Turning Disappointments into Divine Appointments for Greater Miracles

Rob brought this short exhortation before the notices on Sunday 22nd February 2009 in response to a personal tragedy that has obviously deeply affected City Church International. I was profoundly moved by it but I found it such an important message to transcribe. I'm sure Rob gets accused of preaching a "health, wealth and prosperity" gospel of triumphalism in which suffering is rejected. Nothing could be further from the truth. When suffering and trial comes along - this prophetic exhortation is a strong reminder that Rob is more than confident to face tragedy head on and to lift his people's heads to the risen and ruling Jesus Christ.

Because suffering and trial affects us all whether we like it or not (usually not). But there is a glorious hope throughout this! We don't have to go to the excesses of "health, wealth and prosperity" teachers who claim that suffering equals a complete lack of 'faith'. But neither do we have to go the rather foolish excesses of the "Together for the Gospel" four who claim;

"We further deny that any teaching that offers health and wealth as God's assured promises in this life can be considered a true Gospel".

I think anyone who hears the care and compassion and love in his voice will find their hearts warmed by a caring father's breaking heart. Rob isn't some distant "Christian celebrity" using Hong Kong as a platform to further his status. You listen to this message and you will hear his heart breaking for these people that he clearly loves.

So here is the 20 minutes of what he said;

"Well - well done to the worship team for once again just leading us in and well done as a congregation for not being conservative or formalistic or cautious in your expression of love for Jesus. The Bible is full of a culture of extravagant expression and the nature of God is of extravagance. I really need your faith and help over the next few minutes before Glenda gives the announcements - I want to speak some "faith" things but I really need your support and I need your faith expressions all the way through! I would rather have "please be quiet!" than you just sit there and listen quietly while I say these things. This is very important.

We need these times to see them as defining opportunities that can be defining moments or watershed times - crisis that can often precipate or catalyse greater advancement of the Kingdom of heaven depending on how the people of God respond to tragedy and respond to things they don't understand.

I have been a pastor for over 30 years now and it is still amazingly mysterious to me how some human beings can face the most terrible grief and pain and cry their tears and then move forward almost with a greater sense of confidence on their face.

It is almost like the departure of their loved one created a slip-stream of glory that enveloped them with a concious awareness of that celestial realm of safety and glory that their loved one had gone to.

And Paul the apostle writes that they never referred to someone in Christ dying. Not once! Both Jesus and Paul said that they fell asleep. If you are in Christ you have already died and He said; "Those who believe in Me shall never perish". You have already died with Christ - you died with Him on that Cross and died to the old life and died to the law and was raised with Jesus and are seated with Him - you are alive!

So the Christian in Christ does not die! Ever again! You fall asleep and you just shift conciousness from the planet earth into the heavenly realm - the glory realm!

So he writes to the Thessalonian church that is suffering from losses of loved ones and he says; "Do not grieve as the world does". He didn't say; "Don't grieve". Grieving is a very important part and process anytime you lose anything! Especially a loved one. The world grieves without hope. Unbelief grieves without hope. That grief is then contaminated by tormented by demonic powers that will snap people's minds and move them into morbidity and psychological breakdown that is destructive.

The grieving with hope is painful but redemptive and brings you through a process where you have greater confidence and greater strength in life because death is not a fear to you!

I have been at the bedside of a number of dear ones come near to exiting this planet and there is always glory! I watched my own dad go that way and you are left with wonder at the glory of God! And you look at that body and you know that is just the earth suit - they have departed! And there is a grieving afterwards because there is a temporary recognition of the abscence of that person. Only temporary! There is a heavenly hope that we all will see that precious baby in our eternal future! There is a grieving as well because maybe that person who fell asleep in Christ didn't fulfill all their hopes and their desires and all their dreams and aspirations! And you grieve that was not given opportunity to be fulfilled! But if you have this hope and grieve with hope then there is a guarantee that heaven will give everything that didn't have an opportunity to fulfill on this earth - heaven will more than compensate and fully satisfy and fulfill in eternity!

So heaven is not some glib excuse or silly cliche to dismiss or surpress grieving. But heaven is this hope that everything we have been robbed of on earth will be fully satisfied in eternity and in the realms of heaven's glory! Heaven is real!

This is not to say it was God's will to take that little baby. I promise you with all the venom and anger and strength of my hatred of that demonic lie that God kills. There is a song that says "God gives and God takes away". That is Old Covenant and a statement out of Job's mouth. Jesus never taught that! God did not take that baby! God did not take her but He received her! God didn't contribute or cause the situation at all!

There is a robbing and a stealing there! Yet in it all God's victory prevails because of heaven's hope and because of the Cross! Jesus Christ is Perfect Theology! And He proved beyond doubt or debate the revelation that His Father's will is to bring life and power and to heal and restore and do miracles!

It is a blasphemous deception to credit God with Satan's works! That is a deception that much of the church has come under!

There are only job descriptions in the Bible - Jesus and the Devil's! Both are in John 10:10. "I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly". Satan's job description is to rob, to kill and to destroy. Wherever you see death - life that has been ended early then that does not fit Jesus job description but whereever you see healing, miracles, abundance of blessing then that is Jesus in operation! God didn't cause this or contribute to this! It is the fallen state of the cosmos reaching back to Eden's betrayal through Adam that there is frustration in our mortal planet.

But we will never stop contending to conduct more of the beauty of heaven's influence into this earth! For Jesus still means what He means; "Father Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!". They are not killing babies in heaven! The Father didn't do it!

We will enquire from God, we will request from God, we will investigate revelationary realms and Scripture and we will seek God to know how to do this better so that future babies will live their whole lives on this planet! But we will never question the goodness of God because He has already proved irreversibly that truth on an old rugged cross and on a hill called Golgotha.

We will aggressively and passionately pursue more of the Presence and power of God so that we come to a place where our minds are so renewed from the traditions of men and the corrupt wisdom of this age - we will not partner with unbelief which is partnering with the devil - we will contend and pursue until our minds are so renewed that we look at seemingly impossible situations that our minds are in harmony with heaven and our hearts are in harmony with heaven and we can say; "THAT is not the will of God - THIS is the will of God!" and BANG instant healing takes place!

We will never tire or allow ourselves to grow weary of our quest and our pursuit to see the power of God in not partial manifestation - not a 2/10 but a 9/10 or a 10/10 and full manifest power of God healing everyone of sickness and disease! We will weep our tears and hug one another and deal with our sorrow then we will lift our heads and rejoice that we are alive in 2009 by God's appointment to discover the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven that will help us release more miracle power according to what we see in Acts which the early church had so that future, future, future generations will say of us in Hong Kong and CCI that they did not flag or fail or fade in their faith in the face of setbacks but they set their hearts to the heavenly Jerusalem and that they released and unleashed so much of heaven's glory and power into the earth that evil was broken and every manner of sickness and disease was healed by the power of God!

They will say of us that because of what we did that heaven's love and gracious justice rained down on planet earth and heaven's perfect peace and justice kissed a guilty earth in love and earth lifted it's face to heaven and gave thanks for a generation in Hong Kong that did not give up in setbacks and did not allow disappointments to surrender but saw every disappointment as a divine appointment to release more of heaven into the earth! The devil should not pick on us! He should not choose to hurt people in our ranks! He should know better but he's brain-damaged and he will pay seven times for what he has done! We have had two situations - Phil who died of cancer over a year ago and know this little baby before we even met her - that to me is unacceptable!

There was a man and he was commissioned to raise an expedition to climb Mount Everest. The first team he took up failed because the weather closed in. They tried again and they too failed and had to come back. They tried a third time and this time they did more training and exercise and equipped themselves with higher standard equipment to get themselves better placed to succeed. They went up and half the way up there was a terrible avalanche that wiped out most of the team and even the leader was killed in this avalanche. When they came down the survivors went to a banquet in honour of their comrades who died on that mountain.

The leader of the survivors got up at the end of the banquet and stood up to speak with dignity and boldness and he spoke as if Mount Everest was in that room. And he pointed at an imaginary Everest and he said; "Everest - you have defeated us once. Everest you then defeated us a second time. Then even a third time Everest you defeated us by taking the lives of our friends but Everest we will defeat you because you cannot get any bigger! And we CAN!".

Cancer is not getting any bigger, the devil is not getting any bigger, disease is not getting any bigger but we are growing into the measure of the full stature of Christ - we are getting bigger in the power of our God and we will conquer!

I was speaking in London and was doing some training for evangelism to go out and heal the sick and on the third day I heard the Lord say; "They think too much of you and too little of themselves - they think that they are useless and you get everyone healed and that you have never had disappointments or struggles because all they have heard is of the cancers healed and the wheelchair cases that walked. And they think you just lay hands on anything and it happens!". God said; "Tell them of every failure you can remember - all the people that died - all the people I prayed for that got worse". So I went and gave an hours talk on every person that I prayed for and failed.

Then I said; "Okay I want to pray for the sick - who wants to come and be prayed for by a failure?!". They all came and that day Steve was supernaturally healed of a serious back problem. That night we went after a testimony of my failures and Glenda and I prayed for a woman in a wheelchair who said we were wasting our time - the doctors said she was in the last chronic stages of M.E. You will not walk ever again. After fifteen minutes of praying for her she starting feeling divine voltage and heaven's influence and began tingling all over. She could feel feeling coming back in her legs. Within minutes she got up and jogged around the building to people rejoicing!

You cannot get confused about this! God good! Devil bad!

But we need to walk in such humility - everytime someone doesn't get healed don't form a theology to accomodate failure! Don't lower the Word of God down to your bad experience! Trust God to lift your bad experience upto the level of His promises in His good and keep contending! Bill Johnson sees thousands healed but he will equally tell you of thousands that aren't healed. Thousands! Many medically verified! Yet Bill Johnson's own dad died. He said; "I declare Reading a cancer-free zone!". In a short space of time his own dad was diagnosed with cancer and died in four months and it was humiliating to do that in front of his congregation. His own secretary died of cancer. His son is deaf in both ears! To this day they see hundreds of deaf ears healed, cripples walking! But they keep contending!

Because every time you face disappointment, it's another divine appointment to go through that crisis and it is a question of "Do I believe God is good all the time and yes we haven't figured it out how to get everyone healed all the time like Jesus did and the book of Acts did". But we are learning the ways of the Spirit. Most of the church has been taught religious traditions and have not been taught the mysteries of the Kingdom or ways of the Spirit and how to walk in the supernatural. They have not been taught the supernatural! That's why you have got to train Christians who haven't got a clue how the anointing works or how to release this authority! But many in this church DO have a clue how to do this and most in this church are lightning conductors!".

The Singing Rob Rufus!!

This post came to me rather spontaneously - and I've learnt to listen and think when those spontaneous thoughts come. Many people think of Rob Rufus as being primarily a preacher and a prophet but some who are perhaps newer to Rob's ministry don't realise that he is a very adequate musician and singer as well. "Singing prophecy" is something that is new to my Christian walk and I must admit to certain misgivings when I first encountered it. I believe the first time I heard a sung prophecy was by Bob Kauflin in conjunction with C J Mahaney. Being honest - I thought it was odd and couldn't see the Scriptural justification for it. I don't know if both men still do that anymore but my experience with the sang prophetic went on and I began to hear it at the Brighton "Together on a Mission" conferences.

