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”.

Empower Conference - Session 1

It was my initial plan to begin transcribing a series that Rob Rufus preached on the gifts of the Holy Spirit in 2007. However to be honest I have been really struggling with feeling quite low about the spiritual state of the United Kingdom - my homeland. I remember when Rob first came to "Together on a Mission" - the Newfrontiers Leaders Conference in Brighton in 2006 and then in 2007 there was a great deal of excitement and anticipation. God seemed to be on the move and there were dreams and visions and prophecies about tidal waves and coming waves of glory. The Florida Outpouring seemed to be another signal that something was abroad in the world. But then I am not quite sure what happened. "Together on a Mission" went off somewhere different and last years conference talked a lot about Mark Driscoll - but I didn't hear as much about the manifest Presence of God. What's going on? Where's God's tidal wave?

So I decided to transcribe and publish the last conference that Rob spoke at here in the United Kingdom! I was fortunate enough to be there - it was called "Empower" at Kings Church in Eastbourne. It feels really "right" to do so! There is so much encouragement and reminders that God has not forgotten His planet!

Here is Session 1 preached on the Friday night;

Graham Marsh (Kings Church lead elder): What would church be like if the fire of Pentecost came upon us and then I asked another question - what would community be like if the deluge of His Spirit came down? In recent weeks and in the last month we have been catching a glimpse of that if you have been tuning into satillite T.V around the world and seeing what would happen if suddenly the power of God was to break in upon us. Two years ago I started to ask that question and it was at that time that I went along to a conference and heard extrodinary communication of faith to prepare us for that day. 2 years ago ago nearly I sent out an email offering lots of things - holidays, fine wine and cheese - in the hope that Rob and Glenda would get on a plane and travel 13 hours and come and be with us. As we started this evening and I was welcoming people, a lady came in who had been to the conference we held last year from another church around this region and she said "Something happened on that day that has changed my life. I have been suffering with depression for years" - and fourteen months later she is now beginning to testify that her life has never been the same since the day she was released from that depression. What would church be like? What would community like if we were in a place where the power of God came on us like a deluge? That is our prayer for this weekend that we will be changed, our churches changed and as a result the community will be transformed. So I want to welcome you to "Empower" - the desire as we read through the Book of Acts was that people's breath was taken away and that is also our desire;

That we will catch such an awesome glimpse of the manifest Presence of God that our breath is taken away.

So it is my real privilidge and pleasure to introduce all the way from Hong Kong - Rob and Glenda Rufus!

Rob: Good evening everyone! It is such an absolute delight to be here. Eastbourne at last! We believe this is a divine setup. When Graham invited us 2 years ago - there was no Florida outpouring and no idea of those things. We feel that God has ambushed us this weekend in a wonderful way and we are so excited to be here. We have already had a lot of fun with Graham and Belinda and they have been so good to us. Everything they promised us when they tried to seduce us to come, they have gone exceedingly abundantly above we could have ever imagined. I preach from living free from guilt but I am almost guilty and embarressed since coming into Eastbourne - but I can handle a bit of that kind of guilt! God is so good. It is so strange having lived all of our lives in the southern hemisphere and everytime we come back to the UK it is the most strange sense of coming back to your roots and legacy and we feel so at home here - as though we were born here.

Three years ago I was in Richmond Park praying for a series of meetings we were going to do in a place called Reading just outside of London. God spoke to me literally audibly. Not with my physical ears but down here. That is for every believer to hear the inward audible voice of God. I don't think it is normal to go without hearing God's voice! Jesus said; "My sheep hear My voice" and that inner voice of God that is audible and clear and speaks in English (because God is English - you realise that?!). He speaks in English to the English and there is an inward witness and an inward testimony of the Spirit and sometimes your own spirit speaks and you can hear it. The Holy Spirit lives in your spirit so your spirit gives you good counsel. It goes upto your mind like a kite in the wind. But often God will speak in an audible voice. We are listening with the wrong ears because He speaks down here and not to your head. He said;

"Son I am going to visit the British Isles with waves and waves of glory" - this was three years ago - "And I am going to call you to come into the UK from time to time for a season - for only a period of time - and I will open platforms that are strategic and significant platforms where you will facilitate the release of the glory. Then after a season you will not need to come back anymore for your assignment will be over".

So I didn't tell Glenda that and a few nights later God said; "Terry Virgo will be the first one to invite you to the Brighton Conference". Glenda turned to me the same day and said; "You know what God has just told me? Terry is going to invite you to the Brighton Conference!". I said; "I know that - He has already told me!". Like a smart alec! A few months ago up in Hong Kong we have a rooftop where we often have BBQ's and God just came and visited me in the most extraordinary way. I love it when God visits you and you haven't been fasting and praying. I have got a bad confession to make. I have very few encounters with God when I fast and go on extended prayer times.

God just seems to come upon me unexpectedly and unsummoned when I feeling most unspiritual!

I had my BBQ all lined up. Suddenly God came and visited me - it sounds Biblical and I went into a kind of semi-trance and I heard God's voice. And He said;

"Son I want you to please tell My people to stop trying to impress Me". I said; "What!?". He said; "Including you! Stop trying to impress Me. Stop trying to impress one another. Ask My people to let Me impress them because I can really do that well! Nothing actually impresses Me except faith and I wasn't shocked or impressed when man landed on the moon. I created the galaxies! I want to impress My people! You are the Bride and I am the Bridegroom! There is something wrong about a Bride that is meant to be all feminine and beautiful trying to flex her muscles and impress the Bridegroom! I want to impress you with how powerful I am! My church doesn't have to impress Me! I have clothed you with the garments of salvation and you are beautiful to Me and I am already in love with you! Would you let Me impress the church?". So I said; "Yes go ahead Lord! Anytime!". We saw an increase of God's Presence from then on!

So anyway we got back to Hong Kong and within a week Terry's email arrived asking us to come to Brighton and he said; "Won't you pray about it?". We wrote back immediately within minutes and said; "We don't need to pray about it - have been waiting for your email! What took you so long?". He also graciously invited us back last year as well to be there. There has been such a sense of everytime we come back to the UK there has been such an increase here of anticipation! We have seen people get out of wheelchairs here - did you know that? God is doing miracles in the UK! I get so angry when I go to Third World nations and I hear people say; "God has finished with Europe and the UK". I say;

"The greatest move of God is coming out of the UK and out of Europe - He isn't finished with the UK and Europe! This is going to be mighty what is coming out of this area of the world!".

I am finding it easier to see miracles in Europe and in the UK than in some Third World countries! We have just been in the Northern Europe Conference - the Newfrontiers Leaders Conference. We had at least forty to forty five healings and extraordinary miracles that Jesus did! From the Latvians to the Dutch! An incredible colourful gathering of people! There was a Dutch lady there that we saw being wheeled around the conference everyday and she had M.S. She had been diagnosed a few years ago and slowly she started losing the use of her limbs and her arms and eventually she has now been reduced to being in a wheelchair. Her unsaved husband was at the conference pushing her around. I was speaking at the conference about a miracle that God did in Reading with a lady with chronic MS came out of a wheelchair and couldn't lift her legs before we prayed for her. She began to walk and then semi-trot and then jog around this auditorium. People were shouting and going crazy and her husband was crying. So I said to her; "Put your husband in the wheelchair and push him around!". Which she did! So while I am giving this testimony - this woman comes out of her wheelchair just a few days in Holland in the conference and pushed her husband up and down and Dave Holden was there so can verify this! She ran around the building showing off! How many of you believe that it won't be long before her husband is saved? He was reduced to tears! God is doing these things in Europe!

How many of you find that you struggle with a cynical mind? I do! I am still cynical! When I see these miracles I am the most shocked out of everyone! You did it again! I am analytical and cynical and embarressed about the movings of God! Our background didn't help us or prepare us or educate us to do signs and wonders. Whether you were secular or religious - both work against the supernatural. We have been taught by cessationist theologians or by secular atheists that we are living in a closed material world of cause and effect and everything we see is the product of impersonal time plus impersonal chance plus impersonal matter organising itself in an impersonal way developing impersonal complexities thus contradicting the second law of thermodynamics - do you believe that? And we said yes! That there is no supernatural, invisible realm. We brought into this lie and were brainwashed over and over again. So we stand here in a time when God is beginning to do unprecidented things in our earth. I mean unprecidented! We had a visitation of God in 1981 and many came out of wheelchairs - some blind eyes open and deaf ears in South Africa. We have seen some signs and wonders but I promise you what is happening on the earth now is unprecidented! It is unique!

We must be careful that in our openness to supernatural signs and wonders of God and His manifest glory Presence that we don't start putting categories on God as to what He can and cannot do. We will be locked into this! Some have already done this and only see Him as a healer - those who have gone further in signs and wonders - they see Him as a Healer but forgot He was first a Creator before He became a Healer! The only reason He had to start healing was because creation was subject to the fall of man. God is a Healer! But the reason why we don't see more creative miracles is because we only see Him as a Healer and have locked and restricted and limited God.

The Bible says "Let God arise" - let Him arise and be a creator! Because He can do awesome things! Like this lady from the Reading church in Southern California where a number of people have seen into the spare department room in Heaven! Now when I first heard that I thought; "That is a bit silly!". Then Bill Johnson said; "Well you live without parts you need then!". My first reaction is "I must verify that and make sure that is the case". I am longing for the day when I hear a testimony of the miraculous and just say; "Yes I believe that!" - until it is proved
wrong!

