His presence and overcoming

There are a few things that came up in my heart as we were worshipping and praying. It's as if, if we take a step back and become a bit removed from the circumstances of our lives, take that step back and get that bird's eye view, then all of a sudden we get a different perspective on what we are busy with and what is challenging us.

I see this picture of the extremes in our lives. If we measure what the extremes are, the low point and the high point, and what it is we aim for in a day so that at the end of it we can say we've achieved a high point, then I realise that our high point, if it's just a normal day, is a high point. It's not necessarily the tip of the mountain that is the high point. There are so many things that can take us below the neutral point, below where we are at, that we should recognise the neutral point, being normal, as the high point.

Look at your body: just being normal is the high point, not ultimate fitness or a body that meets certain criteria. It's the same in so many dimensions of our lives, because the risk is that we get so absorbed in wanting to experience and achieve things on a certain level that we are not grateful enough for just being normal, just having a normal day, just being able to get up in the morning.

There are many things that come against us and want to steal that gratitude for just being normal, for not sleeping under a bridge. And even if that were the case, there would still be a lot to be grateful for. But we're not there, so there's even more we can be grateful for. It's important, whenever you have a quiet time, that you hold that perspective.

There are a few things on my mind, and if I sound like I'm all over the place, just grab whatever you can from what I'm saying. I see two pictures. The first is a stock bag full of sports equipment: you go and train, it's planned and organised, you know what to expect and what to do. You go to the gym, you've got a routine, you exercise, you run 21 kilometres or whatever it is. It's the exercise, the practice, the plan — you are in control, and there's a lot of equipment in that bag.

Then there's the other scenario, where something goes wrong and you get an injury. The question then is: what do you have at hand to address that? This is the unplanned thing that comes against us, that challenges us, that we don't want in our lives — whatever it is that frustrates us. What does that exercise bag or toolkit look like then?

This is what came to my mind: a first aid kit. What is the emergency kit that you carry with you? We experienced quite a lot in one of our prayer sessions this week, and I'll share it for the sake of elaborating on some concepts.

We had this prayer session and we were bold, wanting to pray together. I felt drawn to some of the songs I play about thunder and boldness and breaking open. Often when I pray my language changes, and there's one particular one with a lot of deep sounds to it, boldness, and I feel the drumbeat — it's like I'm in a battle.

Before I went onto my knees, I said to myself, "I'm going to pray in that language" — bold, breaking, changing, overcoming. I got onto the floor, and I couldn't get a word out. I wanted to pray in tongues, I opened my mouth, and I couldn't get a word out. For twenty minutes I lay on the carpet — twenty minutes, half an hour, I don't know.

I couldn't get one word out, not even in my mind, though I had said, "I'm going to pray that prayer, I'm going to change things, I'm going to break, I'm going to be bold, I'm going to overcome." I experienced a lot in that, but one thing I often share because it's quite a reality for me is the account of John standing before God, who felt like one who is dead on the ground.

I'm thinking, even in my prayer sessions, how often is it that I want to be the one who comes and prays boldly, breaking through, speaking? What is this really all about? If you stand in the presence of God, are you really going to be the one doing the talking? That's what I experienced.

I'm in His presence, and isn't that what half of those worship songs, what we desire and speak, are about — we say, "God, let Your glory fall, let Your presence be here"? We want His presence because we know in Him there is no darkness. And then I come into His presence, and I want to talk.

Part of what confronted me was that during the whole prayer session I couldn't get a word out, even trying to pray in tongues. The presence was so strong, and I got this conviction again — a whole chain reaction that confronted me: it's all about Him. It's His ability. It's His love for me that even made it possible that I can know Him, that He was willing to send Jesus for me.

It's Him who gives me the desire and the ability. He created me for His joy. He's so invested in who I am and in my life — even more than I'm invested in it. He's invested in me achieving what He sent me for. And, obviously, a core part of that starts with worshipping Him.

We often need these quiet times where we come into His presence not to try and tell Him something, but to be open to listen. I don't know exactly what the interaction between Jesus and the Father looked like when He was on earth, but I know He often prayed through the night, and the Word says He could do nothing except what the Father showed Him. Don't we end up in situations and places in our lives because we don't give Him the chance to show us?

I always say this — it's not stated in the Bible, but I have this conviction — about the bread and the fish that were multiplied: Jesus saw that the night before already; He wasn't surprised by it. When we simply spend time in His presence, allowing Him — I say allowing Him to speak, but maybe it's just allowing Him to be, because in that presence there's communication — allowing Him to show us, some situations we wouldn't even end up in, because we would be truly focused on Him, on His communication, His ability, as opposed to on ourselves.

