Sonship and the Supernatural (1 of 3)
Sonship and Heart Transformation (2 of 3)
Sonship and Spiritual Warfare (3 of 3)
Introduction
I want to share a message called: Sonship and the Supernatural. Then I want to talk in the next session on: Sonship and Heart Transformation; and then tonight I want to speak on: Sonship and our warfare - what our warfare is about, where the warfare is, and then the nature of what comes against us.
If you want to move in the supernatural, you will be involved in spiritual warfare. If you don't know what you're up against, and how to fight, you will become defeated in that; so we want to pray and minister to people, and also impart to people. Tomorrow I have some other messages. Tomorrow night I'll speak in the spirit of might. I want to particularly impart to people that you start to carry the deliverance and anointing and the power of the spirit around your life, and you begin to nurture that anointing and grow and explore, breaking into new territory. Amen.
Main Message
Our theme scripture is Romans 8:19 - "The whole of creation is eagerly awaiting". Now if you ask most people what they're waiting for, they're waiting for Jesus to come back again, but the Bible doesn't say that. It says: the earnest expectation of the creation is the manifestation, or the unveiling, of what God has been doing over thousands of years of history. The highlight of what He is doing will be the revealing and unveiling of what He's doing in us - the revelation, not just of the Son of God, but of a family of sons and daughters. So when we use the word 'son', it's a non-gender term, as far as we're concerned. Men and women are 'sons', just as men and women are 'the bride'. It is a language used to describe a certain kind of relationship; and I want to explain just what that is, as we look at it, so we don't get sort of "ooh, that's not about me", or "I'm being excluded", or something.
I want to just talk a little bit about God's design - the way God has designed things to work. We see the pattern through the Bible is one of a father/son relationship. In Numbers 14:21, when God has brought Israel out of Egypt, He's wanting to bring them into the land, and they all fell short of the promise. It was a generation that never entered into what God had prepared for them; and even though they failed, God said this: "they will not enter the land, but nevertheless, nevertheless as truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord". So the exit of the people from Egypt, their journey through the wilderness of preparation, and their entry into the Promised Land, is a prophetic picture of God's work in the church, and of us entering into a great supernatural legacy that Jesus purchased for us.
He said: "even though that generation failed, nevertheless the earth..." So it's not just about the land - it's the whole earth - "...shall be filled with the glory of the Lord". In Habakkuk 2, he says: "the whole earth shall be filled with knowledge of the glory of the Lord". We're living in an electronic age, where now it can be known. The church needs to start to rise, and step up into it. So when it says: "the glory of the Lord", what does it mean? The glory of the Lord is very simply: the goodness of God, His nature and virtue - manifested in a tangible way. Every time you saw the glory manifest in the Bible, it was manifested in something that could be seen, or felt, or experienced. The glory of God... Moses said: "show me Your glory", and God said: "I will make all My goodness pass before you" - and then He describes what that looks like...
The nature of God, the power of God... He describes first His power, and His unlimited resources; then His ministry towards people. So God is very clear that the earth shall be filled with a manifestation of His glory; and that glory will be manifested through His sons. When God designed the earth, He designed it to fill it with His glory and goodness; and He had many ways He could show His glory. He's shown it through nature; so when you go to nature, you feel connected somehow to God. You go and see the vastness of the oceans, there's a connectedness seems to come to the Lord. We’re starting to touch the glory. You've seen aspects of it; that you look at the vastness of the stars and you start to see the vastness of God. You start to look at the beautiful designs in nature and creation and think; you start to see the magnificence of God, but this is nothing compared to what He has planned to unveil and reveal.
This is the thing we can catch: we are the centre of His attention! We are the centre of His attention! So God's plan to manifest His glory - it began in the beginning, and it's never changed. He planned to manifest what He is like through a father/son relationship. It's not to do with gender; it has to do with function, and the biblical understanding of the function of a son, in relationship to his father.
We'll just look first of all, at the word 'father'. So when we think about father, of course for many people there's emotional things come to mind that aren't that pleasant. But when the Bible is talking father, it's talking about these: it's talking about a source of life. It's talking about the author or originator, the supplier of life. So from a Bible perspective, everything originates from some source. The father is the source; the father is the author of life. The mother nurtures the life and brings it forth, but the father is the one who authors life. He is the source. That's where life comes from; it comes from the father. So when we're thinking about God as a Father, then we're thinking about an originator. He is the source, He is the supply; and in Exodus 34, where God reveals, He reveals that He is unlimited resources. He is the unlimited one.
When Jesus ministered in the power of the Holy Ghost, He had unlimited resources available to Him to minister; so the Father is one of unlimited resources, unlimited resources, unlimited supply. A father fits certain functions. For example, a father is the source of our identity. You take the name of your father; so if you have no relationship with a father, you struggle with identity. The father is the source of identity. Notice when Jesus comes up out of the water, the Father speaks to Him: You are My Son. You belong somewhere; your identity is in Me. The devil's first attack on Jesus was on His identity: to shift His identity away from revelation by His Father, to performance in ministry. Many people in ministry struggle, their ministry is their source of identity, so their life is tied up in it, and they use people to build who they are. That's not fathering! That's not even true ministry. That is actually spiritual trading; I'm trading, to get something! We have to be free and cleansed from the defilement of trying to find out identity in things external, when it must be found inside the Lord. If it's found in something outside you, then it's never going to be stable.
Father is a source of purpose. One of the things the Father does is, He has a purpose; the word I like to use is the word 'assignment' - fathers give assignments to their sons and daughters. A purpose is a very general, broad thing - it's like a broad, big plan. Assignment is: this is what my job is; this is what I've been given to do. So purpose could cover what everyone's called to. We're called to the purpose of: changing our community, evangelising, sharing the gospel; but specifically, you have your own assignment, and that becomes very, very important.
A father is a source of provision. If God is the source of my identity, then my life is wrapped up in Him, and nothing you say or do changes who I am, because I'm secure in Him. He is my Father. I belong somewhere. So if you don't like me and reject me, that's okay, I still belong somewhere. If your identity is found in a relationship with an eternal spirit being, God Himself, then the security comes into your heart. When your identity is attached to the things outside you, inherently it's unstable, because they change. We think that church will be a certain kind of thing. It's a bit of a horror when you're a pastor, and you find it isn't quite like what you expected, and the people that loved you and said 'hooray' today can boo you tomorrow, and turn on you, just like that. But you see, it hurts very deeply when we don't understand: our identity is in our Father; and it's not to be found in the ministry, how big it is, how spectacular it is, or anything else related to it. Our goal is to honour our Father in the calling, just as sons honour their fathers.
A son is called to honour his father, and we'll show the ways that he honours him, in just a moment. So that's fatherhood. Fatherhood is under attack. Fatherhood's been under attack for such a long time. The Bible talks about sons, and our concept of a son is very much: they're just someone you raise up, and they're male, and they're a bit of a nuisance. They go out of home; but the biblical concept of a son, the word literally means it's the word 'ben', meaning: to build the father's house. So the biblical concept of a son is this: he is the extension of the father. The father works through his son to extend himself; and he works through the son as his representative - a delegated representative.
So a son always is the spokesman for the father, and advances the father's business. You see that in the mandate that God gave Adam: that he would subdue, have dominion and he would be fruitful and multiply. The dominion mandate is that God's Son would represent what He's like in the earth. That's what made the betrayal so big. He literally gave up the mandate, gave up the authority, and gave it into the hand of his Father's enemy; so from a biblical perspective, he brought immense shame on the family name - dishonour to his Father, shame on the family name. It would need another Son to restore the family honour, and to reconnect the lost children back to their Father. And once you start to catch these concepts, you'll see them everywhere; they're just unmistakeable!
You re-look at the scriptures, and there they all are, just exactly what it is. It's about God's heart; that He might restore His original purpose: sons and daughters, in relationship with Him, representing Him in the earth, extending His kingdom. And as soon as you lose any of those aspects, you then distort what ministry is all about. You begin to have something that does not represent the heart of God at all. So it tells us for example (in Luke 3:28), that Adam was the son of God. But God's thinking is not just to have a son. His thinking is to have a corporate son; so in the Book of Exodus it says Moses' message to the Pharaoh was, concerning Israel: let my son go, that he may worship me.
