Sermon
Quality Control
Publisher transcript
Transcript
-
Let's go.
-
Thanks, man.
-
Guys, we've been talking about people being forged at Gilgal.
-
We started five weeks ago or six weeks ago.
-
And the whole idea is we are approaching this theme called
-
authentic sun's open heaven.
-
What does it take to walk the earth as an authentic sun
-
so that the heavens, or the favor of God,
-
and the scepter of God that is outstretched,
-
may be something that we walk under continuously?
-
And we said that one of the stages
-
that we have to go through is to become a people forged
-
at Gilgal, readied at Gilgal.
-
And we've talked about reconciliation.
-
We've talked about different things
-
that we have to work into and through our lives
-
so that we be ready.
-
So that just as Jesus stepped out of the Jordan
-
as an authentic sun, and the heavens were torn open,
-
and the Father said, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased.
-
Listen to him.
-
In the same way, us as an authentic son called Acts 29
-
has to step out of the Jordan so that God can say,
-
this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
-
Listen to Acts 29 because they've become an oracle of God
-
here on earth.
-
That's the place we are heading towards.
-
And so today, I just want to say that it's
-
the privilege of every Christian to partake in God's grace.
-
But we want to pick on a passage today in the Old Testament
-
where we hear God saying, listen, as priests,
-
you can partake in my grace anytime.
-
But if you want to be a dispenser of grace,
-
if you want to be someone who ministers grace to others,
-
then you have to be readied into a certain type of people.
-
And that's what you're going to talk about today.
-
So if you want to turn to Leviticus 21.
-
Leviticus 21.
-
Leviticus 21.
-
And I think once we are done with this,
-
we can move on from Gilgal to other things.
-
And if possible, I was telling Wayne
-
that he should put all the five CDs of the last five weeks
-
together because it will form what
-
is something that you can listen to during the rest of December
-
so that you enter into this new season starting
-
Jain as a person fully formed at Gilgal,
-
having taken the trouble to deal with what needs
-
to be dealt with in our lives.
-
Leviticus 21.
-
Leviticus 21.
-
And I'm reading from verse 17 to 23.
-
Here it goes.
-
Leviticus 21, 17 to 23.
-
Then the Lord said to Moses, starting at verse 16,
-
the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron,
-
for the generations to come, none of your descendants
-
who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God.
-
No man who has any defect may come near me.
-
No man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed,
-
no man with a crippled foot or hand
-
or who is handicapped or dwarfed or who has an eye effect
-
or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles.
-
No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect
-
is to come near to present the offerings made to the Lord
-
by fire.
-
He has a defect.
-
He must not come near to offer the food of his God.
-
He may eat the most holy food of his God
-
as well as the holy food, yet because of his defect,
-
he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar
-
and so desecrate my sanctuary.
-
I am the Lord who makes them holy.
-
Obviously, these are physical defects
-
that were used in the Old Testament
-
as banning the sons of Aaron from entering the sanctuary.
-
These physical defects obviously don't transfer
-
into the New Testament.
-
We have to stand in the New Testament
-
and look at the Old Testament and then interpret
-
what the Old Testament is trying to say.
-
So I said before, on one hand, we are, we are,
-
yeah, don't worry about that.
-
So these physical defects exclude no one today
-
but must be viewed from the New Testament
-
and it should be interpreted.
-
So let's go through these different defects
-
that are to prevent a person from being a minister
-
or dispenser of grace.
-
If you notice in Leviticus 21, it
-
says, if you have these defects, you are not excluded
-
from eating of the bread.
-
You are not excluded from partaking in grace.
-
But if you want to offer the bread before God,
-
if you want to offer things before God,
-
if you want to minister before God,
-
if you want to be a dispenser of grace for God,
-
then you have to be defect less, blemish less, fault less,
-
flaw less.
-
That's why I've titled it Quality Control
-
because here is a chance for us to look at our lives
-
and see if things need to be arranged.
-
And I've had so much fun going over each of these
-
and trying to make adjustments.
-
The first one that's mentioned, then,
-
depending on the kind of Bible you're reading,
-
the words differ.
-
In some Bibles, they say eunuch.
-
In other Bibles, they say damaged testicles.
-
In some Bibles, they say dwarf.
-
In other Bibles, they say handicapped.
-
In some Bibles, they say eczema.
-
In other Bibles, they say scurvy.
-
In other Bibles, they say festering sores.
-
So we'll take all those words together
-
and see what God is trying to say.
-
So the first one is blindness.
-
Blindness here, how do we interpret it
-
in the New Testament?
-
It is a lack of vision or no vision
-
for the purposes of God.
-
No vision for the purposes of God.
-
No vision or lack of vision for the purposes of God.
-
A lack of vision for the purposes of God.
-
And I so strongly encourage you to go home
-
and check if this is true of me, true of you.
-
Do I have an idea of the vision or the purpose of God
-
for me in general for life, or specifically for life,
-
or specifically for the year ahead,
-
or specifically for today?
-
Do I have a vision of the purpose of God for me?
-
And if I don't, why don't I?
-
And if I don't, is it important that I have one?
-
Why is it that I don't have one?
-
So that's something I'd so strongly encourage you
-
to look at each one of them.
-
Because Proverbs 29, verse 18 says
-
that my people perish for the lack of vision.
-
In another place it says,
-
because my people don't have vision,
-
they have cast off their restraint.
-
Which is to say that now that I am purposeless,
-
I can go any which way because purposelessness allows me
-
to be blown like the wind any which way I want.
-
But once there's the vision,
-
once you understand the purpose of your life,
-
understand the purpose your family has here on earth.
-
I mean, you know families of destiny?
-
You know that Marcus, Ryan, and Laurie,
-
I called you Rosalyn once.
-
Marcus, Ryan, and Laurie have a destiny as a family?
-
That this family is meant to leave a legacy here on earth?
-
That Elmer, Anne, and their children and grandchildren
-
have a destiny appointed to them here on earth?
-
God always operated in clan, stripes, families.
-
What is it?
-
What is your purpose?
-
Let me assure you that when a people continue
-
for a period of time without vision or purpose,
-
they cast off restraint.
-
It becomes, what's the point?
-
I can be anything I want to be because what's the point?
-
I'm going to heaven, my ticket is secure.
-
So be what you want to be.
-
That's what happens.
-
So check on that.
-
And so what would be, I mean,
-
one of the things I have often done,
-
and I've told you about this,
-
is whenever I feel even a little purposeless
-
in terms of what the next step is,
-
where is Acts 29 going, where is Jacob going,
-
where is life supposed to go next year or tomorrow,
-
I always go back and listen to what has been spoken over me.
-
And our tendency is to think,
-
but I've heard that three times, what can be new?
-
I cannot tell you how much there is
-
in what has been spoken over you by different people.
-
Each time I listen to it, each time I read it,
-
it's like digging out new treasure.
-
Because if prophecy is genuine and is unadulterated,
-
it is the counsel of God,
-
and there is no fathoming the counsel of God.
-
So if you think you've reached the end of it,
-
you're wrong.
-
Be proactive about this.
-
I cannot emphasize it enough.
-
So what I do is I'll go and listen.
-
I'll listen to it again and again and again.
-
This morning I was listening to what Eddie said.
-
I was listening to it and I found something in it
-
that I hadn't seen before.
-
I found something in it that I should have heard
-
before I went to Indonesia.
-
Thank God it came to pass,
-
but he had said something about Indonesia
-
that I'm finding two months after I've come from Indonesia.
-
Sometimes it's the grace of God.
-
So do that.
-
And the other thing we need to understand is that,
-
guys, how do you know if you have vision?
-
I'd say one of the litmus test is communicated.
-
Let me hear you communicate the purpose
-
you have here on earth.
-
If I were to ask you right now,
-
okay, you say you have vision, you have purpose,
-
communicate it.
-
And if you can communicate it with clarity,
-
I would then say, yes, you do have a grasp of it.
-
But if you cannot communicate it with clarity,
-
if it is generic, if it is,
-
yeah, God loves me and I'm his son,
-
that's absolutely true, okay?
-
I'm not saying no to that at all.
-
But if it is in that area,
-
then I'd say something needs to be studied even more.
-
I mean, if I were to go up to Ryan and ask him,
-
so what are you gonna do after grade 10?
