My precious friend Dave Duell used to tell me frequently that anyone can see how many seeds are in an apple, but very few people can see how many apples are in a seed. Seeds are interesting when we talk about perception, because perceiving a seed means you will then sow a seed. It looks like the seed is moving away from you, but it is actually like a boomerang, it is coming back as a harvest, far greater than what it was when you sowed it.
Because the underlying truth of the New Covenant is that you will reap what you sow. Go and get a Bible and read Galatians 6.7, you need to know it is a real verse and it is in the Bible. In King James language, you will reap whatsoever you sow. There’s a lot of things included in whatsoever – your thoughts are seeds that produce harvests, your time is a seed that produces a harvest, your prayers are all seeds, your money is a seed, your mercy and kindness are seeds, your love is a seed, and your attitude is a seed. Sow it and reap it.
You have to recognize a seed or you will never be able to turn it into a harvest. Today someone gave me $150. I am currently in the US travelling and someone just put it into my hand. I asked my wife – what shall we do with this money. She said put it into the offering Sunday. Amanda has perceived that this money is seed-money. When you perceive that a certain amount of money, or an item or an attitude or whatever is a seed, you then must never ever eat it, you must sow it. Or you will miss out on power, multiplication, harvest – not to mention the rewards of being obedient to what God has showed you.
Of course, you should not even need to say that 10% of all your increase is a seed, it’s called the tithe, and you must never ever eat that, but give it to the Lord, to the storehouse that feeds you. Do not ever be so arrogant that you think you do not need to give a minimum of 10% of all your increase.
God Himself has given you the seeds so you can have the harvests so you can have a great, prosperous and glorious future. You already have what you are believing for, but in seed form, so ask God to show you the seed, then die to it, sow it, give it away (in faith, cheerfully, with a great big smile on your face) and expect a return. You need a multitude fed, that’s ok – you have loaves and fishes. Need £10000? That’s ok, you have £100. You about to die of starvation – that’s ok, you have one meal left – give it away. You do not have nothing, what you lack is the ability to perceive a seed.
In 2 Cor. 9.10, we are told God gives seed to the sower. The reason you cannot see your seed is you do not have the attitude of the sower. If you have the attitude of a sower, you will see seed. When it says God gives you seed, sometimes a person hands it to you, like with the $150 I was given today, other times, it is that you already have the money or the item, and God gives you seed by saying – hey there, sow that. If your heart is to sow, you will find something to sow. I have sowed pens, time, all sorts of things, when I had nothing. Now I mainly sow money, because it’s easier to use when the harvest comes.
I doubt that you have no seeds, I reckon you have loads of seeds, if you developed the attitude of a giver, God would show you loads of what you have and how and where to sow it. But a failure to perceive your seeds means your harvest will always be elusive, your prosperity will wander off, and you will not walk into your dreams. Take this seriously – something you already own is the key to your future. If you fail to perceive it as seed, you will keep it, and you have now set your maximum increase level, and it’s this – you will be at the level you are at now forever.
A seed of nothing is multiplied into a harvest of nothing. You need to dominate your greed and lusts, and learn how to sow. This is the only way to develop the character, faith, and increase you need for your future.
In 2017, boxing champion Floyd Mayweather fought MMA champion Conor McGregor. It was billed as the biggest fight in history. When Mayweather won, he took away nearly $400 million. His mother never gave him a million, his friends did not give him a million, but beating an opponent did.
David did not become famous by fighting a midget. He fought a giant and that made him a household name. God has allowed for us to have opponents because our rewards and reputation come from the opponents we defeat. Did you notice Jesus never seemed to have a day without enemies, just seven chapters into John, the Pharisees decided to kill him.
When you stand for the truth, liars will resent and despise you. When you walk by honour, the dishonourable will not like you. When you are diligent, the lazy will hate you. When you live like Jesus, satan will be coming to kill you!
There is a Scripture that I bet none of you have on your fridge or in your memory box, and it is Matthew 10.22. It says “you shall be hated by all men for my name’s sake”. Jesus goes on to say “if they called the master Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” (Matthew 10.25). Jesus sent us forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, so we need to be able to perceive wolves. Not to honour them and have them close to us, but to avoid getting eaten. I have seen wolves in sheep’s clothing this year go out of their way to devour sheep, and it has been a tragedy. We need to learn to perceive! This perception starts when you realize that you cannot be an effective Christian and not have enemies.