And then of course Rob Rufus himself. I must admit Rob's sung prophecies have had profound spiritual influences on me. I love music - not being a musician in any sense of the word (!) - I still deeply love music and have found it's an amazing gift of God through which He speaks and moves. So what I've tried to do in this post is gather together clips of the times that Rob has sung prophetically - or he has just sang! I do apologise for the quality of the clips. I'm not quite sure how else to get them on the blog other than using my camera phone. But I think despite the lack of quality - the impact still comes across!

1. Rob's Prophetic Song over Hong Kong.

This clip has to come at the very top of my list and I posted it back in June of this year. Rob sang it during City Church International's "Miracle Healing Weekend" and it is packed full of vision and hope and fire for the city of Hong Kong. It gives a glimpse into the fact that Rob isn't in Hong Kong simply for personal gain or for financial benefit. He's there (and City Church International is there) because of the motivation of love for Hong Kong.



2. A Song of Worship Inspired by Grace!

This short song was sung at the beginning of Rob's message; "The Blood - Substance or Shadow?". I say it's short because it has just two verses and a very simple chorus but it's simply profound. Absolutely magnificent in simply being a song written by a man who's life has been changed forever by the grace and wonder and majesty and Presence of God. And this song of worship - everytime I hear it - it challenges and provokes my heart to reach out and seek God to draw closer to me also - to desire His Presence.



3. Prophetic Song from "Glory and Grace Conference - Hong Kong".

This short clip begins with a bit of music from the worship team and then Rob sang a very short few sentences but I so vividly remember being there at "Glory and Grace" in Hong Kong when he sang it. It was such a prophetic statement of truth - but it wasn't just words alone. So many times I have heard prophecies spoken and even prophetic songs sang and felt very little. They are so empty when the Spirit of God doesn't brood in weighty glory on the words He wants His Church to hear. This clip can't even convey how the glory cloud filled that place!



So there's a few already. This is a post I hope to add to - so if anyone knows anymore recordings where Rob has sung prophetically or other then please let me know and we can add to this. Why am I doing this? It's not to exalt one man. Rob would never want or allow that. It's meant to be a motivation and a prompt (mainly to myself) to see how the Spirit of God can touch and use men and women to utter forth the truths of His glory. I can't sing - but I've got a voice and I must utter forth what He says!

Above all that - I hope - I really hope that listening and hearing these songs bring an awesome sense of God's Presence to you as you hear them.

The Struggle for the Authentic - Part 2

This sermon was preached by Rob Rufus at City Church International in Hong Kong on 14th September 2008. This - I believe - will really go down in time as another Rob "classic". I was gripped as I typed. Literally - I couldn't stop until half past two in the morning typing with all my might. This is a prophetic scream that must be heard across the nations.

"The prophetic word to us today that we are going to be hearing a bit later is that we are living in times of the greatest opportunity for destiny and yet we are living in times of great distraction from that destiny. The power of distraction is to visit limitation on your life - to deprive you, to distract you, to decoy you of your highway of destiny.

To live a life that is not fulfilling destiny is to live a life of boredom, frustration, vulnerability to sin at high levels.

But when we come into a revelation of God's love for us, God's grace for us, that God is for us, that God has already achieved the victory for us at the Cross - all He says is; "By faith step in and believe that on that Cross Jesus triumphed for you". He didn't do it for Himself - He hadn't lost anything - He did it for you. He was yours and my Conqueror, He is our champion from heaven that won on our behalf. We inherit all of His inheritance as joint equal heirs with Christ and heirs of God and we are called to be ambassadors of the government of heaven here on earth.

This is a high calling and these are the days when billions are going to be saved, where whole nations are going to turn to the Lord - whole nations.

So we are living in the best of times and in the worst of times. It depends on what you focus on. Because what you focus on - you become. If you focus on the good that God is doing and take your eyes off the evil and the terrible disappointments in the earth and fix your eyes on the good - but most of all don't look at your problems! Look at the size of your God! The devil is determined to get you distracted by your circumstances and by what challenges you and the problems and then consume all your energy in human effort and in human limited wisdom trying to solve your problems.

Distraction brings limitation from destiny that brings the higher power of God on your life to reign in victory.

We hold hands to agree today that we are not going to be distracted off our destiny and we will agree that our God is an awesome God! Have you seen my problems? Who cares! Have you seen my God?! And everything meant for evil that comes against me, He turns around for my good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose!

We are dealing with a series called; "The Struggle for Authenticity" - everyone is born and designed as original but most people die a cheap copy because they live a life that is a counterfeit life for someone else's dream. Someone else's idea of what they are meant to do instead of hearing God's dream. God's dream is your destiny and God co-ordinated your personality, your gift mixtures, your talents and your background and the preparation and where you were born was co-ordinated. He co-ordinated this to fit into your destiny.

Now there are two things you have to know to live authentically. 1. What you are. 2. What your destiny is.

If you don't know who you are and are trying to live a false life - to live upto someone else's expectation then you will not co-ordinate or connect with your eternal destiny that has begun and was planned for you before time began. In the right time God connects you with all your uniqueness into your destiny and when that happens it's called "fulfillment" and everything else is called "frustration". Everything else is called eating food, passing it through your body, taking up space, surviving it and then dying. That's what it is. That's miserable when you think that God who created the heavens and the earth designed us for destiny and for a purpose.

Last week I spoke about celebrating your authentic uniqueness and how to do that. I said that the religious spirit and the political spirit which are both evil spirits are seeking to connive and contrive to manipulate you and me into allegiance towards them by masquerading and hiding their real evil agendas which is really to control you and counterfeit you and make you a cheap copy rather than giving you opportunity to praise God and celebrate and enjoy your authentic uniqueness. I want to talk about why you can't live in that little hole of limitation and distraction- which you cannot and will not fit in there because God has called you to greatness.

The purpose of distraction is to destroy your dream and your dream is your destiny. The purpose of distraction is to kill your dream.

I want to tell you what some of these distractions are in the life of some brothers and sisters that lived in Bible times.

The purpose of your destiny is not just for your personal breakthrough and fulfillment. Any breakthrough you get in your destiny will bring blessing and relief and liberation for multitudes of other people.

You may say; "Well I want to have a little survival, mediocre life". That's fine if it was just about you. But God called you to get personal breakthrough in destiny because it will bring liberation and blessing to homes, families, education systems, politics, regions and into nations. You have to have a desire to live a long time if you want to fulfill destiny. You have to survive much opposition to see your destiny. Abraham faced 25 years of opposition to his destiny but finally his destiny was fulfilled and the nations of the earth are blessed through Abraham fighting through to win his destiny. Joseph was given a dream to rule and to reign and he faced opposition, he faced distraction from jealous brothers. All 11 brothers hated him and tried to kill him and finally put him in a well.

Lying Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him into adultery and he resisted that and she lied and falsely accused him. Then he was abandoned in prison by the people that he had interpreted the dreams of. Joseph came out of prison and became the Prime Minister of Egypt and his destiny was fulfilled and he had affected blessing on all of Egypt and all of Israel. He forgave his 11 brothers and he brought them into personal blessing of breakthough. Think of David - Saul tried to kill David every single day and that is a distraction. Then in the middle of that David commits adultery and then murder and yet besides all of those distraction David comes through and fulfills God's purpose in his generation and multitudes are blessed to this very day because of David fulfilling destiny.

You have the disciples who were walking with Jesus for 3 years and they were His inner circle. He would bring them into the New Covenant and they would change the world and they were full of hope and then one day Jesus was arrested and falsely trialled and put to death and their dreams faced distraction and opposition but Jesus rose from the dead and they became mighty apostles that we are benefiting from to this day.

There are multitudes and nations who's destiny relies on your personal breakthrough into victory and into your destiny. We are not called to live small lives - we are called to live lives because there is a bigger thing at stake.

Gideon was facing the worst kind of opposition to his destiny - distraction and Gideon came out of that confinement and limitation and lived such a great life that he with an army of 300 people overcome 100's of thousands of his enemies and liberated Israel. Gideon has been on my heart for 3 months now. There is a big difference between a one-off winner and a champion. A one-off winner gets a lucky break, gets an individual prize for something and then never does another thing with their life. But a champion is for their entire life, living on purpose to win and succeed to see the glory of God manifest in the earth.

A champion will face difficulties, set-backs, failures, disappointments, betrayals and yet year after year, decade after decade, keep going forward - because there is something I want to talk about.

The difference between someone that fulfills their calling in life and someone who doesn't is simply this word; "called". When you know the call of God and who you are, you are going to fulfill your destiny.

It is the word "called". It's in the New Testament - the New Testament was written in Greek and that word "called" is the word "Καλούμενος" - "to call" - we will talk about that in a little while. Every human being is called on this planet. Everyone is born into a calling. Jesus said; "Many are called but few are chosen". The reason that is few choose to respond to the battle for uniqueness, to celebrate who they are and few respond to the call of God to destiny because they allow distractions to bring limitations on their lives and they live a dwarfed diminished life instead of a life that has destiny and a call to greatness.

We love to celebrate champions and heroes out there and I like that - that's good. But I don't do that so much anymore because I want to forge my own life as a champion. I want others to talk about me fulfilling destiny rather than me talking about great people and you should stop looking at others who are great. Learn from them but determine who you are going to be - great because you are called to be great!

You were never called to mediocrity. (Judges 6:1) - Israel was being dominated by the Mideanites - they had come in on their land with an army that the Israelities could not number. It was so vast. Every time the Israelites sowed their crops, the Mideanites came and stole all their wheat and all their survival hope. The Mideanites came and destroyed all of their livelihood. It says in (v6) that Israel was greatly impoverished, it had no wealthy left or victorious people - it was under oppression and darkness and destruction. They came into a survival mentality and Gideon was like any other person. He is hiding in a winepress because he is terrified of the Mideanites.

He is surrounded by distracting circumstances so he has withdrawn into a little dark hole of limitation and his whole life is focused on protecting a little bit of a wheat from them stealing it so he can have a little bit to eat for himself. Into that situation God speaks. How many of you know that even the angel of the Lord goes to the Oprah Winfrey show!? Let's read Judges 6:11+. Gideon's whole purpose was to thresh wheat and hide it from the Mideanites so he can have some bread.

What was very confusing to Gideon was that in his distracting circumstances God refused to talk to him ABOUT his circumstances. What was troubling Gideon the most was the thing was the thing God refused to address or talk about. God does not want to talk to us about our distracting circumstances - he wants to talk to us about our destiny and our call to greatness. God is not talking to you about where you are now - God is talking to you about where He's going to take you into greatness.

