Presence vs Promises

For those of you who were here last time, you would know that I only got halfway with what I wanted to share, so tonight is to some extent a continuation of that. For those who were not here, don't worry – tonight you can take it in on its own as well. Last time we touched on the presence of God, the sons of God, the significance of looking like your Father, the ability to speak like Him, live like Him, express Him.

We spoke about Christ in us, and something more than unity, which is oneness – the ability of God inside us. That oneness with God was what we focused on, and I want to expand on it a little. If I had to title what I want to share, it's about the promise versus the presence, or promises versus presence, probably.

I think it's continuously important for all of us, while we are on this earth, to make sure what it is we are primarily after. Is it the presence, or is it the promises? They both play a role, but I'll expand a bit on how they interact.

I think it's safe to say that we will fall into a trap if our primary and initial aim is just the promises. Hear me out on this, because I will expand on it. But if we develop this entitlement mentality because of the promises of God, and we focus so much on that – that is what we speak, that is what we declare, that is what we decree, everything that God promised –

whether that relates to your relationships, your finances, your health or whatever it is – if we start focusing and demanding and declaring and decreeing and questioning and challenging, "Where are the promises? Where's the result of the promises in my life?" – it is a dangerous place to be, because we are at risk of putting the promises first.

There was a time when the Israelites were travelling through the desert, just before they entered the Promised Land. Moses went up the mountain and received the two tablets – I'm trying to condense the story. He came down and saw that the people had grown tired of waiting. There were only a few days left to wait, but they got tired. Moses was in the presence of God up there on the mountain, God writing with His own hands, giving the guidelines.

In the meantime, the people took all their jewellery and whatever they had, and built a golden calf which they started worshipping. As Moses came down – you know the story – he threw down the tablets in anger and broke them. Then there was this interaction between him and God, with this anticipation that they were so close to the Promised Land.

“Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people. And He said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." And he said to Him, "If Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here."”

Exodus 33:13-15 (NKJV)

This whole interaction was about the Promised Land right there. In essence, God said to him, "You know what, this is a stiff-necked people. There's the Promised Land – they can go." Everything they had been travelling through the desert for forty years to reach was right in front of them, and God said, "There, they can have it." But you know how God described Moses when he, and when his sister and brother-in-law stood up against him – the way God spoke about Moses shows they had this intimate relationship; they spoke to each other.

From that place of intimacy, Moses was not willing to accept the promise without the presence. He said, "That's great that we are at the Promised Land, but Father, oh God, if You are not with us, I'm not going." Even though God had promised, because of the interaction that preceded this, Moses still said, "Are you sure? Because if Your presence is not with us, do not let us go up."

Moses had a different way of looking at these things, and I've spoken about that many times.

“He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.”

Psalm 103:7 (NKJV)

He made known His ways. If you look again at the previous verse we read from Exodus 33:13: "Now therefore I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way."

Show me Your way – Your way of doing things, Your way of being, Your desires, Your anticipation, Your expectation. "Show me, Father, Your heart. Show me what it is You want to do. Show me the way I should interact with You." Isn't that an amazing place to be? If you find yourself there, where you are seeking God, seeking His face, crying out, asking, pleading –

it's a dangerous place when we come to the point where we just want to tell God. There is a place for decrees and declarations, so I don't have a problem with that. But it's dangerous when we try to place ourselves above God, when we try to place ourselves in a position where, despite God – if I can put it that way – I'm entitled to His promises. It's a dangerous place to be, and Moses made sure he never found himself there. He said, "It's about You, God. It's about Your presence. If You are not present, I'm not going."

“Thus says the Lord: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the Lord.”

Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NKJV)

I'm gradually trying to create this picture for you, because we all fall into that trap at one stage or another, where we start clinging to the promises and not the presence. When you cling to the promises, it often goes hand in hand with, "How will I attain it? My ability to declare, to decree, to attain, to achieve, to have it manifest because of the way I do it."

It's a dangerous place to be. Here God Himself says, "Do not" – and I think the underlying message is already clear to you – I don't want to be in a place where I'm dependent on the manifestation of the promises to determine my relationship with God.

