You Are In Revival - Murray Watkinson

Murray Watkinson preaches a powerful prophetic message about how the harvest time is right now and the Lord has released an anointing over our island for souls. He shares practical keys from Proverbs 30 on the wisdom from God for winning souls and advancing the kingdom. This message is a great encouragement to reach the harvest and step out in to what the Lord is doing right now.

Our heart at Celebration Church Rarotonga is that this message will greatly bless your walk with Jesus and help bring you closer to Him. We pray that you would be stirred to live a life that is passionate about loving Jesus!

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Transcript

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Welcome to this week's podcast by Celebration Church Lot of Toma. We believe this message will empower and equip you to live a life of breakthrough. Thanks for joining us.

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Wow, what a blessing. I feel like I've uh really been to church this morning. And uh just the beautiful, beautiful presence of the Lord in the house. And um, you know, I was felt the Lord was speaking to me during the worship time. I always sort of sit down and write things down, the Lord is saying, but as I was sitting there, I just started weeping. I just felt the Holy Spirit, you know, just in your midst, and you've um uh don't ever take the uh the Holy Spirit or the Father or our Lord Jesus Christ, never take them for granted. And um, it's an incredible privilege for him to come tangibly like this and to presence himself amongst us and amongst you. And um, you know, you prepare a place, remember John the Baptist, he went and prepared a way for the Lord. And um often in the church people don't understand that we prepare a place for the Lord. And whether whether it was a um uh a barn for him to be born, or whether it was uh the palm the palm leaves that were laid down as he was coming into Jerusalem to give up his life, but um people always prepare a place, and there's I I feel um there's revival here. Um I was thinking about what Don McDonnell said at our conference recently, and he said, I'm not waiting for revival, I'm living in revival. Yeah. And it's here. Kiorana. I've um I've got quite a simple message. Uh this is something I don't usually do because um uh anyway, I'll I'll just go for it. But uh thank you, Jonathan Natasha and uh Zach and Liddy, Gus. So many of you people, first of all, I just want to say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Our church in Christchurch has been through a pretty hard time over the last three or four months, and uh things that we never really expected or anticipated to ever happen in our ministry kind of took place. And uh you guys came in force to conference and you brought such a spirit of victory and a spirit of encouragement, and your presence and carrying the presence of the Lord, you so encouraged the body, you so encouraged our church. Our church was different than that one night. I don't know what happened, that you broke forth into dancing, you wouldn't let the worship stop. I love that, I love that. I wanted to throw all the chairs away and just let loose. And uh, but I do want to thank you and also just want to really thank you for your generosity. Like all of the people we come over here and you lend us vehicles, you come and help us with our house, you you mow, you you bring food. Best bananas I've ever had. I I must have eaten 40 bananas in like three days, and I'm thinking about them now. Um Donna brought a big bunch of bananas, they were fantastic bananas, I tell you. Nothing like that in New Zealand, they're all frozen, and uh yeah, anyway, won't go there. But um, yeah, I just I just feel so grateful for you as a people, as a church, as a family, as part of our family, and just want you to know how blessed we are. We um yesterday I I went for a short time down through the market, and I felt the Lord just started speaking to me. I know probably historically in in the Cook Islands, you operated on a barter system. So if a family next door went out in fishing and they had a good catch of fish, they probably brought it back and shared it with the families around them. And if someone had a taro patch, they shared that and they ate the fish and shared the taro and the pawpaw. And um probably your culture was set up on a barter system, but over the years what I've noticed is the Lord has brought you into a business system. It's interesting, Jesus in his parable, he said, Do business till I come. Um, and so business is not bad, business is good. But yesterday when I went down through the market, the number of you people that are in business just kind of blew me away. And um, the Lord just started speaking to me. I mean, I really believe that God is gonna bless abundantly um your physical businesses and the creativity. It's almost like if you have a barbecue and a and a piece of meat, you've got a barbecue business going. Um, if you have some fruit, you've got a smoothie business going. If you've got a paintbrush, you've got a painting bridget or a pearl business going. And um I I saw um Charles's uh book stand yesterday, and beautiful, those kids' books. And a lady came along when I was there. Yeah, they're awesome. And uh and uh look like a grandma and her daughter or older daughter, and they were looking at the books. I said, Man, these books are amazing. You've got to get them for your grandkids. And uh then I said, This is the this is the author, this is the guy that does he writes the books. And see, that's special, that's special. I want to know the guy that writes the books, you know. I want to know the guy that writes the songs, um, I want to know the God who wrote the word. Um something so uh what I want to say is um just what you what you are, which you probably take for granted, all of the colours, the design, the creativity in your clothing, in your hair, in your A's, in your flowers. Um do you know I I uh Usie um comes from the Cook Islands, he's in our church at home, and he was talking to me like uh he said, Oh, you're going to have to Raru, you need to have some raw fish, and that was I love raw fish. But anyway, um, and then he gave this big smile, and I realized it was a Raro smile. You guys have a national smile. I don't know how to explain it. You have