Identification 06: You Are Loved Enough to Die For!

“God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

God loves you so much that He sent Jesus to die for you on the cross. Christ died for you. That needs to seep into how you see yourself.

You see you know that you have sinned, you know that you have fallen short of God’s glory, you know that you have failed to meet your own standards let alone anyone else’s. You know you needed to pay a steep price to both be forgiven and to break the power of selfishness and sin in your life.

The good news is that you could not pay that price, but someone who could did – Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The price He paid by dying on the cross took all the punishment for your sin, paid for your forgiveness, your freedom from sin, and brought you into His family, and made you part of the Kingdom of Heaven!

You do not deserve this at all, but God loved you so much He did it even though you did not deserve it. You deserved judgment and punishment, but God loved you so much He did not want to judge you or punish you, and sent Jesus to die your death to make salvation possible for you.

Sometimes people cannot work out how Jesus’ death makes God able to forgive them? Surely there must be another way people ask. Can’t God just choose to forgive?

Paul answers this for us clearly:

God offered Him, so that by His death He should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in Him. God did this in order to demonstrate that He is righteous. In the past He was patient and overlooked people’s sins; but in the present time He deals with their sins, in order to demonstrate His righteousness. In this way God shows that He Himself is righteous and that He puts right everyone who believes in Jesus.” (Romans 3:25-26 GNB)

God is love (1 John 4.16) – so God can only love us. But God is also righteous, He cannot allow things that are imperfect into Heaven. So, until sin is dealt with you cannot rightly be allowed into Heaven or allowed to have Heaven on Earth. But Jesus put us right with God, now it is the right thing to do for God to allow us into Heaven and allow Heaven on Earth for us right now.

Jesus said “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14.6), that is because no one else ever took the full punishment for your sin, became sin with your sin and made you right with God. But Jesus did and He did it because the Father loves you and the Son loves you. Make that part of your identity today, because it’s true, and it’s more relevant than what any family member, any school teacher, any neighbour, or anyone else has ever said about you!

Identification 05: Identification and Power

The main reason the church – and the Christians in it – are powerless – is a lack of understanding about identification. One of the greatest tragedies in the church is people who actually think the gifts of the Spirit come from satan – that’s a huge level of deception indeed.

The root of that deception is that we do not expect the Spirit of God to do the same miracles He did for Jesus, Peter and Paul through us today! We therefore don’t at a deep level realize we have the same Spirit they had! We have the same redemption, same promises, same Word of God, they had! We have the same Word and the same glory they had.

Therefore, we should expect to see the same manifestations of God’s power and goodness they did. We are in the same Kingdom!

Realizing you are in Christ, with the same righteousness Christ had, with the same presence, the same God inside you, the same sonship – that should make you expect miracles.

This is one of the essential fruits of identification. It can also be used as a guage – if you are not expecting miracles, you don’t feel you identify, not on a deep heart level, and need to go back to the Word and keep meditating on those “IN HIM” Scriptures!

Selah!

Identification 04 Stop the Hindrances to the Revelation

One of the most famous parables told is the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:

3 He told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one:

“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. 4 As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. 5 Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. 6 But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. 8 Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! 9 Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

The disciples did not immediately understand the parable, so they asked what it meant. It meant that when the Word is preached, different people respond differently, because things in their hearts hinder the message.

It’s not any different when it comes to our identification with Christ, people have ideas and thoughts and religious traditions in their heart that stops them identifying with Christ. The first hindrance to you knowing who you are in Christ is the footpath. A footpath is created when we walk the same way again and again, and create footpaths. Many of us have walked the same way in our thoughts so often even since childhood that we cannot think another way without great pressure and energy.

You see you have to realize something – satan enjoys you not knowing who you are in Christ. One of his favourite things is you rejecting moving in the kingdom, operating in the kingdom, and ministering the kingdom because you do not know you are one with Christ. Until you know you are in Christ and in the kingdom, and can do the works of Jesus, and can walk like Jesus, live in love and peace like Jesus, and can operate in the kingdom without fear of reprisal or grief, that we have every spiritual blessing, satan will walk all over you. He will steal your lunch and pop the bag to quote someone.

If you do not know that you are in Christ, satan will walk all over you. In what ways will he do this?

  1. He will try and convince you over and over that you are not really saved or that you are in danger of losing your salvation. You cannot rejoice over an insecure salvation and you cannot have peace then.
  2. That your life is a treadmill of doing things to earn your place in Heaven.
  3. That you will never be anything other than a failure, doomed to repeat the same sins over and over and over.
  4. That God will not even lift a finger to help you or bless you, and why should He.
  5. Your prayers will not be answered.

