Wind over the Water

work in the community of the spirit of the church.

So today we talk about wind over the water.

At least I like that title, so that's why I put it on.

You can put some other title if you want.

Wayne, am I good to go?

Okay.

So guys, it reminds me of smoke over the waters,

but that's a different thing.

Yeah.

So guys, John 6 63, it says there,

and we've been talking about this again and again,

it is the spirit that quickens and the flesh profits nothing.

I mean, I was sitting with somebody yesterday

and they asked me a question

and immediately I responded with this.

I'm using the scripture every which time I can,

because it has to settle in my head, man,

that it is the spirit that gives life,

the flesh profits nothing.

It is the spirit that gives life,

the flesh profits nothing.

The more you begin to hone in on this simple scripture,

the less you will operate in what is our default,

which is basically our fleshly ways of functioning.

It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh profits nothing.

And strangely enough, guys, in John chapter three,

and the moment I say John chapter three,

anyone who's read the Bible once will immediately think

of Jesus and Nicodemus, where Jesus said,

what shall I do to be born again?

And we always relegate that passage to this born againness

or becoming new believers.

But Jesus says so much there, man,

about the spirit of God.

I mean, in John chapter three, verse six,

he says, flesh gives birth to flesh,

but spirit gives birth to spirit.

It kind of ties in with John 6, 63.

It is the spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing.

In John three, six, Jesus said,

flesh gives birth to flesh,

the spirit gives birth to spirit.

Guys, and I know we've heard this line many times over,

just as God's spirit brooded over the waters

like a bird in Genesis one, two,

so I must understand that he hovers over me every day,

every moment to form in me and birth through me

things of the spirit.

Let me say that again.

I must understand that 24 seven, the spirit of God,

who hovered over or brooded over the waters

in Genesis one, two, in the same manner,

the spirit of God who is present in me hovers over me,

waiting to form in me and birth through me,

God things, man.

But the sooner Jacob comes to the realization

that flesh profits nothing, but the spirit gives life,

the sooner Jacob will be able to birth God things

here on earth that are not contaminated with Jacobness.

Because most of our works are sometimes mixed, man.

So unless a person submits to the,

unless a person submits to the spirit,

to the wind hovering over the water construct,

and the wind hovering over the water construct

is the way Eugene Peterson puts it.

I love the way he sometimes takes words

and gives it new meaning.

So unless a person submits to the wind

hovering over the water construct,

one cannot function,

one cannot function,

one cannot function in the kingdom of God,

one cannot function in the kingdom of God

the way he should, the way she should.

Unless a person submits to the wind

hovering over the water construct,

where you become more and more aware that,

Spirit of God, I know you're resident in me,

but you hover over me,

just like a bird howls over water,

just like you did in Genesis 1-2,

you're just waiting to form in me and through me

so that you can birth things of the spirit here on earth.

I need to come into a greater realization

that unless a person,

unless Jacob submits to the wind

hovering over the water construct,

Jacob cannot function in the kingdom of God

as he should.

Because at the end of the day,

remember guys,

it's been said many times over,

who is the agency of the kingdom of God?

The Spirit of God.

Any kingdom work has to be birthed by the Spirit of God.

I have to begin to think like this.

I've been practicing this guys,

I've been practicing this for a long time,

on Friday I had to speak somewhere,

on Saturday I had to speak somewhere,

and what I'm doing now is I'll go

and begin to read chunks

that I know God wants to work with.

And I'm trying this out,

and then I'll go to these meetings

and I'll stand there

and not take out my notes and decide,

okay Spirit of God,

I might end up looking foolish

and it may not sound as good as my notes,

but can you begin to do something?

And both times it's worked out wonderfully.

Both times it's worked out wonderfully.

Where the Spirit of God now begins to take over

and he takes the substance

of what you have ingested,

what you have eaten,

what you've meditated on

and it begins to now come out.

The same thing can apply to every area of life guys.

Because what area does he not know about?

What is he not an expert in?

What is his desire?

He has a vested interest

in producing things of the Spirit here on earth.

Because the flesh profits nothing,

but the Spirit gives life.

This is his desire.

He's got a vested interest in it.

That's what encourages me.