this giant smile, and I don't see that anywhere else in the world. It's a raratong smile. You know, God, you're very unique. You're really God has created you're so you're so unique. Um, you're generous. Almost all, you know, like you the generosity is you overflow with generosity. Um I love your creativity, I love the dance. I love dancing myself, but I'm not coordinated. Like you guys are coordinated, but I can sort of slip in amongst the coordinator group and do a few wiggles, you know. And um, and the Lord notices me in the dance because I kind of stand out, like the awkward one, and the white one as well. But um, you know, you've got the music. Um uh I was watching a little bit of Facebook, and it was all um, because I'm in Rara, it was all Raratongan, and it was all dance, music, food, the island. I saw them people out on these small kayaks and that, and the um the whale sharks coming up between the kayaks. I'm thinking, man, this is this is God, like the whale sharks communicating with the people. I don't know, it's amazing. But I just I really want you to understand what you have. You have an entrepreneurial gifting as a people. It's quite incredible, actually, um, the way that God uses you in business. And I just believe that God is gonna multiply, multiply, multiply this gifting that you have. And it's um it's already gone to the world, but it's gonna go to the world. Now I'll get my glasses out and have a look at my notes to see what I missed. I got most of it, passionate. Alright. Um I've got now this, I haven't, I don't do this, but I'm I felt this when um I was praying about what to share with you. And I'm gonna share. This is a repeat message. I very rarely ever share a repeat message, uh, but I felt the Lord spoke to me, and how the Lord spoke to me, I was out in the garden and um and I pulled up this little tree, and there was an explosion of ants that just came out of the ground, and uh they were they were just frantic, they were going all over the place. Um, they dived on my feet to attack me. I thought, don't you know who I am? Like your ants, you know, don't you look up or something? The ants is their head down and they're all they look down as on the bottom, because if they went like this, like I'm a giant, you know, compared to them. But the ant, and I felt the Lord just started speaking to me about um about the ants and um and the activity. There's a proverb, it's a really interesting one, and this, because I believe you have a spirit of revival in the house, and there's an a there's uh an incredible anointing for evangelism on you now, on the island now. Right now, I can I tell you, with the authority of God, um, there is a spirit of evangelism on this island. So, like you have um harvest, it's harvest time. You've got to understand it's absolutely harvest time right now. You don't have to wait, it's happening all around you. The harvest is actually ripe uh on the island. Proverbs 3024 says there are four things which are little on the earth, but they're exceedingly wise. The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer. The rock badges, they in the Bible it's often called the conies or the rock badges. It says a feeble folk, yet they make their homes in the crags or amongst the rocks. The locusts have no king, yet they all advance in ranks, and the spider skillfully grasps with its hands, and it's in the king's palances. And um and this message actually came out of the teaching of the G12 uh soul strategy, but I just really feel it's a word for you guys right now. So these four, if you take notes, it's gonna be one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. This one is gonna be easy. So we're gonna look at the ant, the badger, the locust, and the spider. Um, the scripture says that these animal, four animals are exceedingly wise. The scripture also says he that wins souls is wise. So a soul-winning person is wise. And um the ant, the interesting thing about the ant, um, I've never seen an ant laying on its back on the beach uh tanning. You notice about the ant, they're always working, they're always flat out. And sometimes when you watch them, you don't know where they're going, and I sometimes think I'm not sure they know where they're going because they go out and back and out and back and all around. Um, but they've always got purpose. There's a plan, like the ant is always preparing for the future. And the ant is driven um by purpose. There's a story I read years ago about um uh Genghis Khan. He was a Mongolian warrior, very, very successful warrior. He'd been out to battle, he was trying to take over the whole world, uh, but he'd been out and he had been defeated in a battle. And he had had to retreat, and he went back into a barn, and he was sitting in a barn, as the story uh goes, and he watched an ant with a heavy load on its back, and the ant tried to climb over this log, and he counted that every time the ant went up the lag at the log with the heavy load that he fell or the load dropped off the back of the ant. And he said, um, on the 72nd time, the ant succeeded, and he carried the load over the log and then went on about his business. And Genghis Khan said, if the ant can persevere to that level to get success, why can't I persevere in my life to actually gain success? And he said that he regathered his forces and his troops and he went back out into the battle that he'd just been defeated in and had a great victory and wrought a great battle. But um it's interesting that the ant, you know, he's um the ant is actually driven by purpose. It's always planning, it's always moving ahead, it's always planning for the future. And it's work, work, work. You know, like um some people uh today I think they want everything without work, and uh that's a bit of a problem because um when God created us and put it in put us in the garden, one of the first things He gave us was work to do, uh tend a garden, look after the garden. And um if you find if you find the pleasure and the joy in work, it really adds something to your life, something very powerful. I know that um a lot of people my age, I'm 73 now, so um getting up there a little bit, but a lot of people my age, they go into a retirement mode, and I've watched them time and time again when they step down and go into retirement, it's all enthusiasm, you know, golf four days a week and that in the beginning, but