God is Big, Now Start Acting Like it 02 Stop Thinking Small

One of the things I have been trying to do everywhere I minister is just get people to accept the Bible is God’s Word and believe it and receive it. I remember as a young man, a brand-new Christian, reading the Bible, especially the gospels over and over and getting so excited about this new Christ-life I was going to be living. But I couldn’t seem to find any other Christians who just took God’s Word at face value. Eventually I got a copy of a Word of Faith magazine and read an article on prayer by Kenneth Hagin. I actually started to cry as I found someone who treated the Word of God like a Haynes manual and just believed it, did it and lived it.

Why is it so many Christians struggle with just reading the Word, seeing a promise, thinking it, and accepting that this is for them and will be part of their life? Why is it so many Christians twist and explain away the power and bigness of God in the Bible? Why is it that so many people do not read the Bible like a Haynes manual?

The answer is that most people have been programmed by the world to have teeny tiny thoughts. We don’t expect great and amazing things to happen to us. We expect our lives to be average, mediocre, mostly bad things happen, we don’t get breaks and so we limit God because we limit what God can do for us and in us and through us in our imagination. That is the big deal for so many people. Most people dream big on occasion, but then never go on to see those dreams in reality because in our heart of hearts we don’t see ourselves as a business leader, as a great dad, as a miracle-worker, as a man of peace. We don’t see ourselves as it, so we never end up doing it.

The ability to dream big and expect your life to be awesome and amazing is called hope. Faith is the substance of what we hope for. If you do not have the ability to dream big and create immense images in your mind about your life according to God’s Word, you cannot operate in faith because faith only gives substance to hope. Real hope – not the airy-fairy “I hope so” most people talk about, which means they are waiting for something to fall from the sky and it never does. No – you need an image of a bright immense future in your heart and you need to hold on to that image, and never let go until it appears right in front of you and you are living it.

The problem is that most of us do not have that much space in our minds for hopeful thoughts. We are too busy criticizing others who don’t look or act or behave like us (the smallest of all thoughts), we are too busy worrying (which has its roots in fear), and we are just embalmed in unbelief because we honour the world and the world system so much. So many people have lost their battle for healing because “the doctor says” means more to them than “God says”!

This process of not expecting much out of life and thinking small is programmed into us, most of us from when we were children! We are all born with enough of the image of God in us, even though we are born in sin, to be creative. Children can dream big. But that gets programmed out of us by parents, by school, by peers, and sadly by church too. A study I read says that most of our creativity is programmed out of us by the time we are eight years old. That is tragic! What happens is that the world expects us all to grow up and live in the real world. But this world is not the real world, the spiritual world is the real world. But our society does not like dreamers, and the British society especially hates anyone who thinks they are awesome and good things will happen to them!

Even when I was in Bible College, lecturers told us “none of you will be great, the best you can hope for is to survive” – maybe we should have lecturers who have been great in the kingdom rather than people who have just done Bible College then go straight back into teaching? Maybe that would lead to more fruit. Because even Bible College students with years of intense study inside them seem not to expect much out of life. They haven’t broke the programming yet. They still think about all the obstacles and all the things they cannot do.

Last night, while I was drifting off to sleep under African skies, God asked me to double the giving of Tree of Life. Just for reference we are a very generous church. We give a lot away to world mission and support a lot of ministries. I haven’t even given the implications a second thought because thoughts of this world do not dominate me any more. My self-image is not fragile. I do not see myself running out of money, I do not see myself failing, so I don’t limit what I will do for God.

Most people are not walking like that though. If God told you to double your giving, most people’s first thought is well, I will fail and go under. You can only see problems not opportunities. I know Christians whose self-image and hope level is so weak they cannot even tithe! Those people need emergency surgery on their thinking!

When you got born again, all of heaven is placed inside you. But if we do not re-programme the way we think, it is stuck inside us. We have to think big. We have to stop thinking small. Thinking small stops us even trying. We get saved, but are still just as negative, cynical, petty, and useless as before we get saved unless we change the way we think! Many Christians are cynical even to God’s promises! Many Christians don’t even trust God because they think so small, they don’t think God’s Word means what it says because their small thoughts are so important to them.