This is not an endeavor that we have to engage in

and somehow squeeze out of God.

This is God's desire.

It is my pleasure to give you the,

do not be afraid little flock,

it's my pleasure to give you the kingdom.

As in the rule and the reign of Christ here on earth.

So unless a person submits to the wind

hovering over the water construct,

one cannot function in the kingdom of God.

Because guys remember,

the invisible

must permeate

and move

the visible.

The invisible

must permeate and move the visible.

That's how it works in the kingdom man.

And we don't realize this.

That I have to let him who is invisible,

him who is unseen,

begin to first permeate the seen,

the physical, the visible,

and then begin to produce things here on earth.

This is how it works.

But we don't necessarily let it happen.

And then what happens is we produce here on earth,

Amon and Moab.

Remember Lot went and slept with us,

daughters and produced,

children of incest, Amon and Moab,

who later on turned against Israel.

So either you produce things of flesh

that are so putrid that what is produced now in the flesh,

and I'm not talking about the world out there,

I'm talking about us Christians.

We either end up producing things in the flesh

that are so putrid that a generation later

they attack the very ones who

birth them.

Or you produce Ishmaels.

Ishmael means God hears.

Now in the case of Ishmael,

it may not be putrid,

but it's still a mixture

of the son of,

of the man of promise with a slave

to produce a son who later on persecutes the son of promise.

Guys, we can't afford this anymore.

We've been doing this for too long.

We cost you men, but we can't afford it.

Things that are produced here

should be things that are of the spirit.

You'll have real life guys, real life.

Any questions before we go on?

Is it possible to start with promise as in

Isaac has left particularly some promise as in Jesus?

Both in a sense.

No, with Jesus he was supposed to be dead.

I was talking more about Isaac and Ishmael

because when Ishmael grows up,

Ishmael now begins to scorn Isaac.

And that's why Sarah gets pretty upset

and tells Abraham to send Hagar and the boy away.

So

Yeah.

Keeps repeating.

Yeah.

But in this particular case,

because Ishmael is birthed,

Ishmael now starts persecuting Isaac.

The son of, the son of the slave woman

now begins to persecute the son of promise.

And it will happen.

Whenever stuff is produced off the flesh,

and whenever there's mixture,

remember that it will always turn against us.

And so even in our structures guys,

in the things we do in church,

the way we construct things in church,

if it is off flesh,

it will eventually either require that you maintain it.

And what are we maintaining?

Decay.

That's the sad part.

Decay.

I, before, now that I'm on the 12th floor,

and now that I, I mean, I live on the 12th floor.

So before there used to be this chute

that you could go put stuff down.

So all you had to do is somehow jam the thing in

and you could hear it going down.

And they locked the thing up

because I believe the chute was getting damaged

because people were literally throwing their kids

down that thing.

So now that they've locked it,

you've got to carry your garbage,

go down the elevator,

go out to the back of the building and throw the thing.

And it's become a chore.

I don't know where I'm going with this.

It had a relevant point a little while ago.

Well, let's move on.

Completely lost track.

Decay.

And so on hot summer days,

you try to get scented bags

so that they last a little longer

because you want to somehow sanitize the decay.

Guys, this is what we sometimes do.

Anything, oh, put on the fans, man.

Because we want to just keep the air the way it is.

It's a little strange to use.

Yeah.

Is it working?

Maybe it needs to be checked in.

Thanks, man.

Yeah, so you can't maintain decay.

And remember guys, anything that you and I produce,

you know, for some strange reason,

we are willing to justify and live with things of the flesh.

That's the problem.

There is no,

we don't have sufficient enmity

against the things of the flesh.

And yet the Bible clearly says the spirit gives life

and the flesh profits, nothing.

Yet our hearts don't rage against things of the flesh

because we've gotten so used to it,

it's almost like we can't do without it.

This is how life is.

No, man, this is not how life is.

Because remember guys,

you and I may have gotten accustomed to it,

but Tavis's generation has to have a fresh new start.

They have to have a legacy of things produced in the spirit.

Not a legacy of things that were birthed in the flesh.

So the question is then,

how do you move with this invisible spirit?

How do you move with this invisible spirit?

We keep saying that, okay,

the invisible must permeate and move the visible.

