God Decides - Dr. Yan Venter (September 6, 2020) | Life Bible Church

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very

much. I'm so happy to be here. Every year when

I come here, it's a greater and even a bigger

blessing. I told the church in the previous service,

it's almost like this has become home for me.

And I told the people that I'm... I'm considering

more and more to even move here, you know, just

make this my home. Last year has been very, very

trying for me, but thank God. You know, there's

always a new morning. Come on, can I hear an

amen? There's always a new morning. The night

never lasts forever. Joy comes in the morning.

You know, thank you so much for your prayers.

I know many of you have been praying for me,

and I know some of you are partners with our

ministry. And for you, I say thank you very much.

This last year has been no less than a miracle.

Well, actually, the last six months, because,

you know, as you know, everything just shut down.

And for me as an evangelist, that really shut

down, you know. At least you guys still have

a church and so on. The evangelist was just cut

short. But thank God, not with him, you know.

And because of your faithful partnership with

me, it's just carried us through. Thank you very

much. I also want to thank Pastors Brad and Jenny

for inviting me together with the elders in the

church. It's such a great honor for me to minister

here in the absence of Pastor Brad. And I appreciate

it so much. You know, this morning I want to

minister in the area of fear. But I want to focus

rather on the area of faith. Fear is the problem.

And so I want us to pray right now. You know,

before we pray, it's very important that you

allow the Word to change you. It's important

that you allow the Word to build faith in you.

That's what happens when we hear the word, faith

grows inside of us. Because the word reminds

us that God is faithful. And you know, when we

talk about the promises of God, it's not like

we're just fabricating stuff or trying to convince

you that Santa Claus is real when we talk about

God. God is real. God is the creator of heaven

and earth. Jesus did die on the cross, and he

did rise again, and he did give us the promises

that he will be with us until the end of the

days. I want you to put your hand on your heart

this morning and say, God, please influence me

with your word. God, I pray today that you would

grant that our hearts and our lives may be influenced

greatly by your word and that our hearts and

our situations may change accordingly. Lord,

I thank you so much that we do not have to stay

in a negative situation, but that we can build

ourselves up in our most holy faith. And that

we can swing wide open the windows of our soul.

And let the world know what we believe. Because

we believe that you died for us. And you rose

again. And because of your sacrifice, we can

now see ourselves really, genuinely as children

of the most high God. And because of that, every

promise in the book is mine. Every chapter. Every

verse. and every line. I pray today, O God, that

people who are sitting here today and that are

going through struggles, that this service here,

Lord, will serve to just disconnect them from

the negative situation and connect us to something

positive. In Jesus' name, and we thank you. Amen.

You know, the one enemy or the single greatest

enemy to our faith is fear. I mean, the moment

you carry fear in your heart, it absolutely disconnects

you from faith. Faith, you understand, is the

enemy to fear. You cannot have them both. I mean,

it's like Jesus that once said, you cannot serve

God and Mammon at the same time. You cannot sit

on the fence. You cannot be this side and that

side. You cannot be a child of God and then still

live as if the devil is your master. We decide

ourselves, because you understand, you've been

born again. Once you've been born again, you

moved into a different world. See, before you

get born again, before you accept Christ as your

Lord and Savior, there's only one world for us,

and that's this physical world. And when this

world ends, you have no conviction and no assurance

as to what happens on the other side. But when

we are children of God, a different world opens

up for us. When you're a child of God, then all

of a sudden you find out there's really another

world on the other side. It parallels this side

of this world of ours. And what happens when

you become born again, God opens your spiritual

eyes and your ears. And all of a sudden you can

see things, even though you've read the Bible

before. Now when you read the Bible, you read

it in a different sense. All of a sudden it becomes

real. And you can really apply it to your life

and say to yourself, wow, those promises are

mine and they are really yea and amen. Heaven

and earth will pass away, but his word will never

pass away. Now that very same enemy, the enemy

that is called fear. has been, I've never in

all my 50 years of full -time ministry, I've

never seen fear so properly, so professionally,

so significantly applied as what has been the

case these last six months with this coronavirus.

This coronavirus, they have just used this thing

to the maximum extent. And, you know, I told

the church in the previous service, I honestly

believe that the purpose of this corona thing

is spiritual. You know, it's an end time event

that is playing off. And during this event that

is playing off, we as the church have now finally

found out who we are. In fact, we've seen the

church just absolutely stagger under the blow.

