Session 5 of 6 - Perspective on life

Hello, everyone. It's great to be here. I hope you can say the same. I certainly had it in my spirit today that there would be a lot of resistance, so I'm not taking it for granted that you are here. I'm sure many of you faced some challenges to be here tonight. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, because maybe your challenge is sitting right next to you, so I don't want to put you on the spot.

We've come a long way, and we've covered a lot of information. Paul writes that knowledge puffs up. We certainly don't want any of you to be puffed up, so there comes a point where we start moving into action, because it says faith without action is dead. We are coming to a point now, let's call it where the tacky hits the tar. Up to now you have sat back, absorbed, processed and evaluated. Now we are moving into something different, where you need to start making some decisions.

What comes up in my spirit is that in the Old Testament, God told Israel, "You've been around this mountain long enough. It's time to move on." So I want to say to you tonight, it's time to move. It's time to move from where you are at the moment. You've been around that mountain long enough, and maybe you want to say, "I've tried so many times," but tonight's going to be different. Can you say that with me? Say with me, "Tonight's gonna be different." This time it's gonna be different. Who of you believe that? Wow, okay, amazing. So now we can all go home then, my job's done.

I believe one of the core aspects we have touched on, and that I trust has dropped into your spirit – although it sounds so simple, it is actually radical in terms of how we function – relates to the character of God. I tried to explain to you about the playing field, and I believe that many of the questions Christians have will actually disappear if they just take the time to study God's character and become familiar with who God is, not based on your experience, your history, or whatever you have been told up to now.

You have to take up your personal responsibility to get a conviction. But I believe if you are still here, then there is something about that which you have heard and received and agree with. You need to have a conviction about the character of God. You need to have a conviction that He is a God of love, grace, favour and mercy. He is light. He is life. You need to know it. We cannot try to put God at the level of our mindset and say, "Only to the extent that we can understand it with our mind, that is who God is."

I certainly today have experienced some things in my spirit and in my heart about some of you sitting here, that there are things in your heart that are challenging – some pain, some regrets, some anger, hatred. There are things in your heart causing pain, even causing you to be angered with God. And either you are fighting with Him, or you choose to just turn your back on Him and ignore Him.

But I believe that tonight is going to be an opportunity that will change that. Because even for me, my function is not just to teach the Word – my function is to manifest the Word. We've done a lot of teaching already, so I think there's an opportunity tonight for you to experience the manifest presence of God in a practical way.

If I can sum it up in one word, what I have in my spirit is restoration. Some of you will experience restoration tonight in your heart, but we'll get to that just now.

As a reminder, the Word of God tells us what the character of God is. That means there comes a point in your life where you need to accept the Word of God as reality, and as an authority higher than just your mind. For as long as you want to evaluate God with your mind and think that is the extent of Him, you are going to limit what God can do through you and what He can do to you. So you need to take the Word and look at what God says about Himself and His character.

We've looked at some of those already. In John 10:10, Jesus says, I've come to give you life, life to the full, life overflowing. In Jeremiah 29:11, God says, I know the thoughts I have for you – thoughts of peace, not of evil; I have a hope and a future for you. That is what God is saying to you tonight. He does not have thoughts of evil towards you, no matter what your experience has been in life. Your experience is not the measure of God's character. We need to understand that, because the simple question is always, "Why is my life looking this way? Where is God?" If we start with His character, you start understanding the love God has for you.

I explained to you that John 3:16 is easy: He loved you so much He sent His only begotten Son. But I explained what it took from Him to send His Son. It was no small thing. It was not a son standing next to Him that He sent. We read in John 1 that the Word was in God, the Word was God, the Word was with God, and we know that that Word is Jesus, because it says the Word became flesh. So God had to rip out His heart to pay the price for you.

Everything in this world, since the beginning, has always been about God's love for you on the one hand, and on the other hand His desire for you to manifest His presence in this earth and establish His authority in this earth. That has been His desire. The fact that it doesn't look that way at the moment is not a reflection of God's character. You must understand that God is righteous, He is just, He is God, and therefore, the things He has created and the way He created them, God cannot go against.

God put authority in place. He gave it to Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve gave that authority to Satan. Satan had that authority – if you read in the Bible, it even describes Satan as the god of this age, god with a small g, and as the prince. So there was authority given to Satan because Adam and Eve gave it to him.

But then Jesus came, and Jesus took that authority. I explained to you everything Jesus did – it was not just dying on the cross for you. He went to hell, and something happened there: He stood on Satan and took from him the keys of hell and death. He overcame, and that's why I said to you last week the authority is in the name of Jesus, because He overcame. He established that authority and rose from the dead again. So the fact that He overcame Satan means that, with the dispensation Jesus started for us, we now have access to that authority.

But the problem is that, to some extent, the world has lived for many years under the authority of Satan, because of the implications of what Satan has done in this world. So the world looks a certain way, and we have become used to thinking this is how the world looks. If you speak to people and say, "The world you see is not the world," they'll think you're a bit crazy. But we have to understand the world we see is not the way it's meant to look. That means a radical change is required.

I said to you before, even Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same things but expecting a different result. We want to see God in this earth in a more substantial way than we are at the moment, but are we willing to do things differently? Are we willing to see differently? When God spoke to Abraham, He took him outside and said, "What can you see?" To the extent that Abraham could see, he could interpret it, internalise it, and respond accordingly. So we need to start seeing differently. We need to know there is something we are working towards.

“…until we all come… to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

Ephesians 4:13 (NKJV)

God will be glorified to the extent that He should, when Christ has been established in this earth to the extent that He should. And in that, there are things that will manifest, which is the character of God. That is God's desire. I showed you in the Old Testament what we refer to as the Christ anointing, where the ark was present – where the presence of God was, there were just things that could not exist there.

Look at Israel in the Old Testament as they were travelling through the desert. They carried their own atmosphere; they walked in that atmosphere, whether it was the fire or the cloud. They carried that atmosphere wherever they went, and none of them were sick, none of them were feeble, their clothes didn't even wear off. Why is that? Because they were dwelling in the presence of God. There is something the presence of God manifests that looks different from the world we physically see around us at the moment, and that is why God says to us in Romans 12:2:

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed…”

Romans 12:2 (NKJV)

That word is metamorphosed. Be transformed, metamorphosed – how? By the renewing of your mind.