So God started with a son, but He had in mind a corporate son, which was Israel the nation; but beyond that, He had in mind the church, His son representing Him, and expanding His kingdom in the earth. So there's a progressive development, from one son in the Book of Genesis, through to a corporate son. First there's a family; then there's a corporate son - a nation. It's a nation of people. Now you understand when He talks about you; it should be a Godly nation, a holy nation, a royal priesthood - it's all about sonship. It's just the language of sonship; and the theme of sonship is everywhere. The whole family on earth draws its name, or its nature, from Father in heaven.
So you can understand then, that all of the movement that's currently taking place with the homosexual agenda, and the transgender agenda - all of it is an agenda to attack and destroy the design of God; so people are so confused, and they're actually in total rebellion against the order that God has set up to establish blessing. As soon as you remove 'father', you've lost your source of identity, then identity becomes confused. You'll find this warfare that we're seeing today is an old warfare. It actually goes right back in history, and it's always been there; it comes out of a demonic spirit with a particular agenda.
So John 17:3-6, Jesus' last words in prayer, before He gives up His life on the cross - "this is eternal life: that they may know You, the one true God; and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have glorified You on earth. I finish the work You gave me to do. Now Father, honour me, glorify me, put honour back on me with Yourself, with the honour I had with You before the world was. I have manifested Your name to the men you've given me out of this world. I have declared to them, or made known to them, Your name, and I will declare it, so that the love with which You love me may be in them, and I in them". Amazing revelation there!
So we see then that one man (Adam), the son that God put into the earth, betrayed his Father over to his enemies. When Jesus had His encounter with the devil, the devil showed Him the kingdoms of this world, and said: they have been delivered to me. The word 'delivered' is 'betrayed', and Jesus never denied it. Adam's action was a betrayal of his Father, to sell his own Father out to his Father's enemy was a massive betrayal. It requires now a son who'll be loyal and obedient, even to the point of death, to restore the Father's honour. So now you get a new glimpse on that scripture, John 3:16 - for God so loved the world, He gave His only Son. So to restore His plan, God introduces His Son into the earth. It's always about the Son; and the Father and Jesus revelation there is that the relationship He had with His Father is the one He purchased for us to have.
Most believers, as far as I can see, do not experience the love of the Father for them, the way Jesus experienced it in His own life; but He purchased it for us! I want to show you three things which are part of the sonship design...
#1) It says - "He said: this is eternal life that they may know you, the one true God; and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent". The word 'sent is the word 'apostello', meaning: to commission someone to go into a hostile territory, subdue an enemy, and then establish the culture of heaven - the ways of heaven on the earth, hence Jesus' message. What was His message? The kingdom of God is here, now. There is another realm available now for you. But to access it, you have to admit: I was wrong, I've been doing life wrong. I need to change the way I think, to come into agreement so I can enter an experience - and of course, that's a lifelong transformation process.
So there are three things that stood out to me very strongly about Jesus' sonship, which is also our sonship. Number 1 is intimacy. Intimacy is that sense of deep closeness; of knowing, and becoming known. Intimacy is a lifelong journey of growing in the knowledge of God. The source of that is the Holy Spirit Himself. In 1 Corinthians 2:14, it tells us that no man knows the things of God, save the Spirit of God. We have been given the Spirit of God, that we may know the things freely given. So we need the Holy Spirit, to help us to deepen in intimacy with God as our Father. We need to have revelation of His Fatherhood, and learn how to step into and engage Him as our Father, with all that that means.
So the first issue that God calls us to is intimacy. This is eternal life! Eternal life is not just some gift you get in a bag. Eternal life, He says, is about knowing. Knowing is the word 'to be intimate'. It's an intimate connection. The word can be used tp describe two people in sexual intimacy, in marriage. It is an intimate union. That's where life comes from. It comes from the joining, not from just: I said a prayer one day. See, we're on a journey to deepening intimacy with God. Whatever you think you know of God, there is much, much, much more. Paul said: I count everything done that for the excellency of knowing Him.
Hello... I thought he already knew Him? No, no, no. He's saying that there's so much to know of God - we must make it our life pursuit to be intimate with Him. Prayer firstly is about intimacy, coming near to God. Of course, if you've got blocks and barriers in your heart, these will be blocks and barriers to intimacy; blocks and barriers to knowing God; blocks and barriers to representing Him as a son. So Number 1 is intimacy, and God is seeking intimacy. John 4:24 - "the Father seeks those who will worship" - that means 'to kiss towards' or be intimate with Him, from their spirit, without hiding anything. The words 'spirit and truth' - truth means without concealing or hiding anything. In other words, God wants us to become vulnerable.
Adam experienced intimacy in the Garden; he was intimate. The presence of God means the face of God - he had face-to-face connection. When we fall on the inside, then we remove ourself from connection. Have a think what Adam did... First of all, he covered himself, meaning he was trying to cope with the shame that he had. Secondly, he got busy doing, he got into the trees. People get very busy, because they've got a lot of brokenness and undealt-with stuff - and they fill it up with church things, and every other kind of thing, instead of actually coming into the face of God, and facing Him, and coming near to Him. Then the third thing that he did, which is a horrendous thing, is: instead of loving his wife, he blamed her! When people are afraid, they then tend to react, and blame, and accuse, and distance themselves from other people. So we see all of those things. Jesus came to restore and heal all of those, and bring us back into intimacy again.
#2) We're called also to represent the Father. So a son, one of his primary roles, apart from relationship; which Jesus said, in things like this: I do nothing, except what I see the Father doing. I haven't come to do My own will. I've come to do the will of My Father. In other words, He was driven by the Father's agenda, because He represented Him. If you hire a lawyer, you expect the lawyer to represent you; not just say: well, wait a minute, I've got a plan of my own. No, you're paying him to represent you, so you don't want him to bring his own plan. You want to bring the plan that benefits you. So we're to be a representative, an accurate representative.
Here's a question to ask: do I represent what God is like, as a Father, to the people that I work with? How well do I represent His Fatherhood? God is love; therefore am I patient and kind? Does the fruit of love, and no agenda, come out of my life when I work with people? Or is my life built like the world - transactional; I leverage people to get what I want, it's always with an agenda? Of all the things I've seen break the hearts of people in churches, it's leaders with agendas, that actually use them to get something, and then drop them the moment they can't get that. It is horrendous, because it misrepresents the Father. That's the only thing that got Jesus angry in the New Testament - the misrepresentation of the Father. If that got Him angry, it should get us disturbed too - unless we don't have the same value system He has. We get angry about other things; we get angry about all the wrong things. He got angry about one thing, and that was that His Father was misrepresented; and the people that were God's family were abused, and taken advantage of. That's what got Jesus angry, in the two situations, where it referred he was very angry. Ooh, it's getting really quiet now - it's probably someone you know!
So we're called to represent Him. It says in Hebrews 1:3, He was the express image of the Father. In other words, when you see Him, you see what the Father is like.
John 40:9 - "if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father".
John 1:18 - "No man has seen the Father, but the only begotten Son of the Father, who is intimately acquainted with Him, has declared Him or made Him known."
So you notice here in Verse 6, as he's finishing his prayer, he said: "Father, I have manifested Your name". I've shown people what You're like. So in other words, a key part of being a son is not just intimacy; it's actually expressed by your lifestyle, and relationships, what God is like as a Father. You can't do that without revelation - that comes from intimacy. So intimacy and representation go hand in hand. It's the same Holy Spirit who helps you do that. The representation of the Father in your life is actually the fruit of the Spirit flowing. It comes out of connection with the Holy Spirit. Intimacy comes out of connection with the Holy Spirit.
Now in order for us to represent the Father, guess what must happen? There must be an ongoing transformation of our life, a healing and restoration of our heart, so we become more and more like what He is; beholding Him as in a looking glass, the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image by the Holy Spirit. It's not about self-improvement; it's not about willpower; it's not about trying harder. It's about surrender to the Holy Spirit, and allowing Him access to the broken places in our heart and life, that we have desperately covered, defended, and are now dysfunctioning in our life, and stop us representing the Father. It's an ongoing, lifelong journey, letting the Father, letting the Spirit access your heart.
