with mighty miracles but then not know how to live a normal life because;

They didn't realise that you don't have fast 40 days under the New Covenant to get the power flowing. There is revelation of the New Covenant that will bring the dimensions of power that are awesome! I know Jesus fasted 40 days but you are not Jesus and I am not Jesus and there was a whole reason why He had to do that!

I don't mind fasting and I do fast but when we pursue the power instead of the Person of God, we do not experience much power and often we wreck our marriages because if you regularly have to fast and do strict aesthetic things to get the power then you don't have time for a good marriage or children or to live a normal sane life! Eventually you become irrelevant, weird and insane!

God wants us to live in the supernatural with a texture of sanity in our lives that attracts people. I always had this problem that the key guys who seem to move in the highest level of power were the guys I least wanted to be with because they were so legalistic and religious!

Yet Jesus was fun to be with and people wanted to be with Him and when He went to a wedding, He didn't stand in a corner teaching the latest en-vogue teaching about the Kingdom and sipping orange juice! He was in the centre of the party turning water into wine and having fellowship with everyone and being part of the festivities! In the middle of having fun with everyone, suddenly He turns 120 gallons of water into wine! It is amazing;

And evangelicals have been trying to turn the wine back into water ever since!

John G Lake (one of the mightiest men of faith and power that has walked on this planet outside of the book of Acts) came to South Africa - and I don't think South Africa knows how much him. He came to South Africa in 1905 and planted 500 churches in 5 years and in signs and wonders planted them. He overtook many of the witchdoctors and took them out of business by the living power that flowed through him. During the bubonic plague he worked with burying the dead - the contageous disease - and he would say; "Come put your microscopes on me" and they would put bubonic plague on his hands and they would see that bacteria dying on his hands. He would say;

"That same power that raised Jesus from the dead quickens my mortal body with life!". This incredible man said in the 1920's that we "missed the best of God because we became more captured by the phenomena of God that the Person of God".

As we are about to go into an unprecidented season of the greatest move of God that the planet has ever seen and the latter house will be greater than the former house - the book of Acts! We are not even living in the full manifestation of the book of Acts church but let us think of this - that is the baby/infant church that was born 2, 000 years ago. 300 years after it was born, it went into the dark ages but 500 years ago God began to restore the church and now we are poised and positioned as a church to go into the fullness of the book of Acts but then I believe we will go beyond the manifestations of the book of Acts.

Not because we are more holy than them or more moral than them but because we are privilidged to be placed as a people at the end of the age - we are the 11th hour workers and we will see the grace of God manifest over the earth. Let's believe God for this thing!

When you are in the glory of God then what happens is out of the riches of His glory, He strengthens you with might in your innermost being by the power that comes out of His glory or out of His Presence. His power comes out of His glory cloud - His glory cloud is His Presence and strengthens you with power so that you can comprehend the height - the length - the breadth of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge so that you can be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God and then God is able to do exceedingly above all that we could ask or think or imagine according to the power that is at work within us.

It is in the glory that His hidden power comes out so that as we seek to be with Him, to worship Him, to enjoy His Presence - not seeking His power but His Presence then His power comes and strengthens us out of the riches of His glory. I want to talk about the "Timelessness of the Glory" - of learning to live in the glory in our homes, our meetings, our careers, to live as much as we know how in the manifest glory of God.

The glory of God is God's tangible substance and weighty essence in self manifestation. It is the very nature - it is the inner goodness of God. It is the naked Presence of Almighty God in all His loveliness tangibly and in weighty substance, encountering you. And in the glory you change.

The Old Covenant glory was a fading glory - 2 Corinthians chapter 3 says that we are ministers of the New Covenant - not of the letter that kills - but of the ministry of life. He says that the Old Covenant that came on tablets of stone was a ministry of death, of condemnation, and a fading glory. But the ministry that brought righteousness as a gift is a ministry that fills us with boldness and hope and a ministry that shines in the face of the glory of Jesus and in the midst of the glory - which is the powerful Presence of His Spirit of freedom and liberty we are transformed in the middle of the glory!

So the Old Covenant glory was God's view and opinion of us through the law. When God saw us through the law, Moses face shone with a fading glory and he had to hide his face from the glory of the Old Covenant because the glory of the Old Covenant was God's view and opinion of you and me through the perfection and the judgment of the exact measures of the Law of God that cursed and judged us completely. So the people didn't even want to see that glory because it brought judgment and condemnation and death. But the glory of the New Covenant is a covenant that comes in a spirit of liberty and freedom and is a spirit of grace and we are declared righteous forever and the Father sees us as perfect forever and ever. (Hebrews 10:14).

In this manifest glory of the New Covenant we shine in His glory and we carry the substance and the essence of God's power that comes out of that glory.

