“God’s Eternal Grace Covenant” by Ryan Rufus

This incredible sermon was preached by Ryan Rufus at City Church International in Hong Kong on Sunday 27th October 2008.

“This is what we were created for – to be with You. This was Your grand master plan from the very beginning – to have us close. Father we just love Your Presence. Holy Spirit we thank You for what You are doing here this morning – taking us deeper and taking us further. Lord I don’t feel like I have ever been this far into Your Presence! What an awesome place! We just love it Lord! Let the brilliant bright light of Your shekinah glory shine into our hearts and awaken us and illuminate us to see the greater truth of You Lord. To have a revelation amidst all the lies and the confusions and perversions of Your truth – amidst all of that – let a brilliant bright light pierce us and awaken us this morning.

All week I have been very excited about preaching. I have been looking forward to it! It’s probably been the only time I have really looked forward to preaching! I have really been excited about preaching the Word this week. I don’t know the end and exactly how it will come out but we will see what the Holy Spirit does. I feel to continue about this theme of “God’s Eternal Grace Covenant”. I have just two points to share about this.

1. The first one is that God’s grace covenant does not have a beginning and it does not have an end.

His grace does not have a beginning and it does not have an end! It is eternal – an eternal covenant that God cut even before time began and it was cut between the Trinity. Jesus Christ the Son is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. We spoke last week about God’s grand master plan.

What is God’s grand master plan? To have a people clothed in His righteousness. His people – with revelation so that they can come before Him in perfect standing based on what He has done in His glory and His pleasure.

God’s grand master plan is that He would have and create a people that would not relate to Him and have relationship with Him on the basis of their righteousness but He would create a people that would relate to God and have relationship with God on the basis of Christ’s righteousness.

That is why Jesus is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the earth because God NEVER intended us to relate to Him through our own righteousness. He always, always, always intended us to relate to Him through Christ’s righteousness. That is why even before He created us He had already planned a way for us to receive that righteousness through Christ and through faith. Not through anything we have ever done – not through works, not through keeping the law, not through trying to please God or by being obedient, not through tithes and offerings or anything but simply on believing what Jesus did for us. That we would become the righteousness of God in Him – perfect access to Him every moment of every day!

Let me read you a Scripture – 2nd Timothy chapter 1:8. “So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord or ashamed of me His prisoner but join with me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God who has saved us and called us to a holy life”. Remember that is not a holy life that we try to live. That is a holy life that He has called us to and given us in Christ before the foundation of the world. When He said “Be holy as I am holy” – He never meant try to be as holy as Me. That is impossible for mankind to be as holy as God. God never said be holy with your own holiness. He said “Be holy as I am holy - With MY holiness! (v9); “Who has saved us and called us to a holy life” – that’s His holiness. “Not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus who has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”. This grace was given us in Christ before time began!

Ephesians chapter 1:4 says; “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world”. When did God choose us in Christ? Before the creation of the world! “To be holy and blameless in His sight”. Is that a holiness of our own? Our own self-holiness and self-blamelessness? No He chose us even before He had created us or done one holy thing and one blameless thing – He chose us to be holy and blameless in Him before creation! “In love He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure to the praise of His glorious grace which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood – the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of His grace that He lavished upon us with wisdom and understanding and He made known to us the mystery of His will”. What is the mystery of His will? That we would relate to Him through Christ’s righteousness and not our own. That is the mystery of God’s will! “According to His good pleasure which He purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment to bring all things in heaven and on earth under one head even Christ”.

That Scripture about Jesus being the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world is in Revelation 13:8. I just want to read one more Scripture before we move on. That is Romans chapter 8:29. Another awesome Scripture about God’s master plan. When we read the Scriptures we need to see God’s master plan. We must see God’s plan! He predestined us to relate to us on His righteousness and not our own. Many of us look at the doctrine of election and predestination through the wrong lenses and through the wrong angle. We are looking at it thinking “Who has God predestined?”. It is not so much about that! It is more about the fact that before time began God predestined you to relate to Him through His righteousness and His perfection and not your own! That to me is predestination. Romans 8:28:

“And we know that God works all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose”. (v29); “For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brothers – and those He predestined, He also called, those He called He also justified, those He justified, He also glorified”.

God predestined you before He created you to be justified by the blood of Jesus! To be made righteous through the sacrifice of Jesus! It is awesome – God’s master plan! I hope you are seeing it. Abraham was chosen! God chose a filthy pagan sinner. We think Abraham was a holy man and that’s why God chose him. He wasn’t. He was a pagan and a filthy sinner – and God chose Him. God came to him one day and said; “Hey Abraham – you don’t deserve it but I am going to bless you”. You don’t deserve it one bit but I am choosing to bless you. To prove to you that I am going to bless you, I am going to make a covenant with you. I am cut a covenant to you and swear by an oath and bind Myself to you through an oath and a promise that says “I will bless you and make you righteous even though you don’t deserve it and I will make you into many nations even though you don’t deserve it”. And you know what? Abraham believed God. It was insane for him to believe God because He didn’t deserve it yet he believed God and that is why Abraham is the Father of our faith because he believed that God would bless him even though he didn’t deserve it. And that is the exact same faith we have. We believe that He makes filthy sinners righteous even though we haven’t merited it and even though we haven’t earned it. That is why grace is called “unmerited favour”.

God’s grace – His covenant does not have a beginning and it does not have an end. It is eternal.

It is His Plan A and Jesus was God’s Plan A! Jesus was not God’s plan B. Mankind didn’t sin and God thought; “Oh no! What am I going to do?”. Jesus was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. God knew that mankind could never relate to God through their own righteousness. It was just never going to be good enough. There was only one way that man can relate to God and that is through His righteousness through the grace of God. So God had to teach this to man because there is a time when man thought he could relate to God through his own righteousness and just be good enough to earn His favour and earn His blessings. God blessed Abraham through faith and it wasn’t through anything Abraham had chosen to do or had done. It was through faith and faith alone. Israel forgot the Abrahamic covenant – they forgot the faith of Abraham. They forgot the covenant that God made with Abraham!

So when Moses came down Mount Sinai with the Law to Israel and said “If you want to be blessed then keep the 10 Commandments but if you break even the smallest one then you are going to come under incredible curse”. Israel had to think about it and thought “Yes that doesn’t sound too bad – I reckon we can do that!”. They should have said; “God what on earth are You doing!? You already made a covenant with Abraham who was our Father and You said You will bless him regardless of his performance and You would bless him through faith. God why are You making this new covenant with Israel? Why are You making this Law covenant?”. They should have said; “No God! We reject this law covenant that You are trying to make with us! We don’t want the 10 Commandments and this performance-based covenant! We want Your grace covenant not the law covenant! We want You to give us the Abrahamic covenant!”. But instead they thought “No we can keep the law”. So for 1700 years God showed them how they couldn’t keep the law and how inferior that covenant was and how weak and useless that covenant was. How it was impossible through that covenant to relate to God – God had to show mankind that the law covenant is a weak and useless covenant and the law covenant had a beginning and an end. It was a parenthesis in the eternal grace covenant of God.

The grace covenant is eternal – it goes on for millions and billions of years into the eternity of eternity. The law covenant appears for a fraction of time – a parenthesis in the grand scheme of God. The law appears – why? Why did God bring this law covenant? So much of the church today is struggling under a heavy yoke.

Jesus said “Come to Me those that are heavy burdened, laidened and I will give you rest. Take My yoke”. What was He talking about? He was talking about those that are under the yoke of the Pharisees – the law yoke. The heavy yoke of the law. It weighs you down and crushes you and destroys you – because that’s what it was intended to do. It was intended to break you and to smash you down and show you that you cannot relate to God through your own righteousness. The harder you try – the harder it has got to smash you down. That is why Jesus was angry with the Pharisees.

We look at Jesus’ teachings and think that He was giving this higher ability for us to keep the law! That is the biggest lie – He wasn’t giving us a higher law standard that we can now keep through the Holy Spirit. He was angry with the Pharisees for lowering the law for making it appear as though we can almost keep it. And people would look at them and think; “Wow – look at how holy they are. I wish I could be like them!”. Legalism was a virtue in those days. “I wish I could be that legalistic then I would be close to God”. Up until the time Jesus came, everyone look at the Pharisees and thought; “Wow – those men are so righteous”. But Jesus came and exposed their hypocrisy and they hated Him for it. He said; “Yes on the outside you look like white-washed walls, beautifully decorated and look so holy. But on the inside you are full of death, rubbish – because you think you can be holy through your own righteousness.