Obviously I'm all for adequate prayer time, time in boldness, different types of prayer, and praying in tongues — one hundred percent for that. But there are times, I think, that we achieve more by just being quiet.

In terms of our accountability, especially with the men, I hold accountability every week: where are you in terms of time in the Word, time in fellowship, and what's your discipline like? We need that discipline and structure — for some of us, without it, things simply don't happen at all. But the structure and discipline should be the safety net, not the goal. It's not, "Tell me you spent fifteen minutes a day in the Word," and tick the box, because you can do that and still be thinking about everything else you want to go and do that day.

Sometimes what I want to say is: it's not the mechanical. I've often shared that this is a reality for me too — sometimes I'll pray in tongues, and for the first twenty minutes my mind is all over the place; I feel like I'm not even in it, and then it starts going in the right direction. I'm not saying nothing was achieved in those twenty minutes — maybe it was dross coming to the top as the gold is melted, and you keep skimming it off until you have pure gold and can start focusing. But the goal in that prayer time, in that time in the Word, shouldn't be to tick off the fifteen minutes.

The one verse that really came up in my heart again this week — and, like I said, sometimes people think I quote it wrong, but I don't — is that He upholds the universe by the word of His power. Not the power of His word, but the word of His power. What dawned on me again is: yes, the Word is significant, but do we realise there's no such thing as the Word independent of God? The Word doesn't have life outside of God.

So the Word is God to the extent that I give life to it. The whole thing about the account of the Israelites who received the Word of God is that it didn't benefit them because they didn't mix it with faith — with a conviction of reality. So when I spend time in the Word, I don't merely spend time in the Word, I spend time with God.

Before my life changed, I also spent time in the Word, but it was religion — there was no life in it. But if I spend time with Him through His Word, that's something different: I'm spending time in prayer, in communicating with Him, as opposed to something that starts getting separated from Him. Which is so important, because we need that structure and discipline, but on top of all of that, the most important thing is the relationship.

There doesn't have to be condemnation if you didn't spend your fifteen minutes today physically reading the Word, but instead spent that fifteen minutes sitting on a bench experiencing His presence. It is more valuable to experience His presence and communicate with Him — sometimes even without opening your mouth — than to read through something, tick the box, and have Him not speak to you at all.

I think that perspective — that it is Him — is key. Let's not separate that. Let's not say to each other, "This is what my week looked like: I spent this much time in the Word, prayer, and so on," without asking how much of that was truly in relationship. We all know the four-by-four, and column one has different segments — the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, prayer, and the breaking of bread. But all of that is about my relationship with God. So whatever I do, I should ask myself: how is this contributing to, activating, improving, manifesting my relationship with God?

I feel this is where people get frustrated — where it becomes a routine exercise that turns theoretical and starts disconnecting from the source. It's not the Word, it's the Word of God. He upholds, maintains and propels the universe by the word of His power. The Word just happens to be the way He expresses part of who He is. That's what it is for us. It's not even the fullness of Him, but it's part of how He chose to express Himself through His Spirit.

Those favourite scriptures I always share come to mind: who knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man within him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received the Spirit of God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us. So what does that mean? It's not just, "Here's the Spirit" — this Spirit knows everything about God. Do you realise that? This Spirit knows everything about God, and I've received the Spirit.

So firstly, it's the Spirit of God that knows everything about God. Secondly, I've received the Spirit. Thirdly, I received the Spirit for a reason — that I may know everything that has been freely given to me. So all of this, whether it's the Word or the Spirit, is all about God wanting to express Himself, and in that, to have a relationship with me.

When I have my own personal relationship with Him — when I go into my inner room, or wherever, and ignite and build that relationship — then I start overflowing. Wherever I go, I overflow, because I have that relationship. Not the mechanical doing, but the relationship — because all of this leads to us getting more and more of a glimpse of who He is, what His heart is, what His ability is.

And the more we get a glimpse of that, the more we have the ability and the desire to express a little more of it. Then when you walk down the street and your shadow falls on somebody and they get healed, it's not because you deserve it, not because you are righteous, not because you have achieved anything. It's only because that was God's heart in the first place.

And you gave Him the opportunity to express Himself. He is more likely to express Himself from a place of relationship than from something separate from that. So this is a reminder for myself, and maybe for some of you: let's have a conviction about what we are busy with, because we can get caught up in the process instead of understanding it's all about Him.

Don't for one moment underestimate the significance of your relationship, interaction and communication with Him on a continuous basis. Just walking down the street while He is communicating with you, and you are experiencing things and just talking — that interaction, opening yourself up to experiencing, listening, hearing and being guided, is more precious than a mechanical Bible study.