In the early church when the lady came and said; "It is Peter knocking at the door! The guy you have been praying for to come out of prison!". They said; "It can't be him! It must be an angel!". They found it easier to expect angelic visitations than an answer to their prayers!

Today if someone gets bitten by a poisonous snake and they don't die then we say "It must have been an old snake or bitten someone else and had no poison left". We are still primed wrongly and the main thing that we need to deal with is our minds! We must deal with how our minds think!

There are coming miracles that if our minds are not open then we will become Pharisees and Sadducees and couldnt-sees and wouldn't-sees! The Pharisees loved the Scriptures! You couldn't fault them - they were Word people.

I believe in the Word of God! I believe from Generations to Revolutions! I believe in the Bible! But we need to have the Spirit of revelation in way we read and contextualise the Word of God! When Jesus spat into sand and made mud and put it on someone's eyes, I cannot find any biblical precident for that. If I was a Pharisee I would have said; "Where in the Word of God do You have authority to do that?". I don't know in the Word of God where there was a precident for a whole herd of swine to go screaming with a kamikaze spirit and jump over a cliff!

Revival is wild! Revival is tearing a hole in the roof in desperation to get into the Presence of God! Revival is not for the comfortable! For those who want to understand everything with their heads! How do we deal with the fact that God is downloading gems and gold and unusual things and people are taking them and getting them verified as something unique!?

Millie here who is originally from the UK and is in our church in Hong Kong was at our "Glory and Grace Conference" and we saw unusual signs and wonders! We discovered a new platinum tooth filled up by God! My cynical mind said "Go check" and a dental technician who was there said it was new and flawless. The more we open our hearts to the fact that God is not just a Healer but a Creator then we will see things! More than ever we need to hold onto the Word of God in these days but we have got to watch how we interpret what God is doing! If it is God doing it then I don't care what He does! I have heard all about these feathers falling and I think; "What's the point?". But if it is God then let Him do it! I don't know why He does it but if He is doing it then let Him do it! Let God have His way! People say; "I don't know if it is God or the devil" and I almost want to say "You need to get born again" for you have an anointing on the inside of you so that instantly you can discern the difference between absolute manifest evil and absolute holy God. In Hong Kong the majority of Christians seem to have a theology of a very big devil and a very small God. Anything supernatural that happens must be the devil. We need to be saying; "God if You are doing it then I am embracing it!". As long as I know it's You! If I don't know it's You and I am a bit suspicious then I am going to wait! But if I know it's You then I will do it.

Just before we left Australia to relocate and go and go and live in Hong Kong - about a week before I was praying and was frightened and thinking; "God what is going to happen there!? I don't know the language or the culture and nobody knows us in the city. We have got five people to start and I am not a young man anymore!". I was just praying and then suddenly the power of God fell on me and I am talking FELL on me! My arms starting windmilling around and I thought God was going to take my arms out and then put them back on to demonstrate what He could do! And I am not exaggerating! It was that violent! He was waiting for me to say; "I am glad this isn't a public place!". Suddenly the manifestation changed like a Jew at the Western Wall and then suddenly the inward audible voice of God came and it said;

"Rob are you willing to be unashamed of My manifestations no matter what I do as long as it is Me? For many of My people are ashamed of Me and have pushed Me out of the church because I am not popular in many churches anymore. When I turn up and do manifestations then people are ashamed and think it will drive the unsaved away. In the Book of Acts I had many manifestations and I added to their number those that were being saved and Peter's shadow healed the sick and there were great signs and wonders and all were healed and demons came out with shrieks and it didn't drive people away but MANY were added! Are you willing to be unashamed?". I said "Lord I am willing to be unashamed!". Then He said; "Go in My power!".

I dropped to my knees and sat there for about an hour in the tranquility of God's Presence. I think that around the world if people don't understand that there is a revolution - not a revival - going on. There is something coming on the planet that we cannot look into our past and say "This is going to be a duplication of that". It is not! It is going to be of such a scale! We have got to be so careful that we don't call it the devil when it goes outside our cultural box! When I made a decision not to be ashamed - I said if I shake, rattle, roll then do it Lord! But do it in a dignified way! I am a proud man! No - do whatever You want! Then we began to preach and teach these things and it goes on our website! Last month in April we put a series of 12 teachings on "Glory and Grace" onto our website and we had over 348,000 downloads! There is a hunger out there! It is easier to get miracles in the street and in the marketplace than it is in the church. The New Agers have been doing Phd's in the supernatural while the church has been sitting analytically wondering if it is God or the devil with cautiousness and formalism that has dwarfed and diminished many believers from their inheritance to do the works that Jesus did and greater works.

There is legalism in the church so people don't feel worthy enough to get healed but you go out into the world and people out there are open!

Friends of ours - Fini and Isi - where we have just done our "Glory and Grace Conference" there - they were sneaked into a New Age Festival. All tarot card readings and fortune telling and they spent 3 days there. 17 of them from their church in Sydney that is in a great move of the Spirit and they have powerful revelation. They often go up into the heavenlies - this friend of ours - Isi de Gersigny. She is a true prophet but very down to earth and real. But she goes up into the heavens regularly and sees angels often which is normal New Testament! They set up a "Prophetic Booth" and said they could tell your future. And didn't tell them they were Christians and just started praying for people. A lady came who was totally unsaved and she had an accident and had a large piece of glass in her foot that the doctors couldn't remove because it was right next to a nerve. So they bandaged it up. These friends of ours began to pray in a New Age festival context. The lady said "Oh it feels better!". So the girl looked down and saw a big piece of glass on the floor. Remember the lady still had the bandage on! So she picked it up and said "Is this your piece of glass?". The lady said; "I saw it on the X-ray - that IS my piece of glass! How did it get there?". So they undid the bandages and there was no scar or mark! So she gets up and runs around the booth and they told her that they were Christians and they had prayed for her! So she goes running to other booths saying "There are Christians here! They prayed for me! My glass came out through the cloth! I am going to be a Christian!". And she came to Christ!

We have got teachers in our church in Hong Kong and one is an Australian and she teaches in a private school with young Chinese children whom Cantonese is theif first language. And she is trying to explain about the Gospel and they weren't understanding! So eventually they said; "Well Who is the Holy Spirit?". She said "I will do something better than tell you. I am going to invite Him because He is My Friend and He is Almighty God into this room and you can all meet Him!". So we teach everyone in our church to move in signs and wonders and how to release the anointing. So she said "Oh Holy Spirit won't You come?". And He did! Which He always does! He came in and instantly children were saying "I have got electric feelings on my hands!" and others laughed drunkenly and others had demons coming out! There are a lot of demonised people in Hong Kong. This is what I have lived for! God moving there where the precious ones that Jesus died for are! The lost ones! Those that some of the Church judges - the New Agers! That is where God is going!

And if the legalistic church in it's fundementalistic pride but abscence of the supernatural does not want to live up to the season or time we are in - then the greatest church of the future will be those that are not yet born again but are birthed into first generation grace churches with no baggages of the traditions of men.

Open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Jesus seemed to talk and didn't say "Turn to this or that" but everything He was saying was the life and the Word of God. How many of you are here desperate to have a divine encounter to carry away? It is not about my speaking. God can wrap the words I am saying in His Presence and there comes impartation and divine administration and tomorrow afternoon I will probably talk about positioning yourself for this wave of glory and then the second session - sustaining the supernatural.

The manifestation of God's glory is merely the appearance in the seen world of the unseen world of God. It is when the invisible realm of God becomes seen in the visible realm of men. If the world does not see regular signs and wonders and miracles then it will not see the true nature of God for the true nature of God is to restore, to replenish and to give back what has been stolen and lost. The true nature of God is to remove human suffering, pain - He is a God of redemption.
I don't believe that heaven is clashing with the earth rather I believe that heaven is merging with the earth in order to topple the control of evil and manifest the goodness of God.
Anything that does not exist in heaven God does not want it to exist on earth.

The glory light - the light of God's glory - when it comes and shines - there is no opposition that can stand against it from darkness. God's glory light is so superior to the darkness in this world that there is no contest! As soon as light shines, darkness immediately goes for the light is superior! The fact that there is still so much darkness in the nations is not because or explained by the power of darkness. The reason that there is so much darkness is that darkness has not yet been fully challenged by the light. As soon as there is a challenge by the light there will be no contest and darkness must flee.

I do not have a theology that we will shrink into a world where the Christians will be some remnant group hiding away. I believe we will see the Kingdom of heaven advance and we will see the Spirit of God poured out on all flesh and God will reveal the knowledge of His glory as the waters cover the sea!

