The Power of the Covenant - Nancy Watkinson

Nancy Watkinson shares a powerful message on the authority believers have through covenant with God and our need for intimacy with the Lord. The days we live in require us to be strong in the faith and bold in our walk with Jesus. When we have intimacy with the Lord, He anoints us with authority!

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

SPEAKER_01 0:05

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

SPEAKER_00 0:19

The people of the Cook Islands, just my heart is just melting. You know, when I'm I'm traveling around the island talking to different ones. And I don't, I don't actually, I'm just thinking harvest. I'm just thinking what I'm thinking is, God, you so love your people. And my heart, when I'm meeting different people out there, is to share with them the testimony of Jesus, what he's done for you and I, what he's doing in your yours and my life. And there's so many miracles and healings and supernatural encounters and meeting places that we're having with him. And I feel like that even this morning that the Lord wants for us to move out even more. His anointing is what I mean. The what God has done inside of us, when we've had an encounter with him, something supernatural happens on the inside. And when we share that encounter, the Holy Spirit, this is the power of the testimony, the Holy Spirit comes through and touches the people that we share with. And you know, even if we don't see physical change when we're sharing Jesus, I know we're sowing seed, but the Lord has already said the harvest is ready. You know, remember he said to his disciples, don't wait for four or five months. The harvest is ready now, the labor is of you. And he said that we as we we go out, we will reap what others have sown. And that makes me think about the fathers of the faith on this island, those that brought the gospel 200 years ago, those that have come into the island and where there's been powerful moves of God and impartations that have come to the church, that have come to his bride. And I'm just thinking, I want to build on the fathers of the faith. I want to build on the foundations, and we can go right back into the word of God and right back to Abraham when he made covenant with God, or when God made covenant with Abraham. You know, we can go right back there, and the promise that God gave to Abraham was for all nations. The promise that God gave to Abraham was the uh that he would give uh that he he would impart an inheritance that actually uh Ephesians chapter one that we cannot contain. You know, I I just I'm feeling, and I have been all this week feeling there's so much more that God wants to do in yours and my life. You know, we yes, we have we have uh it says in Ephesians chapter one that we have every spiritual blessings in heavenly places, and the Lord wants us to step out of the natural and into the spiritual, the Lord wants us to hear his voice and speak his word. And I love the revelation or the story of when Moses met with God on the mountain, and it says there that he met with the Father face to face, and some of our Bibles say mouth to mouth. And here's how the Lord speaks to me is when he speaks to me, he wants me to speak his word. And so it brings me back to God. We so want your Holy Spirit to come upon us and saturate us and fill us and overflow us. We so want you to inhabit your church, we so want you to come and flow through us. And I want to tell you, we've all had tastes of him already. Some of us have been walking with the Lord for um how long we've been what 50, we've been walking with the Lord for 50 years, and some maybe one year, six months. But I want to tell you, God can use you, God can use the young as much as the seniors. God wants all of us, all of us have a place and a function and a role to play in this on this island. But wherever the Lord should send us, this is a word for the body of Christ. He's called us to wash one another's feet. Now I'm not talking literally, it's fine if you want to do that. I'm talking serving him, his body, his feet. How beautiful are the feet of those that bring the good news. The call that he has upon you and I to take the harvest, to take the the testimony out that's already living inside of us, to bring the good news to those that are broken, to those that are lost, to those that are caught in prison, to those that are caught captive by the enemy. I love the message on the on the uh the covenant. I'm gonna I'm gonna talk a little bit about that, but first I'm gonna go to one of my, probably my only, but no, it's not really a favorite song of Solomon's, my favorite song. And I just want to touch on it because I can't get away from it. I've been living in this for I don't know how many years now, and I just love the revelation of the bride of Christ, but the love that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit has for his people. As I was reading it this week, I was thinking this is way beyond, this is too good to be true. This is way beyond uh my expectations. I I want