Eyes of the heart

Yes, Father, You are God to us now and forever. Thank You for this moment in time. Thank You for this opportunity to embrace Your presence in the now, to be touched by Your presence, to be equipped, to be strengthened, to be uplifted, to be propelled by the Word of Your power. Thank You, Holy Spirit, that You are present here to give life and purpose to this time together.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for the price You paid to make this possible. Thank You, Father, that every person is here tonight with an open heart and that they are hungry, that they will hear only Your voice. In the name of Jesus, amen.

You can grab a seat. Hello, everyone, really great to see you. It's awesome to be here with you tonight, and just to start it this way with the worship and even the word that William shared now was truly relevant to what I have in my heart as well.

You know that for this year the Lord has really placed on my heart, in terms of priority, what I've been sharing about quite a bit, and I'll continue to share about that: for us to live in the Spirit this year. It sounds so simple, but there are a lot of dimensions to it, and I really believe that this is a watershed year. It's a year for us to really come to that place. Maybe last year it was okay for us not to come to that place where we lived in the Spirit, but we lived in the flesh. But now, this year, it is not optional any more. You have to come to that place where you live in the Spirit.

It so happens that there's a lot in the physical life and in the physical world that actually shows us a lot about what's happening in the Spirit. So there are things that we can learn from in the physical that tell us something about the spiritual.

Like William also shared with us now, just be in this moment. I truly have an expectation about tonight, an expectation about what the Spirit is going to do in your life tonight, and I'm convinced that it will be significant. So open your heart and just be present. Do not be distracted. Just be present and allow Him to be God to you and to minister to you.

So I'm going to do a quick exercise with you, but don't worry, it's not a physical exercise. Some of you already, your eyes are growing big. I'm going to do something small for a few seconds, but you need to work with me, because this is going to influence a few things that you're going to experience throughout the night.

I want all of you to close your eyes. All of you close your eyes. Then just turn your head slightly, as if you are looking in a specific direction – not right in front of you, turn your head slightly towards a specific direction. Now you need to listen carefully. You're going to open your eyes and close your eyes when I tell you to, but you're going to do it as quickly as possible. Just close your eyes. Keep your eyes closed.

What you're going to do, when I tell you to, is open your eyes and close them as quickly as you can. Do it now. Now the amazing thing is: who of you, although it was a split second that your eyes were open, have an image now in your mind of what you saw? Just raise your hand.

Now, that's great. Now keep your eyes closed. It's amazing that you opened your eyes for a split second and you saw something. Now your eyes are closed, yet you are still seeing. You are still seeing that same image. You can even explore that image. Look at that image in your mind, because that image is now in your mind. Look to the left top corner of that image – what do you see there? Look at the right bottom of that image – what do you see there? Okay, you can open your eyes.

Isn't that amazing? You see, but your eyes are closed. You made the transition from seeing with the physical eyes to seeing with the mind. That image you saw, although it was a split second, and you really opened and closed your eyes as quickly as you could, yet there was an image that was absorbed in your brain, and even though your eyes were closed, your brain could still see.

I often – I wouldn't recommend this depending on where you hike, but I like doing this. Whenever I'm on a hiking trail, if at any given stage I see a few rocks in front of me and I know I have to step in specific places, I always do this exercise, because it always amazes me. Just before I do it, I close my eyes, and I take the next three steps with my eyes closed. You would think I'm crazy, but the amazing thing is your mind already saw that picture. Try it, but in a safe place – not when you're right on the edge of a cliff. You can even try it right here when we're done tonight: just look where the carpet is, close your eyes, walk, and stop right in front of it.

So your mind actually sees. You start by seeing with your physical eyes, then you start seeing with your mind.

I'm going to show you some things – we're going to take it further. Let's look at what the Word says in Luke 11:34.

“The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.”

Luke 11:34-36 (NKJV)

Isn't that amazing? It says, 'The lamp of the body is the eye.' We've illustrated that principle a bit now in the physical, because you closed your eyes, and yet you could still see. Obviously in the physical sense that is what determines what you see and where you could walk. But then it says, 'Take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness.' What does that mean?

What you absorb can be from two sources, and I'm going to generalise a bit so you get the principle. It is either from light, or it is from darkness. It is either from God, or it is not. But what you absorb and take in, that is the material, the source of what you use to see. That is why the light that is in you, the ability that makes you see, can either be from light or from darkness. That's why it says, 'Take heed that the light that is in you is not darkness.'

