Shields Up

#SHIELDSUP

1. Jesus said in Matt 22;14 Many are Called Few are Chosen.

Why do we go to College to do our degrees? To prepare ourselves to be chosen by a company.  

- Being prepared means developing yourself on purpose.
- Constantly have conversations with leadership about your growth. 
- Attend the Dream Team Intensive.
- Being prepared means being Healed

The book of Ephesians is the book about the great struggle of life. The war of perception. Will I believe what God says, or will I believe what others say. 

Throughout the book, Paul outlines the great blessing and favor, rights and privileges you have as a child of God. 

After 5 chapters of Powerful and life changing statements, the apostle Paul turns his attention not just to a declaration of truth, but to declare that you must prepare yourself for war on unbelief.    You see it doesn’t matter how true something is it is only true if you accept it, believe it and act on it. 

In Chapter 6 he tells us that even though many are called, few prepare themselves.  

Every day the people of Ephesus would see Roman Soldiers walking by, prepared for war.  So he uses a metaphor they understood to explain what you have to do to prepare yourself.  

Ephesians 6: 10

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,[c] against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

Why was it so important to take up the shield of faith.

The rest of the armour was put on the body and designed to prevent fatal injury.  But it didn’t stop you being wounded. 

SOLDIERS ARE NOT MEANT TO BE WOUNDED. 

The armour protects you from dying, but the shield protects you from even being wounded.

The greatest problem in the church is wounded people. 

In America there are 5.7 million people with chronic wounds. Wounds that won’t heal. Over 20 billion dollars is spent annually on wounds that won’t heal.  

Getting our wounds healed is part of preparing to be chosen. 

WHY DON’T WOUNDS HEAL

• When wounds don’t get relief from constant pressure, there is a breakdown of tissue.  
• When there is not enough blood getting to the area.
• Debris in the wound
• Some wounds have to be healed from the inside out

WHOSE AT RISK OF BEING WOUNDED

• Those who don’t know what they believe.
• Those with a history of being wounded. 
• Those who let stuff get inside.  

HOW DO WE TREAT WOUNDS

• Get to the underlying problem
• Get the Blood to the area so it can heal
• Take out the debris in the wound so it can heal.  

Coming up at Influencers

Why Worship

Why Worship

1. Worship puts the things we treasure in their rightful order.  

a)  Worship comes from idea of worth.  What is of great worth is worthy of admiration and honor.  Worship is about consciously giving great worth to someone. 

b)  It’s also the act of saying I’m not God.  I’m not the most important being in my life.  When we sing and when we speak of God in worship we are saying I’m not God, but Jesus is. 

First time the word worship is used in the bible is Genesis 22:

Genesis 22 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”“Here I am,” he replied.

2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

2. Worship cleanses you.  

3. Worship uncaps the presence of God

Ever opened a jar of coffee beans? Wow that smell. It’s so good. It fills the atmosphere. It’s not till you take the lid off that you experience it.  It’s there but not unwrapped in a way that affects you.  

4.  Worship Creates Great Success in your life. 

David was so committed to worship because he understood it’s power that he appointed 4000 singers and worshippers to worship around the clock day and night just so the presence of God would rule his kingdom.   

He appointed 288 skilled musicians to play 24 hours a day and they did it for 33 years straight.  

1 Chronicles 23 - Four thousand are to be gatekeepers and four thousand are to praise the Lord with the musical instruments I have provided for that purpose.

This atmosphere of worship helped him win every battle, defeat every enemy, prosper in all his business, helped him write the great psalms we all read today.  

David’s era was known as the Golden era for Israel.  A time of great prosperity even in the midst of conflicts and war.  

• Solomon instructed that worship in the temple should be in accordance with the Davidic order (2 Chronicles 8:14–15).
• Jehoshaphat defeated Moab and Ammon by setting singers up in accordance with the Davidic order: singers at the front of the army singing the Great Hallel. Jehoshaphat re-instituted Davidic worship in the temple (2 Chronicles 20:20–22, 28).
• Joash (2 Chronicles 23:1–24:27).
• Hezekiah cleansed and reconsecrated the temple, and reinstituted the Davidic order of worship (2 Chronicles 29:1–36; 30:21).
• Josiah instituted Davidic worship (2 Chronicles 35:1–27).
• Ezra and Nehemiah, returning from Babylon, reinstituted Davidic worship (Ezra 3:10; Nehemiah 12:28–47).

Church we are in the beginning stages of experiencing a revival.

This is why we are writing our own worship and releasing it to the world.  Because I believe God wants to bring to Atlanta and through Atlanta and Adelaide a move of God that transforms the darkness into light.

---

Coming Up at Influencers

Embrace The Grace For The Race!

EMBRACE THE GRACE FOR THE RACE!

ISAIAH 43:18-19 18 Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Moses can’t speak, so God gives him the grace to run the race. 

The stick is God’s grace for the first part of Moses Race. It’s powerful.  

Then after all these amazing years, God brings Moses to a pivotal time, just like he’s brought you and I.

READ NUMBERS 20

In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.  2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron.3 They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord!4 Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here?5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!” 6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7 The Lord said to Moses, 8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”

9 So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.  12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

So why did this disqualify Moses from entering the promised land?

Moses can’t speak, and has lots of problems, so God gives him a reminder that he is with him and every time he reaches for the grace of God, amazing things happen.  The stick has been a powerful weapon.  It’s been his X factor.  It’s made it possible for function without overcoming his weaknesses.  He hasn’t had to speak at all.  He’s got his stick.  God has anointed Moses past and used it.  God grace your past so you can enter the race but there comes a new thing that God wants to do.  

And in order for Moses to run the next part of his race, he needs new grace and he has to lead differently. It’s one thing to take people out and help them survive, it’s completely another thing to take people in and possess their promised land.

It’s time to let go of yesterday’s grace… the grace that got you to this place. You got here by his grace, but now it’s a new season, a new thing is springing up and you need new grace.  

• If you are a giver, then thank you so much. If you aren’t, then leave behind just being a recipient and become a contributor.
• Leave behind rejection and it’s poisonous hold on our spirit.  
• Leave behind being tentative and not being all in.
• Leave behind being an observer and get involved.
• Leave behind being a church goer and become a passionate church builder.
• Leave behind doubts and get all in. 
• Leave behind not know what to do. 
• Our Memories
• Our Anger
• Our Inconsistency
• Our Time management excuses
• Our Fear
• Our Over-analysis 
• Our Lack of submission
• As a church there is a new grace to train and release and raise up champion men, champion women, great leaders in business, great leaders in family, great leaders in life.   
• As a church there is a new grace to release the worship of this house. 
• As a church it’s time to come aside at Conference and get filled with God’s spirit.

Our new race involves raising up:

• Marriage specialists who can help people with their marriages.
• Parenting specialists who can help people parent. 
• Business specialists who can help people win in businesss.
• Young families dept
• Single and single again communities.  

Isaiah 60:1 Arise Shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.  

Arise:  Action

Shine:  Do actions that allow Jesus to shine to the city.  

It’s our choice to let it go.  To let it go promotes us, to hold onto it prevents us. 

God’s wanting to grace a different part of your life.  He’s wanting to breathe into your leadership, into your abilities. Let the memories go…of church involvement.  

God’s grace had become Moses crutch, instead of a bridge between his weakness and his success, his past and future.

Sometime we use God’s grace in a way that allows us to stay unwell, not healed, poor, overcome by the past, unable to cope. God’s grace can be used to perpetuate the state of unwellness we have inside. And it’s because a measure of God’s anointing is on everything he creates.

I’m asking you to engage.  Engage with your whole heart.

God is wanting to replace your stick with a sword.  From survival to conquest.  From grace that covers, to grace that conquers.

CHOOSING to be ALL IN.

• Choosing to invite someone for their sake and yours
• Choosing to be generous and tithe
• Choosing to get connected in Koinonia and attend a House Party.
• Choosing to pray and fast
• Choosing to disciple someone else and be mentored yourself.
• Choosing to be a member and builder of this house
• Choosing to grow in grace and take your next step.  

Embrace the grace for the new race.  

---

Coming Up at Influencers

It's New!

IT'S NEW!

As we stand on the eve of a new school year a new church year, this is the word God put in my heart and it’s BEHOLD I DO A NEW THING. If only you knew what was coming, you would gladly get rid of the old things. Old ways of thinking. Comfort Zone thinking, protective thinking, small thinking, old victories, that seem so big, but are nothing compared to the future.  

ISAIAH 43:18-19 18 Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

The Prophet Isaiah Is talking to the people of God and he is encouraging them in the midst of their season, to understand that God is at work creating a new season.  

They had had massive victories in years gone by, but right at the time of this writing they were facing massive challenges and Isaiah starts to prophecy over their lives with stunning language about God’s plans for the people.  