How?

Jesus kind of touched on that in John 3, 8.

In John 3, 8, and look at the statement he makes,

very categorical statement.

He says, anyone born from above or anyone born again,

he says, and if he says it, then it must be true.

Anyone born from above knows well enough

how the wind blows this way and that.

You hear it rustling through the trees,

but you have no idea where it comes from

or where it's headed next.

The point being this guys,

I have a 10 foot by five feet balcony.

And so, because it's hot now,

I spend a lot of time on the balcony.

But one of the things I do on the balcony

is I keep walking to different spots in the balcony

because I know there will be some spots

where if you stand, the breeze begins to come on you.

But you can, I mean, it's only a 10 foot balcony.

You can stand here and you're sweating

and you can stand here and the breeze comes on you.

So the first thing I do when I go onto the balcony

is try to find out where the breeze is

and then take my chair and plonk myself

so that I have a cool breeze on a hot summer day.

This is how we are supposed to be guys.

Where in the midst of things,

you and I have this deep desire on a hot summer day

to find or locate ourselves in where, Spirit of God,

are you doing something and how would you recognize it?

It'll be refreshing guys.

It'll have life in it.

You will know it.

Jesus said that if you're born from above,

you will recognize it.

The only thing you will not know

is where it's going to shift to and which way it's heading.

So you might have to move your chair,

but you will recognize it.

Why?

Because the same Spirit that was in Jesus

and that's in your father is now in you.

Surely you will recognize it.

Will you ever not know your children?

I mean, you could have twins man

and they'll know which one is which.

Got to understand this.

Begin to live like this, think like this,

that father, I'm out on my balcony, it's hot,

but I will easily recognize the way your spirit is blowing.

I just need to locate it and I'll stand in it.

If it shifts, I'll shift.

But I am going to learn how to,

or be conscious on how to locate it.

And there are different reasons we are dull to the Spirit.

And one of the main things

is because of the domination of the soul.

Where we've become soulish people

who live our lives not by the Spirit.

You know, our spirits were supposed to be able

to engage the heavens, deep calls to deep,

spirit to spirit.

As believers, I'm supposed to engage the heavens

with my spirit and relate to the earth

with my five senses and my soul.

But my soul was never supposed to have dominance

over the ways of my spirit.

Wasn't supposed to happen.

But here's the thing guys, in many of our lives,

and I see this happening so often to me,

so the soul has become like an octopus

with tentacles that cover the eyes

and the ears of the spirit.

Your feelings, the way you think, your rational

has become like the tentacles of an octopus

that come and cover the eyes and the ears of the spirit

to the point where you're not able to recognize

the things of the spirit.

And remember, the soul operates in logic.

I know it's being renewed, but our souls operate in logic.

The spirit operates in truth and revelation.

God often works illogically.

I mean, like I said earlier, there's very little

that God has done that is practical in the Bible.

Everything is so highly impractical and illogical,

and yet there is logic in it.

So if I'm operating by the soul and if the soul

is the one that is in charge, it's very hard for me

then to hear the things of the spirit, man.

And so what happens then is if I'm someone

who lives by the soul, my soul is now hostile

to the things of the spirit, and it dismisses it,

or it theologizes it, or it minimizes it,

or it sanitizes all spirit activity.

Hurts me, man, when I see that happening around me

or when I see it happening in my life,

where because I am so consumed by my feelings

and my way of thinking, I either theologize,

sanitize, or dismiss spirit activity

because my soul says this is not logical.

And yet there is very little that God does

in Hebrews chapter 11 that is logical.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Gotta leave a different legacy for Tavis and Sarah, man.

Begin to practice this, eh guys, begin to practice this.

Remember, the spirit gives life,

the flesh profits nothing.

The spirit of God now resides in my spirit.

I have the ability now to begin to live

as one whose spirit leads and the soul follows.

I have that ability.

I have that ability now.

I just have to train myself

because for a long period of our lives,

our soul dominated.

When I say soul, I mean our thinking

and our feeling dominated.

I can retrain myself.

Meanwhile, my mind is being renewed by the word, man.

Every time I read the word, the veil is lifted

and the mind is renewed.

Things are on my side.

Go ahead, Matt.