If you are having these thoughts over and over, rest assured they come from satan not God. And you can also be sure that satan is a liar. He is trying to deceive you to stop you getting the Word in your heart and having a harvest, from getting the truth inside you and setting you free.

If you finally understood who you are in Christ, everything gets reversed – you overcome satan, you resist the powers of darkness, you resist temptation, you heal the sick, you cast out demons, you trust God and what His Word says. The only way satan can stop you operating as the powerhouse you already are – is by convincing you that God’s Word isn’t true and you are not really in Christ. And the best way satan stops the Word from working in your life is the footpaths – the ideas and traditions you have had from birth, things that are in your culture, your upbringing, well trodden paths of feeling like you are a loser, nothing works for you, and nothing goes well for you, and you cannot change.

You need to absolutely fight in your mind to get this revelation. You need to find the Scriptures that say who you are in Christ, and repeat them over and over until they start breaking these footpaths and start creating new paths in your mind – paths of righteousness. That when trouble comes you don’t instantly walk the old path of “oh, that must mean I am a scumbag, that God is against me, that I am in trouble” – but you think “awesome, there’s a demon out there dumb enough to mess with me, I am going to fight and win, I love fighting and I love winning, glory to God”

Work on this – find some people around you who do not share your culture and upbringing – and start to create new paths in your mind.

Identification 03 Born Again!

I hope you all realize the truth and know that your first birth wasn’t up to much. I’m sure your parents rejoiced and everyone thought you were a beautiful baby, but you were born with a sinful and selfish nature, your live from the moment you were born is totally centred on your self and your needs. You do not give mum a break, you do not give anyone a break, you want what you want and you scream until you get it.

We are not acceptable to God in that natural, sinful state. It’s a selfish and unholy state and we were born that way. And I hope you all know that there is nothing you can do, no action you can perform that can tidy up this old selfish nature. It would be like putting a bandaid on a missing limb. It just isn’t enough. Your best work is like a filthy stained rag to God!

There is only one way out of this dilemma, and Jesus told us what it was so clearly and succinctly: I tell you the truth, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God (John 3.3). You must be born again because the first birth was not good enough! You were born with the wrong nature, and now you must be born again to get the new nature! If you think there is a way around this, read what Jesus said next: The Spirit gives live, the flesh counts for nothing (John 6.63)., WIthout the new birth, you cannot even SEE God’s Kingdom, let alone live in it!

The new birth is not achieved by any ritual or ceremony, it is only achieved when a person puts all their faith in Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross taking their old nature and the penalty for all their sin. It was only through the Lamb of God taking our sin and selfishness on Himself on the cross that sin and selfishness and our old nature can be dealt with. When someone believes that, then they are born again, and their new live is one that in their spirit is marked only with righteousness, glory, power and life. Your newborn spirit is now perfect – or to again quote Jesus: the flesh gives birth to flesh, but spirit gives birth to spirit – you should not be surprised when I said you must be born again (John 3.6-7).

If you are reading this and you are a Christian, I have good news for you – you are born again. You can now not just see the Kingdom, you are part of it. Your old nature no longer dominates or controls you, you can live in the Kingdom of God and live a life that glorifies our King! You have new life, new freedom and are totally right in God’s sight. What you could never have done by any work, you just did by believing in God’s grace on the cross!

If you are not born again, believe in what Jesus did on the cross, and be born again. If you are born again, ask the Lord to show you how to live in the light of your brand new spiritual nature. That’s your real identity now. That’s who you are in Christ – as righteous as Christ, as holy as Christ, as anointed as the Anointed One. What a deal, and it was all by grace!

Identification 02 It Must Begin with Jesus!

There is no one reading this who is so brilliant, so holy, so pure that God accepts them on their behaviour and attitude. If you don’t understand that, not much else will make sense. Only Christ can make you acceptable to God. Only Christ can make you holy. Only Christ can make you righteous. Your identity must begin with Christ.

In all other world religions, the teaching and the teacher are interchangeable. The message isn’t changed by the messenger. Anyone could have written the five pillars of Islam, it doesn’t change anything. But Christianity only works if the messages comes from Christ. Without Christ, we could not know God. He is not just a good teacher, He actually took our place on the cross, died our death and opened the way to the Father.

Your identification of your new identity is always in Christ. We cannot ever honestly declare that “I can do all things”, we can only declare “I can do all things in Christ” – our identity begins with Christ, not us. It begins with God’s grace in the incarnation and subsequent death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. It begins with Jesus.