Chapter 43 is filled with some of the great verses in the OT>  

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;  I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; 

5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.  6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’  and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ 

Before me no god was formed  nor will there be one after me.  11 I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.  When I act, who can reverse it?”

16 This is what the Lord says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters,  18 “Forget the former things;  do not dwell on the past.  19 See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.  to give drink to my people, my chosen, 21 the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

16 This is what the Lord says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters,  18 “Forget the former things;  do not dwell on the past.  19 See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

1. Forget the former things and do not dwell on the past.  

It is fascinating that the prophet, having gone to so much effort to invoke the past, continues in verse 18 with the injunction: “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old!” The command is surprising and serves as an effective rhetorical device to get the people’s attention, for the prophet is not content to have the people wax nostalgic about the “good old days.”

2. Behold

This means to come and see something that is remarkable and impressive.  

3. I am doing a new thing.

As good as I was in your greatest triumph, I am doing a new thing that will be better and bigger than the greatest victory of your life. 

4. NOW it springs forth. 

The Hebrew word "spring" is the word for "sprout." In other words, before we see the blade above the ground, there is the sprout beneath it.

5. Don’t you perceive it.  

When the Lord asks, "Do you not perceive it?" He is saying, "Do you want to open yourself to My new thing? Are you willing to embrace it?"

This verb "perceive" in the Hebrew language is far more than insight. It is the total giving of yourself, as in the husband-wife relationship within marriage. This "knowing" is a full embrace. 

Psalm 65:11 You crown the YEAR with your GOODNESS (harvest) and your PATHS drip (overflow) with ABUNDANCE

SOMETHING NEW TO CONSIDER

Leadership Prep School Module 1 and 2 through Influencers Leadership Collegeinfluencers.school

Conference. Get the Early Bird pricing!

The launch of the new single; Imaginations.

---

Coming Up at Influencers

Cracking The Code

CRACKING THE CODE

In the gospel of Matthew we read about Jesus, who came preaching the kingdom of God.  As the people sat and listened to Jesus speak and teach in matt 5 and 6 about the kingdom of God, what they heard about was about a new world.  A world within a world. The world they lived in was occupied by foreign forces, overrun by financial hardship, a place where depression, discouragement, and disease touched everyone. Into this world and into this atmosphere Jesus began to talk about a new world called the Kingdom of God.  As Jesus began to speak about the Kingdom of God, he began to explain that there was a secret code to the world’s dilemmas. It was a world where the codes of disease and misery had been unlocked, where the there was an answer to the chronic problems the people faced.

What an awesome truth for you and I today. There is a world within a world that we have to unlock. We need to bring the Kingdom of God into the kingdom of the world.

Matthew 16:19 And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.”

What are these 14 days about?

1. Cracking the code for our Families
2. Exercising Spiritual Authority
3. Moving forward
4. Winning

How do we crack the code?

2 Kings 13:14 Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”  15 Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. 16 “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. 17 “Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”18 Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. 19 The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”

1.  God has put into your hands the means of victory

Why did Elisha get angry with the King? Because he had put in his hands the means for victory.  And he squandered it.  

1. Exercising Spiritual Authority

Prayer creates spiritual authority in our lives. 

Spiritual authority is that place where the principles of the Kingdom of God supercede the laws of the natural world.

3.  Why would you pause or refrain until you have complete victory

2 Kings 13:25 Then Jehoash son of Jehoahaz recaptured from Ben-Hadad son of Hazael the towns he had taken in battle from his father Jehoahaz. Three times Jehoash defeated him, and so he recovered the Israelite towns.

---

Coming Up at Influencers

The Cycle of Life

PATTERNS, PITFALLS AND PATHWAYS

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, (because of everything I have told you so far) I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The first 11 chapters of Romans are written to individuals about their relationship with Jesus.  In these chapters, the apostle Paul has wreaked havoc on the religious world order by declaring that it’s not be your good works that you get heaven or a relationship with God, but it’s by grace through faith.

Then in chapter 12 Paul turns his attention to what this personal relationship with Jesus looks like when it is lived out.  He turns from the personal, vertical aspect of our relationship with God, to the horizontal, relational aspect of what it means to be a Christian and be part of a church, to be a Christian and be part of a community, to be a Christian and be part of the world.  

There are three parts to this verse

1. WHAT God is asking us to do this Summer?

He’s asking us to engage intentionally.  

2. This is an action that we must do.

James 4:8 if you draw near to me, I will draw near to you.   

Drawing near, or presenting yourself means to put yourself within advantageous proximity to Him.

Join in the Facebook prayer broadcast 6x a day during the week. 6 and 7am, 12 and 1pm and 9 and 10pm.

3. Paul says not to conform to patterns of your humanity

Today I want to give you some good news.  Most of the issues in your life are patterns.   They follow a familiar track.  

I always thought of the patterns of this world as sin patterns and all its temptations to draw us into it, but these patterns aren’t necessarily sin, they can be just patterns of our humanity.  

We all have patterns of behavior, patterns of emotions, patterns of reactions, every culture has patterns, and your family of origin has patterns, things that always happened in cycles or as a response to certain situations.

Paul says if you are going to be transformed and not conform you need to be aware of your patterns.

What are yours?

In life, New roads are never taken or created sticking to the grooves that have been made through previous travel

WHY is it important for us to do it?

If you are transformed and not conformed you will discover Gods will for your life easily.  

Romans 12 says; "Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, His good pleasing and perfect will"

Paul makes a link between finding God’s will, and whether or not you are conformed or transformed.  

• This cycle may have been created by your family upbringing.  

• It may have come because of decisions you made in your past.  

• It may come because that is what the culture you live in dictates to you.

SO HOW DO YOU WIN?

1. You recognize there are patterns to everything that control your life

2. You recognize your patterns.  

3. You don’t conform to their pull.

It’s time to recognize the patterns.  Generational patterns, patterns of thinking, patterns of speaking, patterns of the devil in your life.

---

Coming Up at Influencers

Man Shall Not Live By Bread Alone

MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE

Matthew 4:4 (AMP)

It has been written, Man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. 

Man shall not live (and be upheld and sustained) by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God

This VERSE is NOT talking about the verse of the day popping up on your phone, the verse someone posts on Facebook or Instagram, the one you hear on the radio on your way to work, that is NOT enough to sustain the LIFE of your spirit.

There are two words used for God’s word, one is logos, which refers to the written word of God,  but the word used here is RHEMA. The best way to describe what this word means is that you are reading the logos, the written word of God and then as you are reading it, it starts speaking to you!!

It’s no longer words on a page but its speaking back to you about your life, talking to you about the decision you have to make, about the relationship issues you face, telling you that you are loved, you have purpose, that with God that impossible thing you face is no longer impossible!

Gen 37:1

So Jacob settled again in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived as a foreigner. 

The Rhema word is the word that leaps off the page to you, that makes it relevant and personal for YOU, it gets into your heart and feeds you, it’s the word that gives you life and hope, that speaks into your situation and creates FAITH in you.

Don’t just read words, don’t just go through the motions, let the words speak back to you

• Set time aside
• Don’t get distracted
• Ask Holy Spirit to speak to you
• When a verse stands out read it over and over again, there’s something in it for you, 
• Study meaning of words
• Study context
• If it reminds you of another verse, look that up too

This verse Man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. 

Is saying that if you REALLY want to live life to the full, if you really want to experience ALL there is to experience in life, if you really want to ENJOY life to its full without feeling overwhelmed and under resourced, then you need to focus on more than the physical to survive. 

In other words if your life is consumed by your physical needs then you can’t truly experience ALL that life has to offer you

Jesus is quoting God’s words through Moses to the Children of Israel who have just completed 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, doing the same thing over and over again, getting up each morning crying out and complaining about their physical needs, longing to go back to Egypt, wishing for garlics and leeks and slavery!

Deuteronomy 8:3 (AMP)

3And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you recognize and personally know that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.  

They have been living, but not the life that God wanted them to live, they were in slavery, they had depended on their own labour to provide for themselves. It was a harsh existence compared to what God had planned and desired for them. But to get them to understand there was more to life than just their physical needs he had to bring them to a place where they had no ability to provide for themselves, to humble them.

Did you ever stop to realize that God allows lack in our lives to humble us and see if we trust him enough to WAIT for Him to supply our need or whether we are going to complain and take action ourselves?

They had just been surviving in one dimension, thinking about surviving their today. Survival isn’t bad, it’s just not where you are meant to live! You are body soul and spirit. Jesus is saying you can’t TRULY LIVE, just feeding your body, your body will live but your spirit will die.

He explained it further in

John 6:48-58

8 Yes, I am the bread of life! 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness,(that he provided) but they all died.(because it was only a shadow or picture of what God had really planned) 50 Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.” 

52 Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked. 

