Graham Cooke - Practicing the Presence of God

all righty and I was good I really felt the anointment great hearing lands today a geyser live in genius I always liked the way he tries to do my accent he always makes me sound like Don Corleone enough after Godfather something like that hysterical but I love him to death in one of my best friends along with Steve for a long long long time longer than we want to think about right the two things I want to do tonight is talk about demonstrating oneness in community and then I've got a prophetic word about inheritance that I want to finish off with I'll finish you off with if we're going to pray his oneness in the spirit of community and the most obvious place to start must be where all relationships break down we talk a lot about the presence of God and a lot of the conversation is around meetings and I have no objection to that I just don't think that's formless I think fullness in practice in the presence of God is it's a lifestyle thing it's a 24/7 thing you you dream in the presence you talk in the presence you wake up in the presence you encounter the enemy in the presence of God and there isn't a situation I can think of that can overcome us or overwhelm us because we are practicing the presence of God and the fastest way to get a breakthrough is to love someone who doesn't deserve it is to give peace to someone who's anguished and a lot of the time it's not going down that negative rabbit trail yourself it's about responding to God not reacting against people or circumstances so we need a mindset that allows us to walk in oneness with God and with one another and a big part of apostolic riding and teaching was how to handle ourselves in difficult relational circumstances Jesus used the word kingdom a hundred and eight times and used the word church three and two of them were in the context of what to do when you and somebody else are both being relationally stupid how to love one another how to find one another if your brother sins go to him in private if he hears you you have one so your objective in going is is to talk to him in the same way that Jesus would talk to him and all he has to do is hear you and then it's between him and the Holy Spirit your job is over he doesn't have to agree with you he doesn't have to apologize to you he doesn't have to do any of that he might want to do that but your point in going is just to win his heart so you have to talk to them in a way where that can happen that is called practicing the presence of God both people need to hear with grace and speak with grace and win one another's hearts and you know the whole point I think of the church is that we get to practice the grace of God on each other we get to practice kindness and love and mercy and gentleness and patience so that we're perfect when we get out there in the world so the churches are practicing ground for the love of God and it's hugely important for us to practice real love in the context of creating a higher level of oneness with God and with one another and the more of us who are practicing oneness with God in life the more collectively when we come together we can go to another level in the spirit because there's we didn't bring anything to the gathering that was that would be a hindrance we came in the presence of God would in come in order to receive the presence of God have no problem if you're having a bad time come anyway whatever but the goal of being together in the gathering is that we all bring what we are practicing of the presence of God and we add it to the feast that we call worship that we call prayer that we call fellowship so that when we have mature hearts towards one another and we have mature minds in the way we think about each other the quality of presence we reveal to the world around us becomes exponential I like it when people come into our offices in Santa Barbara and everyone feels the presence of God because we're practicing the presence of God as a team and we we are only challenged by goodness now we're in a challenging business and we have our moments you know to go south in terms of how we see each other but we see those as the challenge of goodness upon us as a team of people I don't have employees I have team members we work together we succeed together we fail together but nobody works for me everyone works with me because I'm interested in their development I feel like my role as a team leader as as an employer in the world sense my role is to develop people who come to me in the best way possible and I have only ever fired four people and I fired three of them so that I could help them start their business when one guy you know he's about six three thin as a rail not the most handsome guy in the world a little nerdy no girlfriend no money so and he was in our shipping and handling Department and I kept looking at him thinking he shouldn't be in there so the Lord being the Lord just said where would you like him to go I said I was just about to ask you that and so in his annual review I asked him so if you could do anything you wanted what would you like to do he said I'd like to design stuff and you know like CD covers or book covers or all of this kind of stuff and so I said okay so I'm gonna employ you three days a week and I'm gonna pay you for the other two so that you can study so then we put him on all these courses which we paid for long story short I became his first client and now the brilliant thing is he's making more money than I do which is outrageous so just but that that is delightful because honestly that is the kingdom if we're gonna demonstrate our oneness with God on one another then the fruit of the Spirit is gonna play a massive part in this enterprise I happen to believe that the fruit of the Spirit has a more powerful effect on people than the gifts because the fruit of the Spirit is where we practice the presence of God love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control against such there is no law what does that mean nothing works against you when you're practicing the fruit of the Spirit nothing makes the enemy turn tail and run more than you practicing patience or love or kindness because he can't handle that environment anymore he used to live in it he fell out of it now he's light-years behind it and he's paranoid that Gabriel and so on of rocketed light-years beyond where he is and so he's left behind and he's annoyed and so that environment of heaven is really encapsulated in the fruit of the Spirit it's not so much encapsulated in the gifts because they don't practice the gifts in heaven for the gifts are not a sign of the presence of God they're a sign of the power of God fruit of the Spirit is the sign the number one sign for the presence of God is the fruit of the Spirit because everyone in heaven is practicing that right because they're living in it enjoying it I like through the spirit because the fruit of the spirit grow always grows best in in bad soil when things are going wrong it's needed most when things are going wrong how does kindness grow in us it grows in the soil of a situation where somebody says something really unkind to us and we have a critical choice we can depart to the flesh and go oh yeah well I know something about you pal and then you just prove that you are a complete Pelican and you're not only different than anybody else or they can come at you with something unkind and you can say something kind back and meaner dot I mean it otherwise that's acting God Amina I get i I've had thousands upon thousands of hate mail in my life I know what's that about I'm so flippin cute what's that about but I get hate mail I've had thousands over the years and a lot of it you know really horrendous like curses death wishes against family and kids and all of that stuff and this thing I like about hate mail is that if you're really bright you can