Because if he talked to you about where you are now and fixed up your little problem then you would stay in the wine-vat satisfied with your personal needs being met. But if you get frustrated enough in your distracting circumstances and frustrated that God won't talk to you about your circumstances then the day will come when He will start talking to you about your destiny and the greatness that He is calling you to.

He's not talking about where you are now - He will talk to you about the greatness He wants to take you towards.

The Bible says that without vision the people throw off restraint. Without a vision people perish. Without a vision people do not position themselves for success - without a vision people position themselves for failure and for survival. But the power of a vision is that it has the power to pull you into the future with the purpose of victory on your mind. It can pull you through distraction - it can pull you through disappointment - it can pull you through opposition because it has the power of greatness in the words.

When God said to Gideon; "Go in your might" - it wasn't Gideon's might. It was the might Gideon now had because God is speaking to Gideon and had put the supernatural power of God into Gideon so he left the winepress in a different way to the way he crawled into it. Most Christian's prayers are not about destiny - they are about survival. Most Christian's prayers (and I have been guilty of this) is about the now - my circumstances now - my problems now. "Lord fix this - change this - stop that - change that person - do this in the now".

Destiny does not originate in the now. Destiny does not originate in your prayers to fix things now. Destiny originates in the speaking, living words of a living God. In the creation of the universe it did not begin with prayers, it began with the speaking words of God.

In the 6 days of creation, the Word of God says 9 times in the Hebrew language; "And the Lord said ...". And every time He said something creation power was imparted into the nothing-ness and God created out of His glory using words He created the destiny and DNA of planets and galaxies. In the parallel world of salvation, it begins also with the speaking words of God. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God".

Everything in creation and everything in salvation originates with the speaking words of God. So your destiny must originate with speaking words of God into your spirit whether they be audible words that you hear (and many times it will be) or whether it be an overwhelming awareness of an irresistable call and a compulsion and a desire to do something in life - it ALL begins with words.

All things that have value must originate in the previousness of God's Word. God's Word must be prior to. Anterior to. "Anterior" is the opposite to "posterior". Posterior means "it comes at the end". God's Word must be anterior to all that is happening in our life. If what is happening in your life and my life is not founded upon and released and created by the speaking words of God that brought creation and salvation into manifestation then the lives we are living are not on course with destiny and will not have the power to fulfill our destiny.

God's speaking words - and I am not just talking about the Bible - this is the final word and this will never contradict what God says to you - but too many Christians just read the Word and don't know the speaking words of God. God is speaking to us and talking to us and He will not listen while we moan about our circumstances, while we moan about our circumstances heaven is silent - as soon as you say "what's my destiny" - then suddenly speaking words will come!

The breakthough will not just be for your needs being met but on behalf of many others. The Word of God is prior to, it's previous to everything. God's speaking words is previous to all human ideas, all human insights - God's Word is prior to and anterior to and previous to. Everything in creation and salvation must be subject to this massive overwhelming previous-ness of God.

Yet the majority of Christians do not value the speaking words of God - they value their own words as more important than the creative, empowering speaking words of God. Their prayer life is reduced to complaining about their circumstances rather than waiting for the speaking words of God to create in them destiny.

When the living God comes to a human being in a wine vat - limitations and distracting circumstances and the speaking previous word of God comes to a human being and the depths of God reach into the depths of a human soul and ALL that God has for you reaches into the depths of all you were created for then there is a combination of God's creative power and His salvation power finding mature expression through you. Then your prayers are like the roaring of a mighty waterfall of faith. "Be it unto me oh Lord according to Your word". When your prayer changes from complaining about distraction and complaining about circumstances and your prayer turns to destiny and prayers of destiny then your enemy the devil gets terrified and frightened and frustrated that he cannot distract you anymore with limitations and pettiness and silly things.

Nehemiah was called by God in the most extra-ordinary context and God called this ordinary man - Nehemiah - to go back to Israel and re-build the fallen walls of Jerusalem. It involved the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem and the restoration of the worship of the one true living God. Every demonic distraction came to Nehemiah. You will see all the tactics and strategies - I've studied it many times. It's helped me push through - I wouldn't be in the ministry today if I hadn't. I would be just a bitter, cynical man and just a surfing alcoholic by now if I hadn't discovered the tactics of my enemy. There were so many;

1. The enemy started with flattery and seduction. How many Christians are flattered and seduced by false words that the person is trying to manipulate you into and draw you under their control rather than liberate you to be who you are.

When flattery won't work - and I hate flattery that goes on in the world-wide church - I see vulnerable Christians that live with a rejection complex that they can't even discern that someone is flattering me to get my allegiance to them.

2. When flattery doesn't work - these 2 men Sanballat and Tobiah - demonically motivated to distract Nehemiah from his destiny. When their flattery didn't work they turned then to intimidation, threats and then mockery. "This stupid little thing that you are doing - you look like a bunch of foxes on the wall - you will never get this job done".

3. Then they turned to false negotiation. They came one day and said to him; "Nehemiah come down and speak ot us about what you are doing". Nehemiah says; "Why should the work stop and I come down to you seeing that I am involved in a great work?". Do not come down from your destiny for silly, childish, distracting trivia of people that are caught up in little-ness and want to talk to you endlessly, sucking your energy and time dry with distraction - but you have got to get gripped by destiny and say; "No, I'm not coming down to these demonic distractions - this person being jealous of me, this person saying this about me, I'm not going to defend myself or correct myself or write articles or defend it - I'm involved in a great work and I am not coming down!

The day is coming when Rob Rufus will leave this planet and stand before an awesome God and give account for the life I live in this body and everyone is moving towards that day rapidly! Gideon and his winepress - all he was focused on was trying to save some bread from the Mideanite. Suddenly the spreading word of God - the previous to all things - the prior to - the anterior word - the word came to Gideon and like many of us including me - Gideon's first reaction was confusion! Because God didn't make one mention in His word about the wine-press, about the lack of bread, about the politics or any of those distracting things.

Gideon was horrified because God did not talk to him about his circumstances but about his destiny.

Every time Gideon heard God speak about his destiny - Gideon thought it was important that he inform this omniscient God about some facts that God obviously wasn't aware of! Gideon began to try and talk about his circumstances and all the impossibilities and all the limitations. "How can you not care about me Lord? Where's a little sympathy?". This isn't politically correct! Don't you care? But God comes and He says to Gideon; "You mighty warrior - you mighty man of faith! You mighty, victorious man of bravery!".

Now if that was obvious to Gideon, I promise you that God would not have told it to Gideon. You don't need me to tell you that you are called. My words have no power. But you need the living God to tell you - when you hear God speak to you, He will never speak to you about your circumstances primarily. When He speaks to you about your destiny (I promise this to you) His words will contradict the circumstances that are surrounding you.

You will be tempted to be confused and to argue with God about why and how He has got the wrong person. But God will not talk to you - He will not even waste time coming down to the level of talking about your circumstances. The difference between people that finish the race successfully and those that fall as casualties along the way-side. "The Lord is with you mighty man of valour".

I mean this prophetically and I have felt this for 4 and a half years that much of the church world - and I am so glad that 1000's of these messages go out every month around the world - I am so glad about that - I am so glad that I can preach to Christians around the world but it is however a far greater privilidge and a pleasure to preach to you here in Hong Kong because we are building something that is becoming a model of liberation for multitudes! Oh people of destiny!

I believe a multitude of believers around the world who live within the confines of circumstances, consumed with the distraction of their circumstances and not their destiny. If they were consumed with their destiny they would put their distractions into the right perspective and put their right energy into what will position me to be more effective in what God designed me as an authentic human being to fulfill in this life.

They would do the right study, position themselves in the right church, they would find no problem in re-locating from one nation to another to get to the place that would help fashion and shape their destiny. They would take a salary reduction to get to the right place or they would turn certain study down and would say that's a distraction - I have got to focus on this.

They would shape everything they are doing by asking this question; "Does it distract me from my destiny or help me fulfill my destiny"?

But multitudes of believers are consumed with distracting circumstances.

The major explanation is because of the legalistic preaching of a false or inadequate gospel that mixes law and grace together. It has crippled believers in condemnation! It has put them under such a lying deception that they have felt that the God who loves them and is calling them to greatness is the One criticising and accusing them! When actually He is the One forgiving them and giving His righteousness to them and empowering them for greatness.

They have been told for centuries and centuries even since Martin Luther's reformation 500 years ago and even further 100o years ago in darkness and legalism and demonic oppression in the church - demonic, satanic power crippling God's people and disfunctioning them in their psychology and they are now confused because the preachers preach some grace and some of the Cross so the people think this is so wonderful but then they preach law! "You have to do more - be holy enough - be better - do more!". And it just nullifies the power of grace.

Bill Johnson has been saying recently - and I am so glad that someone has been shouting it from the rooftops - that something is wrong in the church! Don't blame all this stuff that's going wrong. Blame the religious system of belief that is over the church! Bill Johnson said if you preach undiluted pure grace then anything that is in our hearts will come out - good or bad! That's not bad - that's good!

Because if you preach law then everything bad will stay in there! And pervert you from the inside! Some sweet little church secretary, some sweet little pastor or Christian who is externally so holy and is grinding out the mechanics of religious life which is death! Turning up to church and doing it all right and looking so holy on the outside but fear and punishment has gripped him to be a robot of the system.

But inside nothing has been changed by the power of God! No true holy desires or motives or performing on the inside of him! What's happening is that it's going deeper and deeper and deeper and the hypocrisy of being false and artificial on the outside is making him lose the battle for authenticity and masquerading a false holiness but inside streaming with all kinds of perverted desires!

Suddenly that secretary or pastor or church member rushes off and you cannot BELIEVE the sin that they go and do! I know why those things are happening in the world!

Multitudes are in their wine vats around the world and we have people in this church still caught up in their circumstances and have chosen not to believe but to listen to those who are anti-grace and say; "We've had enough grace - let's move on!". We will never ever move on from the major vision of grace in this church! NEVER!

I believe that the Spirit of God has spoken in my heart - I really believe this - and to other prophetic ministries around the world that right now after we have pushed through for 3 and a half years in this message, suffering all kinds of lies and pressure and other stuff - we are rejoicing! Right NOW as a result of our stand and many others standing I believe the Spirit of the Lord Himself is turning up to multitudes of believers in their winepresses and He is saying to them;

"You are the one that I love! Before time began I purposed you for greatness! You are a mighty warrior lady or man! I have given you all My righteousness! You are clean past - present and future! I am for you - I am not against you - I don't care how many mistakes you make or things you have done wrong! I am for you and I don't talk to you where you are at - I am talking about where I am taking you - I have a destiny for you and I have a unique destiny for you! Even if you make mistakes after the call I am an awesome God and I can turn around for good and I can get you back on line!".

Just like Gideon went from the limits of his distracting circumstances to becoming the leader of a whole nation - a process that lifted him not out of his own terrible circumstances but until the breakthough lifted a whole nation into military victory, into freedom and economic empowerment! So in the same way God is lifting you and me from limiting distracting circumstances and He is addressing our destiny on behalf of many churches out there because our personal breakthough will bring breakthrough for multitudes of people out there!

