What goes with you?

And Moses said to the Lord, If Your Presence does not go with me, do not carry us up from here! (Ex 33:15 AMP) I am committed totally and completely to seeing the kingdom of God advance in the church The Lord has given me ten points to deliver to the church to help her in advancing the kingdom. Every service we have, whether it is a prayer meeting or whatever type of meeting-- as long as two or more are gathered in His name, He is there. Everything is about the presence of God, and His kingdom.

It is about His presence; it is about His kingdom, and it is about lives being transformed and changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not based on what I can say and what I can do, because it is all about Him. The church can do nothing without Him. When I look through the past ten years I can say, “Look what theLord has done!” Is your glass half-full or half-empty? That is a way of thinking; that is a mindset. I am committed to seeing the kingdom of God advance in His church. 1) The Focal point of the church needs to be the kingdom of God going forward Moses told the Lord that if His presence didn’t go with him, he didn’t want to go (Exodus 33:15). I have seen too many churches embark on programs that have become the focal point of the ministry. A program will never be my focal point. The focal point of the church needs to be the kingdom of God going forward in the name of Jesus. That needs to be utmost and paramount in our lives.

John Maxwell in a book he authored in 2001; states: “for every advancement, somebody sacrificed.” I’ve looked back, and I remember specific seasons wherein the Lord calls me to plow certain ground like a farmer sowing for a harvest. Do you know what that means? People who plow go in and they till up the land. Have you been behind a rototiller? Have you ever hit a stone? We are called to plow. There is a going forward that needs to take place, and we will not break down from going forward and plowing turning up the soil of our hearts becomes an every day occurrence.

Many times this is the problem with Christianity: Christians like the nice comfortable zone. If you are a part of the church I pastor, you are not called to a life of comfort. In fact, probably everyone who decides to come to my church, will be hit by a lot of ‘stuff’ in their lives. I refuse to be a maintenance church. Do you know what a maintenance church

is? It means we are just happy to show up once a week and that is it. I refuse the mentality

in North America that says, “I am a Christian on Sunday and Sunday alone.” No, it is twenty four/seven! We are called to that type of mentality and thinking.

We need to be focused on the advancement of God. It is not just for the chosen frozen.We will not see anyone left behind; like Mel Gibson in his movie, “We are Soldiers”. We will not leave anybody behind. All that are obedient and willing can enter into the realm the Lord has prepared for us. 2) The sacrificial love of the Lord will be evident in the lives of every believer The Lord gave me another add-on to this, and it is this: believing the very best of every person. We need to focus on those things that are pure and holy (Philippians 4:8). If you have any type of critical spirit, it needs to be confronted and dealt with. As Christians, we should not criticize, nor accept criticism of our brother sand sisters if it is done through anything other then Christian love.. We do need to correct in love at times, but criticism should be far from a Christian’s life. We want the love of the Lord to be evident in our lives. Loving One Another “Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us” (1 Jn 4:7-12 NLT).

Where does this love come from? Love comes from our God. If you are one who is already walking in this,it will be evident in your life.There are those who are walking in sacrificial love. If you notice the type of love in the Bible; it is always sacrificial -- it is not about what you will get out of it. Love sometimes can be a sacrifice. Do you know anyone who is hard to love? (It’s even hard to love me at times-- glory to God!) There is something about sacrificial love that releases the power of the Holy Spirit. “Anyone who loves is a child of God.” God is love: Love comes through God, and everyone who walks in love is born of God.

There are two types of spirits at work in our lives:one is a spirit of Religion and one is the Spirit of Revelation. They can both be at work in the church.“Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love .” You might want to underline that. God lives in us if we love one another. How do you know if God lives in you? Do you have somebody come to your mind right now? How do we know? We know by loving one another. What does the Lord say the two commandments really are? They are: love God; and love people.

