Christ Reality

Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father, for this opportunity to come together like this. There is nothing greater than just being in Your presence. Truly, Father, You are the source of our existence. You are the reason for our being. Thank You for being present here tonight. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for everyone that is present here.

Everyone that will hear these words and receive them, may they be blessed with Your presence and ability. We are hungry, Father. We are weak. Pour out more of Your Spirit. Make alive more of Your Word inside of us. Cover every one of us.

It's all about You, Father. It's all about You, Father. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for the price You paid to make this possible. Thank You, Holy Spirit, that You give life to every thought, to every word that we receive and that we speak tonight. May we be blessed to be a blessing to the nations.

Father, tonight we specifically pray for this city. May it be a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden. May it be known as a city that is a God-fearing city. May this nation be known as a God-fearing nation. May You be present. May You be visible. May You be known. In the name of Jesus.

Amen. I would not want to be anywhere else in the world at the right time – to be in His presence here, being in fellowship with Him and with one another. There is no greater privilege.

And He is truly pouring out of His Spirit. Every one of us has already received. Even before you came here, the Lord has been preparing your hearts, and in you being present here, you have responded to that prompt to be here tonight. We have an expectation that something happens when we come together like this, because the Word speaks about it. It says, do not forsake the coming together.

So there is a reason for it. There is something in this coming together that is activated, ignited, stirred, enabled, that we cannot do on our own. One of the big prices we have paid is people isolating themselves at home. So every opportunity we have like this to come together, to receive, to stir up in one another, is critical. I want to congratulate you on being here tonight, and I trust that the Lord will really touch us with what He had in mind concerning tonight.

So my question would be – it seems I always start there – why are we here? What is our purpose? I think when we come together like this, it's always that opportunity. We are continuously in the trenches, and when we come together like this, you have the opportunity to just sit back for a moment, take that deep breath, experience His presence, and step back, take that bird's-eye view, and get perspective again.

I trust the Lord will give you that tonight, because maybe you have been going through a range of challenges. But tonight the Lord wants to give you perspective. So why are you here? I know we can approach this from many angles, but the one thing specifically on my mind tonight, and it's amazing how everything is leading into that, I can sum up in this: you are here to manifest Christ.

That is why you are here. You are here to manifest Christ, and I add to that, we are here to help one another manifest Christ. We haven't been designed and created to live for ourselves or only fulfil our own ministry. There's no such thing. There's one body, one Spirit, one God. We all together form one organism, so we cannot do it without one another.

There is not one person that is more important than the rest. We're all equally important and significant. I'm going to keep telling you that you are significant to the Kingdom of God. You are precious. You are loved by God. You have been created for a specific reason. You have been designed for that reason, equipped for that reason. Everything within you is driving you towards that which you have been designed for.

In essence, it starts with this: to manifest Christ. Right from the beginning, when God created man, He said, go, fill the earth, be fruitful and fill the earth. But what God had in mind was to fill the earth with Himself – more of Himself, more that looks like Him in this earth. And it's inevitable, as soon as you start speaking about that concept of more of Him, that you start talking about the sons of God.

Because what is more of Him? What looks like Him? Sons of God. I firmly believe that we are in an era, a phase, a period that is granting the opportunity for the sons of God to prepare themselves and to stand up. In any battle, in any war, soldiers are trained extensively before they go into battle.

For me, this phase that we are in – I'm not saying we're not in a battle, I'll touch on that just now – but where we are now, and I really felt when I prepared that what I will communicate is on two levels. You can grasp either one, but I want to encourage you to hear what you haven't heard before. To hear from the Spirit. In every sentence I'm saying, you can take it at face value, or you can allow the Spirit to give it life in your spirit.

So when I say we are in a phase now, I don't say it lightly. It might look to us physically, it might look to the world as if we have these major challenges and things are falling apart, this great darkness that Isaiah speaks about. But yet I think it is a time we should rejoice in – we should rejoice in the training opportunity that we are granted to raise up the sons of God.

Sometimes the way you make olive oil is you need to press those olives. Sometimes we need to go through this process of being pressed. We need to be forced to move out of our comfort zone, to be challenged with what we held onto previously, for what God wants to achieve in the sons of God standing up in a season like this. So don't see everything that happens as just negative, as if it's just from Satan.