Listen very carefully this is what you need to know: the only limits to what God can do in your life – the only limits to God’s promises – are in your thinking. That’s the only place they are. So, you don’t need to scream and shout, you don’t need hands laid on you – you need to change the way you think. You need to renew your mind. You need your soul to prosper. You need to think big and stop thinking small. This is the only thing holding you back. I am not holding you back, your background is not holding you back, your education levels are not holding you back, your nationality and ethnicity, your gender, your past mistakes – NONE OF THAT IS HOLDING YOU BACK. The only way you limit the work of God in your life – the only reason you are sick, poor, selfish, carnal, petty, broke, struggling with habits, not winning in life is because of the way you think. Understand this and deal with this and you will be able to enter the winning realm.

Start reading the Word and start thinking it. If the Word says it is right, it is. Believe it is, think it is. If the Word says it is wrong, it is. Believe it is, think it is. If the Word says you can do it, you can. If the Word says you can have it, you can. If the Word says you are more than a conqueror, get conquering. If the Word says you are the head not the tail, be the head. Stop limiting God by the small images in your mind.

This is not something that you can break in a day, trust me – developing the way you think takes years, takes a long time, but if you start today you will be one step closer today. It’s that simple. Don’t leave it another day, nothing else can change your life other than you stop thinking small.

God is Big, Now Start Acting Like It 01 Get Out of the Wilderness

The fact that most Christians are living in the wilderness with Moses rather than a land flowing with milk and honey, and enjoying all of God’s promises with Joshua has become a cliche, but that does not stop it being true. Most Christians are thankfully not in a literal wilderness walking around in circles getting sand in their sandals, but most Christians are struggling with things they should not be struggling with.

Christians struggling with chronic illnesses and pain, Christians in debt, Christians still committing the same sins and the same bad attitudes they had a decade ago! These things are Christians in the wilderness, they are Christians who are not living like God is big. They have lost their dreams, lost their goals, and lost any heart’s desire for more. They have limited their lives by limiting God and not living like God is big. For these Christians, walking in health, walking in wealth, walking in peace, walking holy – it seems as likely as the walls of Jericho just suddenly falling down. And because they have no vision or desire for it, they never move towards their promises and their dreams and their destiny!

The children of Israel were slaves who had been freed from slavery but still thinks like slaves. Sadly, too many Christians – although totally liberated from slavery by Jesus, our Jubilee, live more like slaves than children in the promised land. Getting born again and getting a transformed and righteous spirit is not enough to walk in God’s best, you have to change the way you think, renew your mind as Paul says, prosper your soul as John says, save your soul as James says, so that you can live like God is big, live in God’s best, live in your dreams, stop limiting God and walk in victory, health, abundance, peace, holiness and wisdom! It is more than possible – but it involves more than the new birth.

The new birth sets you free from slavery to satan, this world and the flesh, but it is renewing your mind to dream big dreams, to hold immense images that gives us access to our land of promises. But like the Israelites, if we do not work on our thinking, if we never reach a place where we actually believe God can get us into the land of promises, then we will never end up there!

I read Don’t Limit God every month, and the book, by Andrew Wommack, is based on Psalm 78.41, and it says “Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel”. What they did in the wilderness was refuse to believe that the promise was for them. They did not believe that God could bring them into their land of promises. They did not believe in God, not really. They limited God and thought He was too small to get them where they wanted to be, so they just kept walking around the wilderness and never got to their land of promises!

Now make sure you do not read over this and not let it sink in. They limited God. That meant they had the power to limit God’s power. They could turn off the tap of God’s power through the way they thought. Now, you are exactly the same. You can turn off the tap of God’s power by the way you think! You need to think great, big thoughts, especially when it comes to God’s love and God’s power and God’s ability to get you where you need to be!

To tempt God means to fail to believe what He says. To not accept His Word. That’s amazing that anyone would do that, especially after seeing the Red Sea split in two and walking right through it, especially after having manna every day, especially after watching water come from a rock, especially after their clothes and shoes did not wear out. I need new knee wraps for the gym, I noticed this morning the straps were nearly worn out. Imagine nothing wearing out for forty years! They saw all these miracles but did not believe God was capable of getting them into their promised land. Many Christians believe God can help them in their pit and in their wilderness and in their mess – but they genuinely do not believe that God can get them out of their pit or desert and into the land of promises. They believe God can help them make the house payments, but not that God can totally get them out of debt. They believe that God can help them manage their pain, but not that God can eradicate their pain. Churches believe God can pay their rent, but not find them a brand new building to worship in. Why? Because their thinking doesn’t go there, their imagination doesn’t go their, so they presume God is lying rather than change the way they think.

