Rob Rufus - Session 3 - Glory and Grace Conference Holland

Here is Session 3- Rob Rufus at the "Glory and Grace Conference" in Holland preached on the 4th September 2009:

“Open your Bibles please to Romans chapter 4. Isi’s ministry just makes you hungry for more of God doesn’t it? I want to talk just briefly on the gift of righteousness. Romans chapter 4 – there is so much I would love to read here, but I will just keep it brief and am going to go straight to verse 8. “Blessed is the man who’s sin the Lord will never count against him”. That was David saying that. David saw the New Covenant coming far into the future and he knew there was a covenant coming with such blessing that no one would walk around crippled by condemnation, that they would have a confidence that their sins would never be counted against them! David did not live in the fullness of that. His sins were counted against him and it was devastating even for Israel. He saw the day coming when a people would live where God would never count their sins against them. That doesn’t mean we want to run out and sin. When you are born again you have a new creation nature. How many of you want to run out and just commit adultery? It is not in your heart! I have been married nearly 34 years and my wife and I have never had physical intimacy with another human being. So we are not preaching this message of grace because we want to run around and do stupid things. If you go out of here and say “Rob is teaching that we can just go out and do whatever we like because the Lord won’t count it against us” – if you say that, then may the fleas of 10,000 camels infect your armpits.

The truth is that none of us are living a sin-free life. Anything that is not of faith is sin. So if the Lord was counting our sins against us, then we would not have the blessing of face-face intimacy. How many of you have a revelation that God is not counting your sins against you because He fully counted them against Jesus? God is not soft on sin!

The full wrath of His intense anger against sin has been FULLY satisfied at the Cross! The integrity of the High Court of heaven is satisfied – justice has been done. The desire of the Father is that we walk around with consciousness that

my Father is NOT counting my sins against me! If you break the laws of the land, then it will be held against you. If I do something stupid like go and commit adultery then my wife will count it against me! If I don’t pay my taxes then I will be in jail. But my Father in heaven will not count it against me – that constantly He simply sees me as righteous.

The Gospel is not a message of right living but a message of right believing. What do we believe? We are the righteousness of God. Right believing leads to right living. There is the obedience of faith and when we are confident He is not counting our sins against us then we want to be led by the Spirit and obey the prompting and leading of the Spirit.

You and I have died to the law. We don’t belong to the law at all but we have died to the law so we can belong to someone else – the Lord Jesus.

The idea that this grace message turns us into lazy irresponsible and self-centred Christians is a TOTAL lie.

If I wanted to live for what I want to do then I would not live in Hong Kong but in Amsterdam. Or in Australia or South Africa! Hong Kong is not my choice! There is not a day when my flesh longs to be in a country where I know the culture and the language. It is because of the leading of the Holy Spirit that we lay our lives down for the purposes of God. Following Christ is not always convenient to our flesh but when I know He is not counting my sins against me then it gives me the confidence to come in close to the Father’s hugs and my Father’s love and to not live for this life or the convenience of this temporary world but to be arrested by eternity. Though we make our mistakes and sometimes do something that aren’t consistent with the character of Christ – but we are where He is not counting our sins against us because He counted them against Jesus. We can obey Him.

Let’s look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. A well known passage but let’s read verse 19. “That God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ – not counting men’s sins against them”. Religion is obsessed with this idea that God is always counting our sins against us. When people flew into the Twin Tower buildings or the tsunamis in Asia that killed people by the thousands – they said that is God judging because of men’s sins against them.

If there was no Cross and God was counting our sins against us – according to the perfect justice of God’s holiness and His law there would not just be a few isolated tsunamis. This entire planet would be sucked up into oblivion and into hell. When Jesus was born the angels appeared to the shepherds and said; “Goodwill to ALL men – peace on earth!”. We have come into a different time. We are not under the Old Covenant and God is not judging or counting their sins against them! God was “in Christ reconciling the world” – not just Christians!

If someone dies outside of Christ then they will be judged to the full extent of the law and be lost forever. In this time frame God is not holding men’s sins against them. You find in the Old Testament talk of “days and days” or “years” of judgement. It talks about a “day of judgement” but speaks of God pouring out His Spirit on ALL flesh in the last days. God will prove He is not holding men’s sins against them by pouring the Holy Spirit out on every human being.

The word “pour out” is a secular word in the Greek and speaks of a man saying to his girlfriend; “I love you and I want to pour out my love on you. God is not counting men’s sins against them and wants to pour out the Holy Spirit on all men.

He is going to fill the red-light district with His love and His glory. The prostitutes standing in that place will suddenly feel the love of God and KNOW that He is “not counting my sins against me”. The goodness of God will lead people to repentance.

There is only one sin that the Holy Spirit convicts us of. In John 16 Jesus said when the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement. Is that true? It’s there – John 16:8, 10. In the very next verse Jesus said; “Of sin – because they do not believe on me”. There is only one sin Jesus could not die for – that is the sin of unbelief in grace. Grace is not a doctrine. It is a Person. His Name is Jesus. It is unbelief in Jesus that is the only sin He cannot die for. The second thing He said He would convict the world of is; “righteousness – because I go to the Father where you see Me no more”. What is He doing at the right hand of the Father? He is the great merciful High Priest of the New Covenant. He is mediating for us – what is He mediating? A covenant that brought the gift of righteousness.

Then He said; “Judgement – because the prince of this world has now been defeated at the Cross where He disarmed them by taking away the law”.

He is wanting to pour out His love by pouring out the Holy Spirit so on this planet sooner or later, all flesh and all peoples – all 1 billion 300 million Chinese – will have the Holy Spirit poured out on them. And that prophecy hasn’t been fulfilled yet!

What will He show them? They are not believing in grace but in religion and their own self-righteousness. He will convict them of their unbelief in grace. Some will fall to the ground in shock and awe at the arrogance of unbelief and the sin of self-righteousness. Then he will convict them that there is a righteousness not their own and the devil has been judged! Let’s look at (v21). We have heard this before but it is good to hear it over and over again. It is like climbing a spiral staircase and you keep coming to the same view over and over again but always from a higher place. Let’s read (v21); “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God”. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us.

He did not carry our sin – He BECAME our sin – so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus with a complete co-equal righteousness to Christ.

Let me ask you a simple question. How did Jesus become our sin? By sinning? No blasphemy – of course not. He became sin because He was given the free gift of first Adam’s sin and the spiritual death of first Adam that passed on to all generations. Past, present and future. He became our sin not by committing any sin. How did we become the righteousness of God? By committing righteous acts? No not by doing righteous things but by God GIVING us the free gift of the righteousness of God that is ours in Christ Jesus.

As soon as Jesus was given the free gift of our sin on the Cross – did He have to cry out and pray to God; “Curse Me with judgement, bring the curse of the law, wrath, sickness and disease on Me, disfigure My body so I will not even look like a Man anymore because the laser-like focus of Your wrath will be focused on Me”? Did He have to ask that? No He didn’t have to ask God to do that. As soon as He was made our sin, it was the automatic response of a holy God to pour that out on Jesus.

Then He went to the grave saturated in our sin. When Heaven’s high court was satisfied that justice was done He was raised from the dead with all sin obliterated and terminated and gone out of existence – He was raised for our justification! On the Day of Pentecost we were given the free gift of His righteousness.

It is based on HIS righteousness – not on your performance. It is not based on your obedience or disobedience for the next 100 years or as long as you live. It is the eternal permanent position that you have in Christ Jesus.

Hebrews chapter 10:14; “By one sacrifice you have been made perfect FOREVER”. This is not a temporary salvation. The book of Hebrews calls it “eternal” salvation. The moment you believe you are the righteousness of God in Christ – do you have to pray for the Father to bless you? Did Jesus have to pray for the Father to curse Him when He was made our sin? You don’t see in the New Testament the apostles praying for blessing. The law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus. From the fullness of His grace we have received one blessing after another.

Deuteronomy 28 says if you will fully keep and obey all the law then all these blessings will come on you. But if you do not keep the law then all these curses will overtake you. Galatians 3:13-14 shows that Christ on the Cross redeemed us from the curse of the law that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through faith.

The moment you believe that you are the righteousness of God in Christ; you do NOT need to pray for blessings to come on you. They come on you and they overtake you! What do you see the apostles praying for in the New Testament? Not bless me – bless me. Blessings come on you when you believe. They pray for revelation to come to the truth! They pray for the eyes of the church’s understanding to be opened so they can see the hope of our calling and how good the gospel is! As soon as the lights come on and you believe then the blessings of God start coming automatically over our lives. When you go back under the law, then faith begins to crush. “I am not going back under the law – the law is a yoke of bondage” – (Galatians 5:14).

Galatians 5:4; Paul says if you go back under the law to gain righteousness then you have made Christ of nothing and have fallen from grace. How do you fall from grace? By breaking the law? No – by trying to keep the law to earn favour with God. In the modern church, they say you fall from grace – you have fallen into sin. But Paul the apostle said you fall from grace when you go back under law.

It’s very different! Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3 that carnal, worldly Christians are those who believe they gain righteousness through the law. The gospel isn’t good advice – it’s good news! If you are in serious debt and go to your bank manager and ask him to help you and he says “No – we are going to re-possess your house but maybe if you get three jobs and sell all your furniture and everything you have got and send your wife and children out to work and have no fun and just work 15 hours a day, 7 days a week THEN you can save your house”. That may be good advice, but it certainly isn’t good news. Imagine if you go to your bank manager and as you walk into his office, he comes running around from his desk and gives you a big hug and pops a big bottle of champagne and he says; “You know just before you came in here, someone you don’t even know came and says that he loves you totally and that he wanted to pay all your mortgage off and you don’t owe him a thing! And he did it to make you free! And then he put £10 trillion into your bank account for you to spend as you want!”. That is not good advice! That is good news!

