Substance

You need to go home and spend time to hear for yourself what the Lord says to you about this in terms of substance. And I believe if we talk about the year of substance, it is a time for us to manifest more of that which is substance, which is reality, which is Him. And the only way that you can do that is to start cutting away that which is not from Him.

If somebody doesn't know, knowledge needs to come to them.

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

Knowledge comes through the Word. Knowledge comes through intimacy with the Holy Spirit, and then you gain that knowledge, you gain that wisdom. But once you know what you should be doing, once you know what substance looks like and you have a desire to manifest substance, one of the key aspects of substance is relationships.

Thank You, Father. We worship You. You are God Almighty; there is none like You. Yes, Father, we want to run to You every single day afresh. We want to run to You. We want to experience Your grace and Your love and Your presence. Lord Jesus, thank You for the price that You paid, the complete price. Thank You that You made it possible to become one with our Father. Thank You that You made it possible to become righteousness, to be cleansed, to be purified, to be made holy because of Your blood.

Thank You, Holy Spirit, for Your presence. Thank You that You strengthen us, that You enable us, that You give us that ability and that power that makes it possible to manifest the presence of our Father. Thank You, Father, it's all about You. We want to worship You. We want to glorify You. We want to make our Lord Jesus Christ our focus in everything that we do. Thank You, Father, we worship You in the name of Jesus. Amen.

So I want to talk specifically about the year 2020, and it might sound or look a bit late to talk about it now - a lot of you have already started going at a great pace, but I have the conviction that the time is right. I think many of you had quite a long holiday, longer than normal for many, and I think now we are settling in and starting to focus - and unfortunately sometimes that involves focusing spiritually as well.

So I'm going to jump straight into it. When we were praying together as a group, the Lord showed me a picture, and in that picture He immediately gave me the word regarding 2020, and that word was substance. For me it was clear that the Lord was saying that the year 2020 is a year of substance.

He showed me a picture of a fire that was burning. In the core of that fire, it was burning at such a high temperature that inside you could actually see the fire turning white, and there was a lot of heat, ability and significance in the centre of that fire.

Yet on top of that fire you still had flames, and on top of those flames you had sparks going in all directions. I'm sure you've all experienced how the Holy Spirit can communicate something to you in a split second that actually takes you an hour to write down - He does it in just a split second. It was one of those moments where, in that simple picture, the Holy Spirit showed me a lot of things.

What He started showing me was that those sparks on the outside of the fire, flying in different directions, had no substance, but they had flare. Often when you look at a fire you will look at those sparks because they move, they've got colour, they attract your attention - but they only last for a short while, and then they burn out and totally disappear. Whereas within the centre of that fire, as it was burning on the inside, the heat just kept increasing, and in that there was substance.

So I think you can start seeing where this is going already. Immediately in my spirit came up Hebrews 11:1, which says that faith is the substance of things hoped for. I'll quickly read that to you.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”

Hebrews 11:1-3 (NKJV)

So those three verses actually run together, and you can see where it started - it talks about faith is the substance. That Greek word for substance there actually means that which has foundation, that which is firm, that which has actual existence - a substance, a real thing.

And that's literally what came up in my spirit as well. I've explained this before when I talk about faith. What is faith for me? Faith is not wishful thinking. Faith is not hoping that God will do something, trusting His character. Faith is actually knowing reality, knowing what exists, and then acting according to that which is reality.

Now that's why you can understand why faith is substance. It ends off in verse three, saying, 'By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.' I've spoken about this many times, but to summarise: God is Spirit, and He preexisted the physical world, so that which is spiritual is superior. That's why it also says we must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

But at the same time, we function in two realms at the same time - a physical realm and a spiritual realm - and the spiritual is reality. We tend to think the physical is reality, but it's not; it's the spiritual. It exists, it is superior, it has the authority. So in this physical world we gradually learn more and more about God, about this reality, about this existence, about the substance, and more and more we are manifesting that into this earth.

And that is what faith is, and that is why faith is substance, because faith is not somewhere out there hoping that something will happen. No, faith is actually knowing there's a reality - and what does it look like? It specifically says that which we see has not been made from that which is visible. That's why you need faith, because I need to act based on a reality that God portrays to me in His Word. He tells me in His Word what reality looks like. I can't see it with my physical eyes. But when the Word of God tells me what that reality looks like, then, in this physical world, without seeing it, I must act and correspond according to what He tells me reality is.

