Fortress Church

I really wanted to come back from less than a minute to teach because I didn't even know

what we'd be talking about but had the sense that it would be important. So as we talk about

the Fortress Church, we are talking about either what we have become or are becoming

or will become or all three actually—what we have been becoming and what we will become.

Some of it might sound boastful but the boast is in Christ so run with it.

The idea of a fortress church is mentioned briefly in 2 Samuel 5.

So if you want to turn there, 2 Samuel 5.

Because Tuni really had a good teaching ready for you guys and you would have enjoyed it

but he was quite disappointed when he heard I was coming back in time.

So 2 Samuel 5 verse 6 onwards, it says,

2 Samuel 5:6

The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites who lived there.

The Jebusites said to David, You will not get in here, even the blind and the lame can ward you off.

They thought David cannot get in here. Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, the city of David.

On that day David said, Anyone who conquers the Jebusites will have to use the water shaft

to reach those lame and blind who are David's enemies.

This is why they say the blind and the lame will not enter the palace.

David then took up residence in the fortress and called it the city of David.

He built up the area around it from the supporting terraces inward and he became more and more powerful

because the Lord God Almighty was with him. So this was a turning point in David's reign

where on one hand he takes a fortress that belonged to a tribe that was not Israelite called the Jebusites

and it was a fortress that Judah had tried to take and failed.

Joshua had tried to conquer in battle and failed.

It was land that was allotted to the Benjamites and they, even though it was assigned to them, did not take it.

Finally along comes David and he has this fortress that he wants to take and he takes it.

As soon as he takes the fortress he calls it the city of David.

It's a turning point in his life. From then on his reign began to flourish

because the Lord God Almighty was with him, not because of the fortress, but the fortress was a changing point.

So if when the enemy had that high place, that fortress, it was impregnable.

Joshua, the Benjamites and Judah couldn't take it. Imagine what it would look like when the church takes it.

And so the idea of the fortress church is what we want to examine.

And so one of the things we will find out as we read about it is if you ask the question why should we talk about it?

Partly because so that you know,

so you know

A. If you fit

B. How or what to do to fit

C. If you want to fit

D. Why you aren't fitting

E. What awaits

And as you know,

what awaits

and F. What is being formed in us.

These are the six things that we will perhaps kind of begin to grasp as we look at the idea of the fortress church.

So if you ask the question why should we look at this?

If this is an urgent need to talk about it, so that Tuni has to be sidelined from preaching,

then perhaps the reason we need to ask the question why,

if you ask the question why, the answer should fall into one of these categories.

As we talk about the fortress church, you will figure out if you fit.

Two, you will also figure out how or what to do to fit.

Three, you'll have to figure out if you really want this, because what if this is not your cup of tea?

Four, you'll find out why you aren't fitting.

Five, you will begin to see what awaits us.

And six, you'll begin to see what is being formed in us by God.

So that's where we're going.

Any questions on those things?

I hate being excited about something, not knowing what I'm being excited about,

until you find out what you're supposed to be excited about, so that's what I've been going through yesterday.

Yeah?

Okay.

So one of the first scriptures we look at, the fortress church is where the king is installed.

The fortress church is where the king is installed.

The fortress church is where the king is installed.

And so if you go to Psalm 2, verse 6, Psalm 2, verse 6,

Psalms 2:6 Psalms 2:6

it talks about Zion, the very city that we are talking about that David took.

It says in Psalm 2, verse 6, it says that, as for me, I have set my king,

Psalms 2:6

or some versions say, as for me, I have installed my king on Zion.

As for me, I have installed my king in Zion.

So if you also look at Psalm 9, verse 11, Psalm 48, verse 2, and Psalm 110, verse 2,

Psalms 9:11 Psalms 48:2 Psalms 110:2

and in all these you will see how Zion is a place where the king rules from.

So here's a statement I'm making that I said might sound boastful.

It's not that God isn't there in every church that believes in him.

But I'm saying to you that because Acts 29 is either in the process of becoming a fortress church

or is going to fill out into the mold of a fortress church,

I'm saying to you that it isn't that God isn't in every church, but this is one of his favorite stops.

As in Acts 29 is one of his favorite stops.

Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, they had circuits that they would keep.

They would go from Gilgal to Jericho to Bethel to Jordan, and they would,

there were other places on the map, but they would stop at these places

because those places became their favorite stops. Jesus had them.

Any time Jesus went past Bethany, guess where he would stay?

At Lazarus and Mary and Martha. That was his favorite stop.

It's not that he wasn't available for the rest of Bethany.

Oh my God, he loved going and eating and drinking with his friend Lazarus

and eating Martha's really good food and telling Mary stories.

That was his favorite place.

And so I want to say to you, I've got zero doubt about this,

and should you have doubts about it, I don't know how to settle it for you.

Yeah? So all I can tell you is what I know is true.

Jacob, how do you know it's true?

That's hard to prove, right?

It's not that God isn't in every church, but this is one of his favorite stops on the circuit.

He has installed himself here. He has installed himself here.

When these guys have their fourth kid, these kids will have four different houses

in four different cities, and guess what?

There will always be some place that Matt will like to go to and put his feet up,

not because one of the children is special, but one of the homes will be special.

Maybe it has the kind of recliner that Matt likes.

And there will be another place that Rachel goes to. It will be another kid. Why?

Because that kid is into crafts, and maybe Rachel likes crafts, or whatever.

Parents have that. My mom preferred staying with me.

I hope my sister doesn't hear this.

So you have that happening, and I want you to know that because we are either...

Because we are a fortress church that is becoming one that is going to be really strong on Earth.

On Earth! I'm not talking about Vancouver only. On Earth!

I want you to know that this is one of the favorite stops of God on a circuit,

and the king is installed here.

If I told you, for instance, that Mark Carney...

