Contending for Higher Levels

Welcome to this week's podcast by Celebration Church Latatoba.

We believe this message will empower and equip you to live a life of breakthrough.

Thanks for joining us.

So today I want to talk about contending just today, contending for higher levels.

Alright?

Contending for higher levels.

It is so easy to get stuck.

Our next 10 years can look like they are today if we don't deliberately make adjustments, changes, and investments into our life.

Things can remain the same.

Okay?

And so we have to actually push for transformation.

Push for change.

And that's very important for us because these people get frustrated and they live with internal frustration inside of them and they get annoyed and they blame circumstance, they blame their boss, they blame their upbringing, become, in some ways, a little bit of a victim to the circumstance, or that's how they see it, simply because we got stuck, we got contained on the level that we're on.

Financially, uh relationship-wise, with our social network, with our family, in ourselves, spiritually, in our ministries.

So what we have to do is commit to transformation, all right?

Commit to change.

And uh because that is the will of God.

In fact, it says about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God advances.

Now that's an interesting thought, because if the kingdom of God indwells the believer, everything within us should want to, by nature, instinctively want to advance.

We should want to push out, we shouldn't want to remain.

The person who wants to remain, there's a story that's happening there.

But God wants to break the shackles of containment around our life, and we ourselves would be motivated to push through to higher levels in the Lord, higher levels in ministry, higher level levels in investments or or whatever God has for you.

So I want to just talk around about that this morning and inspire us to really push through as individuals and certainly as a people group and as a church.

Amen.

I've written here, you can hate failure, but still build a highway to failure in life.

So you could despise or uh have a repulsive attitude towards failure.

The last thing you want to do is to fail in life, yet we can still be building subconsciously through our words and our habits, actions that are conducive for failing.

And uh so God wants to break that.

Um the other thing I've written here Christianity is about confrontation.

A lot of people, how many of you do not like confrontation?

Put up your hands.

Okay, probably a good 80%.

I actually enjoy confrontation.

I do.

You probably work that out by now.

I enjoy it.

Uh, if I'll tell you the reason why, is because we are called to confront the flesh life okay, in our life.

We're called to walk in the spirit of humility, we're called to walk in teachability, we're called to overcome offenses, we're called to overcome thoughts and imaginations and arguments that would exalt themselves above the knowledge of God.

We're called to cast down the word of God, speaks of principalities and wicked forces or ruling spirits.

So, by nature, the Christian is called to overcome.

And so that's why intrinsically there's that thing that seeks to confront things.

We have honest conversations, we push through to changes, we confront ourselves, we look in the mirror and we think we can do better than this, we can have a better attitude than this, we can push through.

And uh so, and then and then again, we are not only confronting our flesh life or our carnal nature, but we're also confronting demonic entities, oppressive spirits that come around our families, that come around our children, our marriages or our churches and so forth.

That's our destiny.

So I want to for us to get excited about confrontation, huh?

Get excited about having those honest conversations because if we're gonna move from this level to the next level, we have to have an honest conversation.

We have to look at it and we have to push through and make that difference.

Amen?

Okay, how many of you love confrontation?

Yeah, that's good.

Let's give the Lord a hand this morning.

Okay, then we're gonna come into this.

Okay, uh, I've often said that um that today is better than yesterday, and tomorrow will be better than our today, okay?

But for a lot of people, that's not quite the reality.

That's not a reality for most people because we have to commit every day.

What can I do to break the parameters around my life?

What can I do to push ahead?

What can I do to push forward and advance?

You ready for this?

Not just advance in areas per se, but advance in your destiny.

Okay?

You have to find what your destiny is, and that's the area you need to be investing wholesale in to do well with that.

So in later on in life, Jesus says, good and faithful servant, there's no point, I've often said, your ladder being up against the wrong building.

We're committed, we're heavily uh emotionally, intensely involved with different things, yet the hand of the Spirit was not there.

We have to be about the business of the Father, occupy until he comes.

We need to be about what God wants us to do.

That's very, very important.

So we're gonna dive with that with the introduction.