Many Christians have a God who they believe can provide food every day – not good food, not amazing food, but enough – just enough. But a God who can empower you to knock down city walls, slaughter giants, take land, change geography, get you houses, get you harvests you did not sow for – they do not believe that, so they limit God, so all these things never come close to them. Don’t be that person. Don’t glibly say that you believe God can do anything, if those dreams of living in the land of His promises, living in abundance, living with no debt, having more than one house, having a car paid in full, having complete health – no need to wear glasses or use a stick – are not flowing through your imagination daily. Because if the images are not in your mind, you are limiting God because you are not truly believing He can and will do it.

So many Christians are living at this level and it breaks my heart. They live their whole lives and never enter into their land of promises until they get to Heaven. I’m really glad they got to Heaven, but what a wasted potential, living their entire life on planet Earth going through trouble you never have to go through, in mental anguish you never needed to have, fighting battles you never needed to fight!

The Spirit of the Lord anointed Jesus so you could be free from captivity, healed, unoppressed, unoffended, rich and happy! That is the truth and the truth will set you free – if you know it. But we actually sadly have charismatic churches and evangelical churches telling Christians we are supposed to go to the wilderness, supposed to have wilderness experiences, supposed to spend time in the valley. It’s not Christianity that kind of thinking, it’s voodoo, it’s spooky, and it absolutely is not the life Jesus came to bring us. This is a big question because there is so much bad teaching about, but let me make this very clear: God has never organized for someone to go through a wilderness to teach them something or train them or humiliate them. God never planned for the children of Israel to wander around in the desert for 40 years either – remember they limited God. It’s on them, and your wilderness experiences are not a badge of honour, they are proof that your thinking is so small, you are limiting God. Stop blaming God for your wilderness experiences, and definitely stop thanking God for them, and start renewing your mind, start developing a prosperous soul, and get into your land of promises.

The Bible is so clear on this fact. The Scripture never once says: They could not enter in to the promised land because God had planned a wilderness experience for them so they could grow and develop and become humble. No, Hebrews 3.19 says they could not enter in (to the promised land) because of their unbelief.

It was unbelief that gave the Israelites a wilderness experience, and it is unbelief that gives people them today. So, deal with your unbelief, stop limited God and join us in the promised land.

This is such a serious issue, that the Bible actually uses the word “fear” when it comes to how we should think:

Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it (Hebrews 4.1)

In the next few weeks, I will blog on how to change the way you think, but the first step to renew your mind is to realize your thinking is not where it should be on this issue. I want everyone reading this to have a holy, godly, reverent fear. There is a promise given to all of us that we will walk in victory, overcome our enemies, be healthy, be rich, be in abundance, have peace of mind, have a ministry, have a place in the body of Christ, be holy and pure, kind, helpful – there is a land of promises for all of us. Do not be casual about this, let a reverence hit you – you can limit God, you can miss your time, you can come short of your destiny.

The word “come short” in the Greek is hystereo, and it means that when there is a race, it’s actually more than coming last, it’s failing to even complete the course and cross the finish line. It means to lack what you need to win and is normally translated lack in the New Testament, it means to fail to complete a goal. Jesus tells the rich young ruler he only lacks one thing (Mark 10.21), which is the same word. It also is used by Luke to describe the poverty of the prodigal son (Luke 15.14). Jesus told His disciples that when they went on mission trips for him they lacked nothing – Jesus gave them everything they needed to complete their race.

You have everything you need to complete your race and walk in the light of everyone of God’s promises, to live pure, to have a glorious prayer life, to have a glorious life, to own your own home, to own your own car, to walk in freedom and peace and love. To be part of a church full of the Word, full of the Spirit, full of the nations and filled with love. To do everything God has designed and crafted you to do! So, please, please, please, have some fear about this. Take it very seriously. Do what you have to do, buy the books you need, be in church this week, go to a better church with more Word in it, get our app at www.tree.church/app and listen to what I have been teaching on this subject, read the same book over one hundred times like I have, get up an hour early and pray in tongues… whatever it takes don’t put this off.

Selah.

The Glorious Power of the Tithe 22: Tithing is a Talent Part 06 – Not Tithing Tends to Uselessness!

At the end of the parable of the talents, the man with the one talent who buried it had his talent taken off of him! Then the “unprofitable servant” has to be cast into “outer darkness”! The word unprofitable means useless. Not tithing will always lead you into being useless.