Otherwise, the broken parts, that you've tried to hide, will overload. People who are bleeding, pour their blood on other people, who didn't do anything to cause it. Some people are dripping blood everywhere - it's on the carpets, it's on everyone they meet; can't be mistaken! It says in Romans 8:29, that His purpose, His express purpose, is to conform us to the image of His Son. So God has designed a plan to shape you up, and it's unique to you. God knows exactly what you need now, to pull up to the surface the things in your heart He wants to change. If you're listening, then every situation you experience is a growing opportunity. It's not about all the things other people did. It's about you representing the Father, and growing.
A lot of people are upset about what everyone else is doing. When you're like that you're out of control, because your focus is in the wrong place. Focus should be on the Lord, and the Father, and what He's doing; and then if people do dumb stuff... Listen, people do dumb stuff! They do dumb stuff because they're broken. Even if you're nice to them, they still do dumb stuff. That's why dumb stuff happens in the church; it even happened back there in the Garden of Eden - with the perfect Father, it still happened. Why would we think it's going to be different? So God has a plan and a pathway for you; so that then means that my journey to wholeness is in my Father's hands.
I just need to start to become more aware of what is happening in my heart, and what the Holy Spirit's trying to get me to do. If I've got so hard in my heart that I'm not listening anymore, then you know I'm going to have a lot of pain come. Many people have a lot of pain, and if you look at it, and start to think and pray about it, you find it's recycling pain. It's the same dumb stuff happening over and over- different faces, different places, different things; but if you could label it, it's the same stuff - because it's in you, and God's trying to change you. That's why "all things work together for good" - so long as we're called, and responsive to God. Otherwise it doesn't work for your good - just makes you more angry! That helpful for you? So transformation is always by the power of the Holy Spirit - but it also requires our cooperation.
3) The third thing is our assignment. Notice what Jesus said... Now He hasn't gone to the cross yet, but He could say: "I've honoured You". I've brought honour to You on the earth. That was His whole purpose - I'm here to honour My Father. Sons honour their Fathers, because, if you honour your father and mother, apparently there's a blessing goes with it. What I've found when I counsel people and their life is not going so well, I always check: did they honour the father and mother. I found they didn't. They've got unresolved baggage, and so they've got problems.
So notice what He said: I brought honour to You. How did He honour the Father? Through intimacy, through representing Him. He said: I've finished the work You gave Me to do. In other words, He had an assignment given to Him. Jesus had an assignment, a specific assignment His Father gave. Now if you're a son, you need to think: what is my assignment; who are my assignment? Where has God positioned me, and planted me? What has He called me to accomplish; and who will help me in the training process? Church is to help train people to become sons, so they can fulfil an assignment. Now here's the thing: every assignment God gives, requires the power of the Holy Spirit. It requires the supernatural power of God. If it didn't need the supernatural power of God, then He could just get an unsaved person to do it.
The assignments God gives us cannot be done without the supernatural power of God. There's nowhere that God commissions someone to do something, without giving supernatural ability to do it. Why would we think we can do it today, in a world of today, without the supernatural power of God? Why would we neglect the supernatural? If you're going to represent God - is He a supernatural God, or not? If He's a supernatural, then don't hide who He is! It's like I'm embarrassed of what God's like, so I'm going to dress it up a little bit, so I won't tell you all about Him. You might get upset by what He does... because He's a mighty deliverer! But we better hide that in a corner, because it might upset someone.
Do you understand, the church has moved so far away from what it's supposed to be doing. It's got to return again to the original design - intimacy with the Father, being transformed to become more and more like Him, so we build a community where it's safe to be open, and let the Spirit of God bring healing and deliverance; where there's a plan in place for people to be healed and restored and built, so sons and daughters can find their assignment, and do it. So you need the power of the Holy Spirit to be intimate. You need the power of the Holy Spirit to change. You need the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfil your assignment.
Jesus began His assignment saying this: "the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me". Why is He anointed? So He can do His assignment: proclaim the gospel, connect people to God, to heal the broken hearted. He just announces His assignment: set people free, connect them to the Father, release them from their bondages... When Jesus commissioned the disciples, Mark 3:13, He called them to be with Him, that He might send them to: preach the gospel, cast out demons, heal the sick. Why do we only just take the one little bit: preach the gospel? Why just narrow down, and take away two-thirds; take away the doing part, just have the preachy bit? In Matthew 10:1, when He sent the apostles out, He anointed them and appointed them, and gave them authority and power over demons; and to heal sicknesses, commission and preach the gospel, minister the gospel.
In Luke 10, you see the 70 disciples - same thing; then In Mark 6, now He sends it to the whole church. Anyone who believes can minister and move in the Holy Ghost, because that's divine design. 1 Corinthians 12:7 - "now the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every person". See - it's given to every person! Why? Because it's God's design, that every son, every daughter, move in the power of the Spirit; because the challenges you face cannot be met. There are needs that cannot be met without the power of God! There are people in your church who cannot be set free without the power of God! There are people sitting there, harassed by demons, who need the power of God! Why hold back on ministering to their needs? Or is it because I want to use them to build something?
Come on, you’ve got to understand: this is the heart of God, for His people to be freed! We cannot just avoid those things, because we feel uncomfortable, or we've got our own bondages. So churches replace the power of God so frequently; they replace the ministry of the Holy Spirit. To replace means to make a substitute for something - instead of this, we have this. We're cheating people, when we do that! If you think about the first revelation of the church - it was the House of God, the place of His presence, and the gate of heaven. The gate is the place where authority is given to make judicial decisions that affect the governance - it's a place of governing authority.
The church has replaced deliverance with counselling; so we counsel instead of delivering people with demons. Counselling is okay; but you can't counsel demons - you've got to get them out! Instead of 'anointing' on people, now there's 'charisma' - it's all about the charisma they carry. Instead of apostles and prophets, we've got administrators trying to run the church, and build the thing, and keep it all safe. They kind of hold it all together, because that's how they're wired; but an apostle or prophet will say: no, we've got a mission, come on. We need to grow people up - come on, mature, grow up! The Prophet says: come on, there's the blockages, let's get rid of the blockages! It's what God is saying. The Minister is saying: you can't do all of that kind of thing! Yes, we can - because it's what God wants! In the 5-fold ministries, apostles are first, then prophets, then teachers... but a 'minister' is a fair way down!
Instead of faith, there's reasoning; we try to reason everything out, we teach people so much, that in the end, their heads fall, their heart is empty - no faith. Faith is of the heart and Spirit. Instead of having family, we have organisation - it breaks the hearts of people. They're looking for family. Why? Because God is a Father. Sure, we need to be organised; I've got a big family, and you have to get really organised. You need organisation, but that doesn't take away that it's family. Family has to do with bondings, and connectings, and the way you relate to people. That's why it talks about 'brothers' and 'sisters' and 'mothers' - all of this is the language of family. Why is it taken out of the church?
When there are broken hearts everywhere, they desperately need to know what family is like; they come to the church... oh no! We call God 'Dad', but what is this? Is this a family? Think about it. Instead of worship, we fill it with entertainment. I love everything being presented nicely and well; but there's no substitute for true, intimate worship in the Spirit. There's got to be those things. So it's a challenge for us, isn't it? A Challenge! Instead of fathers, we have leaders; and its great to have leaders - a father leads, but he's a father too, and that's different, because fathers are concerned about their son's identity. A leader wants to get the vision done; but a Father wants to see the kids grow up, fulfil their course, discover their course... there's a big difference, isn't there?
So the needs of people cannot be met without the power of God. The church needs the supernatural. It needs this, why? Because there are people that need healing; there are people that need deliverance; there are people who need a breakthrough, and provision; there are people that need connections - they need favour on them, in their business. There are people facing challenges that need God to give them breakthrough, and I go round the world, and I see God doing these things everywhere; but not so much in the western churches. The western church has drawn back from the power of God - afraid of the unusual, afraid of the unexpected, trying to control it all. It's not going to work! It isn't working - we need the power of God! The Power of God brings breakthroughs!