Let's dive into point number one.

I've just got points this morning.

Just being open gets you very little.

Just been open.

A lot of people say, Well, I'm open to God, but just being open doesn't mean you can be open in a crowd and get nothing respectfully from the Lord.

A lot of people were open, blind Bartimaeus in uh in the book of Mark, he was more than open.

He could have just been open in the crowd, and Jesus would have passed him by.

No, he had a hot pursuit.

He said, Jesus, the Son of God, have mercy upon me.

The crowd told him to be quiet, but he overcame the shame or the stigma, he overcame the pressure, or we would say adversity, overcame that, overcame the circumstance, and he pushed through.

And I want to submit to us a lot of Christians, we say, Oh, if God, God knows my address, he knows where I am, he knows when how to knock on my heart, if I'm available, if he wants me, but I'm telling you, in the word of God, the pattern is that we seek first the kingdom of God.

We are in a hot, hungerous pursuit of the kingdom of God.

It's not about us having a passive existence.

Well, if God wants to touch this the church, he will touch us.

If we he wants a revival, he just knows where we are.

We're open to revival.

No, we've got to hunger after it.

We've got to hunger after we uh Raratonga shall be saved.

That's a prophetic faith statement, but it doesn't uh take place on the backs of passivity or complacency, it takes it it is on the backs of fasting, it's on the backs of travailing and praying and pushing through and so forth and the sacrifices that we make.

Amen.

Okay, so there we have it.

That's number one.

So I want to because I know this.

I know I talk to people and they say, Well, I'm just open, mate.

If you're born of the Spirit, you have to be more than just open.

You've got to actually have a pursuit for God.

And that, my friends, is the difference between those who have and those who haven't.

Those who obtain to higher levels and those who don't.

It's the difference with what you do with your feet, it's the difference what happens with what you do with your posture, what you do with your hands, what you do with your mouth, what you do with your heart, the places you are pushing through.

We've got to break off that lethargy and uh and thing that sticks around our life.

And I reckon, seriously, it's like a web.

That's how it works.

It's like a blanket that comes around our life.

We get up in the morning and we're extra exhausted.

We are extra tired.

It's just like, you know, you think, well, what did I eat last night?

What did I do yesterday?

And have I not been resting?

Sometimes this thing sticks around us.

You have to throw off that blind bar of my ass.

Do you know what he did?

He threw off the cloak.

The cloak stands for the old lifestyle.

He threw it off because he had expectation, he had an anticipation of walking into the new.

And you and I have to do exactly the same thing.

We have to throw off that old mindset.

We have to throw off those perhaps those old connections or old associations.

We have to uh that those things that get around us.

Paul talked about those things that entangle us.

We need to throw those things off.

We're about to embark on a brand new year, 2027.

This could be your best year yet.

What adjustments or what changes are going to take place in this new year?

Is it going to be the same as 2026 or even 2025?

What can you do?

Because Jesus said it is finished, it's a completed thing, and you've got destiny rolled out in front of you, and it's up to you and I as to what takes place in and through and around our life.

Amen.

So I want to submit you.

We've got to be more than open.

Number two, the biggest problem to God's prophetic timetable is not the kingdom of darkness.

Remember, Paul said, hey, it was Satan that hindered us.

He recognized there was the kingdom of darkness, could put a hindrance or a stoppage between him and where he needed to go.

He understood that.

Daniel chapter 10.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

Gabriel speaks to Daniel.

You'll know this first, and he says, he says, for the first time you started to pray, your words were heard.

But the prince of Iran or Persia resisted me 21 days.

Here I'm now bringing the answer.

So after 20, before, as soon as he prayed, it was heard in heaven.

But there was a supernatural, dark slowdown on the outcome because of supernatural resistance by the kingdom of darkness.

I want to submit to you, there is a greater, there is a greater level of um a greater level or a greater problem that sits around.

And you ready?

It's actually us.

It's easier to blame the devil.

Seriously.

It's so it becomes really quite convenient at times.

Oh, that's just demonic.