Let's look for the value in it, in terms of what God wants to achieve. If it says God will have everything work together for good for us, what does that mean? We need to go find the good in what is happening. We can't just say, it's fine, we accept it, somehow it will work out for my good. No, I need to go and find it and say, God, what are You maybe teaching me in this phase? How are You preparing me to stand up as a son of God?

The Word says – and depending on the translation I'm paraphrasing – the whole of creation is crying out for the manifestation of the sons of God. The manifestation of a son of God is an opportunity that every person has. Don't for one moment think it's only the few elect, the one percent of Christians, who have the opportunity to become a son of God. Every single child of God has the opportunity to become a son of God.

But here's the thing you need to hear: it is not optional. When truth comes to you, with it comes responsibility. I want to say to you tonight, he that has ears, let him hear. What you hear tonight, you cannot unhear. What the Lord is activating in you tonight, you cannot stop. He's raising within every one of us the desire and the responsibility to stand up as a son of God. And it's not optional.

We will not achieve in this earth what we have been sent for until the sons of God stand up. What the manifestation of Christ in this earth should look like has not been seen yet. Where we are at the moment is not a scratch on the surface of what the manifestation of Christ looks like. Will you agree with it? You can raise your hand.

This is a family gathering. This is not a church. So here you can do whatever you want. Just keep it ordered, please. So we are in this preparation phase for the sons of God.

What does it mean to be a son of God? It is individuals – and I want to touch on three things. You really need to listen with your spirit. What is a son of God? Firstly, it's someone that looks like the Father. Secondly, it's someone that does like the Father. I'm choosing those words specifically. And thirdly, it is those that connect others with the Father.

Why else would you call somebody a son of God if he doesn't look like the Father, and he doesn't do like the Father, and he doesn't connect others with the Father?

I believe, as I said earlier, that we are currently in the greatest war this earth has ever seen. Most don't realise it, because they don't know what that war is. You know what that war is? That war is about the hearts of children of God.

Everything that is happening in this earth – the challenges, the war, the fights – everything that's happening is about this. It's about your heart. The greatest battle this earth has ever seen is raging at the moment, and it's concerning your heart. You need to know that. It's too easy at this stage for people to lose the battle concerning their hearts. It's too easy. We should not accept that.

We look at so many things – we grow up in our faith and our ability to overcome, to challenge and rebuke sickness, to expect divine health and finances and prosperity – and we fight these battles. Yet if you win all those battles but lose what should be in your heart, it means nothing. The battle is concerning your heart.

But it's the subtle thing – many are able to stand up in boldness and be courageous and fight the fight concerning their marriage, their finances, their health, but they lose the battle concerning their heart. And that's what it's all about. The one thing God is after is your heart.

Remember, I'm trying to give you perspective tonight, so there are some things I just see as I speak. I see them wash away. It's like when something is covered with mud – this statue is covered with mud and you don't know what it looks like, and you start spraying water on it and you clear away all the mud and you can see what that statue looks like. You know how you mine gold, or prospect gold in a river with a pan – you wash away everything that's not gold. It's as simple as that. You don't try to retain the gold; you get rid of everything that's not gold.

God is after your heart. If He, or you, or jointly, need to wash away things in your life that are seemingly valuable so that He may retain your heart, He will do it. Do not think God will not take things away from you, because He's after your heart. And if there are things competing with that, He will not attach value to it – it doesn't matter how much you pray for it – because He's firstly after your heart.

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.”

Mark 12:30 (NKJV)

We read it easily and we slot it in there with the other things. This is like the one thing on the shelf, and then we put all these other things – my calling, my ability, my faith, whatever – on the shelf as if they carry equal weight. There's a reason it says this is the first commandment.

I believe life is simple. We complicate it – with doctrine, with religion, with habits, with theology. Life is simple. God says, this is what I expect from you. But if you put that on the scale, there's nothing else you can put on the other side that can come close to moving it. There's nothing else that can come close to it.

This is what God wants for you. He wants you. You can sacrifice everything to generate all this money and say, but I'm sowing it in the Kingdom. But if He doesn't have your heart, it means nothing. And if He needs to take you back to that place where you have nothing, so that He can have your heart again, and then you start rebuilding, then He will do it. So maybe we just need to hear why we are where we are.