Do not try and formulate an identity for yourself outside of Christ. Rather, go through the letters of Paul and everywhere it says “In Him”, “In Christ”, “In Whom”, and that is your identity. Whether you have done good or done bad, that is not your identity. Your identity is Christ, it begins with Jesus.

Selah.

Identification 01 There is Only One Key to Freedom

What is a Key Fob? (Definition ...

Recently, I have been dealing with and trying to help people who hold thoughts that are simply not true. They think they are failures, they think they have sinned so badly God cannot use them or help them, that God is struggling to forgive them or love them. What struck me about these situations is that everyone involved in them was praying about the situation over and over but it wasn’t helping them. No amount of prayer, desperate prayer, intense prayer, loud prayer, was getting them into a place of victory.

This is because prayer is not the key to freedom, it is the key to intimacy. The key to freedom – the only key to freedom – is truth. Jesus said you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. What will the truth set you free from? From lies such as you are useless that God doesn’t love you and you cannot win and be a success. It is truth that sets you free – when you know it!

As soon as we know and receive the truth, it brings us to freedom – the freedom to be victorious, the freedom from fear, from worry, from depression, from pain, from sickness, from poverty, from selfish sinful habits.

The truth will set you free (John 8.32). Now, listen – this is not about knowing the truth about the trouble. Some Christians spend their lives trying to find out the truth about their trouble – they will study their sickness, google their financial situation, go see a therapist to learn about why they get angry and afraid. If we dig deep into our subconscious we will know the truth about our trouble and that truth will set us free? No, that’s not going to work. It’s not the truth about trouble – it’s the truth from the Word about who God is, what He has done for us, in us, and who we are in Him, that sets us free. That’s the truth we need to study and discover. When you know that you are one with Christ, you start to live like Christ. It’s that simple.

The big tragedy, especially in the UK, is so many Christians and churches and even denominations, even the tongue-talking, Spirit-filled, demon-casting out, blood washed, Bible believing Christians, are obsessed with finding out more about their troubles. They want all the truth about their troubles, and they go digging. I know a lady who went to a week long conference, that cost her hundreds and hundreds of pounds to go to. They “discovered” she had over 400 demons, and for a fee, cast them all out. I said what is it like being free, she said I’m not free, I am going back next year to get more demons out of me. And paying all that money again, I’m sure. It reminds me of the physicians that the woman with the issue of blood saw and spend all her money on and grew worse. Because the quality of truth offered and known by most Christians is so low, and so trouble focused, they lose all hope that they can ever change and be free. When I tell people that if they know the truth about God to be free, they struggle to believe that it can be that simple to know the truth and get answers and move from defeat to victory, from sin to holiness, from death to life, from sickness to health, from poverty to riches.

You need to hear the truth until you see God differently, until you see yourself differently. That’s the truth that sets you free. The truth of your identity in Christ, the truth of who you are. That’s the only way to freedom. If someone is sick, they need to listen to the Word on healing – not study their sickness or doctor’s reports, if someone is poor, they need to listen to the Word, not some secular financial management class.

We need the Holy Spirit to bring the truth to us, and see God differently, see God Biblically, see ourselves Biblically. Then just by knowing that in our heart – just by having the revelation – it will empower you to walk in freedom.

Knowing the truth is more than just an intellectual, tick box, nod of the head knowing, it is living by what you know above your feelings and opinions. You have to learn to see yourself above your worries and doubts, and live by faith in the reality of what God says about you. Then temptation comes but you don’t open the door because you know that’s not who you are.

We all live in a negative, foolish, sinful, selfish world, a world defeated and hopeless. We have to know the truth on a deep level so that the negativity of the world does not mean we have to stop living positive. We need to meditate on the truth, so we are lights shining in the world. We become the peers that set the pressure, immune from peer pressure!

And it’s not just the world, we have a spiritual enemy, the devil, who comes to steal, kill and destroy – how does he do that? He only has one weapon – lies. He encourages you to believe the lies of your feelings rather than the word of the living God, because satan knows if you live the truth, you live free – free from him and his realm!

Now – don’t blame it all on the devil, you have sided with him again and again, you are weak, we all are – so we all need to focus on the Word, find out who God is, find out the truth of our identity and let that truth be rooted so deep in us, it sets us free.

Grace in Switzerland!

Last May, I was in a conference in Wales, and I was one of tbe speakers as was Pastor Ray Bevan. During one of the breaks, Pastor Ray told me that if I went to the Grace Alliance pastors conference in Switzerland this year, it would be a remarkable blessing for me.