Please, when I use examples like that, I don't keep them as my favorite friends

or put them up on a pedestal.

I'm using them as either a political figure or a financially rich figure.

That's all I'm saying, right?

If Mark Carney was supposed to be coming to this church every Sunday,

if Trump was supposed to be coming to this church every Sunday,

people would flock here because they knew that the president of the US

and the prime minister of Canada come here.

There's a speciality to churches like that. People flock in.

You need to know that the king is installed here.

And if the king is installed here... Thank you, Anne.

If the king is installed here, then you also need to have the confidence to bring people here

because there is someone here greater than you and me and Tuni.

Yeah?

Yeah.

I see someone right now praying.

Don't pray. Listen. Don't pray. Listen.

I want you to listen to the teaching, not pray for yourself personally.

Yeah? Listen to the teaching.

Sometimes when the word is being broken and Christ is here,

why settle for reading the Bible when the person of Christ is here?

Why close your eyes and pray when he is living in here?

I don't understand that sometimes.

If the teaching is boring and uninteresting or perhaps heretical,

then go check the Bible.

Otherwise, when someone's preaching, listen. It's better.

Yeah? And don't pray.

Because if you close your eyes, you miss the fun.

That was deliberately said so that whoever is praying will stop, yeah?

Because it's annoying.

Maybe there's something in the water in Lethbridge.

The Fortress Church is a place of presence and power.

The Fortress Church, FC, does not stand for football club, Derek. Yeah?

It's just Fortress Church.

Fortress Church is a place of presence.

It's a place of presence and power.

The Fortress Church is a place of presence and power.

And therefore, it's impregnable to the enemy.

It's impregnable to the enemy.

It's impregnable to the enemy.

If you go read Isaiah 33, Isaiah 33, Isaiah 33, verse 20, Isaiah 33, verse 20.

Isaiah 33:20 Isaiah 33:20

So, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I come against anybody praying against what is happening right now in this church,

or praying against me, or praying against anything that Acts 29 represents.

I break that prayer in the name of Jesus Christ.

I disallow it in Jesus' name.

It shall not prosper, and one shall either come under the order of this church and the banner over it,

or one shall find it difficult to even sit here.

So, let's go to Isaiah 33, 20.

Isaiah 33, 20, and here's what it says.

Look upon Zion, the city of our festivals.

Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved.

Its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken.

There the Lord will be a mighty one.

It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams.

No galley with oars will ride them.

No mighty ship will sail them.

Some other versions say, no pirate ship will sail them.

For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king.

It is he who will save us.

So, the idea is that this is a place of power, and this is a place of his presence.

And so, here's the other thing I'm suggesting to you.

If it is a place of power, and if it's a place of presence,

bring people who need protection and bring people who need freedom.

Why? You think because Jacob has the ability to do it,

or one of the leaders has the ability to do it?

No. Why? Because his power and presence are installed here.

And if they come here, they will not be ravaged.

They will not be ravaged.

They will not be able to be taken back by the enemy.

They will be contended for.

They will not be ravaged.

Bring them.

You know, if someone knows the fertile...

If you know that a plot of land is highly fertile,

then the farmer doesn't matter as much.

Because whatever you throw on the land will grow.

It's the same principle.

This land is fertile for protection of people,

for them not being ravaged, for a refuge in times of storm,

and for a place where if people come,

God Almighty will use some fool in this congregation to set them free.

And if you are that fool, bless you.

I've told you this before, that there's a guy in London

who keeps walking the streets up and down.

He wears an A-board.

On front of the A-board it says,

I'm a fool for Jesus.

On the back of the A-board it says,

Whose fool are you?

Because everybody here is somebody's fool.

Might as well belong to him.

So if the soil is fertile,

you know that the farmer counts less.

His skills count less.

Anybody can touch.

Any questions on that?

If you go to Psalm 48, verse 4 to 6,

Psalms 48:4–6

I'll read it from the passion translation, Psalm 48.

Psalm 48, verse 4 to 6.

Psalms 48:4–6

It says, See how the mighty kings united to come against Zion.

Yet when they saw God manifest in front of their eyes,

they were stunned.

Trembling, they all fled away, gripped with fear.

Seized with panic, they doubled up in frightful anguish,

like a woman in the labor pains of childbirth.

Like a hurricane blowing and breaking invading ships,

God blows upon them and breaks them to pieces.

We have heard about these wonders,

and then we saw them with our own eyes.

For this is the city of the commander of the angel armies,

the city of our God, safe and secure forever.

Pause in his presence.

This one I just read about is here.

So bring them, because they will find protection here.

Doesn't matter which church you bring them to,

which service you bring them to, which church you bring them to.

Bring them, and they will find protection here.

Bring them, and they will be changed.

Bring them, and they will be set free.

Bring them, and the ones pursuing them,

the demonic tyrants that have pursued them for years,

right from their ancestral generations,

will not be able to enter.

They will come, look, they will see the mighty one of Israel,

and they will turn and flee.

That is the fortress church that we are becoming,

and that he is saying you are,

and which is why I am talking about this today.

Bring them, because it's got less and less to do with you.

Yes, skills are good,

but when the soil is fertile, the farmer is less important.

The fortress church is a life-giving church.

The fortress church has a river run through it,

and it gives life to anything it touches.

That's the nature of the fortress church,

and one of its foundations is joy.

The fortress church has a river running through it.

If you turn to Psalm 46, Psalm 46, 4 and 5,

Psalm 46, 4 and 5.

Psalm 46, 4 and 5.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

Zion, the holy place where the Most High dwells.

God is within her, she will not fall.

God will help her at break of dawn.

Nations are in a pro, kingdoms fall,

and the Lord will help her at the end of the day.

The idea that if you bring someone here

who has been struggling for years,

over a period of time, and I pray that it be short always,

over a period of time,

any decay in their life will begin to fall away.

There's a river in this church that will touch people.