Are we at this place where we can truly say for ourselves, this is all that my life is about – to love Him first and foremost, to love Him with all my heart, with all my soul, all my mind, with all my strength? This is the first commandment. The great thing is, which I'm very thankful for, God even gives you the ability to be able to do that.

“Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?”

Job 38:36 (NKJV)

And you know the verse that says it is both God that gives to will and to do. He gives you the ability. He gives you the desire. You just need to turn to Him. God doesn't force anything on anybody. There might be obstacles and challenges, and you keep bumping your head against the same thing – you're not progressing, because we are not directing our thoughts, our intentions, to say, God, You are God. Doesn't matter what in my life, You are God. I will love You. I will worship You. I will serve You. Doesn't matter if I have nothing.

Let us never find ourselves in a place where we start serving God conditionally, where Jesus starts becoming our servant, because now it's all about my faith, my ability – what can I achieve, how much finances, how much prosperity, how much healing, how much of all of this.

And all of that is good if it takes the right priority. It cannot be priority number one. Amen. Yes, we know John 10:10. We know that Jesus came to die. We know that the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. We know that Jesus came to give us life, life to the full, life in abundance. We know that. But God says, "Yes, the first commandment, I want your heart." Perspective, perspective, perspective.

And we know Philippians 4:6-7.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

Philippians 4:6 (NKJV)

Very important, thanksgiving, thanksgiving. We have so much to be grateful for. We have so much. Just the fact that you are here is enough for you to be grateful, to be thankful. Just that. Doesn't matter. You say, "But you don't know what's going on in my health, my finances, my relationship." I don't have to know.

The fact that you are here means that you decided, at least for this point in time, to make God priority, to respond to His prompting of the Spirit to be here, so that He can speak to you, that He can share with you, that He can touch you, that He can say, "My child, I love you more than anything." Do you know that? There is nothing that God loves more than you. Can you even imagine that? That the Creator of heaven and earth – there is nothing that He loves more than you.

He wants your heart. Part of the reason He wants your heart is because that is what He gave. Remember, I have explained this to you many times before: we usually see the picture of, oh, He gave His Son, because I have the image that if my son stands next to me, then I sacrifice that son. That is not what God did. He didn't sacrifice the Son that was standing next to Him. His Son – it says He was the Word, He was the life, He was with God, He was in God. When God had to give His Son, He had to rip out His heart to give to buy you.

It is no small price. You are not a side issue. You are the issue. You are the focus. You are the reason for Jesus Christ to come to earth. God's salvation plan has always been all about you. You are precious. You are significant, and the world out there needs you. Badly.

Because if you do not go, who will go? If the salt has lost its taste, how will it ever occur? You are the solution to this earth. Amen.

It says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God." But I want to get to the second part, verse 7. It says, "And the peace of God" – the peace of God, the peace of God, the peace of God.

Get that in your spirit, the peace of God, not the list of things you need to do.

“…and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts…”

Philippians 4:7 (NKJV)

I don't know about you, but I found myself many times in that trap of thinking the harder I work for God, the more He has my heart. Not so.

The peace of God. It says, "We labour to enter His rest." Amen. The most significant time that we have spiritually is the quiet time with the Lord, where we can hear, where we can see, where we can be strengthened and nourished and guided and shown the direction. And from there, we can give. Remember, we are talking about manifesting Christ, but I'm going to start filling in some of the things as we continue.

So it says, "The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Amen. Will guard your hearts and minds. Here that thing pops up again – that thing called your heart. It keeps popping up. You can't get away from it. Why is it significant? I think it's fairly obvious, but Proverbs 4:23 says:

“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

Proverbs 4:23 (NKJV)

What am I reading from here? I'm reading from the Word of God. This is not some storybook. This is not some optional aspect. This is not some motivational speech. This goes back to the Creator and the created, and how that design of the one who has been created functions. And God says, guard your heart, for from it springs the issues of life.

Do you understand the significance? I'm so tempted to go really deep with this, if you are ready to embrace it. I'll maybe have to come back to this verse a bit later. But process it: there isn't another place where the issues of life spring forth from. It says, guard your heart. There are so many things that can paint that picture and fill it in for you – everything that goes with it, in terms of submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee. All of that starts to tie in with decisions we need to make.