It matters what we take in. It matters what we look at. It matters what we absorb. It matters who we speak to. It matters what we listen to, because all of that is imparting something in you that will determine what the light is that is in you. If the light that is in you is not from the light source – and you know the verse that says, 'God is light, in Him is no darkness' – yet you can have light in you that is from darkness.

To take one step back: in the previous session I shared with you the significance for this year to live in the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, to grow that relationship of intimacy with the Spirit. The critical component for that is to spend time in the Word, so that the light in you is not darkness, but is from light.

Let's make a slight transition now so I can take this a bit further. Ephesians 1:15 – there are two prayers that Paul prayed for the Ephesians. This is one of them.

“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”

Ephesians 1:15-21 (NKJV)

I'm going to come back to the latter portion of what I read, but I wanted to create that full picture of his prayer. I want to complete that, but I quickly want to focus on verse 18, from 17 into 18: 'The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.' Now, the fact that the eyes of your understanding are being enlightened means there is light. And remember what we said earlier, there are two places that light comes from.

So there is a way to make sure that the light that is in you is from God, is God's light. How do you ensure that? You need to come to that place where all of this that follows in the latter part of this scripture becomes relevant to you. But don't worry about it, I'm going to come back to it – I'm still painting this picture for you, so I'm going to progress quite quickly; you need to stay with me.

I took you from looking with your physical eyes, then you closed your physical eyes and you looked with the eyes of your mind, because you could still see that picture. Now I'm taking you further: your spirit also has eyes. So there are three levels of seeing, but each one has an influence on the next.

“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (NKJV)

Wow, isn't this amazing? So there are people whose eyes of their mind have been blinded. We cannot assume that you can see. There are things like that, and I'm going to go deep on some things, so it's good that you listen to this audio, but process it while we are in this moment.

There are things that you can only see when your eyes are closed. But it depends on what you have had exposure to, what you have exposed yourself to, what you have taken in, what you have absorbed, the environment that you are in, and whether the light that makes you see is not darkness. I'm worried I'm going too deep too fast, but I'm going to circle around a bit and repeat some of these things as you start getting more of the picture.

This verse we just read says, 'But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded.' Now, you can only blind something that can see. So he blinded the minds, which means they can see with their mind, but it has been blinded. Why? And then the result of it: 'they do not believe, lest the light of the gospel...' Look, it said, 'lest.' So there's an answer – there's an answer for those who cannot see. And for that matter, I'm going to add 'and' here for the sake of illustration: those who cannot see, those who cannot hear – there is a solution.

The source of the light in you can change. The position where you find yourself, and your ability to see, can change, because it says, 'lest the light of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ should shine on them.'

When we talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are not talking about a piece of paper. We are not talking about a doctrine. We are not talking about something that was written in the Bible. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation. There is life in it. There's ability in it. It is much more than a doctrine or a piece of paper or a verse written in the Bible. It is life itself. God chose that the way His power will actually be able to transfer into us and give us life is through the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a critical part of what we are here to do.

When people cannot see, you can't blame them. That is why, before we share the gospel of Jesus Christ with somebody, we pray that their hearts are open, because if their eyes are blinded, what does it help to put something next to them if they can't see it? Check with your neighbour – say, 'Are you with us?' Fist bump your neighbour: 'Are you with us?' I know I'm going deep quickly, but I'm sure you are with me.

So it says these people can't receive the gospel because their eyes have been blinded, and that's been done by Satan in a variety of ways.

“For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

2 Corinthians 4:5-6 (NKJV)

Isn't that amazing? So even if people's minds have been blinded, even if they were in a position where they couldn't see, there is a way to make them see: share the gospel of Jesus Christ. But why does it make them see? The latter part explains it: 'For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness.' So even though – remember where we started, it says, 'Be careful that the light that is in you is not darkness' – it started there, but then it says there is a solution: because God called forth light out of darkness, He has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge. Isn't that amazing? The knowledge is the light – the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Now I'm taking you from the physical ability to see, to the mental or mind ability to see, to the spiritual ability to see. What goes on in your mind is relevant. There is something that needs to happen in your spirit. Of those three components of seeing – with your physical eyes, with your mind, and with your spirit – the important one is your spirit. But the previous two affect that, especially what happens in your mind, because even if somebody is blind, they can still hear. They can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, something happens in their mind, and they make a decision to respond to that.