If you had told me before that something could

shut the church down worldwide, I would have

argued with you. They shut the church down. I

could not believe it, but they shut the church

down. And that's really the purpose, is to try

and just close down the church and the voice

of the church to be silenced. And they almost

succeeded in it. I prayed about this thing in

the previous couple of days, and God showed me

it was like the death of Lazarus. when they carried

a dead corpse into a dark cave and rolled a stone

in front of it. So, I sense, is what they did

to the church. The church slowly, it seemed like

it just died. Over the last few years, not just

now, but the last few years, it just seems like

the church became more like a commercial entity.

It just seemed to me like they didn't care anymore

that there was no supernatural events taking

place. In so many churches, in fact, in most

of the churches where I go, it just seemed like

healing is something they just talk about. The

supernatural is something they just debated about.

And it shouldn't be. We are a supernatural people.

We serve a supernatural God. Healing is still

as much real today as what it was in the time

of Christ. In fact, the instruction of the master

is for those that believe, those signs will follow.

And one of the signs is they will lay hands on

the sick and they will recover. Come on, can

I hear an amen? But they've taken the church

that have just become a skeleton. a part of what

they used to be like. And it seemed like they

carried the church, or they thought they did,

carry the church into a dark cave. And in front

of the cave, they rolled a stone of fear. in

front of it so that nobody could escape. But

then the master himself appeared like he did

in the time of Lazarus and called out our name,

the name of the church. Do you understand? He

called out our name. And all of a sudden, I can

see, I mean, I go around nationwide and I can

see how the church have finally gotten up again.

And they're stepping forth and they're stepping

up to the plate. The master is calling them.

And when we come out, some have been coming out

with bandages. still around them. But the master's

cry is going out, set them free. And I believe

the church is going to thrive like never before.

Yeah, go ahead and praise him, will you? Glory

to God. Jesus is not coming back for a dead church.

He's coming back for a church that is alive.

You know, years ago, I was very involved in the

war, anti -terrorist war in Africa. It was part

of the special forces. We had many, many, many

incredible experiences. But I recall one time

we had to sweep a certain area with just a group

of just five men in our unit. And we had to sweep

through a very large area at nighttime without

the use of lights. And that night, it was particularly

dark because of clouds. That area was very dangerous

because the early pioneers have dug deep holes

in search of diamonds. And some of these holes

have been holding great threats. So much debris

had fallen into these holes through the years.

And if you had to fall into one of these holes,

you'd possibly get injured really bad or be killed.

And so we couldn't move very fast. We were going,

you know, quite widely separated from each other.

And one of my friends stepped into one of these

holes. And when he fell, he was fortunate enough

to grab a hold of a root of a tree, screaming

and hollering as loud as he could. We tried to

make our way towards him as fast as we could,

but you couldn't move too fast because of fear

of falling into a hole yourself. And I mean,

he held on, crying out, trying to get us to his

position. And we kept on assuring him, Donnie,

please don't let go. But he finally cried out

and said, I cannot hold on anymore. We tried

to convince him, please, just a few more seconds.

But Donnie let go and dropped only six inches.

You know, I've used that many times in my messages.

You know, so oftentimes it's hard for you to

let go and let God. There used to be an old chorus

that we sang, let go and let God have his wonderful

way. You're sitting in the service here today,

and my challenge to you is let go of fear. Let

go of that thing that they have artificially

placed upon you. Let go of that thing that is

not your friend. Fear is not your friend. Fear

is your enemy. Fear brings torment. Fear brings

sickness. Fear brings death. Fear brings separation.

Fear takes you further and further away from

God. Don't hold on to that anymore. Let go and

hang on to faith. You will never be disappointed.

Faith stands out every time. Faith works every

time. When you depend on God, absolutely you

are not going to be disappointed because He's

the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. Go

ahead and give the Lord a hand clap of praise.

Reminds me of a man that apparently fell off

a cliff one time and he also held on to a...

a root of a tree, and he was looking down, and

it was extremely high. Nobody there to save him,

so he was an atheist up until then. But that

moment, it changed for him, and he called up

towards heaven. Is there somebody that can help

me up there? A voice came back and said, sure,

just let go and trust us. He looked down, and

he looked up again and said, is there somebody

else up there? It's so important for you to understand

God has got you. You understand? God has you.

He's got your number. You belong to him. He's

very, very much in love with you. He doesn't

only love you, but God likes you as his child.

