Session 6 of 6 - Doing life together

Hello, everyone. It's great to be here tonight, and I'm certainly looking forward to our time together.

So it's all about doing, it's all about activation. My purpose here is to activate you, and for you to activate me, so we are all helping each other. We have received a lot of information through the previous five sessions already, and more and more we are moving into the action side, the doing side. There should be some things being stirred in your heart in terms of responding, acting, getting involved, and doing.

There are mainly two things I want to touch on in the beginning. One of the things that prevents people from being activated is lack of knowledge, but related to it is the resistance to actually change. It's a much bigger thing than we think. Even if you look at studies in terms of the biggest trauma people experience, it's just change.

Something changes, so there's resistance in that, but we need to accept the responsibility. We need to have the willingness, until the day that Jesus comes, to want to change, because it is critical. Remember Romans 12:2 – we need to be transformed by being willing to renew our minds, so that is critical. The other aspect relates to the fact that people want to do it on their own. They isolate themselves, and because of that, they just don't finish it.

I've touched on it before – the great thing is not flying away with great speed, doing something for a month and then disappearing. Then we have achieved nothing. Paul wrote and said, "The great thing was I completed the race." And that's the significant aspect that I have in my heart for you, that you will do what God has called you to do and that you will complete that race.

We spoke a bit about the character side. In essence, I can sum it up: if you want to change your character, you need to flood yourself with the Word of God. It's as simple as that. There is no other solution than the Word of God. It's not about how much time you sit philosophically analysing and questioning and arguing – you are wasting time. Spend time in the Word, get teachings, listen to teachings, flood yourself. There was a time in my life where I listened to at least one teaching every single day, and I flooded myself with the Word of God because I needed to renew my mind.

I needed to think about myself the way that God thinks about me. And you're not going to achieve it without the Word of God.

There's a story that comes to mind. You've maybe heard it, but I'll give you my version of it. There was this German warship sailing on the seas, and it was at night, and it saw this little light in front of it. It started sending signals to say, "Could you please move to the side?"

And the signals came back and said, "No, I'm not going to." Then this German warship sent signals again, saying, "Do you understand who this is? This is one of the biggest, most significant warships currently on the sea. I suggest you move to the side." And the light came back, "I suggest you change direction."

So this German ship sends a signal; the captain is really getting angry now, and he says, "Do you know how much artillery I've got on this ship? Do you know how many men I've got on the ship? Do you know how powerful this ship is? I suggest you move." And the signal came back, "This is the lighthouse. I suggest you move."

Sometimes I think we have that mentality that we know enough, we don't have to change – anything that comes towards us needs to change. I really want to encourage you: it is probably one of the most significant things you will do in your life, to be willing to receive new information and act upon it, and start thinking differently and doing differently.

There's a reason why the Bible tells us that the Word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, because that light – what does it do? Remember, the Word of God resembles something. What does that light do? That light shows us reality, and whether you like it or you don't like it, or you agree with it or you don't, reality is not going to change. The change needs to happen on your side. We have to accept – I'm going to keep saying that – the body of Christ on this earth doesn't nearly, not even close, look the way it's meant to look.

Yet it is God's desire. So there is something that must change. Our ability to manifest God – and you know that's what it's all about that's left for us – to manifest God or Christ in this earth into a place of dominion. Jesus said the things that He did, we will do, and greater works. So if we are not seeing a lot of that around us – doing what Jesus did – it means we still need to grow into it. We still need to change.

We need to change our thinking. We need to change our doing. And we know it's not because the power is in us – I'm going to repeat all of that – we need to align so that the Spirit of God can flow through us and manifest God in this earth.

I want to encourage you, and then quickly move into the specific things I want to get to tonight. I'll probably have to rush a bit because we started late due to technical aspects, but I believe it was important for us to spend that time in worship.

If you want to see what our instruction on earth is, go and read all the last words that Jesus gave us. Go and read Mark 16. Go and read Matthew 28. There you see Jesus told us to go and do. He said, go and make disciples, baptize them. He said, go and heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers. There was an instruction to go and do.

I heard somebody recently explain this, and I thought it was quite significant. He said: when I say to you, Simon says, stamp your feet, then everybody stamps their feet. Then we read in the Word of God, Jesus says, heal the sick. Then we say, let me memorise that verse. Heal the sick, heal the sick, heal the sick, heal the sick. Ah, I know the verse, I know the verse.

Then Simon says, put your hands on your hips. We all put our hands on our hips. Then Jesus said, raise the dead. We say, let me memorise that verse. Raise the dead, raise the dead, raise the dead. Then Simon says, put your hands on your head. We all put our hands on our head. Then Jesus said, go make disciples. We say, okay, I'm memorising that verse. Make disciples, make disciples. But isn't that reality?

So this whole Purpose Series needs to end in activation. There are things that need to happen – not because of our own power, but, as I've already explained, if God wants to do something in this earth, He does it through a human being. So there is something that must happen. And if you go and look at all the last verses about what Jesus told us to do, you will see it's very much about action.

I sometimes think when people read about disciples, they think of it as a title, a breed that actually died out. They think there were twelve disciples, and they died, and that was the end of that – not realising, remember, even Jesus showed us on earth what is possible in a human being, and the disciples continued with that. Don't think it was just for then. It is now. We pretty much need to live the lives that they lived. I'll get to that from a practical aspect.

I want to start talking about this. We speak about building Christ, building the body, building God on earth. I want to show you something.

“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)

I want you to start moving into that zone of thinking now, because I'm going to elaborate and focus on that for quite some time. There is something that we are building. It is the body – yes, let's accept that. There's a lot of comparison to building a building, a dwelling place like they had in the Old Testament. But we know now in the New Testament, we are His dwelling place. The size of that dwelling place depends on what we do on earth. We are all living stones, being raised up, built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. But there are some things relating to that which I think got distorted in the process, in terms of religion and playing church.

One of the things I want to emphasise straight out, when we talk about this, is that there is no one brick that is more important than another brick. You need to get that into your mind. It doesn't matter what mindset, self-esteem, or way you grew up with – it's irrelevant. I've explained to you previously, we are now in a place where the Bible says to us, look away unto Jesus.

You need to look away from your own issues. Your solution is not going to come from looking at your own issues. It's not going to come from there. Your solution is going to come when you start looking away from your issues and look unto Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of your faith. We need to focus on where the solution is. When you start looking at Jesus Christ, you need to start changing your mentality: God looks at you and He says, you are precious.

Not only are you precious, you are a living stone that He dwells in. And not only are you a living stone that He dwells in, He made you a stone that is needed to complete this building. We all need you to be the stone that you were created to be. It's important, every single one of us. A lot that happened in religion has pacified most of the church, because it started being about a few brilliant individuals, and that became the measure.

I want to quickly take you to the body. I want to start talking about the body.

“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.”

1 Corinthians 12:12-13 (NKJV)

He's talking about you. He's talking about your position and function in Christ. I'm going to read through this fairly quickly, so just follow with me, because I don't want to spend too much time on the reading. You can just grasp it as I'm reading.

“For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.”

1 Corinthians 12:14-18 (NKJV)

You are not an accident. You are not inferior. Let me rephrase that: you have inside of you everything that God intended you to have, and He made you everything He intended you to be. There's a responsibility. God always gives us a responsibility. God always gives us an opportunity, because if we were not able to choose, we would not be able to manifest God's presence in this earth. We have to choose. You have to make a choice, and you have to see yourself the way that God sees you, and the significance.

“And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."”

1 Corinthians 12:19-21 (NKJV)

You need to understand that.

Now, I'm going to be, to some extent, a bit straight tonight about some things, but I believe we have built up a relationship up to now, so you know what my heart is. My heart is to walk in truth and to share truth, not to focus on other things, but there are some things I need to touch on. There are many things in a lot of religious structures that have gone totally astray from where we need to be.

That is part of the main reasons why we, as the body of Christ, are not in the position on earth where we should be – because of religion. Part of that is that certain people, because of their titles, start fulfilling a more important role and position, and other people start becoming inferior. You later on sit with church structures where the top 5% to 10%, in terms of their position and function, are all the ones where the activity is.