You think you can be holy – you think you can earn the right into God’s Presence. On the outside you are keeping the law but on the inside you are breaking every single command and God sees you as filthy, disgusting and dead. That’s how God sees you. You say you shouldn’t commit adultery but I say to you if you have even lusted in your heart then you have committed adultery”. We say “Oh that is the new standard for us”. No – God was showing the Pharisees how extreme the law was! If you lust in your heart then you have broken all the commandments and you deserve judgement. If you want to be so holy then as soon as you begin to lust, then cut your hand off and pluck your eye out!

He was ANGRY with the Pharisees and He heightened the law to show how NO ONE can keep the law because NO ONE was intended to keep the law because NO ONE would able to be righteous enough to earn God’s favour and love and grace on us. There is only ONE covenant that is good enough and that is the grace covenant – the law covenant is not good enough. It is a self-righteous covenant and a flesh based covenant. Grace is a spiritually based covenant, an eternal covenant, the ONLY covenant by which man can draw near to God!

Abraham was not under the law. The faith of Abraham is not a law-based faith! He had a grace-based faith. What is a law-based faith? A law-based faith says; “I believe that I can be righteous enough to earn God’s blessings and God’s Presence and favour with God”. That is the faith of the law – faith in my ability. It is a useless faith because the object of your faith is useless! You don’t have the ability! Grace-based faith says; “My faith is in heaven and Him alone! It is in Jesus, the finished work of the Cross and in His ability to take My sin and give me His righteousness and His ability to make me 100% righteous before God!”. THAT’S what my faith is in! Nothing else! Absolutely nothing else! It is crazy to put my faith in anything else!

Hebrews 8:7. The lights are going to come on for some of you and it is going to change you forever and you are not going to be the same. And your relationship with God will not be the same. From when you see this – your relationship with God is never going to be the same! This morning when I was praying I saw this – I really saw this towards the end of my preparation and suddenly the lights went on and instantly the glory of God fell on me and I was weeping, laughing and it was so awesome!

Hebrews 8:7 says; “For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant” (talking about the law covenant) “no place would have been sought for another”. There was something wrong with that first covenant. That’s why another covenant had to come. The grace covenant that had already been established in eternity! (v8); “For God found fault with the people”. The law covenant is a faultfinding covenant. It is based on you and your performance and so God scrutinises your performance through the law. There is no way you can please God because we are always falling short and always messing up. God always must find fault with us through the law. That covenant is a terrible covenant and that is why Jesus said; “Come to Me those that are heavy-laden, weighed down and crushed”. Why? Because they were living under a faultfinding covenant.

Imagine every day you live your life with someone who says; “Oh you did that wrong, that wrong and you should have done that, oh what are you doing? Oh you are pathetic! You are useless, why did you do that? You are a failure! You shouldn’t have done that! You did that badly! God is not happy with that! God can’t stand that!”. That is a faultfinding covenant – that is the law covenant.

Then after all that you think; “Praise God I am just going to go and worship God and get in His Presence”. Goodness gracious – good luck!

And all you can do is say; “Oh I am so sorry, I’m so pathetic and so useless!”. Even the best thing and most righteous thing you can do for God wouldn’t matter because of all the unrighteous things you have done against God. You know why it is a faultfinding covenant? Because God made the covenant with man. Now listen to this and try to get it alright? The law covenant which is a blip in time and eternity and a paranthesis in the grace covenant is a useless and weak covenant because it is a covenant that God made with man. You will see this! So the covenant is when two people come together and they make promises to each other. “I will do this if you do that – I will do that if you do this”. They bind themselves to each other through signatures and through swearing and through oaths and it is a legal contract, a covenant contract that binds you together and if you fail under your end then you are liable in a court of law.

So God makes a covenant with man and says “I will fulfil my end if you will fulfil your end. I will bless you if you keep the law. If you break the law or even the smallest part of the law then I will curse you”. That is the covenant that man signed with God. But the grace covenant – how many of you realise this? You do not have a covenant with God. God didn’t make a covenant with you. He made it with His Son. He made it with Jesus. And then He brought you into it because you are in Jesus. Jesus will never ever break His end of the covenant – He fulfils it perfectly. He is eternal! He is a perfect sacrifice. He offered a perfect sacrifice, which perfectly removes your sins and perfectly makes you righteous. He was raised from the dead and entered into the highest heavens and offered His own blood. The earthly tabernacle could never ever remove your sins; it could only cover your sins. The heavenly tabernacle can remove all your sins. He went into heaven with resurrection life and we have a high priest that mediates between God and man and He offered His blood and He has an indestructible life. He will never ever die and Hebrews chapter 7 says “Jesus ever intercedes for us”.

This is when the lights came on for me this morning. He EVER lives to intercede for you and I! That means in the eternity of eternities if we ever sin then we are STILL righteous! We will never ever get kicked out of His Presence and the oath God makes with us – the way it works is that God binds Himself to the New Covenant – the grace covenant – and says;

“I will bind Myself and promise that I will never, ever relate to man through his righteousness but I swear by an oath to always and ever relate to man through Christ’s righteousness and on man’s behalf!”.

That is why the Holy Spirit is also our Counsellor. He doesn’t come alongside and say; “Hey man, you are doing a good job”. He is our Counsellor – our legal defence. So when Satan is in heaven accusing the brethren saying; “God they broke this law or this law” – the Holy Spirit says; “Father! Remember You swore and promised to not relate to them through their performance, their righteousness or their shortcomings. You swore to relate to them through Christ’s righteousness”. Case dismissed! That is good!

Jesus ever lives to intercede because He also stands up and says; “Father You said You would always relate to them through My righteousness and I have given them My righteousness, I have made them righteous – I have removed their sins and they don’t even have their sins! He is talking rubbish! It is hot air – he’s talking lies, he is accusing! They are not found on substantial evidence – he cannot present any evidence because God has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west and they did do this”. But can you prove that they did this? I am looking but it has got no evidence!

The New Covenant is not a fault-finding covenant.

You have to get that – you have to see that. It can never be a fault-finding covenant because God is not relating to you through your performance. He is relating to you through Christ’s performance. God will never find fault with Christ – He is perfect. He is absolutely perfect! For you to break covenant with God or to lose your covenant with God would mean that Jesus would have to be made unperfect. It would mean that Jesus would have to backslide. It is absolutely impossible for Jesus to backslide – He is absolutely perfect in all description. He is indestructibly perfect. He is immutable and unchangeable and we are perfect with Him and He has made us perfect forever. This is the good news! This unlocks Scripture! Hebrews 6 says that the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which He is mediator and is superior to the old one. It is founded on better promises. That is God’s promise – to relate to you through His righteousness and not your own.

The Old Covenant was bad promises – it was full of promises you made to God. You broke your promise to God. But the New Covenant is founded on better promises because it is Jesus’ promises on our behalf. Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly on our behalf.

You know what it comes down to? It comes down to the fact that God promises to bless you regardless of your performance! How much of the Church is teaching performance-based blessings? The Church today preaches performance-based blessings and it is Old Covenant!

The covenant God made with Abraham said; “I will bless you regardless of what you have done!”. I don’t know if you have read Genesis 12 to 15, 22. Every time God came to Abraham, He said; “I will bless you!”. “But God what have I done to deserve this?”. “Exactly! That is the point! I choose to bless you. I will bless you and make your name great. I will make you a blessing to nations”. So much of the Church teaches that God will bless you so you can be a blessing to the nations. God says, “I will bless you AND you will be a blessing to the nations”. We have turned that thing around that says if you want God to bless you then you need to be a blessing to the nations. You need to bless the nations and then God will bless you. Rubbish! The covenant is based on better promises. God says “I will bless you even when you don’t deserve it”. Why? Because I am not blessing you on your performance but I am blessing you on Christ’s performance on your behalf. This cleans up our motives for why we serve God.

We don’t do – in order to get. We do because He has transformed us. He has blessed us already. It is an overflow of what He has done to us. It is not trying to get something from God.

I believe in tithing and I believe in generous giving. I believe in sowing and reaping as a lower principle, but I believe there is a higher principle. That Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law so that the blessings of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through faith. Righteousness of God comes through faith and wealth comes through faith and health comes through faith – not from what you have done but from what He has done on your behalf. It is not law-based faith in yourself but grace-based faith in the finished work of Jesus. I love to give! I believe in tithing! I believe tithing is right there in Hebrews chapter 7. God makes a big deal about it! I believe all the glory belongs to God. I believe worship and honour belong to God and 10% of our income belongs to God – you don’t have to see it that way. But that is the way I see it currently – that is my conviction. That is the way I see it.