That is why the only fight that you have that remains – and hear me carefully on this – the only fight that you have that remains is in your mind, between your two ears. That's where the fight is. We think that our fight is demons and evil spirits. Why fight something that has already been overcome? It says, 'God is light, in Him is no darkness.' If I function in that place – it says He called forth light out of darkness, He said darkness could not even comprehend it – why would we lower ourselves on a spiritual level to fight something that has already been overcome, that doesn't even have the ability to comprehend the light of God, our Father? Why would we do that?

We have not been called to fight demons and evil spirits. Yes, when you minister to somebody and there's an evil spirit or a demon, you chase it out – that's part of what we have been commissioned to do, but that's not our primary focus. The focus was never to chase out the demon. What was the focus? It says, 'lest their eyes be blinded by the god of this age.' All you want to do is put them in a position where they can see. That's all you do. You take away what has been hindering them from seeing. You position them and say, 'Here is the light of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ.' If you are willing to embrace that, it will change your life.

Part of the problem, part of what affects people's ability to receive – and now you need to listen carefully, because this is relevant to every single one of us – William said in the beginning, 'Don't receive this message for somebody else.'

Receive it for yourself in the now moment. It says in 2 Corinthians 10:4:

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.”

2 Corinthians 10:4 (NKJV)

Now immediately, when you get to strongholds, people think demons. They think of these bad places where people hang out, the strip clubs and whatever – there, there's a stronghold, there's a lot of demons there. No, this is not what it's talking about. We prefer to make that stronghold a physical place, because then it's easier to deal with it.

This is not what it's saying. It says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. One of the main things we need to embrace this year is that you are going to be challenged with things you do not have a physical answer for, and there is going to be a reason for it, because God wants us to progress to the higher level of where He wants us to function – in the Spirit. So if this year you are confronted with something where you are desperate, where you say, "I don't know why this is happening, I don't have the answer to it, why is it happening to me?" – when you are confronted with that place where you are down and out and you say, "I don't have an answer for this," then think about today. God will position you in a place where you do not have a physical answer.

I shared on Tuesday – and it's worthwhile to mention it again – it came up in my spirit while we were praying: there's a reason why David had to fight Goliath, and there's a reason why Goliath had to have a certain stature.

If David fought somebody who wasn't significant, who wasn't big, wasn't a soldier, just anybody, some small guy who had only started fighting last year, what would be the significance of that? You would not be able to distinguish whether it was David who won or whether it was God who won. The only way this story could have been positioned – and it was never about how good David was – was for the battle to be God's battle.

The whole story is about the fact that what came against him was massive, about double his size. I've read previously about the weight – his spear was like twenty-five kilograms, that kind of thing. It was a massive fork. There was no way, in the physical, that David could win against him.

We say, "Yes, it's a nice story, we all know David and Goliath, it was great." But who is your Goliath? When Goliath walks up to you and you don't understand why you can't beat him in the physical, it's because you were never meant to. It was always a spiritual battle. It was always a battle that God was going to win on your behalf. So don't read David and Goliath and think, "Ah, it's a nice story."

What is the giant in your life? I can assure you, you will have giants this year in your life that you will not have a physical answer for, because God is going to position us where we function from the Spirit and not from the physical. That's where God wants us to function from, and that's why this verse says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. It is spiritual. So immediately you have to say – and I'm encouraging you as you sit here tonight – when you respond to something, ask yourself immediately: is this spirit or is this flesh?

Immediately, if something comes against you and you respond, ask yourself: is this spirit or is that flesh? Preferably, if you can take one step back proactively before you respond, ask yourself: how do I respond in the Spirit? And you listen to the Spirit, and that's why you need this intimacy with the Spirit. You don't always have the chance to go back and say, "Let me pray about this for three days." Sometimes in an instant you need to make a decision, and if you don't have that relationship with the Spirit, how will you function from within the Spirit?

Or will you go back to the weapon that is carnal, the weapon that you know? Your anger issues have been coming your whole life, but because you are trying to address it physically, you are not overcoming it. The way you speak has been coming your whole life, and you're struggling to overcome it. Why? Because you are trying in the physical. The answer isn't in the physical. The weapon of your warfare is not carnal.

But there's a second component to it, because we immediately think about this weapon and stronghold and think about the demon and the strip club – no, this is not what it's talking about. It says:

“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NKJV)

You thought your issue was the demon, the evil spirit, your past, or whatever. There's a reason William gave that word in the beginning – he didn't know what I was going to speak about tonight, but that was already preparing your heart. You need to get over your past. I feel for some of you about the past you had – the way you were abused, the brokenness, the drugs, the alcohol, the marriages that fell apart, the divorces. I feel sorry for you, my heart goes out for you, but we can't stay there. You can't dwell on the divorce from seven years back. You can't dwell on the drug problem you had. You need to continue from where you are now, and you need to continue to live the life God intended you to live. Whatever brought you here doesn't matter. Now you are here. It is the now moment. It is the time God wants to impact you and make you experience only Him, not the physical ability, not the carnal ability, not your own ability. He wants to position you at a place where you can say, "My past is my past."