And today, God is encouraging you. Turn your

back on fear. I want you to take your Bible and

turn with me to Joshua chapter 1, or else I'll

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

just read it for you. An account by the Holy

Spirit at a time when the Bible says that Moses

died. Listen to this. The Bible says that after

the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord,

It came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua,

the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses,

my servant is dead. Let me just pause here. You

know, that, I believe, has been one of the most

tragic moments in the life of Israel. Moses,

second to God, has been the greatest that has

ever lived as far as they're concerned. Moses

died. They must have been at a very, very low

place. But then God told them, you know, it's

like God is saying, it doesn't end when Moses

dies. It doesn't end when Bessie died, my wife,

last year. It doesn't end when calamity hits

you in the face. God is continuously, in perpetuation,

God In perpetuity, God continues all the time.

He is with you constantly and continually. He

says, now Moses, my servant, is dead. But now,

therefore, arise and go over this Jordan. Look

at your friend and say, arise and go. No, no,

no, that is so pitiful. I mean, that is just,

I mean, I cannot believe you just did that, you

know, arise and go. Come on, look at somebody

and do it with some energy. Arise and go. Yeah,

come on, give yourself a hand clap. You know,

go ahead and clap yourself, you know, applaud

yourself. Arise, that's the message. Now, you

know, it's understandably Over these last few

months, especially, you've been cast down. We

all have been. Every one of us have gone through

possibly the hardest time of your life. And God

is now saying to you like he did to the people

at that time, arise and go. It's time for us

to get up and go on. You and all the people to

the land which I am giving to them. Let me pause

again. I want you to hear how God is expressing

this. He says, I want you to go to the land which

I am giving you. It's not like I will give it

to you if you go. I have already decided that

land is yours. I have already decided. that the

entire promise that I made Moses is now final.

Just go there and go and get it. But you understand

that that's just the way God is. He doesn't remove

Jericho. He doesn't remove the Jordan that is

in flood. He's expecting you to take him at his

word. He says, arise and go to the land which

I am giving you, the children of Israel. Every

place that the sole of your foot will tread upon,

I have. given you. You know, it's not like that

only at that time with the Israelites. It's like

that with everything that comes our way. See,

healing is something he's already given us. Deliverance,

it's already given. Salvation, it's already given.

Whatever you need, whatever you need, everybody

say whatever. He says, whatever to whosoever.

Whatever you need, it's already given. You see,

God decides. In Deuteronomy, he says to his people,

I hold before you the curse and the blessing.

We are now staring face to face. We're staring

at a curse here in our land and in the world.

And God is clearly saying to you and I, I give

you the choice. I hold before you the curse and

the blessing. The blessing is I have an answer.

You can decide to stick with the curse if you

want to, or you can decide to turn your back

on the curse and turn your face towards me and

embrace my promises. I've already given it to

you. Come on, give him a hand clip of praise.

Now he says, no man shall be able to stand before

you all the days of your life. As I was with

Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave

you, and I will not forsake you. And then he

goes on to use these words. Be strong and of

good courage. In verse 7, he says it again. Only

be strong and very courageous. And then in verse

9, have I not commanded you? Be strong and of

good courage. Do not be afraid. nor be dismayed.

The Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

It's clearly the same today. What God is saying

to you and I, if there's one thing you can do,

and that is turn your back on fear. Now, that

doesn't mean that we're going to disregard our

authorities. We're not going to do things that,

you know, contrary to what they tell us. But

we certainly are going to stop allowing fear

to dominate our direction. Fear is not our companion.

We don't live by fear. We say to ourselves, me

and my house, we're going to serve the Lord.

And when you decide to serve the Lord, you can

say like Daniel of old, I can tell you, King

Nebuchadnezzar, there is a God in heaven that

reveals the secrets of men. Come on, give him

another praise offering. Glory to God. Now, you

know, fear, fear is a terrible thing. You know,

fear holds torment. When you have fear and you

have worries and fear, it brings forward all

sorts of diseases. But it's, you know, oftentimes

it's unavoidable. I mean, you know, the first

thing that happens when a doctor tells you that

you possibly have cancer. They don't even have

to tell you that you have cancer. I mean, you

or so many people through the years have been

living with the fear. This pain may be bad. This

growth may be vicious. And then you come to a

doctor and they say, well, you know, we have

to just do some tests. And immediately, fear

is right there. Fear of cancer. Fear of death.

It's there. You know, fear is our companion.

