Hey guys, the other thing I wanted to say was sometimes in worship, if we don't start
worshipping in tongues, don't think worship is not complete. If that thought ever crosses
your mind, don't think so because while worshipping in tongues is a wonderful thing, let's never
get hung up on it because today when we finished before we started singing Amazing Grace, I
knew that it was not necessary to start worshipping in tongues and while it's wonderful to speak
and sing in it, let's never compartmentalize worship that if this is not there then it's
not complete. So just remember that. And sometimes it can be a new song here, another song you
don't know. Don't get hung up on it. Don't get hung up on it. This is what I'll say.
Unprecedented Living. Today we're going to look at Elijah. We're going to look at Elijah
and this may be a two or three part series. I know we were talking about wealth before
we left and we still have to cover wealth transfer and wealth creation, the second and
third part. Receiving to, yeah.
Can I ask you another question first? This poem, The Show that the Lord is the Money,
what is the show?
The Bible says in Numbers 23, 24 or 25 when Balaam was cursing Israel, God said in the
prophetic word that God literally puts into Balaam's mouth, Balaam has to declare that
the shout of the king is in the camp, meaning how can you come against Israel and their
tents when the shout of the king of the kings is in the camp, meaning the roar of the lion
is in the camp, meaning he has arrived. Now when he is in the camp and he speaks, what
is mortal man going to go and do? So it's out of that that the whole theme of the shout
of the Lord is amongst us comes up.
So we finished with wealth distribution and now we'll be dealing at another time with
wealth creation and wealth transfer. We'll deal with that another time. So today we're
going to talk about Elijah, unprecedented living and we're going to talk about Elijah.
Here's a definition I want from you. What did we say apostolic people are?
A people set apart to be sent so that they can show forth accurately and represent Christ
accurately. So here's my question, why? What's the reason to be sent to accurately represent
Christ? What's the reason? Why do we have, I mean what's the purpose behind being sent
so that we can accurately represent Christ? It is to glorify Jesus, but why do we need
to glorify Jesus? Yeah, if you look at the Acts of the End statement, it says live out
of the life of Jesus so that others can see what he looks like and choose to respond.
The reason we are sent so that we can accurately represent Christ is so that others see what
Christ looks like and now can choose to respond to him. Please remember that. The reason we
are sent is so that the reason I may send Lyn out to represent Acts 29 is so that others
can look at Lyn and say hmm, so this is what Acts 29 looks like. And then they can choose
to either come to Acts 29 or not come to Acts 29. But if she's an accurate representation,
our job is done. And that's the reason we are called to be an apostolic people so that
others may see what Christ looks like. You know when we put up this statement, we had
no idea what we were stepping into. This happened about three and a half years ago across the
border in a little room where Bernice Vane and I had gone for a seminar and I was getting
so bored that I thought let's come up with a vision statement for Acts 29. I mean they
were doing a good job but maybe I was just being arrogant. But God forgave my arrogance
and gave us this vision statement. And it basically says live out the life of Jesus
so that others can see what he looks like and choose to respond. That's the whole idea
of being sent to represent accurately so that others can choose to respond. What are they
responding to? What else? What is one word you would use for everything that he is?
Love, character, everything. Agreed but all of it is encompassed in one word which we
have talked about. Glory. See the whole idea of being sent to accurately represent Christ
is so that people can choose to respond to his glory. What is his glory? His glory is
his reputation, it's his character, it's his nature, it's his goodness, it is his magnificence,
it is his weight, it is his splendor, it is his influence. Everything is packed into that
one word called glory or kabod. And who is the hope of glory? Christ. So it goes back
to what she's saying, Christ. But the whole idea is so that they see the glory of who
God is. Yeah, exactly. Jesus was sent so that he may be an accurate representation of the
father's glory. And in Jesus when we behold the glory of the father we have a choice now
to be attracted to it which would be the most natural outcome or rejected. That choice is
always left to us. When we are attracted to it and we respond to it we are born again.
If we reject it we are completely separated from his glory for the rest of our lives.
But the whole intent was so that people may behold the glory of God. Now think of this,
we've talked about this, I'm just going back a few weeks. Who are the glory carriers now?
The last man. Before they had the ark, now we are the glory carriers. It is so vital
that we go over these principles again and again so that as you walk around in malls,
as you walk around Vancouver, you realize that you are a glory carrier. That people
will behold the glory of the father, the glory of Christ in you. And that you always have
to accurately represent Christ in the things you do, in the things we watch, in the things
we say, in the way we act to represent him. And he'd only be so willing to help you with it.
Questions, comments? Do we know, do we, I'm just going back because we need to establish this
before we go forward. When we accurately represent Christ we prepare the way for others to respond
to Christ. When we accurately represent Christ we prepare the way for others to respond to Christ.
Like for instance when I went to Bahrain, I was accurately representing Christ in terms of how he
wants things done. And the people, and the four or five there had a choice to respond. But basically
what I was doing was I was ploughing up their lives and ploughing up that group to understand
that this is the way Christ is, this is the way the bride looks, this is what he wants. Now you
have a choice to respond or you have a choice to stay away. But we prepare the way. Every time you
represent Christ accurately you're preparing the way. Yesterday someone called me and the person had
stones in the person's kidney and had to be rushed to the hospital early morning. And the person called
me and they were coming back from the hospital or they were going to the hospital for a scan.
They had been released from hospital, they were going for a scan. And the person called me and
I asked my usual question when you have kidney stones, do you want the Lord to turn them into
diamonds or do you want them to dissolve and come out? And the guy said he would rather that they
dissolve and come out rather than turn them into diamonds. I'm just kidding okay. So we pray that
they disintegrate, dissolve and come out. The guy goes for the scan and comes back and the scan shows
that everything dissolved and disappeared. And I'm thinking to myself, father that's so ridiculous.
It was just a few words spoken over the phone. But when we accurately represent who Christ is,
this person who is at the fringe of Christianity or is born again but is not participating fully
in the community of God, immediately said, you know, this is only Jesus, this is only God.
We are called to do this for a feeling. It's just one aspect of the representation of who Christ is.
Just one aspect. Just one aspect. We can't make it the most important thing. It's just one aspect.
But represent him accurately.
John the Baptist and, let's go there, since we're talking about Elijah, when we accurately
represent Christ, we prepare the way for others to respond to Christ. This is why John was sent.
Remember, whenever we talk about Elijah, it's impossible not to talk about John because John
was a type of Elijah. If you want to check on that, let's go to Matthew chapter 17. Matthew chapter
17, verses 11 to 13. Matthew 17, 11 to 13. Matthew 17, 11 to 13.
And here's what it says. Well, let's start at verse 10. Matthew 17, 10.
Matthew 17, 10. The disciples asked him, why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must
come first? Jesus replied, to be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you,
Elijah has already come and they did not recognize him. But I've done to him everything they wished.
In the same way, the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood
that he was talking to them about, and they said, I'm going to come and I'm going to be
talking to them about John the Baptist. John was a type of Elijah, folks. And if you notice,
when we study the life of Elijah, we'll have to keep switching between John and Elijah to understand
what it is to become an Elijah company or an Elijah people. And just follow these thoughts
through because I guarantee you either towards the end of today or next week, we'll get the
total hang of it. Folks, why did Elijah come? Elijah was sent again to prepare the way of
the Lord. Very clearly it says, John was sent to prepare the way of the Lord. What was he doing?
He was going out and telling people, hey, you guys have been living this way, but here's the
accurate way to live. And as much as I'm telling you how to live, there is one who is coming who
will help you live that. He was preparing the way of the Lord. John is always sent to prepare the
way of the Lord. Why is that important to us? Because John is the type of Elijah, and Elijah
did the same thing on Mount Carmel. There was a nation going astray, and Elijah stands on Mount
Carmel and says, this is who God is. Now today choose whether you want to follow God or follow
Baal. And he brings the whole nation back to what God wants to do. Folks, like it or not,
when Christ wants to manifest himself, either when he comes again or through us the church,
the first thing he wants to do before he manifests and comes is to raise up a people who will be
Elijah-like. He always does this. Before he had to start a new people, he sends Noah to declare who
he is. Before he brings them out of Egypt, he sends a Moses. Before he leads them into the promised
land, he sends a Joshua. Before the 70 weeks of exilence, he sends a Daniel.
Every time he wanted to lead them out of a deliverance, out in deliverance from the hands
of the Philistines, he would send a judge, either by the name of Samson or Gideon or Jester, he would
send someone. God always, before he makes a move on the earth, raises up a people who are Elijah-like
in their approach to things, which we'll talk about.
This is something he always does. Why are we talking about Elijah now? Because I'm saying to
you that some of the qualities in Elijah we as a people have to develop. If we are who we say we
are in terms of being apostolic, in terms of speaking out of Zion, in terms of growing up into
the body that we are supposed to be, in terms of all that we've been talking about, unprecedented
living, we have to rise up like Elijah because when we begin to walk in the spirit of Elijah,
then you'll find that more and more Christ finds it very easy to manifest himself to people that
we associate with. Questions?
Yes.
Elijah was an ordinary man just like you.
But that gives me so much confidence because I can be better than him because I have Christ in me.
But we'll come to that later.
Please, is it as clear as mud or clearer than that?
Hong Kong?
Hong Kong.
Okay, wow. It took me longer to figure this out.
Pardon?
You're talking about John.
I'm sorry, you said John.