-
If he says, oh, I'm gonna study more, something is wrong.
-
But guess what?
-
If I ask him now, he's gonna tell me
-
what he's gonna major in.
-
Because he already knows.
-
There is a clarity there.
-
And if you read Habakkuk chapter two,
-
you'll see that there's a,
-
I mean, for every handicap here, we will have a solution.
-
So the solution then for lack of purpose
-
is one, obviously, to find it out
-
because I really think that there is nobody in this house
-
who does not already have some kind of an inkling
-
as to where you're heading.
-
If you've been in this house for more than six months,
-
you have an idea of where you're going.
-
Because God has touched your life prophetically.
-
That's the nature of this house.
-
So if you go to Habakkuk two,
-
it's one of those books that plays hide and seek.
-
Habakkuk two after Nahum, it doesn't help at all,
-
and before Zephaniah.
-
Habakkuk two, verses one and two.
-
You'll see that it says there,
-
I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts.
-
I will look to see what he will say to me
-
and what answer I am to give to his complaint.
-
Then the Lord replied.
-
First, what does he say?
-
What's the first word?
-
Write down the revelation.
-
So first thing you do if you want to crystallize
-
or filter your vision,
-
so you're going to write down the revelation.
-
He says write down the revelation and make it what?
-
Plain.
-
Write it with clarity.
-
There should be a clarity to it.
-
And then he goes on to say write it,
-
make it plain so that
-
you can get it.
-
So what is the first thing you do?
-
Write down the revelation.
-
So first thing you do is write down the revelation.
-
At the appointed time,
-
a herald may run with it
-
for the revelation waits an appointed time,
-
it will speak in the end.
-
So guys, first you see it.
-
So obviously purpose has to be seen
-
and like I said in this house,
-
you have begun to see what it is for you.
-
Because really the destiny of this house
-
is your destiny too,
-
besides what God speaks to you individually.
-
So you see it, you write it,
-
there's clarity
-
and then the herald cannot see it
-
unless you communicate it.
-
And once you communicate it,
-
it's taken and then you act on it
-
or initiate action on it.
-
This is how vision is actually developed
-
or crystallized or filtered
-
so that it becomes something tangible.
-
You see it or you hear it,
-
you write it.
-
I cannot tell you how to write it.
-
I cannot tell you how important writing it is.
-
You write it.
-
After you write it,
-
you go over it and you begin to see clarity in it.
-
After clarity in it,
-
now you have sufficient clarity
-
in your spirit and in your mind
-
to be able to communicate it.
-
And once you've been communicated,
-
now you're in a position
-
where you can begin to act on it.
-
This is how blindness
-
in terms of a lack of vision
-
for the purpose of God
-
can be destroyed.
-
Any questions?
-
When does time play?
-
Time plays in terms of
-
once you begin to initiate action,
-
then time has to unfold it
-
because you can't push it,
-
you can't hurry it,
-
but you've initiated the action.
-
Now God begins to cooperate
-
because God does say,
-
James, war with the prophetic word.
-
Take it and war with it.
-
Begin with it.
-
I'll bring it to pass,
-
but begin with it.
-
If you do not initiate it,
-
if you do not act on it,
-
then Isaiah 7 applies,
-
where because you did not believe,
-
it was not established.
-
There's that too.
-
A prophetic word does not come to pass
-
because it was not believed in,
-
therefore it shall not be established.
-
You know why I said my guitaring will improve?
-
Because many years ago,
-
a prophet came and said that
-
I would be a very good instrumentalist.
-
And I found that so not up my alley
-
because I was a worship leader,
-
not a guitarist,
-
that I decided that I was going to put it
-
on my prophetic shelf and not use it.
-
And I have used as an example,
-
many times to say,
-
some people prophesy
-
things that are not true.
-
And I was talking to someone about how
-
we need to take things that have been spoken
-
and have to begin to apply it.
-
And I felt the Lord saying,
-
but you have things in your life
-
that you haven't applied yet.
-
And I had to go and examine it
-
and this was one of them.
-
So I remember walking in front of the Lord
-
after I spoke to this person.
-
I was saying to the Lord,
-
your father,
-
there was no reason to suspect
-
what the guy said.
-
It's just because it was not something
-
I'm interested in
-
or has been something that I'm fond of.
-
And so today I undo what I've said
-
and I want to become this asset
-
or aspect that you wanted to bring into my life.
-
And so I'm not surprised
-
when my guitaring will begin to improve.
-
And you guys will say,
-
well, Jacob, your singing needs improvement now
-
and stuff like that.
-
So moving on.
-
That's how it works.
-
So time works that way.
-
It happens when I agree.
-
If I do not believe,
-
I will not be established.
-
That's what Isaiah 7 says.
-
I think it's Isaiah 7.
-
I don't remember it.
-
I think it's an Isaiah 7.
-
Yeah.
-
Let's go on to lameness then.
-
Lameness is...
-
This is so sad, guys.
-
What happens?
-
Lameness...
-
Lameness is when those who...
-
Lameness happens to those who can see
-
what God is saying,
-
but don't have the ability to walk in it.
-
But don't have the ability to walk in it.
-
Can.
-
Lameness...
-
Lameness is when...
-
It's a people or an individual
-
who is aware of it.
-
It's a people or an individual
-
who is aware of it.
-
And he can see.
-
He can see what God is saying.
-
He can see it.
-
But he does not know or she does not know
-
or does not have the ability to walk in it.
-
I mean, one of the classic examples
-
is the man at the beautiful gate
-
in Acts chapter 3.
Acts 3 chapter mention
-
In Acts chapter 3, verse 2,
-
it says,
-
There was a man who was lame from his mother's womb
-
who was brought to the gate.
-
What was the name of the gate?
-
The beautiful gate at the temple.
-
And he was left at the beautiful gate.
-
And he would be there always at the right time.
-
When the temple worship would start,
-
he would be there.
-
He could probably hear the worship.
-
He knew what was happening inside,
-
but he could not enter into it.
-
It's someone who knows what is required,
-
but does not know how to step into it.
-
Some of us here know what is required of us.
-
We know. We already know.
-
But we have no idea.
-
How the heck do I move from knowing
-
to stepping into it?
-
Mephi-Bosheith was like that.
-
Mephi-Bosheith was Saul's grandson,
-
Jonathan's son.
-
David's friend Jonathan, his son.
-
Mephi-Bosheith was meant to be king.
-
But when he hears that David has defeated his dad,
-
his granddad,
-
his nurse picks him up
-
and starts running,
-
the boy drops out of her arm,
-
falls on the ground,
-
and he becomes lame.
-
And so here is a king
-
who is now lame,
-
does not attain the throne,
-
until David calls him into the palace.
-
And he had everything that was required to be a king,
-
but he ran and he could not even run at that
-
because he was lame.
-
So what's the solution?
-
Another way of looking at it,
-
to pick on a word that Anne had used,
-
guys, these are people who get touched at every meeting.
-
They go for different meetings all over the place.
-
They get touched at all the meetings,
-
but they don't know how to launch into orbit.
-
The launching is missing.
-
How was the meeting?
-
Oh, brother, I was deeply touched.
-
What's going to happen out of it?
-
Nothing.
-
Why? Because I have to go for another meeting
-
and I have to go to another meeting
-
and I have to go to another meeting
-
and I have to go for another meeting to get deeply touched again.
-
You guys are laughing.
-
There's a place where after being touched,
-
you have to be launched.
-
And I'd suggest to you
-
that the solution,
-
what people normally resort to
-
in terms of solutions is
-
they resort to methods,
-
they resort to church growth,
-
they resort to formulas,
-
they resort to fire conferences,
-
they resort to somehow trying to activate what's in them.
-
But I'd like to tell you that it is impossible
-
to move from lameness
-
unless you are somehow
-
charged by the apostolic and the prophetic guys.
-
Here was this lame man
-
sitting at the beautiful gate.
-
And what does he ask for?
-
He asks for some arms.
-
And who comes along?
-
Peter and John.
-
And what do they say to him?
-
They say, look at us.
-
There needs to be a penetration of that
-
which is prophetic and apostolic
-
to begin to push you into orbit, guys.
-
You've seen that activated
-
in lives here through
-
Eddie,
-
through different people
-
who have come here, through me
-
laying hands on people.
-
You've seen it activated.