There's a river in this church that will touch people.

There's a river in this church that will touch people.

Every time we meet, it's almost impossible in this church,

regardless of which service we are going to,

it is impossible to not recognize the presence of the Spirit of God.

It's impossible.

Doesn't matter whether it's a small meeting,

whether there's a few people in someone's house,

forget a service.

I'm talking about any time believers in this church meet,

you can recognize the Spirit of God.

And so the river of God does flow here, and it will touch people.

Bring them.

Bring them.

And if they get healed and go, that's fine.

Never been looking for greater numbers.

If they come, they come. If they stay, they stay.

If they go, well, too bad.

You should have stayed.

One of the fundamental building principles of a fortress church is joy.

When you think of a fortress church, you think of a place that is shut up,

doesn't allow people in.

That's the worldly fortress where it's for defense, it's for protection,

it's for keeping safe what is inside.

This is a fortress from where things go out.

One of the foundations that this church is built on,

a fortress church is built on,

and therefore, Acts 29 must always be built on, is joy.

And joy is expressive.

Joy is expressive.

That is why I said there are certain areas where we are still becoming.

Joy is expressive.

I don't care much about shouting and dancing,

because you can shout and dance and live like the devil.

So that's not a big deal.

But when shouting and dancing is the result of joyful,

is the expression of joy inside, regardless of your circumstances,

that is a sacrifice.

That is a sacrifice.

That's the nature of this church.

Any questions?

Go to verse 4, 46-4.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.

This is a church where there will always be joy.

One of the hallmarks of my life for sure is the ability to rise up

from anything that is happening that is tearing you down and be joyful.

You will not find me sorrowful.

When we were writing that book at the retreat saying,

what's the story from the past?

What would you name your life in the past?

And what would you name your life in the future?

The title of my book which I read out during the retreat was,

You Cannot Keep a Good Man Down.

Not because I am good, but because my God is good.

You cannot keep me down.

One of the things that you cannot, you can never keep a joyful man down.

I can pick people in this church who,

regardless of their circumstances, will be joyful.

Kamal is one of them.

It doesn't matter what happens to him.

You can cut off both his legs and he'll make a joke about how he's now a tree.

Thank God joy doesn't mean good jokes.

They don't correlate.

He is joyful, but his jokes are terrible.

Yeah?

He's got a retort, but he doesn't know whether it's godly to open his mouth and say it,

so he has to stay quiet. Praise the Lord.

So the life-giving spirit of God and the joy of the Lord are essential.

Bring people that are really in trouble.

Tyrants and horned beasts that attack people, they will not touch this mountain

because they know, as it says in Exodus 19,

when someone runs for refuge here and you touch this mountain,

that beast will be stoned or shot.

These are bold things that God wants you to hear about us.

I'm a messenger, but an excited one at that, and we haven't even scraped the surface.

Thank God Tuni finished early today.

The Fortress Church,

go to Psalm 48, 12 and 13.

It says,

Towers, consider well our ramparts, view her citadels, that you may tell the next generation.

One of the things about the Fortress Church is that what is not conveyed,

we must relay what we know about her.

We must relay. Take note of its dimensions so you can relay it forward.

Take note of its dimensions so you can relay it forward.

When you see, I mean, why do you do reviews? Why are there food reviews?

Why do you tilt your phone upside down to shoot an ordinary place of pasta

and then put it on wherever you put it on and then write a review on it?

Why? Because you relay that the pasta here is really good when you turn your phone upside down.

And so people then come to that place to eat.

The point being, anything that you think is of worth must be measured.

The dimensions should be known and you should relay it to people.

You should convey it. If you don't convey it, then it cannot be improved on.

If you don't convey it, then it will not have others come to taste it.

Convey it. God is giving us permission to publish, broadcast Acts 29,

to go tell people so that they can pull at the sleeve of one and say,

hey, can you come? I'll take you to a place where God is present.

It's permission to broadcast, permission to publish.

Being able to do that with more zest than you've ever done in the past.

Boast about where you belong. Remember what we said long ago.

I was talking about it to someone on the ride to Calgary.

It's strange that you drive from Lethbridge to Calgary.

The most exciting part is a roundabout and a left turn.

Otherwise, it's just one straight road. Nothing happens.

When you get to the roundabout, you find people with their arms outside their cars

because they see the roundabout coming in.

Then after that, there's one more left turn and that's the day.

After we are done, just go give Emily a hug. She grew up there.

Yeah, I was telling someone that we shouldn't forget what we learned long ago

when we think about church.

If this does not apply to you, then you must understand that you're always welcome here,

whosoever can come. Everyone is welcome.

But once a whosoever comes, one must begin to change.

So everyone's welcome. But here's what we said long ago.

We said the process is, I am not my own.

If someone asks you, who do you belong to?

If someone asks you, who do you belong to?

Here's the right answer. You cannot say you belong to Christ

till you first say, I am not my own.

Once you say, I am not my own, you can say, I belong to Christ.

And once you say, I belong to Christ, you can then choose to say or not to say that I belong to you.

As in, I belong to you.

That doesn't mean that you should belong to me. That's up to you.

But it is my choice to say that I belong to you.

And that's the process. I am not my own. I belong to Christ.

Only if I'm not my own.

And then, do I belong to you?

And do I have the guts to say and the heart to say and the conviction to say, I belong to you?

Everybody's welcome, but belonging is a little more complicated according to scriptures.

Acts 29 must operate by the thunder.

If you're a fortress church, God is saying, then Acts 29 should operate by the thunder

that you hear in the courtroom of God.

You see that in Revelation 14, 2.

That I heard a voice that was like thunder, and I heard the sound of harps too.

But this idea that as we grow bigger, that we should compromise on anything is absurd.

We don't compromise on anything.

We still continue hearing the thunder in the courtrooms of God and then doing that here on earth.