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)

Now we need to function from that place. I say it very respectfully – I have gone through some things in my life, but I know some of you have gone through a hundred times more, and I can fully understand that. Many times when I minister to people, they say to me, "But you don't understand where I come from, you don't understand my past, you don't know the things I've been through." And I say, "It's not that I don't care, but you know what? If you continue to dwell on that, you will remain there. What I have to offer you is the living God who can change it. The weapons of your warfare that you have fought with up to here have been the carnal ones – and where did they get you? Did they change your life? Did they help you overcome? So let's change what we do. Let's change how we do it. Let's function from that place where it is Him."

Don't think you're going to win Goliath in the flesh. Why do you think you've been struggling seven years with that thing? Because you keep thinking you can do it yourself, and Satan comes and keeps condemning you for not being able to get out of it, not get over it. Every day you give him the opportunity to condemn you because you are trying in your own ability. It's time to let go and let God. The weapons of your warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.

But you realise where all those strongholds are. The strongholds are in your mind. Yes, we talk about spiritual things, but your mind is the gateway to your spirit. I always use this simple example, and I'll get straight to the point. Praying in tongues is one of the most powerful tools God has given us, yet so many people don't pray in tongues. Why? Because of their mind. They grew up in a certain environment, a certain church, they had a certain perception or a certain experience, and in their mind they say, "No, it's not for me, no, it's not for everybody, no, I can't do it." But the moment you take your mind out of the way, you pray in tongues. Praying in tongues is for every single born-again Christian, everyone. Yet your mind might have stood in the way up to now. Tonight, later, I'm going to give you the opportunity to pray in tongues. So get rid of those thoughts that have been cluttering your mind – the strongholds.

What is the stronghold? It is every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Let me paraphrase it a bit so you stay with me: every thought that exalts itself against what the Word says about you is not from God. But what does that thought do? It keeps the truth from penetrating the eyes of your spirit, because it is the eyes of your spirit that will respond to the truths of the Spirit and give life to them.

That is why your battle is in your mind.

“Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Romans 12:2 (NKJV)

That's not necessarily a progressive step-one, step-two, step-three process. It is the same thing we are talking about here – making a decision that it's not about your ability, it's about God's ability, and that the Word of God is truth, and that you will allow that truth to come into your heart and change you, modify you, and impact things you cannot do in your own physical ability.

And it's not a nice-to-have. You might be sitting here thinking, "I can't wait to get out of here and just continue with my life, this is not for me." I'm telling you, you are here for a reason tonight. There is not one person sitting here tonight who is here by accident, and I can tell you, listen very carefully: God will call you to account for what you have received in your spirit tonight. Because truth has come to your spirit, and part of that truth is that you are significant in the Kingdom of God.

Some of you did not hear me. I'm not saying that because you don't shout, you haven't heard – I'm talking to your spirit. Some of you have not heard me because you still have those thoughts that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. It says, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." What I'm sharing with you now is the Word of God, and it is penetrating your spirit, and with it comes the faith.

With it comes the faith and the ability. That is why the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation. In receiving that word – I've explained it to you before – it is like the bubbles that children blow. You blow that bubble, and the words you speak are like that bubble; there is something in it. Isaiah 55 says the word that God speaks cannot come back void. And this word has penetrated your heart, and God is saying to you, "You are significant in My kingdom."

I would like to point at every one of you, but I'm worried I'll miss somebody and then somebody will say, "See, see, I knew it wasn't me." But I'm going to point at all of you, okay? I didn't miss one of you. You are significant in the Kingdom of God. God has called you for a reason. You need to walk in the path He's prepared for you, and one of the first things is to get over yourself, get over the past, and renew your mind. It's not a physical thing. If you keep fighting that Goliath in the physical, he's going to kill you, and that's not what God wants for you.

This is the second prayer that Paul prayed, in Ephesians 3:

“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Ephesians 3:14-19 (NKJV)

Often when the Word talks about the heart, it's talking about your spirit – that's why he uses that word. Can you understand from the previous verse why it is so significant where it says our weapons are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God?