There is going to be an increase released in these two areas. Some of you may be saying, “I can’t.” Look at the scripture, because those who know their God can. “God lives in us and His love is brought to full expression in us.” Who lives in you? Do you want more complete love? “The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits” (Daniel 11:32 NKJ), but more importantly they walk in love. Number two is the sacrificial love of God being evident in every believer. 3) Signs, wonders, and miracles will accompany the preaching of God in the church Why do we need to see signs, wonders, and miracles? Because Jesus said that these signs will follow those who believe... (Mark 16:17). The signs, wonders,and miracles go hand in hand with the first two pointsI’ve shared. As the focal point of the Church is to see God’s kingdom advance, and as the church walks in sacrificial love, we will see signs,wonders, and miracles.

4) The authority of the believer“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greaterworks than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:12-15 NKJ).

I really believe that we will do the ‘greater works’ that Jesus promised to those who believe. This is all about the authority of the believer. It is not, “You do it Pastor,” it’s, “I can do it because I have the authority of Jesus Christ operating in my life.” These are good scriptures to claim over your life. You have got authority not because of who you are, but because of Who is in you. 5) The continued expansion of the Kingdom through the Lord of the Harvest I tell our church directors all of the time, that I am more interested in increase than expenses. Where there is increase, I believe the Lord is there. I believe for increase for you: I’m not only talking finances. Every day, I make it a priority to get closer to God. “Lord, take me to a new level. I shouldn’t be at the same level I was at yesterday. I need to be at a greater level today.” How about you? Would you like to be at a greater level tomorrow? I would.

We are called to greatness: We are called to great things, not because of who we are, but because of Him, and the kingdom of God. Have you seen advancement of the kingdom of God in your life? If you haven’t seen advancement in your life, you need to go to the Lord and say, “Lord show me why I haven’t advanced.” Our God is a God of the increase. It is expansion of the kingdom of God. I believe that the kingdomof God can advance in your life. You may have situations that look so impossible. The mindset that says, “My God is able to make all grace abound toward me” (2 Corinthians 9:8), is what you need. You are more than a conqueror in Jesus Christ (Romans 8:37). You may feel that you’ve got nothing, but He has everything. Because of His grace and empowerment, you can help to advance God’s kingdom.

There is a mentality in the Christian community that says, “He can use that person right there but He cannot use me.” Where does that come from? We need to remove every restriction that we put on ourselves. We will not agree with the devil. Someone told me, “Every person is a potential overcomer; the potential is there.” The potential of God is being released on you as you read this.

1John 5:5 says, “Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (NKJ) You need to open your bible to this verse and say, “I am a believer.” Only those Christians who believe will be overcomers. It is not the pew sitters; it is those who believe and put their trust in Him. 6) The restoration of things that were stolen “And I will restore or replace for you the years that the locust has eaten, the hopping locust, the stripping locust, and the crawling locust, My great army which Isent among you” (Joel 2:25 Amp). Joel 2:25 says that what the locusts have eaten will be restored or replaced. Do you need some restoration in your life? I could do a whole preaching on this area of restoration. (Sometimes it is the Lord that takes away: I want you to understand that.) 7) The greater outpouring of anointing I’m not satisfied; I need greater. Not only do I need it, but you need it. We need greater for the body to go forward. Thereare gifts over here andgifts over there, and itis aboutthose gifts coming together to advance the kingdom of God. Do you buy into that? It is the truth. It is about the church. Jesus released the HolySpirit to empower the church,and if you are a partof thechurch, than He has empoweredyou to do something. 8) Religion will be far from the church I really like this point: Religion will be far from the church. How do you know whether you are in religion? If you are walking in self righteousness rather than righteousness, you know that you are walking in religion. We need to walk in His righteousness. We want religion to be far from the church. If you come into a service and you are judging everyone; you are walking in self righteousness. There are no perfect people, and no perfect leaders, but it is not our place to judge – judgment is reserved for God alone. (With the exception of judgement of sin).

