ABIDING John 15

00:00
Right now the enemy is doing whatever he wants in society because the church is so passive.  So he has all this free time.  The whole point of the Church is to make him work so hard that he hasn’t got any time to terrorize society.  So we should be terrorizing him. And we’re not.  He shows up and we all run away squealing.  Or we don’t even show up for the fight.  Or we don’t even know how to fight if we do show up.
00:34
Now there are things for us to learn.  There are things for us to become.  Everything in your life is useful to God!  He allows in His wisdom what He could easily prevent by His power.  Every single thing in your life is for your development.  … Yeah?  Everything is about you being developed.  It’s about your faith increasing.  It’s about the presence of God increasing.  It’s about your peace increasing.   It’s about your rest; your joy.  It’s about your power increasing.  It’s about your anointing going to a new level.  It’s about your understanding; your developing.  It’s about wisdom coming into your heart and life and making a difference.  Every single thing in your life right now is useful to God!  He doesn’t waste anything! ...  He doesn’t waste a thing!
01:25
So if you want to abide, you have to abide in that revelation, that everything is useful.  Everything is for you.  So when you don’t abide, you actually think everything is against you.  Everything is for you.  Even the worst of things can be for you!  We learn how to fight. We learn how to wait. We learn how to be with God.  We learn how to worship.  We learn how to take our thanksgiving to a new dimension.  Everything is useful.  Even devastating things can be useful because it is about you becoming more of who you should be.
02:05
God always knows what’s coming.  The thing that I love about God is that He is always - He is Present-Future in how He sees you.  You have two relationships with God; one in the present and one in the future that’s coming towards you.  So God always relates to you in two places.  So – and this again – this is an Old Testament revelation. You find it in Genesis chapter 18, verse 17.  And, you know, God comes to Abraham and ...  it’s that moment when He says to – He’s been saying to Abraham – “There’s a son coming.  There’s a son coming.”  And finally on this visit He say’s the son will be here next year.  Sara’s like giggling behind the tent.  And the Lord says, “Sara, what are you laughing for?” and Sara says, “O no, I’m not really laughing – and He said, “No! But you are!”  And He’s just about to walk off and Abrahams with Him and God starts this conversation with these two angels and Abraham is listening in – and He’s saying to these two angels, “Shall I declare to Abraham what I’m about to do now, since He is going to become a father of many nations.  Yeah?  - Key word “since”.  Shall I declare to Abraham My purpose now, since he is going to become this?  Yeah?  So God is looking at two Abrahams here:  the one that’s present and the one that’s coming.  He’s going to become this, so because he is going to become this, he needs to understand this!  So, you need to understand your present in the light of your future!  You need to understand where you are now, in the light of where you’re going.  God is present-future!  It’s like, here’s God in 2012 and He’s looking at you and He’s speaking to you – this is what I see in 2012!  We’re hearing the echo of that in 2006 ‘cause somebody is prophesying to us what God is seeing!  So God is seeing who you are in 2012 and He’s speaking that back to you here in 2006.
04:30
And someone is prophesying and you’re hearing this is what you’re going to become.  So God sees two versions of you!  There is always a better version of you coming!  Yeah?  Or, as my friend Kim Clement says, “God sees you in the future and you look much better than you are right now.”
04:50
So God sees two pictures of you, present-future.  And then what He does – what Jesus does – because Jesus is an intercessor – what do intercessors do?  They stand in the gap!  Jesus stands in the gap between your present and your future – praying for that journey!  Isn’t that cool?  God shows you another version of yourself in this next season this is what you are going to become and Jesus steps into that place and starts praying for you that you’ll become that.  The Holy Spirit meanwhile, He ties this like silken cord around this guy in the future and brings it into the present and ties it around you and then you are following that pathway of the prophetic into your future.  Yeah?  
05:50
So we are learning how to bring the future into today!  And how do you do that?  If you’ve got a word about, God says in 2012, you’re gonna be a warrior, but in 2006 you’re a worrier, something has to change.  So now you have to think … “OK, I’m anxious, I’m timid, I’m cautious, I worry a lot, but God sees a warrior!”  So you have to start thinking what are the characteristics of a warrior?  Well, I need to start to learn how to become that – so, all of your journey from 2006 to 2012, all your journey is about developing the warrior and getting rid of the worrier.  So all your circumstances are about teaching you courage, strength in adversity, teaching you how to get fit, and how to get strong in the Lord.  All of your circumstances are about that.  Does that make sense?
06:55
When prophecy has come, prophecy always starts the process.  And the process is a series of steps that takes me from where I am right now to where God wants me to be.   And all those steps are about you learning to become fruitful in everything.  So God allows in His wisdom what he could easily prevent by His power.  So what is happening is all the situations we encounter are always for our benefit; always for our development; always for our fruitfulness.  God is teaching you how to be fruitful.  
07:40
Fruitful in character: Because you live in the fruit of the Spirit.  You’re demonstrating Christ like behavior; working with the Holy Spirit to respond and not to react. 

