Grandad's Talk - Murray Watkinson

Murray Watkinson shares a powerful message filled with practical Kingdom wisdom on seeking God first and bringing every area of life under His principles. Murray gives revelation on the importance of godly character, and walking in spiritual authority over the enemy. This is a strong and encouraging word for believers wanting to grow in both wisdom and Kingdom purpose.

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 Lovatola. We believe this message will empower and equip you to live a life of breakthrough. Thanks for joining us.

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Kiadana. God bless you all, great church. And uh it's just an honor and a privilege to be here and amongst it's been uh fantastic having some extra time, those extra couple of weeks, and just enjoying the island, enjoying your fellowship and enjoying your incredible generosity and all of the help that so many of you have uh given us. And bananas arrive and and uh what are those green ones they arrive? Nancy food, avocados arrive, all sorts of stuff arriving on our doorstep, and uh it's a real, real blessing. But um, I just also um was thinking uh because Nancy and I uh way back uh we actually started the church here, but this week as I've I've just been praying and thinking, and really John and Jonathan and Tassa are the mum and dad of this house, I tell you that. And um you really you really do have the creme de la creme of ministry um here. They're just great and great people of integrity. You know them, they pray, um, they fast, they seek the Lord, they serve you, they serve God, and uh we're just so blessed by you guys. You're so faithful, you're so encouraging to us. You know, it's very much a team and leadership, and uh we just love you guys heap, your whole family, your whole church. And I saw I'm gonna talk like grandad today, and um, and uh Jonathan kind of paved the way with his little grandad speech there, but um I kind of want to talk a little bit like like a grandfather to the church, and uh it's a little bit of a different role, and I I wanted to touch a few things from Wednesday night, just briefly, because I don't want there to be any misunderstanding around the area of finance and business and prosperity and God. God, the Bible talks a lot about these areas, it's very, very important areas for us because the scripture addresses these areas uh a lot. And uh, but what I what I wanted to say, a couple of things is um we don't chase money, we chase God. We don't chase money, we chase God. And and a couple of things about finances that you need to understand is money is just a tool. It's a tool that God has given. It's a trading tool, that's what it is. It's a tool that God has given us, and it's a trading tool. Um sometimes uh money can send someone on the mission field when you can't go. Um it it's a very practical tool. I I like in money, um, you know, they talk about uh a quiver, you know, when you have children, you get a full quiver of children, but God gives us a quiver of of uh functional gifts and abilities and um tools. You know, that all the gifts of the Holy Spirit are tools: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, prophecy, leadership, they're all tools to advance the kingdom of God. Money is just another tool. We don't worship money, um, it's not our primary focus. Uh I want you to understand uh something about it because it's as you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, there's a great promise in there that we often over just go over a little bit. All these things shall be added unto you. It's in the scripture, it's in Matthew there, and it's in context to people in the world are worried about what they're gonna eat, what they're gonna wear, where they're gonna live, they're worried about all of these things. God says not to worry about that, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. And I believe that that's comprehensive. See, what I've found in my life, and just I want to just address it from Wednesday night around the financial area, what you've got to understand is is um uh my life has uh been really dedicated to serving the Lord, advancing the kingdom of God, and the prosperity that has come around my life is a byproduct of that. Um I tried to analyze how much time I've put into building the kingdom of God. Um, most of the property and the wealth that's been established through our ministry is all in charitable trust. It's all going to be, you know, we're gonna go and it's all gonna remain and go on. And I would say estimate without any exaggeration, we would we would have put 90% of all of our life effort into kingdom building and buildings for the kingdom and advancing the kingdom financially, and about 10% into our own personal lives. But that 10% in our personal life, God has just multiplied it and uh just brought about an incredible abundance. And I did want to say um I have a four-step giving um uh program in my own life that I've had for many years, and the very first thing I do, because the Bible talks about first fruits and that, you'll know where I'm going with this, is is the principle of the tithe. And um I've been a tither right from the very first thing I did in serving the Lord and honoring the Lord with my life was giving financially, and so it's it's very much a part of who I am. I've had this thing in Jonathan and that would know, and I preach message, I have this philosophy of giving living where I try to give away something every day, uh whether it's buying somebody a coffee or doing something to provide generosity. Um, and uh, because what happens you do, you sew that and then you start getting stuff that just, you know, all of this stuff that's coming to our doorstep is is God's um indirect reward for all of the stuff that goes out of our hearts and out of our lives. That's what happens. It goes, anyway, I won't get into all of that, but the tithe has always been of and bring your whole tithe, the Bible says, into the storehouse. And one of the things that the Lord showed me really early on in my walk with the Lord is when I come and present my tithe, I present it to the Lord, end of story. I never ask questions, I've never challenged the church, I've never said, What are you doing with the money? I never ever ever have gone there in my life. I just present it to the Lord and I just trust the Lord to look after it and do what He wants to do, whatever it is. And and see, my obedience brings God's blessing. It's the end of the story. If I'm obedient, I'm gonna have the blessing of God in my life. The second area that I emphasize in the area of finance, and it's often not talked about much in the church, but it's saving. And and the reason that I believe that saving is so important, because you if you're gonna give and sow in the kingdom of God, it's got to be from your substance. I've been in meetings with the preachers that got up and said, you know, that if you're in debt, get your credit card out, give us a thousand dollars and God's gonna remove your debt. What a load of garbage. And um it's it there's there can be quite a lot of corruption gets around the body of Christ. Uh you don't go into more debt to get out of debt, you don't give the banks money to get a blessing on your life, you give your money. You you sow, you when uh remember when um uh David and Saul and um and there was a thing and and David actually said, I'm not, I don't want, they were gonna give, they were gonna pay for something on behalf of David. David says, No, I it if it doesn't cost me something, it's not a gift from me to God. And so um this is very important, but saving, you know, you