But you understand, our spiritual man doesn't

know fear. See, our spiritual man knows God.

See, our physical man doesn't know God. Our physical

man just knows its surroundings. Our physical

man knows just what he sees and the places that

he's been and he's witnessed misery and calamity.

And so fear becomes our companion. But our spiritual

man, you understand, the one who survived or

who lived and existed before we were even born,

that spiritual man knows what God is like. Our

spiritual man doesn't have to be educated about

God. Our spiritual man knows who he is. He is

the creator of heaven and of earth. Our spiritual

man was with him before we were commissioned.

To the earth. In fact, for you to fear as a child

of God, for you, you know, when you're not a

child of God, that's different. But when you're

a child of God, you have to condition your mind

not to fear. That's why Paul said in Romans 12,

be not, be not, how does it go? Be not conformed

to this world, but be transformed. by the renewing

of your mind. Thank you. So that you may know

what is that good and acceptable and perfect

will of God. You understand? You've got to allow

your spiritual man to adjust to your condition

where you are right now. You're sitting right

here. Allow your spiritual man, your spiritual

person inside to now adjust and get to grips

over the situation that you're in. And you say

to yourself, I am not going to let my flesh dominate

my spirit. Come on, can I hear an amen? I'm not

going to let my physical being overrule my spiritual

being. My physical being is very limited. My

spiritual being is but only 60, maybe 100 years

that it can live. My spiritual man is going to

be eternity forever. Forever. And so you understand,

for you to... have fear, you have to teach yourself

how to fear. See, you don't have to teach yourself

how to have faith. That's a gift from God. God

says, He's given each man a measure of faith.

You have faith. God gave it to you. You're sitting

there. You don't have to be taught how to have

faith. You only have to be taught how to increase

in your faith. But your faith is given to you

by God. You're sitting there and your spiritual

man knows right there where you are right now

that when we lay hands on you, you will be made

whole. Yes? You know it. Your physical man is

the one that's the problem. That's what they've

been doing over these last six months, capitalizing

on our biggest enemy. And we bought it hook,

line, and sinker. It's time to arise and get

up and say, I'm not going this direction no more.

You know, as an evangelist, that's one of the

things that as I go around the world that I've

had to convince people, persuade them in. Do

not hold on to the physical, but embrace the

spiritual. You know, when your spirit man decides,

to overrule the physical. Miracles happen. I

remember in Nigeria when a man that had never

walked in his life, never, he was born with an

inability to use his legs. I mean, he had two

legs, two perfect legs, but he just couldn't

use them. He was now in his late 20s when he

heard that I'm coming to Nigeria. And so he decided

to make it to the meetings. Nobody wanted to

carry him there. I'm telling you just how it

happened. The way he moved himself was to, he

had two rubbers, you know, like two tires on

his hands, and he would move himself forward

like this. And he moved himself forward like

that for two weeks. I mean, it took him two weeks

to get to the meeting. For two weeks, he convinced

himself, when they lay hands on me, I am going

to be healed. He had heard somebody told him

that Jesus is the miracle worker. Somebody told

him, if you can only get there, Jesus can do

anything. So he made himself move ahead for two

weeks. And when he got to the meeting, there

was a half a million people there. There was

no way he could get anywhere close to where we

were praying for the sick up front. And in total

discontent and so disappointed and totally exhausted,

he went and sat against the tree and started

to cry. Some of the deacons came by there and

asked him what's going on, and he told them.

One of the deacons said, well, it's not Dr. Venter

that's doing the healing. It is the healer himself

that does the healing. You don't need him. You

don't need, you know, any person. God is right

here, right now. And if you can believe it, he's

going to do it here right now. And so he touched

the man with his foot. The deacon did. Touched

him on his foot. And immediately, I mean instantaneously.

God healed that man. They had to teach him how

to walk, had to get him up. But the next service,

the next night, you know, when the service opened,

there was a bunch of dancers that opened the

service. And leading the procession was this

man that had never walked before, now dancing

in front of the crowd. Listen, God is the same

yesterday, today, and forevermore. Go ahead and

praise Him. Glory to God. Hallelujah. But you

understand, to do this and to reach there as

you sit here today, you have to turn your back

right now on fear. You have to let go and let

God take over from this moment on. You know,

quite a few years ago, I was preaching here in

Arkansas, and after I left, somebody came from

behind us before the cell phones came. And the

pastor came and connected with me and pulled

us off the road and said, Jan, I have bad news

for you. What is it? He said, your sister was

killed in a car accident. And they had on collusion.