No, that's just a bad attitude.

2600 years ago, 2600 years back, God spoke to Ezekiel in chapter 22.

He said, I looked for a man among them, and I found none.

What was true then can actually be true now.

God is looking for personnel.

He's looking for men, he's looking for women that will stand in the gap.

He's looking for a man that will stand up.

He's looking for woman that will stand in the gap that will stand up also.

That's what he's looking for.

And I would like to present to us that more than the kingdom of darkness, we sometimes are the greatest culprits in the slowdown of God's economy and his timetable.

It actually comes down to man, humanity.

In the word of God, you will see that God it's it's God uses us like a pattern.

God uses it's God and man is the pattern.

It's just not all God, and it's certainly just not all man.

It's both together.

God connects us together that we would move in the purposes of God.

God operates through the God and man pattern.

Okay.

So really, we're looking at the first thing we have to be more than open, and to present it or go a little bit deeper, is that hey, sometimes we are the hindrance to destiny.

And I love it, I love it.

The fact that Jesus, remember, he just said it's finished, it's completed, a completed thing.

So what is the problem?

If the kingdom of darkness are under Jesus' feet, and we've been given all authority, he possesses all authority, and we're partnering with him, seated in heavenly places, then what becomes the issue?

We need to start to look without condemning ourselves, but we need to look and to understand that greater is he that's within us than he that's within the world.

And everybody says amen to that because they know that scripture, but the reality behind that scripture is you need to make the difference.

You can make a difference, you can rise above, you can impact your generation.

David said, I served my generation, and we need to serve our generation, not just getting out there and providing things for the community.

No, man, it's the gospel, is how we look after our generation, it's the living truth, breaking bondages, healing the sick, raising the dead, and so forth.

That is in that is what God has put within the heart of the church in Jesus' name.

But most of us don't even think like that.

We're so interested in paying our bills and getting things right and managing things well.

But God has much more for us than those things.

We have to be what is called kingdom-minded to come up in the things of God to make a difference.

If we're gonna have a revival, you know, we could always say, Well, God, how come we never had a revival in Raratonga?

We never really had it in Australia or New Zealand or whatever.

We've had pockets, we've had movements and so forth of great moves of God and so forth.

But sustained level of revivals, I think the Lord would scratch his head and say, Hey man, it is finished.

Huh?

We needed to pay the price.

Do you know?

I tell you, remember uh Tommy Hicks, I tell one of my famous stories.

I love this one.

Remember Tommy Hicks?

Tommy Hicks, American evangelist, fasted 40 days and 40 nights.

Nothing happened, no alterations.

He said, God did not speak to him, so he started to do another 40-day fast.

His family said, Man, if you do another 40-day fast on this, you will die.

He said, If I die, I die seeking God.

And then he went, he got a map, the Lord showed him a supernatural map of Argentina, and these people saying, Come to us, come and preach to us.

He went to Argentina, and revival has taken place generationally, decade and decade after that time.

Hundreds of thousands were saved through Hook's ministry.

God, remember Ezekiel, he's looking for a man.

Seriously, maybe that's you this morning.

You say, Well, I'm not educated, it may not matter.

You say, Well, I don't, you know, I haven't been to Bible college.

May it may not matter.

Right now, where you are, what's in your hand?

Stretch out your hand.

God said to Moses, What's in your hand?

Right here, what's the next footstep forward?

What's the next jump forward?

What's the next thing you can do to be in sync and in line in the spirit?

Maybe it's dropping something away, maybe it's picking something up, maybe it's taking something up, maybe it's an alteration or an adjustment around our thinking, maybe it's a forgiveness issue, a dropping our offenses, a dropping our prejudice or our or whatever it is, and actually coming clean and getting quite serious about the things of God.

What's happening in your life this morning?

But all I know is God is wanting men and women all around the planet to put their hands up, like Isaiah said, Here am I, send me.

And maybe you're that this morning.