turn it into reverse prophecy or a reverse blessing just look at what they're saying in the Lord what is the opposite what does that word even mean what is the opposite of that and write that down I like that stuff so often you know that it's going to be hate mail because it it can be like 12 pages double-sided and no paragraphs so it's almost certainly demonic because they never went to English class demons don't paragraph and they don't punctuate and they have no idea what our comma is it's just like this whole series of text that makes you cross-eyed so I got to the point where I said to my personal assistant miss Jenny listen if you get something like this just tell me their name if they've got an email address or something and so I write back to them I never read the stuff but I write back and I say thank you so much for writing to me I love getting mail I was talking to the Lord about you this morning and he told me four things he really likes about you and then I put them down and to say best wishes great that is like that is like the most fun if someone comes and says something horrible to your face and it's like dude that's amazing I'm glad that all of it I do feel better now that all of its out of you yeah I hope you feel better I feel great because you just unconsciously bless me and you know and I'll take an unconscious blessing any day of the week you know when we are reviled we bless but I have a promise from the Lord that blessed are you when men say all manner of evil things against you for my sake because then the Spirit of God and of glory rests on you that is no mean from this that these people don't even know they've just blessed me outrageously it's like oh thank you you're topping me up I like it I like it I like that thank you so much for blessing me but I wasn't blessing you I won't know you wasn't doing it consciously but next time you can because I'll still be available for a blessing but this is what you did for me and I'll show them the verse I said so now you the spirit of garden of glory is gonna rest on me for the rest of this day all because of you that is just beautiful thank you so much and so it going what just happened what just happened I don't know here's the thing in Christ we don't give light for like in a negative sense we someone moves against us we move in the opposite the opposite spirit and we give them something back and what are we doing we're practicing the presence of God we're living in our oneness with God one person walking with God is always in the majority and you know I love it because there's always four of us in here so no need to worry about anything then because the other three characters don't worry about anything if you're gonna get overwhelmed get overwhelmed by the three who live inside you don't get overwhelmed by the multiplicity of people externally you can't harm you anyway can't touch your spirit but you can practice God's presence so that oneness becomes the way that we respond to everything on the fruit of the Spirit you ever wondered I mean I get eight of the fruits but self-control well egg is that self-control what I said to the Lord well Haman it what is self-control doing in there it doesn't feel like it fits and he said well it is different than the other eight in what way well the other eight are branches self-control is the trunk of the tree self-control is the thing that's absolutely plugged into my nature and my character so I said okay so how does it how does it work he said when you're watching a football game and you want to take a bathroom break what do you do I said uh I put the program on pause even right self-control self-control gives you the capacity to put your own flesh on hold so that you don't react you have to beam on yourself self-control no reacting only responding self-control allows you to put what somebody else is doing on hold what are you doing a lot of self-control do he buys your time so that you can respond puts the flesh on hold puts other people on hold so quite often I'll say the people well thanks for saying those things to me I appreciate it and I'll get back to you well I want an answer now and I've said but you can't have one now because I have to talk to Jesus about what you just said so but I'm definitely gonna come back to you on it just not now what am i doing I'm putting them on hold I don't have to respond in the moment Belko is the pause button you can put your circumstances on hold what does that mean they're gonna carry on but you're not engaged you're just watching but you put the circumstances on hold why because I might Lord I might need some reframing here I might need a change of mind here I need to get a different vision here and definitely need to get some better language so I'm going to put these circumstances on hold maybe for a few days or a week not gonna think about it I'm just gonna be in your presence asking you questions what am i doing and buying time I'm controlling my own flesh I'm controlling somebody else's I'm controlling the enemy put him on hold joy but you won't hold your miserable one name but I like that self-control allows you to do what it allows you to step back into God and think I'll ask the Lord how do you see this what are you doing Teresa and I do this all the time have you ever wondered I are you been wondering today when you haven't said anything for two or three hours I said no I wasn't but now you mention it should I be she said well I put you on put you on hold you put me on hold I said normally you just do that on the phone you know she calls me up and we're chatting for like 15 seconds it's your Oh somebody else is calling me hang on a minute 10 minutes later so I'm like this in the middle of the street and she's walking down the road going what are you doing I said I'm on hold I'm on hold I'm holding on babe by the skin of my teeth she put me on hold for three hours I didn't recognize it bad husband so could we have more fun with self-control than anything else but it's been brilliant because what we're doing is giving each other space you know sometimes you need space self-control gives you space it's the pause button you should try it out but maybe not on your husband tonight give him a night off you know but think about some situations in your life right now where you feel like you haven't got control and maybe you need to get some power back there so that you're not a doormat or something maybe think about some situations where people are being consistently unkind and put that situation on hold so that you can ask the Lord what kind of kindness do you want me to bestow on that person so that you move in the opposite spirit and you open your heart to the goodness and the kindness of God because so often this is a frenetic world that we live in everything is fast paced and people want instant this instant that and the world is always going to wants to put you on its cycle for things and sometimes you just need to step out of that so that you're not under the tyranny of circumstances that other people might be orchestrating this is all part of oneness because self-control allows you to step into a space with the Lord where you share with him and you can ask him questions are the two best questions that were ever asked I think in the Bible were asked on the day of Pentecost acts 212 and 37 what does this mean and what must I do what does this mean Lord what's going on here do me in this person what does it mean what resolution do you want how would you like me to operate in this situation now that I've got your attention and we're talking sometimes the pressure of situations means you end up reacting something rises up on the inside of you and and typically you know what happens is when someone is unkind and you react straightaway it's usually because unkindness was already in you when their unkindness touched you it caused that kind