might be on a very tight budget, it doesn't have to be a lot, it doesn't have to be a lot, because if you understand seed time and harvest, the seed is small, but the harvest is big. So even if you can only save a dollar a week, a dollar a week or two dollars a week or something like that, that becomes your seed money. And um, you know, they say it's a bit of an illustration, you know, anybody can count the number of seeds in an apple, but nobody can count how many apples are in a seed. Because once that seed is planted and the apple tree grows, there's just apples and apples and apples. And so saving is really, really important and it's a great discipline for your kids. Um, talking about kids, you know, you teach them to tithe from their pocket money and to save from the top and spend from their pocket money. But um the next area is um that I um focus on in my own personal life is the area of giving. Now, giving is giving is something that we do expect and nothing in return. It's just the generosity of our heart, like the heart of God. God, you know, he so loved the world, what did he do? He gave. He gave and he gave and he gave and he gives and he gives and he gives, because God is a generous and a giving God. So there's that principle of giving where where you see a need and you respond to the need and you give, you're expecting nothing. Then there's the principle of sowing. So that's my four step, my four steps. So uh is tithe, save, give, and sow. And um that little bit of savings that you might put aside, or you might have a little bit more. Um I just would encourage you to, when you sow, it's like when you give, you might just give to someone who's in poverty and broken down, and you're giving assistance. But when you sow, you've got to put it in good soil, and you sow into good soil, believing that God will give you a return, because that's the promise of seed time and harvest. And so this is a this is, I think, important, and that's my whole principle of finances. That's what I work on. And I just wanted to mention, too, from Wednesday night is um part of being really good with money, really good in the financial area and every area of your life, is actually understanding yourself. Um, you know, are you a spender? You know, um I I said that on Wednesday night, and a couple of people shot their hands up straight away before I even got the words out, and I thought they love spending. Who doesn't like spending? Um, are you a saver? Uh some people are really disciplined savers. I've got one of my grandsons, and um he had this thing about money ever since he was really small, and if we gave him money at Christmas for his birthday, um he used to keep it under his mattress, and then his his uh parents are going and be counting it over and over again, expecting it to grow, I'm sure. Um but he's turned out he's got his um uh well he's married, he's got a baby now, and things going like that, but um uh they've got a big lump sum of saving. He's just a savour, those guys, and they're ready to buy their own home pretty soon. And then you get the gambler, and the gambler, it may not be the lotto, it may not be, it may be name not be these sorts of things, but sometimes even the share market, if you don't understand it, it can be a gamble. How many times do we hear get in on the ground level, this is going to be amazing? And uh you invest your money in something, you know, on the ground level thinking it's gonna be amazing, and the person receiving that money on the ground level runs off with it all and you end up with nothing. Or maybe you should join Amway next week, but no, we won't go there. Um the bill payer, this is this is one of the areas my personal life is for some reason I have I have a um um uh a high value on paying bills. I hate owing people money, I hate owing, and I have a high value. So what I've done is I've been brought properties and I've had big, big mortgages around my life that people normally wouldn't want to live with. But because I love paying bills, it's that's my motivation. And so I understanding yourself, are you an investor, are you a developer? Um, so understanding yourself in the area of finance will help you both in how to step out in advance and how to put protections around your life, um, so that God can really bless you in that financial arena. And um, I'm moving through this a little bit uh quickly, but um just I want to throw this out because it's sort of like a grandfather's talk this morning. I want to hit quite a few areas, and you sort of, it's like a smorgasbord, you eat what you want and uh just push off the side of the plate the stuff that you don't want, and um, and you'll you'll be good. When I'm when I'm looking at um um finance and investing your life, because you've got to realize that um your life is quite short, and we don't know how long or how short our life is gonna be. And so everything you do is an investment. Coming to church is an investment, raising a family is an investment, uh, building a business is an investment, everything we do, and these are the things that I look at if I'm gonna make any sort of investment, because my time is precious, and the older you get, the more precious it is. You know what I mean? It it you realize as you get older that time is getting shorter and every year is moving quicker, and it's hard to keep up. So if I'm gonna invest, whether I I say this, is it gonna be emotionally profitable, socially profitable, spiritually profitable, mentally profitable, physically profitable, and financially profitable? Because um what you've got to realize is that now that we're in the kingdom of God, the Lord has actually called us to invest our lives in advancing the kingdom of God. And everything around the kingdom of God has a has a profit or a blessing attached to it. And um, see, sometimes even in the area of evangelism, I'm gonna maybe touch on this a little bit later, we can be going to a person that's resistant to the gospel, and um we go week after week, year after year, month after month, trying to reach them, and they're not ripe and they're not good soil, and you can actually, I don't mean this disrespect, you can waste a lot of time doing that, then right next door there's someone that's just ready to respond to Jesus Christ. So, wisdom with your life, make it count, maximize, maximize your time, your effort, your emotions. Because I want to tell you that um uh when you're sowing and advancing the kingdom, it puts a demand on every area of your life. A social demand, emotional demand, a mental demand, and so be wise with your whole life. Like I'm strategic now, um, around lots of areas of my life, I want to just expend or invest in the areas that is going to maximize the return, especially for the kingdom of God. So in the book of um Haggai, and I'm moving on, chapter one, verse two, it says, Um, this people says the time has not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. But then the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet, saying, It is time for you yourselves to dwell in your panelled houses, and uh, is it time uh sorry for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins? Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have sown much and you bring in little, you eat but you don't have enough, you drink, but you're not filled with drink, you clothe yourselves, but you are not warm, and he who earns wages earns wages to put in a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the Lord. And then he says, You looked for much, but indeed it came to little, and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts, because my house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. Therefore the heavens above withheld the Jew, and the earth withholds its fruit. It's kind of a bit of a judgy prophecies there from Haggai. It's an interesting one, but really what um Haggai the prophet speaking on behalf of the Lord is just trying to realign the people. In those days, building the house of the Lord was primarily about the temple, it was a physical temple building. Today, that prophecy relates to us building the kingdom of God, building the people, building the house of the Lord. Says in the New Testament that we're going to be lively stones built together to create a habitation for God, a dwelling place for God. It's not the building, it's no longer the dwelling place of God, it's you. You are the lively stones being built together, and you are the dweller place of God. So this prophecy now is talking to us about building the house of God. And you're the house of God, I'm the house of God, we're the house of God. And it's it's really a challenge for us because I want to go back to that scripture in Matthew, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. And what we've got to do in the past, there's I suppose the body of Christ has had their eyes closed a little bit in the past, because when I came into the church, one of the big teachings in the church is, you know, just uh love the Lord, get born again, serve the Lord. One day you're gonna go to heaven, someplace up there, um, you know, cherubs with wings playing harps on clouds, all sorts of things, and heaven is this incredible place that we're all gonna go to. But when you in in recent years, the biblical theologians have really come and challenged that concept and said, hey, hey, read your Bible again because we're not going to heaven, God is coming to earth. And Revelation says that very clearly that that God is gonna come and uh there's gonna be a new heaven and a new earth, and the Lord is gonna come and and and be a habitation with us as people, he's gonna live with us and be our God, and we're gonna be his people. So we're not going somewhere, he's coming, he's actually coming to us. And in around the church, there can be things that are taught religiously for years and years and years that may not actually be the truth. And the the trouble with that is um if we are basing our lives on things that are not true, they don't bring forth the fruit that God really desires. You know, it's an interesting thing too. Like um, I've been around, well, in Christian for 50 odd years and been in a lot of ministry situations, a lot of conferences, lots of special meetings, all over the place, all over the world, you know, I've I've met all sorts of people. Benny Hins prayed for me, all this sort of stuff's gone on. But you know, one of the things I've actually noticed is when you come together with people that carry a genuine gift of God, it quickens that gift in your life. Like um, I got a friend in Auckland, Brent Douglas, he's uh very much a prophetic ministry, and if I go out and fellowship with uh Brent, the prophetic part of my life is activated, comes alive. Um I was talking to Dion the other day. Dion, you may not know, is uh entrepreneur, and uh he he's he's got a gift on his life. I can tell you, because I knew it. We were there just chatting away and talking. He was helping me out, Mahal, and the language, I knew straight away, his language, the vision that he has, and that he's an entrepreneur. And so you get together an entrepreneur with an entrepreneur, it quickens your entrepreneurial gifting and you're wanting to take over the whole world. You know what I mean? You just had a coffee, you're buying this, you're moving that, you're importing this, and you're going over here, you're doing that. But I want to tell you, when the gift is not genuine, when the when the gift is not genuine in the person, it doesn't activate the gift in you. Like if you get around a teacher, a genuine teacher, you'll get a hunger for the word of God. I believe Don McDonnell's coming over to you guys in in a month or so, I don't know, or maybe a little bit longer than that. Don McDonnell would be in New Zealand, I would say, one of the most genuine evangelists, uh, five-fold gifted evangelists in the nation of New Zealand. That that guy, some of you are at conference, that guy leads people to the Lord all over the place. And when he comes in, right, because that gift is is founded in the Word of God, it's on his life, it will activate a desire and a passion for souls in you. You'll just start wanting to share. Um, man, we before Don was with us at conference, and the last day we went out and had lunch together, and um the waitress was there, and nice girl coming back and forths. I was kind of feeling a bit moony, saying, Oh, she's a bit slow on the service. I'm hungry. How come the food's taking so long? I'm thinking this, smiling at her, trying to encourage her to speak, pick up her pace a little bit. And uh, you know, I get up, we have dinner, it's really, really nice, have a chat and thing, and then Don comes down, and uh, because he disappeared at the end there, so we've got to pay him. We're going down the can. He comes down there, get in the car, and he says, Oh, I just had to share with that girl. He's telling her, she's coming to the table and he's saying to her, You're the most amazing waitress I've ever had. Evangelia, he's got a winner, you see, he's winning her to the Lord. And every time she came, you know, it's almost like there's that funny movie that the Australian movie, um, is it the palace, the guy on the end of the airport and darling. Anyway, um, that's what Don's like. She brings over the water, it's like, oh, this is the best water I've ever had, you know, and and uh you're doing an awesome job. So anyway, I'm down getting in the car, wanting to move on to the next thing, and he gets in the car and he says, Actually, I told her that she needs to get her life sorted out with God, she needs to go to church. And then she said, Oh, my parents are Christians and they've been saying to me the same thing. I thought, I missed an opportunity. You know what I mean? That's the evangelist. He just sees he sees that and um amazing. Like if you meet him, every one of you will be the best person he's ever met. You want to meet a guy like that. I mean, he just he's like a he's like a magnet. I'm I'm a I'm um I was gonna say a money magnet. He's a I'm confessing that out. He's a he's like a people magnet. But when the gift on a person's life, when it's the real deal, um it's catchy. It will, it will, it'll activate in you and it'll cause something to shift and change in you. And um years ago I was in Auckland. I don't really enjoy Auckland that much, it's too crowded for me, it's all busy, and I get a little bit grumpy with all the cars and that. But I'm driving down Dominion Road and um I'm up there ministering, and um I'm driving down Dominion Road, and the Lord just comes into the car and speaks to me, and he says, my brother. Blessings are hunting you down. He's actually said, this is what he said: My blessings are hunting you down. They are overtaking you. The word of the Lord just came so clearly to me. And I just started weeping. I was in the car and I was crying so much I couldn't drive. I had to pull over on the side of the road, and I was just weeping and weeping and weeping because it was a revelation of God into my life. I didn't know or understand fully what that meant. It sounded really exciting. The blessings of God are hunting you down, the blessings of God are going to overtake you. And you know, you get a word like that. And I want to say to you, every one of you should have a word. It may not be that word, but you in your relationship with God, God speaks to us. And there should be things going on between you and God where God is speaking things into your heart and and they drop down into your spirit. And those things are very, very powerful because if the Lord has spoken something to you, over you, into you, he's birthing something that's going to uh uh take place. So anyway, he says that. I have no full understanding of what that all means. All I know is that God had really touched me and blessed me. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And that's what the Lord started doing to me. He started adding, he just started adding things. He it see this is God. God adds things. If you seek Him first, see what we do is we run after things and hope God is running after us, but we're meant to run after God, and then God brings the things in around your life. And so, so what does he add? He adds wisdom, he adds knowledge, he adds understanding, he adds health. See, half of the stuff we don't get because we don't believe, we don't apply it. Like there's hardly a day ever goes past that I'm not grateful to God for physical health. I got a bit of a thing at the moment when I sleep on my right arm, I get pins and needles, I wake up in the night, my whole arm's burning, I've probably shut off the blood supply. I don't know what I've done, I've done something, somebody will know. But um, the reality is I'm already being healed of it. You know, I'm just waiting for the because I there's hardly a day that goes by that I don't thank God for my physical health. I'm 73 years old. I've only had two operations my whole life. One was a cartilage operation from playing rugby. In those days it was six weeks. They chopped you open. Nowadays it's you're in and out playing in a couple of weeks, these guys. And the other one was they said I had a hernia, and when they opened me up, they couldn't find it. Yeah. Imagine that. So going to the hospital and they open you up and say, you know, I'll be diagnosed a hernia, you don't have one. I mean, I've had flus and colds, and you know, I've stubbed my toe and or bang my head, you know, and stumble around the place as an old man and all that sort of stuff, but I have incredible health. I I I I can work all day, I can work 12 hours, I can I can tug and pull a gun. I moan when I get home a bit achy. But I thank the Lord for health. See, claim it. What's he what does he need to add? See, God is not a stingy God, he's not broke, right? He's not sick, he's not broke, he's not poor, he's not withholding. He's a heavenly father who loves you intensely and is wanting to bless you abundantly if you do it his way. That's all he's asking. That's all he said to Adam and Eve, wasn't it? Not Frank Sinatra. I could see our Paul singing a Frank Sinatra song. Not to Frank Sinatra, I did it my way, but doing it, that's what Adam and Eve, they did it their way, but if they did it God's way, the whole of human history would be totally different. So, like bringing every single area of your life under the principles of the kingdom of God. That's the blessing, that's where it's at. Bring every area under the principles of God's word, the kingdom principles in every single area. Train up a child in the way they shall go. When they are old, it doesn't say they won't struggle or stumble along the way. When they're old, they will not depart from it. They'll come back. You you you're laying that foundation. Um, and these are all the promises of God, these are all the blessings of God. So, what you know, what do you need God to add to your life? Because, see, um it's almost like He He will add, but it's almost He responds to your faith or your faithful expectation. Like everywhere I go, I have an expectation of land and buildings coming my way. We we I've we've been on the island three times this year, and there's a property I looked at online. I was looking at this property online. My sons were over with me, and um I drove them past the property, drove Nancy past. I drove past several times, saying to them, that's a good property, that's a good property. Everybody was saying to me, nah, don't like the look of that, nah, it's in the wrong place, nah, doesn't have an ocean view, nah. This is what's all going on. So this is just the reality of it. When I get home, I'm going to talk to those kids of mine. But anyway. So, so on Friday, yesterday, day before, yesterday on Friday, um, we talked to the real estate and said we'd like to go and have a look at that house. We looked at some other houses, and it was nah, and then that one that was the negative house. Even someone quite close to me was not overly responsive towards that house. But I'm not mentioning any names, Nancy. So anyway, we get out and walk in, and Nancy just lights up. She said, This is amazing. This place is amazing. And, you know, being a good husband and wise and humble as I am, I told you so. No, I didn't know. I didn't no, I didn't dare say that. I, you know, because I I do want to be alive next week as well. So I I I didn't say that. I didn't say that. The blessings of God are hunting you down. Money's just a tool, it's not an end, it's not a goal. Um, it's not money's not evil, it's the love of money. You can't love money, uh, Matthew. You can't love money and love God. You love God and He'll give you money. And I tell you what, the the Lord will distribute financially, financial resource to you if you're prepared to distribute them on to where he wants them to go. That that's the that's the key. That's that's the kingdom key. It's not now I've got it, what can I do? Another trip, you know, a cruise up to Alaska or something like that. No, now that I've got it, Lord, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? See, when the Lord started giving you more than enough, because that's that's that's God again. God is a God who's more than enough. He's more than enough in every area. So when you've got more than enough, then he wants you to sew, he wants you to advance, he wants you to help. I was actually during worship, I don't know why, but my mind, I was thinking two or three people probably in the church might be against just throw this out, entrepreneurial idea, is um the containers in that now are very expensive from New Zealand, but everybody wants to shop with the stuff over there. But we should be we should be getting a container teaming up with groups and then bringing in all of the stuff together and sharing the costs. You know what I mean? Because sometimes you look at yourself and say, oh, eight grand, that's a big lump, isn't it? A big lump of money. Um, but if you broke that down six people and divided it up to square meters and stacked it up, you know, why not? Why not why not do that? It gives you access. And uh money's a tool, we need to use that tool. All right. Um so I I wrote down a few things you know that God adds. And um I was thinking, I thought wealth, he adds wealth, he adds health, he adds purpose to your life, he adds direction, he adds correction, blessings, children, land, wisdom, knowledge, he adds understanding, and it goes, it's broader than that. He just adds and adds and adds. Like, see, I've got this ab that I've been developing for you. He's been adding to that. A little bit afraid if I fall down the stairs, I'll roll away from. But anyway, won't go there too much. Ephesians 1 thing said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. What you've got to understand about the spiritual realm, the spiritual realm supersedes every part of our natural existence. It's over and above every single part of our