The greatest sign of the end of the age of evil - Matthew 24:14 - the Gospel will be preached as a sign to all ethnos and then the end will come! The greatest sign is not a church hiding away but a church preaching the good news of the government of God's Kingdom in the earth and mighty signs and wonders to all nations in the earth! China will wake up any moment now and 1 billion - 300 million people will experience the glory of God manifesting and shining across China! It will cover the earth! It is not a contest between light and darkness! That is yin and yang. Darkness must just go. Jesus would just walk into a place and demons would start screaming. People have got such exaggerated ideas of pulling down principalities and powers and binding them. Colossians 2:14 - Jesus cancelled the written code that stood opposed to us and disarmed the powers and authorities, triumphing over them openly! The Cross has already defeated the powers and authorities! We don't have to battle them to neutralise them to get them out of the third heaven! We are living under an open heaven in Christ Jesus! It is not a closed heaven - it is closed heads! Cynical closed heads that sit in pews on Sunday morning - the Sunday morning conservative traditional mentality! Jesus went to His own home town and could not do there any mighty works except heal a few of minor ailments and He marvelled at their UNBELIEF!
We are getting out of the Nazareth syndrome - the syndrome of minor miracles and we are moving in a wave of glory to major miracles! The contest is not between light and darkness but in the hearts of believers.

The war that is raging is this - am I worthy enough to carry the glory that raises the dead? Am I worthy enough to carry an anointing that causes a piece of glass to drop through a bandage and onto a floor? Am I worthy enough to carry a glory that causes cripples to get out of wheelchairs so that unsaved husbands can see an invisible world made manifest and see how good the nature of God is? Well if we have an Old Covenant mentality then we will never feel qualified and worthy to carry such glory.

Most Christians don't have an absolute Old Covenant mentality. Most Christians that I have met on this planet have a mixture of Old Covenant and New Covenant. Many believers have come into a revelation of grace and are enjoying a level of freedom in the grace of God yet still have performance pressures and things they feel they must do in order to see miracles. I believe in fasting and I believe in praying and some days I will pray hours a day. But it is not my fasting or my praying that will produce miracles. It is the revelation of the New Covenant! And it is abandoning any trace or vestige or remant of Old Covenant thinking and performance pressures!

It is through the obedience of the ONE Man that we have been made righteous! So we have a fool-proof, a failure-proof and a devil proof righteousness! It is not based on yours or mine obedience but on the one Man on our behalf! It is faith that we are the righteousness of God permamently and eternally and irreversibly in Christ Jesus - that by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever all of those that are being made holy! THAT is where the miracle power flows out of on a regular basis and on a daily basis!

How can we tell multitudes of churchgoers who work hours a day and have children to pick up and drop off and have all kinds of demands that in order to produce the miraculous you have got to fast and spend hours a day praying - it is not like that!

The New Covenant is not about what we DO - it is about what He has DONE at the Cross! The generator is ON! I don't pray to get the power - I pray IN the power!

Instantly it is accessible! "Holy Spirit come!". And He comes! I didn't have to fast! Come! We are in a New Covenant of unfading glory! We need to condemn condemnation! We need to accuse accusation! We need to grab guilt around the throat! We need to get out of the religious boat and realise that we can float! And wear our Father's glory coat! Most Christians who have a fear of stepping out in the supernatural and a fear of standing in front of someone in a wheelchair - a fear of praying for the blind or a fear of letting the manifestation of the Spirit show - you will find behind all that fear there is a root of condemnation. Even people that have sat and listened to grace for years! God is coming with a greater understanding of grace!

I am so glad that in Europe Dave Holden endorsed me and said "Rob - run with this message - we need this - you have opened more light to us - go for it!".

There is a deeper realm of glory! To the degree you deal with guilt and condemnation - to that degree the glory of God in proportion to that will manifest in your life. I want to say something - I am an intense person. I am an introvert posing as an extrovert. I like the mountains and the desert! I like being alone with God! I am exposing my insecurities and vulnerabilies! I like a response! I am not asking you to kiss your brains goodbye but when you sense that sounds true - be like the noble Bereans! Sometimes we have got to give ourselves permission to be happy! I can feel there is a responding culture here! How we miss the revelation of what that great outpouring of joy was. We thought it was all about joy - if that was all it was about then it would have been worth it, because that was a party! The first manifestation in the Gospels was when He turned the water into wine!

I believe that where it says; "a joy of unspeakable glory" - I am convinced of this theologically and experientially that the joy takes you into the glory.

It was the revelation that our God is good and His mercy endures forever that took them into the glory! It is the revelation of joy in the wonder of the good news of the gospel - a holy laughter! Joy is a fruit of the Spirit! Zion is the joy of the whole earth! Psalm 126 - the Lord filled our mouths with laughter! God sits on His throne and laughs at the devil who thinks he can advance against the Lord's anointed! A merry heart does good like medicine! People fought that joy and the devil was behind it because the joy of God is the doorway that takes you into the glory. Some of the greatest miracles I have seen are when the Holy Spirit has fallen and the people don't sit there analysing whether it is genuine - we are in days of extreme grace! If the church doesn't open up then like Paul tried in Ephesus to preach this radical extreme gospel! Where Paul says "I am not ashamed of the gospel" - we think he was saying he was not ashamed to preach it. He lived in a Jewish culture extremely committed to righteousness by human effort and performance and by what you gain and the very idea of being declared permamently righteous all the time was called a scandal and was almost blasphemous! He said "I am not ashamed of this gospel!". It is the power of God unto life, healing, preservation and in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed that is by faith from first to last.

It is not something you get by faith and then you must work later on to keep - it is faith from FIRST to last! This is such good news! We have said "yes it is good news but ..." that we do a Galatians 3. The Galatians had signs and wonders and miracles and then went back under law. It is so radical and extreme and sounds frighteningly irresponsible! Jesus plus anything equals nothing! Jesus plus lots of prayer and fasting ... Jesus plus any good deed will bring a declining fading glory. Jesus plus NOTHING will bring an unfading glory. The fact that the church even has need of revival is a sad testimony of Galatians 3 syndrome where the church gets a revelation of grace and then slowly drifts into a mixture of law and grace. The gospel is not preaching right living. I believe in right living and have been married 33 years to the same wife. I have six grandchildren and go to bed every night with a granny. I haven't split churches or run off with the church secretary although my wife was the secretary for a while and I ran off with her! So I believe in right living.

But the gospel is not right living. Many people for centuries in Europe have been under such condemnation. Preach right living for centuries has produced such dysfunctional church goers. I have had the pain of hearing a number of psychiatrists say that their biggest clients have been Christians living with obsessive compulsive behaviours because of the fear of losing their salvation or the fear of God getting upset with them. The fear of divine disapproval. Most psychiatrists link the root of all stress, anxiety and anger to a root of fear. From the Word of God I say they are wrong and it is not rooted in fear but a root of condemnation.

That was in the Garden of Eden. As soon as he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - what's that? The law! The knowledge of GOOD and evil. He didn't cut good out of the fruit! Good was as much part of the fall of man as evil was.

When he entered into that conciousness he hid from God because he said he was afraid. Condemnation caused a withdrawal and a loss of the glory of God. God then had to set up a cherubim and not let Adam and Eve have access to the glory realm.

When you are under a conciousness of good and evil or law-keeping then you have no right to have access permament and unconditionally to unfading glory. The law demands a fading glory. Moses said "Show me Your glory!". God said "I can only show you My hindparts". Under the Old Covenant glory is God walking away from you. Under the New Covenant it is God walking towards you open-handed! An unfaded glory!

The first Pentecost was on the day when law was given on Mount Sinai and the focus was on man's works and efforts to keep the law and 3000 died. The first Pentecost of the New Testament was when the Holy Spirit came in like a mighty rushing wind and 3000 were saved.
Ezekiel had a vision of the temple and he saw the glory of God come off the Holy of Holies and begin to reluctantly withdraw slowly and then went to the Mount of Olives and then hover there and then reluctantly go back to heaven. Then for a long time Israel had no manifest glory. It faded completely off the earth. When the first Pentecost of the New Covenant came, the Holy Spirit did not come back slowly like the way He left but He rushed in!

Somewhere in this time He will come and shock and surprise us and come like a mighty rushing wind - the moment Old Covenant strongholds in our thinking are broken! When it says "There is now therefore NO condemnation" - it means NO! It didn't say "No condemnation to those who don't sin" - because what would be the point?! Who is that who accuses?! It is God who justifies! But how many Christians who believe the grace message still live with accusation and low grade guilt all the time! It is rampant in the Body of Christ and that is the number one hindrance to great signs and wonders and miracles. It makes people dysfunction, shy and frightened of the supernatural and scared of manifestations!

This is what I wrote down the other day and I believe that this is the best way I can describe what the glory of God is;

"It is the realm of effortless miracles, signs and wonders".

When this lady came out the wheelchair a few days ago - it was effortless. It was the easiest thing! We should restore dignity to the ministry of Jesus - we don't see Him huffing and puffing! Just; "Go your way". Up to now the Church has mainly seen the operation of the anointing. The anointing and the glory are different. The anointing of God is the power for man to minster and man to pray. It is an empowering of God but the glory is WHO God is. You can get people healing in the anointing but you get very tired. You need the anointing to preach. I never preach without desperately relying on the anointing. It is the most dangerous thing to speak accurate Bible truth without an anointing. Very dangerous! There needs to be always a demonstration of the anointing while we are speaking Bible words otherwise we bring death to God's people. I am speaking under the anointing right now because I want to demolish Old Covenant thinking patterns because I know to get a move of God is not to neutralise principalities up there but to demolish ways of thinking in here in people's heads and then open them to the realm of the glory and the more you do your job in the anointing successfully the more man can backpedal and then His glory comes and man can fade into the background.