Fruitfulness in life: Because God wants you successful; He wants you to prosper; He wants you to learn sensitivity to the Holy Spirit; He wants you to grow in faith and confidence!  He wants you to learn how to step out in His will and His plan!
08:15
Fruitful in ministry: He wants you to learn how to break through, not just for yourself, but how to help somebody else break through.  He wants you to learn how to overcome.  He wants you to learn how to overwhelm the enemy when he’s trying to overwhelm you.  He wants you to learn how to produce things under pressure.  He wants you to learn the anointing that enables you to stand, and then press in!  He wants you to learn how to be fruitful in and out of season; How to be fruitful in hard times; how to make the enemy pay!  There are times when God does not want you just to survive something.  He might want you to prosper in it!!   Yeah?  Fruitful!!!!   Yeah?
09:10
Abiding does not prevent bad situations from arising, but it does enable you to stay connected to Gods permanent emotions which are love, joy and peace; to remain connected to God’s will and purpose and for you to remain clean and fruitful in even the most difficult circumstances!
09:40
Let’s just check out verse 6 here:
“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”
10:00
This is not talking about a believer.  This is talking about a non-believer.  We are in Christ by virtue of what the Father has done with the Son.  So you and I are connected to the vine.  This is talking about someone who has never been connected.  I need you to understand something here about God’s faithfulness.  The Greek word for faithfulness is “hesed” and it means a fixed and determined love.  God has a fixed and determined love towards you, and He’s not changing!!  It’s a love that God keeps and watches over.  It’s a love that preserves the life of the Beloved when under attack.  But the Beloved has to stay close.  If you run away you’re gonna find yourself a victim of something.  It’s a word that means – Hesed means – in love, being true to your own word towards somebody.  It’s a covenantal faithfulness that does not dessert or abandon another.  And God’s affection for us is what makes that covenant real.  So all the way through scripture we see God faithfully cultivating a relationship with Israel who does nothing but violate the relationship and rebel against Him continuously.
11:40
Now Christ is the covenant maker.  The covenant is NOT between you and God.  It is between Jesus and the Father.  Yeah?  So, Hebrews 7, let me read this to you.  This is good news Beloved!  Hebrews 7: 20….
“In as much as it was not without an oath for they indeed became priests without an oath, that He with an oath to the one who said to Him, the Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, you are a priest forever, so much the more also, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.”
12:30

Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant!  The covenant that you have with the Father is the fact that you are in Christ and Jesus is the covenant maker.  So everything the Father does for you, He doesn’t do because of you, He does it because of Jesus.  Yeah?  So it’s a guarantee.  Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant.  He’s the covenant maker.  The covenant therefore is between the Father and the Son, and it’s forever!  And this arrangement can never change.  Because Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except by Me,” because I’m the covenant maker!  He’s the guarantee of a better covenant.  And this phrase – in Christ – is used 88 times in scripture.  We come to God by means of Christ, and God is faithful to that covenant because He made it with His Son.  The Father therefore is delighted with this agreement and will always honor it.  Woah, ho ho!  Phew!  What incredible freedom we have to be loved.  We are the Beloved of God.  That’s the good news!  I am so loved by God. 
13:50
I sat on a plane going from Chicago to Sacramento and I sat there and I’m reading the New Testament and the guy next to me says, “What’s that you’re reading!”  I said, “Aye it’s a cookery book.”  He said, “No it’s not, it’s a Bible!”  I said “Dude, no getting anything past you, hey?”  And he starts to kind of like have this conversation with me about “You’re a Christian.  You actually believe all that God stuff?”  And his voice is dripping with contempt.  And I’m thinking – “Flippin cheek! What a nerve!”  So I let him finish and then I said “Hang on a minute.  So you’re saying to me is that you’re NOT a Christian?  You’re Not a Christian?  What the heck is wrong with you?  You’re Not a Christian?  I can’t believe you’re not a Christian?  You don’t know God?  Oh my God – how do you live with yourself?”   (Don’t mess with me on the plane, because you can’t get off!)  And so I just let him have it.  “You’re not a Christian?  Oh my goodness!  What do you do for peace?  I mean don’t cha know there’s tons of love available?  Don’t cha know what it’s like to live in the pleasure of God?  To have God in your life, to know what’s coming in the future?  You don’t know any of that?  How the heck do you live with yourself?  My God!  I didn’t think people like you existed!”  I so ripped him up, bless his heart.  Then people all over the plane are looking at me.  It was great!  I had so much fun.  The guy was like saying, “Ok Dude, shut up.”  (You started it boy.) 
16:10
I was saying to him, “You know what the good news is?  The good news is I am incredibly loved by God.  You know what the love of God does for me?  It makes me amazingly confident about life.  Ya know that God loves me so powerfully and so well, that everything in my life is gonna have a purpose!  And ya know that God has dreams about me and wants me to know what that dream is!”  I just liked soften the whole thing and just like got into the gospel.  “This is why I’m a Christian, because it’s like amazing.  It’s incredible news.  I love God!  I love being with God.”  And it’s like everyone around is like thinking, could you turn the volume up a little bit.  Everyone around is like thinking, “Wow I’d like to know God!  Is God interested in me?  Yeah, everyone has a question about that.  
17:13
Christ keeps the covenant on our behalf.  So the good news just got even better.  He is there keeping your covenant for you so that the Father can give you favor.  And so we’re learning how to live in Christ in that context.  …. Yeah?  We enter the covenant as participators of His grace.  We are the joyful recipients of His favor.  And no matter where we go or what we do, God will remain faithful to love us.  And He will cultivate the land of our life and the garden of our heart and He’s gonna weed out sin and He’s gonna plant things in us that will grow.  Jesus is the vine and there is no sin in Him.  So walking with God powerfully means that sin ceases to have dominion over you.  In that your habit patterns cannot be formed by your own carnality.  Your habit patterns get to be formed by righteousness and by peace and by holiness.
18:30
There are only two reasons for a branch of a good vine not to bear fruit.  Firstly because it is not actually attached.  It’s not a part of the vine.  It has no spiritual connection.  It has no sap connection.  This is speaking metaphorically of a religious person who claims to know God, Ya know, “I’m a believer cause I go to church.” But has never had a salvation experience.  If you’re not connected to God in life, you’re not connected in the after life and there is absolutely no fruit of the Presence of God in you.  The second reason for a branch not bearing fruit is because it’s hanging down.  If a branch is hanging down, sap can only rise to the highest point.  So you can get a part of your life that is not fruitful, because actually it needs to be lifted up.  Yeah?  So what part of your life right now is not fruitful?  It just needs to be lifted up.  That’s what encouragement is about.  You see, the church should be the best organization on earth for encouragement.  You see someone’s life not being fruitful, the issue is, you’ve just got to lift that piece up.  Sap goes to the highest point so that part of the branch that is not receiving life needs to be lifted up and trained at a higher level.
20:05
It’s like the correlation between high praise and victory.  As long as Aaron and Joshua held up Moses’ arms, Israel prevailed in the fight against the enemy.  It’s the same thing.  The church actually should be the most encouraging society of people on the face of the earth.  That noone is safe from being blessed.  Yeah?  And we are actively looking around for people to encourage.       Isa. 60:1-5
20:35
Some times I think in certain places, church can be the most discouraging of places, cause you’re ok until you have a problem.  Or you’re ok until you sin.  And then you’re not ok.  Well the church needs to be encouraging at all times.  You know!  When you’ve sinned that’s when you need grace, and somebody in the church needs to be supplying the grace that you need so you can change.  So if a part of your life is unfruitful right now the Holy Spirit wants to take that part and lift it into a higher place of relationship.  
21:25
Maybe your current experience of life has gone beyond your present experience of God.  You need to be lifted up.  You’re current situation has gone beyond your present experience of who God is for you.  So you need to be lifted up.  You need to be encouraged into a higher place of relationship.  Maybe you need to be encouraged into a higher place of trust; a higher place of peace; a higher place of grace.  This is what we are for each other.  This is what we do.  This is what we should be famous for in the world.  No one should be safe from a blessing!  No matter where you go, no matter who they are….no one’s safe.