That has always been the way the church was formed, functioned, and that's still the way it should be.

Go ahead, Pawan.

It becomes... Sorry, finished the question.

I'm finding nowadays that I answer questions before they are asked and I answer them wrong, so please finish it.

But really the low consumer is on that.

But like, what's the line?

But you can dress it up.

So it's easy to say, my boss is in the Lord, and you could be thinking, if they only knew.

My boss is in the Lord and little Jacob.

And so you could set yourself up as an idol in your own heart.

It'll show eventually. Pride shows eventually.

But it doesn't show initially.

Yeah, so this church must only operate by the sound of thunder in the courtrooms of God, which then means two things.

One, that you need to occupy the courtrooms of God.

And two, only then will you hear.

And three, if you hear, it's not amendable.

And four, when it's not amendable, it's very hard to give people a reason.

The hard thing about God decisions is that you find it very hard to give a good reason.

Any questions?

Yep.

That's not amendable.

Yeah.

That's not amendable.

Yeah.

I want people to come and say, we can get you this preacher.

If Acts 29 brings this preacher on, you can invite all of Vancouver and all of Vancouver will come.

Like really famous people.

And that in an instant your church will become one of the most well-known churches here.

You can have people come and say, why don't you begin to teach your church this course?

It's doing really well all over the world.

You've already adapted a lot of it into your system.

Why don't you use this course to teach the different house churches that exist?

And you read it and you think to yourself, man, this tastes worse than sodas.

Or why don't you have structured worship where you know the songs you're going to sing.

There's a certain system to things you do.

Not until the Lord tells us otherwise.

Why don't you put up offering plates that go around the church while someone does a special song?

I'd do it in a heartbeat, but not if you don't hear.

Why don't you start teaching tithing and just stop talking about giving.

Go tithing 10% so that people will give at least 3%.

Not what we've learned.

The list goes on and on and on.

Why don't you let people be if they want to be let alone.

Just let them alone.

Let them, they're attending church, they're good people, they're not disturbing you.

Not a chance.

If you come to this church, then I pray God that there's some bulldog after you.

And either you'll have to develop a backside that is resistant to bulldog bites or get bitten.

It's one of the issues.

Bulldog bites or get bitten.

It's one or the other.

Both are possible.

Next one.

Acts 29 is where sons learn to rule.

Acts 29 is where sons, and son is a genderless term, it applies to male and female, where sons learn to rule.

Acts 29 is where sons learn to rule, where their voices become trumpets.

And where patterns that we discover become movements.

Look around you church.

Look around you church.

What do you see when you see a Derek or a Don or a Tooney or a Jillian or a Sheldon or a Jane or a Betty or a Sue or a Mae or a...

I can give you a long list.

They all came from different places.

They're young.

This church is young.

But one of the things that the sons in this church, and please don't think that it's limited to these.

I'm just picking a few that came long ago except for Tooney.

You seem to be the exception, Avril.

People who came long ago, wave after wave of sons, but they will learn to rule.

They're not here to serve.

They're here to rule.

Things will be handed over to them so that they will rule.

This is what God is expecting of a fortress church like Acts 29.

That fathers will have to face themselves off.

You know the difference between the world and the church when it comes to fathers and sons?

In the world, fathers get old and they retire so that the sons can take over the business.

In the church, fathers give things over to their sons and they go find new things to do.

They don't retire.

They find new things to do.

These sons will have voices.

They will not be quiet voices.

They'll have voices that will sound like trumpets.

When they speak, people will begin to listen.

I've already seen that in some of you.

It's awesome.

And not only will they have voices, when we discover patterns here, those patterns will become movement.

Nothing in this church is meant to stay within the church.

We are supposed to create models.

If all that happens is that model is copied by Liam and Gabe and Phoebe, so be it.

Three people now have a model to copy.

But things here are created like Uzziah did in 2 Chronicles 26.

He was an innovator. Our God is an innovator.

This church, a fortress church, innovates so that things can be passed on to another generation.

Understand that this is the DNA that God is bringing to work into you.

And doesn't matter whether we are here or whether we are somewhere else.

I think this is the right time to say that Chava will be leaving at some point to go home.

But I'm praying and I'm praying with confidence that Chava will also come back here in about four or five months.

He doesn't know this, but he's not going home.

He's going somewhere else before he goes home, though he's planning to go home.

But we'll talk about that later.

But wherever Chava goes, he's going to come back.

But we'll talk about that later.

But wherever Chava goes, Chava needs to realize that if this DNA becomes his,

it doesn't matter what situation you put him in, this is how he begins to function.

But the question is, has Chava come to that place where he says,

I am not my own, I belong to Christ and I belong to you?

Because this kind of transference of DNA does not happen if you don't get to the third part which says, I belong to you.

Third, you can't come to Akshmanayana to get inspired.

This is not a place for inspiration.

This is a place where you get consecrated.

You get set apart for something that God prepared for you before the foundations of the earth.

Fourth, this is a place where your orphanhood can be dismantled.

This is a place where you can be taken to the next level.

This is a place where your orphanhood can be dismantled.

This is a place where your orphanhood can be dismantled.

There's not a single person here who did not come to Christ as an orphan.

The question is, how far have we come out of it?

My orphanhood should be completely dismantled.

If I cannot dismantle my orphanhood, then I will not be able to carry the weight of my inheritance.

Meaning, here's the problem when orphanhood is not dismantled.

You will always feel that you do not belong.

You will always feel rivalry and competition.

You will always feel you're being sidelined.

You'll always strive for love.

All of us have this problem.

But God is willing to dismantle this.

What I wrote down on the side when I was flying in after I'd done these notes this morning,

but one of the things I wrote is,

there will be sons and daughters who resist the touchstone of the fathers,

or seek familiarity more than growth, or avoid the pain of circumcision.

Three things that sons and daughters do.