God takes place and then does things effortlessly. It is not difficult for God to heal cancer! But under the anointing I can get cancer healed but it is such hard work! The crowds will be so big! How does your shadow heal the sick? It has to be because the glory is over you! If we are going to live under the glory then we can't fluctuate with guilt and condemnation and the paralysis of analysis. When God's people come to a place where there is no condemnation even when they mess up and say "Lord that is not consistent with my new nature and I shouldn't have but I thank You that where the blood of bulls and goats couldn't take away guilt for thoe who draw near and their sin offerings were in fact an annual reminder and made them even MORE guilt concious - I thank You Father than by one sacrifice I have been made perfect forever!".
Colossians chapter 2 says "Having forgiven ALL our sins" - past tense. 2 Corinthians 5 says; "In Christ reconciling the world ... NOT counting mens sins against them!". Romans chapter 4:8 - David looked down the corridors of time and saw the New Covenant and said; "Blessed is the man whom the Lord will NEVER count their sins against them!". We are living in the time that David longed for and yet still living a confusing cocktail of good news and bad news! Christians are becoming spiritual schizophrenics and we are mis-reading contexts and we are wired to read rejection and disapproval into things but if we see the context as love letters that are securing us in grace!

The Old Covenant was written to show the power of sin and strip us of all self righteousness! When Jesus said to the Pharisees; "You should not commit adultery - it is a death sentence but I say you should not even look with lust in your heart" - people say that Jesus was preaching the New Covenant and it is a higher standard! He wasn't preaching the New Covenant! He was preaching the true spirituality of the law of Moses to strip the Pharisees of self-righteousess and prepare them for the wonder of the grace of God! If He was preaching New Covenant truth there then you that look with your hearts at someone you shouldn't be looking at, then you should pluck your eyes out or cut your hands off and be consistent if you are saying Jesus was preaching the New Covenant there! He followed that up with self-mutiliation! And because we live in a modern world we don't do that anymore although I have met Christians who have plucked their eyes out in Australia and Zimbawe because of that perverse interpretation. We don't self-mutilate physically but we self-mutiliate psychologically with this root of condemnation and the devil loves it. He is the accuser of the brethren!

You say "Talk about the anointing - don't talk about grace - we are the people of grace!". I know you are and I have learnt from you! But this will open up the manifest glory of God! The glory realm is the realm of effortless signs and wonders and miracles. The glory realm is God's realm, the realm of the supernatural, of healing, of prosperity, of life, of fruitfulness, it is the realm of His riches shared generously. It is the realm of multitudes being saved. Don't tell me the glory has come to church and people aren't being saved. When the glory comes people get saved. It is the realm of liberty, joy, confidence and peace. The glory is the realm of awe and wonder and power over the devil, where we get purified and grow in holiness, where we become more like Jesus and grow in God. It is the realm where we see into the invisible. It isn't just apostles and prophets that should see into the invisible - every New Covenant believer should see into the realm of the invisible! It is the realm of rest and revelation. It is the realm of hearing His wonderful voice. It is the realm of heaven! It is the eternal realm, the realm of heaven, the realm of absolute goodness.

I just want to read these few verses and make a few comments and then close. The Old Covenant was designed by God to strip us of all self-confidence. If you meet Christians who don't have confidence to pray for the sick or to prophesy or to come close to God then that is a sign they are living under Old Covenant mentality because the Old Covenant will take away your confidence in God. I know Christians who go to church and outside of church they are confident in their careers and in the sports field but before God they are wimps! Why? They have condemnation conciousness. I believe there is enough in the New Testament - Hebrews 10:14; "By one sacrifice He has made us perfect forever" and the next verse; "The Holy Spirit testifies to this!". I am so tired of people accusing the Friend of all Friends that I have in the earth of being someeone that condemns or convicts of sin. "I know that Scripture Rob - John 16 - when the Holy Spirit comes He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgement. You see the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and tells us how righteous we should be and that if we dont then what judgement will fall upon us". That is bad exegesis!

Jesus elaborates what He means! "Sin because they do not believe on me". So the only sin is unbelief on Jesus. That is the only sin He couldn't die for and the only sin that will send people to hell. "And righteousness because I go to the Father". When Jesus went to the Father what was He doing for us? Our high priest mediating and interceding for us and declaring that we are the righteousness of God. Then He said; "And judgement because the prince of this world is now condemned". So the Holy Spirit comes to the believer comes to the believer to help you overcome areas of unbelief in your life or comes to the unsaved and convinces them of their sin of not believing on Jesus. Once you are saved He comes to convince you that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (Hebrews 10:15) and that we are perfect forever and then He convinces you that it is the devil who is judged at the Cross! I know why some people don't have an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit! They think He is the one convicting them of every sin they did! How many of you could have a close friend who followed you around and was always pointing your faults out!?

That is the practice of the LAW - to make you concious of sin! The Holy Spirit does not come to make you concious of sin, He comes and convinces you when you most need it that Jesus has gone to the Father everliving to intercede and mediate for you as a superior Mediator of a better covenant that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and the devil who is accusing you - he is the one who is guilty and is the one triumnphed over at the Cross!

He has come to be just like Jesus! Sinners were so comfortable with Jesus and how will the Holy Spirit be any different? The only people that Jesus was hard on - and He was the most courageous man ever dealing with arrogant bigots - the Pharisees - and He never backed down or was intimidated and didn't fear man. He only feared His Father and was only hard on the self-righteous! To the people He was kind and loving and despite the sin the crowd had was that He healed them ALL! Grace was flowing from Him! The Syro-Phonecian woman persisted and said "Even the dogs will eat the crumbs" and Jesus said "I have never seen such great faith!". She didn't need to get offended by Jesus! Grace came! Which other person did He say that to? The centurion! What was the common link between himself and the housemaker woman? They were both non-Jews, not living under the law. Romans 4 says that the law neutralises and diminishes faith. It is not just about having a theology for not being under law. It has got to go far deeper than that! It is more than a notebook! It has to be a demolishing of a thinking that we have a standard we must live upto! I have heard some say that the only difference between the Old and New Covenants is that we now have a power to live upto the standards of the law. I do not believe that is the radical message Paul preached. Because we are still focused on ME trying to attain a certain standard.

Colossians says we are COMPLETE in Christ! We have received fullness in Christ! We are no longer under the law! Christ is the end of the law to ALL who believe! And the Holy Spirit is now really a comforter! The devil is the one judged! You are the righteousness of God! It gets difficult to sin regularly when you are in the glory! Do you know it is difficult to sin in the glory presence? It is condemnation that drives people to sin but glory transforms the Church! 2 Corinthians chapter 3! The worst thing you can have in a place like this is people who come to observe. No we want people who come to find the power source and want to crawl right up the plug to the power station! Smith Wiggleworth said if the Holy Spirit is not moving then we move the Holy Spirit!

I get angry when people say of me or other ministries; "Ah its their gifts that produce the miracles". How come for years I didn't see any miracles? I have a gift as an Ephesian 4 Ministry to equip and train people but I have no advantage over any other believer! This move of the Spirit is not following a ministry but a message - the message of the New Covenant!
Take Florida or any other move of the Spirit - if legalism comes in then you will see the glory fade very quickly! It is not an issue about law and grace but an issue of "Who is in control of the church?". We are not going to have chaos! We believe we tithe under grace not Malachi 3! Abraham didn't tithe to get the windows of heaven opened! He tithed because the windows were already open and we are partners with God! The majority of our people come every Sunday and give! They are committed and share their faith! This message doesn't make rebels! It is an empowerment of the New Covenant! Elders are not managers of the church but empowers! We will celebrate even your failures!

A grace church is a safe place to sin if you are going to! People sin under law and under grace! If you swim with sharks don't them know you are bleeding!

2 Corinthians 3:4; "competent as ministers of the New Covenant ... the letter KILLS". The devil can retire in many churches because preachers are killing people! He said it was a ministry that brought death. (v8); "How much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness ... being transformed into His likeness". Let's give Jesus an applause for this wonderful New Covenant!

Testimonies From Europe Ministry Trip

Rob Rufus arrived back from an incredible ministry trip in Europe - visiting Holland and the United Kingdom - to tell City Church International all about it here on Sunday 25th May 2008;

"I am not going to teach - I am just going to share on our trip. The power of testimony. It's great to hear about what Ryan and Kylie brought back from Florida and the anointing that has been released and the anointing that was released when they prayed for people and the anointing released last Thursday! Please don't miss this Thursday - our Thursday nights in our home are getting very very exciting - very key to what we are about. Pivotal for what we are about as a church. I really believe they brought something back from Florida and we are building on that.

I really believe (Ryan and Kylie) brought back something from Florida and we really want to just add it to us. You need to know - just in case people think that we are now building our church on the Florida Revival - we are not building our church on the Florida Revival! We are building our church on the foundations of an apostolic/prophetic foundation, upon the foundation of grace. Revivals are wild! And we endorse it and we empower it and honour what God is doing in Florida.

We cannot say that everything that comes out of Florida will be God. There has never been a revival where everything is God. There are weird things that sometimes come out of a revival - sometimes things of legalism there (not with Todd Bentley but with others). Some things Ryan has shared with me. In the middle of the United Kingdom while I was preaching, I said; "We celebrate the Florida Revival - we believe it is a flash point - but we don't believe it is just located to Florida as many don't believe that. We believe it is world-wide, we believe it is global. Florida is a kind of tipping point. But many places are breaking out now all over the world and this thing is on the move. It really is on the move.