Religion says, “I am better than this person over there.” Righteousness honours and gives preference to others (Romans 12:10). Why couldn’t the Pharisees see the reality of who God really was? Iwill tell you why: they were walking in self righteousness. Let me say this: no one is exempt from this. The focus is not on changing others; the focus is on making me more Christ-like. Do you understand the distinction? There is a focus out there that is trying to change others. The focus is not on changing them; it is looking at our heart. We see a splinter in someone else’s eye when we have a big log in our own (Matthew 7:3-5). 9) Making the right choice Choose the Lord -- choose Him! This must be our quest in everything we do. We want the Lord to be at the center of everything that we do. Someone was talking to me about a lady who prays about everything she does (I won’t name names, but that would be my Mother-in-law). We need to hear from God even about the small things in our lives. The Lord is saying, “Choose life.” Deuteronomy 30:19 says, “...I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life ...” (NKJ) Do you know that there is a curse? We are all going to die. There is blessing and there is cursing. We are not under the curse of the law, but there are choices that we need to make that line up with God and do not line up with the world. Sin propels us away from God: it takes us out of the loop. I want to be in the loop. I want to hear from Him. We are responsible for our choices. 10) Having greater spiritual revelation Point number ten goes hand in hand with point number one, (focusing on the advancement of the kingdom). We need to have greater spiritual revelation. Without greater spiritual revelation, we do absolutely nothing. If we walk in areas where we don’t have spiritual revelation, then we are walking under legalism; we are walking under religion, and we are walking in something that is not propelled by the Spirit of God.

Do you know that everything in the scripture flows from revelation? In Genesis 4, we see an example of the importance of walking in revelation. Now, Cain and Abel both gave to God; is that not true? They both brought a sacrifice. A sacrifice becomes worship to God:they both believed in sacrifice. I would say that Cain was a believer; he had a foundation in his life. How do we move from being a Cain to being an Abel? We do so by spiritually imparted truth which is revelation. I do not want to do anything without revelation by the spirit of God because it brings nothing but death. You can go some places, and they have got a good foundation, but do they have spiritual revelation? Without spiritual revelation we can do nothing. It needs to be spiritually revealed.

Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ “He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. ”Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar -Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates ofHades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:15- 18 NKJ).

Why did Jesus get so excited when Peter had a revelation after two years? Why did Jesus get so excited with that revelation? The gates of Hell are not able to prevail against a spiritual revelation. What does that tell you? It tells you that the gates of Hell will not impact spiritual revelation. Why did Jesus go to the cross in what looked like the greatest defeat? He did because He had revelation:what looked like the greatest defeat,was the greatest victory ever rendered for humanity.

The devil does not have spiritually revealed truth or revelation, but we’ve got it. Anyone who will go forward with God will receive spiritually revealed truth. It may take two years; it may take three years; but we will receive it. We will operate in spiritual revelation. Jesus saw that Peter had ‘caught it’ by the spirit. Some people today have not ‘caught it’ by the spirit. It is not legalism, and it is not bondage, but we need to ‘catch it by the Spirit of God.

Some of the greatest theologians in the world, who have gone to seminary and have spent their whole lives analyzing the scripture, don’t have spiritual revelation. I don’t say that I have it either, but there is something about spiritual revelation. This is a journey. Cain and Abel were both foundational. Cain is in the church; and Abel is in the church. I want God to take each and every one of us and make us like Abel. If you want to be an Abel, you may have to die: Cain may want to kill you, but that’s okay, because we read in God’s Word that, “For to me, to live is Christ,and to die is gain”(Philippians 1:21 NKJ).

In being an Abel, there is spiritual revelation, and the gates of Hell will never prevail. Why could Christianity advance in the first century when it was persecuted? Those believers had spiritual revelation; that is what I believe is lacking in the universal church. We need to have spiritual revelation:anything else brings spiritual death. Jesus got excited when Peter caught the revelation of who He was. He said, “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in Heaven” (Matt 16:17 NKJ). We would do well to do nothing unless we hear from God. (I thank God for intercessors. The intercessors open the heaven, so we can hear clearly by the Spiritof God.)