They are the ones who minister. They are the ones who affect change, and the rest are just passengers. Just because we maybe became used to that growing up does not mean that's the way it's meant to be. It's not meant to be that way. I've just explained to you: every single one of us is equally important. I'll talk about gifts and offices and so forth shortly, within the time allowed tonight.

I want to jump to verse 26 and show you something there.

“And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”

1 Corinthians 12:26 (NKJV)

If one member suffers, all the members suffer. We need, as the body of Christ, to really start getting that picture: the person sitting next to you is one of your body parts. If you realise that person is one of your body parts, it's going to start changing your mentality in terms of how you take care of them.

Because it doesn't make sense that you only take care of the hand but don't care what happens to the feet. And if the feet deteriorate, the hand is not going to be able to go where it needs to go. So we need to have that mindset: every single person who is born again – let's not just talk about Christians, let's talk about the body of Christ, the righteous, we'll talk about them – we need to realise that every single one of them, if you see a Christian who is suffering, who is not fulfilling their purpose, who is walking in lack of knowledge, guess who's paying the price?

You. You are paying the price, because it's like having a body where the hand is not functioning, but you expect to be able to do certain things with that body. I'll come back to that when we talk about Ephesians 4, because you know the significance of being one body.

So yes, we do acknowledge that there are offices. We do acknowledge that there are gifts, and I'll touch on that. Let's quickly read one or two of the verses relating to that, then I'll explain some things.

“And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.”

1 Corinthians 12:28 (NKJV)

That touches on offices as well as on gifts. Let's quickly read about gifts – I'm going to jump back to verse 4.

“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.”

1 Corinthians 12:4-7 (NKJV)

Doesn't look like that when you look around at what's happening in religion and in many ministries – remember, I'm referring to where it's wrong; there are also places where it is right, okay? But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. Do you see that? It's for the profit of all. It doesn't matter how great your gift is – if your gift is not building up the body of Christ, it means nothing. It means nothing. We are here with one singular purpose left for us. Jesus did what He had to do. The task that remains for us is to build Christ in this earth to a place of dominion and authority, and to come to a position where our Lord Jesus can return.

That's all that's left, and that's why I've often said to you: it is impossible to complete your purpose without helping other people complete their purpose. It's how it is. God actually built in that measure of security, because that's how it is – to say the only way you can fulfil your purpose, the only way this body will function, is if you take care of everybody around you. I'll get to the practical, don't worry. I'll get to a lot of very practical stuff tonight. I just want your mindset to start getting in line with what's happening here.

So it says the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one, but for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom. Can I just quickly park there? I've explained before – I don't want to go there again, but I've explained to you the difference between praying in tongues, which is in 1 Corinthians 14, and in 1 Corinthians 12 the gift of speaking in tongues, which is the prophetic gift. Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 14, if you exercise the prophetic gift by standing in front, he says to prophesy edifies the church.

To pray in tongues is between me and God; it is to edify me. But if you want to prophesy, then somebody must be able to translate it, because it is meant to be for the edification of the body. If nobody can translate it, he says rather keep quiet. You understand that. But what I want to say now, and I really want to encourage you to challenge your existing thinking: here, and in many verses which I'll include in the mail that I send out, we see all the gifts meant to be functioning in the church. I can't go through everything tonight.

But we grow up in a religious environment, and I include myself in that. I grew up in a religious environment, and for the first time, in the year I turned forty (now you're going to start doing some calculations; I know I don't even look thirty, but just assume), my life changed. For the first time I walked into a church where the gifts of the Spirit were functioning, yet my whole life I had been in church.

Now let's park the praying in tongues, because remember I said that's a tool, not the be-all and end-all – though I think it's significant. But we should change our mindset and ask: why are the gifts not functioning? And there's a very good reason for it: with the help of Satan, a lot of religion was developed, and that religion brought us to a set of man-made rules that said, 'This is how it works.'

If we stand back, it's literally like the old story about the frog. You throw a frog into boiling water and it will jump out still in time. But you put it in cold water and heat it ever so slightly, and it heats up, heats up, heats up, and by the time the frog realises the heat is changing, it is already paralysed, and it actually cooks in that water. That's what happens to many of us in religion.

Most of you will agree with me: when I grew up, you could literally question anything – the state president, the mayor, whoever has the chain around his neck in every town – you can question everybody, but you just don't question the church. But there came a distortion about what you were actually questioning, because we were put in a position where we functioned in something man-made, yet we were not allowed to question it. In that process, all the life was taken out of it.

That's why I say to you, we need to open our minds, we need to open our eyes, we need to use the Word of God as the light that shows us reality, and then we need to literally – that's why Jesus said we need to be like children. He's not as interested in your ability to argue with your intellect as He is in your ability to act in faith upon reality.

And I don't think we realise, day by day, how much damage has been done to our mindset because of religion. I stand amazed: I will show people this in the Word of God about the gifts, yet they are just happy to continue to function in an environment where there are no gifts of the Spirit functioning whatsoever. There is something major wrong with that.

We need to find ourselves continuously in an environment where we should see the gifts of the Spirit functioning, because it's easy to say, 'Yes, it's all about God.' It's easy to say, 'It is all by the power of the Holy Spirit.' But where's the Holy Spirit? Where are the gifts? Where are the offices that should be functioning? We should be able to see it.

“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all,”

1 Corinthians 12:7 (NKJV)

So we should be seeing these things in our own lives, and we should be seeing them around us. It's not a weird thing: you should be able to look at somebody, and without them telling you anything, God would show you something happening in that person's body that needs attention. We should have an expectation like that. I've experienced it many times, and many of you have experienced it too, but we need to encourage each other to have that expectation.

The Word tells us, and this is one of those religious things: toward the end of 1 Corinthians 12, going into 1 Corinthians 13, it lists some of these gifts and says, even if you speak in tongues, or in tongues of angels, but you don't have love, it means nothing. Then people take that portion and say, 'You see, you should have love,' and they forget about all the other aspects of the gifts.

“Desire spiritual gifts,”

1 Corinthians 14:1 (NKJV)

Yes, it says that, but there is something greater – that's love. But that doesn't mean there is something wrong or negative about the gifts. We should desire the gifts, because that is how the Spirit of God expresses Himself in the body, and how He makes of you a thumb and of me a toe, through the gifts functioning through all of that. He has already said we can't all be eyes. That means, sitting here among you, there should be a lot of you who should have the gift to give a word of knowledge.

You should be able to look at somebody and see there is something wrong with their knee – not so that you are boasted, but because God wants the body to be well, so that you can walk up to that knee and say, 'Be healed in the name of Jesus.' We should have an expectation that you should function in the gifts, that you should be in an environment where there is functioning in the gifts. Otherwise, we are not doing what we've been instructed to do.

“For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit,”

1 Corinthians 12:8-9 (NKJV)

That's not normal faith – there's a gift of faith as well. And again, there's a gift of healing, and then there's a general call for all of us to heal people. All of these are talking about gifts, but that doesn't mean we can't all function in them. A gift in this context, if I get slightly technical for a moment, is referred to almost as if it becomes an office. So we should all have an expectation – that's why Jesus said we should all do, and we should be doing more than what He did.

So we should have an expectation that if somebody is sick in our environment, we should lay hands on them and pray for them, and they should be healed. We should have that expectation. But that doesn't mean that is the one office all of us need to function in. You might do that, and you might gradually realise you have a strong urge and desire to go to people in hospital and pray for them, and as you do it more and more and start seeing more and more results, it actually becomes your gift or office that you function in more than the others. But that doesn't mean you should think you can only do one thing. Let me just read this, and I'll explain something about that.

“To another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.”

1 Corinthians 12:10-12 (NKJV)

That's a lot of stuff put together in these verses, but you need to study these things at home as well – I can't give you a hundred percent of all the information; you have to take up the responsibility. But can you see something? We have a very specific instruction that the Holy Spirit wants to express Himself in a variety of gifts.