I just got a text on my phone the other day - a woman who'd been suicidal, depressed, and under counsel for two years. In one meeting, the power of God hit her, and boom, she we set free! No problem - it's all gone! Another person in the meeting, and they were addicted to marijuana, had been on it for years. Addiction... boom, the power of God hit them, and that's it - addiction has gone! Now they're free! Now they can start to grow the journey of connection, and intimacy, and healing, and so on; because that's what caused the problem in the first place. We need the power of God!
Now there's a contending for the power of God. Maybe you've prayed and stepped out and things didn't work out. Don't let that stop you! Learn to find out what are the factors. You've got to ask questions, and Jude says: "we must contend for the supernatural". You have to contend in prayer. Jesus spent 40 days in prayer, fasting, solitude, meditation, warfare, surrendering to the Holy Ghost... then He returned in the power of the Spirit. So these things have to come back into our lifestyle again. There is a contending for miracles! If I want miracles to happen, I have to position myself, and grow in my faith for these things; and if there are setbacks, to not worry about the setbacks. Learn how to start to build the atmosphere in the church, build the atmosphere round my own life, strengthen my prayer life, feed myself om things that will grow my faith; and determine that my ministry will have supernatural in it - that wherever I operate, the supernatural will be there.
If you don't make that decision, there'll be no fight in you. There's a spirit assigned to shut down the supernatural everywhere - to shut you down; and not just shut you down, but take lots of other things off you as well. There is a spirit assigned to do that very thing. You must understand, that when you say: "the church needs to have the supernatural" - you're declaring war straight away! No man who is a soldier of Christ entangles himself, so he can please and honour his master. It's as simple as that! There are entanglements in our life, that sometimes we need to get rid of; but it starts with saying: God, I'm not happy with how it is. I look, and I see what the Bible says. I want the church that I'm part of - I want that to be full of power!
I want my life to be full of power, and I will pay the price to pursue it. I'll pay the price to pursue it! What would that look like? It would look like: prayer; it would look like: fasting; it would look like: time meditating in the miracles, meditating in the word of God; it would look like: making connections with people that can inspire faith; it would look like: getting testimonies constantly, so your faith is being lifted; it would look like: taking risks regularly - to step out, pray for people, try things, push the boundaries out, and not withdraw. It may look like: you go out on a missions trip, and go to a Third World nation where they are hungry for God, and start to stretch out, so you break out your own expectations; then come back, and you're enlarged in your spirit, and you realise: what have I been tolerating? What have I been putting up with? How could I settle for that?
I've just been in a meeting, where I laid hands on a woman who had a gallbladder removed; and the gallbladder was creatively put back in her body. I saw her body shake and move; I could feel her hand under mine moving; and I looked at her, and she started to smile. She said: the gap has gone, the place there where it was taken out is full again. You see, God does things; we have to pursue it! Will you pursue; or have you settled for so little, because that's the common thing. You say: God, I don't want to be like that; I want to be a man, a woman, approved of God by miracles, signs and wonders. I will commit to pursuing God, to become intimate, to let Him work in my heart; and to embrace that, my assignment must be filled with the power of God. That's about every believer!
When I was a young Christian, I was able to bring the presence of God into the classroom in a way that shifted everyone's educational outcome. I saw people get saved! People coming were touched by the presence of God. I was very young, didn't know anything - but I was able to do it, because I did what God showed me. What about you? You could do that. You're called to do that. You're called to be the gate of heaven, for heaven to be released. Have you drawn back from that, because of the pressure, or disappointment, or just the lack of nurture? Make a decision: I will not stay drawn back. I am going to press on for miracles, press on for the supernatural, press on for breakthroughs in my life, press on for my ministry to grow in the power of the Holy Ghost. Say 'amen' to that!
Closing Prayer
Why don't we just stand right now; why don't we just begin to pray in the spirit. Won't you lift your hands. If there's a place you need to repent, because you've accepted so little, maybe you just need to say: God, today I just repent. I repent in my heart of settling for little. I repent in my heart of not representing You well. I repent in my heart of not being intimate with You, of neglecting the altar of the Lord, so there's no fire on that altar anymore. Lord, today I come to You. I say: God - fresh fire on the altar, fresh presence and power on my life. Holy Spirit, come. Lift your hands, begin to pray. Let's hear us raise our voice to the Lord, start to cry out to Him, let's cry out to Him!
Father, we cry out to You, we cry out for a fresh move of Your Spirit. We cry out for the fresh power of God. We cry out for the fresh anointing of the Holy Ghost. We cry out for a fresh encounter with You. We cry out for our hearts and lives to be stirred. Oh Lord, touch us, touch us in the place we've become embittered. Touch us in the place we've struggled with disappointment. Touch us in the place we've compromised and tolerated. My God, touch us today! Let Your Spirit come on our lives today! Help us today Lord. Help us today, pour out Your Spirit upon our lives! Come on, let's give the Lord a great clap shall we? [Applause] Thank You Lord! Thank You. We honour You Lord.
I can feel His presence is here. Holy Spirit, I just release a fresh activation. For every person here, I stir again the gift of God to start to flow in power. Father, today what You started, Lord continue it through the day until we become charged with passion, charged with fire, charged with a desire to serve in a new way, charged with faith to go back and hold altar calls, the power of God touch us, in Jesus' name.
Introduction
It's great to be here with you, and have people that are hungry for these things. It's stirring, and we need to be stirred, don't we? We need to be really stirred up inside; so again, we're going to go back, and just start off by just referring to that first scripture we started with, which is the theme: what the world is waiting for, is the manifestation of the sons of God, who are in intimacy with their Father, who accurately represent their Father - having a servant heart, an honouring heart and a powerful anointing. Sons who understand their assignment, and stay within the boundaries of that, and don't mess around with someone else's.
That's why Jesus said: "I've finished My work". He finished the things that the Father gave Me to do. There were still lots of people weren't delivered, still lots of people weren't healed - but that wasn't His assignment. He was assigned to certain ones; He came to the nation, so everyone who came to Him, He ministered to them and healed them. Those who didn't come to Him, He empowered His disciples to carry on the same work.
Main Message
This time I'll talk about: Sonship and Heart Transformation, because part of being a 'son' means that we need to accurately represent the Father.
1 John 3:2 - "now we are the sons (that's children of God, meaning we haven't fully grown to maturity) and it does not yet appear what we shall be. But when He appears, we shall be like Him".
So that speaks to me, you and I are on a journey of transformation, that should be ongoing. If you are not continuing in personal growth, you are stagnating. If you are stagnating, you're living out of yesterday's experience and anointing. We cannot stagnate! We must continue to grow in God; and the growing in God comes by intimacy. So intimacy opens up the parts of our heart where we're blocked, because those are the parts where you're lonely, are bound, are locked up. Those are the parts where love doesn't enter, and love doesn't flow - and we bring those things into our marriages, into our churches, into our leadership... So as leaders, we should model then, that we're on a journey of transformation that will go on all our life; and it will only go on as long as you cooperate; let the Holy Spirit have access, and you are a willing participant in it. If you're not willing to participate, then you'll find yourself allied with a spirit that controls, and shuts down the supernatural, and also steals legacy and other things. I'll talk on that tonight.
I want to focus on the heart; and transformation of the heart. So why is it then, that the heart is so important? I want to give you a number of reasons why the heart of man is so important; and we're going to look at some heart conditions. and why it gets like that; and then the journey or the process of getting out of that place.
So first of all, why is the heart so important? Most churches are concerned with behaviours, but behaviours are the fruit that point to a hidden root. So whatever you see happening outside reflects something from the inside; it is the fruit. The behaviour is the way we do life and relationships, and that flows out of something within us. So even if you take yourself somewhere else, you'll still manifest the same kinds of things around you, because if they're in you, they'll keep producing fruit. So God's interest is always on the root, never just on the fruit. He is not worried about the funny behaviours, and the weirdness that we get up to. He's more concerned about the transformation of the heart, because if you've got the heart, you've got the person. So let me share with you several reasons why the heart is so very important.