The anointing only kicks in when you respond to a calling way beyond yourself.

It is when you press to a higher mark - when the call comes. You can stay in the boat, you can stay in your wine-press and hear the voice of destiny but unless you respond and press to a higher mark then you will stay in limitations. It's when you press out of discouragement and press out of disappointment and press out of smallness - that the anointing kicks in. God will challenge you and me to press into things that we cannot do! He will say "Get out the boat and walk on water!". Sorry Lord - I can't do it. Yere but you couldn't do it before My word but My previous word carries the power of creation and salvation - now come! God allows you to go into times of frustration in the wine-press. People say; "It's not good for a Christian to be frustrated!".

I would rather have a 100 frustrated Christians who want greatness in their life than a whole bunch of passive, loose-wrist people that are happy with the unacceptable all around them who live their whole lives in smallness.

Frustration is a sign that you have got passion! You can't change anything unless you have got passion! Passion - if it is not fulfilled - results in frustration!

The gap between expectation and reality is the determining factor in the measure of frustration! Frustration is good for a while! Because frustration is often the measure of the degree of which God is going to use you!

If I meet a person that has never been frustrated then I know that is someone I don't want on my leadership team because they are passive. Frustration is an indicator - it is a measure of where God has called your destiny.

If you are called as an inventor to create new technology and you see inferior technology being sold and sold then you will be getting frustrated in your heart. You will be going in your heart; "Something better can be created here!". Frustration can give you courage to drive you out of your wine-press and step out and do something so that frustration has been a good thing! If your gifting is to administrate and to organise and position schools and companies and churches to organise effectively and you walk into meetings and just lazy stuff is going on in there and it is just things aren't switched on at the right timeand people wandering around until 11am. People who aren't administrational in their ability are happy with instruments going wrong - but those called is their destiny - will be fuming with frustration at the ineffectiveness and the lost opportunities for miracles and the waste of opportunities for God.

If your calling is as a preacher, to announce the prophetic voice to thunder into rebel planet earth - it is time to adjust your agenda to the Creator of heavens and earth. If you go into a service and some mealy-mouth preacher is speaking truth in a dull, boring way and there is no passion, or preparation and they clearly haven't spent time in the Presence of God for hours and hours to bring the living Word of God - they are just bringing religious vomit - if you are a preacher then you will sit there fuming with frustration.

You cannot move people full of distractions all day of their lives to destiny unless you have the power of God. Preachers - you should be frustrated with the 20 minute syrupy sermonette to satisfy those who have no knowledge of God, they don't know God and just come to church for a little warm up. We are dealing with eternal things here in our destiny. There is many other things. I just want to say;

Whereever you are frustrated - that will often be a sign of the call and destiny.

Now frustration if you allow it will get you bitter and cynical - then you have been perverted by the devil. Frustration can be an indication of the call fo God -the area where He has called you. But if you get into the wrong camp and you become one of the losers who have rejected the call and sit in the wine-press and want the wine-press all their lives and want the hand outs and don't want personal breakthrough for multitudes all around the world and are not frustrated but are happy for the winepress - if you listen to the voice of the losers or the Sanballats and Tobiah's who are flattering you or distracting you or intimidating you - if you listen to their voices then you will sit there and think; "What is the point of my frustration? Why don't I be like these losers? They live on hand-outs and have broken relationship after broken relationship after broken relationship and go from one church to the next church and have diminished and dwarfed their life to a wine-press.

And they have allowed their frustration to develop not into power - but to develop and turn into criticising every politician, mechanic, preacher, everyone that is out there doing it with brilliance and success.

Don't listen to those who are happy to live in a wine-press. Let your frustration turn you into a person of courage and determine never to go into the wine-press of religion and condemnation and legalism and law and the political spirit. The political spirit just wants to get popular and just wants to get the vote so it will find out what everyone wants and tell them what they want! To get the vote!

The religious spirit will judge people's sin in a harsh way not because they are really passionate for righteousness but they want to pretend that they are passionate for righteousness because they are living in the same sin as the person they are judging because they want to appear like they are righteous but actually they are angry that person fell into sin because it is embarrassing that they fell into sin and it's getting too close to home.

The political spirit will want to make you fit into what everyone wants. I will NEVER fit in with the political spirit - NEVER in the whole world, NEVER in any church, NEVER will I come under that power, EVER again - I have lived too long, for too many decades under that power. I came out 4 years ago when I came to Hong Kong and I stood out and I got out my winepress and I am not going back in that place again! I don't care who leaves this church because I don't fit into what they want - I don't care! But we are called to destiny!

I care about every single individual - you know that and I don't need to qualify anymore because 4 years have proved that. Gideon was a very frustrated man. For many decades I was a frustrated man. I did live with peace and I loved people and I built some good and large churches that are thriving to this day and will be preaching in one of them in a few weeks time for a week of preaching in Adelaide. Those churches have planted dozens of churches around the world. So in all of those decades I was productive and I was fruitful and effective but not as effective as I could have been.

God took me through that process (not wasting my time) to learn some good lessons and I learnt from some great people that I honour to this day - like Dudley Daniel and many others.

But to tell you the truth I always felt there was a degree to which I was fitting in under a political spirit and to some degree a religious spirit to fit in. But in Adelaide just over 4 years ago, the living voice of God came to me in a place and God spoke to me on that Australian coast the words I am speaking to you today. When those words came into my spirit something changed on the inside of me. Gideon was frustrated. Look at it - it's in the text! He said; "IF You are God - then WHERE are all the miracles?". Now he didn't say it like that because religious people act like God doesn't see what's in their heart.

"Oh Lord, if You be with us - where are the miracles?!". In his heart - it was different. "Where are the miracles that Rob talks about? Where are the miracles that our Fathers talked about? If You are with me WHY are we under oppression, WHY is our people disempowered into poverty? WHY?!". God is saying; "You are frustrated Gideon?". "YES!". "GOOD!".

Frustration = good! "Now go in your might that your frustration may turn to power. Do not sit with the critics but someone who will change the issue that you are frustrated with". You have got My power from My speaking word to you now. You are going in My anointing and you are going to go and deal with the father's idols. He had to break from old patterns and bondage of the imposition of ancestoral limitations. He went to his father's idols and smashed them and incurred the anger of his own family. But he rose up and with 300 men overcame the Mideanites!

Now go to Romans chapter 8 quickly and I want to close with this incredible theology here of the predestination of God on your call. And it will be worth the extra little while. Let's read and I want you to look for the word; "Called". Romans 8:28;

"And we know that in all things, all things work together for good to those who love God - to those who are called according to His purpose".

Now - it is not called according to your purpose but His purpose.

He has a unique purpose that fits into your unique personality and gifting.

(v29); "For whom He forknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son that He (that's Jesus) might be the first born among many brethren". (v30); "Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called". I want to read that to you again because it's that line I want to close this message on by unpacking the revelation in that one line. (v30); "Moreever whom He presdestined, these He also called".

Everyone is predestined by the way. I've studied Calvinism and Arminianism for decades - those He predestined He also called. Let's read on; "Whom He called - these He also justified". God called you and when He called you before you were born, He already justified you and declared that you were righteous - no more sin in His eyes. He doesn't see your sin! He just sees you as righteous. That's pretty powerful! "Those He called, He also justified and those He justified He also glorified". This is all past tense now. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us - who can be against us?". Now that Greek word "Called" - those He predestined, He also called. The called according to His purpose.

The New Testament was originally written in Ancient Greek - not the modern Greek. The Greek word is; "kaleo". The word actually means that God "screamed". He screamed in time; "You can do it! You can do it! You may have felt overwhelmed but you can do it! You may have been overlooked but you can do it! You may have been misunderstood and failed many times but you can do it!".

The "kaleo" is the scream of God.

It also means this - the predestination of those that are called means that He fixed the end before you began! God didn't wait to see how it would turn out for you. God went into your future and fixed it for you to win then He came back in time and screamed His call to come this way - that He has prefixed for you to win!

Come this way! Don't go that distraction! See that distraction? There is a demonic idea that has some inkling as to what I have called you to be - don't go that way. I scream at you; "Come this way!". My previous speaking words say; "Come this way - I have prefixed it for you to win!". We would have settled for silly sin and distraction but He kept calling us out. We tried to make excuses - but He just kept calling us out. Fifteen years ago I deliberately tried to backslide - I said "I just want to go and look for sin - I'm sick and tired of all of this cynicism and unbelief and legalism and Christians moaning". So many backslide! Let me backslide God! I want to go and surf and become a champion marathon runner! I meant it! I wanted to smoke everything I could and drink everything I could and a whole lot more!

That's what frustration will do. I tell you the truth before God - I have never committed adultery and neither has my wife. There has been no emotional affair - we have never backslidden and never walked away from God or gone off course. I tell you why; the scream of God is in my belly. He has called me and is calling me! I can't even backslide anymore! Woe is me! Some years ago there was the controversy of match-fixing in the cricket world and were fixing the matches before they were played so that the people who gamble could get more money. It was called cheating. Some of my country-men were part of that scandal as well as some Aussies. Some Indians. It's cheating! But this is not cheating!

God has set it up! This is a pre-fixed fight! You are prefixed to win! You may face challenges but He has prefixed you to win. You say; "Rob why do some Christians end their lives as counterfeits or copies? Not finishing their destiny?". Because they refuse to respond to the "kaleo" - the call. They said "I know better - my words are more important - I am going to do what I want". Those who respond to the "kaleo" - the scream - the call of God. They are being pulled towards a prefixed end that is set up for your victory.

Many many years ago I was praying in Jo'burg and said; "God I don't want to mess up - I don't want to fail". He said; "Son - I know your WHOLE life - you will finish the race breaking the tape just before you die and you see in your past no scandals, no immorality, no broken marriages - you are going to fulfill your destiny - I am telling you know because you are drawing close to me on a regular basis to get My call clearer and clearer in your heart".

God prefixed your end for victory and He did that in eternity - in time He called you out with vigorous sounds. He is calling you Christian - wherever you are in the world - He is calling you into destiny. Don't get distracted by stupid trivia and child-likeness and small thinking people calling you out. God fixes the end before the beginning and then He goes back to the beginning and He calls you to the end. He has already prefixed to you and He says to you -

"When you get over all your crying, all your confusion, all your self-pity, all your sulking and listen to My scream - My kaleo - you will realise that My call is evidence of divine permission to do something you thought you couldn't do".

Just over 4 years ago when God called me to leave Australia and come to Hong Kong and plant a church here with almost nothing here. When I heard that I know exactly where I was - I know the road I was driving - I know exactly where I was when the call came; "Go to Hong Kong!". If you have a destiny that God calls you to in the call He keeps taking you to higher levels in that destiny. I know exactly where I was and I knew that hardly anyone knew me in this city, I can't speak the language, I won't have much support. And I thought for 3 months I woke up every morning at 3am literally shivering with fear and trembling with terror because I am going on 50 and this is insane career suicide. I am comfortable in Australia with a great house right on the beach and I am supported by a huge church that loves me and fly me around the world and pay all my expenses and I have made it. I don't know anyone here, I don't know their culture, I have seen churches die in Hong Kong - ex-pat leaders come here and die of cancer. I have watched people I know come here and their marriages fall apart and the children go into drugs. I thought; "God I am afraid of failing!".