Again, I'm not saying one replaces the other. I just sense there's a risk in ticking a box at the end of the week without fully grasping the two components — that what you are doing through Bible study, through prayer, whatever it is, is the relationship, is the interaction. There's a purpose. It's not a separate thing.

On the other hand, understand that the relationship and communication doesn't end when you close your Bible. It is continuous. So don't think that driving in your car and worshipping, praying, or sitting on a bench just talking to Him is in any way less significant. All of the rest of this is trying to establish that relationship, that sensitivity, so that He can manifest Himself.

We can easily fall into the snare of thinking, "I am building something, I'm achieving something, and now I manifest what I've achieved, because I am one step higher, two steps higher. I've achieved this. I have this level, I have this ability. I'm slightly more righteous than the person next to me." It's a massive trap. Versus our desire simply being: how can I express more of Him?

I'm less likely to experience or express more of Him if He's not a reality to me, if it's not the thing that moves me. Then we become sensitive to what we should be doing and when we should be doing it.

Coming back to this — it's a bit of a sidetrack, but let me flip it around and say the significance of spending time in the Word, and the significance of doing declarations, is this: your mind gets occupied with a lot of things, and especially when your circumstances start challenging you, fear creeps in.

We spoke about it yesterday — Satan will, in most cases, keep attacking you on the same weaknesses. He's actually, to a large extent, very predictable. If you look back in your life, you will see he doesn't use much initiative. He keeps challenging you on the same things. He doesn't have to, because he knows what your vulnerabilities are.

And the risk with your vulnerabilities — hear my heart on this — is that it's the place where you move quickest from the spirit to the flesh. That's where the vulnerability is, because you have been there before, you get confronted easily, and you have that fear. You have that recalling in your mind: "This is what happened previously in this relationship, this is what happened previously in my finances, this is what happened to my family."

You can see the pattern, and immediately your heartbeat starts rising, your mind starts working: "How am I going to..." What has Satan achieved? That's all he wants to do — move you from the spirit to the flesh. He wants you to be anxious. He wants you to feel, "I'm a failure," "I'm not good enough," "Here we go again." That's where the vulnerability is, and that's where Satan will keep attacking you.

So the victory for us, the victorious strategy, is this: that we are so flooded in our minds with the Word. We've spoken about this often, and I keep saying your first reaction matters. All we have to do is instantly recognise that this is from Satan.

We have to instantly recognise that this is something challenging me — whether it's from Satan or from the flesh, you have to recognise that this is something trying to move me from the spirit to the flesh, and now I'm about to respond from the flesh. Whatever the source is — your mindset, your history, Satan, demons, whatever, it doesn't matter — if it moves you, you need to immediately realise: if I respond now, I'm going to respond from the flesh instead of the spirit.

And the victory in that brings me to this, which I saw when we were praying: what is the emergency kit that you have? When you have your sports bag and everything goes according to your plan — you go to gym, you do that exercise, you do that cool-down routine, and you come home, and that's all nice — that's like spending time in the Word, praying, attending fellowship. It's according to your plan, your structure, and that's all fine. It all goes well.

But what if you're out running and your knee gives in? That's not part of the scheduled plan, and none of the tools you have in that bag will help you if your knee gives in. Then you need this. And one of the underlying components you need in this bag is to train your mind so that your first response is from the spirit.

Your first response is from the Word — not from how you feel, not fear from the past, not disappointments from the past. Your first response is spirit and Word. Even if that feels mechanical — if I take a bandage and start strapping my knee, I don't question at that stage whether the strap is working. I just strap it, because that's what I know right now I need for this knee, and I strap it.

It's the same with our first response, and why we need to flood ourselves with the Word of God, why we need declarations: the moment this happens, I need to start declaring from the Word. If you go on what you're confronted with in your mind, if you go from how you feel — anxious, challenged, disappointed, whatever — you are functioning in the flesh. So how do we get ourselves to function in the spirit?

I see that you need one sheet of declarations. I know we have many, but you need one default sheet that you can print out and carry in your pocket wherever you go. The moment things go wrong, whether you feel like it or not is irrelevant — you take out this piece of paper and start saying: "I know who I am.

I'm a son of the living God. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in this world. I know who I am. I know I've been created for a purpose. Jesus loves me. God loves me. He wants the best for me. I have overcome through the blood of Jesus Christ. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus." You start speaking that without thinking, "What does it mean to be the righteousness of God, do I feel righteous right now, how big is this problem?" It's irrelevant. Your emergency kit is: you have fallen next to the road and your knee is injured.