Maybe we're that church on the island that can actually put our hands up and say, Here we are, collectively and corporately, this is us, this is who we are, this is our breed, this is our DNA, this is the hunger that we possess, this is a this is what we are destined for as a group of people and as a generation to put our hands up and say, God, this is this is what we're gonna be about.

We're gonna get rid of the peripheral, we're gonna get rid of the stuff that's around our life, and we're gonna go for broke.

We only get one shot at this life.

One shot at it.

And Christianity works for us.

We've got the best nation in the world, just about one of the freest nations, one of the safest nations there is, and yet we just like man, read the music, read the atmosphere, push through, make a difference.

Not everybody is born of the Spirit of God in our nation.

A lot of people are religious, totally religious.

We need to present the Mazar, the living Christ, break the parameters, and and then God launches us out, the doors are opening.

My goodness, the invitations are opening into the Middle East, all around the world for us, and uh yeah, I haven't, yeah.

Maybe it's a day to share later on, but God is opening a door.

All He's been looking at is somebody that will get on their knees.

Seriously, and somebody will pain for our nation, somebody will pain for the people groups and say, God, where is the God of Elijah?

Lord, where are you?

We need you in our nation, we need you in our government right now, we need you amongst our legislations and our policies, Lord.

We need to quit the talk and we need the real Christ to stand up in our midst through the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

So the second one, the biggest problem to God's prophetic timetable, is not the kingdom of darkness, it's actually people.

The third one, you ready for this?

The Lord wants to bring you to a place or prepare you where he will elevate you so that he can be elevated through you.

You got distracted right there.

Let me tell you this: God wants to elevate you, he wants to lift you up, he wants to favor you so that his message can be elevated through you.

Some people have a problem with the notion that God wants to make people great.

I hear that.

There's that thing where we peg men down and we peg woman down so that Jesus can be great amongst us.

I believe in the principles, the art of humility and going low before the Lord.

That's our place.

But God has no problem with making people great.

And uh Abraham, it says, I will make your name great.

And Joshua 3 7, it says, God said he would exalt Joshua in the sight of all of Israel.

David, 2 Samuel 7 9, and have made you a great name like the name of the great men who are on earth.

God raised up Samuel, he raised up Moses, he raised up Daniel, he raised up Esther.

Why did he raise them up?

For this reason.

Because he could entrust them with his voice.

He knew that if they stood up, sorry, if they were elevated, they would stand up for Christ.

God is opening some doors because he entrusts you.

You think it's a door just because he's happy with the way you've had integrity at your work, I'm sure that's part of it.

Humble ourselves and God will exalt us.

But one of the key reasons why God elevates people and appears to make them great and gives them a platform, it is always for his glory.

Serious, it's not so that we can be seen or people can hear our preaching or people can hear our song.

It's always been God gives us a platform of exposure so that he gets the glory.

The reason why he wanted to make Abraham's name great, because God had a message through Abraham.

The reason why David was to be made great is because God had a message.

And God has a message, and if you could be entrusted with integrity, that if you get elevated, you'll stand for him, you'll stand against the tide of iniquity, you'll stand for righteousness' sake, then God will elevate you, no problem in Jesus' name.

Some of us are stuck on the same level month after month, decade after decade.

It's because apparently we haven't done anything.

All right.

I say that not to hurt anybody or offend anybody, but we haven't done a lot.

But it's time to talk.

It's time.

I will I was listening to this thing.

Uh um Murray put through uh Winston Peters, and uh man, uh well, okay, let me just dive down on politically a little bit.

Um uh 81 years of age, 51 years in um political arena, 51 years, and uh New Zealand, uh was it New Zealand first?

Uh Family First, you might have listened to this, they interviewed him, and he talks about being pro-life.

He talks about the transgenderism and the uh the gender activists, trans activists that are taking place in New Zealand right now.

He talks about the sexuality, the twisted, distorted sexuality education that's coming through New Zealand.

He talks about radical Islam, but he said the reason why things are permitted to take place is for this reason, is because there's no opposition to it.

An indictment.

How many churches do we have in New Zealand?

It means that our voice, where's our voice?

And I like to say this.