Okay. How do we get to this point where we manifest Christ? It starts with something specific, in terms of manifesting Christ, from Ephesians 4:13.

“…till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

Ephesians 4:13 (NKJV)

So this verse leads us to something, and where it ends is the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We're talking about our purpose on earth being to manifest Christ – that's our purpose. Now, this verse explains that there is a way to get there, to get to that place of the body of Christ coming to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. One of the core aspects it mentions is, "Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God."

How do you manifest Christ? You gain knowledge of the Son of God. Not theoretical knowledge, not head knowledge. You come to that place where you truly have knowledge of the Son of God. And what does that lead to? That leads us to that place of being a perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

We know that our purpose is manifesting Christ and helping others to manifest Christ – completing that circle. I'm reading verse 13, but maybe you can go to verse 12 as well, the part that precedes this. Why do we have to come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, or how do we get there? That whole process explains that part of our responsibility: every single one of us carries something that God has placed inside of us that the rest of the body needs.

There's no spare parts. They might just not be functioning yet, but they're there. You have been created for a purpose. You are significant. You are here for a reason on this earth. And not only does the body of Christ need you, the world out there needs you.

So it says we have been given all these gifts, but why do we receive those gifts? It says, "For the equipping" – or the proper rendering of that word is "the perfecting" – "of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."

Now hear my heart on this, because this is positive, this is not negative. We can focus so much on the gifts, on the offices, that that becomes the focus – whether you are the prophet or the evangelist or the pastor becomes the thing. That is not the thing. That is the servant thing. The thing it is about is perfecting the saints for the work of ministry.

For what? Now, we can still fall into the trap of saying, "Okay, all of that is so that we can raise you up on a pedestal and say, 'Here you are, we've edified you, we've equipped you, we've perfected you for the work of ministry – yay, we're successful.'" We're not successful, because it continues: what is it about? It is about edifying the body of Christ. You can be the greatest evangelist and pastor and teacher and healer and whatever else – if it's not about edifying the body, not you as an individual, not your gift, not your office, it's about the body.

And I'm saying this positively, because yes, we need to do all those things, but it cannot be priority number one. When you go out, who are you taking with you? Who are you raising? Who are you discipling? Who are you equipping? Who are you loving? Who are you having that fellowship and communion with in that process? How are you edifying the body? Or is it me, myself and I, and my great gifts? So the stage needs to become bigger, and the car needs to become bigger, and whatever else goes with it, because it's about me. No.

It's not the example Jesus showed us. He came to serve. But we have to have perspective that it's knowledge of the Son of God that will take us to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. How? The previous verse says it's about the edifying of the body. That whole section ends off with the body edifying itself in love. Perspective.

I started sharing a bit earlier about what a son is. Who is a son? What does he look like? I said to you, firstly, a son looks like the father. If you go to John 14:9-10 – Jesus said to him:

“Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”

John 14:9 (NKJV)

Do you want to know what it takes to manifest Christ? You need to be able to say, "Who has seen me has seen the Father."

Make no mistake, I'm not here to offend any of you tonight. Please don't get offended. We don't have the luxury in the body of Christ to be offended. If we have differences, we sort it out, because it's about the body first. So understand what I am saying to you. When we talk about sons of God: when Jesus Christ the man was on earth, He had to make a choice where He lives from.

He had to choose whether He lived from the Spirit, whether He manifested God, or whether He lived from the flesh. It was a choice for Him to function from that place of spending time with the Father, to be able to see, to be able to hear, to be able to go and do exactly what the Father showed Him – and in doing that, He looked like the Father. If the Son of God had to look like the Father, and if we talk about the sons of God…

Now, immediately, because we put the "s" at the end, it becomes plural, and we are talking about all of us. When we say we need to be sons of God, all of a sudden those criteria don't seem to apply to us, because that's God. But what do you think gave you the life inside of you to become born again, to become one with the Father? Do you think it's a different life that is inside of you than the life that was in Christ Jesus? It is the same life. It is the same ability. It is the same opportunity that Jesus Christ had.

We need to have this aspiration, this desire, this goal, to say, "When somebody has seen me, they have seen the Father." How else can I call myself a son of God? Remember what I said earlier: it's not about, oh, now I have to work at it – it's about my heart first. It's about His ability. He even gives you that ability. You need to allow Him. You need to be aware of it. You cannot let Satan steal from you the awareness of what it means to be a son of God. To be a son of God, you need to look like Him. How else can you be a son of God? So don't shy away from that under the cloud of religion. He created you with His life and His image. I'll even show it to you in some verses just now.

“Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.”

John 14:9-10 (NKJV)

What does it take to be a son of God? So I hope by now you have realised you have the calling, the expectation to be a son of God, and that has nothing to do with gender. It is in terms of who you are as a creation from God. In heaven there is neither male nor female. To be a son of God is about you as an individual. So yes, women can also be sons of God. Okay? I'm sure you know that by now.

Jesus had to choose where He lives from. Colossians 3:10 – quickly, I want to show you this. I'm not sure if you have that, I might not have given it to you; if you can quickly search that up. But I'll read it to you.

“…and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”

Colossians 3:10 (NKJV)

If you can take this verse tonight and write it on your heart, and meditate on it and embrace it, and let it come alive in you… You know, I've explained many times, when you receive the Word of God, it doesn't produce fruit automatically. It says they received the Word of God and it didn't benefit them, because they didn't mix it with faith. And what is that faith? It's not this hopeful believing that something will happen. It is action. It is responding to it. It is knowing what reality looks like. Remember, my definition of faith is knowing what reality looks like and is, and responding accordingly. So when you receive this word, you need to mix it with faith.

You need to come to that place where it comes alive. You cannot live somebody else's revelation. You cannot live somebody else's faith. You can benefit from it for a time, but there comes a time where you need to stand up. So this is what it talks about: when you have this life of God inside of you, when you have become a child of God, it says, "And I have put on the new man who is renewed" – in what? Knowledge.

The new man is renewed in knowledge of what? According to the image of Him who created him. Who of you are grasping this? You have to be renewed in knowledge of the image of Him who created you.

I've got news for you: that image is already inside of you. You cannot produce that image. You cannot increase that image. You cannot modify that image. But you can choose to grow in knowledge about it, to be able to live from it, from that reality, so that people can look at you and see the Father.

In simple terms, this is the lower level of revelation, if I can put it that way. You have a spirit; you are a spirit. You have a soul, and you stay in a body. You are a spirit, you have a soul, you stay in a body, and now you have to choose whether you live from the flesh or whether you live from the spirit. The more you live from the spirit, the more you gain knowledge about His image.

Remember what Ephesians 4 spoke about: how do we get to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ? We grow in the knowledge of the Son of God. This passage says the same thing: put on that new man, that new creation. How do you put it on? You grow in the knowledge of who God is. It also speaks of where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. This is not a burden placed on you.

It is exactly the opposite. It is not something you are going to try to manufacture. It is not something you have to be good enough to deserve. It is God Himself, and He is in you, and He wants to express Himself. The more we grow in the knowledge of who He is, the more we allow Him to express Himself. That is all it is about. The more we grow, the more we can choose. Now, how do we get there?

There are a few things I want to share. I'm not sure how much time I lost when the power went off - I think about an hour - so I have some extra time now, about seventy-five minutes. I won't use all of it; I'll use about sixty.

This, for me, is probably the now word that God wants to communicate to you, and it is the most significant thing we can embrace to understand. We need to all become sons of God. The ability and the life of God is inside of us, and there is an image we need to conform to, so that we can live from that place. So how do you become a son of God? You look like the Father. That is how you become a son - you look like the Father. That is what Jesus had to do, and that is what we have to do. So you don't have to fabricate this or work hard at it - you become like the Father because that life is already inside of you. You choose where you live from.

The second thing is: you do like the Father. I chose that word specifically.

“And Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner."”

John 5:19 (NKJV)

John 8:38 says:

“I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.”

John 8:38 (NKJV)

That was spoken to the Pharisees, and He said to them that they were from their father, the devil.

“For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.”

John 12:49 (NKJV)

To be a son of God, you look like the Father, you do like the Father. Why is this so significant? It takes us away from the religious set of rules, the burdensome compliance, the configurations, the boxes - all of that.

It takes us away from that burden, so that what is left is that God wants your heart. He wants you, because He gave His heart. He wants your heart, so that when you receive His heart and embrace Him, your heart becomes His heart. It's not possible to distinguish anymore where you live from - it is God's heart that is expressed through you. So what is left for us is, first and foremost, our relationship with the Father. We think it's this optional thing, this burdensome thing that we have to put in our diary, otherwise it doesn't happen because there are so many other important things.