God is expanding and going broad with our convictions. He is redeeming New Covenant truth and bringing His word back into the New Covenant. He is redeeming New Covenant truth and He is going deep on some things we have been looking at for the last 3 and a half years like justification by faith, the gift of righteousness, those things – we are unchanging on those things and will not budge on those things! But God has us going broader on things like tithing and offering and all those things we have been taught under law such as Malachi 3 and have done them under law but God is redeeming them out of law and bringing them into grace. And we are seeing what makes it through into grace.

He is going broad now so we mustn’t let these things divide us. We are all heading to the same direction and all are at different paces and we love each other. Why don’t you stand? God is awesome and I hope you saw something today! We just want God to turn His light on so we see that it is not about our righteousness but His".

God's Covenant of Increased Blessing - Part 1

I am carrying on my wonderful exploring of the City Church International archives and suddenly realised that I haven't transcribed a sermon from 2005 yet. So here is the first!


Preached on Sunday 6th March 2005.


"The prophetic is really important isn't it? Someone said "Would it happen if someone didn't prophesy?". Well - I don't think so! I think the prophetic releases that creative word that brings it into reality. So we need to prophesy over one another! The Bible says that we can all prophesy. There is not some with the gift of prophecy and others don't have the gift. The Bible says in 1st Corinthians 14 that we can all prophesy! We are not all prophets! But we are all priests of God and all priests of God can prophesy. The gift of prophecy is different to the office of the prophet. Prophecy encourages and exhorts and comforts and builds up so prophecy is really powerful.

Please open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 1. How many of you are going to make a date with God this week and spend some time alone with the Lord and refresh yourselves? It is so important you know! The Bible says that those who wait on the Lord will mount up with wings like eagles! They renew their strength if they wait upon God. We all need to break free from the gravitational pull of this earth. Some people say that you are so spiritually minded that you are no earthly good.


Some people are so earthly minded that they don't know how to touch heaven. We need to rise up with wings like eagles and move into the heights in God. I had some issues this week and they looked so burdensome and so impossible and so difficult that I didn't know how I was going to cope! So I ran up into the mountains to pray and when you get up there you are so tired that you cannot pray anymore! But in that time with God He began to address my heart and refresh me and release me from things and as I waited on Him mounting up with wings like eagles and it is amazing on the heights with God how your problems DIMINISH the HIGHER you get with God!

And God is magnified! God is so big that He cannot go anywhere because He is everywhere! God doesn't increase but we magnify the Lord. In other words He becomes increasingly bigger in our understanding as we go up to those heights. I remember that wonderful message that Ern Baxter preached one day on the eagles. And he came out with this little song on the eagles and I tell you what it is so corny and cheesy but there is an anointing on it! It goes something like this;

"Rise into the sunlight rays - using both your wings of prayer and praise, rise like eagles higher in the sky. Things will look so different when you fly!".

Maybe I should have done the junior church today! I want to talk about "God's Covenant of Increased Blessing for our Lives". This is not a prosperity cult - we don't focus on prosperity but we focus on Jesus! We don't focus on healing - we focus on the Healer! We don't focus on anything but Jesus. So we are going to look at the covenant that God cut with His Son Jesus Christ to increase the blessing on our lives. Satan is a poverty spirit. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 28 that God will bless our coming in and our going out. Our barns and livestock and credit accounts. Be the head and not the tail. Those who rise against us will flee in seven different directions. He goes on and on and on! You will lend to many but borrow from none! The opening verse says that if you will obey Me and do all My commands then these blessings will come on you and OVERTAKE you! You can't even run away from them! Then He goes on and says if you don't keep these commands and laws then all these curses will come upon you and it is sickness and disease and poverty. And He said because you did not serve Me with joy in the times of prosperity then so you will wear a yoke of poverty.

So part of the curse of the law is poverty but Christians today take oaths of poverty and think that is holy and not knowing it is part of the curse of the law! People think it is acceptable to live in defeat - no it is part of the curse! The blessing is victory and our enemies fleeing in seven different directions!

The one stumbling block for many Christians is; "If you keep all My commands and laws". So they think they must earn it and if they keep all the laws then they will earn the blessings. But Galatians 3:15 says; "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being cursed in our place that the blessings of Abraham can come on the Gentiles by faith". This is not earning it - this is by faith! This is a better covenant with superior Mediator based on better promises! The covenant of grace says you receive the promises by faith in the finished work of the Cross and not by you trying to keep the law. If you try and keep the law then you will come under curse because if you don't keep it perfectly then you will come under curse! You break it in one area and you come under curse! But if you step out of law keeping and into faith and the finished work of the Cross then the blessings will come on you and overtake you!

Faith is based primarily not on a knowledge of God's ABILITY but on a knowledge of God's WILL. Even the devil knows God is able! It doesn't take great faith to know that the One who created the heavens and the earth is able to do awesome things! Faith is based on a revelation of God's willingness.

If I was a multi-billionaire and I said to everyone of you that I am able to give each of you one hundred million pounds British! There is no basis of faith for you - just because I am able doesn't mean I am willing! The question Christians are asking is - is He willing to do this for me? If I said I am a multi-billionaire and I am able to give each one of you a hundred million pounds but today I am only willing to give three of you it - you couldn't have any great faith! You could only hope that you are one of the lucky ones! Hope will never get your prayers answered! So many Christians say "I am hoping so!" - well forget it, nothing is going to happen in your life!


Hebrews 11:1 says "Faith is the substance of things hoped for". Without faith your hope has got no substance to it! It is just empty wishful thinking and weak human optimism! But with faith that comes by revelation of the will of God that faith will add substance to your hope and your hope will be made manifest with the substance of your faith! So if I told you I was a multi-billionaire and I was able to give each of you a hundred million pounds but I am also WILLING and here is an attorney and here is a document and I am able and willing! Then you would jump up with substance in your hope because you know that my will is to give you one hundred million pounds!

It is guaranteed! Now your hope has got substance to it which is the basis of your faith! Without a knowledge of God's will there is no basis for faith - there is just empty hope. Now we will look at the Word of God because the Bible says in Romans 10:17 that "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God". So when you know what God's will is for you then you know that you can put your faith in God's covenant of increase and blessing and you know that He will bless you! Why do we want to be blessed? Because we are selfish and greedy? No we want to be blessed because the qualification for being a blessor is that you first have to be blessed! It is from the innermost parts of our being to the outer most parts of the earth - that is the call of God. The nations are our inheritance! But the innermost parts of our being ought to be blessed and overflowing with love otherwise we will export bondage to the outermost parts of the earth. We need to be free on the outside then the sufficiency and supply of God Almighty will flow to the nations!

Genesis chapter 1. Let's pray;


"Father we ask for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation to open the eyes of our understanding and our hearts as to the hope of our calling and what is your exceeding power towards us that same power that worked in Christ when You raised Him from the dead. So You have worked that same power in us and we are the very glorious inheritance of You Father. Open our understanding to see that we are very joint heirs with Christ and heirs of God! Thank You that through the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness we are ruling and reigning in life through the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray today Lord that I would not preach a euphoric triumphalism - a false hope or a false pretence or a pretended victory. Our victory today is a genuine one because it is not based on our performance or our ability but it is in Him. Open our eyes! May the grace of God come on everyone's employment that the blessing may come on us all. Thank You that our businesses are not the source - You are the source and You can supply way more than our businesses can! In Jesus Mighty Name".

Now we will teach today so hang in a bit and stay open to God's Word and lets receive this impartation. Here at the very beginning of creation God announces out of the generosity of His heart great blessing on man and woman. The theological principle of "first mention" is a very powerful theological principle. The first mention of something shows that it is God's intention to go on and on and on. Let's read this. Genesis 1:27. He has just created man and woman and this is the first thing that comes out of His mouth. This is the heart of God for His people! (v27); "In the image of God ... that moves on the ground".

Now folks I want you to do warfare with me today in the Spirit. I don't believe we attack principalities and pull them down into the basement of the church and lock them up in plasma bottles - no we pull down strongholds that are in the mind! That are in opposition to the Word of God!