And she was killed with her daughter. I mean,

you know, I asked him, which sister? You know,

I've got six sisters. He didn't know. He said,

well, all I can tell you is she was killed with

her daughter. When I called, it was my youngest

sister and my second youngest sister's daughter.

So it was a double calamity. I went to South

Africa to go and bury my sister and my niece

just after we buried them. The phone rang, and

it was the other sister's family member that

called to let her know. Her only other daughter

tried to commit suicide, and she took an overdose

of very powerful painkillers, but they found

her too late. The doctors now had pumped out

her stomach but told my sister she will not make

it, and if she does, she'll be a vegetable. My

sister called and said, Jan, you've got to get

here. When I got there, she was hysterical. As

you can understand, she had just lost the other

child, and now the second one, the only other

one, is in a hospital bed, laying there in a

very, very deep coma, never to come out of it

again. The doctor said they found her too late.

I'll never forget what I told my sister. I said,

if there's ever a time, That you have managed

to turn your back on fear. It must be today.

Fear and faith cannot be together in that room.

You cannot expect a miracle and still embrace

fear. You have to disconnect yourself. For the

sake of your daughter, disconnect yourself from

fear. You're sitting here today and I'm saying

this message to you. In the name of Jesus, disconnect

yourself from fear and connect with faith because

faith holds your answer. Go ahead and give him

a praise offering. Glory to God. I remember when

I said that to my sister, she wiped the tears

from her face. She forced a smile. And then she

said to me, it's gone. Let's go and pray for

my daughter. I remember going into the little

private room. There was a nurse working there.

My sister asked her very humbly, said, will you

give us some time, please? We need to talk to

God. And it's not going to be soft. There's going

to be no whispering that goes on here. We're

going to call upon God. The nurse gladly left.

And we shut the door behind her. And I tell you

what, we called upon God. Not like God was deaf,

but in total desperation. We embraced ourselves,

you know, embraced the Holy Spirit, embraced

every promise of God, embraced that which God

had given us inside, inside buried deep into

our heart. We embraced it. While we're praying,

the daughter comes out of a coma, holds her mommy's

hand and said, hello, mom. God healed her instantaneously.

She lives here in the States right now. Five

wonderful children. Come on, give God another

praise offering. I want to challenge you here

today. Some of you are holding on to fear. You're

holding on to misery. You're speaking that which

is not right. Don't confess it. You see, fear

and faith has got this one thing in common. They

both speak. See, fear speaks. You watch when

people have fear. They'll confess it. They'll

say, you'll hear them say, you know, I'm afraid

I'm coming down with this or that. Or, you know,

I'm afraid my daughter is this and that. Don't

speak it. Let faith speak. See, with the heart

we believe. With the mouth, confession is made.

And today I want to challenge you. If you're

in this house, And you need a miracle. Is your

daughter's name Mackenzie? You need to bring

her. God is going to heal your daughter today.

And I want you here today, if you need a miracle,

you know, we cannot lay hands on everybody here

today, but if you need a miracle, I want you

to claim it here right now in the name of Jesus.

Stand with me. Go ahead and stand with me right

now and just say, you know, God, I know my miracle

is here in this place. If you need a miracle,

If you have been told, you know, the bad news

that you have this or that, I want you to come

out and come and stand here, you know, and let

us pray for you. And I'm sure that, you know,

you're going to understand that you have to keep

your distance. But if you need a miracle and

you can turn your back on fear, then I want you

right now, put your hand on your heart. Let's

pray first of all. Go ahead. Let's pray. Father,

we have seen it not once. I've seen it not just

now and again. I see it day by day. I see it

everywhere we go. And I know that it's not me.

I know it's not a person. Lord, I know it's you.

I know it's your promises. It's yea and amen.

And Lord, there's people here today that needs

a miracle. There's people here, oh Lord, that

has been given an account that it's not good.

So Lord, we now embrace faith and we allow faith

to speak. And I pray that as people go home today,

that it will be with peace. Everybody say it

right now. Say, I'm letting go. Come on, say

it again. I'm letting go, Lord. Say, I will not

hold on to fear any longer. In the name of Jesus,

we thank you, Lord. Amen. Pastor Kenny, will

you come? If you are interested in hearing other

podcasts or contacting Life Bible Church, go

to www .lifebiblechurch .org or call us at 541

-995 -8282.