So we should have that expectation. 1 Corinthians 13 going into 14 says to you,

“Desire spiritual gifts,”

1 Corinthians 14:1 (NKJV)

I said to you right at the beginning, God responds to desire. That's why He says, 'Desire it.' If desiring it would not make a difference, why would He tell you to desire it?

Now, I want to say with that, that I've often found that people, for years, if not nearly most of their life, are searching for the office or the gift they are meant to function in. You find people who say, 'You know what, when I was eight years old, my grandfather put his hand on me and spoke into my life and said, "Son, God showed me you're going to be a great prophet." And then at sixteen, I was at this meeting and this great prophet of God came and put his hands on me and said, "Son, I see you're going to be a great prophet." And then when I was at university, at the age of twenty-two, I was at that evangelistic meeting and this guy called me out among everyone and said, "I see you're going to be a great prophet."' And that's fine, and it's great, and it's encouraging. But then I see that person twenty years later, and they're still living for the day they're going to be a prophet. Meanwhile, they're doing nothing.

So yes, desire spiritual gifts, but don't wait for your gift or your office as if that's the only thing it is about, and that one day when you get there, then you've arrived. It's not like that, because we are all meant to be functioning in a variety of gifts, and some of it will turn into your office.

I can tell you from my experience, and I'll tell you this because we've built a relationship now – most of you have probably been here for all six sessions. I was involved with ministry since my life changed nine years ago, and I was involved with a massive worldwide ministry, big events. We arranged events of a hundred and ten thousand people, and fifty thousand people would become born again, in different places all around the world, and we travelled a lot.

It's great to see those things functioning, and there should be different offices that make those things possible. If we don't have the evangelists, those events will never take place. But we start creating a perception that it's all about that – all about the evangelist, all about the event, all about the people becoming born again.

Everything revolves around that. And in that process, a lot of people just become passive in the body of Christ. From about two years ago, God started changing my heart concerning the limitations and the gaps, and I ended my responsibility and involvement with official structured ministry, and He started leading me into some of the things I'm sharing with you tonight, in terms of how the body should be functioning.

It doesn't matter how you look at it: the body of Christ needs all these gifts to function.

But yet that's why Paul wrote, and he says, 'I'll show you something even greater, and that is love.' There is no reason for us to wait for the big thing to happen, for the big events, for somebody to put his hand on you and say, 'From today you are a prophet, start prophesying.' We don't have to wait for that. Through our relationship, we need to manifest God right where we are now – in our family, in our business, wherever we are – we need to start manifesting God and living in love.

I want to start talking about something concerning the body, and I want you to start getting this perspective from Ephesians 4:4.

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

Ephesians 4:4-6 (NKJV)

You get many ministries that start developing this mentality of being superior, and they isolate themselves – they are now better than everybody else. That's not consistent. There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. You exist because God created you. You exist for Him. You are able to fulfil your ministry because of Him, by Him, through Him, by His Spirit – not of yourself.

It's all about Him. It's all by Him. But there is a responsibility and a mindset that we need to have in order to be able to manifest that, and that mindset should be: there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one body, and it's all about God.

Then it also moves into verse 11, in terms of the offices. So the offices are important, but they are not more important than anything else.

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,”

Ephesians 4:11 (NKJV)

But now there's a reason for it. Somebody said the other day, and I think it's very much relevant spiritually as well: 'Don't get bigger than the job.' Because God gives you a gift, don't get bigger than the job. It's not about us. I'll talk about that now, in terms of the risk of isolation and accountability and all of that. Then all of this becomes relevant again. There's a purpose for it.

“for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry,”

Ephesians 4:12 (NKJV)

Now, the reason there is a gift is for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, which means there is nobody meant to be passive. And I'm going to say it again – this is the thing that is left for us to understand: the person sitting next to you is a body part of your body, and if that body part is suffering, or not doing what it should be doing, you are paying the price. Did I show you that verse about if one suffers, all suffer? Yes, okay, so you're familiar with that now.

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

Ephesians 4:11-12 (NKJV)

There are gifts. The gifts are meant to activate every single one of us, equip us, so that every single one of us go out and do what we should be doing, and it's not just evangelising. There's a massive component missing – an inward focus in the body as well, which I'll talk about shortly.

But we need to understand that it is all about a purpose. There is no such thing as a gift that can function outside the body, or that can function without having the edification of the body as a purpose. If there is a gift that is being applied in a different way, which is possible, that is not what God intended it for. It is meant to be for a specific purpose, and I think the mindset for many of these aspects should be that whether you are an apostle, an evangelist, a pastor or a teacher, or whether you are referred to as the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, we are all equal, we are all equally important, and our function in the body is equally significant, and we need to have that mindset.

Then it continues. I've spoken about this elaborately before.

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

Ephesians 4:13 (NKJV)

The focus is not the gifts. The focus is not the offices. So don't wait for that. The purpose is the edifying, the building up of the body of Christ, the helping of each other. It's very much a practical thing. I think, to some extent, we have over-spiritualised what the body of Christ is meant to be doing.

Here you see the purpose: 'Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.' This is the purpose. This is what we are trying to do. We need to all come to that – the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God. Why do we need the knowledge? The more we know who the Son of God is, who Christ is, His purpose, His intention, the more I understand how significant my purpose in this world is. To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ – we are growing towards something.

“that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,”

Ephesians 4:14 (NKJV)

So it says that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. There's a responsibility to grow. Like I've said to you before, there are things acceptable to a baby that are not acceptable to a grown human being. But spiritually, the Word encourages us that our spiritual senses, our spiritual gifts, should be exercised. We should apply them. Like I said earlier, with the word of knowledge, you should have an expectation. When you wake up in the morning, you should have an expectation that you would be able to do something today that you were not able to do yesterday.

We should. Otherwise, we have a massive problem, because what the body should look like requires that we do things we have not done before. So we should have that expectation. Paul wrote, 'Desire the pure milk. As babies, desire the pure milk of the Word by which you will be built up.' But then he comes to a point where he talks about some things and says, 'This is strong meat that is not for babes. The babes cannot take this.'

We need to get to the place where we can grasp spiritual realities and function according to that, so that we may help those who are still babes. We don't grow spiritually and come into maturity so that we can say, 'We are better than the people around us.' That is shooting yourself in the foot. We grow so that we may help others, and then others help us again, and we all help each other, and in that way we build a stronger body and come more quickly to the maturity it should have.

Remember what I said about the presence of God - there are things that cannot exist in His presence. And the atmosphere they carried in the Old Testament, so that they were not sick - we are meant, in our dispensation, to see more of that, and we should have that expectation. I have an expectation every day that I am going to reach a point where, every single day, I can do something I was not able to do the day before. We should have that expectation. Like Moses standing in front of the water - nobody else had ever done that before, but it was necessary for him to do it so that God could achieve what He wanted to do.

You should have the expectation that even tomorrow you will be able to do something by the Spirit of God that you have not been able to do before. Otherwise, we are not going to reach the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So we have a responsibility to grow.

“...but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.”

Ephesians 4:15 (NKJV)

Now you understand that: Christ is the head, referring to Him as the head, and us as the body. So He is the head, and the body grows towards maturity until it fits the size of the head. He is the head in terms of authority, in terms of this purpose. He started this purpose, and we are only growing and assisting in His purpose to establish and fulfil His purpose on earth. But did you notice that other word around which everything revolves? It says, 'speaking the truth in love.'

This truth is reality. We need to speak reality. How will you speak reality if you don't know what reality looks like? We need to spend time in the Word of God - and I'm not talking about the religious, condemning aspect of spending time in the Word - we need to spend time in it because it is the light that switches on and shows us something about reality. Remember, Jesus could only do what the Father showed Him - exactly the same principle. He spent time in fellowship through the Holy Spirit, and God would show Him reality. Then He would go and act differently. Why was it easy for Him to act differently? Because He knew what reality looked like.