If we start with what God has put inside of you to establish His character in the earth, John 17:21 says:

“That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

John 17:21 (NKJV)

There is something about the manifest presence of God. I say it respectfully, because for me it's not about knocking anything, but speaking for myself, I grew up in religion, and there was no life in that religion. The things taught in that religion were not consistent with what God wants to do in this earth, and because of that it never brought me to understand things like this – to understand that it's so easy to say, "Let your light shine." What does that mean, let your light shine? The reality is we must live in this earth so that when people look at us, it is evident there is something totally different about us. It's not like a 2 or 3 or 5 percent difference between a Christian and a non-Christian – it's a different world, a totally different world. That's why Jesus had an expectation when He prayed this prayer.

He said, "That they all may be one as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us" – that is the ministry of reconciliation, the reason Jesus came, to make us one with God again. Then there is an outflow of it: "That the world may believe that You sent Me." How will the world believe God sent Jesus? They will look at us, and the manifest presence of God in our lives will make it evident that God sent Jesus.

“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

John 17:22-23 (NKJV)

He keeps emphasising it, and you need to get that into your heart. Do you understand that you are one with the Creator of heaven and earth – God Almighty, Jehovah, Adonai, El Shaddai, the great I Am? You are one with Him. You cannot describe yourself as a mere poor sinner anymore. You are not the same as a person who is not born again. You are one with God, and you have His life in you.

I explained to you before, we speak so much about unity, because in Psalms it explains that where there is unity, God commands a blessing. That's a truth, but there is a higher truth than unity, and that is oneness. When we function within our oneness with God and manifest it in this earth, it is far superior to just unity. I'm not even going to ask you whether you believe you can be perfect, because you might lie and raise your hand.

You can speak to the average person who is not a Christian, ask their opinion of Christianity, and their perception will be that Christians are no different from anybody else in this world. It's not meant to be that way. Unfortunately, the world made a religion of Christianity. Christianity is not a religion – it's a life form. That's what makes you a Christian, the life form inside of you. Because the world made a religion out of it, a set of rules, it puts it in the same category as other religions as far as the world is concerned. But it was never meant to be that. It was meant to be a life form, and not only a life form given to us, but one we are meant to manifest in this earth.

So you have been sent for a reason. You have been created for a reason. Through you, the world needs to know there is a God, and they need to know what God's character is. And the way we manifest it in this earth should be far beyond our own ability.

We spoke about that last week when we spoke about the Holy Spirit. The reason we received the Holy Spirit was so that we can do more than what Jesus did on earth. Have you got any idea what that means? The Bible says the things Jesus did are so many that the books of the world would not be able to contain it. Imagine that, and God says you should do more.

“Greater works than these you will do, because I go to My Father.”

John 14:12 (NKJV)

We have received the Holy Spirit. That's why I said to you, why could Jesus do the things He did? He was a man with a relationship. There's no replacement. There's a way that God functions. I explained to you before, even in Psalms the Word says that God showed His deeds to the children of Israel, but He showed His ways to Moses. You have to understand the way that God functions.

Unfortunately – let me speak about myself – I grew up in this religious environment with a bit of a mentality that God is a pocket god. When you really need Him, when you really can't cope on your own anymore, you pull Him out of your pocket and say, "God, please do something about this." And then if He doesn't do something about it, you've got all sorts of issues about it.

He is God. He is God, and we need to acknowledge Him as God. We can't try to dictate to Him and tell Him how we think He should be functioning and what He should be doing. I have spoken to you about the character of God. You need to understand that this is the playing field where God functions – His character: love, light, grace, favour, all of that. That's His character.

But then we also need to understand how that manifests and functions in our life. Because to a large extent, we have made it God's responsibility, and we say, "Okay, but if I don't see something in my life, if I don't see something in my environment, it's because God is doing nothing about it." I've said before, and some people don't like it, but Christians who are in religion are, I think, the most confused individuals in the world, because they've got no idea.

They say, "My God is a God of love," then they stand next to the grave of a child and say, "But God took my child." They say, "God is in control," yet the world is a disaster. How do we put all of these things together? Surely we have to think that it doesn't make sense; one and one is not two. There's a problem with that mentality. So we need to go and look: who is God? How does He function? We've covered a lot of that through the Word and through the Spirit.

I'm going to keep saying this to you tonight: there is no other solution. If there was, I would have given it to you. There is no other solution than the Word of God and the Spirit of God. You have seen the illustration concerning that – you need both. You need the Word of God in your spirit, and it is the Spirit that gives life.

The flesh profits nothing. Even with the Word of God, but without the Spirit, you are not going to manifest life the way it should be in this world. So we need to understand there is a way that God functions. I explained to you in the beginning that there are spiritual laws, the same way that there is gravity. There are spiritual laws that God has put in place, and that's a truth – but it's a lower-level truth if I only talk about spiritual laws, because yes, that is the case, but there is something more than that.

There is a spiritual world, a realm, that is represented by those laws. So the laws are not separate, the same way that the Word of God is not separate. You cannot separate the Word of God from God. You cannot separate the Spirit of God from God. The Spirit of God comes and manifests reality. He doesn't have to create something; He just manifests a superior reality in this earth.

So, as far as our responsibility for changing our lives and our environments is concerned, there is no replacement for the Word of God and the Spirit of God. I shared that scripture with you: they received the Word of God, but it didn't benefit them because they didn't mix it with faith.

There is one thing we can never ignore, and that is that everything God gives you is by way of seed. It is by way of opportunity. God gives you an opportunity. God gave us salvation in the form of a seed. But what you do with that opportunity – salvation is an opportunity. Why did God not just come down and make all seven billion people on this earth born again? Because He can't. He created us in a way to be able to choose. It's the only way that we could be in a position to love God and to receive His love – to be able to choose.