22:15
I was talking to a Satanist on the plane because he was there to curse me, which is great fun.  So he has a seat assignment next to me that his Covent actually got him.  So before the wheels even come up into the plane he’s introducing himself as a Satanist and “I’m here to curse your ministry.”  And I’m thinking Wahoo, this is gonna be a fun flight.  Because this is gonna be a good fight and that means I don’t loose!  It’s like, it sucks to be him right now but he doesn’t know.  He’s not on a flight to curse me, he’s on a flight to listen to the gospel that I am so gonna give him.  Part of my permission, part of my anointing, part of my permission in God is to rescue people from the occult.  So being attacked is just part of the game.  
23:12
So I said, “Ok.  Great.  Well, let’s hear it.”  And he said, “What?” and I said, “Well let’s see what you’ve got.  Let’s hear it!”  So he starts cursing me.  And I yawned.  I said, “Sorry Dude, Sorry.  But I’m actually a little bored.  So have you got anything better than that? ‘Cause the last guy who cursed me was way better than this.  So how long have you been doing this anyway?  “20 years.”  Ok, well are you not disappointed with your performance? Because I am frankly.  Don’t you feel you should be further on than you are right now?  I mean 20 years of cursing and this is the best you can do?  Yeah because I’m starting to think I must be back sliding, because I’m beginning to think, Dear God, I deserve a better class of enemy than this!  What the heck is wrong with me?”  
24:20
So I said, “Look, I’m just gonna go to the restroom.  Why don’t you just gather your thoughts and I’ll come out.  Do you want anything from the galley?  Can I get you a coke or anything?  So, he’s like looking at me like you are so weird.  And I’m looking at him and thinking, “You have no idea how weird I can get.  But you are so gonna find out.  Do you want a coke or anything?  Well listen.  You sit there and think.  And I’ll come back.  And we’ll just start again.  Ok?  Do you have pen and paper so you can make a few notes?”  I’m really getting into his head, eh!  
24:55
So I went up and talked to the airline attendants and cracked a few jokes, came back about a half hour later, sat down and said, “Ok.  I’m buckled in.  I’m ready.  Lay it on me.”  And he starts again.  And I said, “Naw it’s not that much better.”  So I said, “Frankly, I am so disappointed because you need to know this, that God has promised me that every curse against me He will turn into a blessing.   So like Dude, I’m not gonna get much blessing out of this.  And like the last guy was way brilliant and my whole life with God just went off the chart.  It was amazing.”  So I said, “Look, ok lets just put that aside.  I’ll just put my disappointment aside here, ya know.  
25:50
But actually, you are not on this plane to curse me.  You’re on the plane because I have an assignment for you.  You have an assignment against me.  I have an assignment for you.  You’re here because, this is the word of the Lord.  You’re gonna switch side.  You’re gonna be changing sides.  You’re gonna be working for a different boss in the next couple of years, because the hound of heaven is going to pursue you and you are not going to be able to settle back into all your occult practices.  You know all the power of it, all the passion of it you felt.  Well it’s all gonna start draining away and you’re gonna start to see through everything and there’s a hunger and thirsting after righteousness gonna come upon you, because I am so gonna pray for you.  And so in terms of the occult you are so dead meat.  It’s over right now, it’s just gonna take you a couple of years to realize it.  But God is pursuing you.  Yeah?  He’s after you.  And He’s going to get you!  And there ain’t nothing you or your boss can do about it.  He’s gonna visit you with salvation.  So how’d ya like those apples?  Laughing – good fun hey?
27:10
You have to know who you are.  Have to know what you are called to!  In that context you can be yourself in the Lord, and its good fun.  Has your current experience of life gone beyond your present experience of God?  Well, beloved, you need to be lifted up into a higher experience of the agape love of God.  Otherwise your lack of presence is going to find you out in situations.  Maybe you’re running on empty in your relationship with God.  Well, you can come and get filled up.  Come and get lifted up to a higher place.
28:00
Take your abiding to the next level of promise.  You know, there’s always a promise in your life.  You should always be traveling with at least a couple of promises in your own life, for your own life.  God is a promise maker and a promise keeper.  He loves promises.  His whole language is full of promise.  Everything about God is a promise because promises create confidence.  Promises build faith.  Promises open us up to all the appeal of God; all the affection of God; all the nature of God.  God loves you to travel with promises.  You’re always supposed to have a few.  Always supposed to know what your current promise is.  You should always have an up to date promise about adversity; an up to date promise about the enemy and your power over him.  His lack of power over you, you should have promises about your relationship with God, about your intimacy with God.  God is a promise maker.  Every time He speaks there’s a promise some where involved.  
29:12
So you are the joyful recipient of a number of promises, and if you get to live in those promises really well, when you speak and connect with other people that promise is just gonna come out of your heart and touch theirs.  So you live in the promises of God.  So your promises are the testimony of Jesus to your own life.  When God makes a promise to you, Jesus gives you a testimony; you’re a testimony in the making.  So the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.  So when you live in promises at a deep level they come out of the pores of your skin.  Someone touches you and they get a promise, you are a promise to somebody else.  You are God’s present, (His gift) to somebody else.  So who are you a gift to right now?  Who are the people around your life that you are a gift to?  Make a list.  I have a list of people that I know I am a gift to in this current season.  I’m a promise.  I love that because I love God being intentional.  Everything about God is intentional.  He’s got so many designs on you.  You won’t be able to keep up with it.  He’s got so many things He wants to show you, to be to you!  This is the Good News.  Its great news, God’s intentionality towards us is massive.  It’s huge, it’s enormous.