53 So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. 54 But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.” 

Today we would think it's bizarre if someone spoke to us about eating their flesh and drinking their blood. If you read on it wasn’t much different then either, people were confused at the language Jesus was using, in fact many couldn’t grasp what He was saying and stopped following Him!

Jesus is saying this to His disciples straight after the feeding of the 5000. 

But now He is explaining that He is more than just a social welfare feeding program he is the source of life, not just a ‘get by’ kind of life but a life that has overflow, a life that is supernatural and eternal and multiplies so that you are able to give away more than you initially had.

A life that stretches beyond the physical and into the eternal.

This isn’t a physical statement it’s a spiritual statement that reflects His longing for a deep, connected relationship with you and I that is as comfortable as a marriage of 50 years, where through good times and bad the couple have chosen to REMAIN.

 SO WHAT DOES IT PRACTICALLY MEAN TO EAT HIS FLESH AND DRINK HIS BLOOD?

Light from the Old Testament

Interestingly enough, there is an occasion in David’s life where he also uses the image of drinking blood. When he was on the run from Saul he gathered a group of mighty men around him. At one point he was fighting the Philistines who had taken the town of Bethlehem and he remarked how much he would love a drink from the well of Bethlehem. Three of his mighty men heard this and took him seriously. They fought their way through the Philistine line, got water from Bethlehem and brought it back to David.  

1 Chronicles 11:19 David says, "Far be it from me, O my God, that I should do this! Shall I drink the blood of these men who have put their lives in jeopardy? For at the risk of their lives they brought it." 

He says that to drink this water would be like drinking the blood of these men, not literally their blood, but it would be like profiting from their near death, since they risked their lives for him. You could say, enjoying the benefits which came at the expense of their lives.

There are many places where we read of someone having a man's blood on their head. It means they are guilty of the death of that man. When the Bible refers to blood being poured out or being spilt, or blood anytime outside of the body, it is usually a graphic metaphor for violent death.

Psalm 27:2 "When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell.

David doesn’t literally mean that there are cannibals after him! He is talking here about the wicked that want to profit from his death. They want to kill David because they want to obtain some kind of personal benefit from his death. 

This really sums up what Jesus is talking about when He refers to eating His flesh and drinking His blood, He is talking about enjoying the benefits which come from His death.

Not just once at Salvation but DAILY! He wants us to make the most of the power of the cross and His death. 

• The healing
• The forgiveness
• The relationship
• The authority
• The freedom

Only Jesus can extend the life we lead and make it full

I have come that you might have life and life to the FULL

MAN ………in all his frailty and weakness, man who was not created to do life alone, man who is at the mercy of human emotions and discouragement, man who at his strongest is still weak, and man who was created to worship God, cant

LIVE…….I mean truly live up to His potential and live life to the fullest, live without regret without exhaustion, without anxiety, without feeling unresourced, by bread or physical food alone BUT by every WORD that comes from the mouth of God. 

How strong is your spirit, how well are you feeding it? What are you feeding it?

How strong is your FAITH, are you feeding it, FAITH comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God

Romans 10:17

 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (again the word is Rhema)

Coming Up at Influencers

How To Make Outstanding Decisions Part Three

HOW TO MAKE OUTSTANDING DECISIONS PART THREE

You aren’t born with the skill of making outstanding decisions, you have to learn it.  

Sin entered the world because of a bad decision by Eve and then Adam. Abrahams life was filled with conflict and confusion because of a bad decision.  

Peter had to forgive himself for making the decision to deny Jesus. You have to forgive yourself.  

HOW?

Start making good decisions.

• We don’t rely on the wisdom of friends because they are not objective.
• We don’t do the open door theory. 
• We don’t do big decisions without big confirmations. 
• We don’t eve make it all or nothing. 
• We don’t just rely on our gut or follow our heart.
• We don’t despise the good in our lives to try andget better outcomes.
• We Don’t do shortcuts no matter how attractive it is.  Eg; Jesus and the devil.
• We Don’t do learning by trial and Error a life principle. 

So how do we make OUTSTANDING DECISIONS?

1. Encyclopedia principle
2. Ace principle
3. CPR principle
4. Babe Ruth principle
5. The budget principle
6. The Urim and Thummim principle

7. THE JUDGE JUDY PRINCIPLE

7.   THE JUDGE JUDY PRINCIPLE  

What does your authority think?

Prov 15; 22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

Prov 12:15 The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.

Prov 131 A wise son heeds his father’s instruction, but a mocker does not respond to rebukes.

Prov 13:13 Whoever scorns instruction will pay for it, but whoever respects a command is rewarded. 14 The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death.

You must pitch the question the same way to all your advisers.

8. THE EVEREST PRINCIPLE

8.  THE EVEREST PRINCIPLE

Be clear what you are aiming for.  

Clarity with spiritual flexibility.  

9. THE TRAPEZE ARTIST PRINCIPLE

9.  THE TRAPEZE ARTIST PRINCIPLE  

Have you noticed that when that trapeze artist is out there swinging on one hand he doesn't let go until he has something else to reach for. He doesn't swing out on one and say, "I don't like where I am. I don't know what I want, but I know what I don't want" and he lets go. You only let go when you know what you want to reach for. 

This is a walk of faith, not a leap of faith.  

10. THE COMPASS PRINCIPLE

10.  THE COMPASS PRINCIPLE

This is the true north principle. Does this decision line up with with what I KNOW God wants me to do with my life. Is it taking me closer or further away from living God’s dream for my life.  

I use an unchangeable to bring clarity to my decisions.  An anchor like God’s purpose.  

Matthew 6:33 Seek first God’s kingdom and all the other things you desire will be added to your life.  

---

Coming up at Influencers

How to Make Outstanding Decisions Part Two

HOW TO MAKE OUTSTANDING DECISIONS PART TWO

You make on average about 35,000 decisions a day. 226.7 decisions about food alone. Decisions make our life sad or glad, bland or grand. 

Your decisions will determine the outcome of your relationships, your job, your financial future, your health and your life.  

King Solomon who is regarded as the wisest man ever was given the opportunity to ask for anything and you know what he chose. GOOD DECISION MAKING SKILLS.

Right decisions affects everything you and I do.   

Making outstanding decisions is not a talent, but a skill. It’s not something you are born with, but something you develop on purpose.  

• We don’t rely on the wisdom of friends because they are not objective.
• We don’t do the open door theory. 
• We don’t do big decisions without big confirmations. 
• We don’t eve make it all or nothing. 
• We don’t just rely on our gut or follow our heart.
• We don’t despise the good in our lives to try andget better outcomes.
• We don’t do shortcuts no matter how attractive it is. 

Eg;   Jesus and the devil.

• We Don’t do learning by trial and Error a life principle. 

So how do we make OUTSTANDING DECISIONS

Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

1.  THE BUDGET PRINCIPLE

Luke 14:2828 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

2.  THE URIM AND THUMMIM PRINCIPLE;  

Exodus 28:29“Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of decision as a continuing memorial before the LORD. 30Also put the Urim and the Thummim in the breastpiece, so they may be over Aaron’s heart whenever he enters the presence of the LORD. Thus Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the LORD.

God’s voice is easy to hear. What’s difficult is preparing to hear him.  

Coming up at Influencers.....

How to Make Outstanding Decisions Part 1

How to Make Outstanding Decisions Part 1

Decisions decisions decisions. Every day of our lives is filled with them. Everything about your life since you were an adult has been YOUR decisions 

• Frank Borham said, "We make our decisions and then our decisions make us."  
• Routine, simple decisions.

Things like what to eat and decisions like stopping at a red light. These are all simple and routine decisions that all adults are capable of making.

• Complex and life altering decisions.

Things like;

1. Should I marry this person.
2. Should I divorce this person
3. Should I buy that house
4. Should I change careers
5. Should I borrow that money
6. Should I sign off on this deal.
7. Should I leave my job
8. Should I start a new career.

1.     OPEN DOOR
2.     I FEEL RIGHT IN MY HEART
3.     OPINIONS OF FRIENDS

Great decision making is both an art and a science. It is both felt and a process. 

Over the next 2 weeks I want to look at 8 significant principles that will help you hit on the right decision every single time. 

Next week we are going to look also at the top 5 things you must avoid doing if you want to make great decisions.

8GREAT PRINCIPLES TO MAKING THE BEST DECISIONS.

• THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA PRINCIPLE;  

Get as many of the facts as you can before making a decision. 

Face the facts. Most people don’t embrace all the facts. People want to ignore the facts. 

Romans 4:19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead —since he was about a hundred years old —and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.

• THE CPR PRINCIPLE.   

Process is everything and refining that process is super important. 

• THE BABE RUTH PRINCIPLE; 

Timing is everything. 