"I need to go do the outreach." Yes, if that is what the Lord said you must do, that is good. But there is something that precedes the outreach - conforming to the image of what is inside of you. That means you need to spend time with Him, to function from that place of intimacy.

If Jesus Himself spent many nights not sleeping, so as to have that intimacy with His Father, because He says, "I could only do what I saw My Father do" - how many of us can say that? If you do not make Him a priority, if you do not direct your heart to Him, if you do not spend that time with Him in intimacy, you will not see. If you do not see, you will not hear. If you do not hear, what are you going to give? Jesus had to choose to function from the Spirit.

We can do very good things, and they can look seemingly good, but is the Spirit in there? It is the Spirit that gives life; the letter kills. We can make a religion out of anything - even the highest level of revelation and ability can be turned into a religion and a set of rules. It's about a relationship. We need to do what the Father does. Jesus showed us the example. He said, "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father."

What did Jesus do just before He went? Listen to this on a deeper level.

“Peter said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."”

John 13:8 (NKJV)

That's hectic. But then He explains it in the next verse - listen, because this might take you somewhere.

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.”

John 13:14 (NKJV)

So why did He say that? Because what He is saying is: what I have done to you, go and do that. If I have not washed your feet, you are not going to wash feet. If you are not going to wash feet, you have no part in Me. A servant heart - not position-orientated, or structure-orientated, or religion-orientated - but a servant heart that says, "Lord, in whose life can I make a difference today?" It doesn't matter what I'm going through, it doesn't matter if you are the person with the longest list of challenges - if you are not going to turn your heart and say, "Lord, whose feet can I wash today?"

Jesus said, "If you don't wash their feet, you have no part in Me." And Jesus said, "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father." So this is the Father's heart - that we are willing to go on our knees and wash each other's feet when that is what is necessary, or drive to give someone a plate of food, or pay their rent, or help their child with tutoring. The kingdom of God is not out there somewhere as some spiritual thing. The kingdom of God is living love to the person next to you. That's what it's about. It's not complicated. It's not religion. It's not a set of rules.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

Mark 12:30-31 (NKJV)

That's where it starts - that's what significance is. So you also cannot spend the rest of your life in your room saying you are worshipping God while your neighbour next door is suffering because you are not physically going there to help them. That's what James speaks about: show me your faith - faith without deeds is dead. So knowing the reality of what your God looks like, what He is inside of you, but if you suppress that, it is dead. You have to live it. You have to express it, and that is what a son of God is. Not only do you look like the Father when somebody looks at you - you do like the Father. You have given your heart to the Father.

You need to die to yourself. You are not a Christian, mark my words today - you are not a Christian if you have not died to yourself. It's impossible, because you need to die to yourself to make Him Lord of your life, and before He is Lord of your life, you are not a Christian. You might be in religion, but you are not in His life. There is no different way to get there.

So why do we do the things that we do? Why do we study the Word? Now that you have this perspective, let me try to sum it up: you are created in His image. You have His life inside of you, and now we need to grow in the knowledge of who the Son is. Why? Because the more I grow in the knowledge of who the Son is, the more I grow in the knowledge of who I am. It's not a separate thing - He is life inside of me. Jesus said unless a grain of wheat should fall to the ground and die, it cannot reproduce. He had to die as a grain of wheat so that what He produced would be grains of wheat, not watermelons.

You have exactly the same life that Jesus Christ had in Him. We have this image of God inside of us, and the more we grow in the knowledge of what is inside of us, the more we are able to express it. It's all about Him. This is not religion. This is not a burden. It is a God who loves you and wants intimacy with you, and He wants your heart. The more you experience that love of God, the more you see it, the more you experience it, the more you become it, the more you have the ability to express it.

Why do we study the Word of God? Because we are growing in the knowledge of the Son of God, and how will you grow in the knowledge of the Son? You study the Word. Everything in the Word of God leads to, or explains to you, the salvation plan of God - Jesus Christ as the solution.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

John 1:1-5 (NKJV)

You cannot separate the Word from God - the Word simply shows you who God is. That ability of life is so superior. Yes, we need to function from that place.