Do you know that's what 2 Corinthians 4:10 says? Our weapons are mighty through God to the demolishing of strongholds ... bring it into the captivity of Christ! The enemy has fought me all week to stop me preaching this message! There is excesses in this message and people have backed off from this thing and the devil doesn't want the church blessed - he doesn't mind if we just have enough and a survival mentality! But God has cut a covenant of increased blessing that should keep on increasing daily, monthly in our lives! So you are going to need to fight with me okay! The devil tried to take me out before I preached this message! Take the Word of God and suck it out of me! Let's all be Americans today!

The Bible says that EVERY promise God has made (no matter how many promises there are) they are all YES in Christ Jesus and through us the AMEN is spoken to the glory of God!

There is a biblical purpose for saying "Amen" because as you say "Amen" then you seal that truth to your heart with a golden nail that seals it to your heart! God's desire was to bless Adam and Even and give them increase! And for a while they walked with authority and anointing and dominion. There is a first Adam anointing. The last Adam being Jesus. Here is the federal headship of the human race in first Adam and first Adam walked with such power and authority under freedom in God and then he is seduced by satanic lies that tell him in deception (starting with Eve and then him because he made Eve his goddess instead of God his God and he let Eve manipulate him and deceive him as well because he chose Eve instead of God and that is a pressure that comes on anyone) - Adam rebelled and received the deception that he can be "like God" which is the teaching of the New Age! Satan wanted to exalt his throne above the throne of God - he was jealous and envious and wanted to be God but he cannot be God because there is only one immutable transcendant God.

So he was seduced into believing that he didn't need God and that he could become God and as he did that he committed high treason and died spiritually. He was cut off from the blessing and increase and he had to labour by the sweat of his brow. He entered into a "works ethic" mentality that was cursed. The ground and his life was cursed! And he was cut off from the covenant of increased blessing! The world today and many Christians still labour under the curse instead of the covenant of increased blessings! The world outside of Christ is labouring and working hard for the blessing and as much as they accumulate and they get through the sweat of their labour they find a vacuum of emptiness and they lose it in bankruptcy over and over again. But we are in last Adam and a covenant of increased blessing! So God looks on mankind in sweat and labour and confusion and curse and He has mercy and grace and so He decides that He is going to get back into the earth realm through a man called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans. He is an Iraqui man actually who then becomes the founder of the people of Israel.

So go to Genesis chapter 12. I love the people of Israel and the Jewish nation but I also love the Arabs! Look at Genesis 12:1 - this is the first encounter that Abraham has with God. "The Lord said to Abram ... so Abram left as the Lord told him".

You know that word "blessed" in the Hebrew there is the word "Hasad" and it literally means this; "favour - the dispensing of goods and favours in abundance - good will - special liking, special kindness - in hot pursuit of you - coming on you - blessings coming on you". That is God's promise to Abraham! One condition - leave your father's house and leave the old ways. Now I do not believe that necessarily means we all have to geographically leave our families and children. I believe more of a cardiological change than a geographical change. There has to be something where we come out from the conditioning of the influence of our past - the conditionings and limitations of people's ideologies that we grew up under. I believe we have got to connect with a covenant of increase and to do that we have got to leave the influences of our past that leave limitation on our lives. I do not believe that all of us have to leave our families and friends and children. We have had to do that by coming to Hong Kong. Some are called to relocate to nations in the purposes of God because God wants all nations to be saved and touched with the gospel!

But not all are called geographically and permaemently. All are called sometime to go for the gospel's sake but we are called to leave the mentality that conditioned us when we were growing up. We are to honour our parents but we do not need to take things from our lives if what they gave to us made us cynical and skeptical about the gospel. The very idea that the gospel is only relevant for heaven but on earth it is irrelevant and Christians are a joke and they walk around begging for everything with pastor's discounts and they are as poor as church mice and this mentality where the world patronises and condescends to the church because the church is always begging and poor and needs more and more! But when we have a covenant of increase! You have relatives in this room who think you are crazy when you come to church and they think you are wasting your time and they think Christianity is something one day when you get to heaven. Instead of understanding that this is a covenant that God has cut of increased blessings in our lives.

Go to Mark chapter 10. We are warring well here! We must leave the influences and leave the things behind that have put limitations on your life. (10:29); "I tell you the truth no one who has left home or ... will fail to receive a hundred times as much in THIS PRESENT AGE". I don't know what that means! Is that a hundred homes? "Homes, brothers". Glenda and I have got hundreds of thousands of friends and I am not talking about they are just vague - we know hundreds of thousands of people! 20, 000 churches that we are working with! We just can't remember their names! "with them persecutions". You get blessed like that you will be persecuted! It won't be the world attacking you, it will be some church people! The Pharisees and Sadducees and wouldn't sees and couldn't sees! This is blessings in this present age! This is leaving behind the poverty thinking and limitation thinking and have no power or authority but one day when you get to heaven it will all be worthwhile.

That is NOT what this Bible teaches!

(Genesis 13:1) Abraham had become very wealthy in livestock and silver and gold! When did Abraham become very wealthy? When he had LEFT his family, his home, his country where they worshipped idols! He followed El-Shaddi - the God who is more than enough! God's promise was true! It didn't just say he was rich - it said he was VERY rich in silver and gold! I don't have silver and gold! But I have always turned salaries down in the church because that is too much! It is not about driving around in Rolls and smoking cuban cigars! It is that God's people get blessed!

Because the more we have the more we can do! In Hong Kong money is their god and it is a devilish god! The love of money is the root of ALL evil! People think that if I have got enough money then I don't need God! I want to tell you that money is a great servant but a terrible God! You can't do a thing without money! Money says you can buy that land, buy that building, send five thousand pastors out on the field and plant 20, 000 churches in China! That's what money says in the right hands of the right stewards! Money takes on the character of the hands that it is in! Under Hugh Hefner and Playboy it buys more and more pornography and destruction! Under righteous hands that money takes on a righteous purpose and our money represents our hours and our time!

You can be as anointed as you want but if you don't have money then that anointing can't get to where it needs to go!

No one says to me when I get on a plane; "Oh you are a pastor? Don't worry about it! This air fare is free!". You can't take the gospel anywhere without money! This idiotic thing that money is not important is insane! Jesus said if you are not faithful with worldly wealth then you cannot be faithful with true riches.
If you are stingy and small-minded with money then you will be the same way with the anointing! But when you are free with money and releasing money then you are free in releasing power and the grace of God into the nations!

So Abraham became very rich after he met El Shaddi! Some people in Hong Kong need to understand this that when you walk with Him leaving the old influences behind and walk with God you can become very rich! We may not all become multi-millionaires but we call all LIVE like multi-millionaires! I don't have millions in the bank but I live like one by the blessing of God! Everything we want it seems God does it! Genesis 15 - now this is a long reading but stick with this! Every verse here is a whole series but we will only make a comment on the main one. (Genesis 15:1); "I am your shield and your great reward". Now I want you to see that is covenant language. The enemy cannot destroy you! (v2); "A son coming from your own body will be your heir ... so shall your offspring be". A covenant of increase! Abraham believed the Lord and He credited to him as righteousness! "I brought you ... to give you this land so you can take possession of it ... oh sovereign Lord how can I know?".

Faith is based on knowing the will of God not just His ability.

"How can I know I will take possession of it .. birds of prey came down but Abraham drove them away". You have got to keep the demonic off your inheritance! "As the sun was setting Abraham fell into a deep sleep". That is the Hebrew word again "Radam" and it means to fall under the power or be under the influence of the Spirit. You can hear things going on around you but you are caught up in the Presence of God. "I will punish the nation they serve ... you will go to your father's in peace and live to a ripe age ... a smoking fire with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces ..". This would have blown Abraham's mind and we cannot understand it if we don't live in Africa or North America. "Covenant". Many people in the sophisticated Western world don't understand what covenant is. "Covenant" was well know throughout the world. Dr Livingstone was able to penetrate into Africa because he made covenants with powerful chiefs and the sign of the covenant was a cut on the wrist or the palm of the hand. He walked through dangerous areas and held up his hand and they would see he had a covenant - there is more to him than we see with our eyes.

We touch him and are touching a whole backing of many tribes that are powerful and stand with him. A covenant was an alliance where they cut an ox in half or would exchange coats and belts and would walk through these slain split oxen and as they were doing it they would recite the terms of the covenant; "Everything I have is yours - everything you have is mine". Anyone attacks you and they attack me - if we break this covenant these are the things that will happen. That was known throughout that world. What would have blown Abraham's mind was when God said "I am going to make a covenant with a human". All My resources are yours! Anyone who fights against you fights against Me! How many know who got the better side of this bargain!?