Ecc 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens

• THE ACE CARD PRINCIPLE

What’s the Ace card. It’s the one that trumps everythings else. It’s the highest scoring card. It’s the one you try to get in a game of blackjack as it gives you the greatest chance of winning.  When you have an ace in blackjack you can make excellent decisions.  

God needs to be your ACE. God wants to speak to you. 

Prov 3: 5Trust God from the bottom of your heart;  don’t try to figure out everything on your own.  Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all.   Run to God! Run from evil!  Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life!  Honor God with everything you own;  give him the first and the best.

COMING UP AT INFLUENCERS

We Don't Do That Here Part 3

WE DON’T DO THAT HERE PART 3

Let’s recap some of the things we don’t do here. We understand the power of words, the power of thoughts and the power of actions and because we do, these are just a few of the things we don’t do here at Influencers.  

• We don’t speak negative words to each other here.  
• We don’t leave the church offended we talk it out.
• We don’t gossip about others here.  
• We don’t stay ignorant of how to improve ourselves.  
• We don’t do religion.
• We don’t fake it till we make it.  
• We don’t do gimme gimme my names jimmy.  
• We don’t stay on the bench, we get in the game.
• We don’t stay silent about Jesus.
• We don’t stay the same way we grow on purpose.  

As part of our positive speech brings positive change month, I thought I would talk to you about one of the biggest challenges today and that is honesty and truthfulness. So how truthful and honest are you?      

The challenge to tell the truth has never been more of an issue in America than right now. This is due in part to the rise in the destruction of absolute truth and the new religious order of the day which is relativism. There is no right and wrong, only what’s right or wrong for me. Honesty, truthfulness and character qualities like this are now in decline, yet they are the pillars of successful societies, successful families, and successful personal lives.  

When we lie to ourselves it’s called denial.

When we lie to others about who we are It’s called shame. 

When we lie to others in our lives it’s called being fake. 

1 John 6:7 But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin.

The truth is that you can’t share your life with others if you lie. To the extent that you tell the truth you can have a real relationship.  

So today i thought i would give you 5 reasons why absolute honesty is critical to the health and wellbeing of your life.

1. Truthfulness and Honesty is God’s requirement.  

Deut 25:15: You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. 16For the LORD your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.

Psalms 15: LORD, who may dwell in your house?  He who speaks honestly from his heart.

Psalms 51: Surely you desire truth in the innermost parts of use

Psalms 145: The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

1 Cor 13: Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Luke 8:15: And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest.

Luke 16: But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.

2. Honesty is the foundation of credibility in life

Proverbs 11: Honesty guides good people

Prov 11:5: The godly are directed by honesty

3. Jesus talk about truth a lot.

John 8;32: you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. 

4. Honesty is the key to trusting relationships.

Without honesty, you cannot have a long term relationship, because honesty is the secret to trust. 

Prov 24:26: An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.

Trust is always built on truth. 

Proverbs 16: Kings take pleasure in honest lips;  they value a man who speaks the truth.

Proverbs 23: Buy the truth and do not sell it;  get wisdom, discipline and understanding.

Jeremiah 5: If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth,  I will forgive this city.

Jeremiah 5 LORD, you are searching for honesty.

5. Honesty is the secret to life transformation.

Prov 28: The honest will inherit good things.

Eph 5: Live as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)

Psalms 25;21: May integrity and honesty protect you,

Psalms 32:  Yes, what joy for those whose lives are lived in complete honesty

THE 12 STEPS OF AA

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable. 
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs. 

Every program of transformation has HONESTY at the core of it’s message. You need to look at yourself and realise i need to change.  

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’  13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’  14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

HONESTY GETS YOU INTO RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. 

Coming up at Influencers

We Don't Do That Here Part 1

WE DON'T DO THAT HERE PART 1

All of creation, including you and I were the product of words. God could have waved his hand over the world or thought it and the word would have been created, but he chose to create it with words. 

9x it says in Gen 1…...  And God SAID.......Let there be..........

What did God do. He said. He spoke and the worlds came into being. It’s easy to imagine that words then hold a position of incredible power in our world. Not only did God use words to create the world, but he has elevated words to a place of immense power in our lives too.

God then gave us the same tools that he used to build the earth and he’s encouraging us to use it all the time.

Jesus said Mark 11:28 Speak to the mountain and it will be removed.   

HERES THE DEAL. YOU WILL HAVE FULL CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE IF YOU HAVE CONTROL OF YOUR TONGUE.

James 3:2  If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body.

James 3 talks about the power of the tongue. If you are never at fault in what you say……..WOW then you are able to keep your whole body in check. So your mouth is the controlling force over every other habit in your life.

Listen to the first 3 verses.

James 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.

James says that if you teach you will be judged more strictly. WE think this is talking just about pastors, but it’s talking about ANYONE who teaches.  

• Parents
• Supervisors
• Leaders
• Anyone who instructs someone else.

Harsher judgement comes to those who use words. Words matter to God. 

Q: Now i want you to think about the most discouraging and negative thing anyone has ever said to you.  How did it make you feel and how has it affected the way you live.  If it killed something in you or damaged you it’s because...

Prov 18;21 says; The power of life and death is in the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

I can destroy my life by the words i say about it. I can destroy my mind by the words I say. I can bring health to my emotions by the words i say. I can bring healing to my body by the words I say.  That’s how powerful the words you say are.  

Psalms 141:3 says….. Set a guard over my mouth, Lord keep watch over the door of my lips.  

Like a seatbelt restrains you and prevents you from being hurt, so I want you to wear this wrist band for the next month as a minute by minute reminder that when it comes to speaking negatively, or critically or harshly…… WE DON’T DO THAT HERE.

I want you to do a 21 day fast with me. A fast from negative speech. Can you do it. Every time you fail put money in a jar and at the end of may for the IFF bring your money and donate it towards the food. 

Proverbs 12:18 Reckless words pierce like a sword, The tongue of the wise brings healing.

Proverbs 12:14 From the FRUIT of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him.

That means if you will start speaking powerfully about your future, your life will be filled with good things. If you start declaring that you are a person of great health, great intellect and great skill, you will start to find that your life reaps the rewards of this kind of talk.

AS SURELY AS THE WORK OF HIS HANDS REWARD HIM. WOW

SAY SOMETHING GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF RIGHT NOW.

Proverbs 13:2-3 2Good people enjoy the positive results of their good words, 3Those who control their tongue will have a long life; a quick retort can ruin everything.

Our human words have some effect, but when you grab hold of God’s words and you start to put them into your mouth, that’s when you move from the natural to the supernatural.   

God’s words in your mouth are supernaturally powerful. God’s words in your mouth will lift you, they will encourage you, they will feed you, they will bring success to your life, they will help you break the chains of fear, they will destroy the power of addictions.

God’s words to you are words like:

• IF God be for me, who can be against me.
• Greater is he that is in ME,
• God’s plans for me are great plans
• God loves me and accepts me the way I am.
• God is standing at my right hand that I might not be shaken.
• Do not be afraid, discouraged or dismayed, for the Lord is with you.
• Be bold and courageous, for I am with you.
• I’ve given you a spirit of power, and spirit of love and a sound mind.
• Do not Fear, for I am with you.

But there is one condition. You have to speak them out with your mouth, and you have to believe them in your heart. You might believe them, but you need to confess them. In regards to your eternity, words count for 50% of the result. 

Romans 10: 8 Salvation that comes from trusting Christ—which is the message we preach—is already within easy reach. In fact, the Scriptures say, “The message is close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.”9For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. 11As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

---

Coming up at Influencers - Click or tap below to find out more

SEE IT, STAKE IT OUT AND SETTLE IN IT

SEE IT, STAKE IT OUT AND SETTLE IN IT

(Gen 13:14 NIV)  The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west.

(Gen 13:15 NIV)  All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.

(Gen 13:16 NIV)  I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.

(Gen 13:17 NIV)  Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."

(Gen 13:18 NIV)  So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.

After Lot had parted from him, God said to Abram. Lift up your eyes and look from where you are and look North and South, East and West.

Abram had started with a vision and with dream. God had said to him to leave his home and go into the unknown. There had been a word from God to go. But along the way conflict and pain had come into Abrams life. The only family he had was his nephew Lot. They were obviously close and yet there came a conflict between the herdsman of Abram and those of Lot, until finally Abram reluctantly said to Lot his friend and relative. We must separate. You choose where you will live and I will go in the opposite direction. It was a difficult decision. It was one that brought pain to Abram and yet he had to let it go. He had to deal with this situation. All of us have a Lot to deal with in our lives from time to time.

Until Abram obeyed the Lord and let Lot go, he didn’t get another word or vision from the Lord.  Even though God had spoken to Abram in times past, God did not speak to Abram until he had let go of this relationship and this situation. 

AFTER LOT HAD PARTED FROM ABRAM, GOD SAID TO ABRAM, LIFT UP YOUR EYES.