How do we get to that point? Through the Word and through the Spirit. You continue to flood yourself with the Word of God so that it becomes more of a reality to you, because we live in a broken world under the authority of Satan - the Scriptures even refer to him as the god of this age. So we know we are in that broken system, but God wants to establish Himself here, and I need to know what reality looks like so that I start acting differently.

I see things coming against me. I see sickness. I see Satan stealing from me. I see things in my life that are not consistent with the reality God shows me, and then I need to be able to hold on to that reality. There is a verse in the Bible that says to hold on to the more sure word. If something comes against you, even if you don't see it with your physical eyes, you need to be able to hold on to it. But you need to change your mindset by flooding yourself with the Word - and then we come to the aspect I will focus on now: not isolating yourself.

The ultimate thing here is love. I shared with you before - can you quickly turn to Colossians 3:14?

“But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.”

Colossians 3:14 (NKJV)

Do you remember the scripture we spoke about before, where it says these are all elementary things - let's not dwell on the elementary things, let's move on to... perfection. It says, 'Let's move on to perfection.' Some of the elementary things were raising people from the dead, faith towards God - it says that's elementary. We need to move on to perfection. But what is perfection? The only thing that will bring the body of Christ to perfection is the love of God lived out by us. We need to express it, we need to live it - it is the only thing that will bring this body to perfection. That is why it says, 'But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection' - binding us together, raising all of us up, edifying each other, making sure that the person sitting next to me is as important as myself.

Why did Jesus say, when they asked Him in the new dispensation, 'What is the first commandment?' He said there is actually only one commandment left: to love God and to love your neighbour as yourself. We need to love people and see them as important as I think I am. And even if you don't think you're important, the Holy Spirit will start convincing you that you are very important.

Going back to Ephesians 4:16, it says, 'From whom the whole body, joined and knit together, by which every joint supplies...'

Now you need to start focusing - in case you still thought there was a hiding place, there is no hiding place now. Say to your neighbour, 'It's too late.' Say to the person next to you, 'Too late, too late.' There is no hiding place now. Let me read from verse 15 again so that you catch the flow.

“But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

Ephesians 4:15-16 (NKJV)

From whom - you can understand, look at my head - from whom my whole body is, from my head, talking about Christ as the head. 'From whom the whole body, joined and knit together, by what every joint supplies.' How is the body put together? By what every joint supplies. The body of Christ is dependent on what you do - by what every joint supplies.

And in case you didn't get it, it continues: 'according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.' That is the gospel, and the purpose, and everything summed up in one verse.

In case you haven't got it: we will not achieve our purpose until we activate every single Christian on earth. Did you get that? It doesn't help if we activate ten per cent of Christians - it's not good enough. It's not going to do what we need to do.

Now can you start understanding why our mindset and the way we execute what we call church should look different from what it looks like in most cases? I think it's maybe a good time for me to jump into that - this general term we use, that we should have church today like they had it in Acts, referring to the Acts church.

What does the Acts church look like? That is what church should still look like, but religion messed it up, for very specific reasons.

I was in a specific church nine years ago, when my life changed, and in that first week - you already know a lot of things happened in that first week - one of the things the Holy Spirit showed me was a list of things practised in that church that were not in the Word of God. I would encourage you: go and look at where you currently are, look at the things applied in that environment, and go and find them in the Word of God.

Then the Holy Spirit took me a step further and said, 'These are the things you read in Acts, and in a variety of places in the New Testament, that the church should look like.' Most of them I didn't see in the church I was at. My intention was not to point fingers. I said to my wife, 'I'm not going to be like everybody else who points fingers and says they are wrong and I am right, as if there are two parties, and then I just go and find another church.' The things I see, the things I experience - I'm going to go there and show them that.

That didn't go down too well. People in religion don't like to be challenged, although it wasn't my intention to challenge them. But the Holy Spirit told me to go and testify, so I went that Sunday evening and testified about the reality.

Here is the great thing about testimony, and that's why Revelation says, 'They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.' Testimony - speaking - is so significant, and that's why I share testimonies with you, and why you should share your testimonies as often as you can, because we overcome by that. People can argue with you for hours about how to interpret a verse, but people cannot argue with your testimonies. If I tell you I prayed for somebody and the bullets disappeared - they disappeared. Whether you like it or agree with it or not, that's what happened. Or the thing with my son, or the Bibles, or whatever else - I've got thousands of testimonies. So when you share a testimony, people will not argue with you; it challenges their thinking.

So at that time, when I went back to church and testified about all these things, I was really bold - I took the Bible and stood in front of the church, and I was, like I said, a bull in a china shop. I'm not saying everything I did was right, but I didn't know better, and I know God used everything to turn out for everybody's benefit. I took the Bible, stood in front, the church was packed, and I shook the Bible and said, 'It's time that we believe this is the Word of God and that we act according to it.' Afterwards I thought, 'What did I even say?' It felt surreal.

The next day they phoned me and said they wanted to see me, because they didn't like what I had said - and I had only spoken for ten minutes. They said they wanted to see me on the Tuesday at eleven o'clock. That Monday evening I was praying, and I wasn't sure what to pray for, so I just prayed in tongues, and I started crying. I kept crying - I don't know how long, but it felt like forever. God said to me, 'That is a glimpse of My heart towards My people who are held captive in religion.' And He said, 'I am giving you an opportunity to go and testify.'

I woke up the Tuesday morning and said to my wife, 'Can you believe God told me He is giving me an opportunity to testify to them, but they are actually calling me in to rap me over the knuckles for what I said?' I just knew this was an opportunity God had created for me.

I went there at eleven o'clock, and there were - I didn't even know there were that many preachers in the church - there were nine of them. One elderly man, when he saw the size of the meeting, stood at the door and said to them, 'Surely you are enough for this meeting.' I said to him, 'No, no, please, you must stay.' He must have thought I was crazy - didn't I know what was going to happen? But I had the conviction, so he sat down.

This is how the Holy Spirit operates: I spoke for an hour, and they didn't say a word. They just sat and looked at me, listening, because I was testifying about what was happening in my life - and how do you argue with testimony? They couldn't argue with that.

Long story short, at the end the person chairing the meeting gave everybody an opportunity to say something, and they couldn't say much. One man, who conducted the Sunday evening services, said he had been working for a whole year on the gifts and the functioning of the Holy Spirit, and I came and messed it up in one evening. I thought to myself, what substance is there in what you are doing if I can come in and undo in one evening what you built in a year? Obviously, that tells you what you are doing is only physical - there is nothing spiritual about it, because if it were spiritual, it would be able to withstand testing. If it is reality, it can stand on its own feet; it doesn't need to be defended.

I don't want to go into the rest of the detail - maybe another time I'll share more. But the reality is that God gave me the opportunity to see there were things wrong in that church, and I had a desire to go and change things. But subsequently I could see it doesn't help - I was in an environment where I kept challenging everything and everybody. So, although it wasn't my intention, I had to move out of that environment. You can't keep challenging things in an environment that isn't consistent.

So, coming back to the church according to Acts - Acts 2:46-47 says, 'So continuing daily with one accord...'

So there is a lot locked up in one verse again. Continuing daily - so it was not just a Sunday, one-hour thing. It was a lifestyle. We need to get that into our heads. We have become something. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, 'Those that are in Christ are a new creation.' We have become Christ. We have become His life. We have become His purpose in this earth, and I can't switch it on and off. You either live your purpose or you don't. It's not, 'Okay, Sunday, one hour or two hours, and then I live it, and the rest I do whatever I want.'

In my experience, in the nine years that I've been active in the body of Christ, one of the biggest things people tell you when you want to talk to them about Christianity is, 'When I look around me, there is nothing about Christianity that attracts me. I see that guy sitting there in church on a Sunday, but I saw him last night in the pub.' They see what people do when they're not in church. People are not interested in that. They see this double lifestyle - we go into church, sit there, put our ties on, look holier than holy, but when we are outside of church we live even worse than people who are not Christians. That's why, when people see that, they say, 'I'm not interested. Your Christianity is a joke.'