We are a people traveling with promise.  I know that the promises over my life are right now.  I am so enjoying them, because on the days when life is tough, I take my promise out and look at it.  Yea, I got a promise for this.  God is always previous, always.  He likes to show up before an event.  He likes to put His word into your life before you actually need it.  That’s why some times you get a prophetic word and you wonder, what’s that got to do with now?  Well it doesn’t you dummy, but it is about you maybe next year.  So when you’ve got a word in your life that you don’t understand, live in it anyway, and start to get your heart soaked into it, because it’s about the next few months, the next few years.  God’s just been previous with you.  So if it has no connection with you right now, it’s got a connection with where you’re going and who you will be becoming.  So get hold of it.  God’s been previous.  So a lot of other’s now are in situations and the answers to them are in something God said to them awhile back.  You’ve just got to keep track of your situations with God.  He is always previous.  He loves that stuff.  He loves kind of putting stuff in your life before you need it because He’s a provider.  He knows what’s coming.  Yea, He knows what’s coming.

I was in Germany one time….I think I told this story before but it’s worth telling again.  I was in Germany one time many years ago in a place called “Vesbaden” a beautiful city and it’s my day off….. Wahoo!  So I wake up in the morning, “Ok Lord, so what are we gonna do?  There’s castles to look at, and there’s all kinds of things; beautiful place, so what do you want to do today?”  And the Lord said to me, “I want you to go out and buy the most expensive bottle of wine you can find.”  Ah, Great!  So me and the Lord wander around Vesbaden together lookin in wine stores, talking to people.  And I find this bottle of wine that’s on sale and it costs just over $250 U.S.  You have a problem with that, see the management.  So I bought it.  Great!  I’m thinking this is gonna taste really good.  And the Father said, “It’s not for you.”  Ummm.  “Well you might get a sip if you’re good.”  “Ok, so how do I have to be good?”  Just checkin it out!   So I take it home.  I go back home to the UK.  A few weeks later, I’m going into our staff prayer meeting and the Father says to me, “Graham, take that bottle of wine.  Take it in.”  So I’m a little bit late because traffic is funny that day.  So I’m getting the prayer meeting started and were all gathered around one of the major guys in the church and he’s just sharing about like the ministry; and you can’t be in the ministry a long time and not have disappointments and all that kind of stuff ya know.  So Tony’s sharing about his life and everything, and ministry and a few heartaches, and we’re all praying, and he’s been in the ministry probably as long as I have and so the Lord said, “I want you to give him the wine.”  Now Tony is like a wine buff, I mean he can take a sip of wine and tell you what time of day the grape was picked, what part of the vineyard and what soil it was actually growing in.  And so this bottle of wine is a premier grand crew.  It’s like the best of the best.  And it’s a real cartoon moment because He’s a collector of wine, and I turn around and show him the label and his eye’s almost come out of sockets ya know.  And he starts to kind of salivate – “Gimme, gimme, gimme!”   It’s one of those wines that you don’t drink, ya lay it down as kind of a hedge against inflation; it’s kind of that kind of thing.  So I give him this bottle of wine and this Spirit of Prophecy sort of comes on me, and I start prophesying to him about the next years of your life, they’re going to be about this, this and this.  And God has saved the best till last, and these next, ten, twenty, thirty years are going to be about this anointing, that anointing and so on.  Tears and snot everywhere!
Two months later he’s diagnosed as having cancer!  It’s malignant, it’s inoperable, and he’s given 6 months to live.  So I’m on holiday in Scotland and I call him up and say, “Tony I heard the news, how are you doing?”  And he said, “Well I’m really struggling, it just came out of nowhere, just went in for a regular check-up and this thing is all through my system.”  And I said, “Ummm…So how ya doin with that?”  And he said, “Well, I’m just struggling.”  So I said, “Tony, do you remember that prophecy I gave you?”  And he said, “Yes, I’ve been thinking about that.”  So I said, “Ok, so this is my perception, when I prophesied to you that day, God knew you had cancer in your system and He was kind enough to give you the Word of Life before the doctors gave you the word of death.  God is always previous.”  And I said, “If I were you right now, I would hold onto that Word of Life.  I would get hold of that bottle of wine and I would cradle it as if it were a new born infant.  I would walk it around the house, I would cuddle it and I would say, “Lord, You said!  You said You’ve saved the best wine till last!  You said! You said! You said that!”  And I would listen to the tap recording of that prophesy; I would get it transcribed and I would read it several times a day and I’d write a crafted prayer out of it.  I would be so hugging that bottle of wine right now.”  And so that’s what we did, we got the whole church to pray in line with the prophecy.  So he got the bad news in I think it was June, by January next year he was given a clean bill of health.  Cancer not any where in his system!  