So, last week, Amanda and I boarded a plane for Switzerland and began our journey. Firstly, we took a few days off in the mountains as we have been working exceptionally hard recently and it was definitely time for a very well earned break.  During that time of rest, God started speaking to me clearly about 2026 and beyond.  These are very exciting times indeed.  Also during that time of rest, Amanda had a birthday, so we started the day off at an outlet centre, then went to Heidi land (it’s a real place!) and then ate at a restaurant with the most amazing view of the lake and a old wooden village. 

After three days in the clouds, we literally came down to earth and went to the conference. And it was exceptional in every aspect.  I’m met people I now feel I have known for years, the worship was powerful and gentle and inspiring, and every speaker brought their A-game.

It was very interesting to me that two of the speakers spent a lot of time talking about the rain and the hand of the Lord, as I have been teaching this for the last few weeks. I am now more deeply convinced than ever that we are stepping into a brand new season at Tree of Life, and that season is marked by being drenched by the rain of God’s glory and goodness.  We are getting soaked right through!

The key note speaker was Pastor Brian Houston who spoke on church culture and vision, and it was exceptionally empowering.  Amanda and I had many opportunities to eat with and fellowship witj the speakers and organizers and found there is so much going on across Europe we just were unaware of.   Europe shall be saved!

We met many other pastors from Poland, Austria, Hungary and many other European nations, all of whom have discovered the revelation of grace.  And all of whom have realized grace must lead us into the local church not away from it.  So encouraging!

We have come back with more vision, more grace, more awareness of what God is doing in our precious continent, and more assured that we as a family of churches have a significant role to play.  What a glorious time, thank you all who covered, served, and gave so we could go and receive and be stretched and inspired and empowered.

The conference ended Saturday, but we stayed Sunday so we could visit Grace Church in Buchs, pastored by Ben and Lena Stolz, a remarkable couple with a heart filled with love and vision.  He asked me to receive the offering (becoming a habit) and it was well received and many people were healed. That’s how it happened!  I think we should see more people healed at offering time!  In their church, they called offering time “put your heart in the house”, which I think is a glorious phrase indeed.

We are now flying back and you will all see me Wednesday as I take my part in the Intense increase conference (hasn’t it been so powerful so far, both Lee and Richard were excellent) and I will be ministering as usual in Dagenham and Suffolk

Any questions about our time in Switzerland, please ask. It’s one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, and I have no doubt we will be back, and maybe take some of our pastors with us.

Thanks again for your prayers, please keep praying for us.

The Fruit of the Spirit 15: Don’t Worry about Looking Silly!

When you decide to love others with the love that is from the spirit, you can look weak, look foolish, look all sorts of things. When you are walking in that kind of spiritual love, there’s no fear in it, so carnal people might confuse that kind of love with arrogance or over-confidence because they cannot understand a love without fear.

Sometimes to follow the Spirit, we have to look foolish. To stand up and deliver a message in tongues can look foolish. To forgive someone who has said something very rude about you can look foolish. To turn the other cheek after a hard slap can look foolish. To obey the Holy Spirit when it comes to love will at times make you look silly.

We have to decide that we are not concerned with losing our dignity. One of the dictionary definitions of dignity is “self-obsessed”. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be self-obsessed, I want to be Jesus-obsessed. I want to know Jesus and walk with Jesus and love like Jesus.

You look at the people operating in faith and love in the Bible, like Joshua walking around the walls of Jericho for a week not uttering a word. That would have looked ridiculous. But it worked! Imagine if Joshua was more concerned about his dignity – if he wanted a more sensible battle plan. He would have missed out on God knocking down the walls.

Psalm 138.6 is very clear: the Lord is up high, but He respects those who are low, but the proud He knows from a distance. I don’t want to know God from a distance, there are city walls I need to see falling own, there are giants I need to slay, there are churches I need to plant and build. So I need to get as close to God as possible – so I need to be lowly, not proud. That manifests by doing what God says no matter what others think.

Ultimately, the more I spend time with God, the more I realize I have no reason to be proud, because I am utterly nothing without Him. Turning the other cheek might make me look silly, but I’d rather be in His will looking silly to the world, than trying to slap someone back and the kingdom of Heaven think I am being silly.

It’s a strange one. As we grow up in the natural realm, we become more and more independent of our father and mother, but in the spiritual realm, growing up is being more and more dependent on our heavenly Father! It was how Jesus did it – He outgrew Joseph and Mary, but He grew in favour with the Father and never did anything the Father did not do, or say anything the Father did not say.