So it says it's a daily thing. It's a lifestyle. Your biggest testimony is actually not your words, it's your life. People need to look at you - at your work, at your sport, wherever you are. They need to look at you, and your life needs to be a testimony.

Continuing daily with one accord - there's another important thing. I said before, it's great to talk about unity, because it says where there is unity, God commands a blessing. But there is something even more significant than unity, and that's oneness. Think of the illustration of a body: there is oneness. If one of my legs wants to go one way and the other leg goes another way, and my arm wants to go somewhere else, I'm going nowhere. There's no efficiency in it. But when we are in oneness, when we are of one accord, the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. The right leg knows when the left foot is in the air, so it knows it can't lift off the ground, because the left one is already up. There is consistency, there is coordination - one element, one machine, one body functioning in one direction. They had this mentality, and it came from a desire to put God first.

Matthew 6:33 says, 'Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.' We need to continuously pray for every single Christian to have a desire to put God first. I said before, that's where the big turning point comes - when somebody really decides it's all about God, and decides they want to fulfil His purpose in their life. That's where the real turning point comes. Being born again gives you eternal life, but it does not automatically mean you fulfil your purpose.

And that means the body doesn't look like it should look on this earth. That's why people feel offended when I say it, but that's what I see with my spiritual eye. We are sitting with a body of Christ that is paralysed. It is distorted, it's dysfunctional - it's not looking the way it should. Again, I'm not saying this of every part of it - there is great work being done, and there is a move of the Spirit.

“So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.”

Acts 2:46 (NKJV)

Now, I can speak a week just on this verse. Breaking bread from house to house - they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart. They were not chasing after money, after worldly things, after the desires of the world. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart. They were glad just to be in each other's company. They were glad to be surrounded by people - you need to listen now - they were glad to be surrounded by people who had the same purpose, intention and priorities as they did.

One of the things - and I said tonight I'm going to speak boldly, because I believe if you are still here, if I haven't offended you by now, I won't be able to. So there are going to be points in your life where you have to make a few decisions. And one of those - I have to generalise, because some of you are maybe even more mature spiritually than I am, but some of you are only starting out, and I have to sometimes speak to those who are only starting out - you need to come to a point where you decide to surround yourself only with people for whom God is priority number one in their lives.

You will see we lived a lifestyle of big parties and everything. I loved heavy music, pumping music, energising, two o'clock in the morning till the police arrive and say, "You have to..." When my lifestyle changed, gone were my friends. It was not religion, it was not condemnation, I was not thinking I'm better than anybody else, but things changed that became priority to me.

So when I stand around, say, a Brian, and we're talking, there are some things that I just can't tolerate. I just can't stomach it. I can't hear it. I don't want to talk about it. If I'm not standing in the presence of somebody who makes God priority in their lives and is willing to talk about Him and His greatness and His love and His purpose, I start losing interest. I just can't function in that place.

So you need to make sure of this experience of being in one accord. Remember I spoke earlier about your personal responsibility to be willing to renew your mind, to become consistent with God's intention for your life, but then there's this huge aspect of not isolating yourself. You need to surround yourself with the people who will give you the best possible chance to manifest Christ in this earth. We are not meant to do it on our own, but the wrong people around you will make you end up in the wrong place.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by two, one can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (NKJV)

If you try to do this thing on your own and all these challenges come, you'll try, maybe you'll be at it for a month, and if you are a really strong and persistent character, two months max, and then your life will look exactly the same as it looked before. But if two walk together and one falls, the other one can pick him up. And it goes even further than that: a threefold cord is not easily broken.

I'll talk about that practically. The Acts church put God first. I don't always like talking much about my personal life, because sometimes it feels like... But I can only share from my experience, my testimonies, my realities. There are things in life that have simply lost their value to me. The things I chased before, that I deemed success, I can't chase them anymore.

They don't have value to me. You cannot give me enough money in this world for me to attach value to it. Money, for me, is only something I should be a steward over and use for kingdom purposes. That's why I got rid of a lot of things in my life – they were assets, but they were lifestyle assets. They were not benefiting the kingdom. There comes a point where... and I've got more peace in my life than I've ever had, getting rid of clutter and just focusing on what God wants me to do.

“So they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

Acts 2:46-47 (NKJV)

Do you see that? The Lord added to the church daily. There's a scripture that says our living, our giving, our commitment will actually make people glorify our Father in heaven.

I said to you earlier, your lifestyle is the biggest testimony you have. What made it possible for me, nine years later, to still have a passion and be doing what God sent me to do, is that I was surrounded by the right people. The right people. When I struggled, the right people were there. Before I even said something, because of being spiritually sensitive, they were there to support me, to help me, to guide me.

So it is impossible to do what we should be doing in isolation. In the last nine years I've had many people around me because we need to function by the Spirit. At heart, I'm an evangelist, but I'm a teacher as well, and that combination often means my first response is wanting to get somebody born again. When I see somebody, I just want to get them born again, and that's a great desire to have.

But there is a time to speak to somebody and a time to be quiet. You need to first pray for somebody's heart to be receptive, and the Holy Spirit will then lead you to lead them to Christ when they are ready. When it's truly about them, and not about you achieving something or ticking another box, being about numbers – when it's about them, about love, about perfection – you listen to the Spirit and you only respond when the Spirit tells you to respond. Because then their heart is ready, and you will be able to impact their lives.

Often, because of that approach – not pushing people, not forcing them, not trying to push down their throat what I had a conviction about – people looked at my life and said to me, "There is something about you that's different." People even walked up to me and said, "I want what you have." That is the lives we should be living.

That's why it says here, they did all these things. In actual fact, they did life together. That's what they did. They had a common goal. They did life together. They took care of each other. They ate together. They had a great time together. Their lifestyle, their love, living life, taking care of each other – it says they sold all their possessions and made sure nobody had lack.

It says nobody had lack. They took care of each other. But make no mistake, it also says that he who doesn't work is not going to eat. It doesn't mean you should accept laziness. But that lifestyle made God add to the church daily. People looked at that love being manifested in a lifestyle and said, "That's what I want. I don't know what you have, but that's what I want." They just continued with life, and God added to the church daily.

I want to mention a side note, because many of you are going to be activated now and you're going to start ministering to people. You need to listen to the Spirit, as I said before, when you need to help people. I've helped many people, and through some of the projects we ran, helping people who struggle, we came to a point where we had to say to people, "We only help you for three months. In that time we teach you how to help yourself. We will find work for you if you don't have work. We raise you up, we equip you, and then you have to stand on your own feet and continue." You will often find, more often than I want to admit, that people are in a position of not having income, money or a job, and living on the streets, because of stubbornness.

I've had many people who live in their car or on the street, and when I want to help them I say, "When I help people, there's a physical component, but then there's a spiritual component. I need to get you born again. I need to get you Spirit-filled. I need to flood you with the Word of God so you can start standing up, making the right decisions and being equipped to do what you should be doing." In many of those cases, the people on the street will argue with me and try to tell me how it should be working, because they are simply not teachable.

I saw a very strong pattern in people. I ministered to one guy living on the street here in the northern suburbs. Before he ended up on the street, he was a chartered accountant earning 350,000 rand a month. He had two big properties, one in Welgedacht and one across there. He had worked in Dubai and come back. He had a restaurant in Willow Bridge. He had more money than he could ever spend, apparently. And then things started going haywire.

He mixed with the wrong people and started using drugs at the restaurant, because some of the waitresses were using drugs. One thing led to another, and before he knew it he was out of everything he had. He had a wife and two daughters; he lost them too, separated, divorced, and lost everything. He stayed on the streets with only the clothes on his back. When I tried to help him, he was one of those examples who, when we sat down, would say to me, "No, no, no, this is what we should be doing..." I said to him, "My friend, I'm not the one staying on the street – can we just agree on that? So if there are changes that need to happen, it's not on my side. I'm trying to help you."