they age. They just something, they lose vision, lose hope, lose direction, and they begin to age very quickly. And um uh look I've got family members that are my age, and they just you their life it doesn't seem to have any drive, any meaning. There's no purpose to get up in the morning anymore. I I really believe that um um work is a gift of God, it's something that God has given us, and I believe that um keeping you know your hand to the plow and keeping working, it makes you young. You know, I do get complimented quite often, they say, Mary, um surprised at how old I am. In China, you go to China to do business and they and they have young uh ladies that are interpreters, and uh they kind of flirt with you, but not sensually, but they flirt for business. So they say, Oh, how how old you? And uh see I speak Chinese fluently. Did you pick that up? How old are you? That's Chinese for how old are you? And um and uh I say, Oh, I'm 70 or I'm 72, and they oh you very old. And that's kind of def you know, it kind of deflates you a little bit, you're sort of like shh like that, and then they say, but you don't look that old. And uh because it's all about um if they can sort of rub your massage your ego a little bit, they're gonna get a sale. But anyway, um and then they say um because a lot of the people my age in China because they were overworked to the point that their bodies actually break down, they kind of tick. A lot of them tick. We hear about the ones that live a long time, but a lot of them die quite young. But I I believe I I believe that maintaining purpose in your life and work keeps you young, keeps you alive, it keeps you going. And uh my mum just turned a hundred. And uh yeah, yeah, and she's still cheeky ass, man. I'll tell you that. But I, you know, like my mum, one of the things they people ask me about your mum, say, Oh, why do you think your mum lives so long? And I say, Well, I think my mum's alive by sheer determination. She's had cancer three times and operate on the and she's still a hundred. And when we're at her hundredth birthday, she looks like she's gonna go like 110 or 120, how I don't know how old. But scary. And the amount of food she ate at the thing, I couldn't believe it. Do you notice that? Old people can eat a lot of food, eh? She actually had a special dish that was ordered for her, and she looked at her daughter, my sister, who's nearly 80, looking at my sister who's nearly 80, and she says, Oh, I think I like what you've got better than what I've got. So that got shoveled over and she ate that as well. And I thought, goodness me. But um, we're meant to be like the ant, the ant is driven. We have a purpose. And um, it's really interesting in Acts 26, 16, and this is after uh member uh Paul got knocked over by the Lord, he has a supernatural encounter, uh salvation encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. And then uh the Lord speaks to him, he says, Arise and stand on your feet for this purpose, for this purpose I have appeared to you. And um, so when you read that, for this purpose I've appeared to you, you want to know, well, what was that purpose? You know, what was the purpose? And later on in Acts 26, um, Paul's actually talking to the king, he's in uh 26, 19, he says, Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do the works befitting of repentance. So he says, Stand on your feet. Um for this purpose, God said, I've appeared to you. But you see, sometimes what happens is we get caught up in all sorts of other things, and we don't realize that every single one of us who has met and know the Lord Jesus Christ has a divine purpose to share the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you what, the enemy will try to bring every other thing into your life to stop you doing that one thing. But that one thing, like faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God, sharing your testimony, sharing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the most important thing we have to do on the face of the earth. Because it if people hear the word, faith comes and their lives can be absolutely radically changed. It doesn't mean it doesn't mean that you know they're going to be rich or wealthy or anything, all of those things, although it gives them the potential for that on the earth, but it means eternity. It means that they're not going to go to hell forever. I mean, that's good, isn't it? I mean, we we don't we often don't have a forever mentality. You know, we have a short-term mentality and uh in a throwaway society today, everything's short-term. You know, the toaster only lasts six months, and that's why they're only 25 bucks now. You throw them away. But but really, uh God created us for eternity. We we we we're gonna be alive forever. We're gonna be alive forever, forever. You're gonna be forever with him on the earth and the new creation, new heaven and the new earth, or you're gonna be forever with the other guy. And the other guy's not good. No, not good. So the second, the second, so I I believe we had we're to be um we're to have uh purpose in our lives. Paul also said this in Philippians 13 forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward for those things which are ahead, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us, as many as are mature and have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, then God will reveal this to you. I love Paul there, he's kind of a bit cheeky there, isn't he? He's saying, This is what the Lord is saying to you, and if any one of any anybody thinks otherwise, then I'm gonna pray that the Lord will reveal the truth to you as well. You're all called to share the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in a powerful way. So the badger is interesting, it's a coney in the Bible. It talks about it's sometimes you see the American badger, which is quite an aggressive animal, but this animal in the Bible it's talking about is a defensive animal. And uh the badger is quite timid, and um it's interesting because um they they dwell in families, and um instead of attacking the enemy and overcoming the enemy, uh what the what the coney does in the Bible, they run in amongst the rocks, they hide amongst the rocks, and so um uh the ant is all about purpose, but the badge is all about partners. And it's it's really interesting about um the way that the badge of partners, because