Can you understand why this is so significant? I see it in my mind as this grid, and things need to go through there before they can come into your spirit. Depending on what your thoughts and your mind are, you can prevent spiritual truths from getting to your spirit. And why is that a problem? Because the solution is that you fill yourself with the fullness of God.

Did you hear me? "That Christ may dwell in your hearts." What is the problem with wrong thoughts? They prevent Christ from dwelling in your heart, and you continue to fight the battle in the flesh. That is why we need to renew our minds. That is a process, and I'll get back to that.

It says, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and the depth and the height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." Can you imagine that, being filled with all the fullness of God? That will allow your spirit to see.

The same way you went through that physical process right at the beginning – that's why I wanted you to do that with us, so that now you have that as a reference point. You closed your eyes physically, quickly, then opened them – or rather, you opened them and closed them – yet you could still see. You need to do the same with the eyes of your spirit.

What is so significant about what William said right at the beginning, without knowing what I would speak about tonight: the picture I saw as I was praying about what I needed to share with you tonight was somebody sitting on a train, looking through the window, going through a tunnel, going through a tunnel, and then all of a sudden there's an opening, and it's just that split second of light where the person can see, and then it is dark again. That split second of light. As William was speaking earlier, I realised that there are times and opportunities where there is that open window that portrays that light onto your spirit. The same way you quickly opened your eyes in the physical – you opened them, you closed them, but you saw something – there are times and opportunities when the eyes of your spirit open up and see, and then close, and you embrace what you saw.

There are various opportunities, but I realised tonight is one of them. What is happening is that the eyes of your spirit are opening tonight, taking a snapshot of what you are receiving in the spirit here tonight, and then it closes. Even though it closes, the same way you could still see with your eyes closed, your spirit will see what you received tonight, and you will continue to have the ability to give life to what you received in your spirit. And we are talking about the fullness of God.

That's why sometimes, when we have an opportunity like this, I follow up with some of you – I'm on your case, asking, "Are you coming? Will you be here?" Not because I want anything from you, but because I have a conviction that when God creates that opportunity where your eye opens, you can receive. And I know when we come together like this, there's an opportunity for every one of us to receive – I include myself. When I'm here, there's an opportunity that opens up for me to receive something in a way I would not have been able to if I was sitting at home. That's how it is.

So you need to realise there are times, there are opportunities. The Bible, throughout, talks about appointed times. When there is an opportunity like this, do not miss it, because there is something you need to embrace in your spirit in that moment that will be life-changing.

The same way it matters in the physical what you see, what you look at, what you read, it matters in the spirit what you feed your spirit with. You remember the story of the woman at the well, and Jesus spoke to her, and it changed that whole area because of that one woman. But the disciples came back bringing food, and Jesus hadn't eaten the whole day, and they said, "Are you hungry?" He said, "No, My food is to do the will of My Father."

There's a way that we get nourished and filled and strengthened and enabled that is beyond the physical. I don't know whether Jesus was still physically hungry or not – by His comment, it didn't seem like He was, but it doesn't say, so it's not that relevant to me. But He was at a place where He needed nothing physical, because of the conviction of where He was in the spiritual.

It matters what we take into our spirit. And I already said to you earlier, part of the problem with religion is that religion had a set of rules and a few things they said, "This is right, this is wrong," and that per se wasn't right or wrong in terms of the set of rules they had. The problem was that religion had no solution.

Most religion in this country is about telling you what you are doing wrong, and it is about condemnation. There is no life in condemnation. Anybody can tell you what you are doing wrong; it doesn't take a nuclear scientist to do that. But that has never been the issue. We have never been called to the ministry of telling other people what they are doing wrong. What ministry have we been called to?

The ministry of reconciliation. The Word of God clearly explains to us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that this is the ministry entrusted to us — the ministry of reconciliation. What is our responsibility? Hear me clearly on this. Our responsibility is to connect people with God. It is to make their physical eyes open so that their mind's eyes can open, so that their spiritual eyes can receive — lest the god of this age has blinded their eyes and they cannot see.

They cannot see. How do you expect their lives to change if they cannot see? So you bring this glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, and the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ shines on them so that they can see. There are people who can see and still choose wrong, but you can do nothing about that. Our responsibility is to make people see. You share the gospel of Jesus Christ, you bring that light so that darkness — like with Paul, there was a reason he went through that process.