I recently had to buy a new smart watch – you know the kind of watch that counts your steps and heart rate and all those other things – because the one I had would not charge any more. You could plug it into the charger and it would be fine – the screen worked, the heart rate monitor worked, the step counter (presumably) worked.

But the second I unplugged it from the charger, it just switched off. I checked with a few people who know about these things, and it is virtually impossible to replace the batteries in the device I had. This watch though mostly functional, pretty, and expensive – was now utterly useless to me because I could only use it while attached to the wall! That made it useless. I threw it in the bin.

Don’t be a useless servant. Don’t be useless to Jesus. Tithe! You have been redeemed and rescued by Jesus at the most remarkable cost to Himself, and you have been given a mission to change the world, but if you do not tithe you are incapable of the basics of the Christian life – hearing God, listening to the Word, sowing seed, being consistent, accepting Jesus as your High Priest, being faithful in money. I have seen more Christians fail to enter their destiny and become unprofitable because of failure to tithe than anything else, by a huge majority this is the number one reason that I see people fail their ministry.

Grace! Do not become one of the useless Christians. Do not become useless to your church, your destiny, your Lord and Saviour. Tithe!

The Glorious Power of the Tithe 21: Tithing is a Talent Part 04 – God is Not A Conman

I have had to deal with more than one situation as a pastor where someone in one of the churches I am responsible for has been cheated of money. A conman has come into their lives and persuaded them to invest and the whole thing has been a total sham, a fraud. On the wider level, people such as Bernie Madoff, Charles Ponzi, Frank Abagnale, have become famous for their ability to con others.

I travel a lot overseas (I am in Albania today, penning this from my hotel room by the sea), and many countries have to deal with this all the time, both on an individual and national level, to the place where it makes people paranoid. The idea that everyone with money is trying to con them stops people investing in what are really genuinely good deals. Just the suspicion that someone might be cheating you will cause you to withdraw from giving.

Now satan takes advantage of this concern about being conned and presents God as a conman – or if the people are too “spiritual” to ever believe God is the conman, satan will try and convince them that the pastor is the conman. That somehow the pastor is cheating them to get their money.

This idea that the pastor is sleeping Monday to Saturday and you are giving 10% of your income to the church is hard to shift. It will clog up your ability to give freely until you establish in your heart that God is not a conman, and the church is not a conman and that tithing increases you and works in your benefit. In the parable of the talents, in Matthew 25.26, Jesus calls the man who does not invest “wicked”. That is a word that means you have things the wrong way around. To presume that God is a conman and tithing is a con is wicked – it is twisted, it is having things the wrong way around.

Tithing is one of the key foundations of a mature and stable Christian life and one of the biggest indications of one. Not doing it because you presume God or the church is stealing from you is wicked, and you should avoid being wicked by getting your heart right and becoming a committed, consistent tither today!

Andrew Wommack Minister’s Conference day 5 – Don’t Forget!

Today the conference has ended. Whatever wisp of sadness I have it is over is washed away with the wave of hope and expectancy I have for the Tree of Life Family as we return. I know not only myself, but Amanda and Lydia, Richard amd Jacqui, and Lee and Jannet have been powerfully impacted too. We have had our faith challenged, our mindsets renewed, our fires relit – whatever phrase you could use, we have had it.

This has easily been the best pastors conference I have been to. It inspired me to be a better leader, God spoke to me several times very clearly, and the ministry was so specific and practical, as well as inspiring and edifying.

Today, the worship was so sweet, we paused on several songs about the name of Jesus and just praised Him over and over. Then Duane Sheriff gave a powerful word on coming to Jesus.

He told us that we need to keep coming to Jesus. Come to get saved, come to get filled with the Holy Ghost, come to get healed, come to get prosperous, come to get peace. Keep coming and keep getting! We have to not take offense but rather take His yoke and walk with Him!

Then Duane pointed out that Jesus said “learn of me” not “learn about me” and that we can know a lot about Jesus and not know Him. We need face to face time with Jesus, we need intimacy with Him. Duane then took us to 1 Peter 2, and showed us it all starts with coming to Jesus. That the person is more than the principles. The principles matter but the person of Jesus needs to be at the heart of our Christianity.

God is looking for churches He can live in, not just visit, and the way we get to that place is stop being covetousness and only desire the Word. Stop wanting what other people have and want the Word. But it’s not just enough to know the Word, we need to use the Word to know Jesus and build faith, hope and love in us.