he he doesn't actually always gather with other badges to protect himself and to go into battle, he gathers with the rock. And when I was thinking about that this morning earlier, I thought, yeah, that's what we're to do. You know, in the in the context of God, we're the ants and he's the giant, you know, he's the God. We're the conies. We we don't, we're not as strong as we think we are, you know, in the spirit realm, even in the natural realm, we're not that strong. But we see the conies, they get in amongst the rock. This is celebration on the rock. Who's the rock? Christ Jesus is the rock, who's our strength? It's the rock, it's not the salmon rock, it's the Jesus rock, isn't there? He's the rock, Christ Jesus is our strength. See, um, I don't know, uh, a bit old school in that. Like um, I love seeing that young couple up here this morning. Nancy and I met. I was 16, Nancy was 14, and uh just a beautiful young couple. I want to say young couples last in God, married for 50 years, still going strong, and you guys have got a great future. And um you you know, we kind of grow up with your kids, it's pretty good. It's good for the kids too because you're still young enough to enjoy what they enjoy. And um, so when you make that mashed food for them with the carrots and the parsnip and the potato, you eat half of it yourself. But anyway, you won't go there. But uh so um uh so the cone, what the coney does, the cone goes back and hides amongst the rocks. And I believe that's a message for us. We always got to realize that um, you know, we're we're frail, we're gonna we're never gonna be anything but human. God, in all the promises in the word, doesn't ever say in the new heaven and the new earth you're all gonna be a bunch of gods. He doesn't say that. He does say that we're gonna be kings and priests in the kingdom of our God, we're gonna have service and work to do in the kingdom, but our rock, you've got to understand that our rock, um, when we're together with him, we have we have we're invincible when we're standing in in relationship with him. And uh so the Coney, it's all about uh partnering up. Partnering up's really interesting in the Bible because it talks, Jesus sent them out two by two. Um, if any two on earth will agree in prayer, it'll be done for them by their Father in heaven. And uh, I know this is a simple word, but man, you're you're you're on the edge of um an outpouring. Well, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is here, but see what happens in revival is first of all, revival comes and it challenges our character and our hearts. And usually when the spirit of revival comes, there'll be certain things that take place. First of all, there'll be deliverance from demonic entities and powers that may have been influencing areas of our life, and so there'll be an emphasis in the church against spiritual warfare, coming against principalities, coming against powers, coming against spirits, because spirits are there. What they want to do is they want to shut down your life. Uh they want to bring hurt and pain and all sorts of things in their life just so you won't function and fulfill your divine destiny. You all have a divine destiny in God, and in Incredible plan that God actually has for your life. And so here we go. There's something powerful. If any two on earth agrees, the corporate premium, the corporate worship. You probably got up this morning, you might have put on a worship tape in your house and that, but you would not have experienced anything like coming in here. When you come in here and all of the people start worshiping that corporate anointing, it's powerful. It's multiplied. I mean, you look around the world in the news these days and see what's going on. People are rioting. Why do they riot? You don't you never see one person having a riot, do you? Have you ever seen one person having a riot? They call that a tantrum. And they're usually about this small. And it happens in the supermarket by the chocolate bar, doesn't it? That's where it happened. We know they have a tantrum. And often when they have their tantrum, it terrorizes the parents. Nobody else is terrorized. Everybody else wants to offer some help. Usually, like I need to go and spank that child. That's what that child needs in the days thing. But nobody's allowed. Anyway, you won't go there. But see, what you've got to understand is there's power in numbers, there's unity in numbers, there's authority in numbers. There's something that happens in numbers. When you move, when you move together, you're a mighty force together. Like when you come into unity. See, in the book of Ephesians, it says there were one God, one faith, one spirit, one hope, one kingdom. See, it's all about the oneness. And when we come together, that's what worship does. Worship gathers us all up from all of the struggles and the battles of the week, and it focuses on God, and we're all coming together and worshiping Him, and then something begins to happen in the house. Powerful. You're in revival. You've got to understand. I love what Don said. He said, I'm not looking for revival, so much praying for it out there, waiting for it, I'm in it. And that's where that's what's you're in it right now. I want to announce to you. You are in it, and it's incredible. Um I don't know why. This is this message. I preached this message the 6th of December 1998. Not bad, eh? Is old wine coming out? Some of the old wine's pretty good though, eh? It's good for you. And uh and uh I said there's safety in numbers. I had this illustration, and we had this gang member in our church, ex-gang member, great big guy, his name was Lenny. He passed away quite a few years ago now, and I gave this illustration. I might be on the beach uh sunbathing, and someone would come and kick sand in my face, because I'm just a little guy. But if uh Lenny was next to me, they probably wouldn't kick sand in my face. And um I was thinking, well, I could have Kuda and Kevin beside me on the beach, nobody's gonna kick sand in my face. Um the Lord spoke to me about a movement of churches, what he said to me, he said, This is what I understood about the vision of God. If you have ever received a vision from God, something that God wants you to do, it's always bigger than you can accomplish on your own. Always. The vision of God, when he plants it in your heart, it's