Here is the revelation of the New Testament. When God cut this covenant with Abraham, He said; "I don't want man's abilities in this. It is not by your righteousness or by your human effort. Man's performance is too fluctuating! So we need a covenant that is so secure that it is above and beyond reproach! That even when we fail and mess up this covenant stands constant" and sure and God said; "You won't walk through the cut halves of the ox with Me. I will put you to sleep under anaesthetic. You can see what's going on but you will sleep. The preincarnation Christ - the Angel of the Lord - walks through the calf and God the Father cuts a covenant with His Son on Abraham's behalf. So for this covenant to be broken Jesus would have to backslide. John 8 - Jesus said before Abraham was - I AM. He said "Abraham saw Me and He rejoiced!". Abraham saw the Son of God walk through and God the Father cut a covenant with His Son. That's why God required Abraham to be willing to give up his son so God the Father could get His Son into the earth to die and that was the ultimate cutting of the Abrahamic covenant and sealing it and finalising it here on earth.

So for you to constantly be taking your spiritual temperature and be worrying am I hot enough? Am I righteous enough? He wants us hot but to get the blessing is NOT based on your efforts or your righteousness or your strength! This covenant is as perfect as the Father is perfect, the Son is perfect! They cut the covenant with each other on our behalf! We are in Christ! And if I put a piece of paper in this book, even if that piece of paper has got a few little blotches in it then whereveer the book goes so does the piece of paper even with it's imperfections! And the Holy Spirit is the administrator of the power of the blessings of the finished work of the Cross!

We are just condemned to victory! We are victims of victory! Truth sets free!

God cuts His covenant and now Abraham knows that he has got it now! God can't back out! Imagery of stars - increase! Genesis 17 - now Abraham has got substance for his faith! Now his faith lept into another dimension! Let us see how long the Abrahamic covenant is for! (v1); "When Abraham was 99 years old ... walk before Me and be blameless". He didn't say be PERFECT. He said be BLAMELESS. A very big difference between the two words! Blameless is that you have got no big problems in your life! We are perfectly righteous in Christ as a gift and we are becoming more and more blameless, sinning less and less and less. It doesn't feel like that some days Rob! I know - we all have days like that apart from Glenda! (v2); "My covenant between Me and you and will GREATLY increase your numbers!". I don't understand people who say they just want a small church of 20 people and just want inner healing and to hell with the world! We are on a covenant of increase and there are 7 million people in Hong Kong who don't know their right from their left and are on their way to hell! It is wrong to have a concept of smallness! Is it wrong to have a relational drive? Not at all! We must have relationship before we function! We must have such good relationships that we can speak the truth in love! It is grace and truth! You don't speak one without the other! First with God and then each other!

But we must understand that we can grow as a New Testament church into thousands and still have intimacy with each other and with God! There is just a wineskin the Bible gives! (v3); "Abraham fell face down ... father of many nations ... name will be Abraham ... I will make you VERY FRUITFUL". (v7);

"I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come to be your God and the God of your descendants after you!".

This is not a temporary covenant! 430 years after this covenant was made the Mosaic covenant was inaugurated where God's finger wrote the Tablets of stone. This Bible says that this covenant is an eternal one! The law covenant was a temporary covenant! It lasted for 1,700 years and the book of Hebrews says that the Old Covenant is now obsolete! It is now redundant and we do not have to take bulls and goats into temples and we are not under law but under grace. It is not how many hours a day that earns you the blessing! It is FAITH in the finished work of the Cross!


In that kind of faith you want to pray, you want to be a blessing! This is an eternal covenant - not temporary like the law! You say; "Rob is the law of God still relevant in the earth?". Yes - to every unbeliever and to every unsaved person is under the law (Romans 3, 7) - the law was not there to SAVE you but to LEAD you to Christ! The law is to show you can't save yourself! The law was brought in because of sin! So we can come to Christ with faith that we are not under the law, not under the supervision of the law and we are dead to the law, redeemed from the curse of the law that the blessing of Abraham may come on us!

Go to Genesis 24:1; "Abraham was now old and well advanced in years and the Lord blessed him in everyway". He was increasing in blessing! To be blessed iean every way meant there was no area in your life where you are not blessed! You are blessed in every way! Abraham got what God said He would do! Go to Genesis 24:34; "So he said ... the Lord has blessed my master abundantly". Go to Psalm 105. Remember God told Abraham that his descendants would be in slavery and come out laiden with many possessions. (v37). This is the prophetic word God gave Abraham happening. "He brought out Israel laiden". How many Christians do you see today laiden with the good stuff? "laiden with silver and gold. No one was feeble". After years of slavery! The power of God came down on that place and I believe healed the whole 3 million! This is the Bible!

We must NEVER get to the place where we say "I am going to lower the Word of God down to my current experience". Say; "I want to have the faith to raise myc current experience to the Word of God!".

Look what he says in (v38); "A cloud of covering and fire at night ... He opened the rock and water gushed out .. He remembered His promise to His servant Abraham .... He gave them the lands of the nations ... ".

Go to Psalm 115 and read from (v9); "Trust in the Lord ... He is their help and shield ... He is their help and shield. The Lord remembers us". The Hebrew word there means; "You are on the forefront of His thinking". God is plotting and planning and scheming ways that He can bless you!

"Small and great alike". It doesn't matter what your station is! "May the Lord make you increase!". Go to Isaiah chapter 60. You are always going to have in every church someone saying; "Yere but Rob ... !". It is a goat religion! Sheep follow! But Rob! But Rob! You don't know how small I am! We are so narrow minded we can look through a keyhole at the same time! We have poverty over our generations! Someone sinned back there and we are going to be punished! I know God is great but look at me! Look at the promises of God and know you have NO excuse! You have substance for your faith!

(60:21): "Then will ALL". Hebrew means it includes EVERYTHING and excludes NOTHING! It means that in the Greek too. ALL means ALL!

"Then will ALL your people be righteous". It is announcing the New Covenant! "The least of you will become a thousand - the smallest a mighty nation!". God cannot lie! He cannot exaggerate and get carried away! Is this possible?! There are 7 billion people on the planet of which 6 billion are not born again! That is enough to go around! I believe this church can grow to 20 000 and it is still too small!

When we stay in unity that we are in a covenant of increase then God can add to our number daily those being saved!

"But that was for Abraham and the Jews". I am just a Gentile! All I have got is the Gospel that saved us from going to hell! Abraham got the blessing and he didn't have the gospel! The Jews didn't have the gospel - we get the gospel! That's what maybe 98% of Christians in the world believe! They wouldn't tell you but that is exactly what they believe! Go to Galatians chapter 3. This is foundational for next week! Let's read! "I am just a Gentile with the gospel not the blessing!". (v6); "Consider Abraham!". Well we have been doing that for an hour! "He believed God ... those who BELIEVE are children of ABRAHAM ... the gospel in advance to Abraham". This is not the law covenant which was temporary! This is still the law covenant! (v8); "Those who have faith are blessed along with ....". Not hope! Faith is based on a knowledge of the willingness of God to do it for you. "Those who have faith are blessed along with ...". Why are believers so afraid to be blessed? The main thing is justification by faith - sure! "But all who rely on observing the law are under a curse". Too many Christians are under law. "Do this and get blessed". "ALL who rely on observing the law are under CURSE". Crippled with condemnation and negativity and can't even think of God wanting to bless them!

God is NOT pleased when we crawl into the throne room! If my children came to me like that then I would slap them! "Oh Dad I am not worthy to have a chocolate - can I just have the paper?!!". I would say; "What's wrong with you!?!? Have the entire fridge!". "No I am not worthy I did not take the garbage out!". I would say; "Have the entire fridge and then take the garbage out!".

(v10); "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to EVERYTHING written ... Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us ... He redeemed us" - in order that we would go to heaven? No. "In order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit!". (v24); "Now that faith has come we are no longer under the supervision of the law ... Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise". Covenant of increase! Let's quickly look at 2 Scriptures. Acts chapter 2.

Let's see the church that began 2000 years ago and lets ask ourselves is that the way that the church is today? This was the baby church and we have had 2000 years to grow into the full stature of Christ! But we went into the Dark Ages 500 years after this and for 1000 years the church was in religious superstition and hierarchial control, demons and doctrines of demons. You can trace the last 500 years in waves of restoration as the church comes out of religious tradition! The church is coming back to her apostolic and prophetic calling! God is raising up the Ephesians 4 Ministries again! It won't just be an evangelist running a crusade! Evangelists will preach the gospel and then apostles will come and establish foundations and raise up elders and biblical pattern and we will go further than the book of Acts!