So be aware: not everybody is willing to change, and sometimes there's a reason why people are where they are. If in doubt, live, love, and help people – I agree with that. But be sensitive. Don't let people... I said to you last week already, if you allow people, they will just suck you dry and leave you there.

“So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

Acts 2:46-47 (NKJV)

“And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.”

Acts 4:33-35 (NKJV)

That's our responsibility. Your life should give witness that Jesus is resurrected, not just Jesus on the cross. Our life should witness to the resurrection of Jesus. There are a lot of practical aspects concerning that, but I'm not going to get into that tonight. I think there are other aspects I want to touch on first – I want to start talking about what I believe, according to Acts, the church should look like and should function like.

I'm going to share a concept with you now which I believe the end-time church should function according to, because it's consistent with the Word of God. Often, by way of habit, we describe it as the new way the church should look, because of all our background, history, exposure and religion – we say this is the new way. But you know what? It's not new. It's exactly how they did it in Acts. It was just messed up. So it's literally the new old church. It's just going back to what church actually is, and bringing that back into our lives.

I'm going to share a lot of things with you, and I'll run through them for the sake of time – just get some of them in in terms of relevance, and then share some scripture concerning that as well. I've already said to you that the end-time church should be all about an active body, and the only way we have an active body is if every member is activated.

I've been through many phases in the last nine years, but where I am now, over the last two years or so, it has continuously been narrowed down to this: whatever I do must have two outcomes, and if it doesn't have those outcomes, I'm not interested in being involved. The two outcomes are exactly this: it must benefit the body of Christ as a whole, not an individual segment, and it must activate every single member.

So for me, when I do something, it has to be about activation. I know God gave me a gift to teach, but if the teaching doesn't lead to a process of activation afterwards, then I've missed the point. The body needs to be active, which means every member needs to be active. My intention is not to knock any existing church or structure – please just hear me out on this. I just want to tell you what I have a conviction about for the end times.

Just take a moment. In Cape Town there are roughly 3.8 million people, let's call it four million for argument's sake. Just imagine if we have the conviction that all four million of those people should be born again and come to church. How are you going to fit four million people into churches? What should those buildings look like, what would they cost to build, and how long would it take?

So I have a conviction, something God showed me over the last two years. There's an end-time church which is lean and mean, which in my mind is actually something like guerrilla warfare. Again, I'm not knocking brands or names, but it should be a church that becomes nameless. It's not about brand, not about title, not about a specific ministry, because there is only one church.

I've been surprised, though probably shouldn't be, that in the last nine years when people speak to me and say, "My life has changed," the first question they ask is, "Which church are you?" I say, "It's as if you don't know there's only one church." That's why God has led me into the position I'm functioning in now. I have a non-denominational ministry, so I cannot step on anybody's toes. I had a big church before, but God moved me away from that so I could do what I'm doing now, and people can understand I'm not here to get you for my church, because I don't have a church. I am the church as much as you are the church, and there is only one church.

So the end-time church for me – and I'm not saying that churches with names and brands aren't doing great work, I'm not taking anything away from that – I'm just saying we need to understand there's a next phase we need to move into. The great thing for me is that the things I'm sharing now are convictions from my heart, but it's amazing that when I listen to teachings and receive things from all around the world, the Holy Spirit is working in many people, according to the same principle, saying, "Let's start moving into this end-time church" – which is not branded, doesn't have a name, doesn't have a building, doesn't have overheads, doesn't have a set of man-made rules. It's not an organisation. You don't have a membership number or certificate. None of that. We are just the body of Christ, and we function as the body of Christ, not being titled, not being named, not having individual denominations.

The church, and I'm speaking of the name "church" in general, should be a gross contributor to community. When you create all this infrastructure – buildings, salaries, vehicles, all of that – you create a huge overhead. It means you have to continuously preach about finances, continuously talk about tithing, because if people don't tithe you have to keep doing evangelism, and not necessarily for the right reason, because people are walking out the back door, so you need to fill the church from the front – otherwise who's going to tithe, and who's going to pay for all the expenses?

Now, I'm generalising a lot, and I see all of you are quiet, so I'm stepping on a lot of toes now. But it is what it is. I'm not saying there's something wrong with finances. I'm not saying there's something wrong with tithing. You can use any tool for the wrong reasons, even a good tool. If I take my four-by-four and go to Tyger Valley and park on the paving and get a ticket, the problem is not with the vehicle. Nothing wrong with my vehicle – I used the tool wrongly. So let's just have that perspective.

For me, part of the problem with existing church infrastructure is that there are a few people at the top who run everything, and the rest are passengers. So if we want to get to the point of activation, it should firstly be smaller groups – a place where people cannot hide.

There are some concepts the Holy Spirit is ministering to a lot of people around the world, which have really spoken to my heart and that I've tapped into, and it generally refers to the concept of faith communities. Faith community – this is the ekklesia, just another name for it. The faith community is people doing life together. Part of my function, and what God has called me to, is to help people establish faith communities – non-branded, non-denominational, not linked to or affiliated with me. All I basically do is help people do what they already have in their hearts.

To activate every single member means you need smaller groups. In the last two years I've been privileged to get involved in this, watching faith communities be established, grow, and seeing the impact of them. It's not about what you call them – doesn't matter what the name is. It's about the function, and it's about the ekklesia.

What was it all about? I said to you earlier that one of the major things we've missed in church is the internal focus, an inward focus within the church. As you know, I previously did a lot of counselling. People will sit in church every single Sunday, sit next to a guy, greet him, look friendly, and after the church service go home, and nothing in their life has changed. They still have exactly the same problems and issues, and the guy sitting next to them has a whole bunch of his own issues, and nobody knows about it because everybody is too proud to say something about it.

So they go back home with their problems and nothing changes, and at some stage they just stop going to church. Unless their guilt keeps telling them to be in church every Sunday, at some stage they just stop, because it is not providing a solution. Religion wasn't the solution. Life and love is the solution.

So what we have seen – and I'll talk generally about the faith communities I've been involved in and that I've helped establish, and what the common pattern is – it is small groups that come together, and here's the great thing that South Africans will love: they braai. They eat together. That is what the X Church was. They come together, they eat together, small groups, maybe twelve people. They eat together, they interact.

Now I'm going to start moving into the practical things of why it's working, because I can tell you what I've seen. I've been involved with many massive events and ministries, and now I really start seeing the result of what church should look like. And why is it? Because of these things.

Twelve people – there's no place to hide. We have interaction. We eat. Whether you are at church on a Sunday or whether you have your braai on a Saturday evening, there should be no difference. This is what we see from the X Church. Whether I braai with you on a Saturday or whether I go with you to church on a Sunday, it should be exactly the same thing. The intention, the things we speak about, the things we impart into each other's lives, the things we minister, the conviction I have – it should be exactly the same as the braai, as the so-called church on a Sunday.

So again, why these faith communities are working: people get together, they eat together, and now they start knowing each other. They have a relationship. There's nothing like eating together to cut out all the admin and stiffness and just start building a relationship. Some of them, for the first few times they meet, will just eat together and end off with, "Let's just pray for each other," and go home. But the great thing is they are building relationships. From relationship flows the fact that people start becoming transparent and authentic.

Because without a relationship, you're probably not going to tell anybody about the issues in your life. But what we see happening even in the small groups is people will be around the braai, they will interact, and then somebody will relate to one of the people, and afterwards go to them and say, "You know, I'm really struggling with this thing in my life," or, "I have a financial issue," or, "I have a physical issue," or a marriage issue, whatever it may be. And just by sharing that – it's what the Bible talks about: when it is put into the light, immediately something can happen about it.

Somebody doesn't have to be equipped for seven years to be able to minister to somebody. That's not acknowledging the power and ability of the Holy Spirit. So I might not know something, but I have a conviction about who Christ is, who God is, and what His love is, so I can function from that conviction and say, "I know what God wants in your life. Can I just pray with you?" That's all you need. And you pray with that person.