Yeah, if John is the type of Elijah, then John was ordinary too because Elijah was a man with the same
faults that you and I have. John, for instance, he baptizes Jesus and then sends him a letter
from prison saying, are you the real deal? How off could a man be? He had the Holy Spirit come
upon him in Elizabeth's womb. The baby leaped with joy when Mary walked in. He lived the life
of a Nazarite and was in the desert and was one of the... Jesus said, never before has there been a
man like John. And yet, after he baptizes Jesus and says all this, he says, are you sure you're the Messiah?
Well, I would say he just obeyed what God was telling him to do when he baptized Jesus. But
when he didn't see Jesus turn out to be all that he's supposed to be as the king of Israel,
he sent a letter saying, maybe you're not.
How can you... I agree, I agree, James. But can you see the dichotomy there that when I baptized him,
he was a messiah, but now I'm not too sure if you're the messiah. So he was very ordinary.
And that's a beautiful thing because I think I'm so encouraged by the fact that Elijah was just like me.
Yeah, Jesus wasn't the Messiah that Israel expected. So that was John's problem.
So a type of Elijah, so a type of Elijah, and John is a type of Elijah, so we'll keep switching
between them. A type of Elijah is always sent before God manifests himself either
in a season or in a movement
or in actual appearance.
Okay, a type of Elijah is always sent before God manifests himself either in a season
or in a movement or before he makes an appearance. Like before Jesus came, John, who was a type of
Elijah, was sent. And I'm saying to you that John was sent before Jesus came. And I'm saying to you,
John was sent before Jesus came. And I'm saying to you that John was sent before Jesus came.
John, who was a type of Elijah, was sent. And I'm saying to you that regardless of whether Jesus
wants to manifest himself through the church or whether we are waiting for an actual appearance
of Jesus Christ in the future, he will always raise an Elijah-like people. Because it is only
when an Elijah-like people are raised that the hearts of nations can be prepared to respond to
him. Because one of the amazing things Elijah does is he readies, I love this, he readies the people
for the coming of the Lord or for a season.
That's one of the things Elijah does. Elijah readies the people for the coming of the Lord
or he readies the people for a season that God is bringing on earth.
This is what Elijah does. The other thing Elijah does is he reconnects people
to the original plan or mandate or intents of God.
These are two things that Elijah does. This is why God needs an Elijah-like people here on earth, folks.
Go ahead.
No, I'm saying that when I talk about Elijah, I'm talking about a type of people who
will always be raised by an Elijah-like people.
They need to be raised by an Elijah-like people.
And they need to be raised to be raised by an Elijah-like people.
And that's what there is a way to do that.
I'm saying that when I talk about Elijah, I'm talking about a type of people who walk or
do things in the spirit of Elijah. And we'll talk about what the spirit of Elijah is.
So when I say that God raises up an Elijah before he does this, today he doesn't raise up necessarily.
He actually, God is very not interested in raising up individuals. He wants us to,
he wants to raise up a body because even an individual has a significance only if he's a part
of something. So God wants to raise up a people. He's always in the New Testament,
God is only interested in a people. Out of that people, there'll be different functions given
and their significance comes from being part of a people.
But God wants to raise a people and he wants to raise a people who will walk in the spirit of Elijah.
Because when they begin to walk in the spirit of Elijah, two things will happen.
One, they will be able to ready the nations, ready the cities, ready the people around them to now
come into a position where they can actually respond to what God wants to bring forth either
as in a season or in a movement or in his actual appearance. The second thing that happens when
he raises up an Elijah, people who walk in the spirit of Elijah is these people who he has raised
suddenly get a hang of what God's actual intent and plan is and they draw others to be connected
back to that plan. For instance, Malachi says that the last two verses of Malachi says,
and Elijah will come and he'll turn his fathers to the children and the children to the fathers.
400 years of silence and then along comes John the Baptist. And you know what John the Baptist does?
He immediately connects the nation which has lost its moorings back to that prophecy in Malachi.
But in Luke 1, 16 and 17 it says, and John is going to come and he's going to connect the
fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wise.
That's what we are called to do. Why do you think we are learning about Zion?
Why do you think we are learning about Christ's life? Why do you think we are learning about
unprecedented living and the principles of glory and the ark? You think it's for personal fattening?
Partly. But this is so that we can now go and reconnect other churches, other people back to
God's original mandate. Zion was established in the Old Testament.
One of the things Eddie said to me when I last called him is, Jacob, you got to start going and
letting other pastors know what you know in this house now.
A part of me tremored, part of me got excited
because some will reject, some will find it heretical, some will be confrontation and some
will embrace it and go further than we have gone.
The reason we are learning these old truths, if you want to call them old,
is because now we have begun to live it and now God wants us to connect others back
to the original plan. Every church on the face of the earth was meant to be apostolic folks.
Every church on the face of the earth was supposed to be speaking from the position of Zion.
Every church on the face of the earth was to understand the principles of glory.
Every church on the face of the earth was to speak from the position of Zion.
Every church on the face of the earth was to understand father-son principles, setman principles,
was to understand what it is to live by the preceding word, was to understand Christ's life,
which is the tablets that I kept in the ark. Every church was supposed to live like this.
By the grace, the sheer grace of God, he's given us an insight into it.
By bringing to us scribes and master builders from outside so that we may learn it and run with it.
It was not our doing. It was definitely not my doing.
Someone wrote to me today and said, Jacob, how is it that you find these amazing truths from the
word? How do you do it? And I wrote back saying, I had people come into my life and teach me these
things patiently, laboring they taught me patiently, and therefore now I can teach you these and you can
teach others these. Sheer grace, man.
But God is raising, one of the things he wants us to become is an Elijah kind of people who walk in
the spirit of Elijah, reconnecting others to the original mandate. And secondly,
readying them so that when he makes his appearance, when he manifests himself to the church,
they'll not stay away or they'll not be lukewarm, but they'll plunge fully in.
And as we go into this teaching, we'll look at nuggets in Elijah's life that we can
embrace as individuals and as a group. Remember, when we embrace it as a group,
individuals are affected. When we embrace it as individuals, the group is not necessarily affected.
It's all the way things work. Hey, Matt, I can't see you if you don't sit up.
I can't see you if you don't sit up. That's a nice way of saying please sit up. Go ahead.
Zion is a fortress. That's the whole idea of Zion. We have already come to
Zion, the city of the living God. What God was saying is, hey, Jacob, Zion used to be a fortress
on a hill where David set up the tabernacle. I used to live in a temple then. They set up a
temple for me. There was a box which represented me. But I want you to know that no longer am I
in a fortress or a temple. You have become the fortress, the temple that I live in. I have come
to you, so you have become Zion. And if I have come to you and I rule through you, then you need to
now speak like I live and rule through you. So what is the purpose of the citizens design?
Just sit on thrones. Do rulers lay around in hammocks?
Usually, rulers don't lay around in hammocks as far as I know.
Usually, rulers declare, dictate, send out decrees, govern, use the wisdom that they have
as rulers to administer, to channel resources, to allocate, to come against hostilities,
to make decrees that will be law in the land. And God is saying, speak out of Zion, Jacob. This is
where you are right now. I have already come to you, so you have come to Zion because Zion is my
place of dwelling. I'm no longer in a temple. So when a decree is made, as in, let the stones
in the kidney dissolve, disintegrate, and completely come out, that is the Zion position of speaking.
When a decree is made saying, I've come to deconstruct this house, and if it does not want
to grow the right way, I do not want to have anything to do with it, that's governing.
When we stood before these amazing gates of Bhutan and stood there and opened Psalm 24 and said,
open wide gates, the king of glory shall come in right now and this nation shall not be different,
that is a decree.
I don't necessarily need to see the harvest of some of the decrees I make.
You only need to see the harvest always if you're unsure of your position in Zion, folks.
Once a king declares his decree, he doesn't go driving or biking to see if it's being
carried out because he knows that if he said it, it will come to pass. He doesn't go bicycling
around saying, hmm, you guys haven't put it into practice. No, he knows it's done.
And that comes when we know our authority and our jurisdiction and know it has to be done.
That's how it works.
It's a magnificent way of living, folks, and we need to embrace it. We'll come to that in the end.
When you pray for somebody with healing and you just walk away knowing it's going to happen.
No, I would first ask the Father, Father, do you want me to pray for the person's healing?
And if you do, how do you want me to pray? Because every decree I make has to come from
the sovereign rule of the heavens and the earth. And accordingly, only they become law.
Because anything I say from my own is really no use. And Jesus operated by the same principle.
I only do what I see my Father doing.
Everything else is presumption.
So God wants to raise up a people who will be this way. And that's why in Jeremiah 18,
5, and 6, 16, it said, go and seek out the ancient paths. Go and seek out the ancient
paths and walk in it. Some of the ancient paths are the paths of Zion. It stayed hidden, man.
I know it's beginning to take the earth by storm. But I'm saying to you that usually if you go to
a church, I went to a church and spoke on Zion and they basically didn't think much of it.
They, I actually heard when I went back that they went to assure of the teaching and they
were talking among themselves, especially the elders, because some of these truths are ancient.
And if you don't search them and begin to live them, they stay hidden.
Jeremiah 6, 16 and Jeremiah 18, 15.
And the beautiful thing is you can be Elijah at Brook Cherith. You can be Elijah at the Jordan.