If we are not aware of it, there's a big danger that we'll end up in a place where we make our relationship and our expectation of God dependent on the manifestation of the promises. Then it starts becoming a relationship of "What is it that You can do for me?" "God, I'm worshipping You, worshipping You, You are God" – but really saying, "What can You do for me?"

Here God says, "Don't glory in your wisdom, your might, your finances, your health, your relationships, your ability, your intellect, your whatever." He says, "Do not glory in that. If you want to glory, then glory in this: that he understands and knows Me." It is the prayer from my heart, the cry of my heart, that we come to the place where what matters to us is to know Him, to understand Him.

It is far superior to what any promise can offer us – to understand Him, to know Him, to know that He is Lord. Yes, we know there are promises. Yes, there are times we need to be reminded; even in the Old Testament it says we can remind God of His promises. Nothing wrong with that. I'm trying to establish the priority and the sequence of events.

It's easy to realise, from this whole conversation preceding Exodus 33 with Moses, that God was willing to give them the promises without Him being there. He was willing to do that – you can have the promises without the presence. But if you have the presence, and this is the desire of your heart, to know Him, to understand Him – and this is what Moses knew and asked for – that's why Psalms reminds us again that God showed His ways to Moses, but His acts to the children.

The children had the promises, but they had no idea how they got there. Moses said, "Father, I first want to know Your ways. If the promises flow from that, then great," but he said, "Show me Your ways. I want to understand You. I want to know how You function, God. I want to know what's priority to You." And with that being the desire of his heart, God gave him everything else. That's the amazing thing: if you have the presence, the promises will flow from it.

It's like you can't really compare the two, but I'm just illustrating: you can't separate the Word of God from God. You can't say, "Here's the Word, and there's God." The Word of God is God. There's no separation – it is God. It's the same thing with what He has promised us. It's only described to us physically so that we might know what the result of what Jesus did is.

So we know what the result is, what the outcome is. Jesus said, "Yes, I came that you may have life, life to the full, life in abundance, overflowing." We know that, but that's not the primary thing – it's an outflow of who He is. So God shows us the promises that we may know Him, and when we know Him, when we have that presence, that intimacy, the promises will flow from that. But when we are at the place where everything and the only thing that matters to us is God and His presence and our relationship with Him, we don't even care about the promises anymore. Then they are all bonus, all of them.

There's a way, and we can learn this from Moses, that we can position ourselves so that God's heart becomes my heart. It's the same way we can't separate God's Word from God, as I spoke about last time. When we really start understanding that the life we live now, we live by the faith of the Son of God – that by itself is probably one of the most significant revelations in the Word of God. You have to understand: the life you live, you live by the faith of the Son of God, not in Him. If your Bible says "in", scratch it out – it's not the proper translation. Look at some of the other translations.

It's not the faith in the Son of God; it's the faith of the Son of God – the faith He had, the faith He demonstrated through His action. Because of that, He made it possible for us to live a life based on His faith. If you take that further, it becomes the life form that is in us, the ability I have to manifest God, to do what God has sent me to this earth to do. That whole ability is one hundred percent Christ in me. It's Him, His ability, and we continuously need to find the balance in allowing Him to be God, allowing His oneness with me to be manifested – not what I try to make Him.

I don't have to create. I don't have to establish something new. I don't have to come up with clever ideas. Remember what we spoke about last time – please listen to that audio if you were not here. What we have been called to do is simply to present more of Him, fill ourselves with more of Him, duplicate Him in the hearts of people.

It's about Him, but the great thing is it takes the pressure off me, because my responsibility is relationship with Him, to be able to manifest Him, to be an instrument, to be like a piece of glass that you can see through to see Him. It's the same principle. We know what His intentions are, we know we are only instruments in His hands, so we don't have to put this huge demand and pressure on ourselves, thinking it's dependent on what we can come up with.

The primary thing we are called to do is to have a relationship with Him, because without that relationship, what is it that you have to offer? You might have something to offer, but it's not sustainable. It becomes sustainable when it's a relationship.