The scales fell from his eyes so that he might see. It was more than a physical thing. It is the same with people: we share the gospel, and then those things fall from their eyes. Their eyes open, they can see, and at least you position them where they have a fair chance to choose. But then it is a continuous process, and that is why I say religion doesn't have the answer. Our responsibility is to hook in with one another and say, "I'm going to walk with you. I don't want anything from you.

I'm not going to condemn you. I'm not going to judge you on what you are doing wrong. I'm not going to keep telling you what you are doing wrong. I am here." You saw earlier when we read about the eyes of your understanding being opened — all of that was about one thing at the end of the day: the knowledge of the love of Christ. Why do we think we have a different responsibility than that? If what we do does not make people experience the love of Christ, we are missing the point.

We need to function from that place where we allow each other the opportunity for the eyes of the spirit to be open to receive. And when you receive in your spirit, it doesn't mean you're going to do everything right. The expectation is not that from now on you need to do everything right, but the expectation is that you don't walk alone — that somebody can hook in on the left and the right.

Even in the Old Testament it says, if one falls into a ditch while walking alone, how will he get up? If two walk, it is already better, but it says a threefold cord is not easily broken. Who is on your left? Who is on your right, to make sure you can continue to fulfil what God has called you for? Not playing religion, not playing church, not condemnation, not judgment — nothing other than saying it is between you and God. That is the thing we have missed in church so much. It is between you and God.

But I can walk next to you. When you have heard, and you know what you need to do, and you are struggling, I can walk next to you and make sure you continue to fulfil what is in your heart. You will never be able to fulfil what is in my heart. But my job tonight is to open the eyes of your understanding for that one moment, like your physical eyes being opened, and allow the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ — the truth of the Word of God — to penetrate your spirit, so that you can make a decision.

Life is one decision away. That's it. How do you become born again? One decision. The rest of your life is one decision at a time, but you need to open your spirit, receive it in your spirit, and then make a decision. Tonight, whether you know it or not, you are making a decision about what you will do with this Word you have received. But when you make that decision, there is a thing most of us haven't liked our whole life — especially if you've been a bit rebellious — and that is making yourself accountable to somebody else.

What is your responsibility? You have received the truth from the Word of God. You make a decision, and you have two things to do. You decide what you will do with it, and you make yourself accountable — you tell somebody you trust, who is journeying with you, "This is the decision I've made. Will you help me fulfil what I have in my heart?" You can't live somebody else's dream.

Remember the prayer we read from Paul in Ephesians 3:14, and in verse 16 it says that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.

One of my favourite verses is John 7:38. We're going to read it from the Amplified.

“He who believes in Me, [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me], as the Scripture has said, from his innermost being shall flow [continuously] springs and rivers of living water.”

John 7:38 (AMPC)

The next verse says He was speaking here of the Spirit, whom those who believed, trusted and had faith in Him were afterwards to receive, for the Holy Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified — raised to honour.

From your innermost being will flow rivers, springs of life-giving water. But how will that happen? There is only one way. It is through the Holy Spirit. I'm back on the Goliath story: the only way you can do it is through the Spirit, not in the flesh. You will not be able to do it in the flesh. It is in the Spirit, and that is why John 7:38 says from your innermost being — from your inner man, the same thing He was speaking about in the previous verse — in your spirit, you need to open the eyes of your spirit to be able to receive.

Get your mind out of the way. One of the decisions you need to make today is to say that the Word of God is truth, and you will believe it — not your previous experience, not the religious mindset, not the wrong things you watched on YouTube, none of that. You will look at the Word of God and decide, "God, Your Word is true, and whatever You say about me in Your Word is true, and that is what my spirit will receive." The only way your spirit will receive that is if you align your mind with the Word of God.

That is why Romans 12:2 says, "Be renewed. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." You can only receive in your spirit what your mind will allow you to receive. Make that simple decision for yourself tonight: take your mind out of the way and say, "God, whatever Your Word says, I will believe, and it is true, and it is true for me and true in my life." When you receive that and embrace it in your spirit, you can function from that place. That brings us back to the theme for this year, if I can call it that: we need to live in the Spirit.

But to live in the Spirit, you need to spend time in the Word. I often hear people saying, "But I don't hear God's voice." And I say, "How much time do you spend in the Word?" Because that is God's voice. If you have read the Word, you have heard His voice. The more you read the Word and hear His voice through it, the more you position yourself to hear His voice when the Bible is closed too. But you cannot never spend time in the Word and then all of a sudden expect to hear His voice — and that is why we started this week.