You can be Elijah at the River Fraser. You can be Elijah when Ahab is king. You can be Elijah when
Herod is king or you can be Elijah when Harper is prime minister. Doesn't matter. God wants to raise
up a people who will walk in the spirit of Elijah. And we'll talk about what walking in the spirit of
Elijah is. What was the first reference? Jeremiah 18, 15, 16, and then the second reference?
18, 15 and 6, 16.
I mean, if you go to 1 Kings 18, 37. Hey, did someone turn the air conditioning off?
Was it by request? Okay. No, I'm good. I'm just sweating. That's all. But that's
1 Kings 18, 37.
See, like I said, Elijah brings back, readies people and connects them to the actual intent of God.
In verse 36, 1 Kings 18, 36, it says, At the time of the sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward
and prayed, O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel
and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord,
answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you are turning their hearts
back again. Go to Luke chapter 3, Luke 3 verses 10, Luke 3, 10.
Here's John, who was the type of Elijah. Now he's reconnecting people back. Luke 3, chapter 3,
verse 10 onwards. What should we do? Then the crowd asked. John answered, The man with two tunics
should share with him who has none and the one who has food to do the same. Tax collectors also came
to be baptized. Teacher, they asked, What should we do? Don't collect any more than you're required
to, he told them. Then some soldiers asked, What should we do? Don't collect any more than you're
required to, he told them. Then some soldiers asked, What should we do? Don't collect any more
than you're required to, he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, What should we do? He replied,
Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely. Be content with your pay. The people were waiting
expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered
them all, I baptize you with water but one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose
sandals are not worthy to untie. He'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing
fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn but he'll
burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. And with many other words, John exhorted the people
and preached the good news to them. Again, he was reconnecting them to how they should be from
Malachi and he's also telling them, the guy's one who is greater than me is coming, preparing the
hearts to respond to the one who is coming, the anointed one. And this is why God needs to raise
up a people who walk in the spirit of Elijah. See like some truths are so simple that you wonder
why you didn't catch it earlier. One of the truths we talked about earlier is there is no greater tool
of evangelism than to display the glory of God. Once someone sees the glory of God operating through
you, when they see the reputation, character, nature, splendor, magnificence and the power of
God operating through you, there is nothing else necessary. You don't even need to have a crusade,
they'll just see you and they'll know that here stands a man who carries the glory of God. There's
no greater tool of evangelism. Another thing that we have to come into grips with is that every time
God wants to manifest himself either in a movement or in actual appearance, he will always look to
raise up an Elijah people because that is the way he begins to plough up the land of people's lives
so that when he moves in or when he makes an appearance, people will already be set up to
respond or choose to reject. I'm not talking about the end times here but I'm saying we are
people who need to walk in the spirit of Elijah. We'll talk about what that is.
How do we operate in the spirit of Elijah? Going to the next bit.
When I say operate in the spirit of Elijah, what do I mean? Can someone explain what it is to walk
in the spirit of someone? Let's say I said we need to walk in the spirit of Marcus. What does that mean?
Okay, so how else would you put it? If someone said, oh we need to walk in the spirit of Marcus,
what does that mean?
Continue his mission? Do what he would do? You're right. Go ahead. To be like him. In the sense
carried in the Bible is when someone says walk in the spirit of Elijah, it means in spirit of Elijah,
it means walk in the strength and the style of whoever we are talking about. To walk in the
strength and the style of. So all that you said is encompassing this. Walk in the strength of. The
spirit of Elijah means that you are walking in the spirit of Elijah. So all that you said is
walk in the strength of. The spirit of Elijah means there's a strength that is peculiar to him
and there's a style of doing things that's peculiar to him and God is saying, guys I want you to
operate in the strength and the style of Elijah. Oh I want you to operate in that spirit.
Which is why at one point Jesus turned to some of his disciples who wanted to bring down fire
and he says to them, your spirit is different from mine. Meaning the strength that you want
to exhibit in the style that you want to employ right now calling down fire to burn up these guys,
that's not who I am. That's not my style and strength. That was not his character. So we are
called to walk in the strength and the style of Elijah. That's what we mean when we say operating
in the spirit of Elijah. Yeah.
Yeah. Remember that any hero in the Bible or any man at present that you may look at and say,
okay here is someone whose life I want to not imitate but I want to draw from. Please understand
be it Elijah or John or Sue or Tino or Wayne, anything that is good in them is actually a
deposit of the grace and the substance of God in them. Remember anointing for that matter,
when we use the word anointing, who is the anointed one? Christ. So what is the anointing? The anointing
is a deposit of the anointed one in a person that allows him to exhibit that character of Christ.
So when it comes to Elijah, what we are saying here when God says in the spirit of Elijah and
he uses that in the Bible, to walk in the spirit of Elijah is to walk in that deposit, a substance
of Christ that is exemplified by Elijah's life. But it will always take the form of a person.
God is not abstract. When God says I want you to, and this is in the scriptures, in James it says
be patient like Job. Why did he say be patient like Job? Because Job had many faults.
Shouldn't we, to rephrase Diana's question, shouldn't we follow Jesus? Yes, but Jesus says Jacob I want
you to look at Job because one of the qualities of mind that was deposited into him and that came out
well in his life was patience. And if you want, just look at that. I know you can look at my life
but here is the story of Job which is all about patience. He was a patient, he was a good man,
he was a good man. Jesus was full of faith but in Hebrews 11 we say look at the heroes of faith
because their life stories models faith, and therefore in this situation, God is saying I want
a people that I can raise up in the spirit of Elijah because I want to manifest myself and
my coming is soon. Now, there are divided opinions upon his second coming, we'll deal with that when
we get there. Partly because I am still not sure of how to interpret some of the teachings that
people. Elijah, so let's look at how we operate in the spirit or the strength and
the style of Elijah. To understand how to operate in the strength and the style of
Marcus, I'll have to study Marcus. If I want to operate in the strength and the
style of this man, I need to know what he was about. In the same way we need to
know what Elijah was about. One of the things Elijah was, was he was a very
ordinary man like you and I. James 5 verse 17, James 5 verse 17, very ordinary man.
I've never felt so good about this verse as I have in the last few days. James 5
verse 17. I'm gonna put my name in. James 5 verse 17. Elijah was a man just like
you Jacob. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain in
the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed and the heavens gave rain
and the earth produced its crops. Elijah was a man just like you Jacob.
Meaning he had the same frailty. Some some Bible say he had the same weaknesses,
he had the same frailties as you Jacob. Very honorary man. So here is God saying
I want to raise up an Elijah like people and the first
qualification is he was ordinary. Do you understand why this is such an awesome
possibility? Elijah was a flawed man like us. No pedigree. Ordinary like you and it
gives me tremendous encouragement because I can at least be like him or be
more because at the end of the day he didn't have a regenerated spirit. He
didn't have a brand new spirit. He didn't have indwelling Christ in him but I have
that too. Elijah was a disadvantage. Elijah was at a disadvantage compared to
me. Secondly let's switch to John who was a type of Elijah. John was ordinary.
John was ordinary. Marcus what's the rest of your name? Marcus? Okay so
switching between Elijah and John is like calling him Marcus and then calling
him Gabriel because his middle name is Gabriel so that so I'll keep switching
between Elijah and John. So let's look at John now. John was ordinary but
different. It's one thing to be ordinary folks but we need to be different. If you
remember John came from a Levite line. Zechariah his dad was a priest yet John
did not eat like the Levites, he did not drink like the Levites and he did not
live where the Levites lived. He did not eat certain foods, he did not drink wine
and he lived in the desert. So it's one thing to be ordinary but folks if you
want to be raised up in the spirit of Elijah which I say to you is a vital
thing for this church please understand I'm not making these statements so that
the message sounds more powerful. I'm telling you that what we are hearing
right now is what God wants to do with this house so please hear open your
ears like Jesus says let him who has ears hear because these are not words
that I'm putting in a sermon so that it comes out right. I couldn't care less
really. This is what God wants for us in this house and this is the time to say
it too. It's not premature. So ordinary but different ordinary but different.
Not like the other Levites, not eating and drinking like the other
Levites, not inhabiting the same places like the other Levites. He used to live
in the wilderness. You have to be distinctive folks, you have to be
distinctive. You have to be distinctive. Oddly enough he didn't go to the town
square for an audience but to the wilderness. He drew people out instead
of being drawn by people. I just love that about John. I mean if a guy wants
an audience he should go right into Jerusalem because that's where all the
famous prophets used to go. I mean the prophets of those times who wanted to be
heard. If you wanted an audience you would go to Jerusalem. You would hobnob
with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the rulers and the scribes. Jerusalem
was a place where you would go to. Instead of going to the seed of power
this man goes exactly in the opposite direction into the wilderness. He draws
people to him instead of being drawn to people. That's a distinctive. Yeah he was
ordinary but he's different. May that be something that we do.
We draw people. We don't go to the most popular places to be heard but people
come. You see that with Jesus. He'd get famous in one place, he'd say no no I'm
moving on to the next town. He'd be caught in on mountains in the desert
places people would throng around him because they came to him instead of he
necessarily going to the places where he would get a large audience. No. You see
that with Paul. Spent the first 14 years of his ministry in absolute seclusion in
the desert. Went to places that no one had laid a foundation in. Places that
were difficult. The only place that he went to where he thought he would get an
audience was Mars, Zill and Athens and that didn't work out too well. They came
and listened to him because that was a place where you went to speak. They came
and listened to him and when he got to salvation they said now we got to go.