to I want to tell you, and I want my expectations to grow, Lily. I want to get bigger. Do you know? But here we go. Song of Solomon. I'm gonna only stay in here for a little while, but just let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. And when we look at the Hebrew word for kiss, we find the word equip. It means to equip. And then when we look a little bit further, we discover that it means to equip us for battle. And this inspires me because as we read the bride, as she experiences her encounter with him and says, and says, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Remember, Moses met with God mouth to mouth. The kiss is the word of God. The kiss comes through the written word through revelation, but the word of God speaking to you and me is the kiss of God. Let him speak to me, let him, let him touch me. You see, for your love is better than wine, your anointing oils are fragrance, your name is oil poured forth. And I'm gonna tell you, we need the oil as we worship him, he pours out his oil upon us. We need the oil, one is to keep the fire burning, but we need the oil to worship him, to wash his feet, to adore him as we come into his gates with thanksgiving in our hearts. We go into the holy of holies, we want to wash his feet, we want to worship him in that place with the oil of his presence, and then his oil is poured out upon us, and that's an incredible thought. I think of Mary of Bethany, I think of that time when she was the Jesus, is just before he goes to the cross, and here she is pouring oil out on his feet, devoted to him. She suffered quite a bit of persecution from her sister, from others, because one, they said she was wasting oil, it could go to the poor, and the other is she's spending too much time sitting and listening to him. She could be working and getting things in order in the house, she could be preparing the food, but you know, the Jesus rebuked those that were speaking against her because he said she chose the better thing. Now I want to say this. He wants to equip us for battle, equip us for war, and we find the equipping in the secret place. It says Moses met with God, he heard the voice of God as he separated himself from the people, and and you know, I I'm I'm challenged. I was talking to our uh awesome uh builder, painter, plumber, electrician, concrete layer, Tyler, the guy that's helping us with the restoration of our house. And he came in this morning. Part of me goes, Oh, Sunday, don't you go to church? But I said to him, Don't you go to church on Sunday? I built a relationship with him, I think he likes me. He said, I have church every day. I went, Oh. He said, Muslim. I said, Okay, so you worship Allah? He said, Yes, I worship eight o'clock this morning, and I almost said, but I didn't. I wish Christians worship five times a day. Now I'm not saying that's you. But what I've loved is traveling with Leighton and Sue because mainly Sue, because we've been out here, there, and everywhere on the around the island, and Sue does not stop praying. Whenever we something comes up, Sue's like, and we'll and we're off praying. And I don't mean closing our eyes and holding our hands or stopping the car and having an intense time of birthing. Paul said, pray without ceasing. Abide in me and I and let me abide in you, ask whatever you wish. Isn't that an incredible promise? The father's heart. This is what this is what Jesus brought to the earth. He brought the father's heart to the earth. Remember, I think it's Matthew. If we being, as fathers being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our heavenly father give to us or to those that ask? And I love the the fact that I'm standing in the midst of a praying church. A church that understands worship, and there's anointing in this worship. There's not anointing in every worship. A church that stands in the authority and prays for the Zion. I love to I love the fact that I'm a part of this body, it's just so beautiful. And so let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. And as I said, the Hebrew word, I didn't say this, but naorshawk is the Hebrew word for, which means to equip and to arm us for battle. And my point that I want to bring right now is that we're in battle, we're in war. Atmospheres are changing all the time because we're pushing back and the enemy's sneaking in other ways. Sometimes we haven't, we've got stuff. We've got stuff, right? We've we've we've what I mean is there's there's certain areas in our lives that God wants to deliver us from, set us free. I shared a little bit of that on Wednesday night, we won't go there. But just to say, our time with Him is so vital because we're in a huge battle against His enemy. And we unless we have the oil of His anointing, unless we have the intimacy with Him, unless we hear the Word of God, unless we have I'm saying this, this is the equipment, this is what we do war with, the sword. The sword is spirit. And so moving moving forward a wee bit, um, well no, I I want to I want to just touch on this thought here before I move. So his