all it always requires other people to be involved. The vision of God is all if you can achieve it all by yourself, it's possibly not the Lord. The Lord, when the Lord gives you a vision, because God is so big, he gives you a little wee tiny vision, and it's way bigger than you are humanly. It's it's unachievable in your own strength and your own ability. Um, because see what the Lord wants to do is he wants to fulfill that vision with you, partner with you to fulfill the dreams and the visions that he has for the whole of humanity. You guys are so powerful. I I get excited about it. The the third thing is he talked about um uh the locusts. In the book of Joel, it talks about this army of locusts, Joel 2.9, and it says they rush on the city, they run on the wall. Great is the army that carries out his words. Um they devour everything in the site in their sight. And um, I've watched, I kind of um uh like watching things like this. I watched uh a couple of years ago, they were having um uh like there were these uh locusts in that in Africa that were just going through and ravaging. And um they were videoing them, and absolutely incredible. They couldn't fly planes, they were uh everything was getting shut down because the locusts, and when the locust swarm uh came over an area, it shut out the sun. There were so many locusts flying, it basically shut out the sun, and what the locusts did is they just literally devoured every bit of food, every green substance before them, and basically when they went through, they just they left like a desert place. But it's interesting that um in the scripture it's talking about an army of locusts, but see what they do is like I suppose in the um in the in the insect uh life, they kind of rule the airways. They rule the airways, and um that's what I think that prayer does. Prayer actually rules, it rules in the uh in the airways. Um we know that the weapons of where warfare are not natural, but they're spiritual for the pulling down the strongholds. We know that the things that are happening in and around our natural lives are caused by what's happening in the spiritual realm. We know because the Bible tells us, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12, it says, For you wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and spiritual forces from on high. And we know because we know God, God has enemies. God's in a battle, a battle that he will ultimately win, and we're in that battle because we're associated with God. And the moment we surrender our hearts to the Lord, not only do we receive all the benefits and the blessings of the kingdom, we also enter into battles that we never imagined we were going to be in. And we're into this spiritual warfare. And the locusts, when they come, they dominate the airways, they dominate the airways, and God wants us to dominate the airways. The Bible says Satan is the prince of the power of the air, right? Prince of the power of the air. But when you gather together, like even this morning in the worship, and then Jonathan got up at the end of worship and just started leading us in a little bit of prayer, and that's what it's like. It's like we were like the locusts being released out into the airways to devour the works of the enemy. One of the ways that we devour the works of the enemy is we expose what the devil's doing. We expose uh what the enemy is actually doing. We bring their his dark ways or those dark demonic ways out into the light of the gospel of the glory of God. And when we bring it into the light, it expose what Satan is doing, it disarms them, it disempowers them, it breaks his power. You see, um uh revelation, it says you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And revelation is about being able to see, it's about understanding. God brings revelation so that we can see what's going on in the spiritual realm. We can have revelation so we know what we need to deal with, right, to release, release our lives down here in the natural realm. I was thinking about uh I read this illustration back there in 1998. I had this illustration. A man goes to McDonald's, I don't know why, he goes to McDonald's, he buys a hamburger, he did went through the drive-thru, he was in his car. Mate, I can't even eat McDonald's anymore. Um, I've been on a little bit of a health thing, which is really good. Not that I don't diet. Well, I do, I'm on a seafood diet. You know where that's going, don't you? But um I I saw this clip, I saw this clip the other day, and the guy had a 25, 25-year-old cheeseburger from McDonald's that he had got the receipt when he bought it. He'd he'd done it in plastic, so he sealed the receipt, resealed the uh had the burger in the original wrapping, and he opens it up after 25 years, it's not mouldy. It the only thing that had broken down was the pickle. The only thing that the meat was the same, the bun was the same, everything was the same. So if I eat it now, because when you get a bit older, your your um digestive system becomes highly attuned to the things of God. And if I have a if I have a big Mac or a double whatever burger, it stays with me for a long time, I can assure you that. But anyway, this guy had gone through McDonald's, he brought a burger, and he's heading out in his car and he's eating the burger at the same time he's driving his car. And as he takes a bite of his burger, the pickle slips out onto his uh down onto his trousers, onto his waist. And you know what that's like? Well, I don't do you do that? I do that, I drive and eat. Like uh the car in this hand, the big piece of fish and chips in his hand. But um, anyway, he goes down, and what he does is because it slips down with the sauce and the pickle, he goes down like this, he's driving the car, and he inadvertently goes across the road and finds a truck coming the other way, and he actually dies. And the message, the message is, you know, that sometimes we get caught up with the pickle in our life, and we're not looking ahead to what God has actually planned for us, and we crash because our focus is wrong. Like, if I was to say to you, you ever been hurt, ever been disappointed, ever been let down, ever had a broken promise, uh, ever had something happen in your life, ever been offended, ever had something terrible happen in your life? Do you know what I can tell you this morning with absolute truth in the word of God? It