We have to learn by the mistakes of the past - God does not want us to repeat history. We are about to go into manifestations of signs, wonders and miracles but we have got to know and see that it is not seeking the power but seeking the Person of God. It is seeking His glory and His Presence and out of His Presence will come the glory! I find it a privilidge to stand on this platform and almost feel like a fraud - what am I doing here?! I know I don't deserve to be here. I wouldn't go across the street to hear Rob Rufus and I am sure that none of you would! So I always surprised when people turn up. But then I realise it is not me - people want the Presence of God.

Though it is a privilidge for me to stand up here, I don't live for this. This will not satisfy me. I go back to Hong Kong in a few days time and this fades away. Not you - not the privilidge and love of you. But you can't live for the crowds and you can't live for high points and success and miracles happening through you.

You will never be satisfied with the power - you will only be satisfied with knowing His Person.

That is why many have left the Presence and gone after the power and have learnt the techniques of how to fast and what to do to get the power going but they lose touch with the glory and the Presence of Who God is and they get involved more with what God does and often their character becomes defiled, polluted and then greed starts coming in and insecurity and insecurity and self-promotion and then God has to lift the cloud of the glory off like He did in the 1940's and 50's Healing Revivals and we don't want that to happen again! We want to be in love with who He is and out of Who He is - His glory - He strengthens us with might in our innermost being - with power!

I don't want to hear someone say; "If you want the power - you have to go and pray 3 hours a day". I don't want to hear that stuff! I have been there and done that! I have prayed for 4 hours in tongues before a meeting and it was the worst, flattest, deadest meeting! Then I just go and seek His Presence for just 10 or 15 minutes and be in His Presence - when I was in the room up there, I was weeping and got up to try and pray and I couldn't walk. The weight of the glory was on me and I was thinking; "I hope no one comes through the door!". That Presence satisfies me! When I go back to my hotel room - the Presence will be there! Along with Glenda which is great!

Some people live for conference to conference. They live for the experience - the high voltage of a conference! But then they are bored and tired in between and cynical and feel unfulfilled. But if you live in the Presence and just enjoy His Presence ... I have made it my pursuit to become a friend of God. I want to be His closest friend. I want to be closer to Him than anyone else on the planet! I want to be in competition in that area. I just want to be His friend and know Him. I read lots of books about the attributes of God but I am not talking about that. I am talking about having God encounters. Experiencing God! Knowing God! Hearing His voice! Knowing His Presence! Who He is!

Let's read Acts chapter 9 and if you haven't found it - please don't try anymore!".

Okay ... watch now! Watch the Presence come! It hits me and watch what happens now!

"When I get tired I get really naughty so I have got to be careful! (*laughter*). I lose all preacher protocol! (*laughter*) and become just normal and it's dangerous! Let's read Acts chapter 9 ... or shall we just carry on having fun?! (*laughter*). In His Presence there is fullness of joy! (*laughter*). In His right hand pleasures for ever more! (*laughter*). Somewhere we just have to give ourselves permission to believe that in His Presence there is always fulness of joy and pleasures forever more! (*laughter*). Kat Stevens wrote a great song; "Oh I can't keep it in - I've got to let it out!". And he wasn't even a Christian!".

This is a serious conference - I am meant to be reading the Bible now and being religious! This is going on God channel to 100 million people!

"(*laughter*). It is a very strange thing when you come under the anointing and then you read passages from the Bible and the more serious they are, the more funny they look! (*laughter*). And it is not rational at all - it is just ...".

This is not sober at all now! This is drunk! Actually drunk!

"I am honestly trying to start reading - I really am! And I promise you this has never happen to me before! Glenda will tell you that is the truth! I am always a little skeptical of people who say this - but I am really disciplining myself with my will to try and read - and I can't read! (*laughter*). Acts chapter 9:1 and we are going to try and read all the way to verse 20! (*laughter*). More Lord! Do it to them and not just to me! (*laughter*)".

4 and a half thousand people were drunk in the Holy Spirit!

"You got Acts chapter 9? Okay verse 1. "Meanwhile ...". (*laughter and applause*). "Saul was still breathing out murderous threats". (*laughter*). "against the Lord's disciples". Anyone following me? (*laughter*). "He went to the high priest and asked them for letters from the synagogue in Damascus so that if he found any there that belonged to the way, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven ...". That is the glory. "Flashed around him and he fell to the ground ...". (*laughter*). "He fell to the ground". (*laughter*). "And heard a voice say to him". See God always speaks in the glory". (*laughter*). "Saul, Saul why do you persecute Me?". Paul asked a question and then answered it in the same verse. "Who are You, Lord?". (*laughter*). "I am Jesus Whom you are persecuting".

"Many suicide bombers are going to be strategically targetted from heaven with glory nuclear bombs in our day and will be turned from haters into lovers".