word, his equipping, his kiss is is is like mana, it's bread, it's substance, right? It's the bread of life. Remember, Jesus said on the bread of life, it's the bread of life, and that's what sustains us in our journey. It doesn't matter where we are today, he wants to give you what you need today to walk with him. His plan is far bigger than ours. He wants to give you what you need. And so the bread of life is is uh it comes with the equipping, it's the substance, it's what gives us um hope, it what it's what increases our faith. And the thought that came to me was um around that was uh you know the the the um uh Joshua and Caleb. Remember how the the you know Moses sent the ten spies in to take land, to take the land, take the promised land. And um was it ten or twelve? He sent sorry, I just I haven't read that. But remember it was only Joshua and Caleb that came back with a report of faith. You know, the the others were full of doubt, but actually fear. Now I'm I'm bringing this to you because fear is what hinders the church from uh coming into her fullness, her full function. I'm just using one like fear, fear of man, fear of failure, um, fear of losing our reputation, fear of being persecuted, misunderstood. Uh we look at all sorts of stuff going on, we go, I don't want to do that, so I'm not gonna say anything, I'm not gonna bring so there's all sorts of fears that come up that come upon us. But God gave Joshua and Caleb a supernatural faith, a different spirit, the Bible talks about. And this is what I believe you and I are moving in or called to move in. This is this is who we are. We're people of faith, um, mighty in faith. Um people passionately in love with Jesus, bold in the declaration of our faith, mighty in battle. And so Joshua and Caleb, and I I a little quote that he said, uh it's in numbers 14, 9, but I'll move on quickly. But if you look at that, I just kind of got excited about that because he said, they said to the people that were full of fear, he said, the enemy is like food for us. One of your versions say, we can swallow this up, we can swallow the enemy. And here's where I'm going. Don't back off the battles, the fights, the hardship, the difficulties. Don't back off. See, you are being equipped, and your equipment is Joshua and Caleb will um, you know, you run forward into the land, into the, you know, taking this land for the Lord, but see the enemy as food. And so, in other words, we can grow. This is how we grow. We don't grow from uh hiding in the in the cave like Gideon. You know, we don't we don't grow from not from saying nothing, we've got to take steps forward. I'm I'm speaking to myself here too. And so uh, yeah, that just really sort of stirred me up a wee bit, so I thought I'd just throw that in there. So the enemy's like bread. Uh I want to touch on, and I I don't really have time, but here I know that there's good teaching here in the church anyway, on the covenant, the blood covenant that uh that we stand in, the covenant of God. I I feel like in a in a whole fresh way, the Lord's giving me a whole fresh revelation on who I am, who the church is, who we're called to be in our authority. Like we have authority because of the covenant, because of the blood that has been shed on the cross, because of what Jesus has done. Uh, we have authority over the principalities and powers, over territorial demons. And so I I just I just want to talk a little bit about this covenant because, first of all, we see it, a shadow of this in the old in the Old Testament, with, and I'm sure you're all familiar with these scriptures, when Abraham um cut a covenant, or God cut the covenant with Abraham, it's Genesis um 17. And it's a I want to make a point here, like it's a blood covenant. Um, something has to bleed. You know, the enemy uses blood too. Abortions, animals, people. The pure blood of Jesus is what sets you and I free, is what gives us authority over the works of darkness. So I'm still getting hold of he's won this battle. So we walk over, not under. He's ahead, not not the tail. We have authority. And and when I speak that out, I hope you're sort of catching that for your own situation. Whatever that might be, business, whatever that might be, family. Um so I I want to bring some points out here. Uh I'm gonna I'm not gonna go too too in depth here, but in um Genesis 17, I think it's verse 13, he talks about the circumcision. He said, a sign of the covenant is um Abraham, Abraham had to be circumcised, right? It was a sign of the covenant. Now, just quickly, um, this represents okay. Let me let me go back. Adam and Eve, when God blessed them, he said um uh he wanted them to multiply. You know, our children and our children's children, our children's children, children. I didn't actually think I would get to hold my great-grandson, but my great-grandson was born last week. Yeah, Emmanuel, God is with us, and so God's intention is not only just for me, but it's for my kids and my grandkids and my great-grandkids. There's a generational blessing that He's called you and I unto. And this