When did you last hear someone preaching on the heart; or how the heart gets into bondage, and how to recognise it's in bondage, and how to minister healing to the heart? The church has become motivational. There's nothing wrong with motivational, but if the heart isn't transformed, then it's like wheel-spinning - you get revved up, but you can't go anywhere, because you soon run out of steam. You still go back to the old patterns, the old things, because the structures of bondage are still in place. It's like a riot in a prison camp - at the end, when it's all over, you're still in a prison camp. You're not free! That make sense? A lot of stuff that goes on is like that!
Everyone's ay-ya-ya-ya-ya; they go: I love all of that, give it to me, pump that music up, lets it get it going, I love it all! But it's got to go deeper than just that. It's got to go right into the heart. I love it, it's highly expressive! Anyway, let me give you some reasons why the heart's so important...
#1) The heart is the center of your identity.
Proverbs 23:7 - "as a man thinks in his heart, so he is."
The way you think about yourself determines the identity you'll live out. When we got born again, we received a new identity. We've got the identity; but we still live out of the old, because we haven't yet been changed in our thinking, in our heart belief structures yet. So the person who's rejected, after they've come to Christ, still struggle with rejection; until the truth of their acceptance is established in the heart, and they can say: I am accepted, I am a child of God - I know it in my heart. So the heart is the center of your identity - who you are. As you think in your heart, so you are; and it says: "a man's heart is like water, it answers to the heart". In other words, just as you see your reflection in the water, so you see a man's heart - you'll see what they're really like. We get caught up with what's external, with the giftings and abilities of people, or the appearance of people, all the external trappings - and we get overwhelmed with that, and fail to look at the heart. Pastors and leaders must look at the heart of people. We must become heart specialists, because that's the thing that God is interested in.
#2) The heart is the focus of God's attention. 1 Samuel 16:7, where Samuel is sent to find a new king who will rule Israel; he went to the house where David's father was, and he got all the sons out, and the first one comes out alive - He's tall and good looking. He said: this must be the king; but this is what God said to him. He said: I have rejected that man; and the word 'rejection' is a very strong word, meaning: I have utterly set that man aside as not qualified for this role. Now the prophet, he looked a good man, but to God... and then He said this: "for man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart". What God saw inside him, in his heart, was pride and arrogance - someone He couldn't use as king.
They brought all the sons out, and he thought: this is the one, this is the one, this is the one... and then he gets to the end... what the heck, what's going on here? But God had told him there's a son, so he says: is there anyone else here? They said: oh yeah, there's David, but we've got a problem with David. You know, there's a real question about how he was born, and there's a whole shame around his life; and actually, we don't really include him in the family. We've put him out there where he's in danger with the wild animals, because actually we don't really see him being part of the family. He said: bring him in. They brought him in. He said: that's the man; and this is what God said to David: "this is a man after My own heart".
So God has a heart, and this is what He said about David. See, we know David, lots of things about David that you know - you look at the failures and mistakes, and all the things; but God looked on his heart. So what was there about his heart, that God says: this man, I really love. He's a man after My own heart, who will fulfil my will in this generation. So David, what it means to be 'a man after the heart of God', means: his pursuit, in worship, was to discover the desires of God. Most people pursue God to get something; but he pursued God to find out what God likes - and when he found out what God likes, he totally overturned the whole religious and worship structure of the day; transformed it.
Moses had established the pattern of worship. He got it on the Mount. He was shown what to do. He was given the pattern on the Mount; and there's this young upstart who comes along, and he says: we're changing it all! You've got to have some pretty strong authority to be able to change something that's a historical tradition for the church's worship. He got rid of the whole lot, except the ark; and then he established 24 hours of worship, singing, praise, prophetic ministry. He stepped, because he saw God's heart; he saw way into the future, what God had in mind, what He really wanted; and that these things were all just symbols - they had no power in them, whatsoever.
He saw that what God wanted was Spirit worship, and so he brought it out of the age of grace. He reached past the cross, and brought it back into his age, by revelation. Now that's really something. So before, it was silent, and only one man went; but now everyone's got access, and there's worship, there's music, there's trumpets, there's noise, there's dancing, there's laughing, there's singers... Let's look at it, and you see that it's expressive, and it's passionate, and he's in it. He fought and won; and he's in it, they're jumping up and down... and that's why his wife hated him, because she looked at it, and she despised him: kings don't behave like that! You're supposed to be a king; you don't behave like that!
He said: "I did it to the Lord, and I'll do worse than that - you can't stop me". You can't wet blanket me! I did it to the Lord. So you see - he's a man after God's heart; and God says, in Acts 15 - "I'm going to restore what was taken away, this tabernacle of David". David had a passion for the heart of God. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will seek after, that I dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold His beauty, and to enquire in fellowship with Him" - because I want to know His heart, and then implement it for the generation I live in. If you're looking back at where church has been, you're looking in the wrong direction. We've got to look into the heart of God, and be intimate with Him, and find what is it.
I want to be a man after Your heart, and change what needs to be changed! The old system of someone, they're doing all the ministry - it's gone! It's history! It was never God's plan. He's got a five-fold ministries: apostles, prophets... empowering people to rise up, and carry the power of God; to go out and do something - change the community, pray for people! Get the creativity of God, design things, bring things into the earth! It's a whole new day. You've got to break out. Some of us are still back in Moses' tabernacle and we should be catching the heart of God. It's reformation time, revival time, a change time! Catch the heart of God! So God's attention is always on the heart, because God has a heart too; in His heart, or His motivations.
3) The heart is the focus of Jesus' ministry. If you think of Jesus' ministry, when you look at His teachings - they're all concerned with the heart. He said: you heard it said that you shall not commit adultery - that's actions. He said: I'm telling you something different. He said: it's bigger, and beyond that. He said: if you even look on a woman with lust in your heart, then you've committed adultery - I want your heart pure! In the Old Testament, it said: don't kill people. He said: listen, I'm telling you now, when you've got anger and hatred in your heart, you've got the roots that cause the thing to happen - I want your heart to be free of anger. So everywhere He went, He dealt with the heart.
When He stood up to announce His ministry, He said: the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; He's anointed Me to proclaim, to preach the gospel to the poor, or reconnect people to My Father and then to heal their broken heart - because if you don't heal their broken heart, they can't build intimacy in relationship. They must have their heart healed, because they're shattered and broken. Why would you just overlook the pain and struggles that people have, and not be willing to engage in healing them?
Matthew 15:18 - "out of the heart flow the things that defile a person".
It's not things outside you that defile you. You think: oh, I better avoid that. No, no, no. It's not about avoiding things; it's about being clean on the inside, so the things outside you don't defile you. Jesus showed it with the leper. He showed physically what it looks like. He found a leper, the leper came to Him; and it was advanced state of leprosy, totally unclean, totally defiling. It's a highly infectious disease. His thinking is: but what's in Me is more powerful than that, and so He touched him. No one touched them. You didn't touch a leper. To touch a leper, you're ceremonially defiled, and you run the risk of being a leper yourself. That didn't worry Him! He said: what's in Me is stronger than that. Boom! Touched him. Connected to him, because His big pain was disconnection in the heart. Then he got healed as well. So when you start to look at this, you'll see that Jesus is always concerned with the heart - what motivated people. So we've got to be concerned with the heart as well.
4) Let's just give you a few more reasons why the heart's so important. The fourth thing is, the heart is the center of the boundaries and borders of your life.
Proverbs 4:23 - "guard your heart diligently, for out of your heart flow the issues of your life".
The word issues is the word 'borders', or 'boundaries of the territory'. In other words, the limitations of your life are determined by what you believe in your heart. If you have poverty in your heart... no matter what you have, you'll always see poverty. Here's another reason why the heart is important: because you interpret life from your heart. You see it with your eyes, but that's just signals. You interpret it with your heart.
In other words, when people say and do things, they just said and did something; but it's you who decides what that means - because you judge it in your heart. So in Matthew 7, he said: don't judge. Learn not to judge. Be an observer, not a judge. You've got no idea really what's going on. He said: if you become a judge, then you're just going to start to reap things in your life, because it's in your heart. The judgements you have in your heart will be a cycle that you'll keep reaping in your life. That's why patterns keep forming - because there's judgements in the heart. He said: first get the beam out of your own eye, then you'll see clearly. In other words, what's in our heart stops us seeing clearly. We just don't see people; we see them through what's in our heart.