What are you going to do after the tragedy, after the devastating experience within your life.  It’s time to let it go.

When we finally come to terms with these things, things that we have to let go of, we always get a fresh word from God, a fresh vision. You have to let go of the old to get the new.

God comes to Abram in verse 14 and says to him, I want you to get a new vision, and here is where it starts

“I want you to lift up your eyes from the place you are.”  

Abram was no doubt discouraged and downcast. Eg: People who are downcast always look down.

He was looking at the dust of the ground and God comes to him and says Lift up your eyes and look.  You have to understand this morning that you will never see the stars by looking at the ground.

It’s time to get your eyes off the ground. Off the negatives, off the things that aren’t working out.  It’s time to change your thinking and look up from where you are. Where you look is the direction you are going in. What you focus on is going to determine where you end up.

God says to Abram.  “Lift up your eyes and look from this place where you are, northward, southward, eastward, and westward.”

Don’t let your uplifted vision be confined to just a few things in your life. Let every facet and area of your life benefit from your uplifted vision. Don’t be satisfied with just better health. Enjoy abundance, enjoy prosperity, enjoy peace and relationships. God is saying to Abram don’t leave anything out of the picture. Look north, south, east and west.

God then goes on and gives Abram the key to making your life one that counts and one that experiences the fulfillment of God’s plan.

(Gen 13:15 NIV)  All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.

1.  YOU MUST SEE IT.

Notice God doesn’t give Abram map co-ordinates of what land belonged to him. He just said. All the land you SEE will be yours.

Until you see it with the eye of faith it is not yours. The blessings still exist, the destiny still exists, the healing still exists, but it becomes your blessing, your healing, your future, when you see it.

All the land you SEE is yours. Conversely all the land you don’t see won’t be yours.

We have got to start seeing. Lift our eyes and start to see. If Abram had only look in a 10 metre radius around him, then thats what he would have got. If he looked just to the North, thats all he would have got. What you see is what you get.

God wants us to see with the eye of faith, all the things that he has prepared for us. God says in Ephesians that you have been prepared for good works. There are things that have been prepared for you. There are husbands of faith, women of God, children moving in the things of God for you.  

You will never get it until you see it! And you will only get what you see.

There is so much more to see than we have seen. 

There is more! Do you really believe it? Then why have you stopped looking? Jesus probably won’t come back this year. Stop waiting for the rapture. There is so much more NOW!

Ephesians 1

“I ask the God of our master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory-to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focussed and clear, so that you can SEE exactly what it is he is calling you to do, and grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians.  Oh! The utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him.

In Hebrews 11 we read about the men and women of faith.  In verse 13 it says they SAW the promises of God and welcomed them from a distance.

Men of faith and women of faith are people who have SEEN something.

What have you seen? Allow a desire to grow within you. This is not all there is to life. There is more, much much more. Allow the Holy Spirit to birth within you a hunger for more. Open your spiritual eyes and look to the North, the south, the east and the west.

ALL THAT YOU SEE! WILL BE YOURS.

Secondly if we are going to be possess the land of promise for our lives, we have to stake out our claim.

2.  STAKE IT OUT

Don't lost the vision and the dream.  

Not only do you have to see it, but you have to stake out your claim.

(Gen 13:17 NIV)  Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."

God instructed Abram to go and get the feel of the land he was giving him.  Go and walk through it.  Suss it out.  Check out the length and breadth of the land.  Indulge yourself in feeling it.

A lot of people see things but they never stake their claim on it. They never let it get into their spirit. They never allow themselves to really feel it as theirs.

You can imagine Abram walking through the land and imagining a great metropolis rising out of nothing.  Imagining the voices of children running through the streets.  His children, his descendants etc.

It’s time to stake out your claim. It’s time to get used to what you see, so when it happens it is no surprise.  I saw this happening in my spirit.

3.  SETTLE IN THE LAND OF PROMISE.

Not only did Abram see it, not only did he stake it out, but it says in verse 18 that he moved and went and settled in the land.

(Gen 13:18 NIV)  So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.

Not only did he see it, not only did he walk through the land, but he decided to move address.  He decided to move into his destiny and live in it forsaking the things of the past and instead embracing the things of today and tomorrow.

It’s time to move camp. It’s time not only to hear about our destiny. It’s time not only to see what is possible. It is not only time to imagine a great future, it’s time to embrace the future in the present and live as if the promise was already fulfilled.

Abram moved into the land long before it actually became his and his families. He decided to let go of yesterday and move and live as a new man in a new place.

It’s time to declare that it is yours and to live like it is.  

Others have seen that God wants their children to be blessed.  You need to start speaking that blessing out. They are mighty men and women of God. Start to live in that land. IT takes years often for it to take place, and there are many tests and challenges along the way, but if you are going to inherit it, then you have to live in it.  

There are people here who live in loveless marriages. God wants you to see something. His destiny for you is for your marriage to prosper. Let him open your eyes. See it, Stake your claim on it and then settle in that destiny.  Start to live and act as if your husband was the most loving, romantic man in all the world. Husbands start living and acting as if your wife was responsive and gentle and wanting to give herself to you.  

(Heb 11:15 NIV)  If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.

(Heb 11:16 NIV)  Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Eg:  Elisha and Elijah.  

He saw something. HE tore his clothes and put on the new mantle. He wrapped himself in his destiny.  He then went and smote the waters.

He changed his identity.  He chose to deal with the past.  He chose to leave the past and instead wrap himself in his future. Not live in the past with a faint hope for tomorrow, but chose to confront and deal with the past. 

There will be tests along the way. When Elisha came to the waters edge, on the other side where 50 of his peers. People who didn’t think he had much. People who didn’t believe he could be different. He had a choice to make. Either live in his destiny and confront his past or be a failure.  He unwrapped the mantle and smote the water.  

It is not a time to hide the past or bury it, or deny the weaknesses, it is time to confront the past and change your identity.

Coming up at Influencers

PUSH PART THREE

PUSH PART 3

If you are going to achieve that goal successfully, win that race, or birth that dream you are going to need to know how to push right. A lot of people cause damage to themselves.  

---

• Understand the process.  
• Learn when to push.
• Learn how to follow instructions from the doctors and nurses.
• Communicate to the doctor what’s happening.
• Learn when to slow down

Not accepting no, thinking creatively, find the right people is all true, but there is a part of pushing that is the most critical for presence filled believers and that is persistant, powerful penetrating prayer.  

---

MARK 5

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.  30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” 31 “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

---

This story happens on a busy day for Jesus. His schedule is packed. The crowds are surging, a synagogue ruler has fallen at his feet and begged him to come to his house and heal his dying daughter. This is the story of a woman with issues.

The issue started in one area but it’s now affecting everything. 

• It’s affected her sex life.
• It’s affected her ability to have children. 
• It’s affected her work life.  
• It’s affected her social life. 
• It’s affected her spiritual life. 

1. She has to PUSH THROUGH her feelings of hopelessness

2. She has to PUSH THROUGH her feelings of helplessness.

- people who want to break free of their issues, but want to do it alone. You can’t.

3. She has to PUSH THRU her feelings of unworthiness.   

- She doesn’t feel worthy
- But something arises inside her, and before she knows it, she’s PUSHING……..pushing through the crowd.

---

PUSHING IS ABOUT PRAYING. 

Her pushing physically is a picture of us pushing spiritually.   To touch Jesus she has to do something.  To touch Jesus in 2017 we have to do something.  What she had to do was push through obstacles, what we have to do is pray.  But have you noticed that when it comes to pray it seems like there are obstacles in front of you.

When we pray we have to overcome some of the same obstacles as she did. 

• We have to overcome our feelings of hopelessness
• We have to overcome our feelings of helplessness 
• We have to overcome our feelings of unworthiness.
• We have to overcome the barriers people put in the way. 

---

WHO IS THIS JESUS

a)  He’s the interruptible Jesus. He’s the Jesus who is not too busy to be interrupted. He’s not like your dad. He’s not like your teacher. 

b)  He’s the vulnerable Jesus. This is the Jesus who has made himself vulnerable to the needs of an unimportant woman. 

c)  He’s the Intimate and relationship initiating Jesus  

Instead of rejection he reaches out to her and calls her daughter. 

d)  He’s the peace Giving Jesus. 

COMING UP AT INFLUENCERS

PUSH PART TWO

PART 2 P.U.S.H

The birth of a baby involves a contradictory set of ideas. The pain of delivery and the joy of the baby. Pain and Joy.  

It’s fascinating to think that someone pushed to make room for us in this world. Someone pushed so you could live. We were pushed into this world and from day 1 pushing to give birth to ideas, accomplishments and dreams is a part of the deal.  

God wants to activate a pushing season in your life. A season where you start the completion process of things that started in you years ago.  