is what coming back to building on the faith of the fathers. You know, when I went to when I went to Israel, I I kind of didn't know what I was gonna get when I was there. I had all the negatives. I was religious, the Jews aren't saved. There's so many people that are just like the Jews are doing this, and you know, they're doing all that. So, you know, when I went, I prayed before I left, I said, God, I just want to be on the land that Jesus walked on, on the land that your people walked on, your your people, I'm talking thus, his his people, his family. I I just want to be on that land and walk on that land. And as I went through, I'm gonna I'm going quickly to the covenant here, but I was I will I was in the at the Garden of Ghessenem, amazing place, trees with olive trees, 3,000, 3,000 years old. In there in a meeting with the four intercessors that that prayed on the four corners of um 24-7 prayer and worship, four corners of Jerusalem. I was in there with them and a couple of other groups. Mike uh Huckerby was there and he shared. Amazing, amazing musician. I I wish I could kind of share it all, but Jim Jim Garlo was there and he's written a book called The Blood Covenant. And I and I encourage you to read it. I came across it years ago, but I'm reading it again. The Blood Covenant. And as he began to speak, I couldn't hear a word he was saying. Have you ever been there? I just started weeping, weeping, sobbing, sobbing. Was it the fun? He saw me sobbing, but he yeah, I didn't say much. But what is he going to say? Anointing was there. But I want to tell you there was an impartation coming into me. And I didn't really fully understand it. And I was as I'm coming back to the uh freshness on the covenant, on the blood covenant, I've remembered that. And I thought, God, you put you planted something in me right then and there to seal the covenant that I have, that we have with the Lord. And so this circumcision is the shadow, I guess, of the circumcision of the heart when Jesus um uh paid the final price for the new covenant, and the Lord is circumcising our hearts. And you know. Let me slow down because I I I I I kind of want to stick around the this message that I have on the covenant a little bit, not Jim Garlow's, but what God has done in What God has said through his word now. The covenant was sealed with Abraham and God, and the promise was for all nations. The promise was a multiplication of s of of the church of souls, more than he could imagine or think. Like the sand of the sea. Like multitudes of people will come to the into the kingdom. And so I have hope for our tongue of Christ Church New Zealand. I believe there's a great harvest that we're about to see. I believe hundreds and thousands of people are coming into the kingdom. I believe people will come to you and ask, How do I become a Christian? People will come to you and ask you about Jesus. And I want to say, get ready, get ready, get ready. He's coming. And so David understood the covenant. David understood the covenant. And he was the only one when there was a battle and there was a war. He was equipped for battle, right? He had an impact behind the scenes looking after the sheep. He was equipped for battle. And so when he went out to give bread to his brothers, and he sees the whole army of Israel, the whole church, at that time I'll put it in that language, in fear and intimidated by the giants. And he rose up in his spirit and he said, Who is this? He spoke to the to Goliath. Who is this who dares to stand against the armies of God? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? See, we're circumcised in our hearts. We're being purified in our hearts. The Lord wants to give us the authority to speak, not to people, the enemy. Who is this uncircumcised giant over this island? Who is this uncircumcised territorial demon over this island? I feel like God wants to equip you and I. We need to hear the voice, speak the word, and I'm going to tell you when we read the story of David, we see that giant was destroyed. To the point where he cut the head of the giant off. So the battle was was won. And this is what I feel is that we we need to cut the head of the giant off and win this battle. Amen. And so what happened here, I'll keep an eye on my time. What happened in this story is David is uh the Saul calls him in and he's speaking to Saul and you know talking about the giant. He comes in with the head. And Saul promotes him. Obviously, he's got favor. He's a boy, he's young. You don't you don't have to be my age, thank goodness. You you can rise up, you know. I I believe David was 16. I can't. He's a young, he's a young man. And so he's given this um favor, and he's called into the palace, King's Palace, and and Jonathan's sitting there listening to Saul and David, and his heart's knitted with David. And here we see, now I'm gonna, it's worth looking at because as this is talking, this is covenant language. And we see the picture in the New Testament, Ephesians chapter 6. That he took his cloak off and gave, they exchanged