We need grace and the throne of God is called to the throne of grace (Heb 4.16) so we need to come to the throne, every day. Duane echoedy sermon a couple of Sundays ago and told us we cannot hang onto manna as it goes rotten. We need new grace every day!

The final challenge from this message as Duane ran out of time was to be Mary not Martha, Martha was baking bread, but Mary was feeding on the bread of Life, and Jesus said that was the better thing.

Then Dave Hinton did his Amazing Grace melody, and then Andrew Wommack got up to close his own conference, speaking on the power of memory.

The Scripture tells us to forget not God’s benefits (Psalm 103.3) and to stir up out minds by remembering (2 Peter 3.1). We need to purify out minds by remembering what God has done.

There is a power to remembering. It stirs us up. In 1 Chr. 29.18, we are told that we prepare our hearts by remembering. In 2 Chr. 12.14 we are told Rehoboam fell and did evil because he did not prepare his heart. So, in other words, he did not remember the good things God had done for him. He failed to remember the words of the prophets. He failed to remember and did evil.

Andrew said that he felt that whenever a preacher or leader did evil, it came back to failing to remember all the times God had been good to them, so memory is very important to us, because it keeps us living right.

Andrew challenged us all not to be gooses, who apparently start each day brand new, and not to forget what has happened to us.

What a powerful challenge. I know I will not forget the healings I have seen, the miracles, the times God has come through with the money, the salvations, the changed lives, the times we thought a church would die amd it grew and thrived. I will not forget the words God has spoken to me about the UK, about Europe, about my family. Glory to God. What a conference.

A huge thank you for all the partners who have helped us be here, prayed for us and who valiantly have been serving the kingdom while we have been away. Thank you so much, only Heaven will reveal your full reward.

Andrew Wommack Minister’s Conference day 4(pm) – Faith

What an evening. Worship was again at another level, and what really blessed me was so many singers and instruments.

I started praying for more musicians and singers in all of our churches, especially Dagenham. A flute would be awesome, drums, and so much more. The increase of sound will make worship easier and more fun! It will help prepare people to hear the Word.

Then Ashley Terradez shared one of the most powerful offering messages I have ever heard, on sowing and reaping. He challenged us to all grow in the grace of giving and share with those who have taught you the Word. We all should be desiring to reap generously and prosper, and the only path to reap generously is to sow generously. Ashley defined sowing generously as giving to the point your flesh is uncomfortable. We should all have giver’s remorse as we stand on the Word and expect a return. I agree entirely, I see so many people are scraping by because they have never given beyond the comfort of their flesh. I have given away everything I have four times, and God has never let me down. I have given money that was essential for the church, and God has never lete down. Last Sunday, at Pastor Lawson’s church God told me to empty the churches’ current account into Pastor Lawson’s offering. I obeyed instantly, and this week we have seen so much money come in, TV partners that have never given before have given us hundreds of pounds, other churches have given us thousands of people, and our people have upped their generosity so much. And I didn’t do anything but give! It works!

Then Dave Hinton played a song on the power of John 3.16 then they turned the meeting over to Bob Yandian.

Bob then preached the clearest message on faith I have ever heard. He started off sharing that we are hand picked for this generation and rebuked us (gently) for wishing we had been born in different times.

Then he got into the meat of his message. It could be summarised easily as it was so clear. When we get saved we get a seed of faith. That faith is enough to move trees and mountains. Therefore our problem is never that our faith is too small or that our problem is too big.

Bob pointed out that our faith has already moved us from hell to heaven, from death to life and from sin to righteousness. Therefore, moving us from sick to healed or broke to bountiful is so much easier. The greatest battle for any Christian is not in the future, it was the day of salvation, and every battle after that is tiny compared to this.

So what is our problem? Our problem is unbelief. Bob quoted Matthew 17. 29 showing the reason a young boy did not recieve healing and deliverance was unbelief.

Unbelief is not a lack of faith, because we don’t lack faith. Our seed of faith can move mountains. Our faith doesn’t increase, we increase. We don’t need more faith, we need to deal with unbelief.

Bob pointed out that in Matthew 17, although the disciples had worked many miracles, this time was different. There was a negative crowd around, Pharisees were jeering, the boy was manifesting right in front of them. All the circumstances of the world overwhelmed them. They were moved more by the world than their faith. They stopped expecting their faith to work. That is unbelief and it is the only thing that can stop faith.