-
You've seen what Eddie has done in my life
-
where there's a sudden launching.
-
It needs an apostolic
-
and prophetic knife-feds to cut
-
cleave open and say, look at me
-
and then silver and gold I have none
-
but what I have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ.
-
Rise up and walk.
-
And suddenly your lameness is gone.
-
So may I tell you
-
you can sit at Acts 29 and miss out
-
on it.
-
Because
-
you have chosen
-
not to understand
-
the apostolic and the prophetic.
-
Guys, there's nothing anybody can do about it.
-
There are people
-
in Eddie's church,
-
in Eddie's friends churches
-
who have sat there for years and years and years.
-
And have not been
-
affected by it.
-
Why? Because they like what
-
they like and are selective in their
-
hearing and the rest of it
-
does not apply to me
-
because that is not my thing.
-
I beg of you, we give the whole
-
council of God, take it all.
-
Guys, these messages
-
may be a little
-
nasty in terms of how
-
it's being presented but we are
-
at Gilgal.
-
Circumcision was not a walk in the park.
-
It was painful.
-
Questions?
-
Comments? Disagreements?
-
Not physical, spiritual lameness.
-
Yeah.
-
I think it's impossible to move from lameness
-
to a place where you can get
-
launched into who you know
-
God is asking you to be.
-
It's impossible to be launched into it
-
unless you say, okay
-
I, guys, if
-
but yeah
-
position yourself to
-
receive, guys, if you have missed out
-
on understanding what the apostolic is
-
I might use
-
this word again and again. I beg of you
-
ask Wayne for the CDs
-
and grasp an understanding because otherwise
-
you are losing out.
-
I don't care how friendly you are
-
with each other or with me.
-
It won't benefit you unless
-
truth is taught. Friendship
-
does not set you free.
-
The knowledge of the
-
truth does.
-
Go ahead, Valentina.
-
At the appointed time, which will happen?
-
At the appointed time, which will happen?
-
Yes, in Habakkuk,
-
which we dealt with in terms
-
of blindness. I'm talking about
-
lameness where people have
-
seen it
-
but they do not know how to take what they've
-
seen and launch.
-
Because prophetic words
-
can be received by many.
-
Israel received tons of prophetic words
-
but it didn't do them any good.
-
So that's the problem.
-
The lame guy didn't launch himself though.
-
The other two. Exactly.
-
The apostolic and the prophetic have the ability
-
to remove lameness
-
and launch you into
-
that which God is already
-
showing you. It's like being
-
impotent. I know what it takes
-
but I don't know how to do it.
-
How does that tie into when people in any church
-
have just sit there? Like if it's not the lame
-
person's act of doing that
-
launches them, can they
-
do the same as the lame person sitting at church
-
for 20 years waiting to get launched?
-
Absolutely. When we come to dwarfs, we'll talk about that.
-
Dwarfs are people who have
-
aged without growing.
-
Dwarfs are people who have aged without growing
-
in the spiritual.
-
What can the lame guy do to
-
expedite his launch?
-
There is a point where the analogy of the lame
-
when you use it in the spiritual has to be disconnected
-
from actual physical lameness.
-
Here is a lame person who now
-
has the, when it comes to
-
spiritual understanding of things
-
I have to open up my
-
spirit to receive from the apostolic
-
and the prophetic.
-
David was a spiritual giant.
-
Yep.
-
So let's use some real words
-
to get facts here. So what is the lame people
-
that are waiting to get...
-
Okay, I'll give you an example. I could have
-
gone for many apostolic summits
-
and conferences all over the world
-
listened to Eddie and all his friends
-
and have come back without
-
any change.
-
I listened to it
-
I'd have tons of notes, I'd probably preach a sermon
-
but I'd never leave it. Why? Because I
-
did not open up my spirit to receive it
-
I did not want anything to do with it.
-
I've gone to places
-
and sat with elders in churches
-
and taught them
-
how to do things and they have said
-
no.
-
The church won't collapse, they'll still
-
do wonderful things, people will still get saved
-
some will get healed but they will
-
never enter into the orbit that
-
was meant for them. Instead of going to
-
Mars, they'll keep going around the moon.
-
Are you still in space?
-
Yes. But you were supposed
-
to hit the red planet, not the
-
little white piece of cheese in the sky.
-
It'll be nice but not the abundant life
-
that you're going to get. There you go.
-
We got orbits man
-
that we have to enter into.
-
I asked Valentine already.
-
Guys, it's the apostolic and the prophetic
-
that has the ability to penetrate.
-
I've always shown you that picture
-
of the spear with
-
this is the shaft
-
but a shaft without
-
a spear has no penetration.
-
A spear without the shaft
-
has no direction.
-
Goes together.
-
That's a good example.
-
If this is the apostolic
-
and the prophetic, this is
-
the evangelistic
-
the teaching
-
and the pasturing.
-
It has to go hand in hand.
-
Who does all this? The saints are involved in this.
-
These are not some kind of aliens
-
that fell out of the sky. These are normal
-
people. These are you
-
and me.
-
Then it applies that a whole lot of people
-
can see the prophetic. This is
-
sometimes what happens to the charismatic and the
-
Pentecostal where
-
they operate in the prophetic but are never
-
able to launch fully into orbit
-
just because there is no
-
there is nothing to
-
that input is missing
-
because there is a resistance
-
or a lack of acknowledgement of the apostolic
-
and the prophetic.
-
If you want to know what it is as I use
-
the words apostolic and prophetic, if you do
-
not know it, let me very gently
-
say to you, it is not because it hasn't
-
been spoken of or taught. It is
-
because you have forgotten or chosen not
-
to listen.
-
I am going to be very, very plain and gentle today.
-
And if you have listened and you do not
-
remember, then go back and revisit it.
-
Because we are ending Gilgal today.
-
We are moving on to other things.
-
I pray God that we examine this.
-
I am always surprised at how much
-
you remember because when I ask questions
-
there is expectation in my mind that
-
oh you won't know the definition because it was
-
so long ago and then when you come up with it
-
I am always surprised. But if you don't
-
remember all the nitty gritties
-
just go re-examine it.
-
I have to do that guys.
-
Deformed and marred faces.
-
The third one is deformed and marred faces
-
in the King James that says
-
people with flat noses.
-
So, yeah, people with flat noses
-
are deformed or marred
-
faces.
-
Guys, a deformed or marred face
-
is someone
-
I mean I am drawing
-
this interpretation from James
-
chapter 1 verses 23 to 25
-
where
-
the Bible says that
-
do not be like a man who goes
-
and looks in the mirror and forgets what he
-
looks like. Instead be like
-
the man who looks into the mirror
-
of the perfect law of liberty
-
and sees who he really is.
-
So a deformed or marred face
-
is someone, is one
-
who has no idea
-
of who they are
-
and what they look like
-
because they have stopped
-
catching glimpses
-
of themselves
-
in the word of God.
-
Instead
-
they see the world
-
they see themselves
-
through the looking glass
-
of someone else's eyes
-
or their own eyes.
-
One who has no idea
-
of who they are
-
and what they look like
-
because they have stopped catching glimpses
-
of themselves in the word of God.
-
Eddie talked about this.
-
And so where do they get
-
the information about themselves?
-
They get it through the
-
eyes of somebody else
-
or they get it through their own eyes and we have
-
a tendency to beat ourselves up
-
or to see ourselves less than
-
who we are.
-
Therefore what we see
-
are marred and deformed faces.
-
Instead
-
go back to
-
what this says about you.
-
Someone pointed out an area
-
of pride in my life a few days ago.
-
I acknowledge that there was pride
-
and I talked to God about it
-
and after that I went quickly to this.
-
Because I wanted to see my real self.
-
I started looking for scriptures
-
on humility.
-
I started looking for the
-
humble life of Christ.
-
I started looking for the life of another
-
that I have in me that I can live by.
-
So that I could return
-
not to I have to lose my pride
-
I have to lose my pride.
-
No, so that I could return to walking
-
in the life of another which is humble.
-
But I had to go to this.
-
I found about six or seven different places
-
that I could go to.
-
I spent about 20-25 minutes
-
reading through them.
-
Because I have to
-
have an idea of myself
-
through this.
-
Because this is life.
-
This goes into me.
-
It makes sense.
-
Your platitudes help.