So God gave you the option to choose, and because of that, and because He is God, He cannot go against that. He cannot force anything on you. So the only way He can manifest in your life what He wants to manifest is by giving you an opportunity. And that opportunity is embedded in every word of God that He gives you. Remember I explained to you? In every word you receive, it is like that bubble, like the seed. Every word of God you receive has within it the ability to manifest itself.

Every word of God: faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. In that word – it's like your salvation. Romans 1 says the salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is the power of God unto salvation. In the word of salvation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the ability – if you hear that word, it comes into your heart, and that word has the ability, if you respond to it, to manifest in you the ability to receive eternal life. It's the same way with the rest of the Word of God.

We must understand we have a responsibility. We have covered everything about what the Father's intention is. We've covered what Jesus came to do. We spoke about the Word – that it's life, that it's seed, that it's opportunity. And we spoke about the Holy Spirit, and that He gives life. Now it's over to you. What do you do with what God has given you? What do you do with the way that God functions? If we align ourselves with the way He functions and tap into it, then we can manifest these things in our life.

Can I quickly have Matthew 6:33? We know this scripture very well, but I want to illustrate something again.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)

My life changed nine years ago, and in these nine years I've been very active in the kingdom of God. But I've come to realise something. Hosea says my people perish due to lack of knowledge. So we know there is a huge segment of people, even calling themselves Christians, who are struggling because of lack of knowledge. They don't know who God is, they don't know His character, they don't know that the things happening in their life come from Satan and have got nothing to do with God, et cetera.

So there's a huge portion based on lack of knowledge. Remember I explained to you the transition: being, knowing, doing? But then you get the group that actually knows – they study the Word or receive the Word and they know, but they are not necessarily willing to do anything about it. They're not necessarily willing to pay the price.

When my life changed nine years ago, I've said it many times, I was like a bull in a china shop. My life changed radically, and I could not believe the life I could actually live, the relationship I had with God. Part of what changed was when I started praying in tongues, and it was like the spiritual world just opened up to me. I experienced so many things, and my prayer life changed.

Everything about my life actually changed, and I was so excited that most nights I would jump into my car and drive to people and say, "I just have to share this with you." Any person who was willing, if I could get my foot in the door, I would share this with them, because I thought, "I'm experiencing so much – how can I keep this to myself?" I would go around to couples and share these things with them. In that process, many people would listen to me and say, "Wow, that's amazing. That's wonderful. I agree with what you say, and I like what you say, but you know what? It's not for me."

Even despite the fact that I was sharing testimonies about how I go around praying for people and people get healed, despite all those testimonies, people would still say, "That's great for you, but it's not for me."

I'm going to step on a few toes tonight, but I believe if you're still here, then... Because he's sitting comfortable on his couch with his remote in his right hand and his popcorn in his left, and what I'm talking about now sounds like he's got to change something, and he's not willing to do it. But the irony is that six months later, when there is a crisis in his life – whether it's his health or his marriage falling apart – then somehow, despite the fact that we don't have a relationship, I'm the first person he phones to say, "Can you please help?"

I shared with you the testimony about the person I went to pray for in hospital, and that the bullets disappeared. I didn't share the full story with you. On the Thursday when I got there – now, when I prayed for him, he was out of it, he didn't even know physically – the Thursday when they phoned me and said they were releasing him from hospital, which was three or four days later, I immediately had in my spirit that I needed to go speak to him.

So I rushed there. When I walked into his room, there were two of his gangster buddies already with him, and before I could say anything, he said to me, "When you prayed for me on Monday, Jesus came and He took the bullets out of me." And I thought to myself, "Man, here's the next evangelist that's going to take South Africa for Jesus."

With this man, I'm going to reach the youth, because the youth look up to the gangsters – they've got the money, the cars, the lifestyle, the girls, whatever. I said, "Man, I'm going to take this country with this guy." I said to him, "God is giving you another chance to live the life He created you for." He said, "Yes, I know." That was the last time I saw him.

He continued with his life as a gangster. I've heard he has even killed people. You'd think God would save somebody for that? The mere fact that God manifests Himself – a miracle by itself doesn't necessarily change people's lives, doesn't make them want to do the things God created them for. So we can't base it just on the external things we experience and measure it by: "If I experience X, then I'm willing to do something for God."

I used to tell this story. For me, it's about perception of value, perception of the significance and importance of what God has entrusted to you. If I say to you, "I have a house in Springbok," and I give you the address and say, "You're welcome, you can go to my house in Springbok, it's only 500 kilometres from here, and if you open the fridge, in the top drawer there's an ice cream for you," who's going to go?

None of you will go, because the perception of the effort versus the value and importance of what you're going to get is not going to move you. Now, what if I tell you that in that same house – forget about the ice cream – you go to the main bedroom, and underneath the main bedroom there is a bin, and if you pull that bin out, there's two million rand cash, plus all the diamonds and gold I inherited from my great-grandfather, who used to work at the mine – a bag like this of diamonds, some gold, and two million rand cash. Who of you will go now? I will!

So when I say, "You can go fetch the ice cream," people will say, "You know what, it's late, I've got a project tomorrow, I've got this and that." But the moment it becomes two million rand and gold and diamonds, it's, "You know what, the project can wait. You know what, I'm actually not that tired." It's all about... why do people... let me not say why, let me say this: do not wait for a crisis in your life before you decide that God is the answer.

Because there's a path that God wants to walk with you, and He wants to grow you into maturity. There are various instances in the New Testament where Paul speaks to the children, to the young men and to the fathers. There's a path of growth towards maturity. It even says, "Are there any sick among you? Let them call for the elders" – not elders by way of title, but the spiritually mature ones – "maybe you are not there yet in terms of your faith to address it, but let's call the mature ones, and they will pray for you, and the prayer of faith will heal the sick." There's a responsibility we have for growth, to come into that position.

There are things in your life – I said to you last week, the verse says, "When the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will show you things to come." He will show you things in the future, and if you are not listening and not responding, that wave will come and hit you in the teeth, and you will be lying on the beach complaining, "Where is God?" But in the meantime, God has attempted to bring you to maturity, because He knows what is coming, and He wanted to bring you into that position of maturity whereby you will be able to withstand those challenges, and even beyond that.