never happened today. Not today, it all happened yesterday. You know, we actually use it as a thing, oh, he got his life in a bit of a pickle, because I think that's where this illustration came from. But see, that the pickle in your life is not where you're meant to have your focus, because if you're focused on the problem and the battle and the thing that's immediately before you, often the enemy orchestrates the immediate difficulty, the immediate trial, the immediate battle. He orchestrates that and illuminates that in your life so it gets your focus off the purposes of God. Nancy had someone testify the other day. I I think I'll get this right. She said, I've been a Christian around the church for 40 years, and I just realized I've never led anybody to the Lord. And um, what a scary thought. What a what a scary, scary thought. But I would actually hazard a guess in the body of Christ around the world, there's many, many people that have never, ever had that incredible opportunity of sharing their faith and actually praying with someone to come to the Lord. Like when you're in the ministry is a bit easy because you have an altar call and all those people that you've been reaching out to, you bring them in and they respond, you get to pray for people like that a lot. But um the thing about it is if if the primary purpose of God in our life is the same as what he gave the Paul, go and preach the gospel to every nation, there ought to be some fruit. There ought to be something happening around our lives. I'm not saying that to bring condemnation, what I'm saying that is to bring an expectation. God has appointed you and anointed you uh to go and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, that you would bear much fruit. Not that you would bear no fruit, that you would bear much fruit. But what the enemy does, he shuts the mouth of the church. And faith comes by hearing, and if you don't speak, they don't hear, and if they don't hear, they can't believe, and if they can't believe, they never get to know the Savior. And if they never get to know the Savior, it's all downhill from there. Even in this, even in this life, people that don't know Jesus Christ today, living in this society, they live a completely different life. There's there's turmoil and stuff that surrounds their life all of the time, battles that they don't even recognize often that there is a spiritual enemy that's assigned to bring them down and destroy them and their families. When I saw that young couple, I thought of that promise in the book of Acts that the gospel is for you and your family. So, what I want to say, I would say here, a lot of people, you pray for your family, you get burdened for your family, you get troubled for your family, you're lifting your family up. I'm not saying don't do that, but can I say this? But a lot of the stuff that a lot of the stuff that we work towards as a priority in our life is actually meant to be a byproduct. I'm gonna explain that. One of the best things that you can do if you have a burden for your children to come to the Lord, first of all, the Bible promises you and your household. So you've got to understand that number one, it's a promise of God. So, what the enemy will want you to do is to be so concerned about the battles and the struggles that your kids may be going through and the fact that they're not with the Lord at this time or don't seem to be too interested in the Lord, and then he draws your attention away every prayer time, every day, every week, you're feeling troubled as a parent. Where did I fail? What happened? It's all it's all flipping demonic. It's all so you go into prayer, you pray, pray, pray, you're praying for your kids all the time, and without understanding, without understanding that if you do what God has called you to do, right, He takes care of, He takes care of stuff. Like I've Nancy and I have been blessed financially, and people say to me, How come you know you're a pastor, you got blessed financially? I can assure you it's not from the church, but it's been a byproduct. It's a byproduct of having God first in your life, having him as number one in your life. So all we can do is what we can do, and he can do all the stuff that we can't do. But faith, look, I want to tell you this might be a key for people praying for children today. It might be a key. Trust the Lord, place them in the Lord's hands. There's a there's a like when you have faith, you trust the Lord, trust in his word, trust in the Lord, and you step back and you take your hands off. Now the Holy Spirit might impress you, you know, pray this day, pray that day. That's absolutely fine. But if you see, sometimes we're operating out of fear, we're not operating out of faith. We're afraid they won't come to the Lord and go on in their lives and be what Jesus called them to be. And we're praying out of fear, we're not praying out of faith. I want to tell you like most of the good stuff that will happen in your life is a byproduct of your seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Like having a great marriage is not so much focusing all the time on your marriage, it's focusing your time on the Lord. Like if you have a if you have a great relationship with God, it'll overflow into all of those other relationships. See, people don't understand, even in the business, um, we've been in we've been incredibly blessed. In fact, I wondered whether I'll have a talk to Jonathan about whether I should do something on finance maybe midweek or one, you know, before I go. Because uh man, God has just blessed us so abundantly around this area, but I can honestly say it hasn't been our primary focus or purpose for, you know, we've been serving the Lord now for over 40 years, and I've worked on a basis in my personal life around that is 90% God and 10% for me. 10% of my life activity has been around personal provision and those things that relate personally, but if you see what the Lord has done in my life, you it'll blow you away. And that's that's what I want you to understand. Look what the Lord has done. Look what the Lord has done. Look what the Lord has done. Oh, you know, I believe it. You could have three people in the market selling pearls. This this this guy here, they're honoring the Lord and everything they do with the pearls. They they will sell ten times the pearl that those people