The gospel of grace that the church has got is infinitely better than that! What breaks my heart is that most of the church don’t have a clue how GOOD it is! When they convert someone they convert them into death and misery. Let’s read one more Scripture just for the heaven of it. Colossians chapter 1. There are Scriptures in the New Testament that people say; “What about that one?! What about that?!”. I say; “Shut up!”. They are asking questions inside a question! It’s like those who went to Jesus and said; “Jesus what happens if this woman is married to a man and he dies and then she marries another and he dies and then she marries another one and they die and another and they die” … if I was Jesus (and thank God I am not) but I would have said; “Any woman who marries him is stupid!”. “So when they all get to heaven who are they married to?”. His answer? “You are wrong because you don’t know the power of God or the Scriptures. There wont be any giving or taking of marriage in heaven. Next!”. There are questions we need to ask about grace – but not questions within questions but because we want to know the truth of this freedom that we have in Christ.

My son Ryan and myself have gone through all the so-called difficult passages in the New Testament that appear to contradict grace and we have found they are very easy to answer! They actually strengthen the message of grace if we will just read them in context! We are going to put them up on our website soon – all the difficult questions answered! So the New Testament becomes a beautiful love letter to the children of God and the devil can’t take any more verses out of context and confuse.

The Reformation began just down the road in Germany and it has not finished yet. There are still traditions of men in the church and as we recover truth we are going to put those traditions to death. We are not trying to change the Bible – the Bible changes us. Remember there are people who have been reading the New Testament with the wrong lenses. These are New Covenant lenses with Old Covenant scratches on them. When I read the New Testament I will see judgement and confusion and condemnation everywhere. When God opens our heart with revelation and takes the scratches off, you can de-code the New Covenant and see how glorious it is and consistent with the finished work of the Cross. You are in Christ – when the Father said “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well please” – at that point Jesus hadn’t done any preaching or any healing. He hadn’t achieved anything but the Father was still well-pleased with Him. Now you are in Christ! The Father isn’t saying “Yes you are My beloved son or daughter but if you would just stop that and stop that and do that and do that then I will be well pleased with you”. There is only one thing that pleases the Father in the New Covenant (Hebrews 11:6) – “without faith it is impossible to please God”. What is the one sin that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of? Unbelief in grace. Unbelief in Jesus.

What does Galatians 3:12 say? The law is not based on faith. How does the Father see you and me all the time?

Let’s look at Colossians 1:22; “But now He has reconciled you through Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight without blemish and free from accusation”. So the Bible is saying here that in God’s sight (and may not be in other people’s sight – the Bible says that we should not look after each other in the flesh anymore but in the spirit) He sees you as holy, without blemish and free from accusation because of what Jesus did on the Cross! Chapter 2:6; “Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him”. How did you receive Him? Grace through faith – so how do you continue to live in Him? Grace through faith!

People say “Well you got saved by grace through faith but now you need to be sanctified by coming back under the law!”. No – it says just as you received Christ so continue to walk in Him. Right believing – not trying to be right living! The sanctification is a fruit of a changed life that believes this message and gets into the Presence and glory of God and God begins to change him. He changes our heart first. Some Christian behaviour embarrasses some people but the Father isn’t trying to say “Stop that! Stop that!”. He wants them to believe this message so He can change their hearts and as they believe this message then the weird behaviour will get less and less until it falls away. I know you know this – but God wants it really in our hearts and He says “Don’t let anyone deceive you with empty philosophy”. “For in Christ all the fullness of the deity live”. Then let’s read from verse 13. “When you were dead … He forgave us all our sins”. He circumcised our old nature – where did we get that old nature from? First Adam! What was Adam’s sin? Was it pornography or adultery? No – it was unbelief in the goodness of God because God said “I have made you in My image and likeness” and Satan said if you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil then you can become “like God”.

He was already in the image and likeness of God – so he had unbelief in the truth of God’s goodness and tried to develop self-righteousness apart from God! When you were born again it was because the Holy Spirit convicted you of that unbelief in grace and He circumcised your heart. We don’t have a sinful nature and a righteousness nature! That old nature has been cut away! Under the Old Covenant you had physical circumcision. I am not trying to be crude – but it was a snip on the tip and then they threw the tip away. They didn’t try to stick it back on again with Bos-Stick or glue! So when your old nature is cut away it is thrown away!

So you do not have a sinning nature on the inside of you! You have a new creation nature that wants to believe in the goodness of God! It doesn’t want to run out and do terrible things! Yes you still have appetites in your physical body and memories in your mind. Some of our appetites want to do wrong things and it is not coming from the old nature but memories of the flesh.

But as Isi preached – our bodies were made for pleasure! The word “Eden” in Hebrew means “pleasure” – the “place of pleasure”! God wanted Adam and Eve to enjoy the most amazing pleasure with God and each other there! So as we walk in the goodness of God, little by little some of the old appetites and memories will start changing if we stay in the flow of grace. The religious world tries to force artificial change on people. It is behaviour modification principles so we all look good on the outside but there is still frustration and desires to do wrong. God wants us to live in joy!

In a grace church, some of our mistakes and failures and short-comings will come out in the open. We are no longer ashamed and hiding in the dark! The religious world says “Look what grace did!”. But go and look in law churches – there is a LOT of sinning going on! But it is all done in secret. The Bible says that the law stirs up sin. In a grace church people feel safe when they make mistakes. They are not attacked and jumped on. People can help them and support them and walk them through their moral failures and restore them.

This is good news! It says that He forgave us all our sins. ALL. There are no sins left over that aren’t forgiven. When did He forgive your sins? 2000 years ago on the Cross.

Before you had even sinned, they were all already forgiven. Before you had faith for forgiveness – you were forgiven!

So that day that you confessed and said “Jesus I am a sinner and I confess that You are my Lord and I believe in grace and I turn to You Jesus and turn away from self-righteousness and turn to You Lord” – on THAT day you received the BENEFIT of all your sins forgiven. You don’t get your forgiveness in instalments. I make a mistake and sin as a Christian and you say “I’m sorry! I’m really, really sorry!”. “Okay it’s forgiven!”. No! It says ALL were forgiven here at the Cross 2,000 years ago! Should a Christian say “I’m sorry Lord” if you sin? I think you should. BUT! It’s not to get your fellowship back or your intimacy back – it is just honesty! You are still the righteousness of God by a free gift. Just as Jesus never became our sin by sinning but by the free gift of our sin.

Let’s read this last verse here and then I will close. (v14); “He took it away nailing it to the Cross, having disarmed … triumphing over them by the Cross”. Who wrote the 10 Commandments? God with His finger! 2 Corinthians 3:7 said that the ministry of death that was written on tablets of stone that brought condemnation came with glory – fading though it was. The ministry that brings righteousness brings unfading glory. There is a ministry of death that the Bible says stood opposed to us and was against us and was killing us. Through the Law I died to the law! The law killed us! It has no more claim over us! At the Cross He cancelled the law! He is the One who wrote it! He doesn’t want you under it! The whole point of the blood and guts of the Cross was to cancel the law and by cancelling the law God triumphed over the powers and authorities and disarmed them! So to preach the Law to the Church is to re-arm powers and authorities!

Let me ask you this question – if God cancelled the Law and we preach to the Church something God has cancelled then the Holy Spirit will not empower you to preach something that God has cancelled! So what spirit comes on ministries who preach the law to the church? It is not the Holy Spirit! What spirit? Galatians 3:1 – it is the spirit of witchcraft.

“Who has bewitched you?”. It is a bewitching spirit. This law/religious thing is not a small issue. It is a big issue! We should make it a big issue! The religious world doesn’t want us to make it a big issue because they have the leverage of the law to beat people up and control people. Jesus said “My yoke is easy and My burden is light – come unto Me all ye who are heavy laden with law and legalism”. As we walk and live in the Holy Spirit we will become more like Jesus, love one another like never under the law! The 10 Commandments say “Love the Lord your God!”. The New Covenant says “We love Him because He first loved us!”. If you try to love God then you will just come under the Law again! The religious spirit says you don’t love God very much! You wouldn’t do that if you really loved God! Let Him love you! The disciple “whom Jesus loved” at the Last Supper leant on the chest of Jesus! Why was he so close? “I am the one He loves!”. Peter was about five men down the table and he was saying; “What’s He saying?!”. When you know you are the one He loves then people will come and say “What’s He saying?”. “He is saying – He is not counting your sins against you!”. John was the last disciple with Him at the Cross. Peter was like many modern Christians and will prove how much he loved Christ. “You will be sifted like wheat and be taken out”.

Rob Rufus - Session 1 - Glory and Grace Holland

It is to my everlasting regret that the closest Rob and Glenda Rufus came to the United Kingdom this year was Holland. Thanks to swine flu and the resulting demands on my job - I simply wasn't able to get the time off to fly the short distance to experience the Glory and Grace Conference. I will have to live in hope that happens next year! I need a Glory and Grace conference very soon! I am so grateful to Mp3s - the second best thing.

Here's the transcript!

"Well Holland Glory and Grace! It is such a joy and a privilege to be here! We have had two or three days in Amsterdam which was a great delight. I don’t like shopping much – but an anointing to shop came on me in Amsterdam! This is one of the manifestations! My wife brought nothing! That is one of the biggest signs and wonders I have ever seen! I want to thank you for hosting this conference. You have a reputation of doing everything well with excellence. Thank you for having us. The whole of the church too. It is our joy to speak to people from different countries as well.

I do want to say to the people of Holland that as we were praying last night, we really sensed that God wants to increase His Presence and power in this land. We felt right across to Eastern Europe including Russia; a move of the Spirit established in the Netherlands will go right through to Eastern Europe. We are trusting this time will light even more fires and that we will be partners together in this move of the Spirit across the land.

I want to honour and welcome my daughter Bonnie who I am very proud of. This has been a great and very challenging year. We have seen cripples walk; we have seen teams moving into China, seeing many people saved in the towns and rural areas of China. We have a team of 11 people from our church preaching the gospel in China. They have seen communist government officials saved when they see the miracles.

We had a lady wheeled into our church 2months ago in a wheelchair and I thought “I hope I get a chance to pray for her!” because our people believe that they are in Christ and can do the works that Jesus did. I am getting out of practice! They just get in before me! They are very rude and pray for the people before I can get the chance! At the end of the service I was heading for the back of the church, before I got there this lady was up and walking! Some of the church had prayed for her.