Look, we're not, we don't exist just to be a happy, clappy bunch of people.

That's not the church.

Seriously, we need a new rewiring.

This is just not a safe place where people come in and get healed and nurtured and oil and you get encouraged just to go out there and pay your bills again.

No, this is a house of transformation.

It's supposed to be that.

It's a house of radical commitment.

We talk about radical Islam.

Radical Christianity surpasses Islam any day, anytime on the block.

God wants his church.

I don't know what kind of breed of Christianity we have, but it's not quite right sometimes.

God wants to elevate his church.

Lift them up like the city on a hill, a refuge, a pillar that people can lean on.

He wants to lift up the church and give the church the voice on the block.

This is the place.

The church is like a rescue shop outside of hell.

We're right there where people are walking up the precipice, and we can say, we can gate together, we can say, hey, don't go any further.

We have the solution before you walk over this.

His name is Jesus Christ.

The church have got to come up in the fire.

Don't you feel in the spirit?

Don't you feel there's an urgency in the spirit?

It's been proclaimed internationally.

We've got hot windows right now.

Good windows of opportunity.

I want to encourage you.

God wants to open doors for you.

He wants to lift you up.

Seriously, he really wants to.

He wants to profile your business.

He wants your business to be on the cutting-winning edge.

He wants you to have the best restaurant in town.

He wants you to have the best cafeteria in town.

He wants you to have the best pearl business.

Did I say pearl business?

I said that again.

Got many pearl people selling pearls.

He wants you all to be on that same plate selling businesses.

He wants you to be the best headmaster, the best teacher.

He wants you to be the best health manager.

He wants you to lift you up and profile you because you've got integrity.

Because you can be entrusted because you got God, Christ-like character.

Honestly, honestly, you know, the Bible, if I get into the series ahead, the Bible talks about regrets.

We don't want to be that guy.

We don't want to be that guy that faces the Lord and we're standing next to Paul the Apostle, we're embarrassed, and we see the Lord, and it's kind of like He looks at us, He looks through us, and we know we could have done a whole lot better.

We know we could have stood for our generation.

It actually burdens me.

The reason why I'll just share pastor talk and family talk, daddy talk.

It's this the reason why I pray to live.

I pray to live.

I pray to live beyond the age of 92.

Yeah.

The reason why I pray that is this.

I want to be around for my family.

I want to be around that I could be at least a coach in the background.

I want to be able to empower them and say, Papa still lives, he's preaching the gospel, he's got integrity, he's believing Christ.

That's the reason.

The second reason, I want to be here for you.

Yeah.

Seriously?

I want to be here for our church.

I want God, the mission that God has placed within us.

It's obtainable.

I want to don't I don't want to miss out.

I want to be part of that.

I may not be the guy with the spearheading with the button.

I may be in the background.

Maybe I'll be sitting with you, being up the background.

We'll be praising God together because you'll be still alive at 92 years of age, or some of me.

Praise God.

But you know, we want to push through together and make the big difference.

I want to be alive.

I want to be alive and I want to die.

I want to live and declare the works of the Lord.

I want to live, I want to live not live forever, but I want to live on this planet so we can be an influence at what's coming.

Amen.

God wants to place, elevate you so that He can be the prime influence through you.

Do you remember Satan, King Herod, Haman, King Nebuchadnezzar were in a class of pride, raised themselves up?

That's not what God is doing.

God is putting humility in the heart of the church like never before.

He's putting sacrifice, he's asking the church to go low because God is coming.

My witnesses are coming, the Spirit of the Lord is coming to his church, and he's coming to have a church without spot nor blemish.

It's exciting stuff.

And out of it, watch, he's doing a work of holiness because he's gonna do a work of power through the church.

Okay, number four.

You must contend for change.

We've got to do that.

2026.

I I I know Murray doesn't believe in resolutions, New Year's revolutions.

I've always been one for New Year's revolutions, resolutions, New Year's revolutions.

Why?

Because I think you can put some benchmarks and stakes in the ground.

At some point you can do it.

Okay?