It's amazing how we have seen in these faith communities how people's problems have actually been solved, because now, for the first time, somebody knows about the problem. And because there is a relationship, people can be transparent. It doesn't help that we sit next to each other, your marriage is falling apart, but you look holier than holy and nobody is helping you, and in six months from now you get divorced. Now, if you got divorced, there's no condemnation in it. That's not the reality – but God wants families to function.

Part of the core element of the church is family structures. Maybe I can quickly sidetrack on that. Next week is the last session, session seven, but I have in my heart that I'm going to have a few advanced sessions as well, because there are some aspects I need to dive into. We'll give you that information.

I'll still have to tell you whether I'm going to allow new people into those sessions or not, and I'll have to see. But I would love to have a relationship session. If we don't have a relationship session... well, let me talk about that later. I can't cover everything now in terms of the family, husband and wife, but there are some significant things concerning that in relation to the body of Christ.

For the sake of time, let me just say this: in the body of Christ, in the church, the building unit – we talk about each one of us being a brick – but the brick, in essence, is actually a family unit. So the father should come into his position, the mother should come into her position. You should have a healthy family unit, and that healthy family unit is actually the building block for the church.

So when you have these faith communities with small groups, interaction, relationships, and people start becoming transparent, then the people in that group can actually help them come out of that situation and build a strong unit. For the sake of time I have to condense this: you cannot have a healthy church, you cannot have a healthy body of Christ, without having healthy family units. It's not possible. There are ways to achieve that, which is beyond the scope of what I can cover tonight – we'll see, even if we have to arrange a session just for that.

So in those family units, in the faith community, when people start sharing and receiving help, they can actually start solving those things.

There are like a hundred and fifty benefits to functioning like that and calling that church. What flows from transparency is that things come into the light, and the Holy Spirit can actually deal with them. It's amazing the testimonies in these groups of how things were solved in people's lives that could not be solved by going to a counsellor or a psychologist for five years. Somebody comes who has no background in theological schooling, and they pray.

That is why love is the most powerful force we have access to, not knowledge. When people function from a place of true love – that's why it is called the bond of perfection – they function from that place of love and pray for somebody with that intent.

“The heartfelt continued prayer of the righteous makes tremendous power available.”

James 5:16 (AMPC)

Not knowledge – heartfelt. When you have this compassion in your heart, like Jesus had when He walked out and saw people suffering, He could not accept it. He said, "It's not right that it looks this way." When we look at people around us and see they are going through divorce, or suffering, or sick, or poor, we should say, "It's not consistent with my reality." You should be moved in your heart, like Jesus was, to say, "This is not acceptable." When people respond from that place, without the seven years of theological schooling, functioning from that place, you see miracles start happening in people's lives.

You know the story: when God sent me, eight years ago, and said to me, "Go start a ministry in Stellenbosch," the day He sent me I said to Him, "But give me two years, then I'll know the Bible well enough." And He said to me, "At what stage did you think it was dependent on you? Go now." What God needs is only your heart. If we think we can school ourselves with intellectual knowledge and then come to a place where all of a sudden we become the solution to somebody, we miss the whole point.

We sang that song in the beginning, Make Me a Vessel. I just need to be the channel through which God can supernaturally impact people's lives. I told you the story about the first person I prayed for at a service who wanted to stop smoking – did I tell you that story? No? She came up to me at the front, the first service I ever had. I was so intimidated – I'm standing in front, I've got no idea – and she came and said, "I want to stop smoking. I've been trying for twenty years to stop smoking." I took her hands like this and started praying in tongues, and I wasn't even prepared.

As I was praying, she just fell like a sack of potatoes. At least there was a carpet, because I was not prepared for what the Holy Spirit was going to do. But I prayed in tongues. She said she wanted to stop smoking. The next Sunday she came back with a list of twenty-two things that had changed in her body. I didn't even know about them – I can't take credit for it. I mean, if I could say to you, "I knew, I knew exactly all twenty-two, and I prayed for them and commanded them," – I didn't know. She said she wanted to stop smoking. She came back.

She couldn't previously, even with her glasses, read the Huisgenoot in large print – she couldn't read with her glasses in bright light. She came back and said, "Now, without glasses, I read the Gideon's Bible, this small, in dim light, because I don't want to bother my daughter. In dim light I read the Gideon's Bible perfectly." We must just be the instruments.

That's part of what went wrong with religion and even theological schooling. When I was functioning in Stellenbosch, people would come to me. There was a guy who studied theology – his father is a lecturer, is that the right word? Lecturer. His father is a lecturer at the theological school. He says to me his father is an atheist. What happens at the theological school is they take that which is in somebody's heart – a desire to live and minister for God – they take it out of their heart and put it into their heads. And then they want to tell them, "Now you've got an intellectual solution to go and offer people."

Anyway, so faith communities: what happens because of relationships and transparency is accountability. Let me quickly give you a practical example of what we started doing in the groups in terms of accountability. I mentioned this to you previously. People will be encouraged to form a WhatsApp group – an accountability group. That WhatsApp group can only be for one person, okay? So that's my accountability group. I have three people I have a relationship with, and I put them on that WhatsApp group, and then I share what it is in my life that I want to achieve or change.

Nobody is telling me what to do – I'm just saying, "I have a desire." Let's take an example: "I want to pray fifteen minutes a day, and I'm struggling to do it. Can you help me?" Then they'll be on that group, and that person will share, "It's going well, I've prayed fifteen minutes a day," the next day, and it continues. Then at some stage nothing happens on the group, and somebody will ask, "Hey, what's happening?" "You know, I'm struggling a bit." Then somebody will say, "Okay, but tonight I'm going to phone you over WhatsApp when you're on Wi-Fi, not using data. I'm going to phone you, and for fifteen minutes I'm going to pray with you."

Now it becomes very personal, because it is my goal that I want to achieve, my desire. I have a conviction – not something somebody's trying to enforce on me. So then they, for instance, pray with that person, or they take turns, or they even physically go to the person and say, "Tonight I'm going to pray with you." We even had some of the young guys in Stellenbosch who struggled with pornography. Now, they can't even go into a church environment and say, "I'm struggling with pornography," because they would be so condemned. Whereas in this case, we formed these accountability groups and they helped each other. Through those accountability groups, everyone who really had a desire to get out of it came out of it.

Now this is where the technique meets the tar. The reality is: how is what we are doing affecting people's lives? Through the faith communities we literally encourage people: if you have it in your heart, we help you – you go and start a faith community. It's not like you need to study the Bible for two years or whatever. God just needs your heart. The rest is up to Him.

If He's got your heart, bring a few people together, eat together, start fellowshipping, take care of each other, become transparent, start praying for each other, and before you know it, the spiritual significance of what people experience in those groups is far beyond anything they've experienced in church. What's happening is that every single person in that group starts being activated. You will be surprised: people in a group of fifty who will never speak in front of fifty people – now bring them in front of ten or twelve, and all of a sudden that person says, "You know, when we prayed just now, God showed me something about this in your life – can I pray into that?"

And immediately the Holy Spirit starts functioning. That's what the church should be like – not an organisation, not a structure, not burdensome overheads. You go from house to house. If you have a fellowship of twelve people, you go from house to house, different people, and you may take turns bringing the food, or everybody brings food every time you meet, and you just have that fellowship together. It sounds so simple, but it's back to that which worked, because it allows the Holy Spirit to be the one who does the work.

Now, let me see what I can still fit in in the limited time.

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

Matthew 18:20 (NKJV)

Isn't that amazing? Have you ever thought about that scripture? I thought you had God inside you anyway. Why does it say, "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them"?

I do apologise about the timing. If you have to run, please go – I need a few more minutes, so if you have to leave, please do so; you can listen to the recording. But I have to finish what I have in my heart.

"For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." Why is that? There is something different between your personal experience in the presence of God and when two or three come together. The first and foremost reason for that is: you can't manifest love when you are on your own. When two or three come together, you can manifest love, and that's why God says, "When two or three come together, I am there." Why? Through your caring for each other. I spoke to you previously about the Holy Spirit and about quenching the Spirit – there are things that attract the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Why does He say, "in My name"? He says, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name." What does that mean? It's not that when three of us come together we must say, "Okay, we're together in Your name, Father, so notice us." It means you are representing Him. When you come in the name of the King, you represent Him. You come together, you represent Him, but you have an expectation and an intention. When I meet up with somebody, I have an expectation that they leave from me and something has changed in their life.