The next week this lady – a Chinese lady – came walking into the service next week. She had been in a wheelchair crippled for 20 years. God is doing some wonderful things in our days! We have had two Glory and Grace conferences this year already – one in Hong Kong and one in South Africa. We have seen amazing hunger in God’s people. So what I have come to realise is that God uses anybody! He really likes using those who know they are weak. Paul the apostle said we can boast in two things – our weakness and God’s strength! God doesn’t need our strength! He is incredibly strong! All our strength is flesh! This flesh can’t make people come out of wheelchairs or change people’s lives.

When we are weak – then the Holy Spirit moves in power and does great miracles, transforms lives!

I think we will be laying hands on people in some of the meetings but don’t wait for human hands! The greatest miracle can happen in your chair as God does what He wants! How many believe that God has more power to reveal in His church today?

There are four things that will establish a move of the Spirit at a deeper level in our churches:

1. We need to preach the gospel of grace that Paul preached – it liberates God’s people.

2. We must have a desperate hunger for more of God’s glory Presence.

3. We mustn’t be afraid of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

4. We must not be afraid of what man says – especially religious men! We must not be afraid of the rejection!

They rejected Jesus and hated Him, they hated Paul! This message of grace is the thing that the devil fears the most. Religious people fear this message the most! I don’t fully understand it! When religious people hear that the gospel means that you are free from the law of Moses, completely free and only under grace – it frightens them! But Paul the apostle said when he was under the law, he said he was a violent man!

People under law are violent – they have murderous attitudes. All religion that is legalistic, performance-based makes very unhappy, angry, violent people. Paul said according to the law – he had legalistic righteousness. He said it was faultless! But he said he considered that legalistic faultless righteousness as rubbish. The Greek is a stronger word – “dung”. Something that stinks! When someone is legalistic, they like to tick off boxes as to what they did not or did do. “You must be pleased with me God”. He says; “It stinks”. Paul said “I want to be found in Christ having a righteousness that is by faith in Christ and is apart from the law – that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and share in the fellowship of His suffering”.

I don’t understand how people can mix law and grace together! Under the law – the law curses you. The Bible says it is a “ministry of death”. It kills you. Under grace – we are redeemed from the curse of the law! The blessing given to Abraham is given to us freely! The law makes you conscious of your sin, grace makes you conscious that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! Under law God says “I will by no means forget your sins”.

Under the law God forgives your sins through the blood of bulls and of goats – but He doesn’t forget them. Under grace God says “I will by no means remember your sins and your lawless deeds”. Under law God demands a perfect righteousness by our performance. Under grace God provides His perfect gift of righteousness through His Son. The law says “Do – do – do!”. Grace says “It’s done!”. The law is a revelation of how wrong you are with God. Grace is a revelation of how right you are through Christ.

I know this is very simple! But the Church has made it very complicated. You are either under law or under grace. You can’t mix these two together. They are impossible to mix together! The law is so radical – if you fail in one area then the Bible says you are guilty of failing in every area. You must pluck your eyes out, cut your hands off, stone your children even! That is extreme! Under law people stand outside abortion clinics and shoot the doctors. They feel they are right in doing that! I do not believe in abortion – I know it is killing children! I don’t like it! But under law they say you must kill those who break the law and stone them. Under grace, it says you must love your enemies. The grace of God is so extreme! Right across the church world there is no argument about the definition of grace. There is no conflict! Almost every Christian will agree that grace is “God’s unmerited favour to you, that grace is God’s riches at Christ’s expense, that grace is God doing good things for us when we don’t deserve it, that grace is God’s empowerment on our lives”. Most of the church world agrees with that. The real problem comes trying to convince Christians that if you are in Christ the only way God relates to you is always and totally through grace and grace alone! That is where the fight comes!

There are two glories – there is an Old Covenant fading glory and a New Covenant ever-increasing glory! The Old Covenant glory is God’s view and opinion of you through the law. When God sees you through the law, all He sees is sin and man coming short. He must bring judgement and walk away. Under the New Covenant God sees you only through grace and grace alone. When He sees you through grace He sees you continually and permanently in Christ’s righteousness and can keep blessing you and causing His glory to come on you. Romans 5:21 says “grace reigns through the GIFT of righteousness”. Isn’t this good news?! It is so good! We have mixed law and grace together for centuries. There is a generation of believers rising in the earth – NO more mixture, NO more condemning cocktail that has confused and crippled us with condemnation, NO more fading glory! We are a generation of the EVER-INCREASING glory!

Some of the greatest insights into the New Covenant are seen when you read the Old Testament prophets. They see a day when the New Testament is coming. In Isaiah 61 he is announcing the New Covenant coming! Under law there is only mourning and sack cloth and ashes – because it is only gloom and doom and judgement. Under grace there is joy and freedom and that is why Isaiah says “The Spirit of the Lord is on me to preach freedom to the prisoners – to bring the oil of joy instead of mourning – beauty for ashes!”.

When I was a university student, I worked as a volunteer in insane asylums. I thought I was going insane! Many of the people in insane asylums have got a religious background and they are so depressed and so confused because there is a condemnation from the law that destroys the human being psychologically! God never wanted to bring the law! He came to Abraham and said; “Abraham – I will bless you! I will make your name great! I will make you a blessing in the earth! All nations will be blessed through you!”. Abraham didn’t have the law of Moses! The law was coming 430 years in the future! Abraham was an Iraqi sinner! He had done nothing good – he had no faith in God! He wasn’t behaving morally! God said “I will bless you! I will make you a blessing in all nations”. And Abraham said … “Okay!”. He hadn’t been to church or been taught the law – that you have to earn and deserve! He just believed that God wanted to bless him – and God credited that to him as righteousness. But God didn’t offer him righteousness! He offered to BLESS Abraham and Abraham believed it! God said “That faith in My goodness declares you righteous”.

Who are the seed of Abraham? The people of faith? The people that believe God wants to bless you out of His own goodness – THEY are declared righteous!

God brought 400 years after Abraham – because of Abraham’s covenant and they went through the Red Sea and were blessed and blessed, yet they complained and complained – but still God didn’t kill or judge them! Finally God said; “Because of your unbelief in My goodness – I will give you something that is NOT based on faith in My goodness. I will give you the Law”.

(Galatians 3:12) says the Law is not based on faith. (Hebrews 11:6) says without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. The Law is based on something that is IMPOSSIBLE to please God – the Law is based on a faith on me being good enough to earn the blessing.

Hebrews chapter 10 said God did not want to bring sin offerings or the Temple system – but the Law required it. On the day that the law came on Mount Sinai – what was the name of the religious day? The Day of Pentecost. 50 days after the Passover meal in Egypt. That was the day the law was introduced. On that day 3000 people were put to death by the wrath of God. The law had no power to make them holy and they were already worshipping a golden calf. When the Law arrived they were committing adultery and 3000 were put to death by the wrath of God. The law is based on man’s human effort, self-righteousness, human arrogance, the Law is there to show you and me that we can never get the blessings through us earning it. 1500 years later there was another day of Pentecost. 50 days after the Passover lamb had died on the Cross. At the Cross He cancelled the law and took it away. 50 days after that Passover lamb died, there was another Pentecost. The people in that city had done something worse than a golden calf – they had crucified the Lord of Glory! But on that day 3000 were saved!

Why would anyone want to live under law? On that day they walked out completely drunk! People were amazed! They said these men were drunk with new wine! Psalm 2 says God laughs at those who thinks they can advance against His anointed! Hebrews 1:8 says that Jesus is anointed with the oil of joy above anyone else in heaven. The Bible says the Holy Spirit is called the new wine. So – we have a trinity. A Father sitting on a throne laughing from His belly at the devil thinking he can destroy the church. Jesus at His right hand is full of more joy than any other creature in heaven! He is the uncreated eternal God by the way! The Father laughing, Jesus anointed with the oil of joy above His fellows and the Holy Spirit – powerful, intoxicating new wine and then you have the church in the earth. Conservative. Formal. “Have you prayed 5 hours today?! How much have you read your Bible?! Have you confessed your sins?!”. Depressed with an epidemic of melchnolia. Some people think the Trinity says “This isn’t right – look at the Church and how sad they are!”. We should become like them. The Trinity says “Let’s stop all this joy in heaven and laughter and angels from being happy. Stop all the joy when a sinner gets saved. When anyone gets saved we want depressed angels”. Because one day all these depressed Christians and grumpy brothers and sisters will come to heaven and if they see all this joy then they will be in hell, uncomfortable and not at home! Does the Trinity say that?! The Trinity says “NO! Let’s make as in heaven – on earth!”. Let Your Kingdom come to earth! Let Your will be done on earth as in heaven! Let’s let them know that Our joy is their strength! Let the fruit of the Holy Spirit be love, joy and peace!

The Kingdom of heaven is not food and drink but a matter of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit! Let them see that a merry heart does good, like medicine! Let sorrow and sighing flee away! Let God arise – let Zion be the joy of the whole earth! When we get there Jesus will say “Well good and faithful servant – enter into the JOY!”. He will not say “Enter into the depression of the Lord!”.

There is another thing God is doing in the earth – not only is He pouring out joy but ecstasy! Blessing!

You say “But Jesus was a Man of Sorrows”. What is the Man of Sorrows? That is Isaiah 53 – when He was on the Cross, carrying our sorrows and our pain and our suffering and our punishment so we can carry His joy, His freedom, His happiness! He is no longer a Man of Sorrows but the happiest Man on earth and heaven!

The other thing the Holy Spirit is doing is He is pouring out FIRE on the church. It is the fire of His jealous love. This fire is burning out of us – everything that loves something else more than Jesus. The Law says “Stop that – stop that”. It doesn’t help because Christians just carry on! When the fire of God’s love burns in us, it fills us with an awareness of how much He loves us and how glorious He is – it is supernatural!