So part of the reason we need the Holy Spirit is to stir up the perception of value in our hearts for what God has put in your heart, and to allow the Holy Spirit to move you. I've said to you, I believe the message for you tonight is: it's time to move, and you need the Holy Spirit.

The Word says it is God who gives both the will and the doing. He gives us, through the Holy Spirit, the desire, and we are even going to pray for that tonight, because we need to... If you don't have the desire, you are not going to move. If you don't have the perception of the value, the significance and the importance of God, of what God has entrusted to you, you are not going to move. And I'll share some spiritual realities with you that we need to face.

When we talk about Matthew 6:33, "first seek the kingdom of God," I've explained to you that what we are seeking is not church, is not religion, is not living right and doing good. That's not what we are seeking. What we are seeking is the reality, the presence, the ability of God, and manifesting it in this earth. That is what seeking the kingdom first means, and there's a way we need to do it. We have a responsibility as far as the Word and the Spirit are concerned, to be able to seek that kingdom.

There comes a point in time in your life... I have seen, in the few years I've been actively involved in the kingdom, that it is a significant step in somebody's life when they become born again, because they receive eternal life. It's the most significant thing that can happen to you – you receive eternal life. Then the next step is to be filled with the Spirit, and maybe the step after that is to be led by the Spirit – to start listening, to start responding.

But as far as living life subsequent to that is concerned, for me, what I have seen as the significant thing is the day somebody decides God is number one in their life and they are willing to live for Him and do whatever it takes. It's like a switch. The day you are able to say, "God, it is all about You" – now, you will drive to Springbok for the ice cream if God tells you to do it, not because of what you get out of it, because maybe He's got something else in mind for why you should be there at that moment in time. But for as long as we want to function with our intellect – remember it says we can receive the Spirit of God, but it says the world cannot receive Him, can't even recognise Him, won't respond to Him.

But it says we have received. You remember that scripture in 1 Corinthians 2:

“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. 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, which things we also speak.”

1 Corinthians 2:11-13 (NKJV)

We need to manifest. There is a reason you have the Holy Spirit. But we need to pray, and we are going to do so tonight, that you have that desire in your heart to say, "God, it's truly about You."

Not on my terms, not when it's convenient for me, not when it suits me, not when I am deriving a benefit. The way that God does things – I've already explained to you – you need to start understanding that and tapping into it. I touched on something last week that really dropped in my spirit when God showed me those scriptures that say you cannot say that you love God, but hate your brother.

It's not possible. The way to love God is through other people. It doesn't help you sit in your inner room and say you love God, but the way you act and treat other people is totally different. It's not possible. So we need to understand the way that God functions, and here is one of the keys we need to understand. When we talk about seeking first the kingdom, when we talk about love, it says, "This is the commandment I leave you: love your neighbour as yourself."

Are you willing to go to that step, to love people around you by making them a higher priority than yourself? I'll come back to that. I'm just asking the question at this stage, because the way that the spiritual principles God has put in place function is: whatever a man sows, he shall reap.

You remember that verse? It says, "God is not mocked." Whatever a man sows, he shall reap. There are some things you will not see in your life until you start helping other people to see them in their lives. Did you hear that? Because that is the way that God designed it. There's a verse where Paul was in jail, and he says there are people who even preach the gospel to mock him, but people still got born again because of it.

He said, "I don't really care why they preach the gospel. Even if it is to mock me, it's fine – people are still getting born again, so I'm still happy with it." So I'm saying to you, even if you start doing good to others because you want to see the results in your own life, it's a good place to start. There are things in your life that you would not see otherwise. Now, something about seeking the Kingdom of God and manifesting it relates to the fact that God is light, and in Him is no darkness.

I want to share something with you from 1 John 1:5-9:

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

1 John 1:5-9 (NKJV)

Remember, Matthew 6:33 says, "First seek His kingdom and His righteousness." There is something about establishing righteousness, because the presence of God is righteousness. If we go back to verse one: "This is the message which we have heard of Him and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

There are things that good people experience in their lives that should not be there. Yes, there are challenges. Yes, Satan is at work. Yes, we live in a physical world that is broken. The systems and processes on this earth are still under the control of Satan. We understand all of that, and it has implications. But when we manifest the presence of God in this earth and come to maturity, there are things we will not experience anymore.

Most people, when something happens in their lives, ask the wrong question. They ask, "Where is God? Why did God not do something about it?" It's the wrong question, because we need to understand how God functions – and the way God functions is through His presence. So to the extent that we can manifest that presence, those things will not happen there.

It's as simple as that. I'm not saying it is easy, but we need to understand what the answer and the reality is, so that we know what we are working towards. Now there's something I need to explain to you – if you can grasp it, then grab it; otherwise, just let it slip for now. We choose where we function from.

We choose to function from within God, seated in Christ Jesus at the right hand of the Father, or we choose to function in the world. That's why it says, "The flesh profits nothing; it is the Spirit that gives life." We know this world has darkness in it – even Isaiah tells us that. Let me share that scripture with you, then explain it:

“Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

Isaiah 60:1-3 (NKJV)

So it is not a surprise that this earth is filled with people covered with darkness, functioning in darkness, because until somebody is born again, the Bible says you are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of His beloved Son. Until you are born again and translated into that kingdom, you are still subject to the authority Satan has in this earth. So how do we expect people to function differently if they don't have the life of God inside them? If they don't have it inside them, they will not function differently. So whose responsibility is it to change that?

But there is something about where we should anticipate the body of Christ will function, and I want to go back to 1 John 1:5: "This is the message which we have heard of Him and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." Do you see the contrast between the two?

Now, let me ask, if you read that scripture properly – where is there no darkness? In God. Did you see that? Where is there no darkness? In God. I want to translate that and say, in Christ. There is a place we can function from where there is no darkness, because God says He is light, and in Him is no darkness.