Now let's move in a different direction. When we talk about the promises, I think about what it is that God really protects, that He benefits, that He makes prosper. And now you have to hear my heart on this: God is not as much interested in me as He is interested in my ability to manifest Him in this earth.

That sounds like a bold statement, but the benefit of it is this: God called you to manifest Him, so the way I put it is that God has a vested interest in your success. If you look at the Old Testament and the Israelites, why did God protect them? Was it about who the people were? Now you need to change gears and stay with me here, because I know you are precious. I know Jesus died, and He would have died even if it was just for you. But I want you to grasp something.

Did God protect the Jews, the Israelites, because of who they were as people? No. He said, "You are a stiff-necked people." In human terms, I think He wanted to kill them every second day. So it was not about who they were as human beings, but God had a vested interest in, if I can summarise it for now, two things.

The Jews were the custodians of the Old Testament. To some extent they even wrote the Old Testament – the unwritten Torah – but that's a discussion for another day. So they were custodians of the Word. But inherently in that, they were also the custodians of the godly seed, and from the godly seed Jesus was born. That had to be a pure line unto Jesus being birthed, which means they were not only the custodians of a godly seed, but the custodians of the Gospel.

Now, do you think God wants to protect that? Can you see where I'm taking this? God had a vested interest, not so much in the individual Jews because they were Jews and therefore important, as if God had to say, "Every one of you has to survive; I'm going to prosper every one of you." The vested interest God had in them was that they were the custodians of the Word, of the godly seed, and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So God had a vested interest in them making it, at the end of the day.

It's no different for us. What is it that God wants to protect? The Gospel of Jesus Christ that is inside of you, the ability for Him to manifest His presence through you. So if you have that view, that mindset, your prayers might look different as well.

Our prayers might be less about the promises and what I'm entitled to, and more about me as an instrument, and God having a vested interest in what I carry. What is it that God wants to protect? He wants to protect what you carry: His presence, the Gospel, the ability to duplicate Him in the hearts of other people. God has a vested interest in protecting that.

So, as an example, your prayer might be slightly different – and I'm exaggerating this now purely to illustrate the point – not, "God, continue to protect me because of who I am," but, "God, protect me because I'm a carrier of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm the carrier of the hope that You say in Your Word. Christ in me, the hope, the glory, the ability."

God has a vested interest in protecting that, the same way Moses saw it in terms of the ways of God. What is priority to God? That's why God Himself says in the Old Testament, "Boast of glory in the fact that you understand Me, that you know Me." So we have to continuously ask ourselves: are we in line with what God has destined us for?

If we don't come into the relationship which activates the presence, we are at risk of going in a direction with something that we think is a good idea, that's a nice idea, and we do that, and we waste our time.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”

Psalm 127:1 (NKJV)

This illustrates the principle: is the house that you are building the house that God told you to build? Is He in what you are doing currently? Is that what God has sent you to do? Is that your calling, your ability, manifesting His presence? Is that promise you expect to manifest in your life – and there is nothing wrong with that; you obviously realise tonight my emphasis is a bit different, but there's no issue in itself with having an expectation.

I think Christ would not be happy with us, for the price that He paid, if we did not have an expectation that the results of that should manifest in our life. So yes, all of that is great, it's good, we should expect that. I'm just trying to get the balance between the relationship and the presence. So the question is: are we doing what He has sent us to do? Are we faithful to what He has sent us to do, not having got lost along the way in terms of what's priority to us and what we want to achieve?

There are a few verses that explain this to us. If I can start off by saying: if God is not with you, then do not go. I think one of the biggest challenges we often experience is our ability to wait upon the Lord.

Especially if by nature you are a doer, and you just want to do everything, you want to change everything, you just want to... and then somehow God is not in that. That ratio in our time spent with Him, in His presence, in the relationship, and attracting that – we need to understand.

If I can put it this way: if I say, "Do not go if God is not with you," that doesn't mean we shouldn't go. Let's not use that as a backdoor. It means get God to go with you, or better, go with God. So we hear what is in His heart. It's amazing how, in the last week, I experienced it again through so many people sending me things they had heard from somebody around the world – prophets and great ministers – and how all of this aligned and confirmed things that I had in my heart.