So if someone just ignores you, what does that mean? It doesn't mean anything. Maybe they didn't see you. I don't know what it means. You won't really know unless you actually ask them, and we jump to conclusions and judgements about what it means; and we don't engage the person to find out, because our heart has got the judgement and the offence in it already. So if you've got offence in your heart, people will offend you all the time. If you're offended with your father or your mother, you'll be offended by authority figures all your life. You won't even see possibility that you could be wrong. You will interpret their actions always in terms of what's in your heart.
That's why your heart's so important. That's what is the cause of so many problems in marriages. We miscommunicate; and instead of asking for clarification, we jump to conclusions about what that might have meant - out of what's in our heart. Our heart then defiles the relationship. That's why it says to 'guard your heart'.
Hebrews 12:15 - "beware, lest you fall from the grace of God, and a root of bitterness springs up".
Where does it spring up? In your heart! Bitterness springs up when you've allowed offences to accumulate - you become angry, resentful, and then bitterness is there. When people are bitter, they don't even know why they're bitter; they're just negative about everything. They've long ago lost what caused them the problem, but the fruit of bitterness flows out of their life, and it says that it poisons every relationship.
It doesn't matter whether you're a pastor or not. It's got nothing to do with the role you play. It's got to do with your heart. If your heart's bitter, bitterness flows everywhere you are. You see why the heart's so important when you try to counsel people in marriage, or counsel people in life. If you just try to deal with behaviours, and don't deal with the heart you'll never get lasting change. They'll be inspired, but they won't change.
#5) The heart is the center of faith.
Proverbs 3:4-6 - "Trust in the Lord with all your... Heart!"
Trust is an issue of the heart. If you have experienced betrayal or disconnection in the earliest years of your life - say, if there was no bonding with a mother, then you've never learnt to trust, because the first bonding that would have formed trust has not been formed. So suspicion and distrust become the thing that grow in your heart, and affect all relationships.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart" - so trust is an issue of the heart.
"Lean not on your own reasoning or understanding; in all your ways be intimate with Him and He will direct your ways".
Romans 10:10 - "a man believes with his heart".
So faith, the faith for miracles, is in the heart. Also, unbelief is in the heart, so where people have been rejected, and they come to a conclusion: I'm not good enough - it's hard for them to believe for any miracles for themselves, because inside their heart is conflicted with what the word of God says. The heart needs to be healed. The word of God is sewn in your... Heart! It can bring forth fruit, or not bring forth fruit, depending on the condition of your heart.
Most people, when they hear that Parable of the Sower and the Seed, put themselves somewhere. They never think: I might be the wayside; no, I'm here in church... and I wouldn't be the rocky ground. No, no, I'm here every week! I wouldn't be the thorny ground, no, no, I'm serving in the church. Isn't it wonderful how we hear: 30, 60, 100, and think: I'll just be modest, I'm 30-fold. So we put ourselves in there, not really thinking that actually: in one part of our life, we may actually be really bearing fruit, but another part really barren, hard, hard ground - and often that's in family. It's the heart. It's really important.
I will just give you one more scripture... In the last days the condition in the earth, of hardness of heart will be so great, that God has to send a revival to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the fathers to the children. He would not send an end time move like that, unless there's a major issue with hearts - disconnected relationships in marriages and families. It will be so great, that it will need a revival to repair the damage! Elijah had to confront what was the substitute for the reality of God's spirit and love, which was a controlling power. So whenever the heart is damaged, if we don't get it healed, we will come under a controlling spirit, and we will become controllers.
So the heart is where you experience and carry the presence of God.
Ephesians 3:16-17 - "His prayers will be strong, strengthened with might in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your... Heart, by faith"
Our spirit is joined to the Lord, but the manifestation of His presence, where we feel Him, is in our heart. But if your heart has got walls, then you don't feel the presence of God. You know He's there by faith, in your spirit, you're born again; but you don't feel it, because the feeling of God is in the heart. The emotions that you feel are a reflection of your heart speaking.
Romans 5:5 - "Now the love of God is shed aboard... out of our hearts."
Where is the love of God felt and experienced? In your heart - and it flows from your heart, if you have revelation of it. So all ministry should be flavoured with the revelation of the love of God, not with agenda to be important. So your prophesying, if there's no love in it, is like 'clanging', because people feel: I see what you're doing, but actually something's missing. I don’t feel the love. I see what's done, but I don’t feel the love. The love is the heart part in it.
The love is the investment of the heart. This is one of the reasons relationships break down - we don't feel the love, because the heart has become hardened by all kinds of things: disappointments, and griefs, and setbacks, and other things; so the flow is reduced.
#6) The heart is the place where sin, or faith, is conceived. In Matthew 5:28, we saw that adultery is conceived in the heart; and finally, the heart is the center of your motivation. Your motives are the motives of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 it talks about the word of God being sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the diving asunder of soul and spirit, and the intents and motives of the heart. So the intentions that drive you, the motives that drive you, really come out of what's going on in your heart.
If you don't connect with your heart, how will you know what really moves you? That's why we've got to be tender in the presence of the Lord, and allow Him access to our heart, so He can show us the places where actually, there's a hidden agenda behind a lot of what we do - so we can represent Him accurately. God has no agenda except to love you. His love is a gift to you, but we kind of get caught up with this thing where actually, I've got a leverage in here, I want to get something, that's why I'm doing this, and this, and this. That's what makes it all political, and it makes it something missing in it - and you can actually feel it.
One of the things I've loved about coming to Asia, and I love about Asians, is they're acutely sensitive to anyone who has an agenda. They just feel it, like that. And what's given me ability to be there, is just to love people with a pure heart - so it's given me access to, and favour with, people. I have access, there's two or three family dynasties that pretty well run Taiwan financially. I have access to two of them as a friend. They will come to me, because there's nothing they have, that I want. I just want to be their friend, and love them, and help them. I would never - it would offend me to even consider the money issue, because that would wreck the relationship. I'm here to love them, and to help them, because they have an influence in society. If I can help and empower them, they will touch people I could never reach. But you understand, you can't have an agenda if you're going to do that. The only agenda is to love the people, and empower them, and heal them where they need healing. There's got to be that purity around it, and that's why we're to grow, mature and love.
The Bible talks about many different heart conditions. I encourage you to look at them, and discover some of them. The most obvious one, is the condition of a broken heart.
Psalm 147:3 - "the Lord heals the broken heart and binds up all their wounds". So Jesus came to announce that He healed the broken heart, but the heart can be broken. The heart can be fearful. The heart can be bitter, very bitter. The heart can be very hard. The heart can be angry. People that have got anger in their heart... they're just angry all the time. They don't even know why they're angry. They stir it, they're like a ball just waiting to go off. Just a little thing will set them off, because there's a whole lot of unresolved offences in the heart.
A heart can be numb or disconnected. This is the condition that many men are in, but also many women who have been traumatised. For example, Tamar in the Bible, when she was sexually abused by her brother, the Bible tells us this: she remained numb, and devastated in the house. That's the word 'numb' - a disconnected heart. A disconnected heart is where you've had so much pain, that you have literally shut down engaging the pain, as your way of dealing with it. Instead of getting it healed, you've buried it; but it's buried alive, and the consequence is you become hardened and don't feel anymore.
Many people can't feel things, because their heart is hardened. I prayed for one pastor's wife, she hadn't felt love in 40-plus years; and the reason was, her father rejected her and wanted only boys, so she made a decision she would have to shut down the emotional side of herself, and compete with the men. In doing that, a spirit of death came around her - shut her heart up, and all her life she never felt anything, until we got her delivered and healed - and then she felt lots of things. Then actually her identity came out; because this is the word I had... I said: what I see is that you're in a cave, hiding. I cannot see the real you - and she tried to avoid me of course, like crazy, but I said to the pastor: I'm coming to your church, and I don't need to preach; but I'm going to meet your wife. We're going to talk.