I have been to fraternals for 20 years and will continue with God's leading to associate with all the pastors in the city I can - I believe in the spirit of unity! But the Bible says we have the five fold ministry to move us from spiritual unity to a unity of faith and come to the full measure of the stature of Christ Jesus!

That is why we must NEVER meet on the lowest common denominator not wanting to offend each other! You can't read that passage - we don't believe that here! No the covenants must be taught clearly and your traditions nullify the the Word of God! I have worked and led fraternals for 20 years! But I know that is not where it is going! Get into unity and we will have revival!? We have been in "unity" for centuries! We have got to move towards the full stature of Christ by apostles and prophets getting up and SAYING it like it is! With love! There are too many politicians in pulpits today being politically correct! That will never take us to the rugged, authoritative church that paralyses principalities and powers and administrates the power of the Cross into the nations and plants churches!

This church is where we are going! Ride the bus Gus! Some want to get to what I have just described but they are on the wrong bus! You can sit on the wrong bus and pray and fast until you have got no flesh left and pray in tongues but you won't get to the right destination! You can sit in religious traditions of men and say I am being faithful! But the Bible says you must be faithful to your leaders and submit to their authority and if they are preaching stuff that you don't believe in the Word of God then you must believe that too!

There is an apostolic bus that took off in the earth and it is gathering momentum! It is local church based! Apostles circulating and relating to elders! They don't fire elders or own buildings! The local church owns the building! Apostles don't come in as executives or superintendants but as friends with affection and love and build foundation into that church! That is biblical!

(Acts 2:42). Do they have a covenant of increase? Everyone was involved! "All the believers were together and had everything in common ... every day they continued to meet together ... and the Lord added to their number daily those who are being saved!". INCREASE is the will of God!

Notice they didn't add to their number by their religious evangelistic programmes! The LORD added to their number DAILY those who are being saved!

(Acts 4:32) "All the believers were in mind ...much grace was upon them ALL ... no needy person among them ... distributed to everyone as they had need". Acts 6:7; "So the Word of God spread ... increased RAPIDLY ...". Now let me close with a practical application. This covenant is based on faith. But something that can short-circuit your faith is a lack of thankfulness for what you have currently got. I don't understand why God has blessed some of you in areas He hasn't blessed me in! I don't understand why He hasn't blessed you in ways He has blessed Glenda and me.

But all I know is that it is His will to bless me in EVERY WAY!

I have got to be thankful for what I have got right now! If God is blessing you and I start getting jealous and angry and bitter then people will start manipulating and turning Christianity into communism. Christianity is not communism but anointing sacred holy righteous capitalism! Those who invest their talents get more! Those who take risks get more! Those who bury their talents lose it! That is capitalism! The Church is not socialist! They act lazy and are there to beg! As God blesses the church and we give to the poor, the Bible says we are lending to the Lord and we will get repaid! There is no needy in our midst! People in Coastlands gave their cars! There is NO manipulation here! You don't have to give one thing! People gave cars to those who didn't! People paid for others to go on holiday! We were seeing dozens saved and added! If I get bitter and twisted and beat myself up - I have had pastors all over the world tell me about buildings that can seat thousands! I felt a funny feeling and God said I should celebrate what they have got! If you don't thank God daily for what you have got then that jealousy will cut off your faith!

God CANNOT bless you if you are jealous because Galatians 5:6 says that faith operates through love and if you don't have love flowing in your life then your faith won't work.

If God wants to give you something then you don't have to hint! "Faith-hints". God can put it on someone's heart to provide! But don't be too proud to ask for help! We will try and find a way to provide! Walk around your small apartment and thank Him that the rain doesn't fall on your head! Thank Him for the bed and the toilet! And then tell Him about the covenant of increase and ask Him for a bigger one! We need to be increase minded! If your salary is such and such then thank Him!

But God doesn't want us to SURVIVE - He wants us to THRIVE!

He wants us to thrive with an increase mentality! You may be just making ends meet but thank Him that the ends are meeting! Now ask Him for a salary you believe in! "Just have faith". We thanked God that we had two months of savings when we went to Australia! But then we asked for the figure we wanted and that was the salary I was getting! Then in a short while it was doubled!

Your company is too small to give you all that God wants to give you! He can provide through your company but through plenty of other sources too!

He can kill some of your rich relatives! Joking! When we brought our first house it was so small that even the cockroaches had claustrophobia! But don't despise the day of small things! Glenda could tickle me in the ear from the kitchen while I was in the bedroom! But I praised Him for the little house and reminded Him of the covenant of increase! I don't want to live off the church or the state! But in a covenant of increase I can own several houses and live in one and sell the rest and live when we have to retire! I believe we should be so blessed that we can have more than what we need so we can resource others!

The local church should be the most powerful Kingdom resource on the planet. God's agency is local church!

There must be affect through local church and for it to function it will take finances! Giving to local church is investing! This church is very generous for it's size! The Christians in South Africa and Australia resourced us here in Hong Kong! But last month I told them to cut it by a third because you guys are coming through here and soon I want to tell them to cut it by 100% because we are increase minded! I thank God for the six or seven people saved here! But now we want 30 or 40 and then to a thousand!

Why Angels Visited Our Service

I mentioned in the last post that I am using a few spare days to catch up with some archived sermons and the month of June 2007 was particularly significant for City Church International. In this sermon Rob explains exactly WHAT happened on the 10th June 2007 and the significance it carries.

This was preached on Sunday 17th June 2007;

"Please open your Bibles to Genesis 28. I have what I think is going to be a short message. I want to talk about something that happened here last Sunday and bring some interpretation to it. I really think it is for today and we would lose something of it next week. So I want to talk about the "Downloads of God's Glory". God is downloading glory into our church. Dion and the rainbow - you look in the Book of Revelation and chapter 4 and John was caught up into the heavens and he described the throne room of God and the first thing he said was; "I saw a rainbow encircling the throne". As Dion prophesied, a rainbow means that judgement is over! That is a sign of the covenant at the end of the flood when God judged the world - the rainbow said that judgement is over. There is no judgement but a throne of grace with a rainbow over it where our God sits and rules the universe and we sing praises to our reconciling God who is redeeming the earth and the planet.

Let's have a look at what the house of God is. What is it? It is the church! It is great to be in church where everyone is alive! We are living stones the Bible says. People think that the church is a cathedral in the corner with a few old grannies going to it!

But the church is the most relevant thing on the planet! It is the gateway to heaven! It is where the glory of God finds a portal to manifest into the earth!

Genesis 28:10;

"And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven".

(John 1:47) Jesus said the same thing to Nathaniel. That the house of God is the gate of heaven where angels ascend and descend.

Last Sunday morning while I was talking I was aware that there was like a static electricity in the air. Something rather unusual but nothing overwhelming - just an awareness of the Presence of God. When I came to the end of the speaking and I invited people forward and we came and knelt down in the tenderness of God's Presence and let God align us and adjust our allegiances so that we were in proper alignment for the anointing to flow in unhindered power through our lives, I thought we do that for a few minutes and then we would close the service. But as those who were here remember the glory of God came into this place. When we were in the military we were trained what to do if we were in the bush and if we walked into an ambush, we were trained how to get down to the ground as quickly as possible. I said to Dion that I have never seen people fall so fast. I knew something was happening as people began to weep and others began to explode with joy.n

Afterwards I was talking to Marina. She is a very intelligent lady! She thinks - she is not weird. We were talking about the glory of God and every time I said the word "glory" I felt like I was being stung but in a nice way with a thousand beautiful stings. I was shivering and my hair was standing up every time I said the word "glory". So I said; "Marina everytime I say the word "glory" I feel voltage going through me". And very matter of factly she said; "Oh when you got up to speak, 5 minutes after you started speaking 2 very large angels assembled themselves one in one corner and one in the other".

Now this is where some people take a departure from the meeting and say; "Okay! Angels!? These are weird people! They believe in angels?!". No we don't believe in angels! We believe in the Bible and the BIBLE believes in angels! Angels were a common occurance! I want to get out of churches where angels never turn up because if angels never turn up then it is a sign that God has left the place! The House of God is a stairway where angels ascend and descend!