For 3 months the screams of God got louder and louder and louder and louder until it dawned on me that God has prefixed the end! Now He is saying "Come to Hong Kong because I have prefixed great victory for you!". After 4 years I am staggered at the blessing and success and fruitfulness and influence of this church.

This is but a small part of what God showed me in those 3 months of what He had prefixed for us and the people He said He would call around us and I am seeing those people in this meeting right now and thousands who are not here yet and I am seeing impact into the politics and media of Hong Kong and I am seeing a base of thousands of people and I am seeing a move of the Spirit in Hong Kong that will touch the entire world - I am seeing multitudes come to Hong Kong to see what's happening in City Church International - I am seeing impact on Beijing and China and pulled into my future by a vision - a kaleo - a scream - a call that has been prefixed!

Now I have free will - I can do what many other Christians do and pack up and move back to Adelaide and you know what that will make me do? Make me comfortable and happy in the flesh and surf regularly and live a life where they all speak English and go to shopping malls and see English speaking people all around me. I can be loved by that church there. But you know what that will do? Bring tragedy and frustration and will wreck that church there and will wreck everyone around me because when you are out of place in your destiny you are displacing everyone around you with your anger and your frustration.

You can hear this isn't just a pastor's message today. He has prefixed it so you can do it. If He has called you into some area then you can lead it, buy it, pray for it because of the previousness of His word - because of the prior prefixing power of His word because before you were born He spoke about you. Before you were born there was divine speech made about you. Special selective kind words were made about you. Before time began and before creation began - God was speaking selective, kind words about you and was talking to angels and was saying; "Have you seen My son - have you seen My daughter? They are going to be born in that date and that future and I am prefixing greatness for them. They are like Gideons - I am going to pull them out of wine-presses and give them destiny and I am making announcements of glory and greatness over them!". The angels will get all excited so that when we were born - angels trumpeted in the heavens and said; "Yes!".

Then the religious world got a hold of you in cynicism and pulled you and pulled you and oppressed you until those great dreams left those angels perplexed and puzzled - why this misery? Why this smallness? Why this pathetic-ness? What's happened to all those words that you said God? God said; "Just wait - I am choosing the right time when I am going to speak to them. I am going to call them out of their wine press and I am not going to talk about their circumstances - I am going to talk about the greatness that I have called them to be".

Predestination to be prefixed! Kaleo also means He invites you and includes you and calls you to a predetermined end - something He has prepared for you. The call is an invitation to do what you couldn't do before. He called you - listen to this. Before Jesus stood on the water and looked at Peter and said; "Come" - Peter could never have walked on the water. Because he had not yet been included in the call or in the miracle. The moment the previousness - the Word of God came - "Come!" - when Jesus kaleod him, he walked on the water. God doesn't ask your bank balance, your education or a committee if He can call you. He calls you. And if He calls you - you can do it.

Some people say; "Well Rob I'm too far gone - I've got so many things happening in my life - so many mistakes - so much dysfunction - so much failure - I'm too far gone even for the call of Almighty God!". Lazarus was so far gone that he was stinking! He was rotten to the core! He was dead! But when Jesus gave the kaleo - "Lazarus - come forth!". He had no option. Jesus does not have any resurrection power - He IS the Resurrection! When Resurrection Himself says; "Lazarus - come forth!" - He had to specify only Lazarus. Because if He hadn't specified and Resurrection said; "Come forth!" - then every grave would have opened in that area and the dead would have been raised. I am telling you the truth!

It will become a scream louder and louder until it blocks out all other sounds. Some still resist it - incredible because of the voice of the Sanballats and the Tobiahs that distact them because of pressure on marriage, children, domestic issues that we make much higher priorities than the call. You can fix every area of your marriage, your children and can get all of that sorted out and go back into your wine-press and stay there. But if you heed the call of God to purpose and destiny then God will lift you to a level of power for your marriage and your children and all the issues. But your personal breakthrough will be the breakthrough of multitudes as well. Most Christians are consumed or confined with their cirumstances and not their destiny and that's why they stay in their wine-presses all their life.

The scream of God does not refer to the sound of a frustrated parent screaming at you. It is not the sound of harsh, hysterical panic. God never panics - He is at peace. The scream of God refers to the intensity of God's love and passion and desire for you - and it is an intensity of that love to pierce through the darkness and the fear that tried to clothe you. It's an intensity of the scream that wants to pierce through the numbness and despair that clothes people - it's an intensity of His love that wants to pierce through the distracting voices so that your life is not wasted. You were called to destiny and royalty - to have the fire of God on your life and to see nations impacted and influence made in all regions that God has destined you to have.

Then He justifies you - if God went to that commitment to prefix your victory then He has also gone to the same degree of commitment to protect your process.

To shield you with His favour! Nothing can kill me before my time! Nothing can take me out before my time! There is a shield of favour when you say "Yes!" to God's scream He sets up angels to protect the process. Every false prophet that has prophesied and criticised me - God has brought wisdom and friends to help me stand and He will protect my process until that day comes and I split that tape and arrive in heaven and God says; "Rob - well done! Good and faithful servant!". I am living for that one second to hear that - I don't care if I don't get it from while I am on earth. I don't care if man pats me on the back or appreciate or respect what I'm living for.

What I am living for is the one acclamation - "Well done!". That's worth all the words that man can give you - all the comfort, niceness, sympathy. If you face and fulfill your destiny then you must walk through months, sometimes even longer of being misunderstood, not acknowledged and you are not looking for the praise of men - you are not looking for men to understand you! I did not respond to the scream of God for people to like me and agree with me. I responded because I understood that He had prefixed my end and was uniquely made in authentic-ness have a destiny that no man can know or understand. No man knows it except God and what He has called you to be. Until we say; "God I don't want to be a distraction and I don't want to be distracted!". When you allow distraction on your life you become a distraction for others. But when you focus on your destiny then you break others through into greater levels of faith and boldness to follow God.

Although you make be like David and face days when all your enemies mount up against you and there is no hope, God still comes and breaks David through so that David can come to the end of his life and God can say; "This is a man after My own heart who served My purpose in My generation". I would rather hear those words just once than a thousand Olympic gold medals and a wreath that will fade away. We have a destiny that will never fade away in eternity and your response to the scream of God will bring accolades in heaven - all of them will be worth it on that day that is hastening towards us and God is coming! We are called to be history makers!

I am not just called to lead a church - I am called to empower people to change the politics of nations, to change the education system and get wrong teaching out of the education systems. I am called to affect orphans and those who are hungry and not clothed and the broken and the disenfranchised. We are called to bring the misery that is on earth out of the way and the Kingdom of God in. We are called to relieve epidemic poverty, we are called to cure people from AIDS, we are called to bring justice to nations and are called to trumpet that and sound that! Though I may not do many of those things personally - I am called to sound a prophetic trumpet that awakens the scream of God in people's tummies so they will get rid of the silly trivia and the silly things that distract us.

A bit of sickness is not enough to distract a person from coming to church - people prove that today! Eternal hell waits the majority on this planet while silly little messages are there to comfort them. No - we must press eternity into the hearts of men and women! We must press eternity while we can into the hearts of men and women! We need thousands in Hong Kong to rally to the trumpet call of God. We need people to bring their tithes and offerings not under law but under grace - to invest into that which can empower us financially to buy buildings, to care for orphans, to care for the broken. We need a people who are world-changers and history-makers! That's what we are called to be! Anything else is a dishonour to Jesus! We are called to be invaders of the kingdom.

Rise up against every voice that talks rubbish to you - stay faithful to the Word of God and your brothers and sisters and leaders. Stop murmering. We want to cut down the angles of distraction and break the spirit of witchcraft that tries to pulverise my wife and I every day! If we all act with majority and talk to one another and see a believer missing services - get on the phone! Keep doing it! Who wants to be a history maker? I have a degree in history. But that is nothing compared to making history rather reading about it. I enjoy history - but I want to be a history maker so that future generations will read about you and me. Great politicians, preachers, parents, inventors, children. We affected change in our time because we came out of the wine-presses and came into the scream of God - the kaleo of God! Can you sense the heart of God - the urgency in our hour? We are living in the best and worst of times!

I am speaking for nations! I am releasing this into the spiritual atmosphere! A spiritual sound is coming; "Wake up church!". Its about breakthrough on behalf of yourselves and multitudes.

There is a rush of divine supernatural power coming to you!

This is last Sunday's message from City Church International -and what a sermon it is. Rob makes some extensive further comments about the Florida Outpouring but goes on to magnificently mix grace and glory. We may see revival but let us build it on a foundation of grace!

"I have waited for what has broken out in Florida! How many of you have not heard what is going on in Florida? One of the greatest revivals in the earth - a historical revival - started literally almost to the day (or within days) when your pastor (he is Rob Rufus!) stood in this pulpit to this congregation and said; "A Global Flood is Coming to the Planet" and it will touch the whole planet and there will be a flood of miracles, signs and wonders like the earth has never seen before. How many of you remember that? Within that time the Florida Outpouring broke out!

They went from a 700 seater church to a few thousand seater then to a 10,000 auditorium and now they are in a massive stadium! If you go on God TV or on your computer then you can watch this revival take place. It has got all the ingrediants of the last 100 years of revivals all concentrated into one. You won't see play-play stuff, you won't see a lot of shouting and hype and pretense. What you will see is CNN reporting, media have come, people getting out of wheelchairs in front of your eyes in the United States of America! Not in Africa or a Third World country - but in a sophisticated nation where there are seldom miracles! They mainly take place in China, India, South America and in Africa.

Miracles are happening in a Western country - they are seeing blind eyes opening and deaf ears opening! Not a few - I am talking about hundreds and hundreds of miracles every single day! CNN reporting! Journalists coming in! Todd Bentley preaching through the TV and it is going to 240 nations of the earth! It is being communicated through the media! Hundreds of millions around the earth are hearing it! Todd Bentley looks in and says Keith Richards (the Rolling Stones star) is watching this now (knowing by the world of knowledge) and you are in bondage to drugs. Keith Richards reported to a high level Hollywood reporter that is exactly what happened! He was sitting watching God TV and Todd Bentley said; "You are watching this now!.

Paul Cain - one of the leading prophets from the 1950's and 60's who survived that - fell into some stuff recently but God has brought him out and God is restoring the prophets, he said; "The day is coming when there will be such miracles that stadiums won't be able to fit the people in". Paul Cain is going to be there to watch what he prophesied 20 years ago coming to pass.

City Church International Man: "I believe this is a word from God. This started as a revival but I believe God is saying this is no longer a revival. This is My timing. This is My calendar and it goes on. This is the beginning of something that goes on. Revival's start and finish. We think of the Welsh Revival and so on. This is not a revival. This is not just a revival. God says it might have started that way but this is My calendar and it goes on - and it is going to spread and go around the world!".