If unbelief is the only thing that can stop faith, we have to learn how to deal with it. If uncontaminated faith always moves mountains we have to uncontaminate our faith.

And the answer is prayer and fasting (Matthew 17.21). Prayer is attaching ourselves to God and fasting is detaching ourselves from the world.

We deal with unbelief by feasting on the Word amd the presence of God, and fasting the world and information from the world. Bob used a few illustrations, but the one that spoke to me was about the car. It’s no secret I spend a lot of time in my car. Bob challenged us to spend our time in the car listening to the Word, to sermons, to worship music, rather than the radio or news. That act alone will deal with unbelief and enable our faith to move mountains.

You don’t need more faith. You have plenty. Your faith is not too small, your problem is not too big, all you need to do is deal with unbelief.

Selah.

Andrew Wommack Minister’s Conference day 4(am) – Making Disciples

Today was just wonderful from beginning to end. After a very powerful time of worship from tbe student band – it was so powerful in fact, Andrew asked for an extra song! Praise God for leaders who can flow in worship and lead worship in the services.

Then it was the turn of one of my favourite speakers, Wendell Parr. Wendell shared some of his testimonies of his journey, and shared how he has never pushed a door open but always trusted God to open the door at the right time. In an age where so many aspiring ministers are pushing and pushing for a pulpit, this was so refreshing.

He shared how before he came to work for Andrew Wommack he had to settle in his heart that he would be faithful to Andrew’s vision over his own. Such a powerful moment, and again something all of us need to learn in this independent generation. The way to fruit is to be faithful in that which is anothers.

Wendell then taught us how to encourage ourselves when problems come. He told us to first look back and remind yourself of all the good things God has already done for us.

Then we need to look forward to God’s promises and what He had told us will happen in our future and remind ourselves of God’s future goodness.

Then we need to look up at Jesus and think about how awesome He is, finally we need to look inside and see how awesome Jesus has made us.

What glorious advice for anyone facing a problem. Take your eyes off your problem!

Then Dave Hinton reminded us to smile!

Andrew then took the offering from Haggai 1, which many of you will know is an integral part of our offering declarations, so that was awesome to hear him speak on honouring the Lord first. And it’s so true, we have to honour God with our finances.

Then Billy Epperhart got up and spoken one of the clearest messages to pastors I have ever heard. He compared pastoring to childbirth, in that if you have never done it, you don’t know what it is like, and said many pastors are discoursed because they didn’t know what it is like. What I was thinking was times when Amanda and I have raised up pastors, often our biggest piece of advice is just telling them… Yes, that’s what it is like.

Billy said we are called to make disciples, not just to babysit. He pointed out that soil just not provide food for the seed, but resistance. It is by pushing through the soil a plant is strong enough to survive on its own. We should not as pastors let anyone in our church just do what they want, but provide a vision that causes people to walk in step, and indeed that resistance to people is what causes growth.

He reminded us that Jesus sent us out as sheep among wolves, that although we must never be cynical and assume everyone is a wolf, we must also never be naive and assume no one is. Billy shared that the greatest challenge of ministry is leading people out of superficiality.

Certainly a lot of food for thought. I think I provide that resistance fairly instinctively and Tree of Life has never had an “anything goes” mentality and certainly we are seeing many people growing and becoming disciples, I also believe there is a lot of room for improvement and deliberately challenging people to step up and do God’s will not their own. I will be taking a lot of thought about this in the future.

Billy finished by reminding us we must be willing to be rejected by people to truly help them. I have certainly experienced that as I have discipled certain people suddenly they feel the need to go to another church, or suddenly feel the call to Bible College! True honour starts with respect, and if leaders “interpret” what you are sharing as vision rather than reflect it, they are not honouring you.

Food for thought indeed!

Just as an aside, today after the meeting, Amanda and I had a meeting with a couple who will be helping us take our media ministry into a major upgrade. It’s really exciting. Then we had dinner with Greg and Janice Mohr and discussed plans to take our family of churches into a major upgrade, which is even more exciting.

Praise God. Today has been one of the most fruitful I have ever had. And I had chicken fried steak too. Thank you all for your prayers and cares. The future is so bright.

Andrew Wommack Minister’s Conference day 3(pm) – the Sanctity of Life

Tonight, rather than the usual praise and worship, we saw a dramatisation of the overturning of Roe vs Wade.

The issue of abortion is a very emotional and divisive one, but this dramatisation was clear, powerful and personal, showing us how an abortion does not just affect an unborn baby but the mother and the rest of the family, indeed all of society.