It just burns out that which will steal our love away from Jesus. And the revelation of grace and the revelation of joy and freedom – there is a fire that is capturing our hearts with a passionate love for Jesus and a love for Him above everything else. In that is coming signs, wonders and miracles and healing filling us with drunkenness – bliss – ecstasy (not the drug but the same effect!).

Why do all these young people want to take ecstasy? I don’t blame them! So much of the Church is depressed so they have got to take something! But imagine when they see us in the supernatural joy!

Not Mount Sinai Pentecost where God is killing people because of the law but Pentecost in Mount Zion where God is saving sinners and the Church is drunk with ecstasy from heaven!

People will give up their ecstasy drugs for something much better! In this conference the wind of God is going to blow. He is blowing here tonight already! He will blow with the winds of the Spirit over all of our lives. In the winds of God we are going to smell the perfumes of heaven and the spices of the anointing among us! We are literally going to smell vanilla! Myrrh! These are the spices!

Exodus 30 is the ingredient of the anointing. It is literally going to drip from us!

Our cups are going to overflow and when it overflows it will splash on people around you! They may be sitting here like this saying “I am not going to get drunk – don’t give me that ecstasy or happiness! My grandfather was depressed, my father was depressed and I am going to keep the tradition of the family!”. Even though God is laughing His head off! Jesus is anointed with joy in heaven! The Holy Spirit is called the new wine. “It’s disgusting this happiness! I am going to keep the family tradition! I wouldn’t do that ‘joy’ stuff even if you paid me!”. Listen – when the Holy Spirit touches you, you will do it without being paid! As you come into overflow you are going to splash on people around you. You are going to splash on people in the streets, in your homes, hotels!

Fini and Isi were walking in Australia some time ago and had been in a meeting where the joy of heaven had broken loose. They were walking through the streets of Adelaide a few weeks later and walked past a young Australian woman. As they came in shadow contact, these unsaved, non-Christian, un-churched women fell under the power of the Holy Spirit totally drunk! There are coming signs and wonders that will break out in the streets! On the Day of Pentecost it was their drunkenness and the sound of heaven breaking into the earth that attracted the crowd and the people said “What is this?”. Peter’s sermon was “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel”.

Evangelism is not going to be knocking on doors and saying “Can I preach to you?”. No! Shut and close the door! Evangelism is going to be because the unsaved people SEE the joy and the Presence of God and the fire of God in US!

I was also walking through a place in Australia and there was a street café and someone called me over. I leant over the table and looked at the people. I was under such a heavy anointing. They were normal and then suddenly they were all covered in gold, oil dripping off them. They fell off the coffee table drunk in the street! People walking by saw them drunk in the street and I was able to say, “Don’t worry they are not drunk as ye suppose” and then was able to share the Gospel with them. Signs and wonders! Religion has been a people thinking “It is so hard to get a goat from our Father!”. In the parable of the prodigal son, the man had been with prostitutes and spent all his father’s inheritance! He came home and his father ran to him and kissed him on the neck and gave him a ring, shoes, a robe, party, a fatted calf. There was singing and dancing and happiness because there had been grace! The older brother had been working very hard doing everything right and said “I come into this place with singing and dancing and you give him a fatted calf and he has been with prostitutes and I have worked so hard for you and you didn’t even give me a goat!”. The father said “Son - everything I have is yours”. You are a son!

The New Covenant says this in Ephesians 2 and Romans 6; “If you are in Christ then you were co-crucified and co-buried”. God does not live within time. God doesn’t live limited to time. God created time and God lives in the glory. He lives in the eternal now. So you are already crucified with Christ! It has happened already! You have been buried with Christ, ascended, glorified and co-seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.

You are a co-equal heir with Christ and an heir of God! This has already happened! You start the Christian race at the finishing line as a WINNER!

This has all happened already. If you were going to play cricket for Holland and you knew you were guaranteed to win. How would you play? If you knew it was impossible to lose, that in the mind of God you have already won! Every ball that came your way – you would go for it! You would play! How would you play football? You would play with reckless confidence! People that think God is judging them and God is putting condemnation on them – Jesus said they take their talents and they bury it. They are so cautious – they think God is a hard taskmaster. Those that know God is good and we are guaranteed to win, they take their talents and take risks and multiply!

The New Covenant is superior to the Old Covenant! It has a superior mediator – Jesus. God took an oath in Isaiah to NEVER be angry with you or me again! He said “I take an oath, as surely as I took an oath with Noah’s flood – that the world will never be destroyed with a global flood – so I declare I will never be angry with you again, I will never withdraw My covenant of peace with you. I will establish you in My righteousness and you will have nothing to fear! Terror will be far from you! No weapon formed against you will succeed for your righteousness is from Me!”.

Your Father is the umpire of the game of life. The referee! The devil is bowling! Every ball you want to hit right out of the ground. You miss! The wicket breaks. The Holy Spirit puts the wicket back up! Jesus said “Not out!”. The Father says to the devil “Bowl again” and you swing and swing until you hit the ball out of the ground. Father is not umpiring the game by religious rules and regulations. He is umpiring the game by the finished work of the Cross. We just step out and swing the bat and we take risks over and over again until we win because we are guaranteed to win.

This is what righteousness means as a gift. You are as righteous in the Father’s eyes as Jesus because you have been given His gift of righteousness, completely apart from the Law! And there is no possibility that the Law can come back over your life because Colossians 2:14 God CANCELLED the Law and disarmed the powers and authorities at the Cross! So the devil can no longer accuse you because the law has gone. Now you are under grace and you are as close to the Father as Jesus is. In John 17 Jesus prayed, regarding all of us, “Father – may they be one just as We are one”. The Bible says in 1 John 4:17 “As He is, so are we in this world”. When I want to know what my relationship with the Father is like, I don’t look at me; I am finished with that inward looking stuff – if you spend all your time looking inwards, then you will get very depressed!

Corrie Ten Boom in Amsterdam said “If I look at myself I am depressed, if I look at the world I am unimpressed but if I look at Jesus I am so impressed!”. Even David under the Old Covenant said; “Search me O Lord and lead me in the paths of righteousness”. You don’t search yourself. In the New Covenant when the Holy Spirit is searching you, He is telling you as the Comforter; “Grace – grace – you are righteous! The Law has gone!”. If I want to know my relationship with the Father, I look at Jesus relationship with the Father because I am in Christ. Under the Law God made a covenant with man and said “If you do the law then I will bless you, but if you don’t do the law I will curse you. If you break one part of the law then you are guilty of breaking it all”.

Under the New Covenant God said; “I love you so much – I am not going to make a covenant with you. I will cut a covenant with My Son – outside of you – I will cut it with My Son at the Cross and then I will include you in Him”. So His standing before Me will be your standing before Me. It is within the infallibility of the Trinity. For you to fall from favour with the Father, Jesus would have to sin. Because you are in Him. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus ALL the time.

Rob, what happens when I make a mistake or sin? You are STILL the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus not under the law. I don’t want to sin and I know you don’t want to sin but the Law will not help you get victory over sin! Living in the victory of grace will bring you into true victory!

"Increasing Glory" Conference - South Africa - MP3s!!

Here's another chance to hear Rob and Glenda Rufus and Fini and Isi de Gersigny that I was planning to grab but missed thanks to swine flu! Fortunately I knew a few people who were at the conference so I was enjoying text updates throughout! I'm thrilled to also discover a blog covering the event by one of the pastors - a guy called James here. The hosts have very kindly made the MP3's available for wider listening around the world - so here they are;

Session 1 - Morning
Rob Rufus
Wednesday 8 July
Download Session

Session 2 - Afternoon
Rob Rufus
Wednesday 8 July
Download Session

Session 3 - Evening
Rob Rufus
Wednesday 8 July
Download Session

Session 4 - Morning
Fini & Isi de Gersigny
Thursday 9 July
Download Session

Session 5 - Evening
Rob Rufus
Thursday 9 July
Download Session

Session 6 - Morning
Rob Rufus
Friday 10 July
Download Session

Session 7 - Afternoon
Rob Rufus
Friday 10 July
Download Session

Session 8 - Evening
Fini & Isi de Gersigny
Friday 10 July
Download Session

Testimonies - Morning
Various
Saturday 11 July
Download Session


Session 9 - Morning
Rob Rufus
Saturday 11 July
Download Session

Session 10 - Evening (Celebration Service)
Rob Rufus
Sunday 12 July
Download Session

Interview with Fini & Isi
Leadership Podcast
Friday 10 July
Download Podcast

Faith is Conducting Heaven's Influence Into The Earth - Part 6

This sermon was preached by Rob Rufus on Sunday 29th March 2009 at City Church International.

"Increasing In The Anointing"

"Most people have never seen a prophetic ministry come amongst them and call out the region where someone lives and then give the street name and then the number of their house. Most of us have only seen William Branham doing that in the 1950s on DVD or video and many people didn't even know who William Branham was. But a true prophetic ministry came amongst us. And he didn't call out someone's address to prove that God knows where we live. God is not the mafia! "I know where you live!". He says those details to alert them that everything else now is God. This isn't just some little charismatic prophecy. "The Lord says 'I know you by name'. By the way what's your name again?!". It is not that confusing stuff of speaking in riddles. This is God speaking face to face as a friend speaks to a friend. As a Father speaks to children. So everything else God said to Fini and Isi - they knew that this is God! This isn't just wishful thinking or someone trying to be kind and prophecying something into my life. This is someone who picked up from the Father my address details and now what they are saying is true and authentic. I know Fini and Isi and I know what they have just been through for the last year and I know how powerful that was for them.

I will never understand why people doubt and want to be suspicious about manifestations of God. God dwells in the invisible realm and we live in the visible world. If God doesn't manifest into the visible world then you can't know God.

Romans 1 says we can know Him by the invisible qualities seen in creation and Romans 1 is very clear. But it is talking about those who know God by seeing Him in the invisible realm - still don't worship Him but worship the creation.

You can know there is a God by what He has created and you can know something about His invisible nature by what He has created but if He doesn't manifest who He is in a tangible way that you can experience and encounter God then you will never know God and walk God and you will never see miracles like this.