of spontaneous combustion you can't say well they made they made me do this yeah I got annoyed but they they started it they made me do it nobody makes you do anything you choose to do stuff we all have choices because the three most powerful people in the universe live on the inside of us and they create choice as a matter of course they're always giving us choices nobody makes you do anything we choose to do it nobody makes you angry you chose to get angry all by yourself self-control though takes over in that situation and buys you the time to step back and discover who God is for you right now what he wants to give for you right now what are the possibilities what are the gifts what are the blessings of God that he wants to release into your life because someone is being obtuse or difficult or harsh what's going on if the enemy is moving in one spirit against you God is moving in the opposite one and so it's important that you choose which spirit you're gonna cooperate with that's really what we're saying that's why the fruit of the Spirit is the best evidence of the presence of God because what are we doing we're learning to be like him we're learning to be made in His image we're learning to see people the way he sees them we're learning to think about them the way he would think about them we're learning to talk to them exactly the way that he will talk to them and we're learning how to stand with people and not against them and what we're doing there is we're practicing the presence of God and the more you practice the presence of God the more amazing you become in life situations it's not rocket science eh otherwise I wouldn't be able to do it it's a self-control at the very least it's your cooling-off period if you've got a habit of reacting rather than responding you need a cooling-off period you need to practice the presence of God and that's how we do it I like it because it it self-control has allowed me to get control over the negativity that was in my life it is it keeps my oceans in check my negative emotions I like the fruit of the Spirit because they are all the emotions of God that's what he's like he's loving he's joyful he's peaceful his patient is kind he's gentle all of those things is faithful so they're all like the emotions of God and I love I love God's emotions I love the fact that he has them and and the reason we know he has them is because he passed them on to us not in bogus about that that's brilliant but the fruit of the Spirit creates a focus for doing the right thing and being the right person and that is a major part of oneness sometimes for me self-control has allowed me to humble myself because when I fell there are times when I felt extremes of anger like starting to boil you know and self-control for me is just allowed me to step into a space and to say lord I give this to you humble me humble me because if I allow myself to be humbled I can be elevated above that anger and the more you do that the more that humility becomes a life choice and then things stop hurting I have a mindset about this that I've been working on with the Holy Spirit and my mindset is this I cannot be disrespected if my love for people is greater than anything they may say and I say that in English as you're half convinced I said it in Pakistani or something right I cannot be disrespected if my love for people is greater than anything they may say each fruit of the Spirit is relational and it gives you a mindset about who God is and what he is like who he is for you who he is for that person and what he's gonna be like for both of us so here's the thing if God is always the same and he never changes then we can only live in that same space with him because he's making us like him regardless of circumstances God doesn't cause those difficult moments but he's he's pretty brilliant at taking advantage of them he doesn't cause pain it isn't cause our suffering he doesn't cause those difficult times but he knows how to use them in the best possible way and a lot of that is through the fruit of the Spirit because as you practice the fruit of the Spirit then you are literally you are marinating yourself in the presence of God in what God is really really like then you don't become a threat yourself to people you are the antidote to something some people can be pretty toxic and what the end me once is for us to become toxic to by reaction but take some of that poison into ourselves the moment we press the pause button and we're saying no then then what happens is you become the antidote you become the catalyst for other people getting better and if you've got an antidote you can develop antibodies so that then you be get to a place where you're inoculated against the negative and it doesn't hit you you know your brain is wired in two ways a part of your brain is wired so that amazing things can stay with you and so neuro scientists calls that the velcro phenomenon there are certain brilliant thoughts and brilliant things that God does that allow your thinking and your responses to stick to you like velcro because they're from him the other side of your brain is like Teflon all the negative stuff can just slide off you know when you're seeing a double-minded person in action when the opposite happens negative stuff sticks to you like velcro and you hold grudges you want vindication you're mad as hell for like six months on something what's that velcro and all the positive stuff all the blessing all the things that you know Jesus would do slides off you what we're learning in terms of renewing our mind in Jesus is to turn those things around and that's what the Holy Spirit is for that's what the fruit of the Spirit is for is to is to reverse our chain of thinking so that everything God does sticks in our brain like velcro it sticks in our heart like velcro it attaches itself to us and we like it but all the negative stuff from the world and the flesh and the devil it's like Teflon nonstick it slides away from you and you can get to a point where love doesn't recognize something that's done wrong you don't recognize it because you're so steeped in who God is so enjoying and loving his presence and so practicing that as a lifestyle I can't remember the last time I was anxious but I'm pretty sure from my last memory it's gotta be 17 or 18 years ago why cuz peace is more compelling to me that practice my peace every day whether I need it or not I'm so practicing it I love that I love that Jesus is the Prince of Peace says to us my peace I give you not as the world gives my peace I give you don't let your heart be troubled or the peace of God is so profound it passes all understanding but it will guard your heart and your mind peace yeah peace is as good as that it guards your thinking it guards your emotions so you're not thinking you know in that blazing anger or saying stupid things like you know if if he says this I'm gonna say this okay what are you doing what if he says this I'm gonna say that but he hasn't said anything yet because he's not even here what are you doing you're speculating why are you speculating cuz you're the one that's negative right now I'm not saying he's not negative but he's not here you are and you're telling me the negative stuff you do he does that what is that even about I think crazy you crazy that's you being crazy you're speculating about what you do when you don't even know if it's going to happen that's like saying I'll be glad when this is all over well the whole point is you get to be glad now regardless of circumstances so you're postponing your joy until what happens what if it's joy that's meant to carry you through this situation we have language we have mindsets that are like velcro that are negative we have a language that's at best speculative but it's not respective of who Jesus really is and a lot of these things are happening in church world