So when we come together, we have an intention – that I'm going to impart something, change something in your life, I'm going to receive something from you, and I have an expectation that we are going to see the supernatural. We should have that expectation, because it's not about me; it's about the Holy Spirit wanting to manifest the presence of God.

So, practically speaking, as far as faith communities are concerned, I'm not advocating that you leave your current church. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying your current church is useless – that's not what I'm saying either. Maybe you are in a great environment where people are doing God's work, building relationships, and the gifts of the Spirit are at work – great. I'm not advocating otherwise. Whatever you do, you should do based on a conviction by the Spirit.

But if you have a desire, and maybe you don't currently have a place you even call church, I want you to act on that desire – to get a few people together and start having that interaction, allowing the Spirit to manifest, and physically taking care of each other.

We realised in these small groups – you would be very surprised, believe me, even looking at everybody sitting here – you would be very surprised who doesn't currently have food in their house to eat. You look at them, they come here with the car, they come with the clothes, everything looks fine. You would be surprised how many people don't have food in their house. In the small groups you start learning about people, you start knowing them personally, you start knowing about their issues, and people start helping each other – on the basis that we'll help you financially and physically, but we need to first help you spiritually, to raise you up so that you can function from a place where you can help yourself.

So it literally has practical implications in people's lives, beyond just knowing I'm doing what God sent me to do and that the results are in the obedience. I must physically say, I never expected the results to be like this. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that something as simple as ten people getting together at a house and eating together would change lives this way.

Because what happens now – if we get all four million people in Cape Town born again, we have no issue. They go to people's houses. There's no infrastructure, overheads, doctrines or whatever – they just go from house to house, they practise love, they take care of each other. That is what the X Church is all about: practically activating every single person, taking care of each person where they are right now – not theoretically.

We can talk like this, and already I'm sharing with you, and there's people at this level and people at that level, and I have to generalise. But when you come together and have that interaction, you start responding at the level where somebody's at, and you physically take care of them. And, as I've already said, the family is a critical building block of the body of Christ. It's impossible to do it without strengthening, encouraging and rebuilding the families. And fathers, you have to take up that role in your house.

And I know it's easy to say it, but we'll help you with it. We'll have sessions. There are other things that I want to share with you as well, because already a lot of you are asking me about the continuity. If we finish the Purpose Series now, what now? Where are you going to go? What are you going to do? The great thing for me is, as the Holy Spirit is leading a lot of people, there are many people going in the right direction and providing the solutions – the one is the hand, the one is the foot – all have their purpose and are functioning as they do what God sends them to do.

So the amazing thing for me is there are many options in terms of continuity. I don't have the time now to speak about everything. I'll maybe next week speak in more detail about that.

There's a programme from Father's Voice called Christ Blueprint, which runs over thirteen weeks, where they literally provide the material to leaders, and it is also non-denominational. For instance, for somebody who wants to grow from where you are now – start learning more about your identity in Christ, your purpose in Christ, in more detail, over a longer period, in a small group. The groups are normally about five people, maximum ten if that, and they meet once a week. They just come together and spend time around the Word. That's something I will strongly encourage, and I'll give you those details if you want to tap into that. That's a place where you can go.

Some of you might know Jacques – he's actually sitting at the back there, Jacques Malan. He's the one who had it in his heart and started Blueprint from Father's Voice. So that's material you can use. Again, it doesn't have the expectation that you go to a particular church or denomination or anything. It's just a tool – you use it or you don't – but the opportunity is there. So I'll give you that detail.

Then there's William Ludolf of Glow Worship Ministries. They're a band – you might have seen their CDs or listened to their music. They've got a meeting once a month, typically on a Friday evening, which is a worship meeting, but also just an opportunity for people to pray for each other and impart. Again, there's nothing you need to commit to. These are all opportunities and tools being made available, and I don't have enough time to speak about that now tonight. I'll either speak about it next week or give you more details in emails. You can just go and tap into these things, and none of these people who make these things available have any expectation from you to join anything or become committed.

They have the same thing at heart, and that is to either support or establish faith communities. So if you have it in your heart, they will provide the tools for you to get going and be able to establish a faith community and to sustain it. I'll give you more details about that probably next week.

I'm quickly going to ask two people whom we've assisted to start their faith communities to share from their own heart what they've experienced. "Thanks, Schalk. Is this on? Yeah. Just basically, in a nutshell, what Schalk has been talking about the whole night – just the concept for me that spoke to me the most about what we experience every week at our faith communities is practically loving one another. Jesus said we must love one another, and in that environment you get to practically care about people, get to know their hearts, get to know what God is doing in their lives, and there's no place to really hide. So every gift just stands up, and they get to bless you, and you get to bless them. So yeah, it's really powerful and significant."

"Thank you. I had the same. The most important thing for me was – we like to help people, we all like to help people. But in a faith community there's a lot of opportunity to help people, and also, while you're thinking you're there to give, you receive so much – and spiritually, you receive so much. There are a lot of people who can pray for you and cover you and guide you, put you back on track, and just have your back. It's a really amazing way to grow spiritually and to start walking in your purpose, because where do you want to start? There, among loved ones. The other thing I can add is that it's a choice. You have to choose to make use of an opportunity like faith communities, and I hope you consider it."

Okay, thank you. Right, I have to end off. I do apologise again that I've had to rush a bit, because I literally started twenty-five minutes late due to the lights not being in place. It really is in my heart to record these sessions on video and make them available afterwards, so it was quite important for me to finish what I had in my heart. So I apologise about the timing, and I'll have to see – maybe I can catch up next week on just one or two things I didn't cover tonight.

But at the end of the day, it's the same principle: it's all about the ability of the Holy Spirit. I'm sure that, from what you've heard tonight, the Holy Spirit spoke to your heart about where you are, and whether it's something you want to get involved in in terms of activation, and whether you need assistance from us in order to do that.

I'll probably, at next week's session, as Brenda said, we can't allow new people for next week, because next week for me is definitely a session of activation, of impartation, of specific things I want to share that people who come now for the first time – I mean, I can't explain everything to them in terms of where we are now at the moment. What I will do is hand out a questionnaire next week, probably at the beginning of the session. So if you arrive here, quickly complete it, and I'll ask some questions there in terms of where you find yourself and what you need help with, and how you see yourself at the moment.

I want to respond to those of you who are at a place where we can help you. Otherwise, if you have just received knowledge and you are able to impart it and go and make a difference in your existing structure, then great – then we have still achieved what we needed to do. So I'm certainly looking forward to next week, and then, after that, we'll end off this segment of seven sessions next week, but I definitely want to continue with at least, probably only, three advanced sessions.

So I'll give you the details of that, and I'll tell you also whether we can invite new people to that. I still need to determine exactly the content and maybe some further detail in terms of tools we can make available to you. If in the meantime you feel you really have burning questions about faith communities and don't want to wait till next week, please send me a mail – you've got my details. Send me a mail, tell me where you find yourself at the moment, what your desire is, what you have questions about, concerns, whatever. We have helped many faith communities now to establish themselves, so maybe we can just give you some practical advice in terms of what you have in your heart.

Can we just close our eyes? Thank You, Father, that You love us so much. Thank You for this opportunity that we have to come together. Thank You for Your presence here. Thank You, Holy Spirit, that You give life to our interaction, to every word, to every thought, to every intention. Thank You for every person here, and that You stir up and activate something in their hearts. Thank You that they are faithful to the desires You've put in their hearts, and that they increase in the desire to fulfil their purpose. Thank You, Father, that You are restoring them every single day and flooding them with Your peace that surpasses all understanding.

Thank You, Father, that You send forth Your angels to surround them, minister to them and guard them in this coming week. In the name of Jesus, amen.