There are some high-profile ministries that are now endorsing it and recognising it. I spoke to Terry Virgo while in the United Kingdom who heads up hundreds of churches around the world and he recognises that the power of God is there. They are genuine and there are genuine miracles. He is saying that as a movement they don't necessarily embrace the whole package - there are some things they would have questions about.

There's nothing wrong with having a few questions - there's nothing wrong with not understanding everything. Put some things up on the shelf. Everything must be tested but by and large I want to strongly say that God is on the move all over the world and what is happening in Florida IS God. There is no question about that. That is God. But everything that happens through different levels and different doesn't necessarily represent everything that we would agree with. Behind this passionate, enthusiastic face - there is a thinking mind! I am going to test everything through right theology and all of that - and all that I don't understand I will put on the shelf and I will wait.

But I don't want people to be afraid of deception because we have got to break that demonic thing where people believe that the devil has more power to deceive us than Almighty God has to reveal truth to us. The Bible does warn in a few places about "Don't be deceived in the last days" and counterfeit signs and wonders - but then it speaks a whole lot more about how to know what the truth is and how to be free in the truth and how to recognise the truth. So if you live in fear of deception, you are not going to step out into the miraculous. Y0u were never meant to live in the fear of deception - you were never meant to live in fear. So many Christians (even in Hong Kong) are so afraid of being deceived and they say; "I am afraid of being deceived". So you think fear is legitimate? Do you think your fear will protect you?

Job said the things I feared the most have come on me. You don't live climbing a mountain trying not to fall. You climb a mountain trying to get to the top. You are focused on getting to the top! You don't live in fear of being deceived - you live full of faith of getting revelation and of being so full of God and the knowledge of God's truth that the moment the counterfeit comes - you can see it. I am so sick and tired of Christians being put on the back foot on these things. I am not afraid of a false angel coming to me and trying to decieve me and appearing to me all beautiful.

The moment that happens I will discern; "Is this an anointing from heaven or is this an anointing from the demonic". If you can't tell the difference between an ugly demonic anointing and the anointing of Jesus then you need to get saved. In you and me there is an anointing and in meetings I can discern what is of the flesh, what is of God and what is of the demonic. There has never been a revival - not one - where all three didn't manifest. Some people are pointing; "Look some of that stuff is fleshly - some of that stuff is demonic - that doctrine is a bit of heresy over there". Yes I know - but God is also moving powerfully! You will never have a revival where you can get rid of flesh, get rid of the demonic trying to come in.

In Azusa Street Revival they had psychics prophesying in the middle of the meeting! In the mid-80's in the Kentucky Revivals they had 20, 000 under the power of God and at the same time they had pimps running around and making whiskey in the middle of that.

Every revival has weird doctrines that come in and strange things that happen. The most weird thing is when there IS no power, no one is getting saved and NO miracles are happening! I would rather have to sift through some of the weird stuff, theologically sift through it, than have nothing happening and sitting in the boat of religion and sitting and criticising everything happening. I think the people who are most qualified to discern whether a move is a move of God or not are those people who have been in moves of God.There are people who are trying to judge this move who have never had a move.

I think if someone says "That's not God and those miracles are countefeit and that's not God" - I want to say to them; "That's fine - that is your right to judgebut show me YOUR miracles, show me YOUR signs and wonders, show me YOUR move!". "Err ... I don't have one". "Then shut up until you do!". There too many cryptics sitting on the bank and doing nothing and finding fault with what God is doing.

I want it to be registered that I don't agree with everything I am seeing in Florida and it's not up to me to tell you everything - but I tell you this. It is a move of God. Todd Bentley is a man of God. God is moving in mighty signs and wonders! Our focus is not on Florida - that thing will fade sooner or later. But it is not going to fade around the world. God's on the move.

One of the things in the UK that came to me more clearly than anything else is that this gift of righteousness - the revelation of it - is the most powerful weapon we have in our arsenal of weaponary for the supernatural. Condemnation is an insulation against the power of God wherever you can't get more of God going - there is an answer to that. Preach the gift of righteousness and it sets people free from condemnation and then they become open to the power of God.

We operated in four different areas - 2 in Europe (which was in Holland) and 2 in the United Kingdom down in Eastbourne and in Cantebury and in every meeting the power of God fell. I had to rub my eyes because you don't normally expect that in places like Holland and people from Lithuania and all from Sweden. Many of them are very cerebral and very conservative. Reinhard Bonke says; "My German people say I have got a screw loose! I want to loosen the screws even more because my German people - their screws are too tight!".

In the first meeting of all 4 areas - the fire of God fell and often first on the young people. God is saying something there. I would call all the young people out because the fire was on them. Young people like to look cool! But they came out there absolutely drunk! In every place we went to, there was always a young person who was twisting in the anointing. I said; "This was because they were deprived of the Elvis generation!".

God is a God of restoration and it would hit the hall and 80% of the people would be drunk in the Holy Spirit and the joy of the Lord gives you a breakthrough to the glory.

Often the way into the glory is through the joy of the Lord. Unspeakable glory through unspeakable joy!

I did a 2 hour interview with some from Sweden who are going to put the interview in a Christian magazine that will circulate throughout Sweden to 10's of thousands. They wanted to hear the testimony of my journey into preaching only pure grace not mixed in with law. Right now in Sweden there is a war going on between law and grace. I said; "Sorry guys - it's not only in Sweden - it is world-wide and it is a civil war in the Church unfortunately". But they said; "Rob you have no idea how bad it is in Sweden - there are very few churches that preach grace. Most preach heavy-handed law. Most preach this that you are saved by grace but after being saved, if you sin then you had better confess your sin because if you die before you get a chance to confess your sin then you are definately going to hell".

This beautiful couple in Sweden said; "Rob we have planted a church - we are one of the few churches preaching the grace message and we are being attacked big time". Please pray for that article that will bring revelation to the Church. A lot of people had long-term sickness and believed their sickness was a punishment from God and they believed they had opened the door to the devil by sinning and now they were being made sick because of that. When they heard the teaching of the gift of righteousness and the revelation hit them - they realised it is God's will to heal them and they also realised that after they get healed if they fall into sin or make a mistake then it doesn't open the door to the devil so that these gifts of healing can be long-living!

I went into the forest in Holland and spent some hours with God praying and while I was there, God said to me;

"Rob - if you will even more radically believe that you are the righteousness of God in Christ - if you believe that radically and preach that radically in Europe and in the United Kingdom then I will get My angels to stand about you and angels will whisper into your ear names and things that I am doing in the meetings".

That happened. I got the name "Patricia" and I saw 3 lumps and hands indeed went up. A lady in Europe - we saw her being pushed around in a wheelchair for the first few days of the conference and she had MS for a number of years. MS is the deterioration of the myleen sheath - the covering over your nervous system. So your nerves start getting damaged and you face loosing all use of your limbs and your body. In it's chronic phase your body bends like your back and it will snap because of it's crippling effects.

MS is the easiest crippling disease to get healed - most of the cripples we have got out of wheelchairs have all had MS because God revealed to me so clearly that all MS is directly a resident demon and all you have to do is cast the demon of MS out and these people are going to get healed.

If someone has broken their neck through a car accident or huge spinal damage from an accident - you need the workings of miracles to get through healed and they do get healed but with MS all you have to do is cast the demon out and you will see them get healed. So over a period of years she began to loose the use of her arms and legs. She was in a wheelchair and with an unsaved husband. You can imagine him thinking what God is this - He is an evil God and my wife has lost her dignity. My wife crippled in a wheelchair and wheeled around the conference. One of the nights I was talking about how I had ministered in the UK and God had brought a lady out of the wheelchair with MS and said; "Throw your husband in the wheelchair and you push him around!".


As she sat there the power of God came on her and she came out the wheelchair, threw her husband in the wheelchair and pushed him around the meeting, pushed him up hills, pushed him all over the place! So the next morning she came and testified and she ran and danced and ran around the building and;

I promise you in Europe - this is rare. It is not known as the place where miracles happen. I found it easier to get miracles in Europe and the UK than in Africa. I mean that. I would rather go for miracle crusades in the UK or in Europe than in Africa right now. Maybe it is just because God is giving us particular favour for the UK and Europe but it was the easiest thing.

So she was screaming and her husband was crying. What is he going to do now to resist God? We got this email yesterday just so you know it wasn't psycho-somatic and she has gone back to her wheelchair. This is Hank. He hosted the European conference. He says;

"Hello Rob and Glenda - it was so good to hear from you. Your ministry amongst us and the preaching and openness for the glory of God has impacted many. Reports are still coming back from the conference. People are buzzing with excitement and many with a clear sense of God's purpose for the future. It seems from what we hear that it has produced a greater hunger and thirst after God and a readiness to take the Gospel further. The woman who had MS is still physically healed of this and is at this moment going through examinations by a doctor to confirm this too ... she and her husband and many others are excited about the healing that definately took place. Also the woman with the neck injury, the hand injury and instability of the pelvis has received a definate healing and many others too. Thanks so much".
In this conference there were 40 significant healings just like that in this one conference alone! One Dutch man came up to me and said that I had a word of knowledge that someone's shoulder gets dislocated and God is healing your shoulder right now and then said; "Check your shoulder" and this is the story. He had a car accident and they put 12 pins in his shoulder because if he even moved it slightly then it would get dislocated and I don't know how many of you understand how painful a dislocation is. He said when I had said to check the shoulder, he checked it very carefully and he pushed it back and back and nothing happened. So he came up and testified that he had 12 pins and look at this! I was almost thinking; "Don't do it too much!". He was wild and his shoulder was absolutely fine!