so what if we can't practice here amongst our brothers and our sisters we're not going to be able to cut it out there in the world with people who really don't know anything better but we do this is oneness there are things that we need to learn to overcome in our family so that we are ready to go out there in the world of strangers and make friends and I love the fact that God gives us promises for our learning in this whole area so for me if you are reviled to the name of Christ you're blessed because the Spirit of God and the glory rests on you here's the thing when God gives you a promise everything he is is in that promise you know that God's promise is his word of honor we are serving someone who was never lied everything he says is the truth so a promise given is like God saying this is my word of honor to you when God gives you a prophetic word it is his word of honor he's saying this is absolutely true regardless of circumstances regardless of events regardless of how you feel this is true this is my word to you promises are the currency of heaven I want to live to be 91 at least because God gave me Psalm 91 twenty odd years ago and I've been living in it ever since we talked about it I have to read it to him at least once a month and the like the last verse says with long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation so I know I'm gonna live to be at least 91 at least I'm not hoping to pop my clogs then you know but I'd like to live on a bit longer just because you know I want to make sure that I've got enough revenge over the enemy right Isaiah 60:1 spirit of the lord of God is on me so that I can set captives free and proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance favor and vengeance are designed to go together because favor is the antidote to anything that God gives to anything that devil gives sorry so we get revenge on the enemy by practicing favor and by receiving it I don't think that was a rat sandwich I'm not quite sure what kind of a sandwich that was but let me say it again in English favor and revenge go together because the best revenge against the enemy is to live in the favor that God has already set aside for you and not only to practice that favor but to give it away to as many people as possible alrighty thanks for the golf clap and everything I appreciate that but here's the thing promises are designed to lead you into an encounter and experience of God's presence that's why he gives you a promise that's why he called Canaan the Promised Land because he wanted to keep promised right in the forefront of their thinking how many of us have received prophetic words how many of those words are actually coming to pass right now here's the thing with promises and prophetic words God puts words into your life back there where you don't need them then but you're gonna need them because he sees a situation coming up that you're gonna need that favor for so we're learning how to bring our prophecies and our promises from the background and put them into the foreground I gave a prophetic word to one of our apostolic leaders back in England and it was just about you know that the best years of your life are coming up and there's a health as a wholeness you know it's going to be like new wine and it was just a brilliant though I say it myself it's a brilliant prophetic word the kind of word you think I would have liked that word and three months later he's diagnosed as having cancer it's inoperable and he has six months and I'm on vacation in Scotland which all Scottish people assure me is where God goes on vacation so I was in the right place so I got a phone call from him and he just said Graham about this word you know from the doctor saying that you know I've got cancer I got this diagnosis and I said so you want to talk to me about the prophecy right he said well yeah if you don't mind that's of course I don't mind here's the thing when God gave you that prophetic word he knew you had cancer in your system he knew it was there and he's been kind enough to give you the Word of Life before the doctor gave you the word of death I said you know he could have healed you in that moment you know but he's doing something with you he's teaching you something about promises so that prophetic word about health and wholeness and long life and so on is a promise from God and therefore it carries his word of honor he went and said and said - what you're doing right now is you are using the circumstances to challenge the prophecy when you should be using the prophecy to challenge the circumstances so I said okay what do I do I said well you've got you've got it was on tape so I said you should play the tape every day you should have something in your office in your car and and when I given him that word I gave him a bottle of wine because like I said you know we're brilliant Europeans occasionally not right now though but I gave him this bottle of wine I was on I was doing administrative in Germany and I had my day off and I said Lord what you want to do today we can go for coffee we can go for a walk on the river he said we should visit all the wine stores cuz I want I want to buy you a bottle of wine I want to buy a bottle of wine I think great is this on your credit card of mine so I found the most expensive bottle of wine I could find and then I took it home and I was like stroking it and manifesting doing all the usual stuff and and I put it in my little wine cellar and a few weeks later the Lord said get that bottle of wine out so I said what am I gonna do can't it early in the morning I don't think it needs likes 8 hours he said now you're gonna take it into the office then I had that sinking feeling this is this is not for me is it and he said well indirectly so anyway I got there and we're in this prayer meeting and that's when Tony said I've got cancer and stuff that's when no sorry that's when we're praying for Tony and so the Lord told me to give him this bottle of wine now Tony's a wine buff right he can take a sip of wine and tell you what time of day the grapes were picked I mean he's a wine connoisseur you know so anyway it was a real cartoon moment because I had that label pointing towards me and I said Tony the Lord is saying he's given you the he saved the best wine to last and I turned the bottle around and I swear his eyes almost came out on stalks and you know we had to stuff his tongue back into his mouth and it's like oh my goodness you know and I can feel him mentally like googling this bottle of wine and I gave him the prophetic word and so months a few months later he's got diagnosed with cancer and I said you should take that bottle of wine out of the fridge and just put your head against it every morning and say Lord you said Lord you said Lord you said Lord you said this is your word of honor Lord you said and then get transcripts of that prophecy let everybody in the church have it because we're all going to say the same thing he's only one confession here and it's in the prophetic word yes and God gives you sometimes some words you know there for a time ahead of you so the reason I'm saying that it's because I feel there are a number of people here right now is you've let go of some words but God never lets go of a word so you need to go I I read my prophetic words every couple of months if I just before I came out here the Lord said let's get all the words out from the year from the that decade in the 2000 from 2000 to 2010 get all those words out and you know and make some coffee and and we'll talk about them and I'm I'm I'm sorting through them and saying Lord but you touch my heart about the ones you want to talk about so we ended up with four of them that I'm now talking to him about and I feel like okay some things about the happen I do this for all my friends because I have files on all my friends I have all their prophetic