Ordinary but different. Never seeking the popularity of people. That's a kind of
that's a typical characteristic of an Elijah people. They never want the fame
or the popularity of people. Never wanted. Couldn't care less about it.
So opposite to what churches become now eh? So opposite to what television church
shows have become. Where you cannot survive if you do not have people behind you.
Where when you do crusades you go to the largest cities of the world. You go to
the same cities that have been evangelized since Billy Graham started.
Over and over and over and over again.
And I love what John says. He should increase and I should decrease. No ambition man. I used to think that is such a negative to have no ambition. It's one of your strongest points if you have no ambition. No ambition. You are led, you are not driven and you are not driven.
It's one of your strongest points if you have no ambition. No ambition. You are led, you are not driven and you have absolutely no ambition.
Ambition always involves stepping on someone. Ambition always involves requiring some fame or gain.
Drivenness always involves a pushing aside and a pushing forward. Being led is just following as he opens doors and you sit there and you have such a loose grip on things. When your time there is over you let it go and you move on. It's a very different way of living folks.
This next part we dealt with two things. One we said Elijah was a flawed man, ordinary man. Then we talked about how he is ordinary and different. He doesn't want fame. He has no desire in terms of ambition.
The third thing we talked about Elijah which is important for us is an Elijah people are generational. An Elijah people are generational. I'll explain that.
Folks why are we discussing this? Because we want to know what it is to walk in the strength and style of Elijah. Why do we need to walk in the strength and style of Elijah? Because God wants to raise an Elijah people here on earth. Why does God want to raise an Elijah people here on earth? Because when an Elijah people are raised they are ready others. They prepare the way for him to either bring a move on earth or bring a season onto the earth or they prepare people for him to appear and do things in their lives. That is where we are going with this.
I already said to you that this is the season for us to learn this and to grow into people like this. I heard from someone and I hope it's not true. I heard this man saying sometimes it takes five years before a truth becomes absolute reality for us in our lives. I pray God that it's not that long.
So I would say to you if you're feeling tired and weary get up because if this was a course that would earn you a million dollars you would sit up and listen. And what value can you place on this? I'm not talking about sitting up as in your posture. I'm saying arise oh sleeper, awake.
Because I know Bernice has had a long trip and Wayne has a long trip. See please I'm not trying to be imposing what I'm saying is we need to hear folks. Because if this was anything else that would win us forget a million if at the end of this evening we had a test and each one of us was going to be given $20,000 I assure you we would be awake and we'd be listening.
Why am I saying this? Because I know how important this message is for this house. Please understand I'm only doing this for our benefit. I'm not trying to push you into anything. If after all that you are exhausted it would be natural for you to go to sleep. So feel free.
But your spirits can be awake to listen. And Elijah people are generational. What I mean by that is that they always reproduce children who are taught correctly. And Elijah people always will teach children, always will reproduce children who are taught correctly. Elijah had Elisha folks.
John had a bunch of disciples and John was amazing in that he didn't have any problems when his disciples left him and went to Jesus. Did you know that some of John's disciples joined Jesus and he let them go.
Please understand that Elijah and Elijah people will always reproduce children and the children that are produced will be taught correctly. Elijah was taught well.
You know we talked about when we last talked about fathers and sons I was talking about the set man of the house. And now I'm talking about us as a people being fathers. It doesn't matter whether you're a woman or a man. You are called to be fathers and you are supposed to produce sons. And it doesn't matter whether you're a woman or a man again.
The words I'm going to use are sons and fathers. Everybody here is supposed to produce children. If you're an Elijah people you will produce children who are taught accurately.
It may be your own home. It may be children in school in Seuss case. It may be a Sunday school that you're in charge of. It may be one person, one person that you meet with and have suddenly felt in your heart that this is someone I need to deposit my life into.
Or it may be a church over which I'm a father right now. But what is required of an Elijah people is that they always produce children and leave a legacy on earth.
Those operating in the spirit of Elijah will nurture men and women who will have a heart of a father so that sons are produced. Folks this is so vital for God. You know when I think of, we'll get there a little later, I'm going to read this.
Why is this important? Why is it important that we be fathers? Why is it important that everyone in this house be a father? Because if you are not a father you will never be able to turn the hearts of the children towards you.
If you're not a father you will never be able to turn the disobedient towards the wisdom of God. If you don't believe me check first Malachi 4, 5 and 6 and then Luke 1, 16 and 17. Malachi 4, 5 and 6 that's the last part of the Old Testament.
And see what happens if we don't turn the children towards the father. Malachi 4, 5 and 6. See I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of his death.
Malachi 4, 5 and 6. Hey Ryan can I grab some water man? Thanks. Malachi 4, 5. See I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the father to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.
Look at the next verse or else I'll come and strike the land with a curse. Now go to Luke 1, 16 and 17.
Luke 1, 16 and 17.
Luke 1, 16.
Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. He's talking about John the Baptist.
Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and the power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous. Why? To make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Very clearly says that.
One of the things folks that we have to become is fathers because if we are not fathers we will never be able to draw the heart of the children towards God.
We will never be able to turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous because if you're a Sunday school teacher, if you're a pastor, if you're a parent, if you're a Bible college professor, nothing, nothing will ever be able to connect with the heart of the children unless you're a father.
I mean is it is it shocking that the younger generation do not know their God? No, because they may have parents at home but they have never had the luxury of spiritual fathers. I'm a product of the luxury of spiritual fathers in my life folks.
If you think I am anything today it is because of the fathers I've had who labored and invested when I was obnoxious, when I was good, they kept investing. We have no idea of the extreme importance of this.
The sad part is if I'm not a father I'll never be able to draw the children to him. I'll never be able to turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous and you know what will happen? When God will come and he will give me the children of the righteous.
If I'm not a father I'll never be able to draw the children to him. I'll never be able to turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous and you know what will happen? When God will come, when he brings on a season, when he brings a movement or when he actually makes an appearance, you know what will happen? They'll reject him.
If they reject him they'll be smitten with a curse. In this case a curse is a ban. That's what the word means. What do you think happened to Israel? They had scribes, rulers, Pharisees, Sadducees, Rabbis, teachers, scholars.
What happened? What happened between Malachi and Matthew chapter 1? Where were the scribes and the scholars and the teachers and the Sadducees and the Pharisees of Israel? Where was the Sanhedrin which was supposed to be the ultimate seat of godly knowledge? They were all there folks but they were exactly that. They were Pharisees, Sadducees, rulers, scribes, teachers, lawyers and Rabbis but they were never fathers.
What happened when their king came riding on a donkey? They did not recognize him. What happened because they did not recognize him? Their land has been smitten with a ban or a curse. John was sent to prepare the way of the Lord. Many turned but not all turned.
No, we'll be talking about that. We don't need pastors, Sunday school teachers, religious parents, college profs and youth ministers but we need fathers. We need fathers. If these things that I've just called out they're not fathers then they're really doing a disservice.
Because the children, we'll look at a Sunday school teacher as a teacher, we'll look at a pastor as a pastor, we'll look at a religious parent as a parent who practices religion but when a child sees, when I talk about child I'm not talking about children, I'm talking about anyone in a stage of growth in Christian life who is a non-Christian.
When they see a father they suddenly see modeled the life that they can live, the godly life they can live and they begin to connect. Suddenly the disobedient begin to see the wisdom of the righteous displayed and they begin to respond.
Their hearts are now readied for what the Lord wants to do in them. I'd like to say that having multiple primary sources in your life, in your spiritual life, is a very important thing.
I'd like to say that having multiple primary sources in your life, in your spiritual life, is a sign of immaturity and is actually even a sign of itching ears. Let me say that again.
If you have multiple primary sources in your life, if there are two, three, four different streams that you're drinking out of and all these are given primary importance as in this is as important as this is as important as that, then I'd like to say it's a sign of spiritual immaturity and it's also perhaps the beginning of disease-calling ears.
First Corinthians 4.15 says, sorry go ahead James.
There are spiritual teachers but I'm not talking about teachers, I'm talking about, no there's a difference.
Like Paul puts it this way in first Corinthians 4.15, he says you may have many tutors but you only have few fathers and I'm your father in the gospel, he says to his people.
So you can have many teachers but when you have different people that you go to and look at them as your primary source, then there's a problem.
Even when my dad was alive, there were uncles that I would go to because I wanted, I liked them and I liked spending time with them but I never replaced my dad.
So for instance, at present someone I see as a father in my life at this season of my life is Eddie but you know what, when I taught about Melchizedek, I actually remember I was talking about giving to Melchizedeks in that teaching,
I gave to people other than Eddie but not for a moment do I think they take the place of Eddie, no. At present he is the one who I see as a spiritual father in my life.
No, I'm saying that we need to, let me put it this way, you can never be a father unless you have been a son.
You need to connect, pardon? You need one primary source that you acknowledge. You can learn from others, from many others because God puts different deposits in different people but you can never be a father unless you have been a son.
Yes, because there are some people who come into your life and they may stay for the rest of your life but there are others that God brings into your life as a primary source of drawing, of sucking everything from their life.
That's appointed to you and a time may come when that changes.
No, it's not. I'm saying if, let's assume you come to Acts 29 and you just said what you said. You also go somewhere else where you're a, let's say a member and you acknowledge that person also as your spiritual father.
Now you can't have two, three, four different spiritual fathers but tutors you can have plenty. The Bible talks about it. I mean Paul says it very clearly. You can have many tutors but you can't have many fathers.