But we need to function from within Him. We need to find ourselves within Him, and that means seeking His kingdom first. There needs to come a point in our lives – and I want to give you that opportunity tonight – where you, individually and personally, can decide whether you have come to the place where you are truly willing to make God number one in your life. Because now we have all these tools, all the perspective about why we've been created, why we are here, the ability in the Word, the ability in the Spirit.

I've already explained one example to you; I can give you many like that. That doesn't necessarily move everybody. It doesn't. You need to come to the point where you understand it takes something from you – it takes something from you to be in the light and to function from within that light.

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

Philippians 2:12-13 (NKJV)

There is a responsibility. We can share all this knowledge, and it's necessary, because faith comes to you through knowledge. But there comes a point when you have to say, "Now it's up to me. I have to make a decision." It says you must work out your own salvation, and that word 'salvation' is an all-encompassing word. It doesn't just mean being born again; it means much more than that. It is manifesting everything represented in the presence of God. It says we must work it out – there's a responsibility.

This is why, even from the beginning, I continue to pray this for myself: "God, stir up the desire in me. Stir up the desire in me." When Paul wrote to Timothy, he said, "Stir up." You have to start by praying every single day, thanking God that He stirs up a desire in your heart. Because at the end of the day, this world we are living in is a temporary world.

I started touching on this: you must understand there are ages to come. It's not that this world comes to an end and we go to heaven – that's not how it works. There are ages, there are dispensations. The Bible refers to ages to come, and there are things you do in this earth that will have implications for what you and your environment look like in the next dispensation, in the next age.

Have you realised that the Word says that faith, hope and love – these three remain? What are you going to do with faith in the next dispensation? Because there are ages to come, you are going to require faith in the next dispensation. This earth is not the end, after which we simply go to heaven. There are ages to come, there are processes, and we need to let even just our mindset start moving in that direction: what is the implication of growing faith in this earth? Why would it say that faith remains? What is the significance of your faith in the next dispensation?

There are things God has called you for. I have to go there quickly – I want to show you something about the mentality Jesus wanted to share with us. In John 3, Jesus talks about being born again and about eternal life, and when Nicodemus doesn't understand these things, He says:

“I have told you earthly things and you do not believe. How will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”

John 3:12 (NKJV)

Let me show you something in Hebrews 6, from verse one. Look at this:

“Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”

Hebrews 6:1-2 (NKJV)

So there are elementary principles, and then we need to move on to other things. It says, let's leave the discussion about elementary principles. But look at what he deems as elementary principles. He says, let us go on to perfection – that is the thing we should be talking about, and I can tell you that is definitely the now word of God for our time. We need to move the body of Christ on to perfection. If we are not talking about perfection, most of the time we are missing something – manifesting until we all come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, unto a perfect man. If we don't continuously talk about that, we are focusing on the wrong thing.

It says, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation – and see, these are the basic things: repentance from dead works, and faith toward God. Faith toward God he deemed an elementary principle. That's not the higher truth we should be getting into. Faith toward God – how much time do we spend on that? He says there are bigger, more important things than faith toward God. The next verse continues: the doctrine of baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead – elementary principles. And eternal judgment – those are elementary principles.

There are higher truths and realities. We know that this world is temporary. We know that what we do here gives us the opportunity to create things of eternal value. But there are realities we need to come into touch with, and that we need to manifest, to understand everything God wants us to manifest in this earth.

And then we move into the next dispensation, and in that next dispensation there's a new responsibility – to function on a higher level, on things we're not even talking about yet. Why am I telling you this? We need to understand that we must put God first in our life, and understand exactly what it is God wants to do through us. If we talk about manifesting that light, the number one thing I've been saying to you from session one, and will keep saying, is that we have not yet seen in this earth what God wants us to do and manifest. We have not seen it yet.

And if we are able to do that, many of the things that concern us now will just disappear. That is why God says, seek first My kingdom, My righteousness. What He's saying is: establish Me as a whole entity in this earth. And these things you worry about now – poverty, sickness, divorce, whatever – will simply not be present there. The same way they were not present with Israel in the Old Testament, where the Holy Spirit had not even been poured out yet.

It was not present with them. How much more now, when we have the Holy Spirit poured out, we have the responsibility. So people condemn themselves when they still experience these things in their lives, and they say, "Well, now we've crossed the border." It's not God who causes that. God does not work with sickness, poverty, disease and divorce – those are not His tools. Can God use it for your benefit? Once it has happened, for whatever reason, God can take it and make it work for your benefit. Yes, He can. But that doesn't mean He made you sick in the first place.

So people condemn themselves when those things happen in their lives, and they ask the question, "Did I not have enough faith? Why did God not do something?" Now we've crossed that bridge and we say, "Did I not have enough faith? Should I have done things differently?" and so on. Yes, there's a role that faith plays, but you can see faith is an elementary principle. It's not ultimately the thing we should be focusing a hundred percent of our time on.

Faith is meant to be – can I explain this to you? The verse that talks about faith, hope and love – you need to understand the significance and the way faith, hope and love work together. God plants the seed of hope inside your spirit, and that hope you could also translate as desire.

If your hope is not there... I've dealt with many people over the last nine years, people lying on their sickbed. And when you get there, if that person does not have hope, and you cannot instil hope in them, there is no way you are going to motivate them to be prayed for, for healing. If they're at the point where they've given up, they don't want any input, and they say to you, "You know what, I've lived my life, I am tired, I want to go home" – you can stand there and pray till you are blue in the face. They want to go, and they're going to go. You will only mess with your own faith trying to pray for them to be healed. Anyway, that's a different topic.

So the hope is there. If there is no hope, the rest will not come. Hope is the seed. Then hope grows into faith, because now you have hope. Jesus comes, He has given you hope in that life – that seed is inside of you.