words I have all their scriptures that God has given them and I read them I read them through evil and God blades one of my friends on my heart I go to I get his file out and I look at it and say Lord what what are you breathing on right now because I want my friends to come into something and this really is what we do together as church and the reason I'm saying this is because what we do in our own community we get to do in the world I prophesied over people you know servers in restaurants and so on in Santa Barbara and I have a record of them and now I've got a file on that serve and she's a pre-christian but there's gonna come a day what I need to be able to say to her that word that God gave you it's about to come to pass we remind each other Holy Spirit brings things back to our remembrance so the reason I'm saying that is because some others need to get activate our prophetic words if you've got scriptures that God has given you you need to activate and living in four particular passages for the last three or four years all my life is in those four passages so I read them devotionally every day that's why I'm not a great fan of reading through the Bible in a year and I don't have an objection to it it's just not me I have key script like Psalm 91 I've been living in that like lamentations 3 I'm living in that because that is curating my life and my relationship with God and therefore my responses and this is part of my oneness and the reason I'm saying that is because God wants to give us words for our community words for people in our community when Theresa and I lived in Northern California we we bought a new house on a on a building lot where there were only three houses built to show houses and this one we bought this house and so there were 32 other houses that were going to be built and when they started to be built every day that we were at home when the builders left when they got to a certain stage when they were going to put up the sheetrock and all of that we went in those evenings and we wrote blessings inside the cavities we wrote the crafted prayers that we were praying for that family and so in every room in the house we wrote blessings we wrote prophetic words we wrote scriptures and then we detailed them all and we took photographs to every stage of that houses development and when those people moved in we gave them an album like a photo album of all the saves of development and in your living room in this part of the wall there is this blessing and there's a prayer here then there's a scriptures are here in here whose prophetic words here and so when people that was our welcome to the neighborhood present and and what was amazing was one guy came in he got headhunted so he got a job so he moved into the area and he you know he bought a house three doors down for me and I got to know every one of them because they're all going how long did it take you to do this I've been doing it for the last 15 months there's each house going through its stages why because we wanted you to come knowing that you were going to get blessed that's it that's the kingdom and that's oneness with God so six months after he moved in his company didn't get an order and so he got fired because last one in first one out and so he came to it so I met him at the mailboxes and I said how you doing he said I just they just let me go we didn't get an order on they're downsizing I ought to have said Frank let's go and get your album that I gave you because I'm pretty sure there's something in there about this situation so we're flicking through and there it is it's in the hallway between the dining room and the kitchen and there's just a simple statement that says there will never be unemployment in this house they'll look to that I said dude look at that that's like money right there that is money he said you think it's true I said I know it's true because God doesn't lie he can't lie and because he's always true and he knew that you will likely lose your job so that's yours right so now we should ask him for a better one than the one that brought you here so I said can I pray for you you want please I did three weeks later ring up my doorbell I open it Frank and his wife it's got this great bottle of wine I'm not so sure why wine seems to feature quite a lot but and I said Tom of the story he said I took what you said to heart and he said I said to God if you're really serious about this then this is my wish list and he said didn't get a thunderbolt so I thought it might be okay and everything on his wish list God gave him that goes viral around our little neighborhood and now everyone's looking at their thing now we're having now we're having parties where we're all bringing our album Poirot look saying Graham what do you think this means brilliant what what's that what is happening in your own heart has all the possibilities for catching a community - curating a community because if you're living on the promises of God your community can - if you're living in the favor of God your community can come under that favor and we walked around that little thirty-two house lot Teresa and I we were praying for the favor of God and we would say to people when you come on this ground you come under our favor because this is what the kingdom means so we're talking about oneness with God has this capacity to release all kinds of blessings everywhere but the more you pay attention to how you should be with people in the same way that God would want to be with them the more you grow and you grow exponentially I think it's possible to grow more through the fruit of the Spirit than anything else because you're practicing the nature of God you're putting yourself in a place where you're being made in the image and the likeness of God primary purpose Genesis 1:26 one of the best ways to stay free is to practice the one anothers in the Bible there's a whole bunch of them you get a concordance look them up one another's do them love one another be kind to one another bless one another and so on practice the one another's and especially practicing twice as strong when it's difficult because difficult times are a shortcut into the presence of God the smallest blessing you can have in the New Testament is a double portion really we're contracted for fullness and abundance but the smallest blessings like if you're being a complete Pelican you could still get blessed twice as much right smallest blessing double portion here's another mindset thing about oneness is that in his relationship with you God is most concerned about your dignity you having dignity and respect he's most concerned about that and so in our relationships with other people we restore dignity we don't rob people of it we restore people's respect we don't soil it we give people back their dignity and their self-respect I have a long-standing relationship with one of the best anti-human trafficking agencies that I know of and I hate slavery I hate the abuse of women and children in particular so I partnered with not for sale and we built a couple of restaurants in Amsterdam for girls that we rescued from the red-light district and we called the first restaurant Dignitas which is Dutch for dignity and it was Dignitas won and then we built another restaurant and that was dignity our - then we built a food processing center and all the girls who were trafficked are now living above those and they're working and in my intention is at some point that they're going to own the business so they're they're learning how to cook their learning front of house a learning management they're learning how to talk about wine and it is again gorgeous words alright and so dignity Tower one is now the number three best restaurant in Amsterdam Dignitas two is not that far behind but it's catching up then we help some girls who were Street walkers - we set them up with the soup