But that brings me to why I maybe had that particular verse and that word in my heart relating to the word for this year, and that's relevant to all of us in terms of substance. It's because it's a year where that which is reality, that which exists, is going to be significant in your life.

When you want to talk about reality, when you want to talk about substance, we are talking about something that exists. But if you want to dive into that a bit more specifically, we are actually talking about God Himself. That is Him. That is His nature. So when we want to talk about substance and evaluate substance, we are actually going to start looking at and talking about what is from God.

If I can take that one step further - what is God? What in this earth is from God? What is God in this earth? So when we want to talk about substance, we know God exists. We know that He is a reality. We know that God has a plan for this earth, and we know that He has made us part of that plan. And we need to know what God's plan is, and what our role is in that plan. The Word of God is a critical component to show us what this - let's call it reality - looks like.

I've said before, if you want to sculpt something from a rock, you don't take that which you want and chip that away. You actually chip away everything that doesn't look like the end result you want to see. I believe that's relevant to all our lives this year.

I think this year there's going to be a process for every one of us to start looking - not only out there somewhere, but in our lives, even in our habits, in our mindsets - at what is present in our lives that doesn't look like God. That means it's not just business as usual. You can't just continue with your life as per normal.

We need to start evaluating what is in our lives that should not be there - what should we start chipping away so that we can start looking like the image of the King, the image of His kingdom that He wants to establish in this earth. I understand it's something we are working towards; it's not something that happens in one day. If it did, everybody would have done it. That's why it's called faith - you don't need faith for something you can see - but there is a goal.

You need to know what the goal is that we are working towards, then you need to know what your role is in getting there, and then we gradually start walking in that direction. Part of that process, if we want to talk about the sculpture, the picture of what it should look like and what should be chipped away, is that the Word of God gives us that guidance. It's not something we don't know, or don't have a manual for. If we look in the Word, we see the character of God, we see His intentions.

Jesus said to the disciples, 'If you have seen Me, you've seen the Father.' So just looking at the life of Jesus on earth - what were His priorities? What did He spend His time on? What was He able to do in this earth? If you look at that, you start getting an idea of what that sculpture looks like. I have the conviction personally that I am working towards something, and I'm not saying it's easy, and I'm not saying it will happen at the snap of a finger - even if it takes me until the day just before Jesus arrives, then so be it.

When you deal with the things of God, there is no microwave dinner waiting for you - it's not two minutes thirty seconds and it's done. God takes time, because the first thing He wants is your heart. I listened to that worship song again today that says, 'I give You my heart before I give You my needs.'

We can get so absorbed in thinking we are doing good things, and that what we are doing are the things God desires. But first and foremost He wants our hearts, and that is not as simple as it sounds. Let's not - you know, here we keep things real. Here we don't try to impress each other and live a fictitious life, and then when we get home just continue with reality.

Here we speak about reality. It's not that simple to live that life. It's a process to get there.

That's why the Bible says, 'Renew your mind.' It's a continuous process for us to work on our journey where we align our mind. It says, 'Do not be conformed to this world.' So we maybe start out at a place where we begin our race, and on day one we look exactly like somebody who is not born again. But you might start the race there - you can't finish the race there. There's a place where we need to finish, and that's why it says, 'Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.'

So when we talk about God wanting your heart, it's a gradual process of chipping away, chipping away, chipping away. Our old nature is still very much present in us, and it will continue. Paul wrote about it many times: 'The things that I want to do, I don't do them.'

But at the end of the day, Paul didn't brag about everything he did right; he said, 'I finished the race.' I believe that's one of the core things that is our responsibility towards each other - that every single person finishes the race. It's not like the school system, respectfully saying, where there are always three people standing there with the gold, silver and bronze medals, and it's good enough because of the brilliance of those three people.

This race of completing what God has sent us for is not going to be won by the guy with the gold medal, the silver medal and the bronze medal. It's going to be won by families. It's going to be won by communities that continue to do life together, to live together, to love one another, to enable in us the ability to live love. And it's not about thinking, 'I've tried before and I failed, so I'm just not good enough.'

That's what Satan wants you to believe. It doesn't matter how many times you try, it doesn't matter how many times you fall - the question for me is always, can you get up and complete the race? Don't believe the lie of Satan that you have to live a perfect life. Yes, we grow towards it. Yes, sin has implications in your life. But that's not the end. You need to get past that and believe that Jesus has paid the price for it.