We saw 40 like that and it wasn't difficult. Most of the people that got healed I didn't lay hands on. Just preached the gospel and preached the revelation of the unfading glory - led them into worship and called out healings and people just got healed and we had about 40 very significant healings.

Then we went from there to a church in Amsterdam. We had a one-off opportunity to preach there and it was a church that started 3 years ago with 40 people and they now have 600 people every Sunday. It is a Hillsongs-kind of church excellence in the way they present the service. They really are open to signs and wonders and the moving of God. They say that we are like the fathers of that work because we helped equip them in the supernatural years ago. They haven't seen many mighty healings and have been wanting to break through. So I preached on how to break through in healings and there were amazing healings there that night. The whole Church got drunk.

Peter - my translator and the pastor - was bouncing around like a kangeroo on the platform and then the whole worship team went out onto the floor. The Church was pretty much drunk. A lady was standing in the congregation and had a green shirt on and I could see she wasn't receiving and was in her head and was cerebral - trying to receive from her head not her spirit. So I pointed to her and told her what her issue was and God came on her and she was able to go and cancel a surgery because she had lost all sense of smell - and her smell came back right there in the meeting!

So God is absolutely wonderful! Folks - to get your smell back is the same as getting your hearing back, your sight back - it's one of the five senses. It is a miracle equivalent to deafness or whatever. There were people healed of asthma. This is even greater to me - I don't want to go into a church and see great signs and wonders there and then I go and it all stops. There was an impartation. I really coached people that night and got practical on how you pray for the sick. This is what he says about the next Sunday;

"The next Sunday we had an enormous breakthrough in healing - asthma, scoliosis, dystrophy and many deliverances. Five people had arms and legs growing and one guy had an arm or leg grow about 10 cms!".

So that is a result of our visit - City Church International - into this church which has just been in a national and local newspaper to millions of people as the fastest growing church in Holland with positive reporting from the secular press saying this church loves people! They listen to our downloads and enter into this thing of grace. He is fully into it - we spoke about it. They are fully into this message of grace! The fastest church in Holland and are an independent church but want to partner with us and walk with us and want us to host a "Glory and Grace Conference" there. They have a 3, 000 seater that they can box into different sizes with mobile walls. It is classic Dutch efficiency - the Dutch people are incredibly efficient - even the trees grow in straight lines. You fly out from Heathrow airport and look down on the beautiful English countryside and you will see fields going higgldy in all angles and as soon as you get across the English channel and fly over Holland you see the trees going the same way. And that is how the Afrikaaners go the same way!

Then we went over to the UK and we go to preach in Eastbourne and it is a local church. They had 800 registrations for the conference and so when I got there, they told us there is such expectation. He said this one lady - she has got such bad arthritis and has been in the church for years and couldn't pick her child up anymore. She couldn't come to church anymore because she was so crippled and riddled with this advanced arthritis. She had said to the pastor Graham, "When Rob is here, I know I am going to be healed!". When I hear that I think; "Oh God I want to get on a plane and get out of here - I don't need that kind of pressure!". Then they put us up in the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne. It is rated as the second top hotel in the whole UK. We had the second best! They put us into the executive suite and as they are booking us in the people said; "Oh we are happy to upgrade you to the highest suite! The top suite!".

Glenda and I have got jeans and T-shirts on and we have got these people with top hats on and they are taking us into the room and part of us are thinking; "Should we act like we are used to this?!". We are not - so let's not disguise it - and we are running around like little kids wanting to put the gowns on! Big bathroom - big entrance hall - big TV and big bedroom and 4 poster bed and balcony onto the beach front! You don't have to ask for the blessing - just believe that you have the gift of righteousness in God. But I am thinking these guys have paid for our air fare and our expensive hotel and this lady is saying; "I KNOW I am going to get healed this week" and I am thinking it is like I owe them and if I don't come up with the goods and they have paid out all this money! They also put us in an English country cottage with a fireplace and wanted to make a fire in the English country on the South Downs which must have cost them a fortune and I am thinking; "I owe them!".

So half an hour before the conference starts, I am in the back room and I am sweating and Glenda is looking at me thinking; "What's wrong?!" and I am thinking; "I am under pressure!". I want to tell you this;

If you want to produce miracles - then you have got to get that pressure off you. That pressure will make you artificial and dial up your own soul power and psychic human pressure. You will show off and shout.

It is a bit distressing trying to see some of the guys trying to copy Todd Bentley. It is not the way he does it but the content of revelation in his heart that releases the power. It is not doing the things he does or how loud you shout. You can shout or whisper - but it is the content behind your words. What are you carrying on the inside of you?

So I had to get away and said; "Father I just reepnt of even trying to think I could produce anything here. I can't. I repent". So the pressure came off me and I was hardly into preaching and worship and the first person who got healed was the woman who said; "I know I am going to be healed this weekend!". You must know that pastor and his wife - Graham and Belinda - I know what it is like to go through chronic disease in members of your congregation and you pray for them and feel like a failure as a pastor because she couldn't come to church or pick up her child and now she is running around, jumping, picked up her child and could handle her child!

There was another lady with fibromialgia and just lies of the enemy in her mind. She was in the worship team but couldn't stand - she had to sit in a chair in the choir. She came and was one of the few I prayed for by hand and as soon as she stood in front of me I knew it was demonic. So I was very aggressive and I think I shocked the people around and I prayed; "In the Name ... FIRE!!" and she went bang on the ground! As the power hit her this demon came out with shrieking. I am so sorry for intellectual people who have limited their world to the little grey brain and analyse skeptically and cynically. I have seen too much friends! Demons come out with shrieks!

She fell on the ground under the power so I said; "Pick her up again" and prayed for a second, third time while coaching everyone around. I said; "You don't lay hands on certain diseases. Certain different types of sickness like MS - you are not passive". You go to war and attack that thing and take authority and cast it out! Some diseases you have got to take authority and step up and see it happen! So she came back the next day and I walked in and she was standing in the worship - all the pain had gone and the movement had come back. Her husband led the worship beaming because he was so happy he had got his wife back!

I just stood on the platform and pointed at them sitting in the second row and said; "This is not about crowds or about names or about numbers - this is about the Father loving His daughter and not wanting His daughter robbed of a quality of life but wanting to see His daughter set free". We have so many testimonies from this church. Miracle healings from crippling diseases - fifteen people came to Christ in one service alone and God was doing staggering things! And most of it was not from me laying hands on people. We had 3 services with them - I spoke to their leaders and spoke at their Sunday morning meeting.

People were coming so early and crowding into the building. 700 seater building and 800 were crowding in. We knew after 3 meetings that we could have gone on for weeks and if Glenda and I had stayed there - the meetings were already out of control, the power, the healings taking place after 3 meetings! We actually went and found out whether the stadium was available because we were seriously thinking - this thing would have grown to 1000's because the word was getting out! But the stadium was in disrepair and they were fixing it so there were only a 1000 seats in the stadium so that wasn't of any use to us. We didn't feel that we should stay anyway.

We left there that Sunday afternoon and drove to Cantebury which most of you know Cantebury is a very historic town and is the religious capital of the UK and where the Archbishop is. There is a church up there led by a guy called Tom and the church is mainly university students who go to Cantebury University and are very intellectual young men and women.

What is exciting about them is that they were a TOTALLY different breed of Christianity - they were intellectuals but had faith in the miraculous power of God! They were open to the supernatural.

And it was a WILD meeting - one of the most wild meetings I had been in! I was nearly embarrassed in the prayer meeting - they were wild! The way they pray is that they get into a circle and put their hands on each other shoulders and pray and then they turn around and pray!

These are university students! On fire for God Many of them will be doctors and lawyers and professors - on fire! Not intellectual faith but supernatural faith! This is the UK - England! Third World countries say that the move of God is over in Europe - you have got to be crazy! It is not! One of the major moves of God is coming out of the UK and Europe and of course you need to applaud because we are part of all that! God is doing some amazing things there! We saw the fire fall on many of them - so many amazing miracles! A cerebral palsy man got movement back in his leg. I prayed for a lady in her wheelchair and went to her with MS - she had been in that wheelchair for 38 years and she got up and walked. I prayed for her for about 20 minutes and she started to cry because she said she could stretch her hands out for the first time.

I said; "What about your legs" because she had no feeling in her legs. So I moved the plates which her feet were on and I said; "Move your legs" and she was able - for the first time in many years - she could lift both legs up! She was giggling, screaming and laughing and I said; "Lady keep in touch - because I believe a miracle is in process here". These nerves are recovering and you are moving for the first time.