You need to get up, not analyse how big the problem is. You strap it and you get up. Those are the few things in our emergency kit that become our first response: recognise this is something that wants to push you into the flesh, and ask, how do I respond from the spirit? I start declaring the Word.

Why? Because the Word is not separate from God — it is part of God. So I start agreeing with God about this situation. That is what I'm doing. I'm reminding myself of the reality that I'm seated in Christ Jesus in heavenly places. The moment I start doing that, I'm creating an opportunity for the Spirit to align my thoughts.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Romans 12:2 (NKJV)

“We have the mind of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 2:16 (NKJV)

“Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

2 Corinthians 10:5 (NKJV)

So what are you doing? You have a thought that this challenge is coming again and that you failed last time. No — you take that thought captive to the obedience of Christ. How do you submit it to the obedience of Christ, which is the reality of the Word? The moment I start speaking the Word, I'm taking that thought captive. Whether I'm doing an in-depth study of that scripture or not, I'm taking the thought captive, because I say, "Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. As Jesus is, so am I in this world. I'm a loved child of a loving God. I've been destined for great things. I live a purposeful life. God loves me. He only wants the best for me."

You've nailed ninety percent of your thoughts already, because what does that scripture say? You take captive thoughts that come against Christ. So what is all this? It is things that want to come against the reality of who you are in God and what He's destined you for, and you need to take that thought captive. Because if you don't take that thought captive, that thought is going to start bearing fruit.

It's going to create fear, it's going to create anxiousness, and it's going to position you in a place where you start responding in the flesh, because now you've got uncertainties, you've got fear, and you've probably been through this thing fifty times before. You've seen this movie play out, so it's easy to move into the flesh.

So your emergency kit is immediate — and you might often need that piece of paper, because you'll say, "I don't feel like it now, I want to feel like breaking a few things, I feel like punching somebody in the face." You don't need to give yourself the opportunity to actually go there. You just take out that piece of paper, and even if you start reading it angry, you do it, because the Word will start calming you, it will start transforming you. That's your first point of call — you start declaring the Word, and even if you're only reading it because you don't feel like it, that is the first item in your toolkit.

The second item, which is obviously significant for us because we know what we know, is that we do not journey in life alone. The moment you feel challenged, you send a message to your accountability group and say, "I need help now, please pray," whatever — or even, "I've messed up. I made a mistake. I just need somebody who can be present without judging me, without wanting to come with the ten steps of how I should sort this out," and just say, "I'm with you, and I'm praying with you. Don't worry, we'll get through this. You're not alone."

Even if you start with only those two items in your emergency kit, it will prevent a lot of what manifests in our lives, what challenges us and moves us into the flesh, which shouldn't be necessary.

So let's have that conviction about the reality of what we're busy with. I want to say, like Jesus, "Why are you looking for me? Don't you know I'm busy with the things of my Father?" When you're reading the Word, you're not even just busy with the things of your Father — you're busy with your Father.

I always ask: if Jesus showed up in this room, would we worship the same way we worship Him now? So why don't we? Does it mean He's not real to us? Do we think, "One day in heaven I'll fall down on my face," but it's the same God, the same Jesus — it should be the same reality to us. He needs to be real to us, and that's what the Word does. The Word wants to make God real to you, in all His dimensions. That's why we spend time in the Word, that's why we spend time in prayer.

Many of you know my testimony of when my life changed, that first week when I started praying in tongues. The first thing I recognised was that the structure of my prayer changed, and the first thing I prayed was to worship Him. Praying in tongues — I'm not talking about praying from my own understanding — I started praying in tongues, and I could sense what I was doing, and what I was doing was worshipping Him. We're busy with the things of our Father — no, we're busy with our Father.

And everything we do — Word, prayer, fellowship — what is our primary function? We'll get to column three, what is our primary function in discipleship? Our primary function is to get somebody into column one. If you only do that in discipleship, you've done what you needed to do, because you are not meant to be positioned between somebody and their relationship with God.

You are meant to be John the Baptist, saying, "There's one coming, there's one coming." In our context, you simply say, "There's one I want to connect you with." That's the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).

"There's one I want to connect you with. Wait, come, I want to connect you. Do you know Jesus? Let me introduce you, connect you." And then you don't stand in the way. That is our function: get somebody into column one, to have a relationship with God — not condemnation, judgment, a set of rules, a religious thing, fifteen doctrines you have to believe to be part of a group. Our function is simply: I need to help you have your own relationship with Him, whatever it takes. Because if you have that relationship with Him, the father of lies will not be successful in your life.