God is not confused. There is only one Christ, one Church, one body, one Spirit, one baptism. God knows what He wants to achieve in this earth, and He knows the cycles, the seasons, the times of when what needs to happen. So if we are out of sync, you are going to burn yourself out. You are going to love Jesus, but you are not going to do what He has sent you to do, because it will just be based on what you think you should be doing and the fact that you think you should be doing it now.

That's why I say, "Do not go unless God is in it," but we still need to go. It's not, "Okay, let me take God on my journey" – the pocket God: "I'm heading there, so you come, come, come, come and make this work because this is what I want to do." Versus the time of intimacy and prayer and being in His presence, hearing His heart, letting His heartbeat become your heartbeat, so that you just sense what it is God wants to do right now.

The cycles within the Church over the last 2,000-odd years are amazing if you start looking at that. Some cycles are 500 years long. Even in the Old Testament there was a time where it says the Word of the Lord was rare in those days, and those periods lasted a few hundred years. We want it snappy, snappy – tomorrow, it must happen tomorrow. Yet the cycle we are in could be a cycle of 500 years.

It so happens – and this is definitely a discussion for another time – that I believe, and some of the confirmation I received this week supports it, that there is a significant new cycle we are entering in 2022.

The reason it's important for us to know that – and I don't want to deviate – is that it's important we stay in rhythm with what God is doing, the times and seasons in which He is operating. Part of how the Spirit led me to what I'm sharing with you is my question, asking God: something is not right. Why is the world looking the way it is looking? Why is the body of Christ, the Church, so absent in this world? Why do we not see the results?

That's from my perspective, which by itself is limited, because I know there is massive impact. I know the Church is the restraining force – if the Church was not there, what would this world look like now? But if I measure by the conviction I have in my heart of what it looks like when God is present, I'm not nearly seeing that in this earth.

From that point of desperation, frustration, expectation, desire, calling – everything that I am and exist for – I cry out to God and say, "Where are we at? Why does it look this way? What should be done differently?" Part of the answer, yes, is the presence, and part of the answer is God's timing. We just want to say, "The promise says this, so I want it tomorrow." That might not be God's timing. There are times and there are seasons.

Contrary to what I believed ten years ago, I'm not at a stage now where I believe that every challenge in your life is from Satan. There are challenges in your life that are from God. He loves you too much to let you go to hell. Some of the directions we are on, some of the things we desire, some of the things we make priority in our life, are going to lead us to hell. God wants your heart, and He's willing to do whatever it takes not only to get your heart, but to make you walk in your calling, to make you finish the race.

If there are things standing in the way, He will strip them away. Listen to me carefully, because we sometimes interpret the Gospel a bit differently: if He needs to strip you of all your wealth to save your soul, He will do it. There's a reason we have a book like Job in the Bible. If it wasn't relevant, it would not be in the Bible. Amen.

Sometimes to save our souls, sometimes to make us walk in the calling He has called us for, sometimes to make us desire the presence more than the promises, He will strip everything away. Because sometimes the question is: what will it take for you to be in a place where you first and foremost desire His presence?

Challenges can take you in one of two directions. Challenges can make you blame God, make you angry at God, make you shout out and scream to Him and question Him – or challenges can take you closer to God.

God's plans are much bigger than what we understand.

“The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.”

Psalm 33:10-11 (NKJV)

We sometimes feel that way when we look at what's happening around the world, when we look at the country, the government, the school, the suburb, the television – when you look at that, you think this is just a lost battle. We ignore that we serve the only living God.

There's nothing that's impossible for Him, nothing. But what He first and foremost desires is our hearts. What He first and foremost desires is that we desire His presence. If we dwell in that presence, we will overflow. That life of overflowing, that ability, is not because I create something – it is because I spend time in His presence, and He fills me to such an extent that I just overflow. Not head knowledge, not religion, not doctrine – a relationship with the only living God, which manifests His presence, so that we understand He is God.

Even in that time – let me quickly go to something else. I want to share something with you. Let's go to Haggai 1:6-9.