Now you grow hope into faith, and I've explained to you what faith is. Faith is not hoping that God will do something. Faith is: you know what reality looks like, and you respond accordingly. You know what the character of God looks like, and you respond accordingly. So that is what faith is. Your hope has grown into faith, and now it says, "Faith without actions is dead." So we need to move. We cannot sit in our study room and write out all these things and study them and say, "Does God want people to be healed? Doesn't He want…"

And now you've done the study, and you've studied the Word, and you've come to the conclusion that salvation includes healing and all of that. Now great, now you know all of that. Now what? You have to take your two feet and your one hand, and you have to walk up to somebody and say, "Be healed in the name of Jesus." Until you do that, your faith means nothing. Your knowledge means nothing. It needs to move you. So faith moves you, and then once we have moved into that bracket of faith, it says the last one that remains is love.

It says the most important of the three is love. Why is that? Because what is our goal? Our goal is perfection, remember? Our goal is perfection, and the thing that brings us to perfection is love. What is love? Being able to put the body of Christ first as my first priority above anything else that I want for myself.

Which means I need to put you first above anything that I want for myself. Can you see why we are not where we should be in the body of Christ? Because it's mostly about me, myself and I, and when I have a challenge, "God, can You please come and help?" Okay, now God didn't help, so I'm not sure what's up with Him, but anyway, we continue. And I struggle and I suffer and I whatever, and then there is this big crisis, and then I ask somebody to come and help, and then they help, and then I receive the solution, but I don't actually know how it worked.

Like the children of Israel: God showed them the deeds. When they cried out, they had water, but they had no idea what it took to get the water there. Moses started understanding - he had a relationship. It's the same with us. There are truths. Even when you start talking about praying, when you are a babe in Christ, every single thing that you require in life and everything that happens to you, you pray to God and say, "Father, please come and do something about it. Please help me." And that's fine, because God deals with us on the level that we are at.

But then there comes a point where - and you have to hear my heart, and I'll motivate this with verses in the Bible, otherwise you might think I'm going astray - God's first choice for you is not to pray. Have you locked the door? It's not His first choice.

It is a choice, and it is a good choice, and it is a good option, and we should be doing it. Now remember, there are different kinds of prayer - about nine different kinds - and some of it, like intercession, is not a prayer for myself; I'm interceding for you. You need to distinguish between the things that are under your authority and the things that are not under your authority. The things that are under your authority - God's first choice for you is not to pray.

He wants you to just manifest His presence. But the things that concern me, my family and my direct environment - that's under my control, under my authority. So I can exercise that authority.

I've prayed for many people and delivered them from demons and evil spirits and so forth. An amazing thing that God told me at one stage - I started going through a phase where in Kayamandi there are a lot of people who worship forefathers and so forth, not realising it's demonic, and they get filled with those demons.

And I would pray for somebody where I could see they had the demon inside of them, and I would say, "Get out in the name of Jesus," and the demon would not leave. I didn't understand that, because I use the authority in the name of Jesus - how can any demon resist that? Then God started explaining to me that that person has a higher authority over their own body, and if they don't want to let that thing go, you cannot command it to go.

That is why the choice of somebody is so important. You need to bring knowledge to them, and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Then the Holy Spirit told me, "You have to explain to them and say, 'Okay, you have to choose.'" Because sometimes people don't want to let that thing go, because it gives them powers. There are powers - let's face it, not nearly what we have, but there are powers in the world of darkness, under Satan and demons and evil spirits. Those powers let people see things and do supernatural things, so people start believing it because they can see there are supernatural things.

So they don't want to let those things go. Then the Holy Spirit taught me to tell them, "Okay, you have to choose. You are in control, so you have to choose what you want to do." And only once they say, "Yes, I want to let go," could I pray for the thing to let go.

Remember the story where the disciples were with Jesus on the boat, and the wind and the waves and everything came, and Jesus was sleeping. The disciples were afraid, and they thought they were going to perish, and they woke Jesus and said, "Do You not care that we are perishing?" And Jesus rebuked the wind, and everything got quiet, and He said, "Oh, you of little faith." He was not impressed.

Now, does that sound familiar? What did they do? They called out to Jesus. Isn't that what we are doing as well? What's wrong with that? How come Jesus was not impressed by that? It's not God's first choice for you to cry out to Jesus for everything, because you are one with Him.

You have received His life and His ability. His first choice is that you manifest Him. But not everything, as I've explained, is under your control, and when you are praying for somebody else, there are different prayers, and it's necessary. I think it's part of the challenge in the body of Christ - we are not praying enough, we are not interceding enough. That is greatly important; I'm not downplaying that in any way whatsoever. We need to spend more time in prayer. But that's prayer in terms of intercession, prayer in terms of standing in the gap. That is not the things that we should be commanding instead of praying.

So when we talk about authority, we need to be able to distinguish that. Coming back to faith, hope and love: faith is good, and we need it, but it's not the ultimate thing, because you can have faith for the wrong reasons as well, to try and just gain things. But when we really need to start talking about the things that are really important, not the elementary things, we need to talk about perfection - and perfection has always and will always be love.

And that means the same love that Jesus showed us. He gave Himself. He said, "Unless a grain of seed falls to the ground and dies, it cannot multiply." The Word says if we want to retain our lives, we will lose them. That's how it is. We need to come to the point of understanding that it is firstly about God, not firstly about my needs and my situation.

But the great thing is this - because it might sound like I'm not giving you a solution tonight for the challenge that you have. I am, because if you walk in the light as He is in the light, then all these things will disappear. It says in Him there is no darkness, but that means you need to find yourself in Him, and that is not just being born again - that is making Him a priority. And the great thing is this: if we put the body of Christ first, there are things in our lives that will just start disappearing.

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NKJV)

It doesn't say it's going to be easy. It's a race, and you're going to need endurance, but I'll say something about that now.

Looking unto Jesus - if you actually look at the Greek word there, it doesn't just mean to look. It means to look away from one thing unto another thing. You need to look away unto something. We need to look away from the challenges and the priorities that we have, and look unto Jesus. We need to look unto Christ and what is priority for God to manifest in this earth. The moment we start doing that, the laws that God has put in place will just start functioning in our lives.