The spirit that's been healing too,

so that's why the flesh profits are renewed.

How do you differentiate the flesh profits and nothing?

What I mean by the flesh profits and nothing matters

is that things that are birthed from my own thinking

that is not renewed, that is not goddish,

things that are produced out of my own feelings

which move this way one day and this way the next day,

which are not necessarily goddish,

things that come out of my personality

which is flawed and defective

and which I say is my way of doing things

or pose or are hostile or are suspicious

or are unable to handle things of God.

I mean, you're talking about healing.

Just take that.

What is it that the mind can handle about healing?

Everything in our mind say this is not possible

because medical evidence says so,

scientific evidence says so,

experiential evidence says so,

pastors say so, theology says so.

We got theologies for,

we got 100 different theological reasons

why God does not heal.

So we got all this and then comes along

the spirit of God and says,

I'm gonna raise you up and you'll be fine.

How does the mind compute that?

Impossible.

You don't shut it off.

You let one dominate the other

where I realize that oh shucks, I understand this fear.

I understand the feeling of it.

I understand the thought of fear.

Yet I know in my spirit that he has said again and again,

I will not leave or forsake you.

I am your helper, your shield.

And that's why the word is so vital

because one, it lifts up the veil over me

and two, it renews my mind.

Guys, some of the other reasons we are dull to the spirit.

One other reason is the fear of man.

So many things that the spirit prompts us to do,

we are afraid to do because we either want the acceptance

or the approval or we are scared of the disapproval of man.

The fear of man dulls us to the wind of the spirit.

The fear of man dulls us to the wind of the spirit.

I'll tell you this.

Sometimes when I'm standing out there in the balcony,

some of the neighbors come out.

And during summer I wear shorts.

I don't have the best looking legs in the world.

And so sometimes when I'm standing there in my shorts

and the neighbors come out,

and especially if they're young neighbors,

I kind of step in because I think to myself,

these legs don't look as good as they should look.

It's a self-conscious vain thing.

But what happens is,

there's this, hmm, I don't want them to see these shorts.

Maybe I should wear better shorts.

So I go better.

I mean, these are very colorful red and white shorts.

You don't wear them out.

So I go change my shorts and I stand out.

Why am I giving you this example?

Because so many times when you want to locate

and you know where the wind of the spirit is

and you want to step into it,

you're afraid of what others will say.

The fear of people so prevents us

from soaring in the wind of the spirit.

What will they say?

What will the church say?

What if I change this?

What if they complain?

The second reason is the fear of foolishness.

The fear of foolishness,

which is so connected to the fear of man,

the fear of foolishness,

where there's this fear of appearing illogical,

the fear of appearing unsophisticated,

the fear of appearing extreme.

That's another word.

Because many of the things the spirit of God may require

of me will look extreme in the eyes of the average Christian.

And so you step back from it.

I was listening to stories about this guy called Jim,

who's a pastor, Jim from Richmond, Pentecostal.

He's an interim pastor there for the next two weeks.

And he was saying how,

one day the spirit of God asked him

to go to Vancouver airport.

And so he lands up there.

And he's lined up in the Air Canada queue.

And so the person behind him is a friendly chatty kind of guy.

So he comes and says, so where are you going?

And he says, I don't know.

Because all that the spirit of God told him

was turn up at the airport and wait in line.

Wait in line and I'll tell you what to do.

So he's standing there in the airport.

I mean, I've gone to Australia because God has told me to

with nobody to meet, but that's one thing.

This is a whole different ball game

where you turn up at the airport with suitcase

and you don't know where you're going.

And he says, I'm waiting.

So the guy said, so you don't know.

So what flight are you catching?

I don't know.

And so he's waiting in line.

And he said, God just told me,

I think he said, God just told me to turn up

and he's feeling more and more foolish

as he repeats this thing, because it's so illogical.

Sounds extreme and completely ridiculous.

And finally, there are only three or four people left

in front of him and along comes a man

and he's got an envelope.

And in the envelope is money.

And he comes and says that this morning,

the Lord woke me up and told me to come here

and meet a guy who would be standing in the line.

And I'm supposed to give you this money for tickets too.

And he even told him where the tickets were too.