If you haven't joined yet, I want to encourage you to join the Bible reading programme. We're only reading one chapter a day, for six days of the week. It is really minimal, but it's about creating that habit, making that commitment, and allowing the Word to change you, because it's only the Word that renews your mind so that you can change this gateway of your mind to allow truth to enter your spirit. Remember, there's a verse that says they received the Word of God, but it didn't benefit them because they didn't mix it with faith.

I've explained this picture to you many times, what God showed me: the Word is seed. It enters your spirit, but you need to respond to it with faith, and that is the egg cell. Conception takes place in your spirit. The Word has all the ability, but it cannot produce until conception takes place and it births something that has life in it. So you respond to the Word of God — you receive it, you embrace it, and you say, "Yes, Lord, this is true. Even though I'm not seeing it yet, I say, 'Yes, Lord, that is true.'" And when I respond to it in faith, I embrace it, I give life to it, and from my innermost being, from my womb, will flow rivers of life-giving water.

Now remember one thing in terms of perspective. One of the things that will make you grow spiritually much faster is if you stop thinking that the whole purpose of growing spiritually and gaining knowledge through the Word is to change your own life. Do I need to say that again? I'll say it slightly differently so you can hear it.

If you want to grow spiritually at a much quicker pace than you are growing at the moment, stop thinking it's all about you. Embrace this: my partner in the audit practice always said, "You can hit a straight shot with a crooked stick." You don't have to be perfect for the Word of God to flow through you and manifest something that is perfect. So don't think you need to first sort out everything in your life.

Allow the Spirit to function through you. John 14:23 says, "Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.'" I want to emphasise this again: why is it that this year I'm going to be on your case, helping you, motivating you, strengthening you and enabling you to the maximum capacity, to spend even just fifteen minutes a day in the Word?

Because without it, all these other things will not be in your life what they should be — and that specifically refers to your ability to function from the Spirit. You cannot function from that place, and that's why we are helping you study only one chapter a day, six days a week. If for whatever reason you fall behind, use a Saturday or Sunday to catch up. You can catch up all six chapters on a Saturday probably within an hour, or less.

So it's not about quantity. It's not about rushing. It's not about being able to say you've read through the Bible. It's about spending that quiet time, creating that habit — that's the primary thing we want to create. That's why I encourage you to make a fixed time every day. Don't say, "I'll do it when I get time," because it won't be long before you're not doing it at all. If you make it a priority — six o'clock in the morning, nine o'clock at night, whatever works for you — set that time apart, and let everybody know that is the time you spend on the Word.

Arrange with your family too, and let everybody respect that time. If you don't do it, it's not going to happen. We just want to help you be in a place where you can spend that bit of time every day so that you create the habit. They say it takes about twenty-one days to create a new habit. So if you haven't been studying the Word, don't worry — even if you have to force yourself to do this, you will not have to force yourself for very long.

It doesn't take long before the Word takes you over. You will develop such a desire for the Word. It made a huge difference in my life when my life changed. Every day I prayed, "Lord, give me an increased desire for Your Word," and He did. I would drive as quickly as I could from work just to get home, close my door and spend three, four, five hours in the Word. I couldn't wait to get home just to spend time in the Word.

If you don't feel that desire, just read one chapter every day, and ask the Lord to increase your desire. I tell you, before three weeks are over, you will not believe you are in a totally different place as far as your desire to spend time in the Word is concerned.

“Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.'”

John 14:23-24 (NKJV)

This is why I mentioned religion earlier. Don't confuse this with religion. Don't confuse this with a burden, condemnation or judgment, because it will make you miss life. Life is one decision away. This is not about any of that. This is about life. This is about positioning yourself, recognising that there are spiritual truths, and they work all the time — either for you or against you, the same as gravity does. If I walk out there, it will not be good for me, because gravity will work against me. But the fact that I'm standing here and not swinging from the roof is good for me. It depends on how you use it, and it's the same with spiritual principles: they will work for you or against you. That's what this is about.

So realise it's not about condemnation, but here is a spiritual truth: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word." Simple as that. "And My Father will love him." Remember that piece in Romans 8 I love so much, about praying in tongues, where the Spirit intercedes for you, and God is looking, and He recognises Himself in your prayer, and then He responds to it.

God loves His Word because it is Him. God responds to His Word because it is Him. That's why it says, "My Father will love him, and He will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words, and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me." I'm going to say something, and I trust your spirit can embrace this.

It says the Father will dwell in your heart — He and the Son will make Their home within you. How does the Father dwell in your heart? Through His Word that is in your heart. So don't think it is something separate. You want the Father to dwell in your heart? Flood it with His Word.