I've spent a lot of time over the last nine years counselling people. I don't really do counselling now anymore; I'm raising up other people to be able to do that, because that is what my function is now - to activate other people, to disciple other people, to raise up leaders, to send people, to equip people. I've said to you right from the beginning: I am here to help you go and do what God has sent you for, and there are various ways in which we can help you. I'll speak about that in one of the other sessions.

But there are some things I've learned through those years of counselling. Not every person who has a challenge necessarily wants it to disappear. There are some people who flourish remaining in that position of everybody feeling sorry for them and everybody trying to help them, and they will remain there.

Many of you sitting here - I have in my heart that for those of you who have not been activated, many of you will be activated through this series to start having impact in other people's lives, and these are some of the things you need to know. That is why you need the Holy Spirit - because you need to be able to discern when to pray for somebody, when to help somebody. It's not just that you help everybody. I can assure you, if you don't listen to the Holy Spirit and determine who you should be helping and who not, people will drain you until there is nothing left of you - nothing, and they will not care. You need to listen to the Holy Spirit to know who you should be helping. Not everybody knocking on your door or at your window at the robot needs to be helped. You need to be able to discern through the Holy Spirit who is your responsibility and who not.

The other thing I want to touch on is the significance of character. We all grow up in a physical environment. You get taught through your parents, at school, at university, your environment, your spouse, etc. All of that input actually shapes your character. And even when we become born again and Spirit-filled, there are many things in your life - like in my life, God changed my heart - but there are many things about my character, virtually most things, that remained the same.

There are things my dad taught me from small, about your yes being your yes. We were never allowed to say, "I promise," because as far as my dad is concerned, if you said yes, it's yes - why do you have to promise? Many of us grew up that way: your yes is your yes, your no is your no. You do business with a handshake. Your word is your honour. Those things we grew up with, and they shaped my character. I had those characteristics before I became filled with the Spirit and my life and my heart changed.

So your character gets shaped, but here's the challenge with our characters: your character determines the shape of how things get pushed through you into the world. It's like one of these cookie pressers where you put a shape in front. You put a star shape in front and push through - and I see some aunties here who I'm sure bake some nice cookies, maybe we must organise something - anyway, you push through that shape and you have a star-shaped cookie. Then you put a heart shape in front and push through, and you have a heart-shaped cookie. But the content of what is inside that bag is exactly the same.

So we receive eternal life, we receive the Holy Spirit, we have this conviction inside of us. Now we need to push it out into the world, but our character still shapes what it looks like, and that is why Romans 12:2 is so important.

When you become born again, all these things from your past don't just disappear. You become a new spiritual man, but now you need to conform to the mind of Christ, which, as I've already explained, is in your spirit - and that is a process of renewing your mind. That is why the solution remains the Word of God and the Spirit of God: we need to spend time in the Word of God to retrain our minds to think the way Christ thinks. Why is the mind so important? Why would God say renew your mind if the mind was not important?

Because the mind is where your character lies, and that is shaping the way you interact with other people, and that is why we have the responsibility to renew it. You'll remember two sessions back, when we spoke about the Word, I gave you that sheet with scriptures explaining the implications of spending time in the Word of God.

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

Joshua 1:8 (NKJV)

All of those - Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1, Timothy - all those scriptures explain to you the same thing: meditate on these things day and night. Even in Timothy it says that your prospering will become evident to all. So the responsibility we have - and I'll touch on that in another session - you need to understand this: you have a huge responsibility, but the great thing is you are not on your own.

What makes it different from maybe attempts you've had in the past? Maybe previously you hadn't received the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Maybe you weren't even born again. Now you have become born again, you have become filled with the Spirit, and you can be led by the Spirit to provide guidance. And in addition to that, there are a lot of people who can help you - a lot of people like me whose desire it is to put the kingdom first and to make sure we help each other fulfil our purpose.

So do not do it on your own. If you try and do it on your own, Satan will take you out, I can tell you now already. You need people around you. It even says in the Word of God, "A threefold cord cannot easily be broken." Why does it say that? If you walk on your own and you fall, how are you going to get up? If two walk together and one falls, the other one can help them up. I'll explain more about that in some of the other practical sessions.

There's something we started called accountability groups, where you join up with two or three other people who can help you. Once you have decided what you want to do, they will help you fulfil and achieve either what you are struggling with or what you want to achieve. They are not there to prescribe to you.

Because in this process that many people go through, they become and get the desire, and they are willing, and they want to actually go and do these things. Now we understand all these things - I must put my neighbour first, I must live in love, I must manifest God - and we know all of this, and we have the desire. But the first challenge that comes your way, and three months from now when we look, nothing has changed. The thing that makes it sustainable is to surround yourself with the right people.

Now, living this life that God has created you for - I have to tell you, it comes at a price, but it is worth it. You need to make a decision to put God first. You need to make a decision that you are willing to do whatever it takes. You need to allow the Holy Spirit to guide you. There are maybe some things at the moment that are detracting you from being able to do what God has sent you to do - you need to get rid of those things in your life. But you need to decide it. You get two or three people that you make yourself accountable to, and then you continue.

I must talk about that in another session - about transparency, accountability, all of that. We'll talk about the significance, but I can tell you the results we have seen over the last year in people applying those principles is amazing, in being able to do the things they couldn't do before, because most people try to do these things on their own.

But what I do want to say to you is there are practical things that you need to listen to the Holy Spirit about, and adjust in your lifestyle. There are some things - I'm not talking about your work - but if there are things you are spending much more time on than what you are spending in the Word of God or in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, there's a good chance the Holy Spirit is going to tell you to get rid of it.

The amazing thing is, as I've already explained to you before, that every one of us has a relationship with God that is personal and specific, and God deals with you in a unique way. There is not one recipe that fits all. If you look at how God worked with Samson in the Old Testament, he could sleep around with a whole lot of women and God still worked through him, but not everybody could do that. In the New Testament, the dispensation that we live in, you need to hear from God what it is that is sin in your life, because sin is not the same for all of us.