“You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

Haggai 1:6 (NKJV)

Can you see the picture? All the things that we would have said, "This is the promise, I'm entitled to this," and yet they are somehow eluding this group of people being spoken about here. It says, "You have sown much and bring in little." Then verse 7:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,' says the Lord. 'You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away.'”

Haggai 1:7-9 (NKJV)

Not Satan – God says, "I blew it away." Why? He wanted to be God. He wanted the results of Him being God to create that in them, not their own cleverness. But first seek Him, first seek Him: "Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified," says the Lord. It's all about Him. You can never get past the fact that it's all about Him. Whether you are in this earth or whether you have left this earth, it is all about Him. Amen. Now and for eternity, it is about Him. Amen. And He will protect what is in you that will manifest Him and that will bring your heart to Him.

If He has to take everything else away from your life, but He will have your heart, then He will do it. Amen. "You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away." Why? Says the Lord of Hosts, "Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house." He's God, and what concerns Him should be first priority in our lives.

Now I want to take you to something else. This is what God said, but now I want to take you to 1 Chronicles 28:9. This is David speaking, and he's speaking to his son Solomon.

“As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts.”

1 Chronicles 28:9 (NKJV)

That's amazing, isn't it? "Know the God of your father." He speaks from a personal relationship. It's not just saying to somebody, "Know God." He says, "Know the God of your father – the God that has been God to me, the God that I have a relationship with, the God that is real to me. Know that God, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind." That willing mind – for a typical South African, hey? We very much have a mind of our own.

"For the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts." Does that sound a bit familiar? Does it sound like that verse that speaks about the Word of God being a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart? The Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents. You can show the outside world the perfect picture, you can pretend everything, but the Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The ability for us to reproduce what is in us is dependent on the Word of God. When we manifest the Word of God, we speak the Word, we live the Word, because we have become the Word. It's dependent on the authenticity that we have. You can't fake it, not when it comes to the Word of God, the intents and the thoughts.

“If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.”

1 Chronicles 28:9 (NKJV)

Isn't that amazing? God is not desirous to play hide-and-seek with you. If you seek Him, you will find Him, but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.

“Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong, and do it.”

1 Chronicles 28:10 (NKJV)

Isn't this amazing? Solomon, the wisest man in his time, and his father David speaking – this is what it boils down to: "Serve the God of your father and go build the house for our God, where He can dwell." It's all about what was important to God.

But now, if you take that into the time we live in – New Testament versus Old Testament, the fact that Christ has made certain things possible for us now which weren't possible in the Old Testament – 1 Peter 2:5 describes it like this.

“You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

1 Peter 2:5 (NKJV)

Just getting perspective again: what is it that we are doing? You saw now, even in the Old Testament, how significant it was to God. He says, "You all run to your own houses. You are sorted out, so you rely on Me, and you pray to Me, and you ask, and I give you the house, and you think I'm sorted – but then you just run to your house and you're sorted out. But what about My house? It's lying in ruins, and who's making that a priority?"

Now, it describes to us that the Old Testament is a shadow of things to come. So often you can literally look at what is described in the Old Testament and compare it 100% to the dispensation we are in. It is just that, post-Christ having died and made this life in God possible for us, it still relates 100%. So it still says, "You are a living stone." That is why you are here: to have the life of Christ, the life of God, inside of you, and together we are making up a dwelling place of God.

He wants to dwell in this earth. He hasn't deserted it. He wants to dwell here. He wants His presence to be made known. He wants His glory to go forth and cover the whole earth. He wants that. It makes me think of the Old Testament, where there was a time when the Israelites wanted to attack a certain other nation, and the Lord said no, for their cup of iniquity had not been filled yet.

So we look at this earth, and we know – yes, we can look at Isaiah – this whole earth is covered in gross darkness, filled with darkness. We see the results of so many things that are not consistent with what God wants in this earth. But we see that happening, and it's difficult not to ask why, and what we should be doing about it. But God is bringing us back to firstly having a relationship with Him, desiring His presence, and in that, when His heartbeat becomes our heartbeat, we can start understanding.