One, when the touchstone of parents is applied.

Touchstone is what you use to find out whether gold is gold.

You rub it against the stone.

I think it's called touchstone.

Yeah, let's just call it touchstone for now.

So you rub gold against the touchstone and you find out if it's gold.

When the touchstone of fatherhood is applied to sons and daughters,

you will sometimes find them resisting it,

because it will tell you whether the gold is real or not.

Second, some resist the pain of circumcision,

because there might be something that needs to be cut away.

Why not stay away? That way you don't have to cut away.

Maintain a healthy distance, because a scissor doesn't go that far.

And thirdly, what happens is,

you begin to desire familiarity, not fatherhood.

Where the desire is, can I become familiar instead of can I become...

This is what happens with Jacob and...

What's Jacob's dad's name? Isaac.

He says, I feel your hands and I feel like it's the hair of Isaac,

but you smell different.

But then the food you've cooked feels like Esau's.

Sometimes when sons want familiarity and don't want actual help,

that's another way that orphanhood is not dismantled.

Fight against it.

I'm saying to you that this is a place...

And listen, you will not find a single father here that is not flawed.

You will not find a single father or mother here.

I'm just using the word father as genderless.

That will not at some point hurt you because of the way they treat you.

If you want to find a father like that, die quickly.

It's the only way you're going to find it, because he's the perfect father.

But since none of you are planning to do that, you will find flawed ones here.

But my God, at some point I'm going to ask them to stand,

and I'll tell you what they go through and ask us to decide,

is this who we want to follow because the day is coming.

When a Chava, when a Mark, when an Aaron and a Michelle,

when a Hamari will be standing there.

It's only a matter of time and a desire to step into those shoes.

Any questions before I go on?

Acts 29 is where gifting will give way to order, will give way to government.

What do you mean by that, Jacob?

Take Samson, highly gifted guy, highly disorderly,

did not rule even though he was a judge.

Take David, so not gifted that he just had to take his guitar and sing to sheep.

Highly orderly, so much so that when he went to meet his brothers,

he left his sheep with another keeper.

What happened? He began to rule.

We are the ones who think that David is highly gifted.

He was so not gifted that he wasn't even in the lineup.

And you take Samson, the boy was born not just with gifting,

but the gifting of the Spirit of God at a time when few were anointed with the Holy Spirit.

This is a church where gifting will count for less, order will count for more,

and therefore government. Why?

Because sons here are supposed to rule.

A fortress church, it is out of a fortress church, it says in Isaiah 2, verse 4,

Isaiah 2:4

which we'll read later, that the law goes out and the word goes forth.

I mean, if you are here and relatively new,

this will just help you so well to decide whether this is a decent place to grow or not.

I like the next one.

Verse 29 is a place where you will, where we will, or God is saying,

where you will raise sons who can carry scrolls, eat them, and carry fire in their bellies.

Now, Joey, are you one of those who will carry a scroll and eat it?

It will be sweet in your mouth as it says in Revelation 12, but it will turn bitter in your stomach.

But if you are able to do that, you will be able to carry the fire of God.

Do you know what a scroll is?

A scroll is anything that God writes on that gives us an idea of what's happening in the present

and what's happening in the future. Like for instance, your dad is coming.

And once you open that scroll, that's what scrolls are about.

In Revelation, the idea of the scroll, why is it that it says,

John began to weep saying, who can open the scroll?

He was looking for a man who can open the scroll.

Why does he want Jesus to open the scroll?

Because in the scroll is the future of the entire universe.

If someone doesn't open it, the universe is going to die in sin.

And then Jesus comes, opens it, and he begins to call out what will be judged,

and he begins to call out what will be redeemed.

And so one of the things that will happen in Acts 29 is anybody who wants it,

you must realize something about Acts 29.

This is a church where a prophetic spirit has dwelt from the beginning.

Anybody who really wants to grasp the grace of the prophetic will have it.

Not so we can meet on birthdays and prophesy to each other,

or catch someone on their way to the car and prophesy to someone on the car

where nobody else is hearing.

That kind of prophecy is not prophecy. It's called outhouse prophecy.

Where on the way to the toilet, you waylay someone,

give them a word so that they can sit on it.

I'm talking about the prophetic done in the way of 1 Corinthians 12 and 14.

This church has had a prophetic spirit in it from the inception.

It is the kind of church where if it was in the Old Testament and Saul came along,

he would lie naked and he would begin to prophesy even though he was not a prophet.

Begin to use it well.

Don't use it to prophesy at birthdays because we develop something called prophetic fatigue then.

We don't know what is God and what is not and what is scripture and what is God.

But what if we began to realize that God has given us a grace?

It's a grace.

When you carry the scroll for individuals, for nations, for cities, for situations,

what if we banned prophesying on birthdays?

Just banned.

And instead we shifted to let's think about cities, let's think about nations,

let's think about circumstances, let's think about lives that we don't know.

Let's think about death situations, decay situations.

And now, oh God, would you send a word that will revive, that will bring to life that which is dying?

That grace is in this house.

And that is what we need to tap into.

Any questions?

And you can only carry that scroll if you're willing to eat it.

What do you mean eat the scroll?

Learn.

To learn how to do it.

To learn how to do it.

Because it will be sweet in the mouth, it will be bitter in the stomach.

But my God, when you begin to speak, the fire of God will come out of you.

What if, guys, what if what I'm saying is actually from God?

Some of you don't need that benefit of doubt.

Some of you trust me enough and know me long enough to know the caliber in,

like Pawan said when he was up here, the caliber in this man of God.

But some of you may need the benefit of doubt.

So I'm giving you the benefit of doubt.

What if what I'm saying is actually God?

Ponder on it.

Consider that perhaps it's true.

Acts 29 will be a place, and we have made this mistake, and we will not continue making it.