If you sin, truly repent - it has to come from your heart. You say, 'Lord, sorry, I messed up.' And it's not just necessarily about doing something wrong; it's often just not doing something that God expects us to do. And we repent and say, 'Lord, I messed up again. Just help me, Lord.' We worship and say, 'We want to run to You, we want to be in Your presence, we want to fall into Your grace.'

But there's a responsibility we have. Through the ability of the Holy Spirit, Acts 1:8 says, 'You shall receive power when you receive the Holy Spirit.' We don't do these things through our own ability, but there's a significant power available through the Holy Spirit. It says, 'With this power, you shall be My witnesses. You shall be the ones who make Me real in this world.' So we have a responsibility towards each other to work towards that.

I touched on Romans 12:2, which says, 'Do not be conformed to this world.' But it's as if the problem becomes bigger - if you look at the world, the challenges and problems just keep getting bigger. It doesn't always look like we as Christians are winning the battle, but it depends on how you measure it. And if we look at a worldly system, we look at what people focus on.

Even us as Christians have grown up in a culture and an environment that has influenced us. There are things we need to unlearn. There are things we need to get rid of in our lives - things that need to be chipped away that don't look like Him, that don't look like the purpose He has called us for. Don't fall into that trap.

I think by now you know that I'm not focusing on religion, I'm not focusing on laws, I'm not focusing on a set of rules that say, 'Do this,' and 'Don't do that.' But when I spiritually spend time - and I want to encourage you to do that - remember, I'm sharing with you from my heart what I experience is relevant for this year in terms of being a year of substance.

You need to go home and spend time to hear for yourself what the Lord says to you about this in terms of substance. I believe if we talk about the year of substance, it is a time for us to manifest more of that which is substance, which is reality, which is Him - and the only way you can do that is to start cutting away that which is not from Him. It doesn't happen by accident. It doesn't happen in a moment where you decide once and it's just done. It's a continuous process of evaluating every single day.

I'm going to give you homework after today. You know what that homework is? I'm going to tell you to go and buy yourself something. It's called a substance meter. I think we have them in stock here. And with that substance meter, you actually start evaluating what is actually in your life that is substance.

If you do something, if you think something, if you have a relationship with somebody, if you spend time on something, take that measure out and measure what the substance is in it. And what is substance? Substance is God. Substance is what is from Him. Is it related to your purpose in this world? Is it related to your calling? Is it related to manifesting His presence?

Is it related to living the example that Jesus Christ showed us? He lived a humble lifestyle. He lived to influence people. He healed everybody. He had compassion. When He saw people struggling, He had compassion. He lived deep, meaningful relationships. We have a measure by which we can see.

For me, life becomes very simple when you realise what we were actually called to do. If you look at Ephesians 4, He gave the apostles, the prophets, the pastors, the teachers, the evangelists, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry. But what is the end result of that? We are going to come to the unity of the faith, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. But how are we going to get there? It says every part does its share, every joint supplies, and at the end of the day, the body is edifying itself in love. There is the key. For me, life is simple: to what extent are we living love?

I don't know who of you has ever put a roast in the oven and used that thing that measures the temperature - you have to push it right into the core of the roast, because that's where you need to measure. It doesn't help you measure it on the outside. You push it right into the core, and you measure the temperature there.

It's the same principle with fire. The sparks that fly out are often the things that attract people, because they are glamorous, they've got flair, they've got light, they move - and then they just disappear, and there's no substance. That leaves people with emptiness, with broken hearts, with emotional and physical scars, because it was never substance. As opposed to going into the core of the fire, where the fire is burning and there is life and light - that is substance.

So when you take out that substance meter, the first thing you can ask yourself is, is this love? Life is not complicated. We don't have to make a whole issue out of doctrine and revelation. No, life is simple. All of that is tools to help us, to equip us. That's why it says the fivefold ministry was given for the equipping, the perfecting, of the saints, for the work of the ministry. If you look at that word, the ministry, in essence - I paraphrase my own words - it is to live love. That's the bottom line. How are we going to build the body of Christ? How are we going to impact the world? Not through knowledge, not through a superiority mentality, but by living love.

So when we talk about this being a year of substance, you don't have to look far to measure things, but you have to measure things continuously throughout the day. Can I get real here? Who's fine with getting real?