But here we've got to adjust.

Change.

Make the difference.

Make those decisions.

Don't think about the failures of yesterday.

Please.

It's gone.

Paul said, I press forward.

Every day, if we if we've done something wrong and it needs to be dressed bad, we get on our knees and humble ourselves before people and put things right and maybe talk to who we need to talk.

We have to be doing that.

But essentially, we have to have our eyes upon the prize, our eyes upon Jesus Christ, the coming Christ.

And so we need to commit to this change, to upgrade, to invest, to study, to grow, to learn, to read, to sacrifice, to expand, to change our mindsets, to push through different levels and to overcome.

Take our gifting seriously before the Lord.

Lavish, I've written here on personal change and being Christ-like in all things.

It says in Acts 9.22, it's progressive.

Paul increased all the more in wisdom.

You creased.

It says about Jesus in Luke 2.52, Jesus increased in wisdom, stature, and in favor with God and man.

What was Jesus doing?

He was developing himself at the ages of 12 in Jesus' name.

At the age of 12 to 30 years of age, that 18 years of age, he was learning and growing.

We need to be learning and growing.

And it's no point just learning and growing on a quadrant or an area that at the end of the day it was good, but it wasn't God.

Find, please, find your destiny.

Find the blueprint, find the eternal existence for your life, why you were created, why you had a purpose, and feed into that area.

Grow and expand and invest into that area so that you are elevated and the character of Christ is so robust, like a reservoir on the inside, and He will give you a voice for our generation in Jesus' name.

A great statement.

As long as we make apathy our friend, we haven't positioned ourselves for freedom.

Maybe smoking, as long as smoking is our peer and it's our friend, we haven't come to that commonplace of renouncing it.

God delivers us from our enemies.

You have to make sin and vice your enemy.

You have to make laziness and slothfulness and lack of excellence your enemy.

Okay?

Let me just throw that out for us this morning.

The next one is five, going through this.

Do not be blinded to the pressing need to change.

I've got upskilling.

1 Corinthians 8, 2.

Thank you.

And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yes, as he ought to know.

We got to commit to transformation and to moving forward, to getting the keys of knowledge, adding to our knowledge, virtue, and our virtue, continue to have spiritual maturity and so forth, and being teachable.

And let me start down on this.

I want to talk about sons and daughters and parents and so far, so forth.

We have to be teachable.

You know what I mean by that?

We've got to be teachable.

There's a guy that I sat and I uh you listened to, and the guy is an absolute expert in an area, and they asked him a question, and he said, I don't know the answer to that.

I thought that's really humble.

You probably may have should have known the answer.

But we've got to commit to be teachable, we're gonna commit to grow, to upskill, to learn, but not just to be clever, you want to be clever strategically in your area.

Very important.

Um, you need to be able to, in fact, Kura, let me say this.

Uh, you won't know this, but I felt the Lord was speaking through you to me before I left.

Remember?

You won't remember this, I remember this.

You said you need to put that book out.

Remember?

Do you remember?

You probably didn't realize when you're speaking to me, the law was upon those words.

I I could have said at the time, hey, the Lord is speaking to me through you.

I held off, but when I was in San Francisco, I completed the book, I got it done.

But I just want to encourage you because I felt like I'd put it away because we're distracted and other stuff.

But when you spoke, and not many people come around you like they're called destiny helpers.

Now I want to dot down on this.

Sometimes our wives are destiny helpers, huh?

Sometimes our husbands are destiny helpers.

They come around to life and say that's no good.

But unfortunately, because of our insecurities, we get upset and we begin to put the wall of China up against them, and we're just like, oh, please don't tell me that they were a destiny helper.

You know who else are destiny helpers?

Our children are destiny helpers, daddy.

Why are you doing that?

They're destiny helpers.

And I want to ask you, who have you got speaking into your life?

Name them.

Who are they?

Who are they?

Who are those people that actually speaking into your life?

You've given permission to speak into your life.

Who are they?

Because if you've created a world where nobody can speak into your life, they can't get near you, you're gonna have a very awkward, frustrated life.