Sometimes it's the times, it's the seasons, it's the dispensation. Sometimes all of this which we deem as bad needs to happen for the cup of that iniquity to be filled, for God to show up with judgment. But there are times and seasons where we have the opportunity to still make a difference, and then there comes a time when we will not be able to make a difference, because in the time and season and dispensation we will be in, as the Word describes, their ears will be closed – they will not hear. In Revelation, it describes this bowl of incense, which is the prayers of the saints, but there comes a time at some point when that is poured out before God.

What you are doing – dwelling in the presence of God, seeking Him first – is the solution to this earth. Not firstly demanding, decreeing, declaring the promises. It's first the presence, and in the presence we will be less frustrated, because we will understand more. We will acknowledge that He is God. We will acknowledge, like that one verse I read to you, that His plans right from the beginning till now have not changed. God is not caught off guard. God was not caught off guard by something like COVID.

He's God. He's got a plan. He's got timelines. We've got a role to play. But let's not frustrate the grace – the Word says we can frustrate the grace. Let's seek first the presence of God, and in that, when His heartbeat becomes our heartbeat and we start understanding His rhythms, we start functioning in obedience to the Spirit.

Even Jesus said to the disciples, do not go out as significant as it might seem. It might seem good to say, "We want to go out; this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we need to spread it." Jesus said, do not go out until you have received the promise of the Father, which is the Spirit of God. So it might seem good to just go out and spread the Gospel, but Jesus said no: if you want God to be present in it, if you want life to be present in it, wait for the Spirit of God, which is the promise.

If you have received that promise and it brings you the life and the presence, that promise, the Spirit, brings you the presence. With the presence will follow all the other promises, not the other way around. Jesus knew this, and that's why He told His disciples, do not go out without the Spirit of God. Why? Because you will not have life in what you are doing, and you will not be in sync with the Spirit of God. As much as we have a desire to change this world, this country, this town, it can only be sustainable if we first seek and desire the presence of God, the relationship with God, that intimacy with God, His heartbeat becoming our heartbeat – and then we start.

If God is not in that, and you are building that house, you are wasting your time. Do you understand the significance of us having our priorities right, and the sequence of what we do and how we do it?

1 Corinthians 2, from verse 11 – this is one of my favourite scriptures for a variety of reasons:

“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.”

1 Corinthians 2:11 (NKJV)

The Spirit of God knows everything about God – what His intentions are, what His timelines are, what His desires are. The Spirit of God knows everything. But it goes further:

“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”

1 Corinthians 2:12 (NKJV)

So you have received that Spirit that knows everything about God, and you have received it for a reason. Can you see why I say that from the presence will flow the manifestation of the promises as well? We don't seek the presence because we have that as a condition to achieve the promises; it's just because that is what our heart desires. But with the presence, with the Spirit, all of this – the Spirit will show you what is yours.

But somehow it will just grow dim in the significance it plays in our lives. All of a sudden we can know, like Paul. Paul wrote, even for him, in Philippians 4:11:

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Philippians 4:11-13 (NKJV)

We often just recite that last verse, but it's built on a whole other argument. The fact that he says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" means: it doesn't matter what's going on in my life, whether I'm the richest person around or the poorest, whether I'm healthy or sick, whether I'm in prison or not – God will strengthen me for that which He has called me to do. It's not conditional on me saying, "God, if You have all these things in place in my life, then I will do what You have sent me to do." No, it's the other way round, and Paul knew that very well. That is why we need to be sure that we can express God in the journey we are on, despite what is going on in our lives. Most of us will, at some stage or another, have some sort of Job experience.

Some of us will have some sort of Paul experience. If you look at Paul being in prison, he was there for about five and a half to six years. If you had to go to prison now for five and a half or six years, you would certainly not be happy with God to start with. But what if you were sent to achieve something there? Now that becomes a bit radical.