making business and so we bought a little premises and they started making soup anyway long story short the police are their biggest customers so they go in all the police stations in the city at lunchtime and people order food on soup on an app and stuff and they go and they they go in there and they give out soup and they talked to police to the people who used to throw them in the back of a wagon and you know all that stuff and just something wonderfully healing about that on both sides you know dignity and respect is really important you give it you'll get it everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity even if they don't deserve it but that's not your call we're here to do what the Lord is doing is another mine said I have if people draw a circle and put me on the outside me and Jesus are gonna draw a bigger circle and include them in here's the thing I am NOT gonna be a victim to anyone I'm not so that people exclude me I'm going to include them I'm gonna do the opposite what are we doing here we're practicing a lifestyle that when we are part of the world and with people in the world who don't know God we are no different towards them than we are towards our brothers and sisters who we love we're practicing you on anyone and especially on our enemies so here's the thing right now is who do you need to practice on right now in your life how come we've all got people I've got some fascinating people deeply interesting people that I'm practicing on last year I went for three months without having any difficult relationships and I thought I was backsliding till of what's going on I mean because I'm so used to getting blessed I'm so used to getting a double portion at least I'm so used to God overflowing towards me that when I don't have difficult people it's like am i doing something wrong do you want do you want to have a quick chat to me because the world is harsh at times and it's hard and it's not enough to kind of hold yourself in check so you don't get involved and you don't get damaged I'm not worried about being damaged I reckon I can get healed faster than anybody else emotionally love doesn't recognize when other people does it wrong love doesn't keep an account of wrongs done I don't hold grudges as I prefer freedom and grudges don't make you free they bind you up we stronger cords than what the enemy could use sometimes our self-inflicted wounds hurt us the most because we could have responded to God but we didn't and then we created something that now we have to clean up but the real reason I like to practice the fruit of the Spirit is because I'm sick to death of apologizing right something happens something someone blows up at you and then you blow back even more and you end up having to give the biggest apology and you didn't even start the flippin thing it's better to humble yourself upfront than to have to do it later yeah and I was seriously love is the best way to live and no one should be safe from being loved when you're around because that's you practice in the presence of God and so I love my neighborhood I love my neighbors I love my work colleagues I love all the guys in our building who all got different build different businesses I like knocking on the door sticking my head down saying how you doing you got a few minutes what do you need I don't need anything I just wanted to know if there was anything I could pray for it's a couple of minutes is it gonna be awkward yeah it's it's awkward it's not dangerous it's just awkward things I used to hate doing evangelism wise was door-to-door it's like shoot me in the head this thing is like because you know you're just gonna get rejection after rejection so I came away from like a whole evening and nothing and I'm saying Lord there's got to be a more excellent way and and the Lord said to me straight away are you asking me or telling me oh I'm asking well if I was doing door to door I'd do it this way he said I would have like five groups of two people two or three minutes apart walk down ask Mila Street I want to work in and walk down that Street two minutes apart and just ask one question Lord which house are you working in then write the number down then we all go for coffee and we all compare notes and if you know if one if a number has got like three hits then we're going to start praying for that house and now I want to go with a gift but what are you saying what are you saying about this family how do you see this household what is it what is it you want to give them what's the blessing what's the gift what can we pass on I said when you knock on that door you're going with the gift that puts the whole different context on it I knocked on one door and the Lord showed me that I think I've shared this story before but it's fun the Lord showed me that the that washing machine are broken down and she has a two-year-old who is still in diapers and you know very fragrant most of the day and she has a six year old boy who's incontinent and wets the bed every night so it's like one of the weirdest words of knowledge so knock on the door and a woman opens and she's harasses what and I just said I come to pray for your washing machine she said what I said I'll come to pray for your washing machine are you a lunatic not last time I checked here's the thing I'm a believer in Jesus and he showed me that you've got a two-year-old child you've got a washing machine that doesn't work and you got a six-year-old who's wetting the bed cause he's incontinent and the Lord just sent me here to bless you if you have a problem with that I can just leave and then her mom from the kitchen said who is it if an idiot says he's going to pray for my washing machine well bring the fool in so the fool goes in and she looks at me she's wiping her hands he's saying so you're gonna do what and I told her the story and she went that's that's that's - yep there it is [Laughter] so I said well put some laundry in put the powder in and all that kind of stuff and and then I said I'm just gonna lay hands on it and pray and the Lord's gonna bring you back to life he can raise anything from the dead what all of us failed to notice was that the plug was not in the wall socket so I laid hands on it I prayed my best washing machine prayer in the name of Jesus and it started that's a excit did a wash and so on and then the mother notices that the plug is not in the socket and she's going the blank-blank plug is not in the blank blank blank socket I said well don't do anything now it's what I think it's working perfectly this is like Monty Python meets Jesus in the kingdom so anyway they make me a cup of tea cuz we all need to recover and and then I leave and the next day the Lord says you need to go back so rang the doorbell and she opens the door you know thank god you're back we're improving and so I won and the mum says it's not working so I'm putting this putting the plug in the socket though I said ok so did the same thing same routine I laid hands on a machine came alive had a cup of tea went huh next day the Lord said go back I said lord I don't want to be an appliance he look is there not a different way of doing this and they said well this time you can get her to lay hands on it and pray and you lay hands on there so so when it's not working I said okay you don't want me coming back every day this is what we're gonna do but she's gonna lay hands on it we're gonna put washing machine and put the powder in make sure the plugs in the socket and then Chris is gonna lay hands on them on the machine and pray and I'm gonna lay hands on her I said what will happen is the power of God will go into you then it will go into the washing machine and it will work and she went I'm a bit scared about this I said well power is power right don't you want to be powerful yeah I don't want to be electrocuted I said well if anyone gets electrocuted first