And he gives him the money,

passes him steps up, buys the tickets

and goes where he's supposed to go.

Another instance, he was in some part of East Europe

and he took his best suit,

which he had spent a lot of money buying.

And then as he's in the flight,

God tells him, when you come back,

I want you to come back with nothing

but the clothes on your body.

And so he starts giving away everything he has.

And he was even complaining, father, this suit,

it took me months to collect the money for this suit.

You want me to give this away?

Gives that away.

And then just when he's leaving,

the Lord says, your shoes, your shoes.

And so he takes and gives his shoes away.

And now he's walking in his socks back to the hotel

because he has to pick up.

And he says, I had an ugly pair of sneakers.

So he put on those sneakers instead.

Those are the only things and the clothes on his back.

And he's lining up and everybody has loads of luggage

and he's got nothing.

At least he's got shoes now,

but he had to leave from the place of the conference

to his hotel in his socks

because he gave his shoes away.

And I'm listening to these stories

and I'm thinking to myself, father,

I thought my life was adventurous, it ain't.

Because this man has somehow learned the simple way

of finding the wind of the spirit and stepping into it.

And then he does things that are illogical,

extreme by most of our standards and unsophisticated.

It's not very sophisticated

to go walking into a hotel in your socks.

But this is how it works.

And you think to yourself, thank God,

God doesn't ask us to do things

that he asked of Ezekiel.

Even, so we wouldn't be able to handle stuff like that.

Lie on your side for so many days,

lie on this side for so many days,

only wear a loin cloth, only don't wear a loin cloth,

take your loin cloth and bury it

and pull it out 365 days.

Now try wearing it.

What? It's in tatters.

Well then, too bad, go ahead.

Guys, God's asking us to step into a whole different realm.

The flesh profits nothing.

The spirit gives life.

There's this fear of foolishness.

The third thing is the fear of the unknown.

The fear of the unknown.

One of the things with the spirit of God is this,

is that you'll have to yield control

or you'll have to risk losing control

and trusting like Abraham did.

I love Hebrews 11, eight.

And Abraham set out not knowing where he was going.

The fear of the unknown,

as in the risk of losing control,

is something that frightens the heck out of us, man.

And so we get dulled to the ways of the spirit

because we don't know how to operate there.

The risk of the unknown.

And the last one, the fear of security.

The fear of security.

The fear of security.

As in the fear of financial stability,

the fear of not ending up being successful

as the world sees it.

The fear of security.

Yep.

The fear of security, not insecurity.

I thought of that too.

So whichever one fits.

I wasn't sure.

So either the, nothing has changed about Diana

since you were gone.

Yeah, the fear of security or the fear of insecurity.

I was debating that.

Guys, the point being,

many of us won't do the things the spirit of God asks us to

because it will incur financial instability sometimes,

and it may cause our definition of success

to be completely messed up.

So why do the things the spirit of God is doing?

Instead, produce something that's off the flesh,

that is both successful and that is secure.

I remember when Acts 29 had to be started,

I delayed it for two years, man.

Two years.

People would come, guys who didn't know me,

some, one man who was a prophet,

and then the spirit of God telling me,

Jacob time to move, time to move.

Jacob would not move.

Why?

Because to leave the security of a regular paying job

with 110 people was very scary.

For two years, I delayed it.

There's a fear of security and of success.

Any questions before we move on?

Guys, do you see how this can cripple us?

Do you see why we produce things of the flesh?

So much safer, but it's decay.

It's decay.

It will turn putrid if not in this generation,

in the next generation.

Can't afford it, man.

Go ahead.

Yeah, there's a lot of living by faith in this, Maryam.

There's a lot of stepping out in faith.

But see, it's faith in...

Here's the thing about it, eh?

Why do I keep moving my chair to find that breeze?

Because I know that, yes, it's inconvenient,

but when I find it, it will refresh me.

And that is this whole thing where I keep moving

till I know this is life and this is refreshing.

This is risky, but there is something about this

that is so different from the way I have been.

Any questions?

Okay.

Guys, we were called to soar on the wings of the wind, eh?

We were called to have our lives invaded, steeped

and stirred up by the spirit, unbroken, free-flowing.

Suddenly, guys, life will stop happening

and the spirit will begin happening.