He is there. You don't have to wait for Him. He is in His Word. He will dwell in you, and He will make that His home.

I'm going to end with Galatians 5:22.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Galatians 5:22-24 (NKJV)

Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh. There is something you need to do to be able to function in the Spirit: you crucify the flesh. You need to function from that place where you allow your spirit to embrace truth. Open the eyes of your spirit to see. And once you've seen that picture, you start living according to it — because that picture you see in your spirit, what is it? That picture is Christ. That picture is truth. That picture is reality.

And that is why God says those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth — in reality. So if you have that in your spirit, that is where you will function from. It says, "Be careful that the light that is in you is not darkness." There is a way to ensure that the light in you is light: function from this place. It says, "Crucify the flesh with its passions and desires." The easiest way to crucify the flesh is to fill yourself with the Spirit. The same way I said about the demons — we have not been sent to fight darkness, we have been sent to be the light.

The moment you switch on the light, darkness is gone. We manifest light. We walk in light. We have become the light. We fill ourselves, we overflow with it, and with that, things that don't belong will disappear. That is how you crucify the flesh. You cannot fight every day to crucify the flesh; the only way you do it is to fill yourself with the Spirit. And that's why I'm running ahead to verse 25, because it says, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" — that is exactly what he is talking about.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”

Philippians 4:8 (NKJV)

This is talking about your mind—your mind, straight through to your spirit.

“The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Philippians 4:9 (NKJV)

You see the same message. It's the same concept. That word meditate there is quite interesting—go and spend time on that verse as well. Afterwards, when you receive the audio, work through all of this and through the verses. It lists all these things, but this meditate is different from the meditate in 1 Timothy 4, which says meditate on the Word.

This one, the word is logizomai, logizomai. I'm probably not pronouncing it correctly, but you can click on the Strong's and you'll see it there. What it means is more important: it means to take stock. So you look at all those things it speaks about—whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure. You take that list and you take stock. You say, does my life look like that? Does my life speak of that? Do I embrace that? Do I live that? And if not, allow the Spirit—ask the Spirit to be able to continue to function from that place.

“Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.”

1 Timothy 4:15 (NKJV)

Giving yourself entirely—it's not five minutes a day. Give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident. But that verse, meditate, is to revolve in your mind, to imagine, to premeditate, to live from that place.

My prayer for you today is that the eyes of your spirit have opened the same way your physical eyes opened, and that you saw a glimpse of the image of Christ that He wants to put in your spirit. May that Word impart into your spirit. May truth and reality impart into your spirit. May you embrace life. May you make a decision to embrace life. May you allow the Spirit to take charge.

May you win your battles through the Spirit and not in the flesh. May the eyes of your understanding be opened, that you may embrace the knowledge, the truth, the fullness of Christ within you, that from your innermost being will flow rivers of life-giving water, that you become the solution in this earth that God intended you to be. My prayer is that you overcome yourself. My prayer is that you overcome your thoughts, that your mind is renewed by flooding your mind with the Word of God.

It matters what you watch. It matters what you listen to. It matters what you say. It matters the discussions that you have. It matters what you think about. May you be filled with the Spirit of God. May you increase in the desire to spend time in the Word of God. May you be hungry and thirsty for the Word of God. May you drink from that water which will cause you not to thirst again. May you be activated to walk in victory, the victory that Christ has already attained.

May you embrace His faith, which is beyond anything that you will ever have in your own ability. May Christ manifest in you and through you. May people around you receive love and ability and grace and favour because of God's presence in you. May your family be blessed. May generations after you be blessed because of the presence of God in your life. May you be the city set on a hill whose light cannot be hidden. May life come to your every thought.

May the thoughts that are not consistent with the Word of God leave your mind, for your weapons are not carnal. You will pull down every stronghold, every previous misbelief and religion and limitation that you have experienced in your heart and your mind. May they leave you, because you are filled with truth, the truth of God, the ability of God, the water of God that gives life, life to overflowing.

May you walk in the footsteps of Christ. May Christ walk in your footsteps, for He will be in you, and where you go, He will be going. May you take Him to the nations. May you take Him to your environment. May your touch be His touch. May your words be His words. When you open your eyes, His light will shine through you. When your heart is beating, it will be His heart beating. Through your veins will flow His blood, His life, His ability. You will lose your desire for the physical world.

You will live from within Christ, seated in heavenly places. May you grow in intimacy with your Father, the only living God, who gave life to you. In the name of Jesus, amen.