When you spend time on Facebook - is it substance? You've got the meter already, whether you noticed it or not. Take out that meter. Measure Facebook. Is it substance? When you play computer games at two o'clock in the morning - is it substance? I can continue with the list, but I don't want to single things out.

Every single thing in our lives - I'm just saying, if we don't start understanding that God didn't create us to be mediocre... God made us to represent Him in this earth. We are ambassadors of Christ. We need to look like Him. We need to manifest Him - not because of us, because of Him. Yes, we'll get to a place where every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess, but in the meantime God says He wants to fill the earth with His glory. How is He going to do that if we don't represent Him, if we don't manifest Him?

Remember, I'm not talking condemnation. I'm not talking religion. I'm not talking sin. I'm talking substance - the essence of our existence, why we are here, the fact that it's all about Him. It's not about us, but He has an intention, and He wants to manifest Himself. He wants every single person to know Him. So what we are doing matters, because either I put that measure in and that roast is cold on the inside, or it is the right temperature.

I'm not saying we can't have fun. I'm not saying we can't do relaxing things. This is not about condemnation and sin. I'm just saying, if we are honest with ourselves and use that meter, I'm sure you're gathering what that meter is.

That meter is actually a combination of two things: the Word of God and the Spirit of God, because God says, worship Me in spirit and in truth. When you take out that substance meter and say Facebook, and you put that measure in for you specifically, individually, through the Word and through the Holy Spirit, you will see what the count is on that meter - whether there is substance in that for your life.

Maybe in your life Facebook is something that steals your time, because you don't have the discipline - you click on Facebook, here's a cute little video, you click on the video, that was nice, and it leads you to watch another one and another, and before you know it you've watched twenty videos, it's an hour and a half later, and your intention was just to send a message to your friend. So how did that work out for you? When you put that measure in, I'm not saying there's something wrong with Facebook - well, maybe I should - but I'm just saying, for you, that meter might say red. This is not substance. It doesn't belong in your life, because it's stealing from you.

Whereas somebody else has the discipline - they go onto Facebook, post a verse for the day, encourage a friend, say happy birthday to somebody, seven minutes later they leave Facebook, and it's fine. They measure, and it's substance, because they meant something in somebody's life. It's not the tool. It's not the environment. It's not the physical thing.

I've explained to you about words: two people can speak exactly the same words, and one can curse and one can bless, because it's the life of God that is inside of you. It says, from your innermost being will flow rivers of life-giving water. So if you connect with that source of life and put it into the word and speak it, there is life in there. If you don't, then you are cursing. It's the same. So we can't just say, from now on nobody on Facebook, nobody on Twitter, nobody on WhatsApp. No, because the tool is not the issue.

We need everyone to measure, and that's why it's unique, it's individual - we can't generalise. But if we don't get to a point where we start measuring... even in business they say, if you don't measure something, you are never going to achieve it. The things you achieve in business are the things you measure. If you measure productivity, you will increase productivity. If you measure profitability, you will increase profitability. But if you don't measure it, it goes downhill.

So it doesn't matter what you do - I'm throwing the net open. There's nothing exempt. You can decide for yourself. As you make notes, or as you spend time with the Holy Spirit, you can let Him bring you to the conviction. But I'm telling you, everything needs to be measured - your thoughts, what you spend your time on, what you do in front of your computer, what you do at business, at your job, wherever.

I think we should make something like that, hey - can somebody make a substance meter for us to keep us? We need to know from the Word of God what truth looks like, what substance looks like to us. How are we going to look like truth? How are we going to look like substance? How are we going to become it, manifest it, if we don't know what it looks like? I can't just assume what substance looks like.

Jesus said, if you've seen Me, you have seen the Father, and the disciples were actually not certain. We need to spend time to get a conviction, especially because in Hebrews 11:1 we understand that substance is something superior that exists, but you can't see it yet. But there is a bridge between reality and manifesting it in this earth, and that bridge is faith. I need to believe what God says about this, and then I act accordingly.

That's why people often have these questions and fall into these doctrines - when you talk about healing or finances, they start saying that everything is just prosperity theology. But Jesus showed us what was acceptable and what was not. When Jesus looked at people who were sick, He had compassion. It says Jesus went around healing all who were sick, all who were oppressed by the devil. So there are things Jesus did that show us what substance looks like. And again, we are working towards something. Even if we only get to it the day before Jesus comes, we need to know what is substance, what is truth, what is reality, because that is our responsibility - to manifest it in this earth.

When Jesus says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life - either through being that, He creates a way and an opportunity for you to receive salvation, because He says nobody comes to the Father except through Me. Either that way, that truth, that life is substance - it exists, it is true, it has ability, because I think that's one of the things that came up in my spirit regarding substance: it has ability.

So the fact that Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life - either it is like that, or it is not. There's no grey area. Either I can use, in inverted commas, Jesus Christ to enter the Kingdom of God, to become one with the Father because of the ministry of reconciliation, or I can't.

One of the challenges we have in this life is that things have become grey - doesn't matter what it is - and it keeps increasing. You can just read the news and see everything is grey; nothing is clear-cut. So we need to understand what the Word of God says substance is. We need to spend time in the Word so that we also become substance, become reality, and more and more work towards it.

In terms of my understanding of substance, it is something that exists. It is real. It is reality, and it's not just something from God - it is actually God Himself, manifesting in every single thing. Which leads me to believe that if I want to have a year of substance, I need to become a person of substance.

I probably needed to give you one warning at the beginning of this session: once you have heard this word of substance, you will not be able to get rid of it. Since the Lord put this word in my spirit, when I engage with somebody, immediately in my spirit I'm measuring - without even thinking about it, my spirit says to me, no substance. I'm like, where did that come from, I wasn't even thinking it. And then I meet somebody else, and before I even think or process, the Holy Spirit says to me, substance.

I'm warning you, when you walk out of here and get into your car, you're just going to look and say, substance. You don't have a choice. This word is really going to work in your spirit and become a reality. But it's not for measuring other people - it starts with ourselves. I want to look at myself and say, how do I become a person of substance?

There's a variety of ways to do it, and I'm sure some of you are busy with that process already, but you need to define who you are. It might sound very simple, and I'll just summarise it for the sake of time. You need to know: who are you in the Kingdom of God? What have you been called for? What is your role? You have a purpose. Many of you are attending Purpose Series. You have a purpose. You need to define who you are.

You need to understand who you are in Christ, and who Christ is in you. You're not just here plotting along, maybe something happens, maybe it doesn't, and maybe God will do something at some stage. No - He placed you here. He created you. When He created you, He had something specific in mind, and He created you to be perfect for what He wants to do through you. Every one of us is different.

One of the things happening in the world is to make everybody the same, physically speaking. Everybody has the same rights, everybody is treated the same, nobody is distinguished from one another, whether by gender, finance, belief system, whatever - you can't discriminate against anybody for anything. We want to cookie-cutter everybody, make everybody the same. But that's not the way God created it. God created you unique. You are a specific part of the body. If you are the thumb in the body, it doesn't help you pretend to be the toe - you will never do what you are meant to do.

There's a general purpose we've been called for, but then there's a specific purpose, and that's where you need to evaluate. Who are you? What is your role in your family, in your spiritual family, in your community? Because you need to realise you are the thumb, and if you don't know how to be a proper thumb, you need people to help you become one - you need to be that part the body requires for the body to come into the position God wants it to be.

If you want to talk about becoming a person of substance, you need to dive into that and determine who you are in Christ, who is in you, what part you are, and then what your priorities are.

I believe, and I shared this recently, that it's amazing when you think about it - most people actually know what they should be doing. Most people know. Inherently, you just know what you should be doing. But yet very few actually do it. And of the few who do it, there's an even smaller percentage who actually complete it. So the percentage of people in this world - let's spiritualise it - the percentage of people who actually walk in what God created them for and continue in their journey is a fraction of a percentage of those who should.

If somebody doesn't know, knowledge needs to come to them. It says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Knowledge comes through the Word. Knowledge comes through intimacy with the Holy Spirit, and then you gain that knowledge, that wisdom. But once you know what you should be doing, once you know what substance looks like, and you have a desire to manifest substance, one of the key aspects of substance is relationships.

There are two aspects to it, but the first is this: people of substance - and I'm not talking in general now, although it might sound like it - people of substance make themselves accountable. You get two people, you form an accountability group, you decide what is a priority for you. That's the amazing thing about an accountability group - it's not somebody telling you what to do. Even as I'm speaking now, you know what you need to get rid of in your life. You already know. You have the Holy Spirit, and He's already guiding you, saying, that is not substance, that is not substance, that is not substance. Like I said, the Holy Spirit ministers in a split second, so you know what to get rid of.