-
But they never go into my spirit.
-
Unless they come from God.
-
Important.
-
Otherwise you see a deformed face guys.
-
You see marred faces.
-
I thought I wrote better than I wrote last week.
-
One who has
-
one who has no idea of who they are
-
and what they look like.
-
Because they have stopped catching glimpses
-
of themselves in the life of another.
-
Because they have stopped catching glimpses
-
of themselves in the life of another.
-
They have stopped catching themselves in the word of God.
-
Instead they see themselves
-
through the looking glass of someone else's eyes.
-
Which then brings another important point up.
-
We have to make sure that we don't
-
when we talk
-
to others about themselves
-
that we try not to look at them
-
through our own eyes.
-
Because otherwise we will hoist on them
-
a marred deformed face
-
that they begin to live with for the rest of their lives.
-
Which is why suddenly in the middle of the worship
-
that Amy Grandsong came back.
-
Do you have your father's eyes?
-
People who live under dominion
-
or under control end up having
-
a mask put on their face.
-
That is marred and deformed.
-
Because it has been
-
once you keep hearing it for a while
-
it becomes your mask guys.
-
So I have to be
-
careful of how I speak to somebody
-
about themselves.
-
Jacob, how do you deal
-
with other people who try to deceive you?
-
I have to keep going back to this.
-
And I have to do it
-
because trust me guys
-
there are times when people
-
say things about me as wonderful a guy as I am.
-
They still say things about me
-
that are sometimes not so wonderful.
-
And sometimes they are true
-
and sometimes they are not.
-
I cannot give it time guys.
-
I find that
-
I have to be careful.
-
I find that
-
the way the mind works
-
if there is a gap between what I hear
-
and
-
the time that I take action
-
I begin to
-
have a mindset that begins to take
-
bits and forms its own little puzzle
-
that is grotesque.
-
Because now a person has said
-
you are this and then I remember another
-
person who said something like that
-
and that piece comes and all the
-
pieces that have this evil
-
affinity for each other from all the
-
parts of my mind that have
-
gone over the last 20 years come and say
-
aha so they must all be right.
-
And now there is a grotesque little mask
-
that is created inside my mind that I begin to wear.
-
So there has to be very little gap
-
between hearing something
-
and seeing myself
-
in the mirror of God.
-
This does not mean that every time someone says something
-
it is negative.
-
Because there are times when people have said something and it is true.
-
But after I realize it is true I still have to go
-
back to the word to see who Christ is
-
because I have to live the life of another
-
I cannot become it by my own strength guys.
-
You have got to go back to this.
-
So when pride was pointed out
-
and it was genuine
-
I had to go back and see the life of another
-
who is humble.
-
And then come to the realization that it is he who lives within
-
now that I have told the Lord that
-
yeah you were right in pointing it out
-
I can let that live out.
-
It is a different way of dealing with it guys.
-
Keep the gap between what you hear
-
and what you do in terms of looking in the mirror
-
very short.
-
The shorter it is the better it is for you.
-
Yeah.
-
So go to the word.
-
When there is ugliness in your life
-
when there is confusion
-
when there is failure, when there is past
-
when there is fears, when there is accusations
-
go to the word and close the gap between
-
when it happens and when you have to deal with it.
-
Become what you are like we said last week.
-
Become what you are.
-
The next deformity
-
or handicap
-
was
-
some Bible say a limb too long.
-
Meaning either it was
-
a few extra fingers and toes
-
or it was
-
one foot was longer than the other or one hand was longer than the other.
-
That was another deformity that forbade
-
people from entering
-
into God's presence. That is the deformity.
-
So that is the deformity.
-
Limbs too long.
-
And what happens if
-
one leg is shorter and one leg is longer?
-
There is an imbalance guys.
-
Or even if you are doing push ups
-
there will be an imbalance.
-
I mean not that I would use my hands ever
-
for things like push ups.
-
But the point is that
-
there is an imbalance.
-
And
-
imbalance or additions
-
that become useless baggage
-
that become useless baggage.
-
Slowing spiritual progress.
-
I mean if you have six or seven toes
-
it slows your walk man.
-
Plus you got to get one shoe
-
that looks really funny.
-
So the point is
-
it becomes a useless appendage
-
or excess baggage
-
that now slows your spiritual
-
progress.
-
Or if one limb is shorter than the other
-
one limb is longer.
-
Now you have an imbalance in your gait
-
and it slows your spiritual progress.
-
So
-
how does it translate
-
into the spiritual?
-
Guys make sure that
-
you always
-
embrace and that Acts 29
-
always embraces the whole
-
gospel as in Acts 20
-
verse 27.
-
May we never specialize in the apostolic
-
or the demonic or in
-
healing or in church planting.
-
No, no, no, no.
-
How we do this is we got to
-
enter and exit seasons of God
-
with God.
-
When God takes us through a season of
-
healing enter into it.
-
But please exit as soon as he exits.
-
When God
-
takes you through the season of the apostolic
-
enter into it. But exit as soon
-
as he exits. When he takes you
-
through Gilgal as he is taking us right now
-
enter. But exit as soon as he exits.
-
Don't spend a moment more in Gilgal.
-
If it takes three days to heal
-
a circumcision wound, wound get
-
over it after three days. Don't sit there
-
saying oh need another week for this wound
-
to heal. No.
-
Done.
-
Because God's glory is
-
there's no end to it. But on
-
one hand I have to behold his glory.
-
On the other hand I have to see what does he want me
-
to be? What does he want
-
to be to me right now in
-
his glory? Does he want to be Lord Sabaoth?
-
Does he want to be Jehovah
-
Jaira? Does he want to be Jehovah Rafa?
-
Because you can't take one aspect and say
-
this is what we will be. Guys in the Bible
-
there were gifts. In the Bible
-
there were services. Meaning apostle, prophet, evangelist,
-
teacher. But the Bible
-
rarely says and so
-
they said come forth
-
for thy ministry is casting
-
out demons.
-
There's no mention such as such of
-
Yeah.
-
I mean today we see
-
a ministry of this, a ministry of that.
-
That's not the way it should be.
-
That's not the way it should be.
-
I pray God that one of my dreams
-
for us as a church, I was talking to the Lord
-
this morning about this, that Acts 29
-
sends out teams. Teams.
-
So that a team is whole.
-
There'll be people in the team
-
that have the ability to teach.
-
There'll be those with the gift of healing.
-
There'll be those with the gift of miracles.
-
And they go as a team. And when they go as a team
-
and stand you'll see
-
the whole council of God being modeled
-
and worked out.
-
Yeah.
-
That's the way it should be guys.
-
That's the way it should be.
-
That'll be so crazy man.
-
There'll never be one limb that is too long.
-
It'll be whole.
-
That is why I so
-
encourage you, come and stand here
-
if you have things to share.
-
He's writing a rap song.
-
I encourage him in it.
-
There's nothing rap about me.
-
But I encourage him in it.
-
Because you should listen to the lyrics.
-
Just remember that guys. I mean
-
we've become too old to listen to the lyrics.
-
I mean we've become too specialized.
-
We should become
-
people.
-
I'm not saying ministry should not exist.
-
I believe ministry should exist.
-
But the whole council of God
-
is better. Sometimes the Lord says, okay guys
-
I want you to concentrate on healing.
-
Then do that. But please remember
-
when ministries begin to concentrate on healing
-
what went 10 years down the road God says
-
move to something else. But now you've established
-
yourself as a healing ministry.
-
It's very hard now to hear God say
-
move in another direction.
-
Fractured foot.
-
Hey that thing stopped or is it working?
-
Okay I'll try to finish in about 25 minutes guys.
-
If not we'll have to continue in the next time.
-
Fractured foot.
-
Fractured foot.
-
Guys fractured foot is different from
-
lameness. Fractured foot is a
-
breaking away of the foot.
-
Resulting in an inability to
-
keep pace with others.
-
So it's not lameness.
-
It's not something that a person was born
-
in. It was not a congenital
-
condition. It was something that happened in the process.
-
A person was born fine
-
and then he breaks his foot.
-
It's a breaking away of the foot.
-
And this allows you to continue to keep in
-
pace with others. And I suggest
-
to you that again this can be absolutely
-
prevalent in Acts 29.
-
Where the breaking of a limb, if you go to Proverbs
-
25.19 it says unfaithfulness
-
is like a broken foot.