1. She said that they were LARGE angels.

Immediately I knew because I have studied the angelic Scriptures in the Old and New Testament and the Bible is full of the activity of angels - they come on assignment from the heavenly realm through the church and into the nations doing the will of God! They never preach the Gospel - they are not assigned to preach the Gospel. They are assigned to help human beings preach the Gospel! You won't find one angel preaching the Gospel in the Old or New Testament - they help human beings. After Jesus went through His wilderness temptation in Matthew 4 it says that He was exhausted and angels came and refreshed Him. If He needed angels when He was limited to His human body then you and I need angels! Hebrews 1:14 says angels are ministering spirits of fire sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation! We need them! We don't worship angels and will never worship angels. We worship Jesus Christ!

But I knew they were high-ranking angels - she said "large" angels. And she said they had trumpets in their mouthes. And I want to give interpretation on that. I want to say this - when angels descend they come on assignment in answer to the churches prayers. When angels ascend it means that their assignment is over and they go back for R and R in heaven. They will stay there until the church prays again and asks the Father to help us break into Hong Kong, break into China, to get marriages right, finances right, health right. And you get prosperity angels, warring angels, communication angels, guardianship angels - every human being whether they are saved or not are assigned a guardian angel. That's why the angels in heaven rejoice when someone gets saved becase they know at least if he dies he will go to heaven!

Every human being has an angel - from the time you are born to the time you die, you have an angel assigned to you! As the church prays - we do not command angels around - we pray to the Father and He commands the angels to do the command of His Word. He assigns angels! But many angels are so bored in heaven - they are tired of their harps! They have played their harps this way and that way! They want a church that will get out the boat and walk on the water and take some risks and stop being so religiously conservative and playing it safe and don't want to make a fool of themselves! They want a church that steps out in the authority of God and gets out the boat and says we want to see miracles happen, we are tired of normal Christianity, we want to see signs and wonders!

And God says "Wow - look at them they are praying! Angels go and help them before they make fools of themselves!". Go! And God is starting to dispatch angels that have been on assignment to other groups and other peoples and they are not using them so God will use them on assignment for people who want to change the world around them!

I would not have been in the earth today if it were not for angels. I would have been dead some time ago! I would have been killed in my bedroom in Hong Kong! Demon powers would come into my room from the time I got to Hong Kong and try and push me into my bed and paralyse me and throttle me in my bed and one night Geoff came and layed hands on me and said; "From this night God says that His angels will come around and guard you and stand around you". Angels came on assignment from heaven and guard me when I go to sleep now! Isn't that wonderful?! I am a university graduate and some say I am intellectual! I as a so-called intellectual believe that God has angels in the earth and I believe those angels will activate and move out when God's people believe in the supernatural and believe in the invisible world and stand up and say "God come and help us - come and support us!".

2. Why would they have trumpets in their mouths?

If you look in the book of Exodus, Israel when they were going to their freedom, when they were going to inherit the promises of God in the Promised Land and were going to inherit vineyards, houses, prosperity, land, estate, fruitfulness - God said "I give you the power to get wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:18). And they were on their way following a cloud of glory that they could see with their eyes! During the day a cloud of glory was moving across the desert and they would follow it. At night it would become a pillar of fire. Every now and then the cloud of glory would stop and wait in a place for days sometimes even weeks. When the cloud of glory stopped then 3 million Israelites stopped and waited there until the cloud moved again.

A great lesson for us to know - God is on the move! Move when He moves but stop when He stops! Some Christians don't even know that God is moving! Some people make things happen! Some people watch things happen! And some people don't know what happened! The church is full of people that don't know what God is doing! Get on assignment with God! Get purpose and vision and destiny to change nations and you will be the happiest person on the earth while you walk through hell! But if you want to sit on your blessed assurance for the rest of your life and get happy then you will be the most miserable person on the planet! But when you get on assignment for God and angels come to help you and God gets behind you and financial miracles take place!

They waited under the cloud of glory and that cloud of glory was like a shelter from the desert heat during the day! It gets very hot in the wilderness and it is boiling hot - the light is so glaring. There is no moisture in the air! So they would have air conditioning under the cloud of glory during the day and then during the night it would turn to a pillar of fire. How many of you know that in a desert the nights become freezing cold and drop down to freezing? So the pillar of fire kept them warm at night and they were following that. When it stopped they stopped. They knew that they could not go anywhere without the Presence of God. Some Christians do not know where the Presence of God is going and don't know when to stop or when to go! So they go out in the wilderness and say "Where's God?" and they wonder why it is so hot in the day and so cold at night spiritually speaking! The Bible says as soon as the cloud of glory began to move then God spoke to Moses and He said "As soon as the cloud begins to move - I want trumpets to sound. Awaken and get Israel aware!". The prophetic! Get Israel aware that the cloud is now moving! Get up and break camp! Get going!

Some of the Jews said; "No business is good here - we are not moving!". We are staying here! So the cloud went and everyone went off and they stayed but within days there was hot sun and freezing desert and drying up! You have got to keep moving with the glory of God! You can't get offended and get hurt and say "No I am just going to stay here and camp here and I am tired of following the cloud and I will do what I want with my family, my marriage!". Fine - but when that cloud moves and if you don't move with it then you are in serious trouble! I have not moved sometimes when the cloud moved - I got too comfortable. Business was good in Adelaide or in Durban! It takes a few days without the Presence of God and you start running back; "Wait for me - I am coming!". In 1st Corinthians 14 Paul says that the prophetic must make a clear trumpet sound in order for people to assemble. What he is saying is that the assembly is something wonderful - the cloud is about to move! You are going to go into greater dimensions of My Presence!

It is not just about us moving geographically. I personally don't think I will move from Hong Kong for many years. It is about moving on with God into new dimensions and new encounters and realities of the supernatural.

Bethel - the house of God - the gateway of heaven! Gates are access points and when you go through a gate you go from one dimension into another dimension. The Church is a gateway into realms of the glory! It is a gateway into the realms of what is happening in heaven!

And God says "I am beginning to move again in CCI - you have come through months and months of testing and trials and people analysing and questioning". But the cloud is beginning to move! The trumpets are sounding! It is time to move! The house of God!

John 14 - Jesus says in my Fathers house there are many mansions ... so that where I am, there you may be also. We have always said; "Well that just means going to heaven one day". I don't believe that at all! I believe we will die one day and go to heaven and that will be great. But I am in no rush to get there. Home is heaven! But we must read Scripture in context! Jesus was not talking to the disciples about going to heaven - the whole context was that Jesus was going to heaven but the Holy Spirit is coming to replace Him in the earth and the miracles that I have been doing then you will do also and greater works. Anyone believes in Me - I am going to the Father and He will send the Holy Spirit to you!

Then He goes on throughout the whole chapter talking the church moving in the power of the Holy Spirit. So that "where He is - you may be also".

So last Tuesday when I was praying for the service, I said "Holy Spirit You are an eternal being and You are not locked into time! You are the Alpha and the Omega. You see the beginning and the end simultaneously. You live outside of time! You created time! So Holy Spirit please go ahead to Sunday and be there already and be there for five days perfuming this place and preparing a place for us so that where You are we may be also! Then won't You break back into Tuesday and start working on the hearts of everyone in this church and supernaturally align us to be positioned properly to receive what You have been preparing for us on Sunday". That's why I believe being at church is so vitally important for divine encounters in what God is doing.

3. Now the question I have to ask is why were there TWO angels?

Why couldn't there have been one angel? Why two? One angel could have sounded their trumpet! So this week I began to pray and ask why two? Your head only can catch up with spiritual reality later! Education means you can study for hours and after much study and effort you learn something. But with spirit revelation you can have divine information into your spirit that you just KNOW something that is quite large information but you got it in a split second. So divine information from heaven can come instantly and suddenly you know it!

So I heard God say something very obvious to me. "While you were speaking on covenant - one angel represented the Old Covenant and one angel represented the New Covenant. And this church knows with our heads and some degree with our hearts that we are not under the Old Covenant at all! We are not under law at all - we are totally under grace and under the New Covenant. I am announcing in the spirit realm that there is a moving of the people of God out of long held conditioned positions of Old Covenant thinking and mentality of condemnation and insecurity and guilt and I am releasing this church in the spirit realm to step out from Old Covenant thinking. We know we are not under the Old Covenant but Old Covenant thinking still remains like shadows in our minds. And the New Covenant trumpet is sounding - step into the glory of New Covenant thinking!".