And like one of the qualifications of being a father for an Elijah type of person is you've got to be a son too. You can never be a father unless you have been a son.
But I'm saying to you that everybody in this house should develop the heart of a father because it will be the most successful qualification you have in dealing with the world on the level that God wants to deal with.
Because it will not be your messages. It won't be the principles that you speak. It will be your life that you will pour into them. You think this man is giving him money and food and that's all?
That's just something on the side man. He pours into him his life. He will die for him.
That's what we've been called to.
Because of the lack of spiritual fathers, the lack of spiritual fathers is not enough.
Because of the lack of spiritual fathers, we are spawning generations that have an inaccurate concept of Christ and they're being swallowed up by the devil.
Because the church is mimicking Babylon. Generations are being churned out over the last hundred years who don't have spiritual fathers.
As soon as they leave church at 18, they're swallowed up by the devil.
You know me well enough to know that this is not about men.
I'm not saying that you're not a man. I'm saying that you're not a man. I'm saying that you're not a man.
I'm saying that you're not a man. I'm saying that you're not a man. I'm saying that you're not a man.
I'm saying that you're not a man. I'm saying that you're not a man.
You know me well enough to know that this is not about membership, not about control.
This is just about the truth which spiritually benefits us.
Because of the lack of real spiritual fathers, we are spawning generations that at 18 leave the church and are immediately swallowed up by the devil.
Because the church is mimicking Babylon.
Babylon doesn't have father-son relationships.
Babylon has boss-employee relationships.
Babylon has hireling, sheepdog and sheep relationships.
Yeah, yeah. So true.
You know there was a point, and I'm putting this on tape, and if Eddie hears it he'll have a couple of thoughts.
There was a point when I was talking about the relationship between sheep and sheep.
Yeah, yeah.
So true.
You know there was a point, and I'm putting this on tape, and if Eddie hears it he'll have a couple of thoughts.
There was a point at which I realized that there are people who sometimes come up with greater wisdom in their teachings than Eddie.
And there was this fraction of a second when I thought, hmm, maybe I should follow that man and that man, not this man.
And suddenly I realized that what I was doing, and I'm just telling you the horrible truth, what I was doing was I was being selective about who I want.
That's the one who will.
I mean that's like selling your father.
My dad has only this much money. Aha, this dad has more money. Let's make him my dad.
That's a vulgar vulgar thing that's happening in the world too, folks.
Where we hop from place to place, skip from place to place. Why? Because we want to find what is the most palatable.
You will get a whole lot in the bargain, but you will never get life.
The investment of life you will not get.
You will get all the things of life, but you'll never get the investment of life into you.
And at the end of the day, what changes you and me is when someone's life is invested in you.
That changes.
You know, since my dad has died, there have been many people who come and say, you can call me dad.
And you know, I just can't get it. It comes to here and it stops.
They'll say, no, no, you can call me dad.
They're as old as my dad. They're pretty nice to me.
But it gets stuck here, man.
Why? Because I can see there's only one person that I call papa, bickering.
Because I can see that he would probably really put his life in for me.
But the others, no.
I don't want to call anyone dad.
Flippantly.
So make sure you know what you're doing before you step into it, folks.
I'd say make sure even in this church, do not connect yourself to this set man as the father of the house if you are not confident.
Do not.
Unfortunately, what that means is also perhaps that you'll never benefit fully from this house because you're not able to connect with the set man and the father of the house.
That's there too.
So start looking for some other place.
I'm just being very simple and gentle and straight and telling you the truth.
We talked about this a while ago.
God establishes divine order through humans.
Throughout history and into the future too.
Is that the whole messed up Catholic hierarchy thing though?
Yes.
So you're not going to be able to connect with the set man as the father of the house if you're not confident.
You're not going to be able to connect with the set man as the father of the house if you're not confident.
Throughout history and into the future too.
Is that the whole messed up Catholic hierarchy thing though?
We're not talking about a hierarchy.
If you go back and examine Aaron's Rod, the CD, we talk about that in detail.
Folks, this is not a popular message, eh?
It really rubs you wrong.
If need be.
Because you're talking about flawed individuals, man.
But any order in the church or in the economy of God is always through human.
Wherever you go, you can take the New Testament or you can take the Old Testament.
Just like God of white Moses and Joshua and Jerusalem.
Yeah.
Then you shift into the New Testament, it's the same.
The book of Acts.
Is it accountable?
Partly.
Because it's easy to say I submit to a God I cannot see.
But to make it tangible, when you put flesh on people, man, it's so difficult.
Yeah, doesn't work.
Yeah.
There's nobody to check you.
I mean, let's go back to that simple thing where I said I charge you.
When I said that two weeks ago.
I was wrong in that.
But if I'm an authority unto myself, I would say I was right.
I promise you, I will never, as far as I know, ever take away your freedom or control.
And if the moment you begin to smell that in the church, leave.
Because control is witchcraft and it's not from God.
Leave.
It's just not a part of this body.
Oh, what I meant is do not tolerate it.
I'm not saying leave as in get up and leave.
I'm saying don't tolerate it.
Come and talk about it so that it can be sorted out.
Yeah, sorry.
Then you're in the wrong house and you should find someone who has.
Because another qualification of a father is that he has a heart of God.
He's cultivating the heart of God.
Everyone sitting here.
If you are to become fathers, you have to be a shepherd who has the heart of God.
And I'm not talking about myself now.
I'm talking about each of us becoming fathers so that children can be turned back to God.
So that the disobedient can be turned back to the wisdom of the righteous.
You've got to have the heart of God.
And I am nowhere there.
But boy, do I know that I want to be all that I'm called to be.
Okay, some of the things about fathers.
If you want to be a father, be it a father of one or many, you have to be a son.
You have to be a father first.
We talked about that.
The second point also we said, a father is a shepherd after God's heart.
A father is a shepherd after God's heart.
So in nurturing Ryan, he has to understand that before anything else, he's a shepherd after God's heart.
In nurturing your students, be it Sue or Diana or whoever has a bunch of kids,
you have to be a shepherd after father's heart.
In nurturing a person that you meet one on one every week,
remember that before anything else, you have to be a shepherd after who pursues God's heart.
Because otherwise all the wisdom that spews forth from your pearly lips are worth nothing.
I was supposed to say all the pearls of wisdom that come from your mouth.
Instead it ended up being all the wisdom that comes from your pearly mouth.
Sorry, got it wrong.
Okay, moving on.
You know Sue, a guy can never respond to the word cute properly.
No, no, no, I'm just making a statement.
If you said that to Chris or someone, she'd go, oh, but a guy quickly turns away.
Cute and a guy just don't go together.
Right guys?
Okay.
Pardon?
Thanks, Charles, for backing me up on that one.
Moving on.
A father, yeah, you start by reflecting the father's heart with your wife, with your children,
with the small group you are in, with those that are under your charge, with your son, with your daughter.
You start by reflecting the father's heart with your wife, children, church, group, church, charge,
who's putting your charge, sons, daughters.
You start there.
A father produces sons who can transmit not just a message, but the very god life that you are modeling.
Folks, this was one of the biggest problems that I faced with one of the leaders in Bahrain.
I found that the person was taking the messages that I was sending and he would study it and then present it.
But he was not living it, nor was he drawing from my life after the 20 years I've spent with him
to begin to live it and for it to come out of his belly.
He was just letting it come out of here.
And so he had to make a decision.
And as when you, like I meet with a person every week, not from this church.
I'm meeting him tomorrow at 4.45.
And my desire for him, because he's asked to grow into this relationship,
is that he doesn't just receive the words I speak, but begins to draw from the deposit of Christ in my life.
And I'm saying to you, you have a unique deposit of Christ in your life.
You may not have understood the full extent of it, but you have it.
You have a glimpse of it.
Here is a woman who will sow seed.
There is a woman who will be strong and go different places.
There is a woman who will be a mother.
There is a man who will...
Jeff, what did I say about you today?
One, that you will be settled.
Two, that you will go on a cruise.
There is a man of whom every time he steps up, his eyes come into greater clarity.
He'll be able to see things clearly.
See, what I meant is, these are just prophetic words that give you a glimpse of the deposit of Christ in you.
So when you become a father, when you begin to operate in the spirit of Elijah and being a father,
you know what happens to the person you're relating to?
They begin to not just receive the words, they begin to receive this very deposit,
where she begins to produce more mothers, she begins to produce more sows,
she begins to produce people who are going abroad, she begins to produce evangelists.
This begins to happen.
He begins to produce people who will be prosperous throughout their lives.
This is how it works.
But I can only do it when I come into that relationship.
Don't hurry into it. It has to develop, folks.
It has to develop.
But know that that is where you're heading.
This doesn't mean that, oh, hi Ryan, my name is Jacob.
Hey, I'd like to be your father. You have to be my son.
No, no, no, no.
That's not how it works. That's horrible.
You sit with the person and you develop a relationship,
and then you know from God whether this is something that needs to be done.
And at some point you begin to act first.
You don't say, I want to be this. No, no. You be this first.
And then once you begin to be that, then he has a choice to respond to it.
He can reject and walk away, and that's perfectly okay.
But you have now become what you need to be to him.
At some point he recognizes it.
Eddie did that with me.
And I didn't want that relationship.
I think I told you that.
I kept shrugging it away.
I'd be comfortable with him saying,
you're my brother, you are this and you are that,
and I'd be comfortable with that.
I didn't want to get into that thingy of the father thingy,
and I just kept away.
And for very long, and he would treat me like a son.