Rob: "Amen I absolutely concur 100%.

When I prophesied - look I am going to boast! - when I prophesied this along with a lot of other prophets around the world (just that mine was right on the button to within days!) - but remember when I prophesied; "A Wave of Glory is Coming?". What I said was that this is not a new season. Revivals come and go - they are seasons. Seasons come and go but I said that this is a new climate - a new atmosphere and a new dimension that will keep increasing until the return of Jesus Christ comes!

This is what Christians have been praying for centuries and into manifestation and the prophets are saying that it is contageous - it is tangible and it is transferrable. People have already taken it to dozens of cities around the United States. It is breaking out and they are having weeks of meetings every single night. It is breaking out in the United Kingdom. The prophets are saying it is going to break out in England and where do you think we are going?!?! I have already written to Graham Marsh where there are masses of people already registering for our Empowerment Conference where we are the main speakers. I wrote to him and said;

"I hear in my spirit that the great Eastbourne Outpouring is coming to England! Get ready! Tell the people we are going to see mighty signs and wonders!".

Last Thursday night we had the most powerful meeting we have ever had in our history as a church. It was an awesome time - I had a word of knowledge that the gold dust would appear now and it immediately happened on numbers of people! In the middle of that, Audrey said; "We have got to get someone to Florida to go and get this and bring it back!". I heard that and I prayed and waited and thought and the next morning I got up and was on streaming watching the Florida signs and wonders and I felt in my heart God say, "Ask Ryan and Kylie to go - just ask them to go!".

So this is where I am bringing you in - because we fly out tonight to minister to over 1, 000 leaders in Northern Europe and around the U.K. But we want to send Ryan and Kylie from this body because this is catchable. That's what churches around the world are doing. They're sending people there to catch it and bring it back because you can catch it and carry it back and splash it out.

That is why I say - don't miss out on next Sunday morning because Ryan and Kylie will fly in on Saturday night and step into this meeting carrying the Florida anointing on their lives!

We will be in Europe and the UK streaming and watching it and what God is doing in Hong Kong and feeling very homesick. So this is our chance to sow into revival. Ryan is self-employed so if he doesn't work there is no income. That's a week without wages because he paints houses. What I felt to say to you - let's sow into this revival! It will cost them 9, 000 dollars each on the air fares. That's a pretty long flight to Florida and I think that's pretty reasonable. So let's say 20, 000. The hotel will cost $50. They had to get something 5 miles away because God has become Florida's biggest tourist attraction. So I am going to ask you to pledge - and I know you are not ready and we didn't warn you to do it. But I know we have a generous heart in this church.

I am saying to you please - no pressure or guilt! If you don't feel free to give anything then please don't worry about it. Don't feel guilty about it! Live free! We will find the money somehow. We will trust God for this airfare and these things. They are flying out tomorrow and be back Saturday. We've got some pledge envelopes so City Church International is going to Florida! We've just had a neck healing over here - a neck just clicked and unlocked! Wonderful! The Lord has just healed someone here!

Isn't it wonderful that God has raised up a man - I think he is 31 - Todd Bentley, and He is using him in this whole revival and it's not going to stay in Florida but will spread around the world. Todd was a drug addict up to the age of 18 and he was an alcoholic. He drunk with his dad at the age of 11 years - his dad was also an alcoholic. He was arrested in prison 5 times with tatooes all over his body and earrings. He wears a T-shirt and jeans and has no high school education yet God saved him at 18 or 19 and called him into full time ministry at 20 years of age. He left the saw mill and went full-time through Patricia King's prophecy!

We've just written to Patricia King and Joshua Mills asking them to come back and do "Glory and Grace Conference" with us in March next year!

So Todd goes around the world and has seen the dead raised and mighty signs and wonders.

God's not needing your intellect or how clever you are. God wants hungry, desperate, available people that want to make a difference and heal the broken-hearted and see the multitudes saved and see the Church awake and be in revival!

The greatest miracles take place when you put the people with unbelief out of the room. Jesus went to Jairus's house where his daughter was dead and there were people in the room full of unbelief, doubt and double-mindedness. Jesus had to put them out of the room to say; "I say to you young girl - arise". The greatest miracles I've seen through my ministry are right at the end of meetings when most of the people have gone. The great miracle in Australia with the crippled lady coming out of the wheelchair happened when three quarters of the people had left - and only people with hunger were hanging in.

They saw a woman that had been on television and the doctors had said she will never walk and will be dead within six months. She came out of that wheelchair because everyone was there hungry, clapping, applauding and believing.

You cannot move in the miraculous when there are too many people with a conservative, religious spirit on them who are nervous of noise, nervous of responding at high levels. The greatest miracles can come to a church where most if not all are on board with the fire of God.

We could have filled this building by now but I have preached some people away from this church because I understand that if we are going to grow to the thousands then we have to have a people that are full of faith and full of joy. I offend people on purpose so that their offense will show a religious spirit and they won't come back!

I know that God said don't live to fill buildings with people but live to fill people with My Presence. "If you live to fill buildings full of people who are full of My Presence and I can do what I want in those meetings and I can move in power because the atmosphere of faith is in that place and everyone is charged up to believe God for signs and wonders!".

Here is a testimony from Fini and Isi (de Gersigny). "Sorry I missed Rob's call. We've been involved with outreach to the New Agers ... ". This is invading the impossible! This is taking the supernatural out of the church buildings and going to where the lost are! "... since Wednesday. This was a "Mind, Body and Spirit" Festival and we have been putting in about 7 hours at the festival". They had their own booth prophesying over people! "It finishes tomorrow. 17 folk from our church are involved and we have seen several wonderful miracles and folks saved too! New Agers saved at a New Age festival! On Thursday a woman came bandaged up with a shard of glass in her foot that the doctors who operated on couldn't remove because it was too close to a nerve".

"After prayer, the girl praying for her noticed a large piece of glass on the carpet next to her. She said; "Is this your glass?!". The lady had seen it on X-rays and said it was. When they opened up the bandage there was no lump where the glass had been - no scar and of course no pain. She danced around!". This is my spiritual son Fini! "She danced around and went to all the stalls telling everyone what happened. A lady got saved right away who saw what happened. We have had backs and allergies and arthritis and other stuff instantly healed.

We are pretty amped and look forward to testimony time in our services! I have been following what's been going on in Florida and have enjoyed listening to some of the latest podcasts from Bethel where some of the team have just come back from Florida as well as all over the world. There certainly is an increase in expectancy world-wide on God pouring out His Spirit which is so encouraging for those who have an ear to hear. Thrilled that Ryan and Kylie are getting to go! Lots of love Fini and Isi".

This next testimony is going to blow your mind and it's about us. We checked out in Singapore and it's about our website. Let me read you his email. "Subject: There is a spike in numbers. (I only found this out a few days ago). Although this is not possible with man, Glenda talked of Todd Bentley's revival a few days back and we might have to upgrade our servers on the CCI website where we have been having an average of 37, 000 downloads on our messages a month.

We had a server over-whelm a few days back and the server went down because the number of hits we had in the month of April was 340, 481!!!

We did put the Hong Kong Glory and Grace messages up and so there's been a lot of hits on those". He reckons there has been about 200, 000 hits on that. But they jumped to about 100, 000 on our normal download. So we are going to have some work on this thing! "The average over the month of April per day was 11, 606 people!". Doesn't that tell you that there is a hunger out there for the message of grace?! Why are people trying to cut this message off and fight it? There is a revolution taking place! People are going to get so tired they will say look if the leadership won't move with this message, we are going where they are! We are going where grace is!

340, 481 people are now visiting our online ministry!

This is what I felt in my spirit on Thursday morning while I was praying and sitting still. The words; "Amplification" and "Acceleration" came to my mind. I take very seriously the audible words that come up in my spirit. It has changed my life and positioned me to do what God has called me to do or avoid what He is wanting me to avoid. That inward audible voice told me about 9/11. The Taliban came up in my spirit hours before that 9/11. I heard in my spirit; "Taliban! Taliban!" and knew this was coming.

Wow! The total in pledges already is $22, 400 (for Ryan and Kylie!). Thank you guys! You are sowing into revival!

"Amplification" and "Acceleration". Over and over again! Then the Lord said; "I am increasing My power speedily to you. I am going to bring My power speedily to you. I am going to bring My power rapidly to the people of God - to this Church!". Amplification and acceleration - increase and more power quickly to this Church!

This message is called; "There is a rush of divine power coming to you!". Or; "God's supernatural power is in a rush to come to you individually and to us as a Church". Or; "How to have the power of God quickly in your life". We need to live with a constant sense of expectancy in these days.

A constant sense of the supernatural breaking into our lives - we need to believe God that when we go to work that when we get a word from God for that person at work that doesn't know Jesus and that insight that He gives us, will enable them to know that God loves them and understands the problems they are going through because all prophecy is never to put people down in the New Covenant but to encourage, exhort and comfort. That's what prophecy is - that you have a word in season for that person.

We need to expect when we go into a business meeting in front of the board that we can say - cast your nets down on this side of the boat and you will see a great catch coming in. We need to expect as teachers in the classrooms that angels will show up and the Holy Spirit will come in and they will feel the glory of God in the classroom! We need to live with expectancy! I am convinced that Jesus Christ never came for us to live the lives of misery or even mediocrity. I am more than 100% persuaded that Jesus Christ came (in John 10:10) that "you may have life and have it more abundantly". (1 John 3:8) says; "For this purpose was the Son of God manifest to destroy, to terminate, to eliminate the works of the devil". (1 John 4:4) says; "Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world".

We may not all be living there but I tell you it is the will of God that misery, sorrow and sighing flee from the lives of believers! We are meant to live abundance of life and in joy and be happy! We are not meant to work so hard and be so unhappy and have so much stress and strain. We are meant to live an abundance of life - it is the will of God! God wants it! He's for it! He is backing it! He can bring change!

If we abide in and trust then the prosperity of God will come and where there will be finances overflowing but we don't have to kill ourselves to get it!

If we are ambassadors of the Kingdom (and we are) then our resources come not from the kingdom we are in or the nations we are in, but from the kingdom we are really in as citizens of heaven. I don't care if rent goes up - I don't care if the cost of living goes up in Hong Kong. Our income comes from heaven and I tell you the days we are coming into - these Christians who live by the limitations of the earth are going to be exposed for the frauds that they are and those who live by the kingdom of God and are truly walking in open heaven will find provision for everything happening ine earth right now.

Fradulent and counterfeit Christianity is about to be exposed in the earth. Bigoted people who know the Bible intellectually - know it academically and are legalistic and moralistic - they are about to be exposed as counterfeits and as frauds because they cannot make it through the hard times that are coming on the planet - for there is a wave of glory coming but there is a wave of shaking coming and it will be harder and harder for those who don't know the heavenly realm and who don't walk in revelation and who don't walk with God in intimacy every day.

It will become impossible to live in this time we are going into as the atheists live and as the secular humanists live and as the unbelieving Christians live and as the unbelieving Christians live.