Acts 29 is a place which will, which is a fortress, which will not,

which will not babysit people's callings or people's destinies.

Will not babysit.

Instead, we will work at, we will work at breaking personal ambition

so we can carry the weight of a calling beyond us.

No more babysitting, no more pampering.

Yeah, you know, you've got an amazing destiny.

You know, I pray God that you will.

No more.

One of the things about David's Mighty Three and David's Mighty Thirty,

one of the things about those men were they would set aside their personal ambition

for the sake of a corporate vision.

Do you know who showed them that brilliantly?

It was a guy who wasn't even in David's Mighty Three, but was David's best friend, best friend, Jonathan.

Jonathan was the next king.

He sets aside his kingship and begins to go and have strife with his father

because he recognizes what God wants to do in Israel.

What we don't realize is how responsible Jonathan is for the golden reign of Solomon.

Saul would have continued as king.

David would have been killed.

Jonathan would have ascended to the throne.

Solomon would not exist.

So if we want to find out personal destiny from now on,

we should understand that that personal destiny is superseded by a vision that God gives a larger group of people.

And how does it fit?

Very often you'll find that it's hard to make it fit.

And that is when you'll have to submit your personal vision to the greater vision.

And that is so difficult.

That is when people hear God saying to them,

you know, the Lord is saying to me, it's time to move on.

Move on.

But don't use that excuse.

Just say, this isn't fitting for me.

We are in a season where heaven is looking for apostolic fathers who can give birth to sons

who just don't shout and dance, but they also build.

And I want to call these people to ask these people to stand up.

Can I ask first, may Jillian, Derek, Don, Jane, Sheldon, Tooney, Anile, and Heidi to stand up.

May Jillian, Derek, Don, Jane, Sheldon, Tooney, Anile, Heidi to stand up.

Can I then ask Sue, Betty, Evan, Iris, Kez, and Jeremy to stand up.

My hope is that six months from now, I can add to this number.

And that is a hope that I will bathe in prayer.

My hope is that I can ask more people to stand up than the ones I asked to stand up.

The first set of names I called out was very deliberate.

The second set of names was very deliberate.

But I pray, God, that I can add to this number.

And as they stand up, while they're standing, I want to say this.

That these guys did not go to Bible school.

But they carry a mantle.

They are not influencers, but they know how to receive divine blueprints.

They know how to lay foundations.

You may not hear of what Betty and Evan may do every Sunday.

You may not hear of what May does.

You may not hear of what Dillion does, or Jane or Sheldon, or Derek and Iris.

You may not hear of this.

But I want to vouch for these guys and say today that these men and women face accusations, face hours of being awake, face attacks, face demonic attacks, face physical attacks.

And they stand.

But that is what a fortress church looks like.

And they're not going to quit from this.

So let me read out some of the things that God is saying about them so that you hear it.

These are fathers that were not chosen by Bible colleges.

But they were chosen by scars of rejection, of betrayal, of accusations,

of attacks, of fiery darts from Satan, of being misunderstood,

and scars of getting it wrong.

And nobody suffers more than them when they get it wrong with you, when they make a mistake.

They've been through the silence of God where they're asking for things for themselves,

and it doesn't get answered, but that doesn't prevent them from continuously asking God for things for you.

They have the ability to lay down patterns, blueprints, because they do hear God.

And some of them keep increasing in hearing God.

Here's what I really like about them.

They have bent knees.

They have pierced ears.

And they have bloody altars, where they have sacrificed everything from time to emotions to money

to any and everything you can think of.

They're not looking to be admired.

They are, in this church, as long as you're here, the architects of your inheritance.

One of the things they'll do for some of you is God trusts them just as he trusts me.

God trusts them to build.

This just blew me away.

This is what got me started on this teaching, when God said,

trust them enough to build some of the guys and girls at Acts 29 into territories.

This really got me.

That a time may come, because Subin decides that he wants something from God.

A time may come when Pawan decides he wants something from God, when Deshalty decides it,

when Shireen decides it, when Megan decides it, that you will be turned into territories for God,

not a man of God, not a woman of God, not a minister of God, not an equiper for God, but a territory for God.

Do you even know what that means?

When a whole place becomes something that God gives you, saying, take, I hate hearing my echo.

That's what they're capable of.

There's two things that we should then desire.

If I was sitting there and an amazing Jacob-like guy was preaching, I was sitting there, I desire two things.

I've always desired this all my life, whenever I've been sitting there.

And this is my desire.

Father, I want to learn from them quickly.

And two, can I become like them?

Until your heart and your head doesn't think like that, it is impossible to receive.

Because when you look at Mae, what do you think?

What good can come out of Mae from River District?

Snowboarding, yes, she can teach us something.

Skiing, she can teach us something.

What else can she do besides that?

Here's the thing we need to understand.

I know I've said this before to you.

I would beg the pastor of the church I was at to take me along to the airport to pick up evangelists and apostles and teachers and prophets that were coming.

I'd beg him, and he would take me with him.

Why? So that I could sit in the backseat and listen to their stories.

But until our hearts begin to look at these men and women, and don't look at it as I belong to Revive, I'll only look at Jillian, I belong to Quest, I only look at her.

No, when you begin to look at these men and women and realize what I've read is true of them, trusting that what I'm saying is of God, because you know I hardly praise anyone.

And so if we were to trust this was from God, then if you begin to look at them and have two desires, one, God, I want to learn fast everything that I can do.

I can learn from me, that I can learn from Don, that I can learn from Tony.

And second, Father, I want to be like them one day.

And the moment you say be like them, you'll find yourself going ahead of them.

But till this changes in your heart, you know what God does, one of the terrible things he does is he usually uses people that don't appeal to us to teach us the most important things in the life.

He sent Jesus, a carpenter, to teach Israel and they refused him.

It's still the same thing. The body or the package someone comes in is usually not appealing, and they are the ones God usually uses to teach you some of the most important lessons in life.