He'd sometimes, by mistake, call me the names of his son.
He'd say, hey, Paul.
And then he'd, oh, hey, David.
And then he'd remember and say, hey, Jacob.
And I would keep him, I would hold him like this,
but I would keep him at a distance.
And I remember at one point,
when these truths began to come alive,
I decided that, okay, Jacob, what do you want to do?
And at one point, he never pushed it.
At one point on the phone he says,
Jacob, you're my elder brother.
No, Jacob, you're my brother in Christ.
And I responded and said, Eddie, you're like a father to me.
And there was this pregnant moment of silence,
because I think he also realized that suddenly
I had finally released with my mouth what I needed to speak.
And I had been enriched by that relationship.
I'm not hung up on this thing,
because I'll teach this today and we'll move on,
but I hope you get hung up on it.
Gosh, I just seem to want to keep throwing the disclaimer
that this is really not about me.
This is about us, about you being fathers, too.
It just so happens that because I'm the set man in this house,
that I have that role to play.
Good point. Good point. Very simple.
If he comes and meets with me,
when I ask us to be fathers,
what I'm saying is that we develop the nature of a father.
So that is how I now approach this relationship.
Therefore, regardless of where he's searching or what he's doing,
my input into his life now begins to flow like a river,
because thanks man, because I have taken on that role.
This is not about imposition.
It can be with your children.
Your children in your class will learn more of who your God is
and will begin to see your God more clearly
when you begin to be a father to them.
But it does not mean that they now have to respond and call you anything.
It means I have taken on this persona or this heart
that will now act towards in that way.
And what will happen instantly is that the moment you do that
and the moment you say, father, this is what I want to be,
what happens is the children begin to turn to you
and the disobedient begin to turn to the wisdom of the righteous.
This is not about I want to be...
Not lording it over.
Not lording it over. No.
So there are different levels of fatherhood then.
Yes.
The difference between sharing truth and sharing your life.
Yeah.
You can teach a lot of people things.
But you get closer to people when you share your life.
And they understand your strengths and weaknesses.
Yeah.
Like you see in what's really best.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm going to South Africa in July for a conference there.
And Eddie and Yvonne won't be there.
But one of the things they want me to do is come and spend two or three days with them at their house.
And I'm looking forward to it.
Because I know that I will draw from their lives.
When Alex came here, I was excited about Alex coming here.
Because I wanted him to spend five days with me and draw out of my life.
Unfortunately, he was coming here to absorb the beauty of the land.
Which, nothing wrong with that.
But the other part wasn't as important.
We've talked about this. So it's okay to...
A father should have enough faith, tenacity and wisdom to motivate sons to position themselves to receive a double portion.
Strange it is.
Whenever I have read about the double portion, I've always thought, oh, it was Elisha.
Elisha was a great guy.
He got a double portion.
He's the one that we need to focus on.
Folks, he only had to receive it.
You know who had to give it?
Elijah. And you know what Elijah had to give Elisha?
Elijah had to give Elisha two times what he was.
That requires tenacity.
That requires wisdom.
And that requires faith to bring your son into a position where now he is able to somehow stand.
And I can give him twice as much as who I was.
How many times did he give it to me?
How is Marcus going to give Ryan twice as much as who he is as a person?
How?
If he has a hundred liters and that's his capacity, how is this man going to give him 200?
You see, it's the faith of this man that's going to come.
And that's the faith of this man.
You see, it's the faith of this man that's going to accomplish it.
That's another thing we need to develop as fathers.
The ability that if we are with a group of children,
we are with a one-on-one relationship or with a house,
that at the end of the day, I have the wisdom and the faith to give twice of what I have to the sons.
I don't even know the beginning and the end of it.
I don't even know the beginning and the end of it, but I know it's real.
A father does not look for conformity.
He only looks for continuance.
A father does not look for conformity.
He looks for continuance.
He does not want sons to look like him.
He just wants sons to continue and increase in the purity of their doctrine,
in the purity of their faith, in the purity of revelation,
in the purity of walking life amazingly.
That's what fathers want.
They don't want conformity.
You don't want to look like your father.
You want to be continuing into something that is greater in purity.
The other beautiful thing is, folks, you know, your greatest assets are your sons.
Your greatest assets are your sons.
If someone asks me, what's your greatest asset?
My reply should be, my sons.
My greatest asset when I left Bahrain was those three people who came and said what they said.
Those are my greatest assets.
Because if I die today, I know that they have what it takes
and they have received the deposit from my life.
My greatest assets are my sons.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, 2, you are the seal of my apostleship.
He tells the people who are following him.
What's the point of me being an apostle?
Paul says, if I have nothing to show for it, you are the seal of my apostleship.
1 Corinthians 9, 2.
Your greatest assets are your sons.
When you leave the earth, if you have not left a legacy in terms of spiritual sons,
your own biological son can be a spiritual son too.
But if you leave the earth and you have not left a legacy of spiritual sons,
you have not done what you were called to, folks.
Recognize that.
And do not take the responsibility of being a father lightly in this house, folks.
Because please understand, just as you as a father can be a covering and blessing to somebody,
in the same way you can impugnate your father,
you can impugnate your father.
You can impugnate your father.
One of the things I am so frightened of is walking in sin,
knowing how it will affect you.
It just bothers me so much, man.
Because if you are choosing to be a father,
you are not a father.
You are not a father.
Because if you are choosing to see me as a set man,
if some of you choose to see me as a father in this house,
if you have come under the covering of Acts 29,
I am the set man of Acts 29,
I guarantee you my walk will affect your life.
You want to see Achan?
It says Achan's whole family was stoned to death.
Numbers 30, again it says this,
in Numbers 30 it's talking about a woman
and it says,
if a woman takes an oath and she speaks it out loudly
and the father in the house does not void it,
then that oath stands.
What it was trying to say was the,
just as a covering can be a blessing,
trust me, it can also be a scary thing.
So regardless of whether I am at home
or whether I am in a hotel in Jakarta,
I have to make sure that if not,
obviously for my own sake and for the sake of the father's love for me,
but if not that, for the sake of the house I belong to,
that my walk be pure.
It's not a burden, but it's a responsibility.
And I want to say to you fathers here,
please, and if I am coming across harsh, please forgive me,
please don't take your role as a father irresponsibly,
because like it or not, regardless of how much your wife may do, may be,
how much she prays, how much she may be taking care of your house, of your child,
if you are an irresponsible father spiritually,
then know this, that your family will be harmed.
It's just the way it is folks.
It's the way it works.
Isn't there a point where our understanding of being pure and right,
doing anything right, is not like what God's is?
So we can sin and not know we are sinning,
and if we are so paranoid that anybody of us in the church,
for the eldership or anybody below us, for new believers,
and if there is any mistake we are going to get damaged,
that's not certain what the scripture says.
We are under the covering of Jesus, so yes we need to be concerned.
There is no such concern that any level of slip up is going to affect the whole hierarchy underneath us,
and all this stuff above us.
Okay, I agree that every little fault is not going to count,
but if your pastor begins to practice pornography,
yeah, and you won't know it folks, you won't know it.
Pornography is a secret sin. Let's assume I begin to practice it.
Let's assume this is what I do when I live in hotels and other places.
You are not there. I promise you that if that becomes a practice in my life,
God will expose it so that you will be aware of it,
God will help you to restore me, and may I be humble, I mean I don't even want to go there,
but the point is that the effect will be there.
And is there precedent in the New Testament? Yes.
Why does Paul say that take out the yeast of immorality from your midst?
Why? Because if I allow yeast to fester in the community of believers, it will spread.
Which is why he said, how can you be so happy about your meetings
when you are letting a man who lives with his step-mom into your church as if nothing is a matter?
You can't.
Remember, this is a community created by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit. And there are certain standards required in this community.
We live by Kingdom Code. And Kingdom Code, one of the pillars is built on is holiness.
There was a person who I know who is living in an adulterous relationship,
and when the person asked to come and speak here,
we had to say no to him because if he now living in an adulterous relationship with a powerful ministry
comes and ministers here and lays hands on you, he passes the word of God to you.
So we had to say no. You can't come and preach here.
Well, we should say no because of what he's doing, but I don't think that every sort of laying on of hands
of someone who's doing the wrong thing, God's safety, blood of Jesus on all believers that we can.
Again, he's so paranoid that no one can touch him.
It's not paranoia. It's not paranoia.
It's principle, and the principle is very simple. My people perish for the lack of knowledge.
So as long as we operate by the proceeding word of God, God will keep us safe.
If we choose to ignore the proceeding word of God or seek God, then it is not effective.
For instance, Joshua had this bunch of guys called the Gibeonites.
Come on, Joshua, you're not going to be able to do that.
For instance, Joshua had this bunch of guys called the Gibeonites come to him.
They came with moldy bread, they dressed themselves in rags, and they came and said,
we come from a far off land, we want to make a treaty with you.
And for that one instance, Joshua didn't ask God.
They ended up making a treaty, and forever then the Gibeonites became a thorn in their side.
So it's not being paranoid. It's walking in wisdom and hearing.
So, I mean, we don't have to live in fear of, oh, this person's going to do this to me. No, no, no.
But I'm saying to you that a constant life practiced a certain way will affect the church.
And if, for instance, we find a couple here that are living in common law,
then at some point, not at some point, if I know it, I'll have to approach the person and say, sorry.
As a people who are a community of the Holy Spirit, we will not be able to affirm you in this relationship.