clothes, belts, swords, armor, they exchanged, they became one, they meshed together, and this is this this covenant is what the Lord is looking for here. We're meshed together. Like, is that Jesus or is that Nancy? Is that yeah, we're meshed together, and so Jonathan um and and the and the promise here that Jonathan um said to David, the generations after you, and the promise goes both ways. This is the promise God gives us. The generation, it's not just for me, it's the generations after me. This is why we can pray, God, you said. I love what Moses prayed when God was gonna kill the people, remember? Because he said he's he they're stiff-necked, he's sick of them. He says, if I go anywhere near them, I'm gonna kill them. And and uh Moses goes to prayer. He said, God, you said we need it, we need to go to prayer. God, you said God gave me a promise for my sons. Genesis, uh, Genesis 22, 17. Got it on the little cup when they were born, the two oldest ones. Your sons will possess the gates of their enemies. And I remind them, God, you said. And so here it is, the they're meshed together, they're they've exchanged um their armor, they've become one, and we see the picture again in Ephesians chapter chapter six. This is for us today, not just for them, is what I'm trying to get to. That this blood covenant took place with Jonathan and David. Now, moving fast forward, the the battle gets intense. Saul and Jonathan go out to war together and die in war. Saul's Saul's suicides. Um, he was badly demonized. I haven't got time to talk too much about this, but Jonathan dies in battle with his dad. And David eventually, I'm moving fast forward, he gets the throne. He's in the throne, he's in the palace. And I don't know, but with the covenant, there would have been scars on the wrists. What does this speak to you of? Jesus. They didn't put the they didn't put the nail in his palm. And the covenant back there, the scars, the blood is what on the wrist. And it says there, David's in the palace, and then he's he probably looks at his wrist, but he just says to his servant, is there any, he thinks, is there any um descendants from uh Saul's or Jonathan's family? And the servant says, Yes, there is a young boy that is he wasn't a boy at the time, but uh when he was five years old, he ran and escaped, and he was living in a in a dark place, he was hiding. He was fearful because in those days he would have been killed. They killed the inheritance, they killed the genera the descendants, um, the enemy. If he got hold of, you know, well, we won't go too much there, but he here's what happened is Jonathan. Um, David remembers John the covenant that he made with Jonathan, and he told his servant to go out and look for this Jonathan's son. His son's name was um to pronounce it now is okay. I can't pronounce it. Mephibosheth. Mephib Seth. Okay, that's his son, big name. We'll call him Seth. It's in 1 Samuel 20, 42. And you know, he goes out, uh, he sends the servant out to find him. And he I I have a point to this because Mephibosheth is um or Seth is actually hiding. And he's in this dark place and he's he's afraid. Servant comes and says, David's called for you, and he goes, No, no, no, you can't. I'm just I'm says in the scriptures, he says, I'm like a dog. I don't want to go to the king, because he knew the consequences of this all but um the servant brings Mephibusheth Seth or Seth to David, and he falls on the he falls on his face, kind of begging him not to be killed. And David says, No, no, and he says, Look at this. The marks the covenant. Look at this. He says, This is I I covenanted with your dad. He said, Come to my table, come into the king's table. He sat at the table, he said, Everything I have belongs to you. Now, the analogy that I that I got out of this is like the fear, the shame, the embarrassment, all the stuff that the enemy uses, the accusations, all the stuff the enemy will use to keep us under, to stop us from going to that next level that I'm talking, to stop us from getting there. I wanna I want to put to you that through covenant, as we as we have a as as God gives us more revelation on the blood covenant that we have with him and the authority that he's given us, you know, I I want to I want to put to you, there's a whole new uh place that he wants to take us into. It's it says there every uh spiritual blessing is in heavenly places. And you know, we we have every blessing, uh, you know, financially, physically, mentally, socially. I want to tell you, he wants to restore us heaven on earth. You know, this is not to we we die and then it all happens. This is for today, this is for uh, you know, for for now that he wants to restore us, and so as he restored um uh Jonathan, as David representing Jesus, by the way, I'm just an hour, you know, Jesus is on every page of this book. You you look for him, you'll find the Lord, you'll find the Lord on every page. And so as as David restored Jonathan's son because of the promise, because of the covenant, um, Jonathan's son then came into this place of wealth, and the enemy