-
Unfaithfulness or a lack
-
of faithfulness
-
or a degree of steadfastness
-
is like a broken foot
-
it says in Proverbs 25 verse 19.
-
And it is possible
-
to be
-
in a house and yet operate
-
in isolation. And it's very disabling.
-
Spiritually very disabling.
-
Can you explain that for me?
-
Yeah.
-
A fractured foot is when
-
a foot breaks away.
-
It breaks away.
-
And I would suggest to you
-
that the spiritual
-
interpretation of this
-
breaking away of the foot is how
-
you can be part of the body and yet you can be
-
broken away.
-
You can be part of a body and yet be
-
separate. You can disconnect from the
-
ankle onwards. So you start
-
from the ankle onwards. So you are still part of the body.
-
There was nothing wrong with you to begin with.
-
It is something that can be restored.
-
It's broken away.
-
So now you have a foot that
-
is part of the body and yet is not connected to the body.
-
It's when
-
people begin to be part of something
-
and yet are isolated.
-
Yeah, not wanting to be part of it.
-
Let's assume I was part of this body.
-
I come for these meetings.
-
Listen to it. Listen to the messages.
-
Pick up the CD and I disappear.
-
I've got nothing to do with you.
-
I've got nothing to do with anyone here.
-
I come to receive.
-
I may make offerings.
-
But I do not want to connect one on one.
-
Connect for partnership, fellowship,
-
body ministry,
-
friendship.
-
Opening my life to you. You opening your life to me.
-
Becoming transparent. Becoming part of each other.
-
I love this verse in Romans 12.
-
It says, you are corporately
-
together one body, but you are
-
individual members to each other.
-
Off one another. Off one another.
-
Can you imagine that?
-
You are members of one body
-
and members of each other individually.
-
Such a strange verse.
-
Members of each other individually.
-
This is one family
-
but they are members
-
of each other individually.
-
And yet when you look at them from outside
-
you call them the Dekruses.
-
One family.
-
But each of them is an individual and yet
-
is an individual one to another.
-
So when a person chooses to break away
-
and this is why in Deuteronomy 25
-
we've talked about this.
-
What happens to the man who does not build
-
up his brother's house?
-
His wife, his
-
brother's wife comes and spits on
-
him and then he has to put his head
-
on his head and shoe on his head and
-
walk.
-
And he walks with the same gait as that of a
-
man with a broken foot.
-
There's a limp.
-
You cannot live together alone.
-
Like the Trinity.
-
God is relational even in the
-
Godhead.
-
Guys, look around you right now.
-
I mean actually look, okay?
-
Look at the people around you right now.
-
And I asked myself this question this morning.
-
How many here do you know superficially?
-
It's a very genuine question.
-
As you look around at different people
-
here, how many of them do you know superficially?
-
Meaning there has been no cultivation of real depth and relationship.
-
Here's another question.
-
How many of them do you know superficially?
-
Meaning there has been no cultivation of real depth and relationship.
-
Here's another question.
-
How many, about how many of these
-
people sitting here, do you have
-
preconceived notions about?
-
How many here
-
do you have preconceived notions about?
-
When you look at them you'd say,
-
I know her, she is like this.
-
I know him, he is like this. How many do you have preconceived notions about?
-
I'm not going to make a small guess.
-
No, no, no.
-
But it's surprising.
-
One of the things I have to continuously work on
-
at Acts 29 is not to have preconceived notions about you.
-
I was talking to James about that
-
some days ago.
-
Ah, beautiful words.
-
2 Corinthians 5,
-
Henceforth I shall know no man after the
-
flesh.
-
Because every man is a new creation.
-
I shall know them after the
-
five somewhere.
-
I shall know them after the spirit.
-
Just as I know Christ now.
-
Not after the flesh. Go ahead.
-
I have learned that every time I've had
-
preconceived ideas about someone I have been wrong.
-
Thank God.
-
Yeah.
-
Gosh, Matt, I have no
-
preconceived notions about you.
-
I just so like you.
-
And appreciate you.
-
Fractured hand.
-
Fractured hand.
-
The hand is always a symbol of strength.
-
The hand is always a symbol of strength.
-
Panja larega?
-
What is that?
-
Panja larega means do you want to arm wrestle.
-
So that's Greek for arm wrestling.
-
So the hand is always a symbol of strength.
-
Diana, you're a great wrestler.
-
Diana, you're a great wrestler.
-
Diana, you're a great wrestler.
-
A symbol of strength. Diana, you may enter.
-
The hand is always a symbol of strength.
-
So a broken hand
-
is strength broken.
-
But in what areas in regard to
-
a spiritual house?
-
It's with my hands that I bless.
-
It's with my hands that I minister.
-
The Bible talks about the laying on of hands.
-
The Bible talks about blessing with your hands.
-
The Bible talks about giving with your hands.
-
The Bible talks about in Galatians 2.9
-
stretching out the hand of
-
you can shake it at some point
-
stretching out your hand in
-
fellowship in Galatians 2.9
-
and so again the broken hand
-
goes with the broken foot because
-
a broken hand is a lack of strength
-
in serving.
-
And in serving it includes ministering,
-
it includes giving, it includes fellowship.
-
So if I were to gently ask
-
is your hand fractured?
-
And you ask me that and I say no
-
then your next question should be
-
so how is your giving Jacob?
-
How is your ministering?
-
How is your serving?
-
How is your reaching out in fellowship?
-
And if your answer is great
-
then how is your giving Jacob?
-
How is your giving Jacob?
-
How is your giving Jacob?
-
And if your answer is great
-
then praise God your hand is doing well.
-
If the answer is eh, it means you have a hairline fracture.
-
And if the answer is no
-
then the hand is broken and needs to be fixed.
-
The beautiful thing about broken hand and broken feet
-
is they can both be fixed.
-
I asked Heidi yesterday
-
to give me an idea of the months
-
that I did not
-
the three or four months last year
-
where my giving to the church was low
-
compared to what I know
-
compared to what I normally give
-
I wanted to ask her that
-
and she is going to give it to me.
-
I have different reasons for it
-
but one of the reasons is in 2010
-
I don't want to be the giver I was in 2009.
-
I want to be a better giver in 2010 guys.
-
It has nothing to do with
-
whether my income increases or not
-
it has everything to do with giving
-
because I am not the best giver I know.
-
So
-
maybe increase in the solution
-
step up, upgrade
-
upgrade in these areas.
-
I mean
-
have the guts to come and say
-
let's minister, let's do this.
-
One of the things that really blessed my heart
-
on Leah's dedication
-
was when Matt came up
-
and he was kind of hobbling
-
because his leg was hurting
-
and he said Jacob
-
my leg has been hurting, do not know why
-
so I just thought I would let you know
-
and I said yeah Matt I will remember to pray
-
and then went about eating and drinking
-
and suddenly
-
this guy, Ryan comes up behind me
-
and he says
-
I feel
-
the spirit of God saying that we need to pray
-
for Matt right now and God will want to do something.
-
And then he says
-
but I don't know what to say
-
but this is what I know I need to say.
-
So I said okay
-
and he and I called Matt up
-
and I told Matt and then I did the talking
-
but he initiated it
-
and we agreed and prayed for him
-
and his feet seemed okay or at least he didn't tell me about it
-
later on.
-
But the point is here is someone who is the
-
youngest among us who
-
decided that I will step up
-
to stretch out my hands to minister.