So he said to me in January, “I’m going for the results of these tests.”  He said, “When I hear that I’ve got a clean bill of health,” he said, “I want cha to come around my house and we’re gonna open that bottle of wine.  “But,” he said, “Dude, get a taxi, cause we’re drinkin this sucker, and you’re not drivin home.”  So it was just me and him.  Oh my God, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.  I went around about 7 o’clock and he opened this bottle of wine at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, decanted it, let it breathe.  Oh my goodness, I could start manifesting right now just on the memory.  It was astonishing.  And you know, you can tell why God is compared to wine in scripture.  Oh yeah, that was a great evening.  Celebration!  It was almost like an act of worship! – And I shouldn’t go on hey?  (Laughter)  So it was a great moment.

So this is God!  He’s always previous!  So my question in all of that is; in your current circumstances right now, has God already said something?  Sometimes it’s important just to go over what has God said?  Has He already said something?  Cause knowing God He’s already been a bit previous and there’s something out there.  Maybe some of us need to be lifted up to a higher level today.  You know most of our upgrades in the Spirit usually come in the context of a crisis or confrontation that’s why we should never be worried about adversity.  Adversity and crisis are a short cut into a better way of life.  God gives you an amazing opportunity to grow up really quickly.  Every crisis I have is a short cut into a better anointing.  Brilliant!  When you see crisis’ for what they are you can really enjoy them, cause God’s just gonna speed something up, gonna quicken something to you and its powerful.  Yeah the enemy will contest it, but you get to kick his but on the way through.

But every crisis is a potential shortcut into some thing marvelous so you have to know, back to Romans 8:28, what’s the purpose?  As long as you stick to the purpose ya know, God can do amazing things if you stay with Him in the purpose of the current situation that you’re going through.  God always provides for the situation you are in now and the future that He has planned for you.  “I know the plans I have for you…” Jeremiah 29:11 … “for your welfare and not for your calamity; to give you a future and a HOPE: to give you a future and the divine expectation!”  That’s how HOPE is best translated!