---

Mark 2:2 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

---

Mark is trying to describe a scene where normal options don’t exist anymore. 

Have you ever been there. Are you there now. There is no obvious pathways forward. 

Last week we outlined the first 6 things you need to do if you are going to find a way where there is no way. 

1. Realize that there are always obstacles between you and your answer.
2. Never accept No for an answer
3. Understand that JESUS must be the center of your pursuit.
4. Overcome your self consciousness.  
5. Do it for others.  
6. Be prepared for more than you bargained for.
7. Find some good Friends. (People that encourage you and inspire you to keep going.)  
8. Be a good friend to someone. (Need to find some people who are having trouble with their walk this Easter.  Maybe they have been crippled by life.)
9. Join a team of people who are passionate and focused. (These guys made a great team.  Each of them had a clear role.)
10. Find your place on the team (There were 5 positions on the stretcher. You have to find which position you are meant to be in. Sometimes you are on the stretcher and sometimes you are carrying the stretcher, but you need to find your place.)
11. Think Creatively. (What do you do when there is no way to get something you need. You need a good imagination.)

How did the 4 men get the paralyzed man on the roof. Even more importantly how did they lower him down in front of Jesus. By creativity.  P.U.S.H plan until something happens. Patiently peservere the pain and plan and pray until something happens. 

     12.   Respond in faith to what Jesus tells you. (Jesus said to the man. Take up your bed and
            walk.)

Remember he’s never done this before.  He doesn’t know how to take up his bed and walk.  

What Jesus often asks you to do is something you have never done before.

Coming Up at Influencers

PUSH

P.U.S.H PART 1

Ephesians 5: “Wake up, sleeper, and Christ will shine on you.”  15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 

---

P.U.S.H means persevere until something happens.  

It was much easier for the children of Israel to dream about the promised land than it was when they got to the border.  

Dreams always look better the further they are away. 

6 out of 10 fish get away. Why ? 

---

How to push.  How to win.  How to birth it.

---

Luke 5:17 One day Jesus was teaching, and Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried (notice they tried)  to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. 19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.  20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” 21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”  22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in yourhearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 24 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

---

1. Realize that there are always obstacles between you and your answer.

a)  People

b)  Physical barriers

c)  Spiritual Barriers

NB: The first thing Jesus does is forgive his sins. Why? Because everyday of his life, he had been taught that he was lame because God was punishing him. Shame is the greatest inhibitor of faith.  It makes us believe that God isn’t for us when he is. 

---

2. Never accept No for an answer

No is just another word for think more creatively. 

We are always 5 mins from a genius idea. 

---

3. Understand that JESUS must be the center of your pursuit.

Jesus was the center of their whole pursuit.  

If Jesus is not the center of your goals, then you may get what you want but you won’t get the healing or forgiveness you also need. 

God doesn’t want you to get to the top only to lose your family or succeed but lose Jesus in the process.  

---

4. Overcome your self consciousness.  

These guys were about to drop right into the middle of Jesus meeting. They were about to interrupt an important service and wreck the house. 

---

5. Do it for others.  

Make your goal the helping of others. Pushing is at its purest when it's for others. A mothers motivation comes from knowing this is for the baby.  

---

6. Be prepared for more than you bargained for.

There is more reward at the end of your journey than you could have ever dreamed.

You may think it’s about getting your marriage back. You may think it’s about being healed. You may think it’s about money to meet your needs. 

It’s about your growth. It’s about your destiny, it’s about a life built to last. It’s about more than your mind and heart could imagine.  

---

• He was forgiven by God in front of everyone.
• He broke through in front of his enemies.  He silenced his critics
• He broke the rejection in his life.  
• He broke the shame in his life.
• He broke the pain in his life
• He broke the fear in his life
• He opened a new world of freedom to himself.
• He created for himself more opportunities to enjoy life
• He learnt that taking risks brings results
• He learnt that being creative overcomes every obstacle.
• He learnt to trust in Jesus more than he had ever done in his life
• He learnt to believe in God more than he had ever done 
• The carried, became a carrier. 
• The crippled man was now free.

---

Don’t despise the day of small beginnings.

Do not get weary in doing good, because you will reap if you do not faint.

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Heb 7:25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them

Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.

Coming Up at Influencers

Going Viral Part Three

GOING VIRAL PART 3

A speaker was speaking about the power of words in our lives. He asked for questions and one of the audience raised his hand and said I have more of a statement than a question. Go ahead said the speaker. I don’t believe what you are saying said the man. I don’t believe that saying I’m a success I’m a success has any impact on me. It doesn’t make me feel better and it doesn’t make me feel worse. They are only words and they have no power.  

The speaker replied, Shut up you idiot, you clearly have no idea what you are saying. In fact you are a total loser.  

The audience couldn’t believe it. The mans face went very red and he got angry and was just about to unleash a tirade of obscentities when the speaker put up his hand and said ‘I’m so sorry I shouldn’t have said that and I didn’t mean to upset you. Please accept my most sincere apology.  

The man calmed down and sat down and the audience murmured amongst themselves.  

The speaker resumed. There sir is the reply to the question you asked me…….

A few words made you very angry and a just a few words calmed you down.  

Sir, now do you understand the power of words?

---

Our words have power, power to build, power to tear down. Power to create life and hope, power to destroy confidence and faith. It’s how powerful your mouth is. It’s how powerful your words are. It’s how powerful your tongue is. It holds the power of life and death.

King Solomon is said to be the wisest man that has ever lived.

Most of us think that it all started when God came to Solomon in a dream and asked him what he would like.

But It didn’t start there. It started when his father spoke powerful life changing words over his son Solomon. Long before Solomon ever got wise, his father spoke it into his life.  

---

Psalms 72: 1 “God, give the king your good judgment”

2“Help him judge your people fairly and decide what is right for the poor.”  3“Let there be peace on the mountains and goodness on the hills for the people.” 8“Let his kingdom go from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth”. “let the kings of Sheba bring their presents to him”  “Let him receive gold from Sheba.”   “Let all kings bow down to him and all nations serve him.”

---

His last words to Solomon were these… “You are wise and you will know what to do” 

David was sowing powerful destiny into his son.  

Who have you built up by your words this week.  

---

Isaiah 51:2 (MSG) 2 Yes, ponder Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who bore you. Think of it! One solitary man when I called him, but once I blessed him, he multiplied

Isaiah 40:29 (AMP) 29 He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound]. 

Luke 18:30 (MSG) It will all come back multiplied many times over in your lifetime. And then the bonus of eternal life!" 

Acts 6:7 (AMP) 7 And the message of God kept on spreading, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem; 

Acts 9:31 (AMP) 31 So the church throughout the whole of Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and continued to increase and was multiplied. 

2 Corinthians 9:10 (AMP) 10 And [God] Who provides seed for the sower and bread for eating will also provide and multiply your [resources for] sowing

Hebrews 6:14 (AMP)  14 Saying, Blessing I certainly will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you. 

Jude 1:2 (AMP) 2 May mercy, [soul] peace, and love be multiplied to you. 

---

TodayI wantto talk to you about the next step of multiplication. If you want to multiply then you have to

1.  Get Connected. 

2.  You have to sow.  

Many people get connected, but unless you sow, nothing is left but vague memories.  It’s one thing to be aroused and get connected, but it was another thing for Abraham to sow seed. You are supposed to multiply not just have memories of a good time. Sowing means staying connected for long enough for the energy of connection to create something new. Sowing is about legacy, not just immediacy.  

This is what david did to Solomon. He sowed destiny into his son. 

Words are like seeds planted in the ground. You may not see the result overnight, but you will see the result.  

---

SO WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO SOW.

1. To impregnate something with seed.

The point of sowing is to conceive. To bring to life something with the seed you have. It didn’t matter how many promises Abraham had, he had to sow for it to come to life.   

---

Genesis 38 :8-10 So Judah told Onan, “Go and sleep with your brother’s widow; it’s the duty of a brother-in-law to keep your brother’s line alive.” But Onan knew that the child wouldn’t be his, so whenever he slept with his brother’s widow he spilled his semen on the ground so he wouldn’t produce a child for his brother. God was much offended by what he did.  

---

God gets angry with Onan because he spilled his sperm. Why would God be offended?  

Because his seed was meant to create not wasted. Onan was only about himself. He had no concept about multiplication, about the responsibility he had with the creativity he had been given.  

This is not a year to withhold your seed. This is a year to impregnate this house with your DNA and creativity.  

---

WHAT SEED DO YOU HAVE

• Words
• Money
• Time
• Prayer

---

1. To make an investment today that can be enjoyed tomorrow.

Sowing is always concerned with the future. It has the future in mind. If you are just focussed on today, you will never sow, because sowing is thinking about the future. If you are concerned only with today, you won’t sow.  