natural existence. So you can be living in the supernatural, that's when it goes from, you know, I'm able to work this amount of time and earn this amount of money and achieve this goal. When you go into the supernatural realm, then the blessing of God comes on and multiplication begins to take place in and around your life. It's every everything. Um we've had a lot of healings in the church over the last 12 months and quite amazing healings that God has actually just brought about. See, see, the supernatural the natural world has to come under submission to the supernatural world. It has to. It has to, and that's what I see, we've got to rise up in faith and claim some of these things. You know, I sleep, I can get up in the night and go and trying to get my arms sorted out, but my confession is it's all it's on the way, healing's on the way. It's just a matter of time. I'll wake up one morning and um those symptoms will be gone. They'll be absolutely gone. I absolutely believe it. I I'd never had, I didn't pray for people for healing for years and years and years. And so much so that I started confessing negatively over my own life. And I'd be preaching and saying, Man, if you want to get rid of your demons, come and see me. I love casting out demons, but if you want to get healing, don't come and see me, I'll probably kill you. So go to someone that's got a healing ministry. And then the Lord spoke to me and he said, Why are you cursing yourself? You know, what are you putting that over your own life for? So I had never experienced a healing, not a divine healing. So anyway, I'm we brought this tractor, I brought this tractor, and I was all excited about it was raining. And I go to jump in the tractor, and you know, it's got a big high step. I grab hold of the handle, I step, my foot slips, my hands holding on. I come down like this and rotor cuff on my shoulder. Man, it just tore it all up. Really, really nasty. And so now I'm walking around the farm like this, and um, that was on a Saturday, and I thought I'll be right by tomorrow. You know, I'm gonna be okay by tomorrow, but it wasn't. And I got up on Sunday morning, I'm trying to get dressed, and I've got my shirt, I've got my shirt like out here, trying to get my arm, because I couldn't, I couldn't get my arm, I couldn't bend my arm. So here I am, I come to church, and um, and and someone puts out his hand to shake hand, like, oh, like that, like, oh my goodness, you know me. Let's do a left-hand Boy Scout shake, little wussy one over here, because I can't do the proper one, you know, over here, because my shoulder. So I get up and I'm in the front of the church, everybody's there, and I said, Man, I really hurt my shoulder yesterday with this bit of a track accident, it's really, really sore, but I know God is going to heal me. That's what happened. Right there, right there, right in front of everybody. Boom! My arm just went up. Healed right there. Yeah. So mate, you think, oh, well, that's all right, you know, it's a one-off, isn't that a bit of a thing? Maybe your shoulder wasn't that sore. I'll tell you it was sore. The next one was my ankle. I hurt my ankle, twisted my ankle. I think God was giving me accidents so he could give me healings. Yeah. Have you ever wondered, so you when you go through a really tight time financially, a real battle financially, God's just prepping you for when the abundance comes. But anyway, and I had the same thing. I I was moaning to the church, got up in the front of the thing, and I said, I said, man, I twist my anchor, it's really sore. And I went like I just not thinking, I went like that and I realized it was hell. Right in front of everybody. Dave was probably there in the service. Just amazing. So now, now it's like I also believe in healing. So, you know, I pray for your demons, no problem there. It's foundational. I'll tell you a little secret, too. This is this is a blessing on the word of God, you know, the first time it's faith. Maybe the second time you still need a little bit of faith, and then it becomes fact. If you were to ask me two years ago, does God heal? I'd say, yes, sometimes. If you were to ask me today, does God heal? Yeah, he heals. God is a healing God. It's a fact, that's a living fact. Your symptoms may not change immediately, but God is healing. You just you just keep you, Donnie, you know, God heals. God is a healing God. So he adds. See? Seek you first the kingdom of God, all these things will be added. All the things that you really need, and often you don't realize that the things that you really want is what he adds to your life: a sense of purpose, a sense of destiny. Man, uh God is God, you can't, he's wonderful, he's absolutely, absolutely incredible. You know, um, I've been preaching a lot at home because I believe this is a critical, I'm jumping into another subject now, but I want to talk a little bit about Christian character. You know, there's um with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, 1906, 1908, Assembly of God, um, the Pentecostal revival that's gone around the world, um, the Pentecostal church, charismatic, tongue-speaking, Bible-believing, power of God church has flooded the earth, the largest, fastest-growing church on the face of the earth for the last hundred years and will continue to be so. But let me say something about that. It's not about, it's not just about, it's not about the power. You know, the the first thing that Adam and did, the mistake they made, it wasn't a power issue, it wasn't a gifting. Adam was so gifted, God brought all the animals and everything to him, he just named them one after another. He was brilliant, he was absolutely brilliant, but at the same time, he made a major mistake, and it was a character mistake. He disobeyed God. He disobeyed God. And I want you to understand something about God developing character in you. See, the reason that Satan is no longer Lucifer, the angel of light, the leader of worship in heaven, is because he had a character flaw, which was pride. You know, the the thing about God says this of himself. He says, Be ye holy, right? For what? I am holy. What's the difference between Satan and God? Is Satan powerful? Yes, he's powerful. Is he knowledgeable? He's incredibly knowledgeable. Dove he have wisdom? He has a certain measure of wisdom. Can he make things happen? Of course he can make things happen. Is he supernatural? Yes, he's supernatural. I mean, all of these things. He's so you'd say, well, what's the difference between the devil and God? God's holy. Satan's not. That's the difference. That listen, if you hear this, if you hear this this morning, it really will radically change your life. Because the thing about it is, it's not a lack of the gifts in the body, it's not a lack of speaking in tongues, prophecies, word and it's not a lack of the gifts that the body has, it's a lack of character. It's a lack of holiness. Be ye holy because I am holy. And so when I say bringing every area of your life under the principles of the kingdom, the kingdom principles are always holiness, righteousness. It's always integrity. Um, I suppose, you know, the there's good and bad. Who's good? God, who's bad, the devil. There's um clean and unclean, who's clean? God, who's unclean? You know it all. It's it's it's evil, you know, all of these things, there's this contrast. But listen, the contrast is not power, personality, gifts, even to some degree, abilities. I mean, Satan took Jesus up to the pinnacle and said, I'll give you the whole world if you bow down and worship me. Did he have the whole world to give? I think he did. That otherwise it wouldn't be a temptation. You know, it's like if me coming to you and saying, I'll give you Jonathan's car if you bow down and worship me. Well, you think, well, that's Jonathan's car. You're not, you can't give me that. See, he had the he has power, all of these things you have. What did he not have? He did not have holiness, he did not have character. A lot of Christian people today are living way below the blessing of God for their life because their character, they're not, you're not. See, what I've discovered about character is it takes a certain amount of choice and discipline around your life. So when things happen in your day-to-day life, you need to often slow things down. Slow down your responses or your reactions, the reactions are often bad. Slow things down and get God's wisdom on how you should respond to situations. You know, when you're reading Matthew, the the, I think we misunderstand this. The disciples said that Jesus teaches how to pray. It's not, we were not meant to memorize our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us. It was a principle of prayer. It's a principle of prayer. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. So what's when people offend you, when things happen or they rip you off or something happens, you you can go back to a devil response, which is revenge, bitter, angry, critical, negative. That's the devil, that's where he lives, that's his land, his territory. Or you you slow down and then you say, God, how would you have me respond? So what does he say? What does he say? He says, Love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you. Think about it, what he says. He he comes in the opposite spirit all along. Again, we're in Matthew 6 and 7, and the best sermon that was ever preached on the face of the earth was Jesus Christ, when he talked, he was up in the mountain and he taught them this whole thing in the scripture. It's amazing what he taught us. And so to respond in a godly manner, you've got to slow down and bring yourself under the principles of God's word. See, that's where the blessing is. The blessing's not in getting even or being bitter or being critical or being negative or making excuses, like she made me do it. That's what Adam said, this woman you gave me. It's not, there's no victory in any of that. Um, the victory is in surrendering your life under the principles of the word of God. That's where the where the absolute victory is. And I think it's actually uh uh amazing if you get a hold of it. So he says this love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. I want to I want to say this. Um do you realize that God has enemies? Give me a nod if you realize God has enemies, lots of enemies. David had enemies, Saul was one of them. Jesus had enemies, they're wanting to throw them off a cliff, they wanted to kill them, they wanted to do all sorts of things. If you align yourself with the kingdom of God, you're gonna have enemies. It's a reality, it's a living reality. When we join the kingdom of God, we come under and born again into God's family, into God's kingdom. All the enemies of God are now our enemies. That that's the that's the reality of it. That's why you have battles, that's why you have struggles, that's why all these things happen around your life, because we, in our decision to receive Christ, we declare war against all the forces of darkness.

unknown 41:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

That's true. And what we've got to do is we've got to change our attitude about war. I'm not talking in the natural, I'm talking in the spiritual. You know, even prayer, prayer is an interesting thing. And um, if I was to mention a couple of things for you about prayer, and the Lord's taught me this a few years ago, very powerful, is stop talking. He actually, I was I was going early in the morning, I go and I talk to the Lord and talking, and one morning he just said to me, Shut up. That's how God we have a relationship like that. I don't be a f I'm not offended when God talks to me like that. I shut up. Okay, why? Because God wanted to talk to me. I was bringing my list to him. I had all these things I wanted him to do. My it's like having oh, I won't go there. Is there anybody in your life that has a to-do list for you? Anyway, they do. Hey, you had to-do list. We do that. We go to God in prayer with a to-do list. Sort out our kids, sort out our finance, get rid of that boss. I hate him because he's not treating me right. Do this, do that, do this, something or other roles. It's kind of kind of crazy. And the Lord just said to me that morning, He said, Oh, just shut up. And uh, I felt the Lord said, Listen. So my prayer life changed. So I started going into my office early in the morning and I would just sit there and wait on the Lord and listen. Because just a few words from God will radically change your life, but you can talk forever and nothing much actually happens. But when God speaks to you, like when he spoke to me and said, My blessings are hunting you down, they're gonna overtake you, I was so impacted it changed my whole life from that moment on. So we've got to slow our lives down. You know, you notice how we're all so busy these days, and even when we have nothing to do, we're busy doing nothing. And we've got to slow our life down and listen, listen, listen to the Lord, let him speak in. Now, when it comes to spiritual warfare, because it's the word that God created with his word, right? He spoke into existence. And when he speaks to us personally, which should be a regular experience in our Christian life, is that God is speaking to us, he it it transforms our life. The word of the Lord will change your life. It's amazing. Back, I think it was at 1987, we had quite a number of investment, residential investment properties. And I woke up, actually, it was it was when we bought the house here, so it was 20 years ago. And I woke up one morning and I was just talking to the Lord in prayer, and the Lord said to me, Sell some of those rental properties, the market's going to crash. So I put them at that time, the market was really high. I advertised a couple of properties on Trade Me and sold them within 48 hours and had money within a week. And within about two months after that, there was a big crash, all the property values went down, and we we'd we'd sold and made this profit. We had first time in our lives we had 300,000 just sitting in the bank, and that's how we bought the house in Tupapa. I just God, God, look, God, God knows everything. He knows the beginning from the end. He knows what you're going to face tomorrow. He he you it's like listen to God. Listen to God. Um, now when it comes to spiritual warfare, it's different because you declare a thing, you're coming against the enemy. When you're coming against Satan, you're speaking. You're speaking to him. You you are you are you are commanding him. And in your prayer, can I encourage you to pray the word of God? When Jesus went into battle with Satan, he quoted the word of God. And and pray the word of God. Go in and find scriptures and declare God's word. And if you're in a battle with the enemy, declare God's word to the enemy. No weapon formed against me will prosper. You can do a bit of a little bit of that in there, eh? A little bit of the lion of the tribe of Judah comes out. Listen to me, devil. My brother was uh talking on prayer on the Wednesday night when it came, and um a couple of things I remember. One thing he said in his message that's just stuck in my spirit ever since he said prayer is not talking um to someone, it's talking with someone. It's not talking at him, it's not just talking to him, it's