So I helped him with his process of getting her free, and it changed their marriage completely, it changed her. She's just like, radiating with life! Another person I can think of now, and her mother had a terrible miscarriage; incredibly painful, traumatic. So when she got pregnant again, she'd never been healed, because then that faith moved. In other words, what you do is you murder your heart, so while we need to hold the word of God, it's got to be in the heart; and if the heart's wounded, then heal the heart, then put the word in. Don't just, out of will power, try to do something to try and overcome something that really needs healing. So what she did was, she put a wall round her heart, so she wouldn't be hurt in the next pregnancy by a possible loss; but here's the consequence: her daughter experienced deep rejection, deep disconnection and would not bond with her mother; and so the mother and daughter were hostile to each other, all their lives.
She said: I have never been able to work out why I had the conflict. Now I get it. I'm angry from the womb at being rejected. I need to repent and forgive. I never realised that. Isn't that amazing? I actually love all of this stuff, because everywhere I go, people's stories are so interesting. and nothing's like what it appears to be. What you see is not real; it's just the outward thing. What you've really got to see is the heart. When you see the heart... sometimes I've just cried with people, what they've gone through is so sad. How could people still survive all of that?
The church, they've got them sitting in the church every week, needing healing, needing a ministry to the heart. Heart transformation; so the hidden roots in the heart produce external fruits and behaviour, and you need to deal with them. God's plan for transformation starts on the inside. So how does God change us? Religion will try and change you externally, by forming a culture, or a pressure to conform in a certain way; so you'll find when there's religion, or a religious spirit, it will always try to control you to perform, and reject you if you don't play the game. You can never really be you. You have to conform; and so of course, you're lonely all the time and you're pretending, and you have to live within this thing.
But when God changes us, He changes from the heart. He wants truth in the inward parts. David wrote: "You delight in truth in the inner parts" - not lies, not cover ups, not pretending. God wants truth in the inner parts. So how does God change us? Number 1, He solves the power problem by putting a spirit in us, so we become born again; meaning: God's spirit joins to our spirit, internally we have a power source, and that power source is called the Holy Ghost. When He's in our heart, He says: you know what? I want to reveal to you, over and over again: you're a child of God! The Holy Spirit bears witness, that we are the children of God. He tells you: you're a child of God. You're accepted, you're loved, you belong.
You've got a father who loves you, cares for you. He's got a plan for your life. He puts the power, He puts the identity, on the inside; shifts it now, this is who I am, I'm totally transformed. But there's an outworking of that. The other thing He says, in Ezekiel 36, "I'll put a heart of flesh". So He puts in a new spirit - that’s the Holy Spirit - but then He puts a heart of flesh, because it was stony before. It didn't believe God, didn't want God, rebelled against God... it was stony, in that respect; but after we've come to the Lord, our heart has become changed towards God - not completely healed, just changed in its orientation. We now have a tender heart, we actually want to please God. People want to please God - they just don't know how. The Holy Spirit helps us how.
The heart however, is still in a damaged condition, and it needs transformation. If you transform the heart, you transform the person; but it cannot take place without the anointing of the Holy Ghost, and your willing participation. This is a life journey of transformation on the inside out. We get hung up with all the mistakes and failures and things, get condemned. The devil accuses you, tells you're no good... this, this, this, all that sort of stuff. God's not even worried a toot about that, because He already paid the price, for all of it to be forgiven. He just wants your heart! If your heart is towards Him, then even if you're up and down, it doesn't make any difference. He's still helping you all the way. You've just got to find where the heart is.
Capture the heart, and you've got the person. He wants your heart. That's why He said: love the Lord with all your... heart. Well, here's a question: if your heart has been shattered, how can you love Him with all your heart? You can love Him with the part you're conscious of, but the other broken bits are going to need to be healed, and repacked, restored. That's why David said: "unite my heart". It's all fractured. I've got little bits over here that are hurt, and I buried them there; and another bit hurt, and I fractured that one off there. Another bit over here, and I've got all these parts in my life, all these things in my life, and I've just buried them all here. Now I've got a pile of pain! But in my heart, in the core of me, I love You, and I want to serve You; but the other stuff caused me to malfunction.
So God says: it's okay, I accept your love. Let's just walk the journey. You be committed to pursuing Me, and being intimate, and allow Me access; leave Me to do the work with your heart. Isn't that amazing? So how does God do the work with your heart? Well, He just engineers a few circumstances, and you suddenly hear yourself - now where did that come from? And if you'll just stop, and go quiet a little bit, and listen, the Holy Spirit will tell you exactly where it came from - a wounded heart somewhere, an offence in the heart, anger unresolved, resentment unresolved. Everyone is trying to change the world around them, and they don't change themselves. Change yourself! You want to change the world? Start with yourself. Change your own world.
So God heals the broken heart; and the word 'broken' means to be shattered into pieces. It means to be crippled or quenched, so when our heart has been wounded by events in life, it becomes shattered, or crippled, or unable to function. In the spirit that's what it's like: your leg is broken, and you're dragging it behind you; and they say: why won't he run, I don't know why he won't run. Why won't you run? In this church, you need to run. Run brother! It's like putting a pressure to do something that they can't do. They're powerless to do it.
The woman that was bowed down with a spirit of infirmity, it said she had no power to stand up! She had a demon on her. That's where a lot of Christians are, they've got demons riding on them, having access into the wounds and the brokenness, and they're hunched up, they can't go anywhere. They need healing and deliverance. That's what His ministry was: heal the broken-hearted; deliver the captives. The word 'wound' means literally to be an idol. An idol is a substitute for God that you end up serving, and become angry with. So when you've got a wound in your heart, you end up serving it. It controls your life, because now, you know what'll happen?
Instead of wanting to love people, now I'm going to hold myself back, and I've got to guard myself. You might hurt me, so now that what's governing my life is a pain in my heart, and the spirit driving it is the spirit of fear, rather than actually the love of God. That's why He needs to deal with these things; we want God to touch those areas. Lord, touch my heart, heal my heart, whatever it is. Jeremiah makes the complaint, in Jeremiah 6:14 - "they've healed the heart of My people lightly, saying 'peace brother, peace' - but there's no peace!" There's war in the heart, and the people need healing. In your ministry, do you have a process for healing the broken heart? Do you have a process for setting the captives free?
Is there a process in place? Do you celebrate that this is part of everyone's journey; or do you allow them to come in, take them through a little bit of a program, connect them in, take the money, and them get them serving... but their hearts are still broken, and there's no process to heal them, and restore them? We need to be committed to do that, because that is Jesus' ministry - and you don't want to have people broken. If your children are hurting, you know what a mother does? They run; oh they fuss over them; get them, and bind them all up, and hug them, and reassure them. They do something! A church is a mother to God's family. We need to do that; heal them, and bind them all up.
So there are many ways that people can have a broken heart. It's many; but it's either things that happen to us; or things that are withheld from us break the heart. Things that happen to us; or things that are removed; or that we need for life, and they are withheld. Rejection will break the heart; abandonment will break the heart. Abuse will break the heart - sexual abuse, emotional abuse, abuse of any kind shatters the heart, causes wounding; it varies from person to person. Being bullied, being hated just because of who you are - all of these things break the heart; being in an unstable, unpredictable, unsafe environment will break the heart. Going from loss and grief break the heart. Betrayal breaks the heart. These are things people have happen to them.
Controlling relationships break the heart, and cause people to feel deeply rejected. Sometimes in some families, it's not what was actively done; it's just because of various reasons, what was needed was withheld, and that was what broke the heart. We have certain needs that we're born into this life with: love and acceptance. When people are not loved and cherished, it affects them. They begin to make conclusions about why I'm not loveable. If acceptance is withheld, because for example, you're a woman or female, rather than a male - this affects your whole identity. So you understand then, if there's a lack of nurture; even a simple thing like being prematurely born, and then put in an incubator for a while - that will affect the child.