was defeated. So it's 1116, Jonathan. Jonathan, how much time do I have, Jonathan? So, you know, I I want to I want to stir us up to become like um you know Caleb's daughter is one one example. There's a lot of examples I know, but Caleb was a man with a different spirit. Caleb went to Moses. No, Caleb demanded his land. And then we see his daughter coming through at another time in the scriptures, and we see his daughter Axis. She came and she demanded, she actually and she had an inheritance because her father had it. She had mountains, she had dry mountains. If we go and study that portion of scripture, but she wanted waters, she wanted springs of water, so she went to her dad, Caleb, and she said, Give me my give me springs of living water. I like the way she says it. Like, not please, Dad. She came in with the authority that she understood covenant, you see. She came in with an authority and said, Give me springs of water. And so her dad in response gave her springs from the highlands and springs, it says there, high springs in the mountains, springs in the valleys. And you know, I mean, there's so many different things. I hope I'm I'm I'm getting I'm getting through here, but just with the springs of living water, and I just changed that because I believe that you and I have springs of living water which represents, you know, Jesus said I'll get to the to the Samaritan woman, the springs of living water which represents him and his life, his anointing. You and I have this in the high places and in the low places. Psalm 84, verse 6, it talks about the springs of living water in the valley of weeping, in the valley of Baca. Why I'm saying this is God, God wants us to, you know, he sets a table out before us in the presence of our enemies. Why I'm trying to get this to us and to me is that no matter what comes before us today, no matter what battle we face, whether it's in the lowlands, whether it's in the valleys, if it's in the dark places, there's food for us. He's equipping us for this. He lays a table out before us in the presence of our enemies. And that's in the dark places. But you know, it in this scripture it brings out there's a there's valleys, um, there's living waters in the place of weeping. And so now my mind is just going to those people that are in prison. Look, there are hundreds and thousands of Christians around the world. We're blessed. There are hundreds of thousands of Christians around the world in prison, being tortured, being there's all sorts of awful things. Babies' heads are being chopped off. I'm not just saying this to do horror, but uh it's not a horror story. This is happening in our world. How do these people find their strength in the valleys? Now, I I'm, you know, all of us, while we're in the in this good place, I feel like we're just in a great place where our government is not putting us in jail because we're sharing our testimony. We're in such a good place. And I'm and I think that when we're too comfortable, we get lazy. Not you, but when we're too comfortable, you know, we get we we can have our steak when we want it, our seafood when we want it. These people around our world, our brothers and sisters in Iran, the underground church, in China, the underground church, in Africa, in Mozambique, where their babies are, whole villages are getting burnt down and their babies are getting tortured and their women are getting raped. You know, these are horror stories. Sometimes it helps to actually look at how good we've got it. And taking full advantage of our promised land, paradise, garden of Eden, our promised land, take advantage of it. Don't get um, you know, lax of day, don't, don't relax too much. I don't mean, I mean there is a rest. There's another message. The valley of the um of weeping. And now I'm gonna finish and talking about the covenant, and again I'm gonna go back to Song of Solomon and the new covenant, if I can find it. It's in chapter eight, Song of Solomon, chapter eight, and it's verse six, and this has just hit me as I read it this week. Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm. Now, this is talking about the circumcision of the heart, but this is Jesus, this is God speaking to you and me, his church. You set me, the Lord would say, you set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm. For love is as strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave, it flashes, its flashes are flashes of fire. The very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised. We're living in a wealthy place, church. This is a wealthy island, and God is going to increase our wealth. I believe that. I believe God is gonna give us keys for your businesses, keys for your life. Greatest wealth that I think we have is our family. God's gonna give you authority to cut the head of the giant off. And I want to tell you, there's nothing on this earth, it says there, no, nothing, no wealth. There's nothing that compares to the love of God.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

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