talking with him. And if you're gonna talk with somebody, you've got to stop long enough to hear as well as to declare. But when it comes to the devil, there ain't nothing he's got good to say to you. There's not one thing, there's not one promise he's gonna bring, it's all negative, it's all criticism, it's all destruction, it's all you can't make it, you can't do it, you're useless, you know, you're gonna let God, you're gonna that's what the devil says all the time. Oh now, when you're coming against, when you're doing spiritual warfare, this church says warfare, you align your prayer because what you're actually doing, whatsoever things you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. People don't understand spiritual warfare. You're coming against spiritual entities. You cannot wrestle with them in the natural. You can't headbutt them, you can't kick them. It's spiritual, spiritual warfare. So, what is the weapons that we have? The weapon is our voice, our creative voice, and we align our voice with the scripture, the word of God. Man, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word. Word, not by food, he didn't even say food, every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. You get that? The devil hates it. The devil hates it because you're making a declaration over him. You're actually you're putting him in his place, and his place is not over you, it's under you. It's under you if you know your authority in God. Look, this is why character, I'm jumping around a little bit, this is why character is so important, because if if you don't develop your character, if you don't make good character decisions, you're vulnerable to the enemy. That's where he gets in. That's where he gets, that's where he gets access to us to hold us back from what God has. I I mean, if if I was uh in a my personal life moving ahead for the next 30 or 40 years, probably gonna live to 100. My mum's 100, heading to 101 already, so just norm for me, isn't it? I'll be over here in 99. Some of you will have already departed, but I'll still be here. I'll come, I'll do, I'll do the wave like that, saying God bless all of you that have gone before, and um that you're all up there looking from heaven over us and encouraging us. Um I get a bit naughty at times, don't I can't help it? If I was the the the one thing I suppose that would that it's not about success, it's not about people's praise, it's not about more buildings, more land, more money, it's not about that. I I want the character and the image of Jesus Christ to be formed in me. I want Ephesians, I want Ephesians. Five some gave apostles and prophets and teachers and pastors and evangelists for the equipping of the body that we might reach the full stature of Jesus Christ. What's he talking about there? He's not talking, see, we want to focus on doing what Jesus did: healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons. The full stature of Jesus Christ, the reason he did all those things was because his perfect character. He just had, are you all right? Am I doing okay? You I don't I don't want to I don't want to go on too long. I just sort of want to smack a few things on the way. Just a few words of wisdom. If you're gonna be in the kingdom of God, you're gonna have enemies, and uh that's a reality, and you need to know how to deal with them. And God says, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you. People are gonna hate you. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. Look, another thing that just I want to throw out to you this morning, and and it's really good for us to understand, is um because you love somebody, in the scripture it says the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, right? God will give us a supernatural love. It's beyond the natural love, it's a love of God that He gives us for people. Everybody, everybody. Just because you love them, you don't have to live with them. Now I'm not talking about your husband and your wife. I'm talking about people that make themselves enemies of Christ and enemies of you because you follow Jesus Christ, or people that in the spiritual realm they hate your guts, or they're trying to rip you off, or they're coming in opposition to you, right? You're gonna understand love doesn't mean that loving them, you've got to love them. And and the Lord says how we respond. We pray for them, we bless them, we do all of those sorts of things. But you don't have to be hanging around them all the time. See, people don't often understand that in the body of Christ. Like relationships in the body of Christ are critical. Your relationships are critical, they're destiny relationships, and relationships in the body of Christ, they come and go. Good relationships will remain forever. Christian, godly relationship, they'll be planted forever, but you may not be working together forever. So God brings you together with people for his divine purposes to advance the kingdom together, and it might just be a season or a time, but it doesn't have to end with a broken relationship, negativity, criticism, accusation, and all that. It's never meant to end like that, not in the kingdom of God. Right? It's meant to it's meant those relationships you might head in different directions, but you remain in relationship is what God wants. Now, when it comes to the enemy, nah. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. Don't hang around the enemy, don't go to his house. You know, you you probably all know things like I know. There's people around me in the ministry in the church that are very, very critical of me and of the church. But I don't want to spend time with them. Why? Oh, you might say, Oh, you've got to share, you know, you might get them saved. They're not interested in anything you've got to say. They've made their enemies. They're enemies. I know on the island you don't like to have enemies on the island because it's a small island and one enemy and you've got a whole family against you, you know what I mean? And so sometimes you guys over here, you pussy foot around a little bit, you know what I mean? And you do this happy face thing, oh hi, you know. Would you mind taking that knife out of my back that you sh that you slipped in there last week and that, you know what I mean? And you know, I'm not a greedy, dirty dog that's trying to get all the land at all. I'm just trying to get what's really mine for my family, you know what I mean? And so what we can do is we can we can be a bit wussy-wimpy about that. And um, no, I'm not saying being mean, I'm not saying anything like that. Don't be fake either, and know when to make a decision to just step aside a little bit, because there's other relationships that see, we get so familiar with people we want to hang around them even when they're not good for us. But there's other relationships out there, there's people all around there, all around this island, are waiting to have a relationship with you because it's going to be a kingdom relationship, and the potential for them to find Jesus Christ is somehow or other in God's economy linked to you being in relationships, sharing your faith with them. And there's nothing greater, is there, than finding Jesus Christ or sharing Jesus Christ with someone in our life. This is grandad stuff, eh? But um man, I just sort of felt to hit a few things and um I'm winding down now, and you'll say praise, thank you, Lord, for that. I want to bring one last thing to you, and this is this is some wisdom for you within the church. You know, if you're a mum and a dad, um part of being a parent is God will give you divine wisdom for your children. The