But, as to be expected through Andrew Wommack Ministries, there was a thread of grace throughout the whole presentation. Jesus Christ can bring freedom and peace to anyone who has had an abortion, and bring them to a place of no condemnation. There is always love and always redemption.

After the drama, Andrew shared how his pregnancy crisis centres have helped soamy women make a better choice. It was powerful and challenging. Andrew then challenged us to put action to our prayers and do seething similar or support people who are doing this kind of work.

Then in the middle of a pastor’s conference, Andrew gave an altar call. There is no service inappropriate for an altar call!

Then Andrew turned the service over to our precious friend Greg Mohr to lead us into some prayer ministry time. Greg has a passion for the Spirit of the Lord to lead us and speak to us. He called up all the ARMI ministers in the US to get up and pray, and it was powerful.

One of the most powerful things in a good pastors conference is deep fellowship. In any career or vocation, when you meet someone in the same career, with the same struggles, the same problems, the same joys, you have an instant connection. Being ministered to by people who have started churches, grown churches, loved God and loved people and fed sheep for decades with no thought of reward, no secret agenda, is wonderful.

Mark Machen (who will be with us in February 2024) started to share about how God delivered him from a thirty year addiction, and shared how God wanted to set people free from addictions. He reminded us that God loves us as much in the addiction, as when we are free; but we need to believe we are dead to sin and crucified with Christ.

The presence of God was so strong as people got set free to be good examples for their churches. How glorious!

Greg Mohr then had a word about freedom from grief, and again many were set free. Glorious to watch!

Next, another precious friend, Dennis Capra started speaking forgiveness over people who felt condemned and afraid. That inspired Chris Barhorst to share that unforgiveness gives satan a road into our lives, and led people to very specifically forgive themselves, we themselves as forgiven, and to see the blood of Jesus as greater than their sin. You know we all have selfish moments and all sin, and leaders are often sensitive of heart, and that had such powerful ripples in the room, and indeed in my heart.

Then Dave Metcalfe started to share that God wanted us to have joy, and take all the encouragement we can from this time of prayer and prophetic words.

Grant Thigpen then gave a strong and clear word about love. Don’t complicate ministry… Love God and love people. Trust God, have big expectations, stay in the Word, stop worrying, and love people.

Greg then said to ask for houses and homes. Ask for buildings. There is building grace. There is business grace. There is grace, so ask and ask. God asks us to ask, so ask. Ask for what you are sure about, seek for what you at not. It is time to ask largely. Take the limits off God.

Of course I stood for that, as did Amanda and Richard, and tbe grace and glory of God hit me so hard, it was awesome. It hit me on the arm and shot into my chest. I have buildings and houses inside me now. I don’t know how else to explain it.

Then John Essy started moving in words of knowledge for healing.

I love watching pastors minister. I love how all the ARMI directors have decades of experience pastoring churches. It’s so important to have pastors minister to pastors, it would be impossible to express how important that is, and how vital it is for any pastor, and how awesome it was to watch that tonight.

Andrew Wommack Minister’s Conference day 3(am) – Unity

Today was on an entirely new level. After a beautiful and powerful time of worship, with such a sense of purity, Andrew Wommack taught on my favourite message of his, Don’t Limit God. Many of you will know I read that book every month because I know my biggest issue is my limiting of God.

Andrew told us it takes time to be promoted because God loves us so much He does not want to give us authority and influence and pressure we cannot handle. He taught us to stop praying “God use me” and start praying “God make me usable”. Rather than look for ministry opportunities, look for chances to serve and love and submit and work on your character.

Andrew also shared a lot about how to delegate when your ministry grows, which was very timely for us at Tree of Life Church. He then shared the timeline of how his ministry grew, and my goodness, it parallels Tree of Life and my development so clearly, it was so encouraging. Andrew told us during the long development phase to keep our eyes on Jesus.

During the next part of the message, God spoke to me about my future so clearly, it was just remarkable.

And then as Andrew finished, the biggest challenge he faced was how he saw himself. He taught to us to see ourselves doing what God called us to do. I wrote down five big dreams I have and started seeing myself doing it. Even within just a few minutes, I just felt things shift so powerfully. I believe that even as much as I have read this message, listened to these sermons, hearing this sermon in person in the venue that Andrew has built, has lifted my faith to a brand new level.