You can sit.

Any questions before we go?

Go ahead, Saba.

Yeah.

The initial understanding when I first heard about this was that some are the Holy Spirit gives all the gifts, but Christ appoints equipers like apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to help us the church to begin to actually do the work of ministry.

And that's what they were meant for. They were like coaches. They trained players to play the game and win.

That was their role. And then later on you realize that what was Paul?

I mean, all these are facets of Jesus. Okay?

So he distributes it at will and he appoints it to different people.

So what was Paul?

I can show you scripture after scripture in this Bible, which says Paul was an apostle.

I can then show you scriptures where it says Paul was a teacher.

Then I can show you scriptures where it says he was an evangelist meant to bring people into the kingdom.

Then you will see scriptures where it says, and Paul had the ability to prophesy.

And then you will find scriptures that said, but I am the one who brought you into the faith and I have been a shepherd to you, a father to you, a guardian to you.

So which one was he?

And so at the end of the day, let Christ appoint you to something for a time and do not wear that hat or print a business card.

Wear it and then whenever you need, take it off because you can be something else at will.

But when we get hung on to one particular thing, then you're stuck, eh?

Because then you'll have to call me whatever I say I am.

But my name is Jacob.

And so don't. I just, yeah, I find it very difficult.

And so all these, to answer, this time is on Chava, yeah? This was not part of the plan.

Apostles have the ability to come up with blueprints or foundation drawings that can help you build something.

And so the church is a place where the prophets then go around telling people of what God will do with the thing that he is forming.

And they gather people around and convict them about what they should do.

Teachers then break down the parts that have to be constructed into edible bits that we understand.

Pastors then begin to shepherd people in different areas saying, let's do this.

50 sit here, 100 sit here, let's work together on this.

And so the church is built.

But it is true that the apostolic and the prophetic forms the head of the spear and the shaft is the rest of us.

Without the shaft, the spear does not fly. Without the spearhead, it has no penetration.

One cannot live without the other.

Let me end. Any other questions?

Okay.

Last scripture, Isaiah 2, verse 4.

Isaiah 2:4

You know, when Eddie, Paul's dad, first came into my life, he took me to a conference.

And at that conference, I saw amazing men of God.

Guys who are changing the world.

I was in awe.

I came back and here was my conclusion.

Do not decide that Eddie is the guy you're going to learn from because there are better people than him.

And so I wouldn't commit to learning from Eddie because I thought there are far better people than him.

Why should I settle for him when I can get better apostles, better prophets, better this, better that?

I remember when God's saying to me that you're in the market for someone who will spiritually father you.

That's what you are. You're in the marketplace, putting bids on people to see who will father you.

He says, I have decided that it will be Eddie, just like I have decided that rain will always come from clouds,

not from leaves, not from the beaks of sparrows.

I wrote this down.

I've decided that he's the one that I'm going to pour grace out to you too.

So here's your choice, Jacob.

Either learn from whoever I send you or go back to the marketplace and start auctioning or bidding on the most recent father that you can find.

That settled it for me.

So as you look around, you might think, ah, Don, not really all that hot on him.

Derek, worse. And so it goes.

That's not how this works.

I might actually be more skilled than all of them.

But the fact remains that if God chooses it to be Don, it doesn't matter how skilled I am,

you will not get for your life what you're meant to.

But once you decide that this is how it's going to work, then you will find everything that Jacob is supposed to give to you will come to you.

These are not hard things to understand.

This is not a heavy sermon.

It is just in your face, true sermon, which will not give you or afford you the luxury of playing around with what God is building.

Just taking away your options.

Isaiah two, verse three.

If you want sermons like this every week, just buy me a ticket to a Let's Praise every week.

Isaiah two, verse three.

Many peoples will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his path.

The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

The law will go out of Zion.

The law will go out of Zion.

The word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

We'll end with that.

Guys, sometimes when you hear stuff like this being preached, it's hard to ask questions here, but you will have questions in your mind.

Have the courage to come up and say, Jacob, I want to meet you and talk about some of the things you said.

Sit across and talk about it.

But don't let it hang saying, oh, maybe this is what he was trying to say.

Maybe no.

Come and lay it out.

It's the best way to sort out stuff that's not clear.

The law will go out of Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

I want to end on this.

Preaching is warfare.

Proclamation is warfare.

I hope you've gotten your safe, say one card or safeway cards like we said last Monday.

Why is this warfare?

Because it is through preaching and proclamation that captives are rescued from powers.

It is through preaching and proclamation that sinners are called to submit to Christ's rule.

It is through preaching and proclamation that they are asked to renounce allegiance to Christ's enemies.

You see why it is warfare.

Preaching and proclamation is warfare.

Out of a fortress church goes an army that proclaims.

They go two by two, three by three.

But they realize that as they go, it is difficult.

The reason it is difficult is because preaching is warfare.

Proclamation is warfare.

And therefore, ones that do not think of it as warfare will not be able to handle the pressure and will sit at home and will not do what they're supposed to do.

Why is it warfare?

Because in the process captives are rescued from powers and principalities.

Second, sinners are called to submit to the rule of Christ, a new king.

And third, you're asking those that are being rescued, those that are being redeemed, that will you now renounce your allegiance to the enemy and pledge your allegiance to a new king?

This lies at the soul of man and it determines their eternal destiny.

It is nothing else but warfare.

And therefore, evangelism requires a wartime zeal.

No one is gifted with this.

What we are gifted is the ability to converse.

But no one is gifted with wartime zeal.

It comes from the Holy Spirit.

The zeal of the Lord will accomplish it.

Boldness and zeal comes from the Spirit of God.

It's not a gift.

There's no such gift that the Holy Spirit gives.

Yes, some find it so easy to talk.

That may be true, but put them amongst a group of scientists and you'll find them completely dumbstruck.