-
I'm sorry I'm picking on him
-
as a good example today but
-
this boy tights
-
or gives
-
he doesn't have a regular job yet
-
but he gives
-
his hands are not fractured guys
-
he serves
-
without asking
-
he has hands that are strong
-
I won't embarrass you again
-
not today
-
let's change
-
turn the page
-
hunchbacked
-
a man who was a hunchback
-
was a man who
-
had a curvature of the spine
-
and
-
some were born that way
-
others had muscles of their shoulders
-
and back forced
-
either by trauma
-
or accident or
-
some kind of problem
-
where the muscles would then
-
begin to clench and you would have a curvature of the back
-
and so
-
hunchbacks were not allowed into the presence of God
-
and a hunchback
-
who had a curvature of the spine
-
was unable to stand for long periods
-
he was unable to stand
-
for long periods
-
and Hebrews 10
-
35 to 39 talks about it
-
Hebrews 10 35 to 39
-
it says that listen
-
don't cast away your confidence
-
don't cast away your confidence
-
and the just
-
shall live by faith
-
and my pleasure is in him
-
who is able to stand in times of trouble
-
and does not shrink back
-
check and see
-
when you look back at this year
-
how many times
-
another word for hunchback in english is compromise
-
how many times
-
did
-
did you and I compromise
-
and
-
choose to take the easy route
-
because we
-
did not have the ability to stand
-
and the pressures of life
-
forced the muscles of our back
-
to curve our spine
-
how many times this year
-
when we should have stood
-
we had a compromise
-
because the demands of life
-
forced
-
untried faith muscles
-
in my body into submission
-
because the demands of life
-
forced untried
-
unexercised faith muscles
-
into submission
-
the demands of life
-
forced untried faith muscles
-
into submission
-
you know who
-
you know three guys who were not hunchbacked
-
or four guys who were not hunchbacked
-
Daniel
-
Shadrach, Mesha Kabednego
-
another
-
another
-
another
-
person who is going through times
-
and is not hunchbacked
-
people who don't have hunchbacks
-
gotta stand
-
as I look back at the year
-
I was driving up and down yesterday
-
and thinking of the hunchback situation
-
I can remember one place where
-
I developed a hunchback
-
I compromised
-
I didn't have the strength to stand in faith
-
and I
-
chose the easy way
-
Gail has stood
-
Ruth has stood
-
many others of you have stood
-
many others of you are standing even right now
-
so what's the solution?
-
the solution initially guys is to have others stand and hold you up
-
initially if
-
hunchbacking is a regular hobby
-
you have to stand
-
what's your hobby?
-
hunchbacking
-
they'll think it's something like horse riding
-
but if hunchbacking is a regular hobby where I'm not able to stand
-
then the first thing I need to do is
-
get a couple of people
-
who will be firm with me
-
and yet hold me up when my back begins to hunch
-
and so once I have that
-
why?
-
because you got to exercise those faith muscles
-
before they can be active
-
there have been occasions this year when
-
Lauren has stood
-
Rosalind has stood
-
Chris has stood
-
James has stood in his cab a couple of times
-
you have to have others help you stand
-
for the first little while
-
now that those muscles are beginning to grow strong
-
now you begin to stand
-
on your own for things
-
and as you stand and the pressure increases
-
you find that your muscles are not buckling
-
you begin to take on one Goliath who is 5 feet
-
so that you can take on the next
-
Goliath who is 6 feet next time
-
suddenly your muscles keep getting stronger
-
one of the things David would do often
-
is he would go back and remember the last
-
victory so that he could fight the next battle
-
he would say I have fought the lion and the bear
-
they came and they tried to take a sheep
-
and I beat them hollow
-
so if I have fought the lion and the bear why can't I take on Goliath
-
he would always remember the last episode
-
you have stood
-
Banees and Vane have stood for different things
-
I mean there is nobody I can look at right now
-
who hasn't stood
-
nobody
-
I am not trying to be inclusive
-
I am just looking at you right now
-
and I know of situations where you have stood this year
-
yeah everybody
-
but this is how you develop
-
spiritual muscles
-
John has stood through a jaunt
-
moving on then to the dwarf
-
guys remember truth is
-
learned through repeated application
-
there is no other way
-
truth is learned
-
through repeated application
-
you do have to understand the truth first
-
truth the knowledge of the truth is important
-
but the knowledge of the truth now has to be
-
applied truth is
-
learned through repeated application
-
any man or woman of faith that you see
-
has become that
-
through repeated application
-
of the truth
-
no other way
-
dwarf
-
a dwarf is a person
-
who ages but does not grow
-
aging without growth
-
I mean the only people who are growing right now
-
are the people who are growing
-
the little kids and Marcus and Matt and Ryan
-
the rest of us have stopped growing
-
parents
-
parents
-
who thought it was me
-
so the dwarfs are those who age
-
without growing
-
that's because they have attained
-
they have
-
what happens is you set
-
self set spiritual
-
statutes that you want to attain
-
and you don't aim for attaining the stature of
-
Christ
-
and this is common
-
among millions and millions of Christians
-
who have
-
grown to be 60 and 70
-
but have the
-
spiritual IQ of a five year old
-
and I mean that
-
in all earnestness without exaggeration
-
dwarfs
-
stunted growth
-
what causes stunted growth?
-
a feast of infant food
-
try living on what Leah lives on
-
those little bottles
-
with very untasty food
-
I know I once tasted a bit of it
-
in my sister's place
-
I don't know how these kids survive
-
I wanted to feed the little child Pepsi
-
after that
-
just to take away the taste
-
but I don't know how
-
these kids survive
-
I wanted to take away the taste
-
but stunted growth is because
-
of feeding on
-
infant food
-
you just dropped the world Marcus
-
which country
-
don't worry about it
-
I'm just kidding
-
you're feeding on
-
lies yeah
-
it could be
-
stunted growth is a result of
-
feeding on infant food
-
it dulls your ability to discern between right and wrong
-
so that every wind of doctrine
-
holds you captive which is what
-
lies are
-
stunted growth read Hebrews 5 verses 14 to 17
-
you'll see it there
-
Hebrews 5 verses 14 to 17
-
I'll repeat what I said after that
-
Hebrews 5 verses 14 to 17
-
I'll repeat it again
-
Hebrews 5 verses 14 to 17
-
it's in your notes here
-
and it says in Hebrews 5
-
anyone who lives on milk
-
being still an infant is not
-
acquainted with the teaching about righteousness
-
but solid food is for the mature
-
who by constant use have
-
trained themselves to distinguish
-
good from evil
-
guys stunted growth is
-
a result of feeding on infant food
-
it dulls your ability to discern
-
between right and wrong
-
and when that happens every wind
-
of doctrine holds you captive
-
every wind of doctrine holds you captive
-
oh no
-
I have to say it gently and plainly
-
if you have a tendency
-
to pick up CDs, books
-
and believe every
-
TV program on channel 10
-
and channel 118
-
then you are feeding
-
on infant food
-
and I've lost
-
your discernment between right and wrong
-
I'm not saying don't watch TV
-
I'm saying may that not become your
-
diet
-
may that not become your diet
-
I used to receive a lot of CDs from
-
the person in
-
Abbotsford
-
Todd Bentley
-
knew right away when I began hearing
-
listening to Open Heaven
-
that it was faulty
-
right away
-
you should know that there
-
is a distinction between right and wrong
-
this is not to prove whether I have
-
sense of discernment or not
-
this is to show that we have to feast
-
on solid food so that we
-
know when they give you bonvita
-
or Horlicks
-
you suddenly realize that he did not brew it
-
it's not real coffee
-
what's the solution guys?
-
the solution
-
is in Ephesians 4
-
guys
-
we said that
-
it is age without
-
growth because people have decided
-
that this is the spiritual stature
-
they want to attain and they do not want
-
to attain the spiritual stature of Christ
-
remember that verse
-
which talks about attaining the spiritual
-
stature of Christ
-
what is required for that?
-
do you remember?
-
and God has appointed to the body
-
apostles, prophets, evangelists
-
teachers and pastors
-
why?
-
to equip the saints
-
for
-
ministry
-
towards what? so that every part of the body
-
will join, will grow ligament to ligament
-
to attain what? to attain the
-
full
-
full stature of
-
Christ. Guys it is
-
vital that we be connected to a
-
place, I'm not talking about Acts 29
-
right now, to a place where
-
we are equipped
-
a people who are not equipped
-
will never be able to
-
feed on solid food
-
it will always be food
-
that is infant
-
connected doesn't necessarily mean
-
attending every week
-
take Tino, Suhani for instance
-
they are not able to come every week
-
it's not possible, given our timings
-
it's not possible for them to come
-
but are they connected to the house?
-
yes. Will they benefit from it?
-
yes
-
press on to the high calling
-
press on to the high calling
-
what's the rest of the words?