So as a church, either you need to get married or you have to live separately.
But this common law, you cannot continue to come into the church.
If you do, then we will have to exert church discipline.
If they chose not to sign the covenant that we have in this church, then we can't even discipline them.
They can keep coming. But I feel bad for anyone who boxed God in this house.
Not box us, but box God continuously in this house, because we're trying to build this house accurately and God will deal with it.
Also, there's another scripture that says, my people perish for lack of knowledge.
And because they have rejected knowledge, I will also reject them.
So that's how it works, folks. Our God is a consuming fire.
About a while ago I sent you a text.
I don't mind sharing it with the church now.
My text said, I cannot go where I have to go unless I put you where you belong.
Yeah, yeah. This was between him and me. He was writing to me.
Just be quiet and let me continue.
I like this next point.
I like this next point. I just so love this.
A father opens areas for the sons to walk without limitations.
A father opens areas for the sons to walk without limitations that the father labored in most of his life.
That is so beautiful.
A father opens up areas without limitations for his sons to walk in where the father labored most of his life.
Just imagine that. We are laboring with Christ's life.
We are laboring with Zion. We are laboring with the principles of glory.
Why? So that we can teach this and others can walk in it right from when they are young.
A father opens up areas without limitations for his sons in the same areas that he labored most of his life.
That's just so awesome.
I received this beautiful email this morning.
And it kind of illustrates that point.
It starts saying, Hi Jacob, just wanted to let you know that I'm really excited about the things we are going to learn over the next few weeks.
I can't believe that God has made a way for these things to be taught to us this way.
And most of us are so young, so privileged to receive this now.
I don't know how others view this, but I'm very thankful that I'm getting a chance to learn this now, not when I'm 50.
And it dawns on me that this is how God really meant us to live.
And I read this and I thought, so true man.
We may have labored at 45 and 50 and 65 and 85 here in this church to bring these truths.
But here is someone who is less than 30 who's writing and saying, Man, I'm so privileged to learn this early.
What about him?
Yeah. I mean, here's another namuna. Sorry, another sample.
What about that?
What about Matt?
They learn it at an early age, man.
Yeah. Yeah.
This morning I was going through the notes.
I came to the principles of glory in the body, how God's glory in us should be evidenced to the beholder.
And then that becomes the greatest tool of evangelism.
That's amazing. It's so true.
No intellectual, intellectual or atheist or any other argument stands a chance against the glory of God.
And this whole thing about how it is to be a body as a bride that we displayed is absolutely true.
The whole thing about how it is to be a body as a bride that we displayed is actually a transforming revelation that God desires to see his character and glory and all that he's revealed in the church as a whole.
I'm really excited.
I think some of these pictures are getting clearer.
It sounded so hazy to me when you first started talking about it.
I'm really interested in this displaying glory thing.
It sounds so revolutionary to live life that way.
I'm amazed at the things locked in the depths of God's word that are true treasures in every sense of the word.
Thanks so much for your time and opening your life to us, Jacob.
Really cannot put a value to these things.
God bless you.
I'm reading this and thinking, man, it's so worth it, man.
So worth it that these people who are less than 25 are learning it and are excited about it.
You've got to start traveling, folks.
Just ask the Lord, Father, when the time is right, please, I want to go on one of these trips.
And if the Lord says yes, then don't worry about the money.
Meaning, when I say don't worry about the money, it doesn't mean it will fall through your roof.
What I mean is just don't worry about the money.
Do you want to stop now or can I do one more point?
Tell the truth.
Okay.
Folks, open up areas for your sons to walk in.
Open up areas for them to walk without limitations.
Work hard on what you're learning.
And then when you minister, when you're sitting in this relationship where you're being a father,
regardless of what your father is, you're being a father, you're being a father,
you're being a father, you're being a father, you're being a father, you're being a father,
when you're sitting in this relationship where you're being a father,
regardless of whether the person sees you as one, accepts you as one,
open up a relation, open up things that you have worked so hard, so labored,
so that the other person can walk in freely.
Just do that.
These truths we are learning, go home.
Marinate in them.
Make them part of your life and then open up your life,
regardless of whether the person accepts you as a father or not,
so that that person can walk in it without limitations.
You struggle with it throughout your life.
He's a beneficiary.
Do this.
You suddenly transfer it into a person, your very life,
and you're living it accurately, and they get a deposit of it.
It is so magnificent when that happens.
Imagine if you raise a generation like that.
You know, today Chris and I were talking about this just off the cuff,
that wouldn't it be wonderful if we were able at some point to establish a school
that acts 29 runs of kids between the grades of one to, say, three to begin with,
where by the time they get to grade three,
they have such an understanding of God that no one can take it away from them.
Go back into the secular system.
Go back as Daniel Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego.
Can you imagine what that will do?
You never know.
Then perhaps we can employ Diana and Sue.
Moving on.
Or just a thought, huh?
It's not a prophetic word.
At least not yet.
The last point I want to make is folks, operating in the spirit of Elijah
trusts us into acceleration.
Operating in the spirit of Elijah allows us to enter into acceleration.
I'll explain what I mean by that.
It's a magnificent thing.
So here's what we've done this far.
To operate in the spirit of Elijah, we found out that we need to be ordinary,
which we really are, in case you thought you were otherwise, you're wrong.
Two, you have flaws.
You are not after fame.
You're not after reputation or ambition.
You are ordinary but different.
Three, we talked about how Elijah, people who have a generational approach to things,
they are fathers.
And four, we're talking about people who have the Elijah spirit,
have the ability to enter into acceleration.
Enter into acceleration.
A strange thing happens in Mount Carmel in chapter 18, verse 45 of 1 Kings.
The cloud has come, the fifth-sized cloud has come, the clouds gather,
the rain begins to pour, and Elijah says to Ahab,
get into your chariot and drive.
And then Elijah girds up his loins and he runs faster than the chariots.
You know, people who walk in the spirit of Elijah have the ability to enter into acceleration in their lives.
And what I mean by that is, folks, John achieved in his lifetime,
what 400 years between Malachi and Matthew could not achieve.
Jesus achieved in three and a half years what 4,000 years of humanity could not achieve.
Paul achieved in his life as a man born out of time much more than any of the other apostles achieved.
Paul actually puts it in words.
He says in 1 Corinthians 15, and the audacity of the guy,
he says, I'm a man born out of time, but I have done much more than all the others put together.
He actually says that in 1 Corinthians 15.
But you see, there are people who have the ability within a limited amount of time to achieve much more than normal folk can.
And please don't look at your age.
You may be 45, 55, 65, 75.
But please understand that because you're seated in the heavenly places, it's a place where chronology does not matter.
Yeah, it's an encouragement.
True, but there are people who think I'm 65, 75, 85.
I'm 65, 75, 85.
I got a few years left.
How much can I accomplish?
No, no, no, no.
Because of this thing called acceleration, it applies to everybody.
Don't look at your age.
You can accomplish in a limited amount of time much more than most normal folks.
To come into this grace of acceleration, this is one of the simple things that I have to do.
Given that I'm going to operate in the spirit of Elijah, I'm saying to you that there is an acceleration in my life that I can enter into.
What do I mean by that?
Part of what I mean by that is all the years the locusts have eaten can come back to me instantly.
Two, I can run faster than most people would take time in a chariot.
Three, I can finish within the limited time all that I'm supposed to in terms of destiny and perhaps do more because I have more time.
But all this is accomplished by doing one or two simple things.
One, I have to run to the entrance of Jezreel.
If you read 1 Kings 18.45, it says there that Elijah girded his loins, meaning he got ready, and then he ran ahead of the chariot to the entrance of Jezreel.
What that signifies for us, the word Jezreel means something that is planted or sowed by Almighty God.
Jezreel stands for anything that is planted or sowed by Almighty God.
One of the things required to move into this acceleration is that I understand that the only things I will set my hand to from today on are the things that are sowed or planted by God, and I will not touch anything else.
I was listening to a YouTube, I was watching YouTube, and it showed, it talked about this pastor who took his son to the Oregon coast, I think.
And they were collecting shells. The whole family was walking on the beach collecting shells, and the boys had their hands full of shells, and they were having a really good time.
And these were broken shells, broken starfish pieces, and they were just admiring it, and the parents were just enjoying how the kids were having fun.
And suddenly over the waves, they saw a full starfish.
And the pastor tells his son, look son, there's a starfish, go get it, go get it.
And so the son goes into the water, and then he stops and he comes back.
And the pastor says, come on, go get it.
And he says, I can't. He says, no, go get it.
So he runs into the water again, and he goes further, and he's near the starfish, and then he runs back to his parents.
And he says, I can't, I can't. His dad says, it's so close, it's coming closer, go get it.
And then he runs, and now he's right over the starfish, and then he turns back and runs back to his father.
And he says, I can't. And the father asks, why can't you get it?
He says, because my hands are full of shells.
And it's only a story, it actually happened, but it's sad in my heart.
And Elijah people are a people who have decided once and for all, and I speak this for myself.
I will not touch, and I'm declaring this. People were declaring two things today.
I'm declaring it to you for my own sake. I will not touch anything that is not sold by God in my life,
because my days are numbered and I want to make every day count.
I will not touch anything that is not sold by the Almighty.
I will not touch anything except that which is found at the entrance of Jezreel.
My hands have to be empty to grab whatever God gives.
Acceleration happens when two things happen.
One, when you decide that you will drop all the other shells in your hand.