I just felt a fire on me and on us to go for anything. I didn't care if a blind, deaf person came in - we are going to pray for ANYTHING that moves! Some may say; "Well why don't we see those miracles here in City Church International? Don't we have enough faith?". Listen we have got more faith than anywhere else I have been - I tell you why we don't see cripples walk here. Because there aren't any cripples coming in here! The biggest miracle would be for a cripple to get healed here who wasn't here! We are not bringing in the deaf, the blind, the wheelchair cases and you will never see it happen until they come in here - you know what I am saying?

That is why we can report on all these miracles because we are in a context where people believe that when Rob and Glenda come - miracles are going to happen. It's wrong that they believe it is because of us - but good they have that kind of expectation! The pressure of course came on us - we pushed it off - and God took the pressure on and God did mighty things!

So we need to bring the wheelchair cases in to City Church and the blind and the deaf - and have a go! Are we going to get them all healed? I wish I could say yes - can't guarantee it. I would say we had about an 80% success rate. Now this is what I would do - say; "Everyone stand" and pray a general prayer. "How many of you have been healed?". 20 hands or whatever would go up. "How many of you weren't healed?". Maybe 30 hands would go up or 40. "Alright - everyone around them go lay hands on them" and they would pray furiously! So after about 2 or 3 minutes say; "Stop! Alright how many have been healed?". You see another 8 hands go up. "Praise God! Alright how many have not been healed?". Another 15 hands go up. "Alright get around them. Jesus prayed for people twice so we can pray 3 or 4 times". We would pray 3, 4 or 5 times until I said; "How many are still not healed" and VERY FEW hands were left. We are going to get to a place where everyone is going to be healed.

In this Dutch church I taught them how to persevere. I said "Come on now - sickness is stubborn but the Dutch people are the most stubborn people I have ever met". So I said; "Look at this - we have prayed and hardly anyone had got healed. We can leave feeling failures or we can pray again!". More people got healed. "Pray again". More got healed! Jesus prayed for a blind man twice and the first time the man didn't get his full sight back.

We are too afraid of failure! We are climbing the mountain afraid of falling - instead of climbing the mountain to get to the top! Get our eyes of failing and get our eyes on succeeding and seeing the sick healed!

It is all available now! We need to swallow our pride when people don't get healed and can't take it personally. It was the minority that didn't get healed in all 8 or 9 meetings - it was the minority! These are new days! I said to to those minority who weren't healed; "It is not your fault - let's not look for whose fault it is - God's will is that you get healed".

This is the truth - when God manifests His power and glory - it is God's invisible nature being revealed in the visible realm of man.

I don't want to just see in creation the invisible nature of God. I want to see the nature of God made manifest visibly in the realm of man through the glory of God manifesting in the earth. If society is deprived of hearing about and seeing miracles then they are being deprived of knowing the true nature of God. The true nature of God is to heal, to restore, to lift suffering off humankind and set people free - that is the nature of God.

Whatever doesn't exist in heaven - God doesn't want to exist on the earth! The glory is the light of God and when light shines - darkness cannot sit there and refuse to go. Darkness has no choice - when the light of glory comes darkness flees. There is no contest - light is so superior to darkness.

The explanation for so much darkness in Hong Kong and in the world is not that darkness is so powerful but it is just that darkness hasn't been challenged by the church through the manifest power of God's glory light.

As soon as light comes - darkness goes. Cancer is darkness! You put the light of the glory of God on and cancer can't sit there and say; "I am not going". It just has to go. Light is just so superior to darkness. There is no contest! There is no yin and yan. It's not light against darkness. There is no battle or contest because light is so superior. The real contest is in the heart of God's people. The question goes; "Am I worthy to carry the power that raises the dead? The power that brings cripples out of wheelchairs?".

If you think like that you are thinking in an Old Covenant mentality - obviously you and I are not worthy - but to win this contest by revelation that you are the righteousness of God and in that revelation you ARE worthy, you ARE qualified, you ARE the light of the world, you ARE God's ambassador, you ARE authorised to raise the dead, to set the captives free, to heal the sick - YOU are!

You ARE through grace! Let me just read this to you - this was given on May 17th;

"Hi Rob and Glenda, it's Donna from Coastlands - I have some great things to tell you. You prayed for Caleb at the Glory and Grace Conference in Sydney. He has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair. He is 8 years old - he had never walked. When we got home I was telling my son Daniel and he asked Caleb if he believed. He said; "Yes" and he spent half an hour praying for him. He has now taken fifteen steps for the first time in his life - we have an amazing God!".


We are seeing an acceleration and an amplification. We have seen more people come out of wheelchairs in the last three months than in previous years. I am not afraid of wheelchair cases. I have got to fight when I am in a plane or in an airport and they are wheeling someone in - I have to fight not to pray for them! It's like a twitch - it's wrong! They shouldn't be in that wheelchair! They should come out! Young or old!


God is going to come on us so that we will not be able to cope with seeing sick people around us. We will just HAVE to pray for them and we will see such results.


After that lady got healed in the one church with cystic fibrosis and it is a demonic disease. It was an absolute miracle to see the transformation in her life and the effect it had on her husband. We were sitting in the Grand Hotel having the most incredible breakfast and I am sitting there and said; "Glenda, isn't it amazing that the Father reached out through two people like us from Hong Kong and just reached out to His daughter and healed her of years of suffering". Then I just burst into tears and said; "This is what this is about!". It isn't about religion and church and theology and doctrine. This is about seeing our Father's works - this is about winning the contest; "Am I worthy to carry this power?".


Yes we are worthy! That's why the devil is fighting this grace message - because he knows it isn't a contest between light and darkness. The light is so superior - the darkness will remain unchallenged while the church is going through a contest of "Am I worthy?". Preachers, apostles and prophets around the world must repent of preaching a mixture of law and grace and start year after year on a journey sequentially to bring the church not into partial freedom but into full freedom - the inner contest will be over and there is no outer contest. The light of glory will just cause darkness to flee! I am never going go where there is unbelief. I am never going to churches where they are legalistic and want to fight this message. I don't want to go anywhere else and sit and try and persuade people. We get people now and again who come in and sit here and I think; "I love you but you are not on my radar". I am looking for places like where I have been to in the UK and Europe who say; "Rob - come and we will honour and receive you".


I am looking for someone like Dave Holden who is one of the major leaders of NFI who took my hands after I preached the most radical message on grace that would frighten most leaders. Here is a man of theology and integrity and 30 years of experience in church planting and success and he took my hands and said; "Rob - run with this message - run with this message - the Church needs this message!".


I get people who say, "I want to sit and debate with you". I don't have time to debate with people who are doing nothing - don't have signs and wonders - don't have people coming out of wheelchairs - aren't seeing the lost and the broken come. I sat and wept in a hotel dining room and I said;


"Glenda - THIS is what we were born for! We weren't born to be pre-occupied with our problems, we weren't born to be pre-occupied with other people's problems, we weren't born to put embroidery on people's prison cells, we were born to set the captives free - who WANT to be free!".


Some people don't want to be free - because freedom is too responsible for them. So they stay in self-pity, preoccupied with themselves, "Woe is me" - I have got zero time for that mindset! There is a world out there desperately open to the power of God. We are breaking into the greatest signs and wonders and miracles the world has ever seen and City Church International is not on the peripheral - City Church International isn't behind somewhere! We are in the frontline - we are pioneering! I get emails nearly every week from people saying; "You guys are pioneering the way - you are taking the flack - you are taking the persecution - but you have opened the ground for us and we are moving ahead because of you!".


We are right in the front as supernatural frontrunners in the Kingdom of God! That's us! Give Him a shout! Let me just read this one - this will be a shocker this one. These people who say that we are giving people license to sin. We actually are giving them license to sin - they get the license and don't want to use it! Because they find out how wonderful Jesus is and He loves them so much that they get free from their addictions. Listen to this;

"For the last 10 years I have been addicted to internet pornography". That would describe hundreds of thousands of Christian men worldwide - addicted to internet pornography and being told; "Stop it! Stop it! Stay off it!". "I have been involved in 3 churches in this time and I have confided to pastors who were good men and they suggested many things - I had also many revelations about ways I could get free but I could not stop my addiction. I attended church every week and was a zealous worshipper but refused to get involved in any Christian ministry because I didn't want to infect others". This was given Monday May 12th so it is very recent. "After 10 years of this I was absolutely desperate and was looking everywhere for an answer - I wondered what would become of me yet I was more addicted than ever.

The Bible says that there is no temptation that has overcome us except which is common to man and there will be a way out so you can bear under it - but where is the way out? Someone handed me a CD of your teaching and you said that Paul's answer to sin in the Corinthian church was not more law - but more grace. I always totally believed in justification by faith but didn't understand how more grace was the answer to sin. Especially my sin! I then got another CD on which you mentioned your website. So I started listening to your sermons about the power of grace and I decided to dare believe this strange new doctrine not knowing if it would take me to heaven or hell.


I acted on what you said and I re-offended on the internet maybe twice more". Now I didn't tell him to do that - I have never met him! He acted on what I said - believing grace. "When the desires would come instead of fearing and fighting them - I decided even if I did go to these websites again God would forgive me on the basis of Jesus performance. It appears as if I was giving myself license to sin but for the first time in 10 long years - exactly the opposite happened. The desire for internet pornography simply TOTALLY dissolved. Once I accepted that God accepted me totally on Jesus' performance alone - the tangible Presence, the love of God flooded my being and it was then the tangible Presence of the grace of God that dissolved my desire for pornography. Although it has only been 3 months ...". He hasn't visited those sites for 3 months whereas before he visited them continously before that for 10 years.