You know, we say life happens.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

You begin living like this and life stops happening.

The spirit of God starts happening and life is part of that.

It's no longer life happening

and the spirit of God intervening every now and then.

No longer is my life broken up into times of church,

times of ministry, times of counseling,

times of prayer, times of Bible study.

No, no, no.

It is always finding that refreshing breeze

and staying there and in and as it moves, you move.

Suddenly, everything is continuous.

It's unbroken.

It's flowing, man.

It's something else then.

That's what we're being invited to, eh?

Gotta model this, guys.

It may take us another one year, two years, five years,

but if we can finally model this,

John 3, 8 becomes alive.

You guys, Jesus said,

know the breeze when it comes

because you see the rustling of the leaves on the trees.

All you don't know is where it comes from and where it goes.

Leave that to me and I'll help you locate it.

But watch the rustling of the leaves and jump into it.

So,

how do we go about doing this, guys?

Hear the sound first, eh?

Hear the sound of the rustling of the leaves

and what do I mean by that?

First, guys, and this applies to any of us

who are planning on making a change,

planning on starting afresh,

planning on starting tomorrow differently,

planning on purpose, planning on reason,

reason for living as in planning on destiny,

whatever your thing is,

how do you figure, how do you work on this?

First, hear the sound,

as in, begin by hearing the sound of the written word,

eh?

Begin by hearing the sound of the written word.

Sometimes that's where you begin.

Many of us want a rehmah word from God,

want a prophetic word from God,

want some kind of a vision from God that'll jumpstart,

but God first says,

Jacob, start hearing the sound of my written word.

Let the baby begin to jump in your womb

because you're constantly listening to the written word

and you've gotten so accustomed to it

that you know my nature through the written word.

Hear the sound of the written word first.

And once you're used to that,

then hear the sound of the rehmah word,

the prophetic word that I sent.

And it happens so often in this church, guys,

the rustling of the trees.

And once you hear it,

then check to see whether it matters with the nature of God.

Check to see whether it's the direction

God has been traveling in your life for a while.

Is that what he has been speaking for a while?

Check to see if you have that bold piece that he gives

in the face of what seems illogical.

Guys, why Mongolia, guys?

Why Mongolia?

Why now?

Because many years ago,

almost four or five years ago,

God had started speaking about Mongolia,

saying this church has a stake in Mongolia.

And it's been lying fallow for so many years.

Every now and then,

we'd bring up Mongolia and it would die,

bring up Mongolia and it would die.

But we knew that God had set his face towards Mongolia.

Face towards Mongolia for this church.

And then suddenly Southeast Asia happened,

where we began to decide that this church is now

to leave the Middle East and India as secondary

and move towards Southeast Asia.

And I remember standing in Hong Kong on my trip back

from Indonesia on June 29th,

I'm saying, where next, father?

What's gonna happen next?

Which country in South Asia?

Because Malaysia is over, Singapore is happening,

Indonesia is done.

I've visited Cambodia and something is brewing there.

Where next?

And along, as I'm watching, standing and watching,

along comes this airline

and it's got the word MIAT written on it, M-I-A-T.

And M-I-A-T stands for Mongolian something airline.

I've got the photograph on my camera

because I took it immediately.

I said, okay, father, if that's what you're saying,

sure, you got to begin to identify the direction

God is walking in so that you can know,

aha, but father, you've been saying this for a while,

perhaps now is the time.

And then what happens with him happens,

where it was a casual conversation

and I mentioned Mongolia and he's got this relative

who's here for two days.

And that starts a whole series of events.

You know what happens next?

I write to the person that she gave me the address for

and he writes back saying,

there's someone called Jillian Parker in Vancouver

who works in Mongolia.

Perhaps you should meet her.

And guess what?

Jillian is their friend, I've met her before

and she's in town right now.

So I go meet with Jillian.

And one after the other things begin moving.

Once you hear the sound guys,

there's an activity that begins.

You got to hear the sound,

first of the written word and then of what God is saying,

be the Rehma word or the prophetic or what God has revealed

and begin to walk in it.

Knowing that God has set a direction,

this comes from his nature

and then you begin to walk in it guys.

That's how it all begins.