So Joshua Mills is either one of the biggest con men that you have ever seen or he is the real deal - there is nothing in-between. Someone said; "Oh that gold dust came out of his coat - he probably had sachets of it under his collar and at a certain time in the meeting he would let it out". He came up on the platform one night and there was no gold dust anywhere. Then it was suddenly there. "So he probably pulls a string somewhere". I want to know then - how did it get on his forehead? And on his hair? "Maybe he's got something up there". Listen if he did then it would have gone all over the platform and it wasn't. It was just on him! "Maybe he has got a little bag of oil and he pushes a button and it flows". The reason we are cynical like this is because we were programmed by a cynical intellectual nation.

The first thing God has to do is restore us to childlike innocence again - to say yes just because there is the counterfeit and the fake that is evidence and proof that there is the genuine!

Banktellers learning how to recognise counterfeit money don't get counterfeit money. They give them the real thing over and over again so they are so familiar with the real that the moment the fake passes through their hands they can discern a counterfeit note. The Church doesn't need anymore witchdoctors or people trying to expose fraudulence. They need the real deal - so the average Christian can get the real Presence of a living God who manifests in tangible ways in the earth.

People are leaving the Church by the millions across the Western world because they are tired of going to a building on a Sunday morning and God is not there. "Ah but He is present everywhere!". Yes that's true - but He is not manifest there.

See the nature of God is so lovely and so beautiful and it makes you feel so very precious and valuable - it does not hurt this lady but came over her and tickled her and put heavenly voltage on her and gave her a hip replacement, put her on the heavenly hammock and let her rest and did what no one else can do and year of pain went like that because the nature of God was manifested.

I feel literally nauseous when I hear Christians say; "I don't seek manifestations - if they come then I celebrate them but I don't see them". Why would you not seek something that heals and replaces hips? Why would you not seek something that can move over a whole city and cause millions to be aware of the goodness of God and the glory of God and the Presence of God? Why wouldn't you seek that?

What is the gifts of the Spirit? 1 Corinthians 12:7; "the manifestation of the Spirit is given to all". The Greek word means "the dancing hands of God" that come over us and land on us and touches us with favour - then we have got a gift of faith and we can do things that we couldn't do before. 10 seconds later that gift is not there anymore. You don't have any gifts! You have the Person on the inside of you who has got all nine gifts and all nine fruits! That is why you can't say; "I don't have the gift of faith - I only have the gift of healing". Then you have got to say that you only have the fruit of joy and peace but no fruit of love so I can hate anyone I want to hate! No - the same manifestation of the Holy Spirit produces fruit. The same manifestation of the Spirit can Abi a working of miracles and she can speak under an anointing of faith that is way beyond her normal level of faith. When that job is done then that manifestation lifts and it has gone. Then the next day He can give gifts of healings or discerning of spirits - not the gift of suspicion to discern whether this person has an evil heart or not! No - that is called having a gift of being a Pharisee! Discerning of spirits is primarily to discern the presence of angels. "I thought it was to discern demons!". Yes - that is a small part of it. Discerning of spirits - plural!

Anyone in the church can move in any of the gifts! But it says not all are prophets, not all are apostles. He is talking about the ascension gifts of Christ. Not everyone is an apostle, a prophet, a miracle worker. What is a miracle worker? It is an evangelist. But 1 Corinthians 12:7 is given to everyone to profit everyone! They are called manifestations of the Spirit! What does 1st Corinthians 14:1 say? "EAGERLY desire spiritual gifts".

What have you got to eagerly desire? MANIFESTATIONS! The Greek word for desire is "with intense, strong yearnings and cravings and burning longings - DESIRE manifestations of Almighty God!".

I hear leaders get up and say; "Well I don't see manifestations". When they say it there is a level of aloofness and pride - "I am over that childish thing of people who experience manifestations. I am now into good theology". They are NOT into good theology! Good theology says "Eagerly DESIRE!". What they are into is a mixture of reformed theology that didn't just keep on reforming and has got a built-in "anti" the supernatural, a subtle, manipulative content to it. We need to seek manifestations because really it is a manifestation of God!

The gift of faith is a manifestation of God. He is the Spirit of faith! The working of miracles is a manifestation of God! He is a miracle-working Being! The gifts of healing is a manifestation of healing! When God comes into a room - sick people are healing whether they feel like being healed or not! You can get people healed by their faith or your faith and can preach the Word to help them see it is God's will to heal but if God MANIFESTS then people get healed with faith or not! Because God is in the house! If enough of God walks in then people don't need faith! They will believe afterwards! I am telling you it is good to get people healed with their faith and pray for people with your faith. I tell you - Hong Kong - 7 million people - we cannot reach this city just with individuals faith. We need God to come and MANIFEST over the city of Hong Kong - 24/7 - and hang as a tangible manifestation! Otherwise people will never know the invisible nature of God! They can look at the mountains and the forest and know something about God although it is a fallen planet and has been corrupted and frustrated by Adam's high treason and Adam's fall!

So they need the people that are in last Adam in Christ who are new creations operating from the heavenlies and pulling heaven's influence into the earth which is what is happening in heaven happening on earth and God is 24/7 - a manifest cloud of glory, a tangible beauty of love, light, wisdom, power and LIFE! That is what is happening in heaven! When He enthrones Himself in a community of people in a city and He doesn't come for a conference but 24/7 because there are lightning conductors catching heaven's influence and translating into the earth realm! Whether you are sleeping or awake you have just become a conductor of heaven's influence! That is what we need in Hong Kong! That is what we want - a manifestation of Your glory! A manifestation of the One we love! I don't like a long-distance relationship with Glenda. I can write to her and she can write to me when we are aware. I want to feel a tangible Glenda! I want a manifested Glenda! I don't want an in-tangible God! I want a tangible God! A God you can experience! The living God! The living God comes and you won't have to preach against idols - everyone will just get rid of idols because God Himself is in the city!

God will bring priority to Himself and money will take it's rightful place in Hong Kong! God is not against money but He doesn't want anything before Him and He wants to be first! When He comes then people gladly give up money and God will gladly give them money! As long as He is first! The financial blessing coming on people in this church is an incredible testimony! Testimony upon testimony! In one day people are set free from debt! Others just blessings! Offerings that came in for the conference! Just all kinds of things! Another man wrote out a cheque to City Church for 52, 000 dollars! Just gave it to us! A visitor! A release of the finances while in the glory manifestation! There is financial abundance and you know what? People aren't greedy! They are after God and love God because they have found out that He is so good!

This is number six in the series; "Faith conducts Heaven's influence into the Earth". Today we are finishing the series and we may touch on the Benjamin generation next Sunday morning. Open your Bibles. I am going to be quite quick and I will give you the references.

On Thursday night we have got a prophetic word - God wants to give increase of everything good - increase of blessing into City Church International! We are going into a time of increase! Increased revelation! Increased illumination! Increased understanding of His grace, of the New Covenant, of superior covenant with a superior mediator!

"That weak and useless covenant" - Hebrews 7 says! Weak and useless! Because it all depended on what man can do!

The New Covenant is not intrinsic - it is extrinsic! It didn't happen in you or by you or through you and it has got nothing to do with you because if it did it would be weak and useless because you are trying to keep laws and rules. The New Covenant is not God trying to make a covenant with you. He loves you so much that He didn't want to make a covenant with you. He made a covenant with His Son on your behalf and He did it outside of you but you were included in it so you are infalliably safe and you are the righteousness of God perfectly and all the time - as long as Jesus doesn't backslide! Your life is hid with Christ and all the fullness of Christ is your inheritance as a joint equal heir of Christ and an heir of God and you are seated with Him in the heavenly realms as a co-equal heir, not going to happen one day! It is NOW the reality of your position in Christ! Perfect forever!

I can say those things a thousand times and I still feel good every time! Increased revelation on that! We are still in the shallows in grace! Increased release of financial prosperity! Increased love for one another, the lost in our city and in the nations! Increased signs and wonders! Increased rest! Increased peace! While we work we are at rest! Increased fruitfulness! Do less - see more happen! Sneeze and people get healed! The effortless realm of the glory where you do less and less, try less and less and He does more and more! I want increase!

You get nothing in the Kingdom without the anointing - everything happens by the anointing. Romans 14:17 says; "For the Kingdom of heaven is not about food or drink" - all these religious ceremonies. "But righteousness" - which is the gift of righteousness. "Peace and joy in the Holy Spirit". So the Kingdom is in the Holy Spirit. There is nothing that can come from heaven unless it comes through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is getting anointed that brings the increase of everything else! If you can increase in the anointing then you will increase on every other level.

How do you get into the glory? You cannot get into the glory without the anointing. They consecrated themselves as priests under the Old Covenant with the anointing and then they went into the cloud of the glory. The anointing is what God does! The glory is Who God is!. Some of you are thinking that he is 54 and he is forgetting that he said these things before. No I am saying them as a safeguard to "protect you from the dogs, evil workers and mutilators of the flesh". Paul said those are the people that mix law and grace together. Paul the apostle said it! The anointing is what God does - His actions. The glory is who God is. The danger is people who live off borrowed transferences of the anointing and don't know God. They know the anointing which is the actions of God. But they don't know the nature of God - because His glory is who He is. Matthew 7 - people like to frighten Christians. "Jesus said you did miracles in My Name ... and I will say depart from Me you workers of iniquity - I never knew you". He didn't say they were backslidden and lost to salvation! I believe once you are saved, you are in Christ forever! If you are in Christ and can fall out of last Adam then by your own good works, you can fall out of first Adam! That is why people who preach that you can lose your salvation are preaching a much more powerful first Adam than last Adam. It is anti-Christ and anti- the finished work of the Cross. It doesn't produce miracles on a sustainable way.

We know where he was speaking about "where sin increased, grace did much more". Grace did much more in abundance increase! He is essentially talking about the two Adams! When first Adam fell, grace more than abundantly, super-abundantly increased in manifestation of last Adam! No in last Adam - Christ Jesus - you are secure! He said to them; "You workers of miracles and prophesying in My Name, depart from Me, I never knew you". They weren't people that were saved and then lost their salvation. They were people Jesus never knew! Never born again! You can get transference of the anointing and if you don't use that anointing to get saved - or to go into the glory - then you won't know who God is! The anointing is what God does. The glory is who He is.