"It has been 3 months since I visited a pornographic website, I am totally confident that I am free of this thing at last and have no desire for it. Rob I am writing this letter to confirm that this experience bears witness with this doctrine of uncompromising grace is the truth. I want to shout it from the rooftops and advertise it in the newspaper that there is an answer! Rob - on behalf on hundreds of thousands of Christians held in bondage to internet pornography - KEEP PREACHING THIS MESSAGE!! Maybe advertise that there is a cure to internet pornography on your website so that when desperate people like me search for it on the internet, a link to your website will come up.


One area where I must disagree with you - you say a miracle is like a new eyeball growing - Rob what has happened to me is truly a miracle. I have my dignity, self-esteem and peace back. I have faith for the future. I can show God's love to my wife and children again. I had totally given up any hope of service to God - yet God is showing me that He isn't finished with me yet. Also strangely a medical issue I have had for six years and it appears to be gone. No one has prayed for me - but the grace of God is powerfully upon me!".


Come on guys - this is just awesome! All the persecution is worth it - being misunderstood is worth it. I am so glad I didn't give into the pressure - God prepared you and me for these days. Seven years ago God began to speak to me and say;


"Son you have got to get all your identity and sense of security from Me and Me alone. The fickle fans are fickle - the crowds come and go and will applaud you and reject you. If you perform to what they want then they like you - if you don't, then they won't like you. If you allow man's pressure to intimidate you to perform or compromise then you won't fulfill your destiny".


So He took five years to teach me the security in Him. If He hadn't prepared me for this - then I would have caved long ago. Some of my closest friends have sold out on me and are talking behind my back about this. It is the acceleration of results - amplification and acceleration. If the fear of man inhibits you from preaching the gospel and sharing with your workmates who Jesus is, from being ashamed to talk about Jesus, from being ashamed to bring people to church and invite cripples to come to church - if the fear of man cripples you then you can go to work year after year and no one knows that you are saved.


He comes to seek and save those who are lost. Today we want to be free from the fear of man. It is only when rejection comes that you realise how much you need deliverance. God is enough! From personal experience - from having some of my closest friends talk about me in the most slanderous way about this message - the pain I felt! Yet the fearless, bold confidence to carry on preaching this message is because God dealt with my need of man's acceptance. Beginning 5 or 6 years ago! God knew that you would be alive at this time and be positioned for this time. If you have got any remnant of the fear of man - something that stops you from coming to to the front to prophesy because you think if you come and prophesy and don't get it right - then I may look like a fool!


Friends I had to pray for a lady with MS and although her legs moved a bit, they had to wheel her out of there again and I had no reputation. It wasn't my reputation on the line! The Father says; "The more you pray for the blind, the deaf, the cripples then you are going to get results".


If you are proud and don't want to look like a fool then you are going to sit in the boat and be bored like so many Christians - bored, bored and bored and the more bored you get, the more critical you get and then you want to balance everyone and come out with all these amazing doctrines but you are not living in experiential power of the truth.


The UK has got a serious youth problem - young people are murdering one another with drugs and alcohol and bingers and problems. They are not the fault! They are not going to give up alcohol and drugs and all that associated with it to sit in a boring church that has no signs, wonders and miracles. Let people get drunk in the Holy Spirit and come out of wheelchairs, the deaf here, the blind see, people full of liberty, joy, rolling under the power of God - the young people will give up drugs and flock to the Church and the multitudes will come.


It is all about the Church getting free from self-conciousness! "My life - my problems - life is not fair - woe is me!" - NO! It is about the fact that you are the righteousness of God and then the blessings will come on you and the blessings will fall on you!


The curses and the judgement fell on Him! As soon as they fell on Him, the blessings will come on you as soon as you believe you are the righteousness of God. So let's pray this prophecy over us ... thanks guys: [recording of prophecy by Julian Adams commences:]


"I feel that in this atmosphere of God pouring out His Spirit - I feel the Lord has been giving me a word for Rob and Glenda - if you will come and stand here. I wonder if some of the apostolic team guys will come and stand alongside them. Rob - the last time I prophesied over you, I saw an angel and tonight the angel has been walking up and down the stage. The royalty of heaven - the protection of heaven is on you and I felt the Lord wants to speak to you about a new season you will enter into over the next 3 - 6 weeks. It's going to be a season of incredible visitation. It will be a season of incredible encounters. I saw you heading away in the room and out of the norm that you have been used to. I saw the Lord begin to visit you and I believe it is going to be with revelation from His Word - in this next season there is going to come a sharp prophetic word that is going to move people into a new experience of the glory.

But I felt God say you will encounter Me in some ways that would seem to many other people as irrational and out of the box. You will encounter Me in some ways that are going to challenge even some of the most experienced charismatics. Because God's going to visit you. I see the Lord encountering you in the secret place - it's almost like I see you in the secret place and it is like I see you eating scrolls from heaven because there's going to be a word coming to you that will become a part of you that you will begin to prophesy and speak into that will begin to cause a new wineskin to come to many movements. I believe the Lord is saying that the next 3-6 weeks are going to be weeks of incredible encounter - you are to get ready!

They are going to be encountering weeks. I felt the Lord showed me your church and I felt the Lord say to me; "Even as David had some famous men join his army, the Lord would say that I am going to give you famous men and women in your city. I am going to give you influential businessmen and women who will join your church and will flood in and it will be an incredible amount - it won't just be one or two but 10's and 20's who will begin to join the rank and join the army of the Lord in that local church". I felt God wanted to say to you - Rob and Glenda - that this next season will see an acceleration of leadership added to you. You will see an acceleration of men and women who will carry you in this season of visitation in order to prepare a wineskin of a local church revival.

The Lord says to you;


"You think you have seen downloads - now wait till you see what will happen in the next 2 to 3 years as many will get on a plane and come and visit Hong Kon and be part of the meetings that God is going to open up. There will be a residential anointing that the Lord will give you and the Lord says where it seems impossible for land and buildings - I will make a way in this next season. I will make a way in this next season and I will give you favour even with municipalities and governments and God says to you; "Son - you will begin to see a statesmen-like anointing come on you. Where you will find yourself in front of influential governments even in Hong Kong and you will bring the Word of the Lord to them".

God says at times it will be supernatural - an organisational supernatural appointment - it will not be man-made. The Lord says to you;


"Son and daughter - get ready for a new visitation because from you will come an anointing to begin to shape whole areas. God is going to give you a download of community city revivals. Son you have prayed and said; 'God I don't want to presume on you and don't want to think more of myself than I ought to' but the Lord says to you today that there is a ranking in the Spirit that comes on you and moves you into the realm of statesman and government anointing for I will give stadiums says the Lord. I will give stadiums says the Lord! I see stadiums full - I see stadiums full and I see you carry a glory that will begin to grab a hold of thousands of thousands.

And the Lord says;


"Son and daughter I want you to know that these next 6 weeks will be incredible visitations. I believe it has to do with those angels you saw in the past. I see those angels coming to commission you and you have been waiting in the decree room and the Lord says; "Today I am issuing you with decrees of old. They will begin to shape and disciple whole nations. So I want you to get ready says God. Because there will come incredible growth in this season in your local church - growth from affluent people and you will begin to see your church swell with numbers in order to shape a whole nation. His breakout is coming upon you.

Rob and Glenda I believe the Lord is releasing an anointing upon you for the resurrection of the dead. I see literally the resurrection from the dead! An anointing coming upon you for that for this next season. God is going to catapault you as a couple and He says; "I will provide men and women - even men who are able to work with both hands. David's men were added and they could work with the left and the right hand - multi-skilled men and women". God says; "I want you to get ready - because there is a commissioning and a decree that has gone out in this heavenlies and you will step into it in this season. You will begin to know My favour in a radical way".

So Father - we want to pray for this couple right now. Won't You proclaim victory over this couple? I believe the Lord will give you hundreds of intercessors that will be your portion because the enemy has attacked - the enemy is trying to steal and come against you and there has been a wrestling and a contending and a fighting. But God says to you today;


"Son I have given you apostolic authority in the heavenlies. Even right now there will be a spirit of intercession that will clothe and protect you from the works of the enemy in this next season. It's almost like Jesus when He came out of the desert place - the Bible says the enemy left Him for a season and I believe that you are about to enter into that kind of season where the enemy will leave you alone because God decreed it so.

You will gain much ground - much ground. Geographical and physical ground - physical buildings! Physical buildings! I see like a shopping mall. I see a building and you taking the whole floor of the mall. God says; "Get ready!". It's opening up for you. Buildings - training centres - releasing centres coming to you in Jesus Name. So we ask You for Your favour. And Your protection! Come Holy Spirit!".

I don't know if you could hear all of that but this guy Adrian (Ed: His name is actually Julian Adams!) knows very little of Glenda and I and this church. About 90% of what he said was confirmation - stuff that I had privately heard God say to me. I hope you heard that it is not about Glenda and me essentially but our togetherness. You hear about buildings - I am not interested in a permament building.

What I am interested in is a facility that can serve our dreams and serve our vision.