What prophetic words do you have?  What scripture promises do you have?  Get them out, look at them!  Start praying over them, blow the dust off.  In your heart right now, what are your current sighs and longings about?  I like checking out what I’m sighing about, cause its interesting to me about nine or ten months ago, one of my sighs was, “Lord I just – I know You are incredibly happy – and I would really like that joy to touch my life.  I’m sighing – Ya know I’d really like to experience a greater joy of my salvation.”  And the thing is every time you sigh, or you long for something, it’s a sign of what God intends to do, because you cannot have that emotion unless God is doing something.  So every sigh you have about God, it’s because He’s sighing over you.  He’s looking at you and thinking…”I so want you to get this.”  So His sigh just comes out of Heaven and touches you, and you end up going—sigh—“Lord, I so want to get this!”

He’s like standing there smiling, ah ya, got a connection right now, we re both sighing together.  So that’s good, He actually pushes out His longing over you and you pick it up and you start to long for those things because God’s desire is reaching out to touch you.  Yeah, He’s always previous!  Not even your desire originates in you.  It originates in the heart of God.  What are you signing for right now?  There are clues to what God wants to be for you; what He wants to do in your life.  God is deeply committed to sharing everything that He is and everything He has with you.  So what are the areas of your life right now that are unfruitful?  Take a moment to think about them, cause right now today we’re going to lift that part of your life to a higher place.  So I want you to think, and if you’ve got a pen and paper there, start writing stuff down…..

Now you could be sitting there thinking this should be a long list and the Lord just says….”Ok, make it a long list….yea….we’ll just assign priorities.  If you got ten things on the list number them in order one to ten what’s the most important?  What’s the thing you want to shift right now?  You know the Holy Spirits just gonna help you work through it, but at least you’re gonna know what your focus is gonna be for the next while hey?  What are the things right now that you’re unfruitful in or you’d like more fruit; or you’d like more of the presence of God in.  What are those things?  Cause I’m just gonna release the promise of God over you!  Ya know the enemy is gonna regret that you ever came to this event.  I’m telling you…we are so gonna take you out of the clutches of the enemy….into the hands of God hey?  Everything on that list has a promise attached to it.  Father, thank You.

Fellow I want you to stand up and assume the position; you need to be smiling because this is a good day.  You need to be smiling because God is so smiling over you.  See we are learning to walk away from misery….from unhappiness….from frowning…into a place of living in God’s smile.  So every one of those things that you wrote down there is a promise attached to each one.  And it’s the promise of break through, the promise of provision…it’s the promise of God’s presence.  He is sayin to you…”Yes and Amen!”  in Christ.  Yes! Yes!  He’s saying to you, “I want you to come to Me and in these next few weeks and months we’re gonna work through this list together.  It’s gonna be our priority.  This is what I’m doing, so I am gonna give you a promise for each one of those things.”

So I’m gonna pray right now that you’re gonna hear that promise….and I’m gonna pray that faith is gonna arise….because this whole exercise that you’re going through, it’s a life style thing.  You will learn things in these next few months on how to be with God….You’ll learn how to approach God….You’ll learn how to wait on God, cause the Holy Spirits just gonna show you.  So your life over the next few months is gonna be like a laboratory.  Your just gonna like learn how to experience God in the places in your life that you don’t value or appreciate.  You’re gonna learn the promises of God; you’re gonna learn about the heart of God and the Holy Spirit is gonna comfort you which doesn’t always mean He’s gonna like hug you and say, “There, there.”  He might tell you a few jokes, yeah, cause He’s funny.  He’s extremely funny; deeply amusing character.  So you have a treat in store.

So anyway I just bind unbelief right now in the name of Jesus…I curse your power to effect and influence our minds and our hearts.  I bind you and I loose these people from the effect of toil and struggle and stress, in Jesus’ name.  I loose TRUST in this place; the sheer joy of being with God on a bad day; just the pleasure of knowing the touch of God and the hand of God.  I loose Trust and Faith in this place.  I declare to you in Jesus’ name you will come through this season into a place, a wide and gracious place, full of confidence; full of trust; where your faith will go to a whole new level; but you are going to see God in this period.  So I release in the name of Jesus, I release the Spirit of Promise; I release the Holy Spirit of Promise into your life.  