If you hang around anointed people long enough - you can do miracles, even if you are not born again. But the anointing is given to increase our access and experience of the glory!

Because the glory is His nature! When you come into the glory you want to weep or laugh or worship or adore because you feel so precious in the glory because you feel the love of God and you get to know who God is! Then the way you handle the anointing is with an administration of grace - that is not self-promoting. You are not using miracles to get a big church! You are not using miracles to get money or to be famous! You know who God is through His glory so you are moving in compassion because you can't handle seeing people suffer sickness and disease!

That is why the healing revivalists came down in the 1940s and 50s because they would go fast to get the anointing, they would use the principles and try and catch anointings and then they would come out and preach miracles but you have got to preach who Christ IS! You have got to preach the nature of God in the anointing and who our God is!

Psalm 103:7 says a fascinating thing! It says God revealed His ways to Moses but only His deeds or His actions to Israel! So Moses knew the ways of God - how the Holy Spirit moved, how to partner and surrender to the movings of God because He understood the ways of God! So He manifested miracles. Israel didn't have a clue how He was doing it, they were just witnesses of the miracles! That would be representative of many churches today. A special evangelist flies in and he or she has learnt the ways of God and know how to tap into the invisible realm and know how to operate with the anointing and know how to produce miracles. The average church member is going "Oh wasn't that impressive? That must have been their special gift on them!". It was not their special gift on them! Their gift as an apostle or prophet is NOT to have a special gift but to equip and train everyone else to do what God has given them a grace to train others to do!

That is what it says in John 14:12. "Anyone who believes in Me - the works I do shall you do also and greater works than I do, shall you do also because I am going to the Father!". What did He do when He went to the Father? He that ascended is the same one that descended and when He ascended up, He gave mantles to men and women to equip the church to come to the full measure of the stature of Christ! I believe in this church we are not only seeing the actions and the deeds of God but more and more as a congregation we are learning the ways of God. So in Habbakkuk 3:4 it says God hides His power in His Presence. God's Presence is His glory! In His glory Presence He hides His power! You can get around people who have gone into the glory Presence and have found the power of God and you can get a transfer of the power - but they cannot transfer the Presence and the glory to you. They can transfer the power but glory is not transferrable! You personally have to turn the TV off and personally go out to the country park and personally get alone with God and spend time with the living God because He hides His power in His glory and you have to get into the glory! Not as a law or rule but because you want to! Then you can transfer power to other people and make them hungry for the glory Presence!

You just cannot go week after week without shouting down phones and cancelling appointments, "No I can't run around doing that - this week I am taking time out for me and Jesus just to be together!" - just as in Acts they saw the disciples and said these are uneducated men but they perceieved that they had been with Jesus! There is something dangerous about people who only catch power but don't know His Presence. That is where we get wrong motives and an abuse of the anointing. That is where we get weird people. I am not saying you have to fast every week! The more you spend time alone with God, the more you can experience His Presence in the busyness of Hong Kong! I am walking through the streets of Mong Kok and I can feel His glory Presence on me, I can feel His Presence! You can feel His Presence every day as you walk in His glory!

Let me give you five things that will help you increase the anointing on your life - because the anointing will help you get into the glory.

1. Hunger.

Probably the number one thing. People say; "I don't seek the manifestations of God". Every single person I know that says "I don't seek the manifestations of God" - don't have manifestations. Hunger! I want to see God move! I don't care how He moves as long as He moves! If it is gold dust, oil, words of knowledge! I don't care as long as it is Him! How do you know Rob? I have an anointing on the inside of me! I can discern the reality of the anointing. When the anointing is on someone then it resonates with me. I don't care if their doctrine isn't the same as mine, if they have got an anointing then I KNOW it is the anointing! If it is a devil or familar spirit they are operating under then the anointing in me goes crazy and the discerning of spirits lets me know that is a demon operating. If it is a familiar spirit - that is a medium or a psychic spirit! When Christians are afraid of being deceived then they are already deceived because fear is a deception. God hasn't given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power, love and a sound mind. So many Christians are afraid of the devil because they have a theology of a big devil and a small God!

There has been more counterfeit miracles for so long! We have got to get the real thing - the real miracles happening! That will shut down the counterfeit! I know - people think the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa are dead and some are, but some are alive. There was a Dutch Reformed pastor that went down on holiday to Durban and Durban has got the biggest Indian population outside of India. It has got the Hinduis there and he went to watch them walking across the fire. He stood there and watched them and he thought; "If their god can do it for them then my God can do it for me". Ripped off his shoes and walked across the fire! They said to him that he had special fireproof socks on! So he ripped his socks off and walked slowly! They all run across!

A person with experience is not vulnerable to a person with argument. When you hear people talk about excess; "Watch out for excess!". Don't listen to them if their life is characterised by lack! If their life is characterised by lack then they have no right to talk about extremes!

Hunger! Acts 10:44, Acts 5:12.

2. Faith in the Goodness of God!

Acts 14:8-10.

3. Worship!

How many times in this conference did we sense the glory come as we began to worship? You will see that in 2 Kings 3:5, 2 Chronicles 3:5. They couldn't even stand as the glory cloud filled the temple. They fell! Paul had an encounter with God and he FELL. John had an encounter with Jesus and he FELL. Daniel had an encounter with God and he FELL! Everyone who had an encounter with God in this Bible FELL! Not voluntarily most of the time but because their knees were having such intense fellowship with one another that they collapsed! I remember I had never seen people fall. In 1980 a man came to our church. He was a useless preacher but my gosh - could he release the power!! An hour of boring preaching but I heard he was Bob Dylan's pastor so anyone who was a friend of Bob Dylan was a friend of mine! Then he got up and he said; "I am going to do this other thing that the Lord has given me". And as he said "other thing" - the atmosphere in the room went to super-electricity. The air molecules became pregnant with the power of God. I felt terrified! What is this!? I wanted to run out the building but I was the pastor so I had to stay!

And he started calling members of my congregation and reading their mail and telling them what is happening in their lives and they were going through the chairs and I was standing there as a surfer thinking "I am not going down!". I brace myself and he said "Oh the anointing is coming on the pastor" and I just flew! It wasn't voluntary! It was biblical! Unless people are astonished, amazed, mocking, criticising - you haven't got a move of God. That is Acts 2. They were utterly amazed, others were saying "They are drunk on new wine!". How many of the churches across Hong Kong have had Hong Kong being astonished, utterly amazed, accusing us of being drunk on new wine! Where?! Where is it happening every week!? Why!? Manifestations of God!

4. Prayer.

Acts 4:29. They actually prayed; "God stretch out Your hand to perform signs and wonders" and the building was shaken. I was giving an altar call one day and I said "There is one more to come, one more to come" and they didn't come and the whole building shook! I said "Okay - are you going to come?" and they came running! Manifestations are very helpful! Right on queue! It really happened!

5. The anointing increases when you associate with anointed people!

I watch anointed people go and associate with someone or something that doesn't believe in manifestations and give them a few months and they come back dry as a Californian! Dry! Every royal priest, every believer, every son and daughter of God should be so full of the anointing that our association with one another inspires us all to go higher! Not; "Oh watch those manifestations, you have got to balance that, you are getting too focused on manifestations! Get focused on the Manifestor!". Stop looking at healing, get focused on the Healer! Who He IS does the manifestation! Who He IS does the healing! Every time you see a manifestation THAT is God coming out of the invisible and manifestating in the visible realm! That is what it IS! Don't run after healing!?!! The Healer is healing! He is a healing Person! Jesus doesn't have love - He IS love!

Association! Acts 4:13 and 1st Sam 22:2. David was a giant killer and when all the discontent and disenfranchised who were sick and tired of religion and sick and tired of being under Saul and began to defect to David who was in a cave whereas Saul was in a palace! With wealth and prestige! Whereas David was an exile out in a cave! He wouldn't line up with the control spirit or do what institution wanted him to do! So the D-D-D's gathered with David and some of them began to kill giants! One man killed a lion for fun! Why? Because they were associated with a giant killer!

You stick around giant killers and you become a giant killer!

You are no longer overwhelmed by giants of finances! No - association with giants makes you a giant killer! I don't mean hierarchy and I don't mean Christian celebrities and get around men and kiss the ring! Anointed people are all around you! "Don't touch God's anointed" - but it is always referring to the big one! You are ALL anointed! Don't criticise God's anointed - the people of God! We have created laity and the anointing can't flow! You get around apostles, prophets, evangelists and you begin to be able to do what they can do! That doesn't mean you call yourself an apostle or a prophet! No! You are a royal priest! That is an honour! It is not the "priesthood of all believers" - that is Old Covenant! We are royal priests! We are a holy nation! There is no hierarchy! There is no superiority! If we want to put titles in front of men's names then put titles to define the function of everyone else! Housefixer Tony! Smashwalls down Tony! Social worker Jonny! Jesus? No title in front of His Name! "In the Name of Jesus!". Not; "In the Name of the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist Jesus!". He loves it! If anyone should have Lord in front of His Name it is Him!

We have got people serving key leaders! When Fini finished his message last week - respect and honour EVERYONE! Honour and respect leaders! Be kind and generous! Pray! Realise they are weak and get tired and need help! But do it to one another equally! In our big church in Australia when I came back from holiday everyone would welcome me back. I suddenly realised that other royal priests come back from holiday and they don't get welcomed! So I said "From now on everyone who comes back from holiday, we welcome them by name!". And this was a church of a few thousand! I believe in that! Then I saw pastors parking at the front of the building when I got there so that came to an end as well! We give people parking if they have a function, if there is a reason why they have to come late and have to come to a front seat and don't have time to run around looking for parking then that will be a function. The reason why I sit at the front is that it is more convinient to get to the pulpit and be involved. If I didn't have that function then I could sit anywhere in this building. This is not me being honoured above anyone else - it is a function! The insecurity in much of the church is that if you get the car parking space or front rows - then that is just creating childishness and insecurity and envy and Old Covenant thinking and God comes in revival and can't go any further because the wine skins are so Old Covenant and control!