This is going to be a time when the people of God walk in the glory - walk in the anointing - walk in the Presence.

God is not an idea we examine on a Sunday morning - He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. He created the air you breathe. He created the lungs you breathe that air with. They belong to Him - the earth is His and the fulness thereof. This planet belongs to God and He wants it back! God is shaking the nations but the kingdom cannot be shaken (Hebrews 13). Those who walk in the kingdom cannot be shaken but those fradulent counterfeit Christians will be shaken in these days. They will not make it through - it's time to press into the glory realm - into the heavenly realm - to hear the sounds of heaven in your spirit - to hear the glory sounds in your spirit - to not put God on hold.

"Sorry God - I am putting you on hold now - I have got a busy life to lead". No - we never put God on hold and we put God first and we listen to His voice when it comes up in our spirit. "Amplification" and "Acceleration" - more power is coming into the earth. This is God's will for your week! We've got this false religious idea that Christianity is meant to be so hard. Jesus said My yoke is easy and My burden is light. The way of the transgressor is hard. Now there is pressure that comes to the believer from the devil but you are coming into a new realm of authority to deal with him. You have got to get this into your heart - it is God's will for you to enjoy life!

I love Joyce Meyer's ministry. It is called; "Enjoying Every Day Life". She said they changed it to that because there are so many Christians that are miserable. It used to be "Life in the Word" but there are a whole lot of Christians in the Word who are miserable so she called it; "Enjoying Every Day Life". She said; "I'm not talking about when you go on a great holiday or when you watch a great movie - every day life! Brushing your teeth! Going to work! Being at work! Enjoying every day life! That's the will of God!". You may not be living that life now but that is the will of God for you.

Be persuaded it is God's will for you! Monday - fun! Tuesday - in the glory! Wednesday - prosperity with persecution (which you can fob off with diplomatic immunity as His ambassador!). Insults? Paul said; "I delight in insults and hardships and difficulties because when I am weak then I am strong and God's power is perfected in my weaknesses". What do you do with people that have a revelation that I am meant to enjoy every day life? Thursday - success! Friday - lead 5 people to Christ. Saturday - prayed for a cripple in the street - healed and walking. Sunday - gather with a whole lot of other people just like me who have had a great week and have celebrated the glory of Jesus! Celebrate how wonderful and not getting together to commiserate how hard life is - but getting together with people who live under an open heaven!

People who are disgusted and hate religion with a passion because the devil is behind the spirit of religion - people who hate the serious morbidity - this epidemic of melancholy that is in the body of Christ. It is a disease that ought not to be there! We are Zion! The city of God! The joy of the whole earth! It used to bother me for 30 years and I have just worked it out in Hong Kong and it has changed the life and the rhythm of this church. I worked it out! For 33 years I used to say, "Lord some Sundays the congregation is electrified and happy and they contribute to the meeting and put faith on the meeting and praise You with abandonment. It is exciting to be there!". But then the next Sunday there is the same group and they need to be resurrected from the dead! Did they kill their mother-in-law during the week?! Did their gold fish die!? What happened during the week!?

Then the Lord showed me; "It is two issues son. Number 1 - they have not been taught the grace of God. They have a legalistic view of the power so that when they have a good week and they are pretty holy and they obey most of the time and do most things right. They then come to church and feel they are worthy to clap and praise in faith. But then during the next week if they make mistakes, disobey, sin and just fall then they come into church condemned and accused and feeling like a failure. The pastor and worship leader has to work so hard and almost get in the flesh to lift meeting. Number 2 - no one has equipped them how to refresh themselves and encourage themselves in the Lord during the week".

I want to talk briefly about the power of God being on your life every day of the week based on grace and not on legalism. How many of you believe that amplified power is accelerating towards you and coming quickly towards you every day?!

I am finding the power of God comes on me in the most unsual places. Just sitting in a resturant eating and the power of God just falls! It is really happening! Some of you restrict the power of God to a Sunday service! The power of God is rushing to you and the anointing is for you - to come on you in every day life to enjoy!

Romans 1:16 - the Greek word for power is "Dunamis". We get the word "dynamite" from that - it means dynamic power! Supernatural power - the power of God! (v16); "It is the 'dunamis' of God - the salvation of God". Salvation in the Greek means "peace, protection, preservation, healing, prosperity, health, complete freedom from demonic powers". "Of everyone who believes, first for the Jew and then for the Gentiles".

The power of salvation is dynamic power that is in the Gospel. What releases that power? Is it days of fasting? Is it all your obedience, holiness and striving, and how much you pray? They are important but that has got nothing to do with it! That does not produce the power! (v17) tells us where the power comes from. "A righteousness from God is revealed". That is the trouble with people fighting the grace message - it is a righteousness revealed - it has to be revealed. If it's not revealed then you don't see it.

It has been revealed to me - to this church. We will never give up what has been revealed to us. It is not a righteousness from man or the law or your performance.

It is God's righteousness revealed in the Gospel that is given to you as a gift. When you believe that - the power of God and of salvation manifests and accelerates into your life.

"A righteousness by faith from first to last". There are people saying that you get saved, justified and get righteousness by faith - but now you are saved you have got to have another faith for sanctification. It is by faith - from FIRST to LAST. You are the righteousness of God! The power comes by;

1. Knowing you are not under law.

2. Knowing you are not under condemnation.

3. Knowing you are not under accusation.

4. Knowing that God is not counting your sins against you ever again.

5. He has forgiven all your sins in one single moment - not in instalments but one moment.

ALL your sins - past, present and future!

The glory of God raised Jesus up from the dead because heaven's justice and integrity was satisfied and all sinning has been righteously punished forever and ever and dealt with! When God raised Jesus from the grave for our justification, He was raised up with an immortal body - the immortal Son of God! That means He was carrying none of your sin that He went into the grave with. What happened? Did He leave the sin behind? No the sin was obliterated out of existance and it doesn't exist in the universe! God can't find your sin anywhere! It has gone! Jesus was raised from the dead!

You have a permament, eternal rightousness! Go to Galatians 3. What would you do if you were the devil and Paul the apostle came to town and taught that you were the righteousness of God as he taught? "I am not ashamed of the gospel ... a righteousness from God is given to man apart from works". That's where the power flows from believing that message! What would you do if you were the devil? I would do my best to cover and obscure the Cross - I would do my best to water down the Cross. People accuse grace preachers as preaching "cheap grace". No, no. The devil is preaching cheap grace. He is watering down!

He will cover the Cross and obscure it with cultic powers and false teachers to the point where believers feel like they have got to measure up to something. They have got to do something to earn the power and they get back under the law and back under striving and the miracles stop.

Galatians 3:1-7; "Oh foolish Galatians - who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this - did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish, having begun with the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain, does He who supplies the Spirit to you and work miracles among you do so by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that it is those who are of faith that are the sons of Abraham".

So Paul is saying - you foolish Galatians, you used to have signs and wonders, the power of the Holy Spirit moving among you supernaturally - now you have got no supernatural left and you have gone back under the law - back under human effort and you have suffered for NOTHING! You have gone into the works of the flesh and Galatians 5 describes the works of the flesh. Bondage.

I remember travelling around Australia and I would get to churches (and I don't mean this unkindly - there were numbers of wonderful churches we have been to in different nations that are full of life and full of glory) but I have to say the majority - on Sunday morning, it is DULL. There's a lot of clapping and hoo-hah but there is no anointing - it is dull. While you are speaking there is a dullness over the people. It is like they are just in a fading glory - under an Old Covenant! They are in a fading glory and dull of hearing, dull of revelation, no joy - just dull! Boring! They scream and shout at a sports match but at church they are DULL! I would find it would take me 3 to 4 services Sunday morning, Sunday evening - and then the lights would come on! Joy, liberty, laughter, enjoying God and enjoying each other! You know what happened over and over again? Pastors made a FATAL mistake in those churches. They began to say this;

"That is a gifting of Rob - to break churches through".

Serious mistake! It is a serious misunderstanding of Galatians 3! I don't have a special gifting to break people through. I have a special MESSAGE - the anointing and move of God follows a MESSAGE! It doesn't matter if someone is a prophet or a teacher or an apostle or an evangelist or a pastor or just a priest of God if they preach this MESSAGE of grace then the Spirit of God will break into people's lives with acceleration. It's not a special gift! I would go back to those churches where I had seen people broken through in 3 or 4 months later and they were as dull as when I had first arrived. Sometimes even worse - because they were doubly deceived because it was the pastor's fault. He had just said that is Rob's gift and then brought the law and performance and false holiness and demanding obedience of people to earn the blessing. He had brought Old Covenant teaching and the fading glory and dullness came over the church.

A few years ago I made a decision - I am never going back to those churches to nearly kill myself unless those pastors repent of their message and take Paul's message. Then I will gladly go in and minister. It is wrong and cruel to expose God's people to this liberating message and they experience temporary OPEN HEAVEN and then it closes over them again because of a mixture of false teaching of a mixture of Old Covenant and New Covenant.

Guys I am coaching you to help people get free - I am struggling slightly here and I am not sure why. Maybe it is just personal because I am about to fly out and I have got conferences and a lot of preaching ahead of me. I want you to hang in with me please. I could stop now and you guys go next week but I want to download this to you - it is "amplification" and "acceleration" - and I want to get this thing finished! Let's go to Acts 1:8. This is Jesus speaking to His disciples; "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and in all Samaria and to the ends of the earth".

Notice He didn't say you MUST be My witnesses! That's the law. He said; "Just get the power guys - and you will be". It is not just preaching a factual gospel - it is that the power of God is ON you and you are living testimony and witness because you are carrying something supernatural on your life. Let's see how the power comes. Let's go to Acts 2. I love this! I want you to see the word "Rushing" - the power of God rushing in.

"When the Day of Pentecost arrived, they were altogether in one place and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing ...". What does "rush" mean? The Holy Spirit was in a hurry! Acceleration! " ... like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the house where they were all sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to each of them and rested on each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance". The Spirit of God didn't grab their tongues and wag them around - they did the speaking and the Spirit gave them the utterance!

"Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews - devout men from every nation under heaven and at the sound, the multitudes came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language and they were amazed and astonished saying 'Are not all these who are speaking Galieans? And how is it we hear each of us in our own native language?". Go down to verse 11; "We hear them telling in their own tongues the mighty works of God". What is the Spirit of God stirring them to talk about? "The mighty works of God!".

How many of you know that Pentecost is a Jewish feast that Israel celebrated? Israel have seven feasts they celebrate but three main feasts. The Feast of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. We know they are shadows but the substance is in Jesus. The substance is in the power of the New Testament! The Passover was the shedding of the blood of lambs so they could come out of slavery in Egypt. That is you in substance being saved by the blood of Jesus. Then 50 days after Passover is Pentecost and they celebrate Pentecost every year. There was the first Pentecost of the Old Covenant celebrated every year over 1500 years and then the first Pentecost of the New Covenant! The first Pentecost of the Old Covenant was on Mount Sinai when the law was given. The first Pentecost of the New Covenant was what we have just read. 50 days after Passover.