neighbor doesn't have divine wisdom for your children. You know what I mean? The guy down the street, nobody else. God gives you the responsibility for your children, he will give you divine wisdom for your children. You know what they need. Like mums have that intuition, I think it's a Holy Spirit thing where they know whether the kids are in a good place or a bad place, they're picking up the vibe, I suppose. You know, they they're sensing what God is doing in the lives of their children. It's very, very much a gift of God. Now, what you've got to understand is when God calls five-fold ministry into church and places them, they're like a mum and a dad over the church. And mum and dad has wisdom for the children. Like, my kids are 50 years old, 50 plus. Corey, I don't know, he just had a birthday the other day. He's 50. I don't know how old he is. I don't know how he ever got to be 50. I'm too young to have 50-year-old son, you know what I mean? I don't know how that happened. But I still have wisdom for him in God's economy, and I probably will until I die or I get. I'm not gonna say the word, but you know. Um people have got problems, old age people have got problems these days because the enemy's attacking our minds, the minds of the seniors. Trying to confuse the minds of the seniors, but I'm not having that. I don't know about you. Man, I'm when I'm gonna go, I've ordered a chariot of fire, and I want all my marbles with me when I head out. I want to know exactly what's going on. And I tell the devil, I tell the devil, I say to the Lord, man, I'm gonna go out sharp, on target, absolutely sound, reading, studying, thinking, not cloudy, none of that other stuff. Okay, so I want to say this because this is important for you. The biggest mistake people make in the church is they come to the pastor to tell them what they've decided, not to ask for wisdom on what they should do. The biggest mistake within the family is when kids get to teenage years, they think they know more than the parents. They don't want to listen anymore, they want to tell you what they want, what they want to do. And good kids eventually will come back around and realize that you do have some wisdom and some things to really offer them. One of the biggest faults I see in the body of Christ today is people come to notify the pastor of a decision already made. These are life-changing decisions. Well, in New Zealand, they don't do it here. We've got people in New Zealand. I've had people come to me and say, Oh, uh, the Lord's told me to go and work in the mines because there's big money over there. And uh, you know, I don't have a lot of money, I'm not, you know, making a lot of money over here. You say, Oh, you're picking on me. I'm picking on everybody, I tell you, because you're not supposed to be following the money, you're supposed to be following the Lord. And if you if you seek your first the kingdom of God, God will bring the provision. See that you've got it upside down. If you seek the money, you could and get out of God's destiny for your life, right? You get out of his blessing, it then it's just all on you. It's all on you, it's only what you can achieve. But if you're in the wisdom of God, and what I want to tell you, what you need to really understand in the body of Christ is your spiritual mum and dad have God-given spiritual wisdom for you. And I want to say this, I want to say this, and I've got the microphone, and nobody can stop me. The spiritual wisdom, the word of God, the God of the creation, our creator God, the God of the universe, has wisdom in every area. Every area, every single other in relationships and marriages and employment situation, God's wisdom operates in every single area of life. He created you, he made you, he formed the world, he owns ultimately everything's all going to think. What you're going to understand is because sometimes we think, oh, he's just the pastor, he's going to give me a religious thing. Or, you know, he's going to give me a spiritual. You cannot get better counsel than spiritual counsel. You it there's nothing better than going to the man and woman of God and they say, hey, look, you might be thinking to do this, or the scripture actually says this. And if you begin to move out in your life, contrary to the scripture, you it your life's it's not going to work out good. See, that's what the enemy, the enemy takes so many people off course. Oh, I don't know. It's this is truth. I tell you, this is truth. I see it, I've seen it happen in my church over and over and over again. It's almost like when they come and say, Oh, Murray, can I come and see you? I know before they come what they're gonna say. That's the truth. I know before they come, I almost say just talk to the hand because what's the point of telling me what you've already decided to do? Oh, I'm independent, I hear from God too. Yeah, that's what Cora and that said also. That's fine. You do hear from God too, but there's wisdom in counsel. There's wisdom. I get counsel all the time. You you'd you'd be you'd be blown away. Man, uh you know, if the car's not going right, I get counsel from the mechanic. Last week we had the electrician in and changed. I started changing the plugs in the house, and I quite enjoy it. You know, I know how to change a plug, but after I zapped myself a few times and took, you know, when the screwdriver hits those live wires, like that, zips up your arm, and then your screwdriver's ruined. I thought, no, I need to get counsel from the electrician, get them in. You know, like every every area in uh running the operating the church. Often I'll bring if it's a big decision, I'll bring my lawyer, the accountant, the bank manager, the trustees of the board, and we've got some really high-flying business people in the church, I might bring them in and get the council moving ahead on the decision. I do I do it all the time. I'm asking, I'm I'm always asking for help and for counsel and wisdom in every area. And I want to really encourage you to do that because it's so easy. Once you've made your decision and you've set off, and then you're out there. I pray for the workers on the island here that have left their wives and families in another nation and they're over here working without their wives and families. You know, you know, like the temptation and all the stuff that goes on, it's it's being away from your family for years on end, your children are growing up without you. Man, I'd I I mean if that was me and it was a necessity, my first I'd be working hard. I'd be working so hard that my employer would want to help me bring my family over there so I could actually be a family and help raise them up and the ways of God on the island. Why not? Why can't you believe for that? If you believe to get a job for an immigrant to come here to work, why don't you believe for the family to come as well and get a, you know? Oh, I'm I know it's challenging, but seek godly counsel. The wisdom of God is so absolutely incredible, and it can save your spiritual lives and your natural lives and your family lives and your marriages and your kids. That's the reality. But um, Father, I just thank you for today. I thank you, Lord, that it's a kind of a granddad talk today. And I pray, Lord, that there might be some nuggets, some revelations, some seeds there that have just been planted in our hearts today. I pray, Father, I just pray, Father, that you would open up the eyes of revelation and understanding. I pray, Lord, that um you would plant seeds, seeds from your words today.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:44

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