Being separated from a mother affects the child. I know, I've gone through both of those. It affects you deeply, because the bonding that should have happened doesn't happen. The nurture that should have happened, doesn't happen; and then you're affected, and wounded, and come to conclusions about yourself, and life. Demons use all that to manipulate and torment you. Lack of touch and affection affects people - lack of just affection, just a hug and a touch. Some families don't touch or don't hug; it affects the child. It's one way that love is communicated, just through touch and hugging.
A lack of affirmation (this is one of the major ones) - a father's role is to affirm and speak into the sons and daughters. When that's withheld, they don't know what to believe about themselves, so they believe the lies of the devil - that there's something wrong with them, they're not good enough, never good enough. Then they get angry, and then you've got rebellion going on, and you don't even know why it's there; but there was a withholding, of what would have nurtured the plant. You know, I have trouble with plants! I don't know what happens, I have them one day, and then they're dead. I don't know what happens. Somehow they die, and so I don't even bother now, it's just too hard for me. I'm just not into it - but you understand, they didn't die because it was a bad place or anything. They're in a lovely place and lots of sun, it's just the thing they needed wasn't given. They didn't get the water.
Simple - so you can hurt people if you don't give them the right things. Lack of welcome, just the lack of celebration; just a child unwanted, and then being unwelcome because of some shortfalls or whatever, or difficulties - all of that has dramatic affect on the heart of the child. So these are some of the ways that people get hurt, and Jesus came to heal it. He came to heal it! Do you realise that one of the things Jesus took for us was a broken heart?
In Psalm 69 it tells us: "Reproach has broken my heart. I sought for comfort and there was none, for help and no one would help".
I just weep when I read it, even sharing it, that actually the treatment that Jesus received broke His heart. It's how He can heal broken hearts - he's represented our broken heart. He's taken our pain to the cross. He took all of those things to the cross.
So what would be some keys? I think the first thing is to recognise: it's a journey you take.
Psalm 84:4-6 - "Blessed is the man whose strength is in the Lord, whose heart embraces pilgrimage or the journey, who passes through the Valley of Tears, and makes it into a well. That person will go from strength to strength."
So what it's saying simply is: there is a process, we walk with God and in that journey, when we let Him heal the places of pain, they become a place we can comfort others. So whatever hurt you, whatever came into your life that damaged and hurt you - if you'll let God into it to heal you, not only will your life change, you will be empowered to help others. Someone is waiting for your breakthrough. Someone needs you to break through, to testify of the reality of the power of the Risen Christ. Someone needs you to do that; and if you will hold back, then you're not only perpetuating the pain; you're multiplying its impact, rather than experiencing healing and being able to minister to someone else.
Here's one other thought; this is something the Lord showed me. Many people look back on their family, at some of the things that happened, and it varies. For some, it's quite a happy family; for others, there was a lot of grief, and trauma, and all kinds of dramas going on. Have you thought of this: that maybe God, who could see all of this, put you into that family, to end the generational cursing in the family, to bring the pattern to an end, and generate a new pattern for the next generation. That you are actually a gift to the family - a gift from God to that family, to end the cycle of pain and start a different pattern: different fathering, different mothering, different family-building. You're actually building something different; not repeating the stuff that went on that hurt you. Have you thought of that?
You'll find it in Isaiah 61 - "that they might repair the desolation of generations". You're not called just to be healed in your heart for yourself. You're called to be healed in your heart, so you can carry the heart of God and rebuild the damage - the damage that's been done in families, damage been done in young people, the damage that's done in our society. Someone has to rebuild that; and those who let God into their heart, to heal their heart, can see clearly to heal the heart of others.
The more I've let God into my heart, the more I've wept and let Him deal with my pain, the more empathy and compassion I have for others, and the more easy it is for me to see it when I'm with people. No matter how you hide it, and you can hide it all you like, it just leaks like tears - it just leaks out. It cannot be hidden for those who have an eye to see, but if your heart is still hard, you just don't see. You can't see it. You just get people behaving and performing. How we need leaders that are healed, that embrace the journey of healing, and give permission to their people to do the same. They're not going to present an image that: I've got it all together; but rather, I'm on a journey of healing and wholeness, and I have my challenges, in my personal life and ministry.
I want you to know that God is committed to me, and I'm committed to the journey; and I'm creating a safe environment for you, to be committed to that journey. But when we cover it up, they just carry the burdens of loneliness. How can we journey? Well, we have to realise first of all, it is a journey; second, you need to ask the Holy Spirit to bring revelation to your heart - where you're broken, where you're not functioning. He will bring it. Maybe someone will yell at you, and tell you? There's lots of ways He's got of getting your attention. Maybe the problem you're having right now, you're looking at the other person, instead of saying: God, what is this revealing about me? You understand - when you're looking at someone else, you can never change your life.
You've just got to look at what am I doing: is the love of God manifest in my heart and life; or is there something else? So we need to then ask the Holy Spirit: uncover where was I hurt. Who hurt me? What did they do? How did that feel? You see, we spend all our life trying to stop feeling. Then we say: God, I don't feel you.
Hey, why don't you ask this prayer: Holy Spirit, show me where I stopped feeling and shut my heart up, I surrender control. How did I feel? How did I respond? How did this affect my life? What did I do to protect myself; because all of that I've got to undo, in order to let God in. Is there someone I need to forgive from my heart? Notice what Jesus said: forgive from the heart.
To forgive from the heart, you've got to connect to the pain. Oh, is there an easier way? No. But I've been spending all my life trying to stop the pain! No, no, now you have permission to feel it, and bring it to the cross. This time, you don't have to control it. You can let God heal it.
Is there someone I need to forgive? Do I need to break my agreement with lies, or with vows I made to protect my heart; lies about myself, lies about men, lies about women, lies about life, lies about God, lies about money? Have I agreed with things that now dominate my life - that's what runs my life: I believed a lie?
I've had people do that. I had one woman, she had her fifth miscarriage, and when we got down to the root of it, basically she hated her father, and made vows: I'll never carry a male child. Another woman, she'd gone through some terrible thing, and she so hated being a woman, she cursed her own womb, and then had major problems that went after that.
See, we do things to try and manage the pain, and they create another layer of problems. Demons access those things. Then I need to establish the truth in my heart; what is the truth? Meditate on the truth. Ask the Holy Spirit to build it into your life: I am loved. I am loveable. I am my Father's delight. I'm accepted. I am safe. My Father has my back. I've always got Him with me. You need the truth to enter your heart; it comes through meditation.
Is there something you need to put right, someone you need to apologise to, because you behaved so badly you also contributed to the problem? You need to just humble yourself and say: I'm so sorry, please forgive me. Are there patterns you need to change in how you deal with life? You understand, that's what heart transformation looks like. It's painful. That's why people don't want to do it; but it's fruit-bearing, because you change. One breakthrough will change your life!
My marriage changed when I saw I was bitter, and I realised why I was bitter, and repented and confessed it to my wife, and to the Lord, and asked for forgiveness, and it was put right. Otherwise, if we don't do these things, if we don't let God have access to our heart, how can you struggle through ministry? We need help, help of the Holy Ghost. He'll help you.
Closing Prayer
Why don't we just close our eyes, open our hearts. Holy Spirit, come. Perhaps there's some of you right now as I've just talked, I feel the Spirit of God is on you now, and you've been in a turmoil, but it's starting to clear, and actually I have an issue I need to face. You're not responsible for someone else's stuff, just sort your own out. When you're changed, everything around you changes. The people who become most angry when you set boundaries, are the ones who benefited most when you didn't have them; so change is not always easy, because people react, and try to get us back to the way we were. But you're called to be free, free to fulfill your course, free to be intimate with Father, free to have a free heart, free to be who you are, free, free in your heart and soul and spirit, free to fulfill what God called you to.
So perhaps today God's speaking to you right now and you say: God, I just need you to touch me now. I don't want to miss the moment. There's something I need to bring to you. There's something I need to let go of. It is a journey, but it starts with a step; so why don't you just make a step to the front today, and say: God, I realise my heart is aching. I just want to come and say: I'm hearing you talk into me. I want to open up my heart, and surrender control, and give You access to my heart; and to begin the journey of owning the responsibility for my own heart. I want to guard my heart, and nurture my heart, because this is what's causing the limitations on my life.