You know, I've got six people that speak into my life regularly.

I have to humble myself, I have to listen, I've learned the art of not butting in and not justifying and listening and saying, Yep, noted.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

We pay big money for that kind of people.

Psychologists and doctors and life coaches.

Mate, you can get it free when you're married.

And what's more, they're readily available to give it to A.

You notice that, ladies?

We would just love to change it out.

But but wives, let me just talk to you girls.

If your husband, okay, if your husband wants to say something, listen.

He's your best friend.

You don't have to get upset and not cook his meal and and get that thing a little bit colder than what it normally would be.

No, you need to say, look, all right, I can handle that.

All right.

Okay, got it.

And you don't speak to him for two weeks.

No, no, no.

These are destiny helpers.

But who have you thought about it?

I'd like you to go away with that.

Who have you got that can line you up?

They're destiny helpers.

You need them, they will help you get where you need to go.

Sometimes parents are destiny helpers.

What has happened to our Western world?

What's happened to it where teenagers can't listen to parents anymore?

Huh?

What's happened to that?

Because we've lost the principle of honor in our community.

But there was a stage where children and teenagers would listen to their parents.

Now, sometimes children listen to their parents because they're going to get a clout if they don't.

But it's not about clouting, it's about having a willingness and a humble attitude to hear.

Now, sometimes the package isn't perfect.

Have you noticed that?

Because the first justification is, yeah, well, you're doing this.

Let's not worry about that you're doing this.

They've said something, and sometimes God will use different people to come around our life.

One of the best things I don't particularly like doing the notices in the church at all.

People do that much better than I can, and uh that's why they do it.

Um, but I tell I had somebody in the church here said, I love the preaching, Jonathan.

This is what he said, I'll be honest with you.

Love the preaching, but he said, Man, I can't stand your notices.

And I said, Oh, why is that?

And he said, Because you you you you have this thing where you go, you say something, and then you go, it's uh da da da da da, and then it's uh that's called a fillin.

It's that's what you call it afillin.

And he said, It just doesn't sound good.

Man, I've thought about that thousands of times.

I thought I won't do notices ever again.

I thought about it a thousand times, and I thought about it this less 950, but I've thought about it a lot of times, and I thought, man, I'm glad that he said that.

I've got somebody who is able to say something to help adjust something, adjust a quirk around me, and if he doesn't say it, everybody thinks it, it becomes the elephant in the room, and I'm no longer the I'm the pastor, and I'm no longer rostered on.

It's the blind spots, you know the blind spots, the stuff that we do that everybody, okay.

Someone needs to say, Hey, can I just have a conversation?

Can we just talk?

Sometimes they've earned the permission to get a hearing, and sometimes they haven't, they'll just say it.

But honestly, what I said, you'd pay a psychologist 300 bucks an hour for that, but that came from your next door neighbor for nothing.

In all seriousness, who's in your life?

Who have you said, will you speak into my life?

Who have you given permission to?

Phil Pringle in uh um uh in Australia says, you know, it's becoming harder and harder and harder to speak into people's lives because of how broken people are.

We become so defensive, we become so justifying.

That's not the spirit of grace, that's not the humility.

We have to have that thing where okay, okay.

Hurts, it hurts.

Go home and cry on a pillow if you have to, because it can hurt, and everything within you drives along and just who's speaking into our life.

Very quiet in the church.

Find your destiny helpers.

Do not be blinded to the pressing need to change.

Number six, getting there.

Just about there.

The danger of success in one area.

You ready for this?

The danger of your success and your expertise in one area is that we think we do not need to develop and improve in other areas.

Because we're great at one thing, it means that we kind of let ourselves off on this thing.

Learn the art of developing key areas around our destiny.

So we might, our destiny might be this way.

We're extremely good at this area.

But we need to actually expand right out because this area is gonna help too.

It's gonna enhance us.

A lot of sports players will say, hey, you're phenomenal at this area, but mate, your weak point is at this area.

We have to strengthen that arm right now.