And there's this bold piece,

that he gives in the face of what seems illogical.

You think I'm not aware that I'll be coming back

on the 21st and leaving again on the 26th?

You think I'm not aware of the money it'll cost?

You think I'm not aware of the fact that I'll be here

every alternate Sunday and that I have a responsibility here?

But there is a bold piece in the face of what is illogical.

Hear the sound first.

Hear the sound first.

The next thing guys is step out, step out, step out.

Once you hear the sound, you got to step out.

And if you, like I always say,

when you hear the sound guys,

go check with others who are good at this

so that you can verify it

because sometimes you need things to be.

Sometimes there's greater clarity

when someone from the outside is looking at something

because you're so close to the thing

because you're so close to the thing

that you may not see it clearly.

So step out, begin with ankle deep boldness.

Begin with ankle deep boldness.

What do I mean by ankle deep boldness?

It's what the priest did in Joshua chapter three,

verse 13 and 15.

God says to Joshua,

listen, tell the priest to go and step into the Jordan.

And so what did the priest do?

The people are following and they go step into the Jordan.

And when they step into the Jordan,

70 miles away, the water start collecting

at a place called Adam.

And the water is just seized there, 70 miles away.

Eddie taught us about this.

As soon as they step, nothing is happening.

As far as they're concerned,

they could still see the water.

But 70 miles away, a miracle had started

where water was beginning to pile up

and the rest of the water began to flow

till the whole place was dry.

Step out, man.

Why so that we do that?

It's called ankle deep boldness.

That's my new word for it.

Ankle deep boldness where I have to risk some action.

And once you do, your boldness will translate into focus.

Whenever you're bold like that, new focus comes

where even though the victory has not blossomed

and there's no evidence,

God and not the victory becomes your obsession.

That's a strange thing with boldness.

When you step into boldness

because you have heard the sound and are taking action,

you won't notice that the victory has not blossomed.

God and not the victory becomes your obsession.

That's the first thing.

The second thing is you'll be foolish enough, man.

Once you take a step, the first step is the hardest to take.

You take the first step and then it's foolishness

that just takes over, wonderful foolishness takes over.

Where without armor, armed with five stones,

you go up against Goliath.

But the first, I mean, the things I dare to do

before I go to sleep and the things that evaporate

when I wake up in the morning.

I'm so full of ideas the night before.

And then when I get up, reality hits you.

So I would suggest that the first thing you do

if you have made a decision before you go to sleep

is as soon as you get out of bed,

do not think, do it.

Because if you can break that threshold and step out,

guys, you've got it made.

The hardest thing for me sometimes when I'm traveling

is to click purchase.

You know, there's that button at the end,

you book and you see the amount and you think, no.

And then you shut your eyes and go click

and the deal is done.

Now if you cancel, you've got to pay a cancellation fee.

And that is hindrance enough.

So, and thirdly guys,

begin to walk in the works that you have been summoned to.

And don't be too afraid,

Proverbs 37, the steps of a righteous man are

ordered of God, man.

If you're someone who's delighting in God and obeying him,

know this too with confidence

that surely the steps of a righteous man are ordered of God.

Surely I can step out and God knows how to help me

and correct me and take care of me.

And the last step guys, hear the sound step out

and the last bit is steward with wisdom.

Steward now what you have started with wisdom.

Be willing to make adjustments as you go along.

Be open to what God may change.

One of the things that happens to me sometimes is God says,

I want you to do this, this and this.

And I'm so stuck with it that I don't see what else

God may want to change.

And I miss out on stuff.

Steward with wisdom, be open and willing to make

adjustments along the way.

As God directs, as circumstances direct.

I mean one of the classicist, I know it's wrong.

One of the classicist passages that kind of shows this

is in Acts 16 verse five to eight.

It says, when they came to the border of Mycea,

they tried to enter Bithynia,

but the spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.

So they passed by Mycea and went down to Troas.

During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia

standing and begging him,

come over to Macedonia and help us.

Here he was being led by the spirit

and he knew the wind of the spirit man.

He had a call to Asia Minor

and he's going to different places,

but he would know the rustling of the sound of the spirit

and he would stop.

And then look at this passage,

look at 2 Corinthians 2.12.