it's gonna be me okay fair point so anyway I laid hands on her she prayed the Pat felt the power of God go into her she jumped two feet in the air and screamed and the washing machine came on and they were in church on Sunday that's how it works so when you walk down the street and you're asking the Lord which houses are you working in he's gonna tell you those he'll tell you what he wants to do why because he's partnering with you and you are one when you when you are practicing oneness with God the ripples go out all across the community that's the point that I'm hoping I'm making right now God loves everyone everyone's included some people are redeemed also included a lot of people are reconciled they're also included no one's safe from getting a blessing so this is what I am doing person by person and attempting to include and draw people into the oneness that I have with Jesus the Jesus and I and the Holy Spirit and the father we're all in this business together and he's it's called oneness God said you know that I may be in you and you will be in me and we'll practice oneness together John 17 I love that passage so I expect to show up in those moments in the lifestyle that he has given me so when I'm walking down the street or around my neighborhood I'm looking to see I'm asking question if someone gets if someone that like gets my attention I'm asking the Lord are you doing anything here anything you want me to say what do you want me to do I have a Teresa and I have a homeless person each that we look after he took both of us three years to get even to first base talking with these people but everyone's worth it my homeless person is called Edie and you just always have to check the wind when you around him and make sure that you're kind of you know not having something wafting into your nostrils but he's pretty dirty he's hyper-intelligent family are very rich but they don't like him so he lives down the street he's 84 I had a girl Cole marry I mean a girl he was like 79 again well-to-do family she had mental problems they got fed up with her they took her for a ride on a coach that didn't tell her that they were giving her a one-way ticket so they got off the coast he got her after they bought her a cup of tea they they put a box on the table and then they said I'm just going to the restroom they got back on the bus and went home she opened the box there was a letter saying don't ever come back and there was just some money and I met her you know and she's as sweet as anything and I discovered the Lord told me that Mary likes coffee and thick slices of ham and tomatoes so I used to take a breakfast every morning and we would chat and she would just sometimes let me pray for her and I loved her and then one morning she wasn't there he just passed away in a shop door about Jesus and she let me pray with her I'm leaving the rest up to him you get chances every one's worth there you're worth it Jesus thought you were totally worth it and everyone around you whether didn't well or badly everyone's worth it so well practicing that oneness with God is really important for me because then I get to look through his eyes and see people and that's one of my prayers Lord if you were looking through my eyes how would you see that person sat in Starbucks or st. our box my favorite Church and having a coffee chatting to the Lord guy walks in and I took one look at his face and I said to the Lord what on earth has happened to him he looked absolutely devastated and the Lord says come down to visit his daughter he hasn't seen her for two years because he's been saving money to make this trip blue collar guy and he's come down and he's daughter just tried to pick him up in a park because she was full of drugs and she didn't know it was her dad and he's devastated then there was a small pause and I heard the Lord smile and he said oh and he thinks he's an atheist I said what do you want to do he said the Lord said we're gonna write a crafted prayer for his daughter then you're gonna go over there and you're gonna teach him how to pray it and by the way he doesn't like Christians Oh said oh well an easy one then here's the thing you're dealing with God's goodness you're not dealing with your own right so we did the prayer and I walked over and I sat down he said not now I said oh yeah absolutely now it has to be now he went what's so blank-blank important to you that you have to invade my privacy I said your daughter do you know my daughter never met her do you know her name no you know unless she looks like no but what the blank blank blank are you doing talking about my daughter I said well when you walked in i saw your face devastated and i'm a lover of jesus and i asked him what was wrong and he told me he went oh god bother i said i'm not a god but he bothers me I know Godfather I so so said you want to know what he told me you were going then so I told him and he looked at me he said how could you possibly know that I said I just know what God is like and he is fascinated by your daughter and wants to be engaged in helping her get everything back together and he wants to restore the relationship between the two of you he said I don't believe in God I said it doesn't matter right now he believes in you I said well what do I have to do I said I wrote this prayer out and so you don't you in here Eddie knee went huh I said yeah you have to the Lord says you have to pray it morning noon and evening until your daughter turns and comes back to you he went okay argue it ago I said okay let's hear it let's see what here you pray so he prayed it and when I smells god-awful prayer I've ever heard in my life like no wonder you're an atheist what am i doing I'm just rocking him out of something seriously he's wounded traumatized I'm rocking him out on something so I said God prayed again and he prayed again I said not to pray it like you mean it he said but you blank-blank pray it so I said okay if it was my daughter this is how I would pray it like Jesus would pray it and so I pray there and he started crying Ewan oh my god progress I don't believe in God and now it's oh my god so so anyway I we recorded me praying it and I sat there with him for an hour while he kept praying and people looking at it like it's praying the same prayer so we prayed he prayed the same prayer until he got it until something connected in him anyway that was it months later he got a phone call from his daughter saying dad I just want you to know that I'm off drugs I'm off the street and I met Jesus and by this time he'd met Jesus - because you can't pray a crafted prayer that Jesus wrote and not get touched right that's the genius so he said what happened she said I picked this guy up and I took him back to this room he gave me all this money and then you know he just said I just want to talk to you and he just talked to me about how he saw me and what he wanted for me and I'm going who the heck are you and she said he stood up he smiled at me he said I'm the one you're about to meet and then he disappeared disappeared so anyway a few days later someone off the street someone came up and just said you know I I'd be seeing you around the neighborhood and God put you on my heart and she said which God and she went out Jesus said I'll take him and that was it so then they meet and that was that it's oneness oneness does it every single time is the thing is God wants to be one not just with you he wants to be one with your community he wants to be one with your neighborhood he wants to be one with your city he wants to be one with your neighbors he wants to be one with your workmates anybody he lives in a community he knows what community is and he wants to be one with yours and he wants you to understand that your community is your inheritance from him and he wants to give you your place of work as your inheritance in him he wants to