5. Discerning the Presence of the Lord.

This is so important because I see Christians missing this! The way the Presence will increase in your life if you recognise even if a little Presence comes upon your life and you recognise it and urge Him to come more. In Luke 24:13-21 the disciples are walking with Jesus and they dont recognise it is Jesus and as they walk their hearts begin to burn and then they realise it is Him and then they urge Him and then get more Presence! In Matthew 6:48 they are in the storm and are frightened because of the size of the waves and they see Jesus walking and I quote; "He was about to pass by them". Then they said "Jesus!" and then He turned towards them. I have been in too many meetings where you feel the Presence come just a little bit into the meeting and people don't recognise the Presence and then they do something so insensative to the Presence that grieves or quenches the Presence and the Presence is lost for the rest of the meeting. God wants everyone of us in this church as royal priests to read the meeting and interpret what God is doing in the meeting. So successful meetings are when you have people discerning what God is doing in the meetings and partnering with God doing it!

When you get a whole congregation of lightning conductors and they are all seeing and discerning the Presence then God can come in undiluted glory! You can have a mediocre preacher or a useless pastor but if you have a whole congregation like that then you have miracles every week!

When the anointing is rubbed on you:

Middle Eastern shepherds rub oil on the ears of their sheep because if you have lived in Australia or Israel then you will know all about flies! Flies do terrible things to sheep's ears! That's why a shepherd can say whether a sheep is ill or not - because it is away from the flock. Only sick sheep leave the community of the flock and if you go and look their ears are dry because the flies - Satan is Beelzebub - the Lord of the Flies. So the shepherds anoint their ears so the flies can't penetrate their ears. The Bible says in the last days people will have "itching ears". What for? Legalism! Religion! Hierarchy! Their ears have not been protected by anointing oil so they listen to lies and partner with Beelzebub in lies. They are born again and going to heaven but partner with religious lies! Itching ears!

This anointing oil is wonderful but it needs to be rubbed on!

Some people come to the service so dry and the anointing is being smeared on but they stand there. Dull! Because of a veil over their heads because of the law! Give that anointing time and keep smearing and slowly "ha ha ha - oh this feels quite good!". Until you get a dear lady bouncing around! That is why it is so difficult in an hour and a half service! Modern stats show that the average person can only take 18 minutes of praise and worship and 20 minutes of a message! So the whole meeting can only be an hour because we don't want to inconvinience people! Some people need months of rubbing on - they are so dry! When you pray for them all the essence of your life gets sucked out of you because there is so much - a deep black hole there!

David says "You anoint my head with oil - my cup overflows!". I want to live in overflow all the time! My first priority in giving out so much over this conference was getting alone with God! I want overflow! I don't like living with my cup not overflowing because if you don't live in overflow you are heading for a nervous breakdown! If you are not burning oil then you are burning a nervous system! Eight hours of preaching after the conference and every minute was taken up by pastors wanting appointments. I was giving out and giving out and listening and listening! For seven days! Non-stop! You come out of there and people think a quick; "Lord refresh him" prayer will make me better! Elijah had to go and eat angel food and get anointed! You need more than a little prayer!

Sometimes the best thing you need is to go to sleep and eat some good food and watch a good movie! Go for a run in the country park!

1. To consecrate for service.

Exodus 30:30-31. It has got to be rubbed on and then you can do things you can't do before.

2. To bring honour to you and show God's loving ownership of you.

2 Cor 1:21-22.

3. It enables you.

1st John 2:20.

4. It brings authority.

If it was not for the anointing I would not be alive.

5. It destroys bondage.

Isaiah 10:27. I am amazed at Christans that do not get to one anointed service month after month. You know what is building up in the subterreanean depths of their soul? Bondage. Partnership with lies. And when you lay hands on them it is like granite walls of unbelief and tension! Don't wait! As soon as you get up; "Holy Spirit anoint me! Come!". You cannot allow those things to build up. Every day!

6. It imparts truth.

1st John 2:27.

7. It brings heavenly vision.

Acts 9 - you see into the heavenlies. Even if you don't see, you sense and become aware of the heavenlies more than earth. As Joshua Mills kept saying, you put your head above the clouds and you are much more relevant on the earth.

The anointing is transferrable - the glory is not. That is something you have to access through the throne room of grace.

Come boldly! Your sins and lawless acts I will remember no more! He doesn't say; "Having confessed them I will forget!". He forgave our sins at the Cross 2000 years before you were born! Come boldly! Most Christians spend the first hour with God saying sorry for this and sorry for that! Old Covenant! Their confession of sins - Hebrews - the blood of bulls and goats was simply a reminder of how sinful they are! Old Covenant was designed to make you feel sinful and make you feel condemned! New Covenant is designed to make you feel confident with full assurance of faith! To come boldly! Having our conscience washed from evil! What is that evil?

An evil conscience under New Covenant is a conscience trained by the law to feel guilty!

That is why repentance is from endless, useless ceremonies! Repentance is from dead works and doing things without faith! Our conscience is cleansed by the blood to serve the living God! What is an evil conscience - conscience trained by the law to feel guilty! The blood of Jesus cleanses our conscience so we can come confidently! By one sacrifice He sat down forever! Forever perfect! What about spending the first five minutes thanking Him that "I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus"?! I have been in some fellowships where the first hour is Old Covenant stuff. We may as well go and get some bulls and goats! After an hour I am so depressed and now they are ready to tiptoe! No it says come "Boldly"! Jeremiah 20:14 says he felt fire in his bones! Electricity! Trembling over the entire body! I long for the day that the majority of Christians will feel the vibrations of God's electricity so I won't look so weird! We know that you can be under the shadow of the Most High - you are already there in the intimate place! You start in the secret place overshadowed by the Almighty!

Psalm 89. In the last days there will be a Benjamin company of people, a David-hearted group of people that have access into the Presence of God and are anointed. 5 blessings of the anointing that are yours as the anointing increases. All five will increase as you get into the anointing. (v21).

1. You will get more strength (v21).
2. You will get victory in your life (v22) - not against people but demonic.
3. You will get more prestige in your life (v24).
4. Your influence will increase (v25)
5. You will leave a legacy to future generations that will last.

Taking Away the Veil

This wasn't actually the main sermon preached on Sunday 28th September! But it was probably the most helpful and shocking insight I have had (yet) into the problem with my life as a Christian and the church in general. I've been meaning to get to it for ages because I noticed that Chris Welch recommended it on his blog. Now I see why!

Here it is;

"Open your Bible to Isaiah 25. I want to share two Scriptures and then we are going to praise and worship. I feel like God has got something so special for us today and I am very excited about what He is going to do with us today. Isaiah 25.

Isaiah was one of the greatest prophets who could see the New Covenant coming. He announced in advance that the New Covenant was coming.

About five years ago while living in Australia I went for a few days away on my own to pray. While I was praying I had a open vision and I saw a terrible veil - a cloud of oppressive darkness over much of the church world. I said; "Lord what is that?". And He said; "That is the cloud of unbelief that is oppressing My people. My people do not understand the clear difference between the covenant of law and the covenant of grace so they have a veil of condemnation and curse over them and it is a spirit of witchcraft that robs Christians of happiness and joy and the miraculous". I began to say; "Lord - how do we get that veil off?". He said; "I will show you". I didn't understand then.

But when I got to Hong Kong it showed me it was by teaching the message of grace - because that is the only thing that can get the veil off as we turn to the Holy Spirit. This morning He began to speak to me suddenly and He said; "I am going to lift the veil off people's minds in this service this morning. Last week I lifted the veil off this church and then the enemy tried to come and superimpose it back again. He thinks if he keeps going then we will get confused and think we cannot get free and just have to accept living at this level of faith and freedom and joy". So He said; "This morning I am going to lift the veil off and I want you to read Isaiah 25 and 2 Corinthians 3 - briefly explain to the people and then everyone prophetically turn to the Holy Spirit and trust Him and you will see this veil be completely lifted off us as a people today! We will come into such freedom!".

So I said; "Lord I don't doing stupid things because sometimes you have to do the ridiculous in order to see the miraculous. But I would like some confirmation that you want me to do this because I want to do this with faith and not as a ritual". I am jealous for the 2 hours we have got and I hate wasting one minute on anything that is dead ground and doesn't produce supernatural momentum in the service. So I asked; "Lord would you confirm this by someone praying or prophesying in the prayer meeting". This morning Ryan began praying about a veil coming off and "I don't know why but the Lord is saying a veil is coming off" and he went into that in some detail!

So great - here we are! So Isaiah is a prophet who speaks a lot about the wrath and the anger and judgement of God coming on the nations. But then he looks through the corridors of time and begins to see a suffering Messiah on the Cross and he said God was looking for an intercessor - someone to stand in the gap so that God would not have to judge the nations. Then he goes on and says that God has found an intercessor - someone to stand in the gap and in Isaiah 53 he said that the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed. He took our iniquities and He carried away our transgressions on our behalf! Then Isaiah begins to prophesy that God will bring a covenant of peace and He will not judge the nations but will bring salvation to the nations of the earth. So now he is talking about a veil over the whole world and a mountain called Mount Zion which is a little hill in Jerusalem where David set up his tent so that they could come into the Presence of God and they didn't go down to the Tabernacle of Moses with all the sacrifices and blood of bulls and goats. Only Jewish people could go into Moses's Tabernacle and it was racialistic and exclusive and it was ALL by earning and deserving.