I ask Father, I ask that the favor that is upon me, that you fill this room with that favor and that confidence in the name of Jesus, that the same Spirit that You put on me in terms of confidence and favor, I ask You that right now that You distribute it through out this congregation.  That we would come under a Spirit of the Favor of God, and the Favor of God will come and fall upon us; that the mind of God would come and touch us, that there’d be peace; that there’d be rest; that the love of God would come to us in a deeper way.

Father, I pray that the Rest of God would fall upon us.  I ask that all weariness would leave us now, in Jesus’ name.  All emotional weariness, all mental tiredness, all physical weariness, I bind it; I break its power and its hold over us, in the name of Jesus.  I ask that You would return and restore every one of us to a place of joy; that You would restore to us the joy of our salvation; that we would know again the sheer pleasure of walking with You; that we would walk before You as children; simple, honoring, enjoying Your presence, knowing that You are much bigger than anything we face.  And I ask for the Holy Spirit of Promise to be released upon us.  And I release, promise after promise after promise, after promise, that we will be saturated in promises, that the promises will be stacked all around our life; that everywhere we look we’ll see a promise.  And I ask for a promise, especially, a strong definitive promise for everything on that list; and that You would keep Your word to us Papa.

You’ll keep Your word to us and I pray for a Spirit of Breakthrough to be upon us; and I ask Lord that we would understand, how astonishingly easy some of this is gonna be.  Some of it will be contended; that’ll be good because we’re just gonna learn how to fight, but there are some amazing quick victories that You’re going to give us, because You want to encourage us.  So I ask You to put courage into every one of us, and such courage that we will turn into different men and different women.  So Father I’m asking, would You take the part of our lives that are hanging down and lift it up right now into a higher place; lift it into a higher place.

I pray for a greater Spirit of Rejoicing.  I pray for a Spirit of Thanksgiving to come upon us that we would rejoice in Your name and in Your nature.  You are for us; You are with us; You are on our side; nothing can work against us, nothing can separate us from Your love; You love us, Your heart is good toward us and I pray that we would discover the goodness of God in the land of the living.  David said, “I would have fainted unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”  Well I declare, in Jesus’ name, that goodness and mercy are gonna follow you and those guys are good…and you won’t be able to loose them.  They are good trackers and they will track you down.  You can’t shake them off, Goodness and mercy are gonna follow you all the days of your life; and every day, goodness and mercy are gonna knock on the door of Your heart and make themselves at home.  There will never be a day; there will never be a situation where goodness and mercy don’t show up.  You have promises; there are promises coming out of Heaven; there are promises already in your life that He’s bringing back to your remembrance; there are words that He is gonna cause you to remember, and come back to that place where you’ll remember, oh yeah God, You said!  There are promises that are gonna come out of heaven on your life because this next year, 12 months, is a defining time period for you guys.  You know you can make five years growth in the next 12 months cause God is with you.  And He is so gonna teach you how to be with Him; how to abide; how to stay; how to dwell; how to remain in that place of promise and provision.

So Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask You that everything that has been held up in our lives, everything that has been suspended over our life that has not come down, I pray that You would release it in Jesus name.  Release resources to us, release finances to us; release health; release Your presence; release Your promises, that we will become a people of promise.  And I ask that our inheritance will begin to form in these days in our hearts and in our lives.

But I pray especially that we would come under a radical, radiant, revelation of Who You are!  So I pray for a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Jesus to be parked in our life, so that we may come under that Spirit, we may come under the rule and the revelatory power who may learn the wisdom of God in these days, and that anointing will not leave us, but it will become part and parcel of who we are; that we will sweat the anointing through our skin; that it will come through the pores of our skin like oil.  That it will cause us to have a passion that will rise up every time some thing touches us; that‘s what will emerge.

So thank You Father, for the Spirit of Promise that you will release over us and I pray for quick victories, I pray for a Breakthrough Spirit to be upon us.  And where we’re in tough battles, I pray that the certainty of victory will be upon us.  That we will stand in those days and we’ll see something emerge; that we are going to see the power, the sovereignty; the majesty and the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ in our life.  We are no longer gonna be victims, hopeless and helpless, under something.  We’re gonna be someone who lives above the place of adversity, because You have touched us.  And we ask those things Father for Jesus sake and we ask it in His name, that He can look back on the travail of His soul and be satisfied.
In Jesus’ name, Amen

Thanks for listening guys.  I appreciate it.