I'm saying this tonight - please don't get offended. If you have any questions or issues with what I say, come and speak to me. It is great and significant to function in the authority of Jesus Christ, to command devils to flee in the name of Jesus Christ. I do that; no problem with that. To command healings in the name of Jesus Christ - no problem with that. It's all fine. But you know what? It's not the ultimate thing. The ultimate thing is walking so closely with the presence of God that people get healed before you even open your mouth, and devils flee. I'm respectfully saying this - if you have questions, please rather speak to me. The ultimate authority is not chasing out devils in the name of Jesus Christ.

When Moses had to explain who God is, God didn't give him a pedigree. He said, "I am." That's it. Who God is, is enough. Who God is inside of you is enough.

Now, we grow in that knowledge. We express it. We love one another. We express that love. We serve. And in that, we look like the Father, we do like the Father, we become sons of God. Sons of God are not those sitting on a throne with a sceptre commanding hundreds of people what they should be doing - no, it's the ones washing feet. Jesus said, "If I do not wash your feet, you have no part in Me, because I have to first do that so that I can tell you that is what you must go and do. And if you don't go and do that, you have no part in Me."

Why do we have a desire to interact with the Holy Spirit?

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever - the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

John 14:15-18 (NKJV)

You probably know that the Greek rendering there is allos parakletos - another one of the same kind. That's why the Holy Spirit is not a dove. The Holy Spirit looks like God; He looks like Jesus. He says, "I will send you another one like Me, the same kind." If I have one jacket on, and I have another jacket that's exactly the same, it's the same jacket - it just looks exactly the same, another one of the same kind.

So when He sent the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit still has the image of God, and that image is inside of you. It's not a separate life that you have - it is God Himself who is in you, and He wants to help you, through the Holy Spirit, to be able to express who He is.

“How will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.”

2 Corinthians 3:8-9 (NKJV)

I had a lot in my heart regarding glory. I said to William before we started that I literally had to take the preparation I made and split it in half, realising I need to do a second session about this - I don't have enough time. That second session is all about glory. I believe you are going to experience some of that tonight, even though I'm not going to speak about it - I have an expectation about the manifestation of His glory.

But there is one verse I do want to share, and probably end off with. Remember, this refers to Moses, who was on the mountain in the presence of God, and that presence literally made him illuminate - he was like a fluorescent light. But it started deteriorating, so he covered his face so that people would not see it fading. In the Old Testament that glory refers to Moses and represents the law - I'm not going to go down that road now; that's a separate topic, so please go and read that chapter yourself.

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV)

Why does it say it's a mirror? You're looking at the Word, and that same life you read about in the Word is the life that is in you. Say it with me: transformed. Everything you read in terms of the ability and the nature of God in the Word is already inside of you. It's not something you have to deserve - we receive this nature of righteousness as a gift. We don't have to work towards it, but we have a responsibility to desire it, to ask the Lord to give us more of a desire for it, if you don't already have that desire, so that we can express more of Him.

The more we do that, the ironic thing, if I can put it that way, is that it becomes less and less about myself - because that is the trap, thinking it's about how much I can do to express Him. It's about how much I can get out of the way, so that I can express Him. "Being transformed into the same image from glory to glory" - the more we look, the more we become.

Thank You, Father, for this amazing opportunity to be touched by You. Thank You that we know You are the only living God. Father, our minds are not capable of grasping what it means that You are alive in us - the same image, created in Your image, is what is inside of us.

Father, we want to pray and cry out that You increase our desire and our ability, through Your Spirit, to live more and more, to put on this new creation, the new man created according to Your image, to put on the new man, to live from there, to make decisions from the Spirit, to live from the reality of the Spirit, for You are in us. Father, we want to be obedient.

Hallelujah. We want to become sons of God. Hallelujah. We want to look like You. We want to do like You in this earth. We want to be the solution to those that are crying out. We want to connect more of You, for You have entrusted the ministry of reconciliation to us. Father, we cannot do it in our own ability.

Help us, through Your Word, through Your Spirit, through one another, to be able to see more of You in us, to look in that mirror and start acting according to who we are.

We worship You, Father, God Almighty. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for the price You paid. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Holy Spirit, that You give life. We seal everything tonight in the name of Jesus.