And two, when you decide that you will only pick up that which God is sowing.
Because God can cause a plant to crop up in the desert in a second, like he did for Jonah, and he can take it away too.
The second one is that I will only take that which is at Jezreel, meaning that which God has planted.
Two, I will release the shells that are in my hand, because a starfish is a much greater price.
That's when you enter into amazing acceleration.
Paul said, I'm marked for one price and I will run after it because that is my calling.
And everything else aside, I'm going to put aside, I'm going to run just for that.
Folks, you are people of destiny.
But I know that sounds like such a cliché, but I'm saying to you that enter into acceleration.
You'll finish so much more.
Cast aside everything else. Cast aside the two jobs you have. Cast aside the other interests.
Just decide that this is what I want. This is what I'm going after.
That's how athletes practice. You'll see it in 2010. Everything else cast aside.
I declare that and I refuse, oh God, I refuse to pick up anything that is not sown at the gates of Jezreel.
Because not an iota of what you're supposed to do here on earth should be incomplete, folks.
Sure, man. Sounds good.
Let me finish.
You know, when you do that, the hand of God, the Bible says the hand of God was in Elijah.
And the sense of the Hebrew word hand of God is the power and the means and the direction of God was on Elijah.
And God gave him wings on his heels. And that's what happens.
When you do these two things, God's hand is upon you, meaning God's power, means and direction is on Jacob.
And suddenly Jacob has wings.
That's what happens.
Folks, these messages are not an end in themselves.
Don't make, maybe never make these messages a golden calf.
They're not an end in themselves, but they're meant to plow, to pave, to forge a mindset.
And it should show in your behavior, life, conduct and culture.
If you say you're apostolic, if you say you're sent, show me your lifestyle.
What do you watch? What do you say? What do you do? What do you look at? How do you act out?
What do you think? What do you defend? What do you justify? What do you stand up for?
And I will tell you if you're accurately representing Christ. And you can say the same thing to me.
I'm going to say something that will shock you now.
We'll do it next week.
Oh, okay.
Folks, if you intentionally connect with, continue in and practice the doctrines and the grace of Christ upon this house.
I'm saying this without, I may not say that said the Lord, but I actually mean it.
As in that said, if you intentionally connect with, continue in and practice the doctrines and the grace of Christ upon this house,
you will have everything you need to fulfill your destiny.
And you will see everything God says in his word come to pass before your eyes, before you leave the earth.
I promise you that it's not an empty boast.
I'm saying it to you in a thus said the Lord capacity.
I'm saying to you that if you connect with intentionally, if you practice,
and if you continue in the doctrines and the grace that Christ has deposited in this house, two things will happen.
One, you will have everything you need, regardless of your present situation, to fulfill your destiny.
If necessary, it will be accelerated.
Two, you will see the word of God come to pass before your eyes.
You will see the things that people long for happen here.
That's just something on the side.
And I'm saying that to you in this house.
I promise you that not because of anything that you are or I am,
but simply because of the grace and the love that God has for this home.
I know we are boasting about this home, but I boast this in the Lord, folks.
You will see that.
Yeah, you will see that.
You will see the word of God come and happen before your eyes.
The word will become actual manifestation before your eyes.
I promise you that if we keep on with what we're doing right now,
and if you keep on with the doctrines and the grace in this house.
Now, here's the other part of it.
And I'm going to put myself in so it doesn't sound like I'm pointing my finger at you.
If I am selective, and I pray God that you hear this,
if I am selective or complacent in my practice of truths
and only want to wet my feet in the flow and deposit of grace upon this house,
I should make plans to leave, because if after what I receive here I won't respond,
God will take me out of the earth early.
Let me say that again.
If I am selective or complacent in my practice of truths
and only want to wet my feet in the flow and deposit of grace upon this house,
I should make plans to leave, meaning I should make plans to leave this house,
because if after what I receive here I won't respond,
God will take me out of the earth early.
Like I said, I'm being very...
I don't want to call it a prophetic word,
but I'm saying I'm speaking what I believe the Lord is saying.
Just be aware of that, folks.
But I put it...but I said it for myself, because I need to take note of that.
In the sense...
Yeah, which would be wrong anyways, but just be aware of it.
Any clarifications on what I said?
Do you want to hear it again?
Or have you heard it?
Can you say that last...
I'm not sure if I can say that in the morning.
Can you say that in the middle?
No, no.
Okay, can you...
I'm going to say something.
If you intentionally connect with, continue in,
and practice the doctrines and the grace of Christ upon this house,
you will have everything you need to fulfill what is appointed to your destiny.
Everything will be provided through the deposit of Christ in this house,
and you'll see you fulfill your destiny.
And you will see everything God says in the Word come to pass before your eyes,
meaning some of the things that we've seen in the Old Testament
and the New Testament will come to pass before your eyes.
But if I am selective or complacent in my practice of truths
and only want to wet my feet in the flow and deposit of grace upon this house,
I should make plans to leave this house
because if after what I receive here I won't respond,
God will take me out of the earth early.
You know, tonight is just kind of a point,
and here is a line that stretches on beyond, beyond, beyond, beyond, beyond...
Okay, so you're at this point today.
And the amazing thing is how we decide things at this point
will begin to affect the rest of our lives.
I'm not trying to be dramatic, nor am I trying to scare or do anything,
because neither scaring nor being dramatic is a Jesus character,
but that's how it is.
Yeah, I'm just telling you the truth.
So, any questions, comments? I'm done. Any questions, comments?
Where does hockey fit in the picture?
Yeah, if hockey ever becomes a distraction
where it robs me of anything of God, then it would be terrible,
and I am absolutely confident right now
that hockey is not a blind spot in my life, surprisingly.
Many times when I talk about hockey here,
it's because it's become a trademark from the past in my life,
and I exaggerate, but hockey is not a blind spot in my life.
Yeah, it's very simple. I use this example always.
When I was a believer, when I was a new believer,
the Globetrotters came to town,
the Harlem Globetrotters, the basketball team,
and I had a choice, either go to church.
I was a fan of basketball then. I didn't know hockey then.
I had a choice, either go watch the Globetrotters or go to church.
I had a choice, either go to church or go to the club.
I had a choice, either go to the club or go to the club.
I was a fan of basketball then. I didn't know hockey then.
I had a choice, either go watch the Globetrotters or go to church,
and the choice was very simple. I went to watch the Globetrotters
because I wasn't particularly interested in church.
Six months later, the Globetrotters came again.
It was a Sunday, and I had a choice,
go to church or go to the Globetrotters.
I went to church. Why?
Simply because God had become more interesting.
There is absolutely no... I mean,
I know she asked the question flippantly,
but I don't have a radical answer.
No, flip. Yeah. Sorry. Let me correct myself.
Diana was asking the question.
Yeah, just asking the question.
I'm responding to it seriously because you should...
I need to clear this up.
There's no comparison between who I know God is
and who I know...
what I know about myself and God that hockey would ever be.
But...
Can I change the question?
At what point hockey is a blind spot
and not because it's a blind spot, it's a blind spot.
So how do you determine what other shelter should be dropped
and what are just things you can enjoy?
Um...
Sorry, go ahead, Joan.
Yeah. Yeah.
One, when it becomes... when I have a tight grip on something.
One of the signs of something that is becoming a hindrance in my life
is when there's a tight grip on something.
Yeah. But one of the ways to know it
is when I have a tight grip on something.
Be it travel, be it hockey, be it coffee, be it anything.
I mean, we're getting too frivolous now.
But things that bother my life will be things
where I have a very tight grip.
Acts 29 could become a hindrance.
If I have a tight grip on Acts 29,
which is a ministry thing, then it becomes a hindrance.
So that's one way to find out.
Two, may people point out.
At the risk of losing your friendship, may people point it out.
At the risk of offending you, may people point it out.
Where your hands are full of shells.
Three, the Lord showed me a dream four years ago on January 1st.
I got up and I'm with these three girls from my past.
No, one of the girls is from my non-Christian past.
One of the girls is from my Christian past.
And one of the persons was from my present.
Someone I know, another female.
And in the dream, I'm talking to all three of them.
I go talk to one person and I'm very nice to her.
And then I quickly go to the other person.
I'm very nice to her.
And the third person.
And it was like playing three fields at the same time.
And I wake up and one of the things the Lord said is,
Jacob, make sure this year, this was in 2004 or 2005,
make sure this year that you don't keep all your options open.
You either choose what I tell you to,
but don't you maintain three balls in the air at once
and keep all your options open so that the one that is most compatible, comfortable, popular,
and that suits you best is the one you take.
And the dream has stayed with me.
Because one of the things we do is we keep two or three options open
so that we can get the best out of all three.
That's not how it works with God.
No.
That's not how it works.
You've got to know what God wants and then run with it, folks.
That's having your hands full.
Do I want a starfish?
Do I want an octopus?
Or do I want a mackerel?
And keep all three.
While a treasure chest of gold just floated past me.
Feel free to get up whenever you want to, and if you have questions, keep asking.
Go ahead, Matt.
Oh, okay.
Father, do you want to broach us on this right now?
Father, could you please remind us to pray for this next Sunday
so that what we've learned we can marinate over
and come with our hearts ready so that we can pray for it next Sunday?
And I pray that you will help Matt to remind me, Father.
Amen.
Bible study will be here Tuesday, Revelation chapter two.
Very interesting.
You're welcome to join us.
Anne's house is beautiful.
Yes, Anne's house is beautiful.