---

Ecclesiastes 11:4 Farmers who wait for perfect weather never sow.

---

OUR HOMEWORK THIS WEEK

The fruitfulness of our church and God’s plan for Atlanta is in your hands. Connect and then sow.  God’s plan is that we multiply.  

Invite one new person every week till Easter. 

Below is 5 people to invite over the next month.

All information is kept securely with Influencers Church and will not be shared to outside sources. 

---

Coming Up at Influencers

Going Viral Part Two

GOING VIRAL PART TWO

Most of us want the end result of multiplication, in our relationships, finances, health, joy factor, efficiencies, it’s the process to get there that we struggle with and sometimes if we are honest we really don’t know how to get that result.

Talk to any mathematician and they will tell you that there are rules governing multiplication

1. If you multiply anything with zero the answer is ALWAYS zero. 

It doesn’t matter how large or small the number is it the answer is always zero. FOUR BILLION 300 MILLION MULTIPLIED BY ZERO IS STILL ZERO

In Matthew 25, that was given one talent but did nothing with it (zero) in fact he hid it in the ground, ended up with zero!

This parable starts off with the words “again the kingdom of Heaven is like”……it describes a master and 3 servants, all given resource according to their ability. So no one was disadvantaged, and all would be judged fairly. It wasn’t the AMOUNT that was measured as success by the master but the degree and effort of engagement

The first two guys ENGAGED in the multiplication process, but the last guy said 

---

Matthew 25:24-24 Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’ 

---

In his own words he was afraid.

He didn’t want to get engaged in the multiplication process because he didn’t think the results where going to benefit him!

There was no work or effort needed to bury it, he could get on with his own life and not allow the process of multiplication to “detract” from that. 

He describes his master as harsh and someone who reaped where he hadn’t sown.

What they don’t realize is that it will cost them so much more NOT to multiply!

The master gave him all he needed to multiply and God has done the same for you and I. He’s given us resource and is looking for us to multiply it.

This guy didn’t waste money he wasted an opportunity to engage in the multiplication process. 

---

For the other two guys who did engage the results were incredible. 

• Their level of responsibility was increased, 
• They were commended, 
• They shared in the master’s joy, 
• They were drawn further into trust, 
• They were given more resource

If we apply this to Kingdom life it doesn’t matter how much or how little you have if you don’t engage in the kingdom multiplication process your result will be zero.

It doesn’t matter how much you have or you think you have if you don’t invest it, engage it, work with it you will end up with nothing to show for it.

You will go from church to church mad at God mad at leadership and end up with less and less knowing that inside you there is the POTENTIAL to multiply but you don’t like the conditions you have been given so far and you are waiting for the right ones.

---

or

2. Anything multiplied by one, is itself, it is never increased.

If you just keep what you have to yourself in isolation and multiply it without getting connected to anything or anyone else then you will be left with exactly what you started with! YOU

In math that’s about as complicated as I can go but in Biology anything that multiplies on its own just mutates, 

Dermoid cysts tend to occur in younger women. These cysts can grow quite large - up to 15 cm across. These cysts often contain odd contents such as hair, parts of teeth or bone, fatty tissue, etc. This is because these cysts develop from cells which make eggs in the ovary, but have not been fertilized by sperm, instead they multiply on their own.

We need something EXTERNAL, OTHER THAN OURSELVES to be fruitful and to multiply.

God’s first command to mankind was to be fruitful and multiply, it’s a command not a suggestion.

---

Genesis  1:28 “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply

---

Then again to Noah after the flood,

Genesis 9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, be fruitful and multiply in number and fill the earth.

---

The order of things are important here.

1. God blesses them (he kneels and blesses them, bends down to them, comes down on their level just like you would kneel before a child to embrace them and acknowledge them and give attention to their needs.) He gives them the resource to follow His command (REMEMBER THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS?) HE GAVE THEM THE RESOURCE THAT THEY NEEDED

2. Then He asks them to be fruitful

The fruit comes through connection, engagement

Be planted, connected, flourish, grow, do things you never thought you could, react in ways you never thought possible. Grow something amazing, flourish, produce fruit, produce MUCH FRUIT

---

John 15:1,4-5 I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. 

5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

---

 Connection is the first step in becoming fruitful, it provides the avenue for fruit to grow but if there is nothing life giving flowing in the connection, there will be no fruit.

It’s the sap flowing through the branches that supplies the nutrients for the plant to produces healthy fruit 

The spirit is the life giving sap that flows and brings fruitfulness to the branch

---

John 6:63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life

Romans 8: 10-11 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

Galatians 5:22  (The Message) But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

23–24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified.

25–26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

---

We cannot be fruitful without being connected and having the Holy Spirit breathe life into us on a daily basis.

Are you disconnected?

How do you know you are disconnected?

Do a FRUIT check!

---

3. Then tells them to multiply

Inside the fruit is the seed that makes you multiply!

---

Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth put forth [tender] vegetation: plants yielding seed and fruit trees yielding fruit whose seed is in itself, each according to its kind, upon the earth. And it was so.

---

You have to be fruitful first, then it’s the fruit that helps you multiply because in the fruit is the seed and in the seed is the power of multiplication.

So its our job to produce the fruit by staying connected to the vine and allowing the Holy Spirit sap to flow into our lives, AND THE FRUIT WILL GROW! What happens though as soon as we are corrected, as soon as we don’t like the methods someone is using, as soon as we get fearful we disconnect and the fruit that was forming falls off!

The longer a tree stays planted the better quality the fruit is, the better quality the fruit the more seeds it has, the more seeds it has the greater power of multiplication is holds!

You need the fruit to be able to handle the multiplication because multiplication can look inconvenient at times.

---

Sometimes it will feel inconvenient, 

Sometimes it will feel like a burden, 

Sometimes it will feel harder to get up the hills,

---

But in the long term you are doing life with them, multiplying what I have put in you into them and taking care of those that I love.

The fruit we have in our lives after God leans down and blesses us with the resource we need to multiply is the thing that attracts others to come and see what is going on, why we respond better than others to that nasty boss at work, why we can still have joy when our husband has moved out and is having an affair, when a business deal goes bad and we decide not to cheat on our taxes. When we have self-control and take that child who has been naughty into our arms and show them love rather than yell at them. Inside the fruit of the Spirit are the seeds to multiply.

---

THE ONLY WAY TO GET THE SEEDS IS FOR THE FRUIT TO GET DEVOURED

---

That’s what Church is meant to be like, we are all massive fruit trees planted, connected, flourishing, God has bent down towards us and blessed us, and we are meant to give away our fruit, love joy peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, self control

And in that fruit is the seeds to see that go viral and multiply

VIRAL

GOING VIRAL PART 1

 

You are made up of 1 trillion cells and yet you started as Just one cell.  Wow….How incredibe.  Every second your body multiplies and creates 2 million blood cells.  This equates to 120,000,000 blood cells a minute. Every hour your body creates 7 billion 200 million cells. 

Why would God do it this way?

So his theology and plan for you would be part of your biology A physiology that is constantly refreshing renewing and rebuilding. 

---

• God is such a God of fruitfulness and multiplication that the universe is constantly expanding and accelerating.  
• God is such a God of multipliation that you would drop dead if you didn’t continually multiply.  You arekept alive by your body being fruitful.
• God is such a God of multiplication that the entire earth is established on this principle.  All of the plants, the flowers, are filled with seeds. 
• Whenever the wind blows, multiplication happens all over the earth. 
• He is such a God of multiplication that when he wanted to talk explain the kingdom of God, he used a seed to explain it.

---

Just like a womb is created on purpose to be fruitful and multiply ,so was your mind, your talents, your health, your marriage, your kids, your finances.

---

Genesis 35:11 (NLT) 11 Then God said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Be fruitful and multiply. 

Leviticus 26:9 (AMP) 9 For I will be leaning toward you with favor and regard for you, rendering you fruitful, and multiplying you

Deuteronomy 8:13 (NIV) 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 

Deuteronomy 1:11 (MSG) 11 And may God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, keep it up and multiply you another thousand times, bless you just as he promised. 

Luke 18:30 (MSG) It will all come back multiplied many times over in your lifetime. And then the bonus of eternal life!" 

2 Corinthians 9:10 (AMP) 10 And [God] Who provides seed for the sower and bread for eating will also provide and multiply your [resources for] sowing

Hebrews 6:14 (AMP)  14 Saying, Blessing I certainly will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you. 

---

GOD’S FIRST 3 COMMANDS ARE ABOUT FRUITFULNESS AND MULTIPLICATION

---

Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply

Genesis 9:1 1Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and multiply in number and fill the earth.

Genesis 9:77 As for you, be fruitful and multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”

---

When God chose Abhraham to be the father of faith he chose him because he was someone who couldn’t but wanted to to show that fruitfulness is the result of a promise not just human effort.  