-
crisis, as for us
-
solution, be equipped through the
-
five fold servants by being
-
part of a body, solution
-
eat at one table
-
solution
-
this is an important one
-
solution, end selective
-
listening and growth
-
end, guys I pray
-
that the whole church listens to me right now
-
not because I'm looking at anybody
-
but because this is important
-
end selective listening
-
and selective growth
-
I'm saying that it is prevalent
-
at Acts 29
-
where we
-
decide that this is
-
not important or this is not for me
-
right now
-
so I will not listen to it
-
there are other things that are more pertinent to my life
-
I'm saying to you
-
that there is not a single
-
teaching that has been taught in this
-
church that wasn't in the exact
-
timing of God and I know
-
that for a fact
-
I know that is a big
-
thing to say but not once
-
has anything been taught in this church
-
that was not
-
in God's time, I promise you
-
that
-
challenge me, questions, disagreements
-
even when I'm preparing a
-
sermon in the plane
-
on a 10 hour flight back
-
I plead with God saying
-
only what you want, I know I got only
-
6 hours left, I got only 5 hours left
-
I don't have a sermon yet, please please please give me something
-
I'm landing at 3.30, I have a service at 6
-
but it's always what he wants
-
it's never been any hand me
-
downs guys, never once
-
in the last 3 and a half years
-
that's why it's so easy
-
end to selective listening guys
-
Jeep
-
defect in the eyes
-
defect in the eye is not blindness
-
its something that impedes your vision
-
defect in the eye is not blindness
-
it's something that impedes you vision
-
it doesn't... it's not blindness it's something that comes into your eye
-
and impedes your vision
-
and once it impedes your vision it becomes
-
a plank in your eye
-
and distorts your perception of issues
-
distorts your perception of people
-
There's error then in your perception of issues and people because a plank has come in.
-
Can I ask you what these impediments can you be?
-
What do you think these impediments can be?
-
Give me a few impediments that can bring in error in your perception, become a plank in
-
your eye.
-
What are some of those impediments?
-
Taking offense?
-
Anything else that becomes a plank in your eye?
-
Listening to rumour?
-
Judging other people?
-
Not forgiving?
-
Jealousy?
-
You see how many impediments?
-
This is not blindness guys, it's impediments.
-
The depth perception changes on issues and people.
-
Pride?
-
Pride is a major vision impediment.
-
Be it jealousy, be it taking offense, behind all of it the underlying thing is pride.
-
Greed?
-
There you go.
-
It just changes it.
-
You develop conjunctivitis, critical conjunctivitis is one of the things that develops.
-
Anger?
-
Control?
-
Depending on what this impediment is in your life, no?
-
Fear?
-
Begin to work on it guys, begin to work on it.
-
I mean for me, what I've written down is a lot of underlying factors in many of the things
-
you've spoken is pride.
-
So I've written here foremost vision impediment is pride.
-
It leads to critical conjunctivitis.
-
There can be a whole lot of other things too.
-
Solution?
-
For each of the things you said there's different solutions but one of the things that can form
-
a really good basis for you is be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.
-
Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.
-
Eugene Peterson puts it this way, let your hearing lead you.
-
Let your speaking follow slowly and let your anger not be there at all.
-
I'll have to get it on my phone.
-
James 1, James 1 verse 19.
-
James 1 19.
-
Yeah, and now from the message.
-
I don't like these dead times on the CD.
-
I don't know what to do when I'm driving in the car and you have these quiet times.
-
James 1.
-
Yeah, I love the way it's written here.
-
It's worth waiting for.
-
Post this at all intersections, dear friends.
-
Post this at all the intersections, dear friends.
-
Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue and let anger straggle along in the rear.
-
Yeah, lead with your ears, meaning next time we at Act 1A and walk we have to walk like
-
this.
-
Lead with your ears, follow with your tongues and let anger straggle along in the rear.
-
In simple humility, let our gardener God landscape you with the word, making a salvation garden
-
of your life.
-
Beautiful.
-
Yeah.
-
Yeah.
-
Yeah.
-
Moving on to scurvy, eczema and sores.
-
Moving on to scurvy, eczema and sores.
-
Sounds like a medical school and not a Bible.
-
Moving on to scurvy, eczema and sores.
-
Regardless of which Bible you use, at the end of the day, scurvy, eczema and sores have
-
much to do with stale food, stale environment, stale condition, a lack of freshness.
-
Scurvy was caused when sailors would travel on ships for more than six months and the
-
fruit and the vegetable would become stale and they would develop scurvy.
-
Stale food, stale environment, stale condition, lack of freshness resulting in scurvy, festering
-
sores, no vitamin C, lack of sunlight, lack of freshness or lack of sunlight was rickets,
-
vitamin D. Sorry, take that out.
-
It's very easy to connect this to what we've already learned.
-
Exodus 16 verses 16 to 21 said that manna was sent once a week, once every two weeks,
-
every day.
-
If it was held for more than one day and it would go stale and it would rot and you'd
-
have not manna but another word starting with M, maggots.
-
Big difference though.
-
So the whole idea is guys to be free of scurvy, eczema and festering sores, we've got to walk
-
in the preceding word and in present truth.
-
Now if both those phrases do not ring a bell, I'd suggest again that you go and listen to
-
the CD from the preceding word.
-
The preceding word is what God speaks now.
-
What God is saying now, manna was fresh every day.
-
We live by the preceding word not by the preceding word.
-
And what is present truth?
-
Present truth is how we see God speaking through this that he has written, what he reveals
-
it in this present season.
-
That is present truth.
-
This is truth and it is present.
-
It is not how Josephus or Barnes or Alfred Noble or whoever wrote it 80 years ago.
-
That's not the commentary we follow.
-
We like Matthew Henry but we don't follow him.
-
We live by present truth, the truth as it is presently revealed by the spirit of God
-
because if this is all God is, he's a very finite, limited God.
-
This is just the launch pad, guys.
-
It is not the beginning and the end of God.
-
The Lord said, I am Alpha and Omega.
-
He didn't say the Bible was Alpha and Omega.
-
The canned word, the preceding word can cause eczema, scurvy and sores and render you useless
-
to minister grace.
-
The canned word as in C-A-N-N-E-D or the preceding word, the word from last season.
-
We cannot operate by last season's word to us.
-
Proceeding word is authentic suns, open heavens.
-
We cannot operate by that, not by the preceding word.
-
Guys, and it's not the sole responsibility of the teacher to do that.
-
I would ask you, do you in your daily life live by a present truth?
-
And so you would ask me, how would you go about seeking present truth?
-
I'd ask you, so do you study this or do you read this?
-
Do you chew it?
-
Do you meditate on it or do you glance through it?
-
But how can I study?
-
Oh, once the internet came, there are no more excuses left.
-
Every resource available to anybody is available to everybody.
-
I'm not talking about using commentaries.
-
I'm talking about using study tools.
-
History, customs, Greek meanings, Hebrew meanings.
-
Why what was said was said.
-
What do people say about it?
-
How does it strike with what I'm learning in the house?
-
Is the house wrong or does the house have an accurate plumb line?
-
How does this reflect?
-
You bring it all together.
-
Nothing is in isolation, right?
-
Like I said, I deliberately read opposing views to what I hold just so I can understand
-
why they're saying it and correct if I'm wrong.
-
Not just relying on others' opinions.
-
No.
-
But allowing God to have that.
-
It's like taking a bit from Anne, from Elmer, from Bernice and Chris and drawing it all
-
and putting it and seeing, huh, so I see what she's saying makes sense.
-
And then taking it all together, piecing it together, knowing what I already know and
-
developing something that is chewing, meditating, studying.
-
This is present truth, guys, because God does reveal himself fully to the bride, fully in
-
the presence of us as a people.
-
Agreed.
-
Is there a discovery of truth in your own private times, right?
-
There is.
-
It can be very, very specific for you.
-
Yes.
-
So you need that.
-
Yes.
-
Your inheritance.
-
Our inheritance as a house, yes, but what about your personal inheritance for your family?
-
What about that?
-
I wish I could turn that clock around.
-
I'm well past what I said.
-
Five minutes past what I said.
-
Guys, I find many times my life getting jaded or stale, or like it could be perhaps once
-
every month, once every three months, I find that there's a staleness entering and I immediately
-
have to go and recalibrate.
-
I'll spend miles walking up and down my two rooms saying, Father, I'm kind of feeling
-
jaded.
-
I just don't know what I'm doing.
-
I'm just doing it because I'm doing it.
-
So you want to talk about it, any agenda, and then just keep walking and talking because
-
you've got to recalibrate because there's a jadedness or a staleness entering life.
