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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
James 3.16 tells us that where there is envying and strife there is confusion and every evil work. Strife is like the opposite of the love of God – it is doing things that cause conflict, causing people to be against each other, to fight, to quarrel, to clash, to be in competition with someone.
Strife and envy as seen here in James 3.16 are really the two super-weapons of satan, they are the two that will introduce every evil work into a situation. If a church is in strife, satan can do whatever he wants. Strife is how satan gets born again Christians to the divorce court, how he deceives Christians to stop going to church, how he separates people from the other people they need to love to get where they are going. Because satan cannot kill our born again spirit, cannot destroy our new birth, cannot take the love right out of our spirit, so he tries to get strife in our souls – in our thinking, our emotions and our decisions so we cannot walk in the power of love and be in that place that never fails.
The Roman Empire had a Latin motto, divide et impera, which in English, translates to “divide and conquer”, it meant if you keep people attacking each other, you can get them to do anything you want. It actually comes from satan, causing people to break into factions and miss out on the power of love and unity.
You see satan knows that when we come to the unity of the faith, we will be a perfect man, standing as tall as Jesus Himself (Ephesians 4.13). A church in unity will beat the devil every day, see salvations, healings, power and life in levels we have never seen because we have not resisted strife. It makes us as tall as Jesus, as mature as Jesus, as powerful as Jesus.
When a church is in unity, we will be walking in a way that cannot be stopped. We will walk with the Lord together and we will change the world. The problem is so many Christians today really do not care about unity, about oneness of heart. The church in Acts had singleness of heart and people were getting saved every single day. The devil hated that decade and never wants to deal with that again, so he tries his hardest to get strife into every church.
The pastor preaches 100 things on Sunday, but we disagree with one, so we leave the church. We end up in so much strife, we have to go for a walk down the beach Sunday morning because we cannot function in any church! We get upset over the org chart in the church, and that’s not God’s will, we are supposed to honour those who lead us, not cause strife.
Strife comes from hell, and is demonic and opens the door to every evil work. It’s that simple. If you disagree with that statement, you are in strife with God, let alone other people. You cannot live in strife and not have evil things in your life. Love opens the door for good things.
Strife is what keeps Christians babies. They have no good things in their life, they cannot help others, serve others, love others. They sabotage their serving, their ministry and their lives. They will still go to Heaven when they die, but earth will never be fun for them. Strife keeps you in the flesh, acting like a toddler, rather than in the spirit being mature.
The Corinthian church – according to Paul got into strife, arguing over their favourite speakers. We think that’s not serious, but it is so serious. If you are arguing with someone who your favourite speaker is, if you are trying to get a timetable of who is speaking when at a conference to decide who to hear rather than attend the conference as a living organism, leading from one speaker to another, you are in strife. You are a baby Christian. You are carnal.
Strife makes you selfish, seeks your own good, does not honour others, and will fuss over the tiniest things. You have to decide to deal with strife in your life – you have to decide to resist it and if you do yield to it, repent quick and get it out of your life. Strife brings every evil thing.
Get out of strife. Stop fussing over everything that doesn’t go your way, and enjoy what does. Love God, love people, honour those over you, and be humble. Selah.
It seems like every time I make a fresh commitment to love people like Jesus, someone just out of nowhere starts being mean and unloving to me. I mean making vile, deceitful videos about me, lying about me, just plain aggressive, it could be anything. And then the hardest part of love becomes what Paul told the church in Corinth that we should “pay no attention to a suffered wrong” (1 Corinthians 13.5).
Before you think that advice is impossible, why not pause a minute and think of the man who wrote that. The worst I have had to deal with in my life is people rolling their eyes at me, making spiteful posts about me on social media, and so on. Occasionally, as happened last year, someone raises their fists at me and threatens me, but that’s really not common. For Paul it was – he was beaten with sticks, he was stoned, he was locked up in prison for things he never did. Nobody deserved what Paul went through, and Paul certainly didn’t – all Paul is doing is going around the nations telling them the good news about a God who loved them so much He had a plan in place to make them right with Him. He was teaching kingdom principles and healing the sick. Yet, most nations and cities treated him like the worst kind of criminal.
Did Paul get mad? Did he get into self-pity? Did he get into envy? Did he ever step out of love? It doesn’t seem like it from Scripture. He is in prison, not murmuring and muttering about his captors and his treatment, but rather writing Philippians! If Paul couldn’t handle mean people, our Bibles would all be a lot thinner!
And Paul wasn’t in some modern prison with Netflix and Amazon and a nice comfy bed. No – he was in a dungeon, no natural light, chained to a wall, sleeping virtually standing up, with the bugs and rats. But he kept in love. He kept his prayer life up, he kept his fire. And this was not a one-off for Paul, he ended up in prison loads. His mission was still love the Christians and love the non-Christians. Build up the church and reach the lost. He did that so well, you and I have both been built up by him more than maybe any other preacher! He’s been in heaven for centuries and we are still getting people saved and healed and discipled by his writings!
I heard Gloria Copeland say once “they could put Paul in prison, but they couldn’t put prison in Paul”. That’s a very powerful quote. Spend some time thinking about that today. Whatever they do to you, they cannot put it in you. Keep walking in love no matter how mean they are to you!