David came back with the glory Presence in the Ark and God said "Don't put it behind the veil in the Tent of Moses but put it on the Mountain called Mt Zion and everyone can come in - Gentiles and Jews will pour in with no hierarchy and everyone can come into the Presence of God! Just by worshipping and praising and through grace alone!". In Acts 15 when the Gospel has come out and it is the New Covenant and Gentiles are getting saved and it begins a big controversy in Jerusalem - Paul and Barnabus have to go down and speak to the apostles in Jerusalem. They say; "People are trying to put the Gentile converts under the law and some in the Jerusalem church are agreeing that we should put them under the law!". Peter gets up and says that is hypocrisy and our hearts are purified by grace and we cannot live under that bondage of the law. Our forefathers couldn't carry that yoke so don't you put that hypocrisy on the Gentiles! God set us free from the law! Paul and Barnabus get up and say; "We preached the message of grace to the Gentiles and the glory of God came on them!". Peter went to Cornelius's home and preached grace not law and the fire of God fell on the Gentiles and they all got saved and all got included into salvation freely and pouring into the Kingdom!

So James says that the end of the argument was a quote from Amos 9; "In the last days God says I will restore David's fallen tent and the Gentiles will pour in!". It is a tent not of ritual and law and qualifying yourself but it is easy, quick and immediate access into the Presence of God! That was in a tent on Mount Zion but now God wants the church to become the new temple of David restored where there is no law and grace is our access into the Presence of God!

He is talking about a mountain and this is Mount Zion! Hebrews 13 - the church of the first born! Isaiah 25:6;

"On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples". It is no longer exclusive to Israel. "A banquet of aged wine - the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain ..." - that is Mount Zion. "... He will destroy the shroud ..." - that is a veil of death from being under the law. "... that enfolds all people's". That is that vision I saw in Australia five years ago. "The sheet that covers all nations - He will swallow up death forever". The law is a ministry of death - 2 Corinthians 7 says. "He will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away tears from all face and He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken - surely they will say; 'This is our God, we trusted in Him and He saved us! Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation!".

Now go to 2 Corinthians 3 and I will show you how this shroud comes off. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Paul makes it very clear from verse 7 that the Old Covenant - the covenant of law had a fading glory; "... will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that condemns men is glorious how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness" - that is the free gift of righteousness we spoke about last week - "for what was glorious is of no glory, now in comparison with the surpassing glory and what was fading away came with glory how much greater is the glory that lasts?". How many of you want a goodness of the glory of God on your life that lasts and doesn't fade? You have to get rid of the veil! Because if you live under the veil then you have temporary experiences of the goodness of God and then it fades because you have a law-thinking mentality trying to earn it and deserve it!=

How many want to get rid of the veil off your mind? This is how it's done! (v12);

"Therefore since we have such a hope we are very bold - we are not like Moses who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away but their minds were made dull for to this day - the same veil remains when the Old Covenant is read. It is not been removed for only in Christ is it taken away - even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts but wherever anyone turns to the Lord the veil is taken away!".

When he says "Lord", he is speaking about the Holy Spirit because the next verse will say; "The Spirit of freedom" or the "Spirit of liberty".

So whenever anyone turns to the Holy Spirit the veil is taken away by the power of the Holy Spirit!

(v17); "The Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is ... there is FREEDOM! We all with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit". There is no fading glory in the New Covenant! It is meant to be ever-increasing and unfading glory! We have boldness to believe that we are the righteousness of God and that we are not under the law or condemnation! But much of the church is under that veil because you can see unfading glory and joy and victory and triumph and confidence before God is NOT there in most of the Church! People take 2 hours to get warmed up to feel half happy and then by next week they are dead again and unhappy again because they are living under a veil! So they wake up and think they will pray for 2 hours every morning or every afternoon - and praise God for praying 2 hours every morning if you can! I bless you for that! But friends, they pray for 2 hours and that is not what makes you happy! If you pray for 2 hours under a veil then you feel you should have prayed for 3 hours! And you will still feel you didn't do enough! If you are under a veil then this is the glory of the Old Covenant and the law! The law is God's view and opinion of you through the scrutiny and the judgment of the Law! So whenever He sees you through the law He sees all your faults and He has got to judge you and withdraw His goodness from you. His glory is His goodness!

But the New Covenant - when you are no longer under the veil and your mind is turned to the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of truth has led you into truth - because Jesus said in John 16 that there were many things He would like to tell them but they couldn't bear them now but when the Spirit comes He will "guide you into all truth" - in other words these Jewish boys had centuries of legalism and if He told them how good the New Covenant was, they would argue and wouldn't believe it! But when the Spirit of truth comes and fills you, you will be able to bear the most radical and extreme good news and you will embrace it and it won't freak you out - you will embrace it and say "That's for me!" because the veil is gone!

See we have been brainwashed - look at a guy like Peter! He is on a rooftop and we don't go the Gentiles! It is a Mosaic covenant and it is inclusive! Not David! He sees a veil come down and animals in it that Jews are not allowed to eat under the law. The living God who wrote the Law speaks to Peter and says "Eat" and Peter lectures the LORD on how irresponsible and how unrighteous He is! Three times Peter says to the Lord; "No Lord! It is unclean food!".

Something has gone seriously wrong with a person's head when they are holier than God and refusing God's liberation from law and all kinds of ceremonies!

Then God says to Peter; "Do not call unclean that which I have called clean".

Do not call YOURSELF unclean when the blood of Jesus and the righteousness of God has made you CLEAN FOREVER!

Then the door knocks and there is Cornelius - a Gentile! And he goes under the roof of a Gentile which no God-fearing Jew should do! A non-covenant man! He says; "I am not even meant to be here but revelation came to him! The Holy Spirit enabled him to bear the awesome change of the New Covenant!". The disciples couldn't bear what Jesus had to say but when they turned to the Spirit the veil is removed! There is freedom and David's fallen tent has been restored in the earth!

The missionary model has failed! We went over there and taught them to eat with knives and forks and taught them about our legalism and exported our legalistic religious systems! The Muslims don't need a new religious system! They have got one already! The Holy Spirit is moving into the Muslim world, into the gay world and He is falling on the Gentiles because David's tent is being restored in the nations again and the veil is being taken away and religion is OVER!

The veil between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies has split from top to bottom when Jesus said on the Cross; "It is finished!". The glory of the Old Covenant is God's view and opinion of you - looking at you through the scrutiny of the law. Fading glory! Judgment! Wrath! Curse and judgment on you! The glory of the New Covenant is God's opinion of you only through grace - that you are the righteousness of God! Therefore His glory never fades! His goodness never needs to fade! If you get up for the next 3 weeks with just enough time to go to work and you don't pray and you don't read the Bible and witness and don't do anything and just get up and say "Father I thank You that it is David's restored tent and no rituals - I am as welcome as the man that prayed 10 hours that day!". You are as welcome as Jesus is welcome because you have a co-equal righteousness with Christ for you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!

People have made the most joyful thing a law! "You have to pray!". As soon as that comes on you it is law and it is bondage! There is no life! "You had better read your Bible, better give, better witness!". No no no! You don't have to do one single thing! Jesus has done it all! He measured up for you! When you turn to the Holy Spirit the veil is taken away and the power of God comes on you and now you LOVE praying and reading the Bible and being in church but it's not because you have to! There is a whole different dynamic! How many of you want that veil taken away?! Just ripped to shreds today?! Isaiah 25 says there is coming a day on this mountain - Mount Zion - David's fallen tent being restored and the Gentiles pouring in!

THOUSANDS wanted to be around Jesus - except the Pharisees! The Pharisees wanted to be there to catch Jesus out and prove His doctrine was wrong! Thousands of the worst sinners under the sun - tax collectors, prostitutes by the thousands gathered to Him! Not to the Pharisees but to Jesus! Have you noticed in Hong Kong that thousands of sinners and prostitutes and tax collectors are NOT flocking to the church? They flocked to Jesus!

There is so much legalism in the church that we have got an inner measuring rod in our conscience that judges ourselves with condemnation and when a sinner sits with us, they feel (even if we don't judge them with our mouths) the effect of that measuring rod on the inside of us disapproving of them and looking down on them when we have got nothing to do with being made righteous, nothing to do with what qualifies us to be holy - it has ALL been by grace and we have no basis to judge and our access into the Presence of God is NOT by the Tabernacle of Moses but by the restored fallen tent of David!

How will you and I know that David's fallen tent has been restored in Hong Kong? Or anywhere on the earth? According to Acts 15 and Amos 9 - we will know that the fallen tent of David has been restored when the Gentiles and all nations come pouring in!

For when David was bringing the Ark of the Covenant back - the Presence of God - he was going to take it to Moses Tabernacle but in Chronicles God told him to take it to Mt Zion in an open tent so that everyone had access to the Presence of God! They got it wrong so the Presence stayed in Obed-Edom's home for 3 months. Who was Obed-Edom? Was he a covenant Jew? No he was a Philistine! He was a pagan and a heathen but when he got round the Presence of God then the love of God touched a Gentile and manifested blessing over his home for 3 months! David said what's going on? David wasn't a pure Jew! His great grandmother was a prostitute Gentile! And David began to understand that this racial exclusivness under law is going to cause the nations to go to hell! So God said don't put it back in Moses Tabernacle but in a tent where everyone can come! And Gentiles flocked in! And Obed-Edom brought 60 of his family to be doorkeepers to be in David's tent! Which means that these Philistines realised that the Presence of God is not something to run from or feel condemned by but the Presence of God is something to run after and run into so they all volunteered to be doorkeepers! They would have been killed if they had tried the same thing in the tent of Moses!

How will I know that the prophecy of Amos 9 is being fulfilled in the earth? When all over the earth tens of thousands of homosexuals and lesbians and Muslims and fundamentalist Hinduis and atheists and all the so-called worst of the worse - will FLOCK to where the Presence of God is! THAT is when we will know that David's fallen tent has been established in the earth and has been fully recovered again because veil has been taken away!

Peter saw a veil come down and when God spoke to them with the Spirit of truth they went to the Gentiles and when they went to the Gentiles home, the fire of God broke out and they were saved WHILE Peter was still speaking! God said "THIS is David's tent being fully restored!".

How do I know when David's fallen tent has been fully restored in City Church International? When I saw Philippino's and Chinese and Asians and Indians and Europeans pouring in here and those who don't know who God is are coming in because WE have turned to the Holy Spirit and are DONE with silly self-centred me religion and for me to have a nice service - no we want the veil off this whole church so thousands will pour in!