-
And you always know it.
-
There's a freshness going on.
-
Your childlikeness disappears.
-
Love turns to duty.
-
Moving on, because I see some of you are beginning to fall asleep.
-
We've got only three more left.
-
You can sleep the whole evening, guys.
-
You don't have to come back at night.
-
Scabs.
-
Scabs.
-
Mike Scantleberry talks about scabs and I like some of the points he makes.
-
A scab is a wound that is not healed.
-
When pressure is applied, the scab breaks open and it hurts.
-
A scab is a wound that is not healed.
-
So when pressure is applied, the scab breaks open and pain returns.
-
And sometimes it breaks open and pus is released if it's not healed.
-
A scab is a wound that is not healed.
-
When pressure is applied, the scab breaks open and pains.
-
But he makes another point.
-
He says there's something other than scabs called scars.
-
Scars are marks left after a wound is healed.
-
Scars are marks left after a wound is healed and it may remind you of something, but it
-
does not hurt anymore because it's not a scab, it's a scar.
-
And then I love this point that he brings up.
-
He says that it may remind you of something, but it does not hurt anymore because it's
-
not a scab, it's a scar.
-
And then I love this point that he brings up.
-
He says that Jesus showed Thomas not scabs.
-
He didn't say, Thomas, here are my scabs.
-
He said, here are my scars, my wounds.
-
Scars were there.
-
The scar of the wound was there, not a running scab.
-
So Thomas said, till I put my hand in the imprints of the nails, I will not believe.
-
He showed him the scars, man.
-
And guess what?
-
Christ bears those scars, but the scars remind him of what he did for us and the scars remind
-
us of what he did.
-
Those are not scabs, those are scars.
-
And I'd say to you that it is vital that we have scars but no scabs.
-
Scabs are always a result of unforgiveness or an inability to let go of the hurt.
-
And we've talked about unforgiveness.
-
If you want the CD, let Wayne know.
-
Wayne's going to have a full-time job at this rate.
-
Not that he already doesn't have one or two.
-
Scabs hurt, signifying a continuing bondage to events and to offenders.
-
Still unforgiven.
-
Scars hurt, signifying a continuing bondage to events or to offenders.
-
Still unforgiven.
-
Wounds turn to scars when there is forgiveness.
-
Wounds turn to scars when there is forgiveness.
-
Guys, it is impossible to minister out of an unforgiving, hurting, critical heart.
-
We cannot minister life of God to others from a wounded, critical or unforgiving spirit.
-
Let me repeat the line before that first.
-
Scabs hurt, signifying bondage to events and to offenders.
-
Still unforgiven.
-
But wounds turn to scars when forgiveness is complete.
-
Wounds turn to scars when forgiveness is complete.
-
And I just want us to know that we cannot minister the life of God to another from a
-
wounded, critical or unforgiving spirit.
-
It is impossible.
-
I cannot minister life to him if I have a wounded, unforgiving or critical heart.
-
It is impossible.
-
I cannot.
-
Because it will come up.
-
The solution?
-
Listen to the reconciliation CD.
-
Turn scabs that you rake into scars that will tell a story of grace.
-
That sounds very nice.
-
But basically he has to turn scabs into scars.
-
Guys, if you have had a scab for more than five years, then you want to know the real
-
solution?
-
Let me put it very gently.
-
Get over it.
-
I know that sounds cruel.
-
You don't know my pain.
-
True, I do not know your pain.
-
But I know someone whose love is greater than your pain and the brutality he suffered is
-
greater than your pain.
-
Listen to the reconciliation CD.
-
Last one.
-
The reason I wrote eunuch on the pages, I thought if these pages are lying around and
-
someone sees the word damaged testicles on it, they'll wonder what we are teaching here.
-
So the actual word that the Bible uses is damaged testicles.
-
Damaged testicles means that a person is unable to reproduce.
-
Unable to reproduce.
-
Leviticus 21 ends with that.
-
A person who has damaged testicles will not be able to offer bread before God or minister
-
grace.
-
Damaged testicles mean someone who is unable to reproduce.
-
And guys, we do not reproduce messages.
-
We do not reproduce ministries.
-
We do not reproduce mantles.
-
We reproduce life on life.
-
Please understand that.
-
In Acts 29, we are not going to reproduce ministries.
-
We are not going to reproduce mantles.
-
Oh brother, take this mantle and run.
-
No.
-
We are not going to reproduce messages.
-
We are going to reproduce life, guys.
-
The life that is within us that Christ is creating as a people.
-
When we go to Montreal, if Montreal should work out, we will not reproduce going to Indonesia
-
or to Bahrain or to India.
-
We will not reproduce this worship.
-
We will not reproduce having this furniture for church.
-
We will not reproduce breakfast on Sunday mornings.
-
But we'll reproduce the DNA that Christ has put within us so that the other person can
-
take it and run as they please with their own personality.
-
Life on life.
-
That's what we reproduce.
-
You don't want clones.
-
That's why we don't want an Acts 29 chapter.
-
We don't want anything to look like this.
-
We want to reproduce life on life.
-
You can be a husband and yet not be a father.
-
A husband is not a father till he reproduces.
-
So you can have loyal husbands that can still be input in fathers.
-
And check your lives, guys.
-
I remember the resistance I had to the whole idea of father-son when Eddie first brought
-
it up.
-
And I've talked to you about it.
-
There was a resistance in my heart towards the whole idea because I thought it was too
-
intense.
-
I found it a little too intense and I didn't know what it meant.
-
And I thought, how will this translate and what does this connectedness mean?
-
And so I knew there was a resistance that's coming up.
-
And I'd like to say to you again, gently and plainly, there are people right now in this
-
room in Acts 29 and you are an intrinsic person in this house, but you still have a resistance
-
towards coming into a father-son relationship.
-
And while I understand that resistance, I say to you, you are going to lose out.
-
I'm putting it very plainly and gently.
-
You are not identifying with Jacob.
-
But like Eddie said before you, when he called me up for prayer on October 5th, he said,
-
this is not Jacob identifying with Eddie.
-
It's the spirit within Jacob identifying with the spirit in Eddie.
-
And therefore having downloaded into my life all the grace that is in his life.
-
And is there grace in my life?
-
Absolutely.
-
This was what I was born for.
-
And you will download the grace in my life into your life and increase in intensity and
-
produce children that are much greater than you or I.
-
But till you connect as sons in this house to a father, you will not receive that.
-
And it has nothing to do with this person.
-
I have a very decent estimate estimation of myself and yet I know my faults.
-
There are plenty every day.
-
You are not connecting to this person.
-
I welcome you, invite you to connect on that level so that you can be fathers because you
-
can be a husband in this house and never be a father because you never were a son.
-
This is not my advantage guys.
-
This is your advantage and the advantage of the house.
-
And I am glad that I modeled it first so that I can stand here confidently and speak to
-
you knowing that I have the street creds for it.
-
We reproduce life on life.
-
We reproduce grace on grace.
-
And we reproduce and release destiny.
-
That's what we do guys.
-
We reproduce life on life.
-
We reproduce grace on grace.
-
Meaning the graces in our lives we will reproduce in other people's lives.
-
And we reproduce and release destiny.
-
Meaning we bring up sons who are born with a sense of destiny.
-
At the age of 12, Jesus knew.
-
He knew.
-
This house knew from its inception what it was called to be.
-
This house was not born in a vacuum, in a spiritual vacuum.
-
From the day it was conceived, this house knew what it was called to be.
-
We reproduce sons who have a sense of the destiny and then we release and thrust them
-
into it.
-
We have to use Anne's word, launch them into the orbit they're supposed to.
-
I'm done.
-
Feel free to ask questions.
-
If you think you need to ask questions with regard to what I just said about fathers and
-
sons, feel free to ask about that too.
-
Guys, if you think you need to come and talk about any of these handicaps in your life
-
with me, feel free to.
-
I pray God that as you step into 2010 you'll have dealt with circumcision at Gilgal in
-
every area of your life.
-
Any questions?
-
I know it's 1.45.
-
Any questions?
-
This is for-
-
This is for?
-
How do you deal with it as a couple?
-
I'd say first you deal with it individually and then you deal with it as a couple.
-
Because these defects have to be first dealt with individually and then you deal with it together.