But knowing it and actually doing it are two different things - that's why accountability matters. People of substance make themselves accountable. You get two accountability partners and say to them, these are things in my life that are not substance, and I want to get rid of them. You decide it for yourself, because if you don't decide it and commit to it, it's not going to happen. Just because somebody else says, stop smoking, it's not going to happen. But if you feel you must get rid of smoking, you have that conviction, you commit to it, and you say to two people, help me - then it's a different story. Then you are working towards something, and the chances of you succeeding are that much higher.

People of substance start looking more like Jesus - I think that's fairly obvious. People of substance put God first. So I said there are two components to relationships. I can tell you, you will see when you spend time on this with the Holy Spirit - He will give you a conviction that when you talk about substance, relationship goes to the very core of it.

On the one hand, you need to have an accountability group – that's where relationship is relevant. On the other hand, there are maybe three aspects to this. You need to surround yourself with people of substance. It's different when you go and minister and specifically want to minister to somebody and effect change while they're still in the world, not born again – that's different. But the people you spend the most time with need to be people of substance, because you need to be equipped, strengthened and supported, and then you go out and have impact where all the challenges will come against you when you start raising your hand, when you start impacting.

Then things will come against you, but you need to function from a base like that fire – in the core of that fire where it's burning white hot. When you function from that place, you've got the support of people of substance around you who will ensure that you're able to sustain what you want to do.

I think I explained to you previously how the Lord showed me one day, as I was sitting in front of the fireplace, this thing that came up in my spirit. All the coals are red hot inside the fireplace, and I take one out. As I take it out, it turns grey. I put it back in, it turns red. I take another one that's red inside, take it outside, it's grey. I take a few of them, and I realise every one of these is the same coal: inside the fire it's red hot; if I take it out, it turns grey and immediately starts losing its heat. I asked myself, which of these coals actually has the fire and the heat? Because every one I take out just turns grey.

That was the whole principle: combined together, surrounding each other and giving off heat, each one just had to give off a little heat. But if you take a temperature meter and measure the heat of all the coals together, it is exponentially higher than measuring the heat of one coal alone. So when we talk about this fire, and about that which doesn't have substance and that which has substance, there is a core you need to function from. And that core needs to be people of substance who surround you, support you, don't condemn you, and are there to pick you up when you fall. That is critical.

The third point regarding relationships is not only surrounding yourself with people of substance, but building meaningful relationships. If you haven't heard much of what I've said tonight, you need to hear this: one of the most significant things we should do this year is build deep, meaningful relationships of substance. It might mean you have fewer relationships, fewer people you interact with, but those relationships will be significant.

We need to impart into each other's lives. We need to function in the core of that fire, whereby the heat and light generated there can truly have impact in this world – not scattered coals all around, or a spark that flies by night: ooh, ah, it's all out there, but a month later there's nothing happening. That measure will determine the relationships we enter into and make those relationships actually count.

I believe it's just a time – what came up in my spirit was, it's a time to stand. It's this whole thing of substance. The Holy Spirit will do this to you as well. I want to give you a challenge: just stand in your room and utter the word 'substance'. I can tell you, when you do that, you're going to start experiencing things in your spirit. It's like a channel, a word, a connection that God wants to reveal. If I speak in human terms, I'm literally experiencing that God is fed up with that which is not substance.

We should become fed up with things that clutter our lives that are not substance. We literally need to throw away everything that is not substance. I saw a heap of hay, and it's like I was scattering that heap all over the place, and right at the bottom of that heap I found a gold nugget. How many times do we keep ourselves busy with this heap of hay – how long is this hay, how does this hay compare to that one? No substance. We're busy with things that have no substance, and God is saying, get all that clutter away and take that piece of gold – take that thing which is really substance and manifest it.

I believe this word 'substance' is just going to start evolving and growing in your spirit. And I see myself in my spirit just saying, 'Stand.'

“Having done all, to stand.”

Ephesians 6:13 (NKJV)

Substance for me is that. I can feel in my spirit that we're going somewhere. You need to take a stand – even stand in front of the mirror and say, 'I'm a person of substance.' Because greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. I've been created for His purpose. He's inside of me. He's going to express Himself through me. I'm a person of substance. I surround myself with people of substance. I manifest substance wherever I go.