On the first Pentecost of the Old Covenant, the law was given and the law as we know it is a ministry that takes away life and kills and condemns. On the first Pentecost of the Old Covenant on Mount Sinai, 3, 000 people were put to death. On the first Pentecost of the New Covenant 3, 000 people were saved because life came gushing into the earth. On the first Pentecost of the Old Covenant they spoke of the works of the law and how the law focused on what man must do. In New Covenant Pentecost they focused on the mighty works of God - that is where the focus of the New Covenant is. Not your works but the mighty works of God!

Now many Christians have got their feet on Mount Sinai and one foot on Mount Zion. Because Mount Zion is where New Covenant Pentecost came from. You cannot add grace to the law - you cannot have your feet on both - but they do! Old Covenant focuses on our works but New Covenant focuses on His mighty works!

The devil wants you and me every day to focus on our works - our sins - our shortcomings - our failures. The Holy Spirit wants you to focus on Jesus righteousness as a gift for you! The devil wants you to focus on what you SHOULD do and what you SHOULDN'T do! This power will get you doing a whole lot of things without you even TRYING to! The Holy Spirit under New Covenant Pentecost wants you to focus on what Jesus has DONE and the works HE has done and the mighty works He HAS done on the Cross and the mighty resurrection - what HE did for YOU! The Old Covenant focuses on what YOU should be doing - the New Covenant focuses on what HE has done for YOU. Jesus mighty works for YOU, on YOUR BEHALF!

I want to say this (and I get caught by this now and again); "I should be doing this, that". The Holy Spirit says; "Focus on what He has done - focus on His works - that is the New Covenant Pentecost!". Then you suddenly find you are doing the will of God anyway!

There is a whole new teaching coming out to react to the grace message and it goes like this; "There is very little difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Old Covenant was the law without the power to live it. The New Covenant is still under law but now we have the power to live it!". That is a very dangerous deception my friend! If you buy into that lie then you will be focusing on the wrong thing. You will be focusing on the POWER helping you to live upto a standard to be righteous. You are righteous forever every single second of every single day. Keep your eyes off your performance and keep your eyes on the performance of Jesus Christ on your behalf.

You are not under the law - you are redeemed from the curse of the law. Christ is the end of the law to all who believe! You are not living up to a standard but you are living an empowered life! I get the heebie-jeebies because I love God's people when I hear people say this;

"The standards required of us under the New Covenant are higher than those required under the law".

I just think WHAT have you done to the people of God!? "Well because we have more power". The power doesn't come so we can live up to any standard. The power comes to live in freedom and we will grow in victory over sin and holiness and obedience - but if you are thinking that the New Covenant is power to live up to standards then you are focusing on standards and trying to get the power to get you to live up to that standard. So you are taking the focus OFF Jesus and AWAY from Jesus and His works and onto YOUR works!

You hear teaching like this; "Well Jesus said under the law thou shalt not commit adultery, but you just look at someone with a desire for adultery and you are guilty of adultery ... you see! That is the New Covenant standard! It's a higher standard than the Old Covenant!". Folks that is a complete mistreatment of the Scripture! Jesus wasn't preaching the New Covenant when He said that. He was addressing bigoted, arrogant people - not the Jewish people but the Pharisees and Sadducees who were putting heavy yokes upon the people. Yet they themselves had watered the law down to the point where man could sort of keep it. So they weren't ready for the New Covenant Pentecost because they felt self-righteous and self-sufficient!

So Jesus was saying; "I am telling you that the standard Moses taught - but I am the Law-giver". This is what the Law was. It is so severe that it is meant to strip you of all self-righteousness and of any hope of being righteous and complete abandonment so you must turn to grace and receive righteousness as a gift for in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed that is by faith from first to last.

Did you notice that this wind of the Spirit came rushing in? Did you notice that this wind of the Spirit came rushing in? Did you know that Ezekiel had a vision of the temple and he saw the glory of God lift off the temple? Lift off the Holy of Holies and hover over the Holy of Holies - linger there for a while. Israel was worshipping idols and going after false gods and so they were under the law and the glory lifted off the Holy of Holies.

The glory lingered there - it stayed there for a while. He was reluctant to leave! Then slowly moved to the outer court - like the Spirit of God didn't want to leave. Even under the law and condemnation and fading glory, He didn't want to leave! But because they worshipped idols, He finally lifted off the Holy Outer Court and goes to the Mount of Olives and lingers there - reluctant and slowly waiting!

Then Ezekiel saw the Spirit of God go back to heaven. Israel was without the glory for 100's of years. Now the first day of the New Covenant is the Day of Pentecost. Grace is in place and no longer under the law, no longer have to keep standards and measure up and be good enough. Grace has opened the heavens! The Spirit left slowly and reluctantly under the law but He comes RUSHING back once grace is in place! He accelerates and rushes into your life EVERY day!

Every day He can fall on you in resturants, fall on you at work! He will come on you -rushing into your life! One more Scripture and we close. Go to Acts chapter 10. Peter - a Jewish apostle - is going to Gentile Christians and they are not saved. Acts 10:36 - the Gentiles have invited him and they are Italians and it is Cornelius's home. Peter is preaching to Gentiles who are not born again; "He is the One appointed by God ... to Him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins" - not "sin" only - "through His Name. While Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the Word and the believers of the circumcised who had come with him were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles for they heard them speak in tongues and extolling God".

Now the Holy Spirit fell on them - He could not wait - He came rushing into the meeting and fell on them. They got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit straight away! Sometimes you can be preaching and people break out in laughter and people say; "Oh that is interupting the message!".

No the message CAUSED the interuption!

At what point did the Holy Spirit break in here where He couldn't wait anymore? "I can't wait anymore Peter - get out of the way!". He interupts the sermon when Peter said; "Everyone who believes on Him receives the forgiveness of sins". Peter was saying this and THEN the Spirit fell.

Do you understand what is going on here? Those who have been Christians for a number of years will. Modern preachers criticise this as "easy believism". You just believe and there it is! Where's the repentance Rob!? Notice they didn't even challenge repentance here. There are many places in the book of Acts where repentance doesn't seem to occur. Acts 10 - no repentance and they got saved. We went to China and where is repentance!?

Folks - repentance is something quite beautiful. It simply means change the way you think. God is not my enemy - God loves me! I want to be saved! And God comes rushing in! Today they would say to people that if you want to receive the Holy Spirit you must go through five classes and get purified and repent of all sin and get rid of this and get rid of that. Listen - the Holy Spirit said; "I'm not interested in that rubbish - this isn't the law - this is New Covenant! This isn't Mount Sinai! I am coming ready or not!". And He falls on them! I would love to be able to talk about the "Feast of Tabernacles" but I am going to close with reading this to you.

When you get into this flow the Holy Spirit falls on you over and over again and more and more. I don't know how many of you can receive this.

The Feast of Tabernacles was the last feast and the greatest feast. It is the ultimate closing of the age feast. We have seen all the feasts fulfilled but we haven't seen the Feast of Tabernacles fulfilled yet. I am telling you that I believe this outpouring in Florida is a feast not of Pentecost but of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles is the single, great ingathering of the harvest in the time of the rain. I've got about a 20 hour teaching on the Feast of Tabernacles from many years back but I want to give you in 1 minute (don't check your watches) - put John 7:2. It makes clear that this is the feast of tabernacles and in John 7:14 Jesus came during that feast and on the last day, He stood up and cried out; "If anyone thirsts let him come to Me and drink ... this He said about the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive for as yet the Spirit had not yet been given for He was not yet glorified".

Now Jesus HAS been glorified! Remember John 17 - Jesus said; "Father glorify Me with the glory I had before". And He is going back to heaven - died on the Cross, raised and ascended on high and was glorified. He spoke to His disciples for 40 days and 10 days later Pentecost. 50 days after Pentecost Jesus was glorified. The Spirit fell at Pentecost - but this is speaking of the Feast of Tabernacles, the great ingathering - the ultimate climax and consumation of the ages is about to be summed up in a Feast of Tabernacles. A greater outpouring than the Day of Pentecost! A great ingathering of billions of people into the harvest - into salvation in Jesus Christ in our time.

I feel His Presence upon me. The Feast of Tabernacles - the great ingathering. I am going to read seven things that the Old Covenant teaches that this Feast was about. I will read them and close! I can give you Scriptures for each of these seven things that all talk about the Feast of Tabernacles - the great ingathering, the great outpouring - greater than Pentecost!

1. It was a Feast that manifested unity - not institutional but organic unity. I wrote this down about the Florida Outpouring while I was watching this on streaming on Thursday morning. I felt God speak this to me and I wrote it down;

"About this anointing through the media - what God impressed me with was that this anointing is linking and joining on-fire Christians in a conciousness and awareness of global unity - a sense of desiring and standing for each other's success and for everyone's protection. The Body of Christ loving one another Because of the anointing of the Feast of Tabernacle coming on the earth".

Let's stand with the global day of prayer in the city next week - there is an anointing of organic unity. I don't like minister's fraternals - I don't like arranged unity and organised unity and we all have to go down to the lowest denominator and agree to disagree. That's not unity! Unity is dynamic and it is powerful! It is the outpouring of God that will bring a Feast of Tabernacle unity and the power of the Spirit and not man organising it!

2. It is a Feast of Joy. It speaks of ecstatic joy in the Feast of Tabernacles! For 1900 years there has been a drought of joy. This Feast will bring ecstatic joy.

3. It is a Feast of Ingathering. A great ingathering of the harvest in the time of the rains.

4. It is a Feast of Rest. There comes a peace and a rest in the Presence of God. How many want to enter rest on a daily basis?

5. It is a Feast of Glory. The Church will pass from the realm of the natural into the realm of the supernatural.

6. It is a Feast of Restoration. The prophets are talking about God restoring all things now! Even a lost penknife - a lost wallet - a lost suitcase - things are falling from the air in front of them! "Lord I want my penknife back" - bam! There it is on the bed! Family are gathering! Natural things are being restored around the earth. But it also means that every gift and every ministry are being restored and even important are going to be positioned correctly in the Body of Christ. Evangelists are not going to try and be teachers and pastors. Everyone will be ordered - restoration of EVERYTHING! That has been lost through the years of the Dark Ages.

7. It is a Feast of His Appearing. In the middle of this Jesus will suddenly appear as He did in John 7. He started teaching - revelation from the Son of God. His manifestation will appear in the glory in the Feast of Tabernacle.

There is coming a distinction between those who will walk under an open heaven depending on God in sincerity and integrity and genuinely depending on the supernatural and those who are intellectual, self-righteous, legalistic, and religious. The shakings that are coming and the revival that is coming will make a distinction in the Body of Christ.

"What is happening in Florida is not just for Florida - God is speaking clearly - it is going all over the globe. It's for Hong Kong. God we need it in Hong Kong! We're desperate for it for Hong Kong! ... Let the Feast of Tabernacles manifest on that gathering ...".