There are some things that you can maybe do that I cannot do, and vice versa. God told me when my life changed nine years ago to get rid of alcohol. I haven't had a drop of alcohol in the last nine years, but I know why, in terms of what God wants to do through me, and it's all about obedience. I don't watch television, I don't read newspapers, but those are things that God has told me so that I can put myself aside, so that God can deal with me and work with me, and I can spend time in the Word and in fellowship so that I can come in obedience and do what God has sent me for.

That's not necessarily the case with you, but there could be other things that God tells you. Maybe God tells you to get rid of rugby, or television, or alcohol, or to stop smoking, or whatever it is, but it's based on your relationship with Him. It's not about stop sinning.

Okay, so I know it sounds like a lot of things that you have to do, but that's why we had all the other sessions first, so that you understand you are going to do them by the power of the Holy Spirit. You are going to pray for the desire in your heart. God is going to put that desire in your heart. God is going to give you the ability to be able to do them.

I can tell you, if I look at my life personally, I can testify from that. You know that Maslow hierarchy of fulfilment in life, when you get to that top point? That thing doesn't even know what it's about. When you have a relationship with God and you have intimacy with God, there is nothing that comes close to it.

My most prized time is when I am in my study, alone with the Holy Spirit and with God, and the Holy Spirit just reveals things to me from the Word of God, and we have a conversation and we speak. That intimate time in His presence, I will not change for anything. But we need to build from there, because that is the relationship that strengthens you, that enables you, so that you go out and you are able to live it.

There is nothing in life... People fill their lives with all these things like liquor and drugs and whatever else, and they fill it. Why? Because there is a gap inside of them that they are trying to fill, but they are trying to fill it with the wrong things. And I'm talking even once they have become born again. Subsequent to that, there is a gap in them in terms of being able to fulfil the purpose that God has created them for. And that purpose you will only be able to fulfil once you start actually putting God and people around you first, because love is the thing that takes us unto perfection.

I actually want to go into a bit more of a practical component of this session now, because I really have in my heart that it's great to talk about what you should be doing, but maybe you feel at this stage that there are many challenges in your life still, and there are things that you still need to overcome, things that you need to change, and maybe it's still too big in your mind.

But the thing that I said, that we are here for each other and we are here to help you, we are actually going to start functioning from that place right now. The thing I shared already at the beginning of the session really came up in my heart, that some of you might be going through challenges in terms of regrets and pain and anger, and things that you need restoration for in your life.

We're going to play some worship music, and I want to give you the opportunity, because what we do is by the Spirit. Your enablement and activation is by the Spirit. But what Satan does is use things that are maybe condemning you, to prevent you from allowing that flow of the Spirit through you. Maybe you have done things wrong, or things that you regret, or whatever it is, but Jesus has already paid the price for it. Satan is still using it to prevent the Holy Spirit from flowing through you, because you are struggling to deal with those issues in your life.

I want to pray for you tonight, and not only me, some of the leaders will help me as well. We are going to spend some time not just worshipping God — we are not going to have an attitude of asking God to come and do something. We are going to acknowledge His presence. That's part of a very practical component: if you are not doing that yet, you need to start experiencing that the presence of God is enough.

So we are just going to praise and worship God, and in that time I'm going to ask you to actually come to the front, and we are going to pray with you so that you can let go of your past, that you can receive healing — I'm talking about emotional healing — that restoration, that conviction in your heart that you are good enough.

When God looks at you, He sees you as perfect. There is nothing that can separate you from God. I showed you that verse — there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God, not even death. I say respectfully, we make so much of death. There are so many priorities in people's lives, and then all of a sudden, if somebody is sick and lying in hospital and they say they're going to die, everything comes to a standstill. But we should actually realise that there are things that are bigger and more important than that.

So I want to encourage and stimulate your relationship with the Holy Spirit tonight, even if you are not coming to the front. Those that want to come to the front, once we start playing the worship music, you are welcome to come. I'll do another prayer after that which will be for everybody, so don't worry about that — there will be opportunity for that. Also, at the end, I have received some of your mails from people that had to leave early last week and want the opportunity to pray in tongues. I'll stay at the end as well if you want to come to the front for that. We can do that too.

But I want us to now specifically focus on those of you who require that restoration, that emotional healing, to let go of that guilt and condemnation, and even forgiveness, so that we can overcome that.

Let me show you a picture. Don't worry, don't run, I'm not going to get aggressive. This is the picture that I've had since we started with this series: it's time to step up to the plate. For every single one of us, it is literally like it's only you. It's only you. Your mentality needs to be that there is nobody else. It's only you. And that — I don't even know what you call them, is it pitchers? They've pitched the ball, and you are ready. Can you see that stadium of people all looking at you?

Did you read that scripture we just shared? It says, "We are surrounded with a cloud of witnesses." We are surrounded. And I want to say to you: you are up. It's your turn. Step up to the plate. Don't hide behind somebody else. Forget about the excuses and the reasons and whatever has held you back up to now. It's your turn. The body of Christ needs you, is dependent on you — every single one of you.

It's the only way we are going to do what God has called us to do. So I look forward to seeing you next week. I will be around for a few minutes still, specifically because I know there are a few people that mailed about missing the opportunity to pray in tongues, so I'm going to be in front. Even if you were maybe not here — I saw there were new people that registered and want me to explain — I'll get some of the leaders to help me as well, and we'll pray with those that want to pray in tongues.

I already explained last week it's not the be-all and end-all to pray in tongues. If you are born again, you are going to heaven; you don't need to pray in tongues to go to heaven. But I personally can testify that it's the aspect that changed my life, because of the reality of the relationship I could establish with the Holy Spirit. It's a tool that God has given us, like many other tools — whether it is to prophesy or to pray in understanding or whatever it is. There are many tools, but one of them is to pray in tongues.

I would like to say, if I had to hang a board against that wall there and I had to drive nails into that wall, yes, I can drive those nails in with my bare hands, but it's going to be painful and it's going to be bloody. Or I can take a hammer and nail them in there quickly and efficiently, and hang the board. That's what praying in tongues is for us. When you pray in tongues, it's a tool that makes some of the work that we need to do just that much easier.

Okay, I would like to end off. Thank you very much. I'll see you next week.