2 Corinthians chapter 3 speaks of two glories! We often say we are being changed from one degree of glory to the next. We try to say by that the New Covenant is going up with ever-increasing glory. That is not good interpretation of that chapter because that chapter in it's context only speaks of two glories! It talks about the glory of the Old Covenant which was a fading glory and no glory at all compared to the glory of the New Covenant! The glory of the Old Covenant was a ministry of death and condemnation written on tablets of stone but the glory of the New is that we get a free gift of righteousness, we get boldness, we lose all condemnation and it is a glory that brings a spirit of life and energy into our lives! The glory is God's view and position of you! The Old Covenant glory is how God sees you through the law. So all He sees is the perfect standards of the law and His righteous holiness must judge you and me because the law demands a perfect righteousness of us all the time. The moment you are below the standards of the law then the wrath of God must come and judge.

In New Covenant God provides His righteousness for us permamently for 24 hours every single day we are seen by God as perfectly righteous in Christ Jesus! The New Testament glory is God's opinion and view of you through only grace. God never looks at you through the law. He never shifts His position of you from the Old back to the New. God is in a perfect position looking at you only through grace and only through the New Covenant glory all the time every second - even when you fail and SIN! Even though we don't want to sin and we hate sin. God doesn't put you back under law when you sin! What would be the point? No God said that the law would crush us and condemn us and judge us! So the New Covenant even when we sin and mess up God can relate to us with authenticity because His wrath was already poured out on Jesus Christ in your place forever and ever - it's not even an issue anymore under the Old Covenant!

This is the point I want to make - if you find your confidence before God is based on your performance and based on how well you are doing then you have put yourself in an incredible place of pressure. Because only when you are doing perfectly well will you feel that the Father loves you and accepts you and approves of you. The moment you start doing bad you will feel you have divine disapproval over your life. How do you know when you are doing good enough to have the Father happy with you? How do you know when you have done enough to keep the Father happy? There is always a pressure to do more!

I want to go more and love Him more! I want to! But if I live in confidence based on me fulfilling all my want-tos then when I don't fulfill all my want-tos then I will feel insecure before the Father. It is not about you and me having to do more! Jesus did it ALL! He was enough! In Him you are accepted! In Jesus it is finished! All the things I do are never to get His approval - I have already got it in Jesus Christ under the New Covenant and that liberates me to have the right motive in what I do for Him! Every week Glenda and I get letters like this from our website and most of them we have never met. Most of them are saying "The grace message has set us free". I don't know this couple - they are from the UK and from Watford.

"Dear Rob and Glenda,

We just have been so passionately stirred - the last two weeks to write this email and tell you what the grace of God has done for us. There are no words to describe what is happening to us. It is a freedom and liberty that has lifted us off our feet with joy. We are truly FREE!!!!!! It has been the most amazing thing to truly understand God as Father and His sweet Presence. I had this revelation a month ago and I had a life-changing experience with the Holy Spirit in my quiet time where it was so tangible it was upon me. The room was so bright that I was afraid to open my eyes. Trembling, laughing and weeping at the same time I don't know what is happening to me - all I know is that I just want to know Him more and more and fall deeper in love with Him. For Rory it is freedom to rise up and boldly speak the gospel to his collegues at work. His journey is at least an hour there and an hour back on the M25 (the biggest parking lot in the world because no cars move there) and the teachings from your website refresh him every day and he says that it feels like he has been born again again! It has helped us understand the Scriptures in such a profound way that you just want to read and read and read!".

It is amazing that people keep asking me if I am under grace then I won't read the Bible, pray or nothing! No! No! No! When the grace of God truly sinks in and you hear that trumpet sound to get out of an Old Covenant mentality and come here - you cannot learn grace with your head, you must learn it with your spirit and when it hits your spirit then you will know! Let me encourage if it hasn't hit your spirit yet then it is going to sooner or later! When it does you will know! You will be changed! You will have confidence before God!

"Our friends have noticed the change in us! Some have said we are drunk??? So as a result our CD writer has been working overtime as we continue to pass the message onto others. We just want to encourage you and thank you as you continue to teach the message of God's grace. Please let us know when you plan to have a conference in Hong Kong! We would love to come! Love in Christ, Rory and Cindy".

Lets read 1st Corinthians. You will never move from that Old Covenant mentality into the freedom of the New Covenant mentality by trying to analyse it with human wisdom. It is too big. You and I have been indoctrinated since we were children that nothing is for free and you have got to earn everything! If you are thirty or forty years of age then you have had thirty or forty years of brainwashing and indoctrination. Nothing is for free! In this world's system that is absolutely the truth! Nothing is for free! You work for it by the sweat of your brow and that is the judgement that came on Adam and Eve. Before the Fall they could think where they wanted to be and be there - from one geographical location to another. They named the animals and had governing power over the earth. They thought let's have prosperity and prosperity came. They thought let the fruits come and fruit came. After the judgement God said that by the sweat of your brow will you work. In the New Covenant sure we have to work in the world's system but in the Kingdom miracles come FREELY!

Not how much you prayed or how holy you are or how good you are or how nice you are. You could have just messed up and a download of glory comes. A promotion at work, a healing in your body, a miracle in your marriage. You say "I didn't deserve this!" - yep! Never ask God for what you deserve! If you do then warn me so I can get out of Hong Kong! The New Covenant is all about receiving the generosity of a Father freely! Worldly wisdom will never let you move from Old Covenant thinking. You will stay in bondage. The trumpet has sounded! If you just say "God I repent of worldly wisdom and worldly ways of thinking and I just come into the foolishness of the Cross and at the Cross it is enough!". He did it! It is finished! Worldly wisdom says the Cross wasn't enough! Religious systems say that you can't have free things from God! The wisdom of God is the Cross! Worldly wisdom is working by the sweat of your brow to earn it!

Chinese communities have been brainwashed to earn it! A worldly wisdom has to be broken! Let's read 1st Corinthians chapter 1:17;

"For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent?".

The Bible is going to speak in a minute about the spirit of this world. We will see that the Holy Spirit can show your spirit what God has given FREELY to you without you earning or deserving it.

(2:1); "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.".

Now Paul is about to say that we do have a wisdom in the church! It is God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that planned the Cross before time began!

When Adam rebelled God didn't have a nervous breakdown! Before time began God knew what was coming and He planned the secret wisdom of the Cross destined for our glory! He says that the powers of darkness, the rulers of this world did not know God's secret wisdom and operated in the spirit of this world and had they known the secret wisdom of God they would have NEVER crucified Jesus because if they had found out that at the Cross you and I would be liberated to the New Covenant and into the glory of the New Covenant then they would have let Jesus live to old age! Jesus didn't come to the earth to live forever and ever He came to the earth to die as a perfect virgin born Son of God.

Jesus is unique in the entire earth as the virgin born Son of God and when He died on that Cross He ambushed every demonic power and ruler of darkness, all their clever intellectualism could not see the secret wisdom of God at the Cross! Neither can any human being but for those who believe "It is finished!" and God's glory is for me and I am out of the Old Covenant and not under law but in grace - from that moment on we live in the trumpet sound of the New Covenant!

(v6); "Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory".

Your mind can't work this out in natural wisdom. It must be heard inside. Your brain cannot contact an infinite God and your ears can hear beautiful melodies but only your inner being, your spirit can hear the wisdom downloaded directly by the Holy Spirit. We must be so sensitive to the Spirit of God! No one knows the thoughts of Rob Rufus apart from my spirit and you don't know the deep things of God. It is impossible to know the deep things of God by your natural mind but the Spirit of God who is God equal with the Father and Son searches everything even the deep things of God and we have received the Spirit so that we may know the things that God has FREELY (not earning or deserving) given to us!

When that starts to sink in then you have been delivered from the wisdom of this age which is satanic and delivered into the wisdom of the age to come. You are on your way for deliverance from condemnation and you are going to be a wonder-worker, a miracle worker! Lets read (v9);

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ".

That is absolutely phenomenal!

Demons are about to break and be cast out who are hating this message. My spirit knows these things. Those little demons know that I know that they know that they are already defeated and our power is of infinite phenomenal strength. I am fed up of demons! They just come out now in the presence of the anointing. Straight out. Stand and lift your hands and welcome the Holy Spirit. None of us are 100% in the New Covenant mentality yet - but we are moving there. We are first fruits of generations that will never be born into Old Covenant law teaching and will be born in grace and will never have to struggle with what most of the church has had to struggle with. The next generation will be liberated congregations! We are walking into the rainbow of God and leaving behind chains and bondage and entering into the trumpet sound of the New Covenant! Is Jesus good enough?! Yes He is so therefore I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ!"