"I am Jesus Whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do". The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless. (*laughter*). Imagine if you were there! "They saw the light but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing". (*laughter*). "So they let him into Damascus. For three days he was blind. In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called him in a vision; "Ananias!". "Yes" he answered. "Go to the house of Judas". Ooh I feel the anointing of God on me! "On Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight".

"Lord" answered Ananias. (*laughter*). "I've got a problem with this request. I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem and he has come with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on Your Name". But the Lord said to Ananias; "Go this is My chosen instrument to carry My Name before the Gentiles and their kinds and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for My Name". (*laughter*). A lovely prophecy that! "Then Ananias went to the house and entered in - he said "Brother Saul". You see Saul is born again in that instant encounter in the glory. "The Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road while you were coming here has sent Me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately ...".

It is very important even when we have an encounter with the glory and get saved - we still need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

(v18); "Immediately". That is the word of the glory. The word is used a lot in the glory! "Immediately something like scales". There are people having a mini-revival over there! (*laughter*). "And he could see again. He got up and was baptised". And I wouldn't carry on trying to read this if I didn't really feel that God wanted me to read this! (*laughter*). "After taking some food he regained his strength, Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus ...". (v20); "At once he began to preach in the synagogue that Jesus is the Son of God". (*applause*).

How many of you believe that is your pastor in an international conference?! I just lost it there! Proud? Thank you! I could not have pre-empted that or cued that. It has never happened to me before! I mean I have got drunk before but I have been sitting in the audience. I have never been on a platform and trying to read - that is a conference where they paid my airfare and a lot of money to put us up in a good hotel. They paid both Glenda and my airfare and blessed us over and above that. They paid us to be there! And you want to deliver your best - I mean there are some serious theologians there! Some very clever men and women but I wish the cameras had panned across the congregation because people were falling out of their chairs and laughing uncontrollably.

I will tell you what happened - there is nothing religious there. That is the Kingdom of Heaven! What does Romans say? "Righteousness, peace and JOY in the Holy Spirit!". Peace makes you quiet and still and tranquil but joy makes you noisy!

You cannot be full of the joy of God and behave religiously!

That is why many people in Hong Kong don't go to church because they want the Presence of God and are depressed with their troubles and trials on their own. They don't need to meet with 120 depressed people every Sunday morning! That's why I say when we come to worship God, out of respect for God I will smile at you and engage your faces while I am praising because I want to break a culture of counterfeit - the religious spirit!

I was talking to Glenda yesterday - why is it that every free move of God starts off blessing and freeing people up and within years becomes manipulative, guilt and condemnation and control. What is behind that? The Bible is so clear. I can't believe people can't see it. It is called a Jezebel spirit and Galatians 3:4 calls it a spirit of witchcraft that bewitches God's people, takes them away from grace and freedom and puts them back under law.

We have been preaching this for 3 years into Hong Kong. We paid a price to preach this message - the religious spirit reacts against it. I am determined in God's grace that we are going to be a people - even if it costs me the humiliation of standing on a platform and loosing my dignity and looking like a fool - but the goodness of God was that He got them all drunk too! You could not hear - but the crowd was roaring with laughter. Then after that a man got out of a wheelchair, deaf ears popped open and lumps disappeared and 110 people came up to testify that they had got healed. We couldn't get them all up!

You say; "That laughter is disrespectful". No the Bible says in Psalm 2 that He who sits on the throne laughs. God laughs! Psalm 126 says God filled our mouths with laughter. Proverbs says a merry heart is good medicine. Medical science has now found out that people who laugh a lot more and who are joyful a lot more are a lot more healthy. It boosts your immune system! God did not create us to live unhappy and to be a people of self-pity. The Bible says that a broken spirit dries up the bones. A depressed person - something happens with their bones. Proverbs says so! Maybe it has something to do with red blood cell disorders and leukaemia. But the Bible predicted that years ago! A broken spirit dries up the spirit but a merry heart is good medicine.

The Church has not been known down the centuries as being a place of joy. Yet the Bible says; "Zion is the joy of the whole earth". Jesus says; "You have not asked Me anything up until now - ask Me now that your joy may be full!". At the end of our lives God will say; "Enter into the joy of the Lord". Nehemiah 8 says; "The joy of the Lord is our strength".

So what happens Rob? What happens when I am tempted to feel depressed? In this world you will suffer tribulation! But be of good cheer for I have overcome the world. What's He saying? You cannot overcome the world as a casual Christian and float into the church as a part-time believer! This is pursuing the Presence of God! In Psalm 16:11 - "In His Presence there is fulness of joy". By my temperament I am a melancholic. It is from Greek philosophy - by my natural temperament I am melancholic.