You'll find another twist to the story.

2 Corinthians 2.12.

I've just read the first bit from Acts 16.

So he lands up in Troas,

but then look at what happens in Troas.

This is the backstory.

It says there, now when I went to Troas

to preach the gospel of Christ

and found that the Lord had opened the door for me,

who opened the door?

The Lord opened the door.

I still had no peace of mind

because I did not find my brother Titus there.

So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.

There are times guys

where God can have an open invitation for you

and yet you may be restless inside

either because you're not ready

or because there is another pressing need

or something else happens

and God knows how to accommodate that too.

2 Corinthians 2.12 is the backstory

of what is not said in Acts 16.

In Acts 16 it just says I went to Troas

and I had a dream that night and I went to Macedonia.

The truth is in Troas there was a door open

that the Spirit of God had opened for him

and he still chooses not to take it

because his spirit was not at rest

because he wanted to find Titus.

Devaraj, Papo, yeah.

See you later.

Guys, got to understand that too.

All day that that should happen.

Go.

No, I'm saying that God sometimes allows me the latitude

to come to a place of peace.

Lauren and Sigar leaving the building.

I told them I'd embarrass them.

So thanks for coming, Lauren.

Yeah, guys, here's the thing guys.

Sometimes God may open a door for you

and you may still not be at rest.

And guess what?

Sigari isn't going to be upset with it.

He would rather have you come to a place of peace and rest

and do things out of that

than be forced into doing things.

So Macedonia calls and he goes to Macedonia.

Surprising.

I want to say this,

just because there is an invitation

does not mean that you now have to take it.

There is an invitation, you have to consider it.

Hard, eh?

There's more in those lines than I'm telling you,

but I just wanted to present a backstory

of what actually happened.

We'll talk about it more later.

Let me conclude.

Guys, as you steward with wisdom,

seek who you will walk with.

Try to find people who can lead you into daring.

Try to find people who can lead you into divine daring.

Yeah.

Be careful of who steps into your boat.

If he or she is not walking on water,

keep them out of the boat.

When you were stewarding a new thing in God,

when you are stepping into divine daring,

make sure you know who's stepping into your boat, man.

Because if they don't know how to walk on water,

when you get a call to do something crazy,

they will not be able to help you.

They'll precipitate in your life,

systems and alliances and things

that have nothing to do with God.

Remember guys, upgrade comes through association,

imitation and formation.

Upgrade comes through association

as in has God called you to something

that needs divine daring in it?

Then make sure you associate with people

who know how to walk on water.

Because otherwise, when Jesus commands come

and they are in your boat,

they'll say, what's wrong with you?

Don't you know that people drop straight down

to the bottom of the ocean when they step out of a boat?

Upgrade comes through associating

with those that are of like spirit.

So there's association.

And then when you associate with them,

it's easy to imitate what God wants you to do.

And then it begins to form in you

where it's no longer imitation,

it's the willingness to step out.

You know, I'd love to meet this pastor

from Richmond, Pentecostal.

Unfortunately, he's only interim,

so he'll be leaving in a couple of weeks.

But the point is, I'd love to meet him.

Why?

Not to exchange stories and tell him how wonderful I am,

but just to hear more stories from him

so that it stirs me up to begin to walk at another level, man,

as and when the Spirit of God calls.

Because upgrade only happens

through association, imitation, formation.

Make sure that you walk with people who have divine daring

and who know how to walk on water, guys.

And finally, to steward things with wisdom,

manage your present resources well, eh?

Manage your present resources well.

Because, and when I say resources, I mean wealth,

I mean time, manage your resources and time well.

Because if you do,

then God will give you greater dominion

because the secret for dominion

is faithfulness with present resources.

The secret for dominion

is faithfulness with present resources.

So many times I step out, I hear God, I step out,

but I don't necessarily manage my resources well.

So what happens is the next time God asks me to step out,

I have less to work with.

Manage your resources well.

Because faithfulness is the seed for dominion.

Any questions?

I know there's a lot that was said today,

so go and listen to the tape.

It'll add to your own pace.

Any questions, guys?

Okay, I'm gonna ask

Heidi and Jason to come up and just send me off

on this trip and we'll take a break.