But that's where Matt will begin to chat like Matt.

He'll explain Christ through quantum physics.

Any questions on this?

Mission is the primary battlefield.

Mission is the primary battleground.

And therefore, if we don't, then we don't enter battle.

Then it's only a matter of time before God either disperses us or takes us home.

Any questions?

So I hope that based on Monday and what we did on Monday last, that you've picked up Tim Horton's cards,

you've picked up your Safeway cards, you've picked up your Savon cards,

and that you've written notes or if you haven't written notes, you will write notes,

that you will go into Richmond and that you will begin to converse with people.

Even when you run out of cards, you will still converse.

And I hope that we will have on us this wartime zeal for telling people about or preaching and proclaiming

because out of the fortress of Zion, an army goes out to proclaim

because the law and the word of God go forth from fortress churches.

And when a fortress church doesn't do this, that's when the walls begin to close in

and you become exclusive, isolated, growing, not outwards.

There are many fortress churches, guys, that I've, I know of two fortress churches that I've been to.

Solid, guys, that we could have learned from.

But their condition today is so sad because the one thing they avoided

in the apostolic, prophetic, and the amazing revelation teaching and all this stuff,

the one thing they forgot was going out and declaring the word

and declaring the law as in decree.

That's the one thing they didn't do.

And today, they're like old soldiers sitting around a fire.

Let's pray. Any comments before we pray?

Anything you want to say?

Anything you want to say to God about this or to me about this?

So, like, menisceria and menthy, it's relational, right?

It's not like, like, how long do you...

Yeah, it's very true. It's relational.

Fathers and sons, mentals and menties, it's relational.

And so if it's relational, and it's not...

If you were, say, in the church that...

Say I was running a quest and you were part of it,

it is my job to draw you in, and you can either take that or you can resist it.

Yeah, but it's mine to seek you out.

Yeah?

Yeah?

So you have certain things that you do well in the kingdom.

How do you go from just accepting the fact that you're good at this

and say, you know, I can have more?

Yeah. His question is, if you're good at something in the kingdom,

how do you go from that to, I can do more? Right?

Okay. Very easy, guys.

I'm good at certain things, but I see others that are much better at other things.

So I join them and I do anything and everything I can

to help them get to where they are going to.

What if nobody is really good in that area?

Like say, I think our church still struggles in like healing.

How can you go from that into that?

Yeah. So his question is, our church still struggles in healing.

How do we go further from that?

So I'm going to change his words.

Our church does not struggle with expecting healing

or trusting that God will heal every time.

Our church hasn't seen the results of our desire to see healing.

And my only response to that is, I'm not going to stop.

I'm going to expect it tonight and then tomorrow morning.

And if it doesn't happen tomorrow morning, I'll keep doing it.

I'm not going to stop because I've seen too much because I haven't stopped.

I mean, just think of this, guys.

This church was a dream that was 22 years ago.

What if I had stopped because the only people that would keep coming

was Heidi and Chris and they were getting annoying?

Anything that God has for us, sometimes it will happen instantly.

Sometimes it takes way too long.

Well, what choice do you and I have but to persist?

But to persist.

For three years I've been looking forward to young people being touched by the Spirit of God.

I've been talking about the Hebrides revival.

I saw, I had a taste of it in Shillong when 2000 youth reacted a certain way.

May was there, Gillian was there.

They saw it too.

And there were guys from the UK and Bahrain and all.

But that's not what I want.

I want to see it across the earth.

But I'm not even 60.

If I see it before I turn 70, I'll live happy.

This time is his.

Yeah.

His question is in 1 Corinthians 12, it says are all apostles, are all prophets?

And then it lists them as these guys, apostles, prophets, teachers, healers, miracle workers.

Yeah.

And then it lists them as these guys, apostles, prophets, teachers, healers, miracle workers.

Yeah.

So if miracle workers is a category mentioned in the Bible, absolutely.

Yeah.

Healers and miracle workers.

And so I pray may you go out and prove yourself as a miracle worker so that we can come to you for miracles.

Come to you for healing.

There was a time in my life where if I prayed for anyone who had problems with their limbs, legs or hands,

and she was in a state of shock, she was like, I'm going to die.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to die.

I'm going to die.

So if you pray for anyone who had problems with their limbs, legs or hands, and shoulders, they'd get healed.

Always.

Okay.

Let's pray.

Jesus, I think that you wanted to talk to us about this.

Because you want us to know your heart and your mind about what is right and what is wrong.

You wanted it said.

You wanted it said.

Now that it's been spoken, there'll be an expectation from your part that we rise up to it.

You want us to know your heart and your mind about what you think of us as.

Some of it we become, some of it we are still becoming.

But you wanted it said.

You wanted it said.

Now that it's been spoken, there'll be an expectation from your part that we rise up to it.

So we as a church invite you, Holy Spirit.

God has given us permission to grow into this fortress church.

For we ask you, Holy Spirit, now to enable all of us, the entire church.

I also pray that this be a line in the sand for some of us.

Where do you want us to be?

Where do you want us to be?

Where do you want us to be?

Where do you want us to be?

Where do you want us to be?

Let us be a line in the sand for some of us.

Where do you want to stand?

This side or that side?

Let us be a line in the sand for some of us.

No more dilly-dallying, tiptoeing, dancing on both sides.

This side.

But Spirit of God, since Christ has given us permission to become the fortress church

you want us to now enable us because we do not have the ability,

I certainly do not have the ability.

This is what we ask for now in Jesus' name.

And please, O God, we've been waiting too long to see healings and miracles break out.

And so let us press in again today saying,

where is the God of Elijah?

Where is the God who does miracles and healings in the book of Acts?

We want to see him again. Renew them, O God.

Renew them in our day and in our time.

Renew them in our time.

Renew them in our time.

Renew them in our day and in our time.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.