A melancholic is a person most prone to depression but once I became a Christian and found the Presence of God I have never been depressed ONCE for 30 years! I am not lying! In an 8 month period, 12 of our closest friends (including fathers) died from tragic circumstances. In the middle of that my best dog who I loved also died. I had to bury my dad and then go and give my dog an injection to put him down. In that same month we flew out from South Africa - the nation we loved - and relocated to Australia. You know how emotionally hard it is to re-locate to a nation where you don't know anyone. The stress of moving and settling in the middle of 12 people's deaths! We should have become semi-suicidal! Do you know that we found God's joy and God's grace in all of that!?

We have got to show the world that not everything is going well necessarily but they will find Christians living a supernatural life because we do not rely on a superstar pastor - we rely on Jesus Christ every day and our calendars and our diaries reflect the kingdom of God every day.

How was your diary last week? No condemnation - we are a grace church! Look back in your diary and were there times that you scheduled for you to meet with your Beloved? The One that loves you more than any other being on this world ever can? The Lord Jesus Christ - the Presence of God?! Did your diary reflect the kingdom of God or earth conciousness? Did you give priority to human beings? Or in the responsibility of doing your career while looking after your family? Or did your diary reflect time alone with God?

I asked this question a year ago, 2 and 3 years ago and I don't want to be asking this question in another year to you as the congregation.

This week that you are going into - put Him and His Kingdom first and I promise you, next Sunday will feel very different to the way you felt this Sunday. I was going to talk on the glory of God and how you experience His glory. The timeless zone! The eternal now! And what God does in the eternal now. He allows you to go back in time to before that car accident and be healed as you go back in time in the timeless zone - and how to pull the future into the now in the glory realm. I will teach that next Sunday in this place to whoever wants to be here. You know my heart!

The joy set before Him was you and me coming into the joy and freedom of the fact that we are free. He knew He would be stripped naked and hung. Naked - not with a little loin cloth that the religious world puts upon Him. The Roman authorities crucified people naked. That is pretty undignified! The Son of the Most High God - the celebrity of heaven - a common criminal on Calvary. Hanging between heaven and earth but He went there because of the joy set before Him. That you and I would come into His grace and out of the law. I can't get this into some Christian's heads! They go; "I know ... but!". I say;

"Listen the issue of judgement for Christians is no longer an issue. Your sin has already been judged! Past, present and future! There is no issue of judgement anymore! Will God never judge me again? How can God judge you again when He has already judged your sins on Jesus!? That is the law of double jepordy! You can never trial a person twice for the same crime! Your trial has taken place in the high courts of heaven. Heaven's integrity was satisfied on the Cross! God will never judge you again!".

There is discipline He may bring - but discipline is to bring maturity and make you successful. To correct you when you are wrong but it is redemptive! Punishment and judgement is to punish you for a crime done - never will God punish you or rebuke you. Never will He withdraw His love from you. Never again! Why? Because of the joy set before Him, Jesus Christ endured the scorn of the Cross and it is almost blasphemous that we live so unhappily and so depressed and so full of self-pity, self-conciousness and never happy.

I think it is wrong! Praising God is a happy thing! It is not religious! I want you to be free not just for your sake but for millions of Hong Kong people. I want you to be free because God is not going to elevate this church to impact nations. The nations are coming to us in October for our conference here! We will never be just a nice little church where the pastor will let you be depressed! Jesus never let the Pharisees and Sadducees get the upper hand or undermine Him! He called them "vipers"! That is what He called the religious leaders of His day! He said; "My Father's house is to be a house of prayer for all nations".

Jesus Christ quoted the Scriptures as the authority for the way the Church should be patterned. I don't say these things as my opinion - I quote the Scriptures and I quote the Bible and I know what religion does to people. Jesus never came to bring religion but life! And "life more abundantly!". Where are the Christians living in abundance of life? They are waiting for some Utopia where everything will be right. Marriage, housing, pollution and then they will be happy! No the Kingdom and the glory! Happiness is now! Joy is now! Despite afflictions and persecution and hardship!

I don't fear people leaving this Church - I fear God leaving this Church!

When He comes into fullness, thousands and thousands of Hong Kong people will come sit in our meetings and while they are sitting there, cancer will leave their body.

The laughter opens the door to the glory because people are saying "Whatever you want to do Lord - I am not being religious, I am being free! I am not fearing man by being self-concious or fearful if people reject me. I want Your Presence Lord!".

This is about regimentation. This is about knowing God and letting Him prioritise your calendar. Turn the phone and the TV off. Go into your bedroom and spend one hour alone with Jesus. If you fail - God bless you for trying! You only know the value of something by how much someone is prepared to pay.

God is prepared to pay His Son for you to be set free. You have infinite value. That is self-esteem! Get one revelation in God's Presence that you have infinite value because of what God was prepared to pay for YOU!