give your you your family as your inheritance in him he wants to give your neighbors as your inheritance anyone that you connect with he will give you an inheritance for so I'm gonna give you a prophetic word this evening about inheritance and you should learn one thing about an inheritance it's always the biggest sign of God's intention ality when God gives you a prophecy or a promise he's being intentional he is the most intentional person I have ever met and I have become intentional to in a whole variety of contexts so don't write anything down what I want you to do is is listen because I want you to listen not just to the words I want you to listen to how this word is said because you're gonna be hearing it for a long time and if you like me you get a word like this I would listen to it every day and on a bad day I would listen to it two or three times why cuz it's an inheritance and it's an intentional and it's there to remind you of who you are who God is for you and what he's got to give you let's go beloved I am determined to build a house in the earth a temple of goodness so tall its light will be seen in the highest and the lowest of places good goodness shall be the antidote to greed and self-preservation the building blocks of trust and faith shall make her way for untold millions to find their way into the kingdom beloved real growth comes from the questions you ask me not from circumstances that question you fullness is the only certainty in life I speak these words over you so that my joy may be in you and full I am commissioning you to cultivate goodness in your life in your city in your region in these days of chaos it shall be the evidence of being in Christ of living in the new man I am banishing measure from your midst measure cannot handle the chaos that has been released upon the earth only a life focused on fullness and abundance and inheritance can inherit all that the earth needs to rise up only the beloved will grasp the good pleasure of my will do not disown my glory you're not the same as everyone else your being changed from glory to glory so that the bride will begin to be revealed in and through astonishment the stories of glories must be recorded and sent around the world in goodness shall there come a union between the head and the body and the mindset of the bride shall speak from a new realm of anointing behold I give you more promises than you will ever need and we will create a new economy built on strategic extravagance I tell you the power of the kingdom will overwhelm the world this promise is personal for my people and therefore carries my guarantee my word of honor will not return to me empty it will accomplish my purpose if you let go of it others will pick it up so that the promise will succeed in the matter for which I Center let the promise impregnate your secret place so that it comes to fruition in you it is vital that you allow these promises to put you ahead of worldly matters you will become the bandwagon that people will want to jump on blessing favor miracles and resources will flow into the places that connect with the kingdom and as world events darken the landscape your light of goodness will open up the heavens and the church will no longer be in recovery it will be the fulfillment of Isaiah 61 for that you will rebuild the ancient ruins you will raise up the former devastations you will repair the ruined cities and the desolation of many generations I make this promise of your inheritance in me in the midst of the chaos of your own circumstances that you may stand and not be moved away from a hope that I am bestowing upon you even this evening but this is your time to rise up and do exploits with me so that wherever you go water will be in your footprints everyone you touch will see and hear something and feel something of my presence I am is with you I am is with all those that you connect with this is your word of inheritance for yourself for your family for your friendships for your places of work this is your inheritance you carry an inheritance for the community round about you and now it's time to look me in the face and smile because this is your day this is the day when you rise up out of your circumstances into a whole new place of relationship with me you will no longer be traumatized by events you will not be on you will not live under the tyranny of your circumstances instead you will live in the fullness of my heart towards you beloved this is your I'm the bride is rising up in the earth and I have allocated untold billions of dollars to the bride that she may grow and be seen and become beautified even as Esther had 12 months of beautifying treatment so I am beautifying the bride I am doing it through goodness and doing it through an inheritance and doing it by resourcing everything that is in your heart this is time for you to step into a new oneness with me a new partnership with me for the upgrade of your own life and your own family for the upgrade of your wider family and friends and your community and your workplace and your city this is your moment beloved and it starts right here right now right here right now because I'm not waiting anymore when I grant you something please have the kindness to take me for granted so that we flow together in a oneness in a provision in a power in a grace in a love that changes people and situations this is your inheritance and I freely give it to you this evening out of joy and out of a sense of wonder about who you will become as you take hold of it and partner with me for the sake of goodness let's pray father the truth is Jesus deserves this to happen he deserves that he deserves to see us powerful he deserves to see as resourced he deserves to see us on top of our gift in our calling he deserves to see us living in your love and in your kindness and in your goodness he deserves us to be successful in the world he deserves it he paid a price for that to happen and it is important for us that he is honored by our trust by our faith and by our response to all that you are and all that you want to do so when we say father we ask it in Jesus name we're saying we ask it because he deserves it he deserves it he deserves it he deserves it he deserves it so we're asking for his sake not for ours for his sake in Jesus name Amen thanks for listening to me this evening I really appreciate it [Applause] yeah let's just thank Grimm again that was absolutely amazing absolutely amazing in one of the wonderful things with a message like that is we all now are expecting the opportunity to bless when we are cursed to love when we've been rejected to operate in the opposite spirit and that's that's gonna be fun and it's gonna be testing and it's to be wonderful on the same time it's gonna be great we have a couple of instructions for you I know that some of you are starting to head out our shuttle is gonna be running here for about the next 30 to 40 minutes and so if you're in one of our exhilarate Lots we want to encourage you to be out there we'll have that running to both of our Lots we need you to take all of your belongings when you go out this evening make sure that we're nobodies saving seats through the through the night we need to reset our sanctuary so please make sure you have all of your your Bibles your journals your purses your phones your jackets everything with you that you need our bookstore will be open in the lobby for the next bit if you want to stop off and grab any products please feel free to

Channel: Bethel Cleveland

Views: 223,738

Rating: 4.837687 out of 5

Keywords: graham cooke, bethel, church, cleveland, bill johnson, kris vallotton, Steve witt, jesus, christ, holy spirit, conference, culture, moments, worship, elevation, hillsong, Jesus culture, robby dawkins

Id: u15wvX6Xp0Q

Length: 95min 47sec (5747 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 24 2020