Now it's not about our convenience, to say, "Oh God, it's impossible, the promises don't include that I go to prison." But what if it's about what He wants to achieve? What if it was the only way to achieve what He wanted to achieve – would you be willing, with a glad heart, to go to prison? I'm certainly not prophesying that over any of you. Don't misunderstand me. Don't go looking for how you can end up in prison – that's not what I'm saying. I'm talking about Paul.

If you look at the time Paul was in prison, he wrote many of the books in the New Testament that we have today, and those have been the foundation of spreading the Gospel and establishing Christ in us and through us. Not only did he write those books in that time, but some of the revelations Paul came to required him to physically sit in a cell, constrained, with all his freedom taken away, and then he started writing this amazing revelation about being a prisoner for Christ, being captive in Christ, being a slave.

He started receiving this revelation because he was sitting in a prison, and he began translating what was happening in the physical into what was happening in the spiritual – what the Gospel of Jesus was all about. Knowing that if One died, we all died; now we live in Him and through Him. We are slaves, yet we are free. But we are slaves in Him; we are prisoners in Him.

You have been created for a reason. You cannot do whatever you want anymore. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Why? Because you can see, you can hear, you can follow, and you do what God tells you to do. If you do what God tells you to do, that is the ultimate freedom. Paul had to sit in prison to come to that revelation, to be able to share it with us. Let us not make our environment and the manifestation of the promises in our life a precondition for believing how much God loves us and what His plans are for us. We will make a big mistake.

I'm going to end off with this verse, Revelation 3:10-12.

“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole earth, to test those who dwell on the earth.”

Revelation 3:10 (NKJV)

Look at that – that is the command. The command is to persevere. To test those – there are many reasons we go through challenges. Part of that sometimes is to test us, to strengthen us, to strip away that which is maybe more important to us, to bring the condition of our hearts to a place of purity and dependency, where we can really say, "God, it's all about You, and God, I really need You."

“I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole earth, to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.”

Revelation 3:10-12 (NKJV)

It might not be easy times, but like with Esther – who knows, maybe we have come into the kingdom for a time such as this – understanding the cycles and the purposes of God in this earth. Do not become despondent. Do not lose hope. Do not think we are losing the battle. God is in charge.

He is in charge. It is first and foremost His battle. It is His plan, and He hasn't changed it. He knows exactly. But I believe we are going through one of the most difficult challenges for the body of Christ on this earth. That doesn't mean we should be ignorant about it. It means we must step up – not only committing ourselves to seek the presence of God, but also to take care of one another.

We cannot afford that one of us falls by the wayside. Every one of us is significant. Every one of us is precious. But that means you sometimes have to adjust your lifestyle. Remember, it differs for every person – Samson could do things that other people could not do, and the presence of God was still on him; other people were killed for doing what he did. So there's grace, depending on what your calling and your function is.

But if you don't have that intimate relationship, you will not know what is specific to you. In that, we need to take care of one another. We need to make sure none of us fall by the wayside. That might mean we need to adjust our lifestyles and get together with one another more often. This is not a theoretical thing, to say, "Yeah, okay, now we know, I need to desire the presence of God, I need to spend more time with Him." So if you go out from here, are you going to do it? And the people around you are accountable. The Word says in the New Testament that leaders will be held accountable for those entrusted to them.

So we have a responsibility towards one another. This is not about judgment. It's not about condemnation. It's not about who of us is more important than the other, or who of us is doing better than the other. This is not the competition kind of approach that schools create in our environment, where only one of us will make it. No. Every one of us needs to make it. Every one of us is significant. You have something to offer that all of us need, and vice versa. We are dependent on one another.

Because of this transparency, because of the relationship, because of the significance of what we have been called to do, and in this time and season we are in – which I believe we are going to enter a new season very soon, and we'll maybe speak about that as God reveals more of it – I believe we are definitely going into a radically different season for the body of Christ.

But where we are now, it is critical for us, as it explains in Revelation, and like Paul said, "I completed the race." The most important thing for every one of us now is to remain standing. Having done all, stand. To remain standing – like some of those movies say, live to fight another day. It's not about whether you've done everything right up to here. It's not about that. If you could do everything right, you wouldn't need Christ.