So I experience this: just take a stand. Stand for something. We can't just go along with this whole world going in a direction where anything goes, and if you don't go along with that, they will start suing you, persecuting you, wherever it is. It's happening in our schools, it's happening all over. Take a stand. Take a stand for that which is substance. Stand up. Be bold about what is right.

I'm not saying make enemies wherever you go. We need to love people, we need to make a difference, we need to manifest the presence of God so that they want to experience that and have that. But when you are confronted, and when you're in a position where you need to make a decision, when you need to speak out, we need to be people of substance. When you have spoken, you need to be able to measure it and ask, 'Is what I've just said now substance? Is it from God? Is it spirit? Is it love? Is it truth? Is it reality? Am I manifesting reality through what I just said?' If it's not substance, then step away from it.

And even if we need to – like I said earlier – some people just don't have discipline. They get sidetracked: they go to post one thing on Facebook, or look at one clip on YouTube, and two hours later they're still there. They just don't have the discipline. Let's build character. In Afrikaans we say, 'Kry rugraad' – get backbone. Let's help each other to become people of substance, people of character, people who are significant, who stand for something, who impact our families, our environment, our schools, our jobs, our businesses. We need to stand out, not because we want to make ourselves more important than somebody else, but because we need to manifest Him.

People live in a time where nothing has substance, because anything goes. People can say what they want, do what they want, because now nothing has substance. If you look at what our children go through in terms of what they're exposed to, and this stuff that needs to be taught in school now, there's no substance. The children don't know. If we don't teach them at home what is right, what is wrong, what is substance, they go into an environment where everything goes. All of a sudden – that is Satan's strategy, it's the frog in the pot with the water being heated up. Before you realise it, you're sitting with youth that has no substance.

If you expect the world to provide them with substance, you are making a big mistake. If you don't do it at home, your children will not have substance, because I can tell you emphatically, the majority of the people around them at school do not have substance. And remember, I'm not talking about one person being more important than another. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about whether they have made the decision to be a person of substance, which means they put God first, they put His kingdom first, they spend time with Him.

When we talk about relationships, the most significant relationship is your relationship with the Father. If you don't spend time on that, you have nothing to offer. I can tell you now, you will have very little substance to offer if you don't spend time with the Father in relationship, so that He can reveal to you what substance is, bring conviction, and even enable. Remember what I said about ability: substance is not just God, it's the ability of God, like in Acts chapter 1 – the ability to effect change. When God starts revealing substance in you, He actually gives you the ability to manifest substance.

So we need to spend time with the Father to activate that which is in us, to get that conviction and become people of substance, so that we can influence the world, because it needs to happen.

“But Jesus said to him, 'No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.'”

Luke 9:62 (NKJV)

That just relates to what I said earlier: take a stand. Let's focus on the kingdom. Let's focus on where we are going and what God has called us for.

I really sense that for some of us it's a time to step out of the boat, and it's amazing that this, coming up in my spirit, immediately brought up the picture of Jesus walking on the water and Peter wanting to walk towards Him. It's time for us to step out of the boat. What made it possible for Jesus to walk on the water? He could distinguish substance. So the spiritual was more of a reality and substance to Him, and He walked on the spiritual, which manifested in the physical, meaning this physical world was subjected to authority which comes from the spiritual world. That's why He walked on the water. He turned His environment into substance so that He could walk on it.

Did you hear that? We need to turn our environment into substance, because I can tell you, nobody else is going to do it.

Amen. Can we pray? Thank you, Father, for touching us through Your Spirit, imparting Your Word into our spirit. I want to pray, Father, that You touch every one of us through Your Word and enable this Word in our spirits. Show us, Father, through Your Word, show us through Your Spirit how to be filled with substance, how to activate substance, how to become substance, how to become people of substance, how to surround ourselves with people of substance, so that we can manifest Your kingdom, that we can manifest Your glory, that we can manifest Your presence, Father, that we will be a city set on a hill whose light cannot be hidden, a city that will give light to this world.

We are the light of this world. We are the salt of this world. We need to impact this world, Father, and we can only do it by Your Word, through Your Spirit. Enable us, Father, and give us that desire, give us that ability, that we don't have to do this with our own power. And where we stumble, Father, make sure we are surrounded with the right people to pick us up again, that we continue this fight, that we continue this journey, that we can finish this race, so that our Lord Jesus can return and that we can spend eternity in Your presence.

We glorify You, Father, in the name of Jesus. Amen.