We have to strengthen that area around your life, we have to strengthen areas of our character.

I've written here, pride is the number one spokesperson for the flesh.

Pride is the number one spokesperson for the flesh.

We justify, we get antsy, we get annoyed, we get irritated.

Mate, it's time to make those changes and make those adjustments coming in to 2027.

Number seven, just because we are great at one thing should not be used as a cover-up for another area that's undeveloped.

Just because we're good or great at one thing, it should not be used as a cover-up for another area that is undeveloped.

Okay, we're good at generosity, we're the best giver on the block, but mate, we're arrogant.

Or we serve in the music team.

Really great.

We're there every time, but mate, we're turning up 15 minutes late every time.

None of our guys do that, alright?

I'm just saying that.

But because we're strong and righteous in one area doesn't mean it's a cover-up for darkness in another area.

Did you know it all comes out in the wash with God?

When I watch that and I read the Old Testament, I look at some people that have faltered and transgressed, and there's never any punishment on them.

Never.

Until you read three chapters later, out of context, and it says God did such and such.

It's quite incredible.

The Bible says there's a very good scripture for us to understand, and it's found in 1 Timothy 5 24.

Some men's sins are clearly evident, proceeding them to judgment, but some of those, but those of some men follow later.

Demons follow loopholes around our character.

Honestly, that's what they're out for.

The last one I think will be this.

Be very specific.

Don't be vague about your destiny.

What has he called you to do?

What platform has he given you?

What's in your hand?

How can you be used in the things of God?

Get very specific.

Dream big, have belligerent faith, faith that demands, faith that pushes through, and that faith will make a difference.

Confront those dark areas, mate.

The amount of times we've had to go on our knees and say, God, we didn't see this.

God, speak to us.

God, we humble ourselves.

The amount of times we've had to give in, give until it bleeds, until it hurts, because God says, No, you're not giving enough.

I want you to give even more.

The amount of times we've had to go visit people and put things right because the Lord speaks to us.

All of us have done that, all of us are doing that.

I want to say, don't you give up.

Don't you ever give up on God and don't give up on yourself and Him.

Keep pushing through, make the difference.

We've got 27 coming on, 2027.

We're gonna see some significant manifestations and outworkings of things, good and bad and ugly in the world, the global stage.

But the church will arise.

God has not forgotten his people.

The church is going to arise in great glory.

He is knocking on the church, he's been doing that for the last few decades, bringing the church into that place of maturity, raising us up together in one accord, without spot nor blemish.

He's been gracious, but the time is short.

I feel in the spirit, God is coming, and different things are taking place.

It's like the church is going to go into another gear of operation.

And we don't want to be seriously on the backside of the voice of God.

We don't want to have gone well for 10 years, celebration on the rock for 17, for 20 years, and all of a sudden it's final years before the Lord, we were just totally and absolutely average.

We want to be hitting our straps for 2027.

We need not to be ill-prepared.

We need to be prepared.

And I want to say this: some people want to be on the stage.

Want to be on the stage.

I heard someone say once, you had shocking character, oh, I miss the guitarist, oh, I missed the stage, and I thought it's not about the stage.

But Lord, you've got to prepare yourself if you want to be promoted.

Luke 16, you've got to be faithful with the spore.

Prepare yourself.

There's no point God opening up a place for you in America or the UK or Ghana or somewhere, and all of a sudden you're getting up there, and yeah, mate, what were those scriptures?

And you can't even remember, they can't even find them.

And it's just like, oh my gosh, I've got the wrong scriptures.

Prepare yourself.

When it comes to marriage, when it comes to launching into the next business, when it comes to walking in righteousness, when it comes to that meeting tomorrow, don't wing it.

Don't just turn up, pray about it, bind the enemy before you go in.

The amount of meetings we have, and I people say I'm in a tough meeting.

Well, you gotta I'm gonna bind the enemy for you, bind the kingdom of darkness so there's no disunity.

You understand each other, you can put yourself in each other's feet, and okay, I got that, I got that.

Let's give the Lord a hand this morning.

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