It's not about condemnation. It's not about judgment. It's not about what your past looks like. Don't let your past determine your future. I want to swing it the other way round and say, let your future determine your present, because you know what your future is. If you've read to the end of Revelation, you know how this story ends. We win. We've already won in Christ. It's not about that. So I want to say: get over yourself.

Whatever you are struggling with, whatever you are not getting to, get people around you to help you. We are here to help each other, not to be more important than the person next to you, or look better, or pretend to be better, or whatever else. It's not about that. It's about being authentic, sincere, helping every one of us to remain standing. Not religion, not condemnation – not condemning you if you haven't spent an hour a day with the Lord.

Rather, to ask, "What is the challenge? Why are you not able to do it? Let's help." Throw your TV off the balcony if that's what it requires, so that you get so bored you have nothing else to do, and then say, "Okay, maybe I'll just spend time with the Lord," and then it happens. Whatever it takes – this is significant enough, but we need to be real. We need to be authentic, and it's significant in the time we're in. I know probably all of us have this outcry to say, "Lord, things must change, things must look different," and we are not wrong.

But He is saying, first seek Me and My presence, and hear what My timing and My purpose and My cycles and My rhythms are, so that you stay in pace with what I am doing. It doesn't mean that if this cycle was five hundred years that brought us up to next year, the purpose in that five hundred years was something specific. It doesn't mean you might not see the results we want to see – revival, awakenings, the presence of God, signs and wonders, whatever it may be.

We might not see that right now, but that doesn't mean it's not going to change. And it doesn't mean, like in the Old Testament, where they were custodians of a godly seed – they were custodians of that bloodline, custodians of the Old Testament, custodians of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, yet most of them probably didn't even know it. They didn't know the significance of travelling in the desert for forty years. Maybe you feel we're in that desert for forty years.

Do not think that what we are custodians of at the moment, do not think the forces we are resisting by just holding our shoulder against that door so this earth doesn't fall apart, is less significant than the era we will enter, where we will walk in and people will just be healed, where people will be restored, where there will be revivals, where there will be awakenings. The phase we are in now is not less significant. Your purpose in that is not less significant.

So let us not get despondent. Can we stand and I'll close for us? Father, You are God and there's none like You. It is the cry of our heart tonight, Father, it is the prayer of our hearts. We want more of You. We want to dwell in Your presence. We want to dwell in Your house forever and ever.

Thank You, Father. We have an expectation every day that we will see more of Your presence, more of Your glory, more of Your ability, more of Your outpouring. We have an expectation that we will see the revival, the awakening, the manifestation of Your presence, to go from glory to glory. We have that expectation, Father. But first and foremost, it is the cry of our heart that we can have the relationship with You, that we may experience Your presence first and foremost, and from it will flow the promises.

Thank You, Father, that You help us. We cannot do it without You. We cannot. We cannot do it without Your Spirit. But we have received Your Spirit. Jesus paid the ultimate price that we can become one with You, that we can become the container within which Your Spirit can dwell, that we can build the spiritual house in earth where You can dwell. Father, it is the desire of our heart that the magnitude of the spiritual house in this earth that You can dwell in will increase substantially, that this earth will speak of Your presence.

It is the cry of our hearts. Help us, Father, to take care of one another. Help us, Father, that none of us will lose hope, that none of us will become despondent, that none of us will measure ourselves against the person next to us, but we will measure ourselves against that which You reveal to us in the intimacy with You, that which is specific, which is unique to us. We will measure ourselves against that which is the desire of Your heart for us.

Let Your heartbeat become our heartbeat. May we be enabled to express more of You in this earth.

And yes, Father, we have an expectation of the promises. We have an expectation that everybody that is here that has any form of sickness in their body will be healed. We have an expectation that those that are struggling with their finances will be restored. We have an expectation that those that are struggling in their relationships, whether with family or whether in their marriage, that that relationship will be restored, that You will be the head of that house.

We have that expectation, Father. May it flow from the intimacy that we have with You. We take up the responsibility of prayer and intercession to take care of one another. Thank You, Father, that none of us will fall by the wayside. We will complete what You have sent us for, in the name of Jesus.