After the break, Lawson Perdue received the offering, announcing that goodness is only revealed in generosity. It was a clear and powerful message and we all gave big!

Then Greg Mohr spoke. It’s difficult to be unbiased when recapping what Greg said because he is so precious to me, and such a powerful mentor, but without any bias at all, this message was excellent. Just so edifying and powerful.

Greg was pulling no punches as he challenged every pastor to set their house in order and make sure their leaders are in unity, submitting to the vision of the house. Greg told us persecution was coming, which it is, and that we cannot stand in persecution without a unified leadership team.

(Let me pause at this stage and tell you how grateful I am for Richard and Jacqui, Lee and Jannet, and Patience and all our pastors, they make building a team that is unified so easy, they are visionaries, humble, gracious and are not interested in playing church games)

Greg pointed out that John 17.21 lets us know that a church in unity is the only church that is credible to the world. Greg defined unity as moving in the same direction, and getting along while doing it. Psalm 133 tells us it is the mature, the leaders, that must be in unity. We will never get the whole church in unity, as need people are always coming but we can get leaders in unity. Anyone who wants to be a leader must put their love for the body above their personal liberty.

Greg defined maturity as serving without agenda, supporting the vision of the house, and being humble and teachable. He also warned against ever promoting people who were not supportive of the vision financially into leadership because if they are not faithful in the least they should never be trusted with true riches.

He also said never to promote people into leadership who always are in the middle of every drama, or people who criticise your heart and character. Love them, don’t make them leaders!

All our pastors here benefitted so much from this clear and powerful and Biblical message. It was good to be in a place where people are speaking leader to leader, and addressing issues pastors face. There’s actually a lot more to this I didn’t share, but all our pastors have got practical and powerful wisdom that will serve them as the Tree keeps growing and growing and growing…

Andrew Wommack Minister’s Conference day 2(pm) – Rhythms of Grace

After a wonderful lunch with the wonderful team of Tree of Life pastors we have with us, we ventured out for the evening service.

During the worship, God spoke to me so clearly. I was praying about a number of situations across our churches, and the Lord interrupted me to say your barns will be filled with plenty of people, your people will be filled with the Spirit and your Spirit filled people will be leading many to the Lord and to the churches. I got really excited. After the service, I found out God had spoke something similar to my daughter Lydia.

Billy Epperhart received the offering this evening, and as always it was life changing. I love listening to entrepreneurs, they are the apostles of the business world! Billy told us that the only way to get ahead financially is to hitch your wagon to something that matters, and that giving into a ministry like Andrews definitely will pull you forward.

It’s so true, our partnership here, and we have been financial partners with Andrew Wommack for twenty-five years now, has helped us dream big, develop, grow, increase and above all enjoy the process!

Then Pastor Duane spoke, and it was one of the most sublime messages I have ever heard.

He started by reading some rather unsettling statistics. 90% of pastors quit before they finish. Only 50% of pastors actually believe the Bible. 68% of pastors wouldn’t go to their own church if they weren’t the pastor.

Those are unsettling, and then Duane skilfully started to unravel the solution… Develop a rhythmic and balanced life. Be in the Word, be in prayer, but also do something you enjoy, rest, spend time with your family. He pointed out that pastoring can toxify your soul, and you need to detox.

He challenged us not just to be pastors, but to be good pastors. He challenged us to have discernment, especially when there are so many people using grace as an excuse to act carnal.

Duane also said one of the most powerful things I have heard. He said when we encounter situations where we don’t know the answer, that’s fine to not know, but when you encounter what you don’t know, to return for what you know. We may not know why someone died for example, but we do know God is good and God loves us and God will comfort us. Stay with what you know! Don’t let what you don’t know steal what you know.

Finally, Duane dealt with the topic of weariness and called us all to rest and to spend more time with the Lord doing His will. He told the pastors not to neglect their social life, their mental life and their physical life at the cost of being spiritual. He used the example, which I have used before, even in this blog, of the oxygen masks in event of an emergency airplane landing. If we do not have our supply of oxygen we are useless to everyone. If pastors are not spiritual and emotionally healthy, they will become incapable of feeding their flock. What a revelation.

I am a hard worker, and definitely I need to cogitate on this. I don’t want to be a lazy pastor, but I must always make sure I am recharged. It’s more than a simplistic “walk closer to God”, but about finding a life rhythm with time with others, especially family, time to yourself and maybe some exercise and so on as well. It’s a challenge to all of us, and one that will help any pastor.

Selah.