Romans 4:16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring.   He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

When Abraham chose to believe that it was possible to be fruitful against the odds and when he chose to believe God,it was so incredible that it was counted as a righteous act that qualified him to be accepted by God.  

God loves to use people who want to but can’t. 

Once you believe it’s for you then comes Step 2.

SO WHAT’S THE FIRST KEY?

You have to get connected. Abraham had to get connected in order to be fruitful.

You will never be fruitful alone.

---

Proverbs 18:1 One who has isolated himself seeks his own desires; he rejects all sound judgment.

Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

---

Everytime we break through we are tempted to settle for a win.  

After having Isaac, Abraham wants to settle down so God has to take him on a journey where he asking him to sacrifice the fruit and gift he was given.  God did this to get his attention and remind him that his plan wasn’t just not about 1 child, it was about nations.

 Fast forward a few years and we see God’s people being blessed so much that they filled the land.

---

Exodus 1;6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. 

8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us.  Let’s be shrewd with them….  11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor,  12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor.   in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

---

Understand that the enemy of your life is trying to interrupt your ability to multiply.  He’s trying to stop you, slow you down and undermine your ability.

1. Such extreme busyness there is no time to be fruitful 
2. Such extreme busyness there is no energy to be fruitful 
3. Such pressure that 2 people could never get connected

The enemy of your life is trying to destroy your margins so you have no time for fruitfulness because you are working so hard.

The enemy is trying to create such pressure in your life , you start looking for the easy way out.  He’s trying to choke you so you don’t have time to connect.  

There are 2 options to this kind of pressure.

1. Surrender to the pressure and Take an Advil and say I’m too tired.
2. Or Remember that the pathway to fulfillment, joy and combating stress is to connect.   That God created great fulfillment in the act of connecting.

You can tell from the scripture that the people despite busyness, despite pressure, despite the tiredness the lack of time and energy, chose to connect because the bible says that they just kept multiplying.  

When it comes to House Parties some of you are going to say….. I’m too tired, I have too much on and I don’t have the time.  Or you will say this takes effort but it’s the pathway to relationships that are meaningful and fruitful.

The enemy tries tactic no 2.

And he goes after the babies.

The devil wants to destroy all of your ideas just as they are being born.  

---

15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” 

---

Ever had an idea destroyed in it’s infancy.  Ever started on a pathway only to have it aborted.  Ever tried to begin afresh only to have your dreams sabotaged.  

Understand 2 things this morning.  God’s plan his purpose and his command to you is to be fruitful.  The measure of a persons life is fruitfulness.  Busyness is not the measure, fruitfulness is.  Secondly life/the spirit of the world and the devil himself wants to make you exhausted, pressured, tired so that he can stop you from being fruitful and if that fails he wants to destroy your dreams.  

The answer is to find people like these 2 midwives who will help protect the new dream, the new start, the new you.

Coming up at Influencers

More Part Three

MORE PART THREE

The gospels are a story about OPPORTUNITY. Who would perceive it correctly and who would mistake it for something else.  

---

Two shoe salesmen were sent to Africa to see if there was a market for their product.

The first salesman reported back, “This is a terrible business opportunity, no-one wears shoes.”

The second salesman reported back, “This is a fantastic business opportunity, no-one wears shoes.”  Please send me more containers.

---

Can you believe how amazing it would have been to have a once in creation opportunity with GOD. Have you ever thought about the opportunity the people of Palestine had when God incarnate turned up into their world. Remember that this group of dispossessed poverty stricken people in a small far flung territory of the Roman have not had any hope for 400 years. No word from God, no man of God, no prophet just silence for 400 years had not heard from God for 400 years when suddenly God turns up wrapped in flesh to heal, restore help and given hope and vision to them. This was an incredible opportunity for the people who had been looking for more than just religion or politics or social upheaval or domination by an occupying force. 

---

In my life time of experience I’ve learnt one thing.. It’s that opportunities create more, but they also demand more.  More courage, more insight, more investment, more responsibility, more faith.  

Matthew Chapter 9 because in Matthew 9 You see Jesus in full flight from the verse one right through verse 38. Everything he's doing is about seizing the opportunity. It's about grasping the chance that's in front of him to impact the people around about him.   

This is the chapter that describes the woman with the issue of blood who wants more than just sickness.  She is prepared to endure more to get more…so she crawls through the crowd is prepared to break through because she wants more. Then there is jairus who wants MORE than just religion who takes a great risk and falls at Jesus feet begging for help for his daughter who is dying.  In this chapter, Jesus agenda is frenetic. He is recruiting more leaders and more disciples.   He heals 2 blind men, casts a demon out of a mute man, answers more questions and travels everywhere healing and helping people.   

---

Matthew 9:1 And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. 2 And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.   he then said to the paralytic “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 7 And he rose and went home. 8 When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

Jesus Calls Matthew

9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

10 And as Jesus[b] reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

A Question About Fasting

14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast,[c] but your disciples do not fast?” 

A Girl Restored to Life and a Woman Healed

18 While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19 And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples.20 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, 21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly[d] the woman was made well. 26 And the report of this went through all that district.

Jesus Heals Two Blind Men

27 And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” 28 When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” 29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.” 30 And their eyes were opened. 

32 As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. 

33 And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel. 

---

Jesus is in a HURRY.  He’s healing people everywhere, casting out demons,answering hard questions, dealing with critics, recruiting leaders for the cause and going every where to all the cities teaching and healing.

---

35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 

---

In this passage theopportunites are so great and the need is so overwhelming.  He’s in demand and he’s in a hurry.

As I was reading this I had a revelation about why I feel in such a hurry. 

I don't know if you noticed it but God’s got this great plan for Atlanta.  When you look at the chaos of our nation, the protests, the corruption, the trouble and the hatred, you know that we live in the greatest days of the church.   Opportunity is knocking on our door.   If we see ourselves as part of the morass then we will lose hope, and get sucked into the vortex of the never ending problems and division but if you see it as God sees it, you will cry out to him for MORE.   The only answer to the ills of our society is a life giving healthy functioning church. Not a perfect church.   Couldyouseriously see a transformation happening in our city.

And so there's an opportunity for you and I to help more people, reach more people and do more good.   God has given us a incredible opportunity.  More influence, more impact, more miracles, more life, more people saved, more families helped, more marriages helped, more fear destroyed. 

---

JESUS CONVERSATIONS WERE OFTEN ABOUT MORE

it's really interesting because if you start to analyze some of Jesus conversations and look at his behavior…. it's all about MORE.   It's all about the opportunities and what you're going to do about it. The only way to seize opportunities is to create MORE.  More demands more.

“The harvest is great, but the workers are few. 38 So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”

In other words the opportunities are huge but we need more.

If you are a farmer, you know that a harvest demands more of us. MORE opportunities always demand more of you. We think of opportunities. It's a great thing and they are.  Opportunities are great If we can answer the more question. Can you give more? Can you work more,  can you embrace more? Can you grow more? Can you recruit more? All the more questions come home to roost. And often people miss their opportunity. 

From John13-17 is Jesus preparing his disciples for a move of God like they have never seen.  

It starts off with Jesus teaching them how to serve. He says listen I've watched you guys and you're full of zeal full of enthusiasm but you're jostling for position and so you need more of a servant heartAnd so he shows them by taking the towel and serving them.

Jesus is not focused on his betrayal as much as he’s focused on preparing his disciples for MORE. 

Jesus goes on John 13 to 17 to talk about more of the Holy Spirit. You're going to need more of the Holy Spirit people.  This is what I told you about in chapter 7 at the feast.. More understanding about whom the Holy Spirit is. 

Then he says to them that they need to believe more and if they do, they will do greater things than Jesus..

---

12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

---

Then he goes on to promise them the Holy Spirit. To promise them that there is MORE coming.

THIS IS NOT THE END BUT THE BEGINNING OF MORE

Then he tells them that if they abide in him and he in them, they would bear more fruit.

Then he tells he has MORE to tell them but they can’t handle anymore.

---

12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 

---

Then he tells them why they need MORE love, more devotion, more care and more hope about the future.

---

16 “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away.  

---

Let’s fast forward to Acts 2:2 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

Here’s where opportunity rewards those that have given more responded in faith with more.   Jesus had told them love each other more and care for each more and after the crisis where do you find the disciples.  In the upper room, caring for each other. There striving has gone. They are able to choose the 12th apostle, they are able to wait for God to move and then suddenly.

Jesus ends Matt 9 with this amazing statement. The opportunities are so large but we need MORE. More care and more people.  

“The harvest is great, but the workers are few. 38 So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”

It’s interesting that the very next verse in Matthew 10:1 and it’s Jesus sending out his 12 disciples. 

Coming up at Influencers