If we are disciples of Jesus, we should embody Jesus’ attitude – when you win, praise and thank God, when you lose, look to Him and get more wisdom. Either way, turn to Him, and never turn to pride and dignity, and just do what He asks.

The Fruit of the Spirit 14: Strife is Powerlessness

When you are walking in your flesh, yielding to pride and strife, satan loves it, because in that place, you are zero danger to him at all. You are not going to be moving mountains, not going to be resisting the devil, not going to be having powerful church services – in fact, you probably can barely go to church, you are so out of step with God and His will and His people. So, you will not be very fruitful.

Satan loves strife, because in strife, the Christian has no power. When the elder refuse to teach what the pastor asked, satan is rejoicing. When the worship leader uses their social media to insult the church and the pastor, satan is happy, because there is zero power there. When the team won’t pass to each other, they won’t win games.

But those of us who choose to live above strife, those of us who choose to walk in harmony, in agreement, in peace, we will slaughter satan at every turn – the sick will be healed, the lives around us will be changed, our faith will work and our prayers will be answered.

Can you see how big a deal strife is? And the only answer to strife is to get into agreement in a big, huge, powerful, passionate way. That’s where we can ask whatever we want and it will be done – that’s the benefit of agreement, that’s the power of agreement. Agreement has power, strife has a lack of power. Our challenge is always to overcome evil with good – that is what causes the presence of God to flow through us and that’s what causes the power of God to flow through us.

That is why Amanda and I are like eagles, watching carefully that strife does not get into our church family. We have sadly encountered several people who love strife, they love drama, they might appear sweet on the outside, but behind closed doors, they gossip, they scheme, they play games. These kind of people cause conflict wherever they go. Well, we have to get to the place where we obey every verse of the Bible, including Romans 16.17, which says “mark those who cause divisions and offenses and avoid them”. We cannot afford to have pastors, elders, worship leaders who divide – not if we want to see the glory of God on our lives and bring national change to the UK. It’s that simple. If we want revival, we have to be in harmony with one another.

Nothing stops the power of God flowing like strife. God is not just unhappy with strife, it’s not a mild dislike, He hates it!

There are six things the Lord hates—
    no, seven things he detests:
17 haughty eyes,
    a lying tongue,
    hands that kill the innocent,
18 a heart that plots evil,
    feet that race to do wrong,
19 a false witness who pours out lies,
    a person who sows discord in a family. (Proverbs 6.16-19, NLT)

God destests it when we sow discord in a family, and that includes a church family. Strife is exceptionally serious, but it is true that many believers are in strife, causing discord in churches. Some seem to be very good at it, skilful at deceiving, lying, causing trouble, pitting people against each other. When someone falls in the church, immediately our pastors have to be careful, because there is always someone who feels their job, their anointing, is to go and tell everyone about it. It’s never your job to gossip, it’s your job to love, and love doesn’t gossip.

Love does not expose other people’s sin, love does not point fingers at believers and pass their gossip around. Love covers sins. Love believes the best of people. Love does not go on social media and lie about people to divide a church. Love shields, restores, helps, cares. Love shows kindness to people.

The Fruit of the Spirit 13: No Strife in the Church!

One of satan’s main missions in life is to cause strife in local church. If satan can get strife in your church, he can stop dozens, hundred or thousands of Christians from being godly, from being fruitful, from reaching the community and city. He can use that strife to turn immature or inexperienced people away from church altogether!

John 13.35 tells us that we are supposed to be known for our love for one another – so satan wants us not to known so he really invests in trying to make us all fall out with each other. Offended because someone else got to preach or lead a group and you didn’t. Upset because not everything in the service went your way. Miffed because you were told not to do something or gossip or something else. Angry because the pastor preached differently from your pet doctrine on a particular verse. That’s the work of satan, and it is because strife is so powerful for his team!

We have to see strife as a weapon of satan, as the power of satan, and see it as something to resist and fight at all times. Faith works by love, fear and anxiety work by strife. Strife is the main reason we are not in revival and not seeing a constant flow of salvations and healings.

What is stopping you growing up as a Christian? I bet it comes back to mostly strife. Mostly you getting upset at others, causing conflict with others because you want your own way, so you clash with others. The second you are in strife, you are yielding to satan. You have to realize how serious this is. I cannot grasp this for you, you need a revelation that strife brings every evil work.

But if we repent of strife and get in agreement with our local church (obviously, if you don’t even go to church you are at the highest levels of immaturity and strife – and I am sure you will respond in strife to that statement) then we will defeat satan every day, walk in faith, move mountains and get results.

Agreement and harmony is how we deal with strife, and it takes what satan intended for evil and turns it to good!

Selah.