One of the reasons why envy is so evil, so opposed to the fruit of the spirit, so rebellious to God and to love is that envy is what splits churches and causes strife. If you envy someone in your church, this weekend, don’t avoid them, go and show them some love – tell them how lovely they are, tell them how wonderful they are, tell them how much you appreciate their position, their ability and so on.
Envy can be carnal – you can be envious of someone pretty or young or rich, or it can be even spiritual envy where you are upset that a certain minister is doing better than you and has a bigger following than you. We have seen that and it has never ended well.
Because the Corinthian church was relatively immature, satan got into that church and used his number one weapon of envy to keep that church immature! The visible manifestation of envy was arguing over which preacher is better. Can you imagine the fighting in Corinth?
Apollos is so smart, and such a good preacher, he is so inspiring. Did you know I had lunch with him once?
Paul was before Apollos, he started the church, I was there in the early days, before you came, you just weren’t around, I was though.
No, I love Peter, he talks about being with Jesus. Peter is the best. He eats with me, he doesn’t eat with you.
No – you should all be as spiritual as me, and only ever follow Jesus!
That argument is never worth having. Paul rebuked them for it. He told them they were acting like babies and acting like mere unchanged men. You see you might think you are a mature, godly, super spiritual Christian, but if you are dividing the church you are carnal. Pure carnal. If you are doing that you are a baby. Now if someone is like that with you, stop it.
I met a pastor recently, and it was the first time I met him. I told him just in conversation that I was going to preach at a conference, and he told me about a conference he was going to preach in at the same nation, and we started talking. It didn’t take long to realize that he was trying to top me. If I was preaching for three sessions, he was preaching for four, if I was preaching to 300 people, he was preaching to 500 hundred. He was just continually comparing himself to me to put me down. That’s babyish! That’s carnal! I was stunned and I stepped away from the conversation straight away – I am not going to cause strife with him! Don’t cause trouble with people just because they want to cause trouble with you.
Now, just because you don’t have envy in your heart that doesn’t mean you can just listen to any preacher there is – because you need discernment. Let’s not fall off the ditch on the other side of the road. Stay away from faith destroying grace destroying teachings! When I read someone say God made them sick for a reason, I ignore them. It’s not envy, I just don’t care for that sort of thing.
I don’t go arguing with people, I don’t go find them on social media and attack them and cause divisions. That’s not love! When you are on social media jumping on other people you are not walking in love! I can fellowship with any Christian, as long I know I don’t have to try and straighten them out!
The biggest enemy of love is envy. Proverbs 14.30 tells us that envy rots the bones! If you have envy in your heart, it can literally make you sick. Satan hates you and wants you sick, he wants you to have rotting bones, so one of the things he really wants to do is make you envious. Satan hates you walking in love, walking in the fruit of the spirit, walking in victory – so he will constantly try and trap you with envy.
We need to listen to Paul who says “let us not be desiring empty glory, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5.26).
Satan is right now trying to get you to look at a situation and get envy in your heart. Envy is the biggest enemy of love.
God’s nature is love, He is love. And as we yield to love, we yield to God, we yield to life and success and abundance. Satan’s nature is envy. He envied God, envied the angels, envied Adam and Eve, and if you yield to envy satan can “steal your lunch and pop the bag”. This is really serious. Envy is not something we treat as serious, but it is deadly serious for every Christian and we must be aware of it.
What is envy? It is you feeling angry and negative towards another person because you perceive they have an advantage or an item or a victory that you presume should be yours and not theirs. Now, we can say very clearly according to Scripture that LOVE NEVER ENVIES (1 Cor. 13.4).
What does love do when someone else wins? When someone else gets a victory, gets a new car, a new house, a new jet, a new job, a new friend? Love rejoices when others succeed. Envy gets depressed and angry when others succeed. Love has a party when someone else wins, envy gets sad.
Envy says things like why on earth would he have a new car, he doesn’t work as hard as I do, he isn’t as smart as me. I should have a new car. Look at his wife, so pretty, and I am still single, I should be getting married. Look at my family living in this house we don’t even fit into and that single person is living in that huge house all alone.
As a pastor, I see professional envy far too much. Ministers envious of the size of your church, the money you earn, the pulpits you are invited to speak at, the guest speakers you have, all of it, I have seen over and over, it is the nature of satan.
Now all of us will be tempted to have these thoughts at a some point because satan is trying to get us to walk out of love. The thoughts come to us all. But we have to deal with it seriously – we have to say loudly “This thought is not God, I rebuke you envy, I walk in love, I am a child of God, and God is love”. You have to deal with this strongly. You cannot let these thoughts build a little house in your head and start making you an envious person! You cannot and you must not!
Envy won’t just stop you walking in love and seeing all the benefits and abundance of that, it will actually rot your bones. I don’t want rotten bones, I want strong bones!
I have heard someone recently say envy is not that bad, but it is the worst thing we can do. It’s a work of the flesh according to Galatians 5, it’s part of having a reprobate mind according to Romans 1. It is something we must engage with and defeat.
James 3.16 actually says where there is envying and strife there is every evil work. Envy opens the door to every evil work. I mean all of it, every single bit of it. So you deal with it and refuse to receive it. When it enters your mind, when you start to feel down, you force yourself to rejoice that someone is being blessed and has opportunities and increase!
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