sitting there that don't know God, not honoring the Lord. This is how God does it. It's his blessing, it's his anointing, his anointing. You the nation has an anointing for business. So that's why because because you have such a generous heart. So God will bring resources into you because you have a generous heart. You understand the principle, you're automatically givers. You every time there's a sports team going somewhere, there's a raffle or a giving, or people are coming around. They don't do that in New Zealand. They come round that New Zealand would say, mate, are you Jehovah's Witnesses something? Get out of here in Jesus' name. But over here, it's normal. It's normal. That generosity is normal. Anyway, the locust, the locust is um, I was thinking about what Don said again. He's been kind of that evangelistic gift has been a bit of an influence on me. And thinking about you probably heard you're either a thermostat or a thermometer. And a lot of Christians are thermometers, you know, they go church to church, place to place, house to house, and they're always sussing out the atmosphere. Like, oh yeah. You know, I went to this church, it was pretty dead. Um, or I went to this church, it seemed to be alive, or you know, uh, but but we meant to be thermostats, you know, it's an old illustration. Because a thermostat, we've just got um some uh air conditioning put in our room, and I keep running into the room and turning it on all the time. And then I wonder why the power bill is so high. That's a consequence. But anyway, um the thermostat determines and see when we when I came in here this morning, you determined, you determined the atmosphere that was in this house. You did you set you set the bar that we are gonna meet with God, we are gonna worship God, we're gonna focus on God, we're gonna meet with God, the power of God is coming. Anyway, I'll move along, and the last one is uh the spider. Um it's interesting. So um the four the four things is um uh the ant is purpose, uh, the cone is partnership, the locusts are like prayer, they take over the heavenly realm, and uh and the spider is penetration. It talks about the spider, it talks about it's everywhere, the spider's in the king palace. You know, in Raratonga, it's really interesting. I've hardly ever, ever seen a spider. You know, you live in Australia, they have huge spiders like dinner plates, uh they're so obvious and everything. Over here, I hardly ever seen, I don't, I can't recall ever seeing a spider in my house. But when I go to clean the tiles, there's all this webbing, this black webbing. You ever seen that? What I do now is I get a bristle broom. Uh we we have a vacuum cleaner in the house. I get a bristle broom, I go with the bristle broom, and it's like this black, like this fine hair gets on the bristle broom, it's all over it. And it's spiders webs. It's this thin, thin, thin spider's web. It's all there, you know it's all there. So that all our houses are filled with spiders. We didn't even know they're there. They're not knocking on the windows like they do in Australia, you know, and carting off the children and that. They're huge, those things. But they're actually there, they're everywhere. And and the spider represents penetration. See, sometimes we think um that the gospel is about bringing people to church, but it's actually taking the gospel into out there in the marketplace, into the people. You take the gospel into the marketplace, in into the lives of the people. Like I know that there's a bit of a thing going on in our church, and that people are talking quite a bit to us about it, and they felt like that they've been so busy in their own lives, their business life, their family life, and all of the stuff going on that they're out working, but they're not seeing the people. And the Lord has been speaking to them, saying, look, slow down and notice the people. Actually stop and say hello to the people. And um, and uh, and that's all you need because you you find, like, there's a Fijian girl, she's awesome, that works in CI in the building department there. And uh, the first time I went through and um I bought a whole lot of building materials and the price, I just about fell over. And I said to her, Oh man, I'm an old man, I nearly had a heart attack when you is there any discounts because you're killing me. And she she burst out laughing. And so we started joking away, and then I'd forgotten, and I was out in the commercial part, you know, at the back there, uh, getting some board the other day, and she was now working out there. And I looked at her and I thought, I think I recognize you. I slowed down, but she recognized me, and she says, How's your heart? Isn't that cool? And I said, Oh, it's not too bad. I said, it's a little bit shaky, I'm a bit concerned about the bill. But I said, more than that, I haven't seen you at church. And she she laughed, she kind of laughed one of those nervous laughs. You know, how do I get away from this guy now, you know? I said, Oh, maybe it'd be great to see you at church. She says, Oh, my work, I have a work. I work to three o'clock on Sundays. So I said, Oh, well, Jonathan will change the service and we'll have a four o'clock service. No, I think this is I didn't say that. I said, Oh, that's a shame that you've got to work. And uh, but I'm looking forward to going in this week, you know what I mean? Because we're gonna continue the story. First of all, you know, I was overwhelmed by the account and I was gonna have a heart attack as an old man, and she that we were just joking about it, and now uh now we're up to hey, I haven't seen you at church, which is kind of a bit of a religious approach, but I don't mind a bit of religion there, you know. But the next what I feel now is because it's there, the next thing is um, you know, you must have growing up around church and your family must know the Lord. You're from Fiji. You're from the Cook Island. Everybody in the Cook Island knows about God. Actually, that was something I felt the Lord wanted me to tell you about all your businesses and the markets and everything. I I believe, okay, I'll throw this one out, take it or leave it. You you need to, well, consider this on your businesses as putting something on your businesses about Cook Island spirituality. Now, I'm not talking about uh cultural, I'm talking about the coming of Jesus Christ on the island. There's a beautiful message about the Tarhesian and the gospel coming into Arangi, but you know, actually, you're known now, not for your not for the past, you're known now for your Christianity. And a lot of visitors, tourists come to the island, they want to go to a church. And and I I really think of even my uh Ollie in the t-shirts like a uh a Christian reign, you know, like some stuff, because it's another way of preaching. Um, and and also like I thought with Charles's book, you know, he needs to have a photo of himself up there as the author, but also because the spirit uh he's just gonna show going like that. But um but um But uh your spirit see see Cook Island spirituality. People around the world they want to understand Cook Island spirituality. It's an open door. But it doesn't have to be about the old Mariah and the stuff that goes. It goes, it's Christianity. Christ came to the island through this man. We believe in Jesus Christ. We identify ourselves as a Christian nation. It's like a doorway. It's like a doorway. Because see, your evangelism is not going to stop with just the island or the islands. The evangelists, all of these tourists coming over here to come, they're coming over here to hear about Jesus Christ. They think they're coming to lay on the beach in the sun and to eat fish. No, no, they're actually coming over here because of the fish. They're coming over here. They've been brought over here because you're a Christian nation and you're a Christian people, and more than anything else than your beautiful island, they need to understand Jesus Christ. You see, there you you've got the you've got the open door. They will stop at your shop and talk to you. They want to know about you, they want to understand. See, we think they want to know about the culture. Yeah, you want to know about our culture? Our culture is Jesus Christ. You ought to hear the way he came, the story and how he came to our island. And the guy with a Bible on his head jumps off the ship and swings back into Arurangi and goes to the chief and shares after they'd been rejected and he received Jesus Christ, and then the gospel revival spreads all around the land. And then later on, in years ago, there was this guy, Barry Smith, he brought the baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, the move of the Holy Spirit, onto the island of Raratonga. He was arrested on this island and put in jail. He was held for preaching about the fullness of the Holy Spirit, but they let him out. Now the now the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is all over this island. Mate, I tell you guys, this place is alive. And um, and so the spider um is interesting because um the spider penetrates, it gets into into places that you'd never imagine that the spider has access. And so um the other kind of points that I felt the Lord wanted me to share, and I just I'm gonna close um with this. And um Luke 5, 1, it says, So it was as the multitude pressed about Jesus to hear the word of God that he stood by as he stood by the lake of Gennessaret, and he saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and he asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and he taught the multitudes from the boat. Now we know that Simon became Peter, but Peter was not probably interested in the Lord until Jesus got into his boat. And um, I just think that's uh what the Lord wants us to do. We just got to get into people's boats. You know what I mean? I watch from our balcony the paddlers coming past, those guys are so energetic. But you know, that would be great if you were paddling, um, uh, you know, and you're out there in the boat, they can't even get away. But when we share our testimony, right, the same anointing that we experience that drew us to Christ is released to draw other people to Christ. So the message is not difficult, you don't have to be a preacher, you just have to tell them your story. And I want to tell you, everybody's because we're all nosy. We live next to the parkers at home, but um people want to know your story. They they that's it. People, people, when people are traveling, right, they want to know your story, and your story is Jesus. You know, I was here, this is how I live, this is what was going on, but I tell you what, Jesus Christ came into my life. Everything's changed. You know, my whole outlook on life has changed. I feel healthy, I feel better, I feel something's happening. I know that Jesus Christ is real. For me, 1975, in the middle of an LSD trip, Jesus came into my life, radically, supernaturally changed me. I rang my mum, I couldn't wait. I rang my mum and said, Mum, I've just become a Christian. She said, That's all right, dear. Just another fad. It'll pass. It'll pass 50 years later. You know, I feel like I'm going stronger in the things of the Lord than when I first started. She didn't, she came forward in our church, and the musicians can come. She came forward in our church when she was in her 80s and uh to receive the Lord. I was a bit concerned because her life didn't radically change that much. You know, she didn't become a saint overnight. Um that's evidenced by the recent birthday party and the things that she said. But anyway, but still, uh, she came to the older court and then she came over to me and she said, You got me. And uh she was, you know, she was joking. I said, mate, I I didn't get your mum, you know. It's Jesus needs to get you. You need to get Jesus. That's what you need. You need Jesus Christ in your life. A lot of stuff, a lot of stuff. Seek you first the kingdom of God as righteousness, you just start sharing that gospel that's so natural to you, and you watch what God will do in and around your life. You watch the relationships he'll heal, the provision he'll bring, the physical healing he'll bring to your emotions and to your physical body. You watch what the Lord does. You watch, I mean, you know, you watch how your garden will grow because God's blessing it overflows into every single area. There's not an area that God's blessing does not overflow in our lives. It's it's the thing is if you keep your keep our focus on him and do what he told us to do, he takes care of that other stuff, all that other stuff. So it's it's so exciting. I hope that's been uh um beneficial.

SPEAKER_00 49:45

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