Your opponent will hate you, and hate what you are doing for God, and will want it to stop. They will often try and persuade you not to go all out for Jesus, to calm down, to give less, to serve less. They will try and get you to serve other gods. Your opponents will be revealed as they resent your increase. One of the things that will happen as you increase in goods is that you will find out who your true friends are, as fake friends will actually resent your increase and success.
Nehemiah faced opponents who were unhappy he was rebuilding the wall, Ezra faced opponents who were unhappy he was rebuilding the temple, David’s brother was annoyed he wasn’t afraid of Goliath.
Your opponents will often go hard to recruit others to oppose you too, they will share their misguided and envious comments with others to get them to despise you too. In Ezra 4.5 they hired counsellors to stop them building the temple. Do not be surprised that your opponents are trying to recruit others to stop you building.
Listen carefully – if you are in a church that is advancing, someone in that church is recruiting people to the opponent camp, opposing the building, the growing, the increase. If you listen to them, then you will become an opponent too. You are literally joining satan’s team and becoming an accuser. Do not do that. You will forget how to dream, you will forget how to make a noise for Jesus, you will become a Pharisee.
Your opponents will go for your weaknesses, Delilah knew how to weaken Samson! I have noticed opponents spent a lot of time discussing the past not the future. The Pharisees were the opponents of the woman caught in adultery, but Jesus never was. Why? They were looking back while Jesus was looking forward.
Sadly, often an opponent is family (Matthew 10.36) – whether that is your biological family or church family. Judas was right in the middle of Jesus’ ministry but still betrayed him and opposed Him.
What do we do with opponents like this? David handled Eliab perfectly – he just walked on and got on with his mission. He didn’t use his stones for his brother, he kept them for his mission – but neither did he listen to his opponent or spend time in a committee with him discussing the giant. NO – he walked on and kept doing his mission. That’s what you do – keep building, keep standing, keep winning.
And your opponent will lead you into rewards that no family member or friend has ever given you. The spoils of war should be your focus. Like David we should say what do we get when we win – well, we get to sit on His throne and reign with Him.
2025 is our year of immense increase at Tree of Life Church, and the number one way God brings increase into any area of your life is through a person. Not a sugar daddy, or some kind benefactor with more money than sense – even though some of you are praying that way, you will not get that because you are asking amiss from God’s will, purpose and principles. No – God brings a money man into your life to teach you the truth about money and prosperity and increase.
Poverty is the greatest evil in the world. It causes pain to more people than anything else. It stops more people walking in their dream and destiny than any other force of satan. It steals from you, and worse than that it steals your ability to be a blessing to others. Especially if – like me – you are from the UK – you will find culturally that when God sends a money man, that money man is often rejected because talking about money is seen as inappropriate in the house of God. But unless the church and unless pastors talk about money then the only place you learn about money is the world – and that is why you are so worldly about money.
There are very few money men in the UK – very few pastors with the courage, the wisdom, the experience, the knowledge of the Word – to set you free from financial poverty, and when you meet one – you need grace to perceive them. If you fail to perceive them, you will not honour them, and you will fail to benefit from them.
It’s even harder in the UK because the church has been possessed by a mentality that hates prosperity. They call anyone who talks about prosperity a cult. I personally think the anti-prosperity people are the cult, so far removed from the Word of God, quoting each other and being disfellowshipped if they dare to break tradition. The reason is that a true money man – a true man of God prepared to tell you the Biblical truth about money – will wind you up because you still think you can do what you want with your money and win in life. You cannot.
Any pastor who teaches on money immediately sets into place an attack on his credibility across the entire United Kingdom. That’s why I say it is an anti-prosperity cult that dominates the UK churches. Even ministers in the US and other nations who teach on Biblical prosperity are vilified, sometimes even by their UK staff and partners. It’s a cult – a poverty cult!
Imagine having toothache and going to the dentist, then getting upset because your dentist wants to talk to you about teeth! Imagine going to a steakhouse and getting upset they are not selling sushi! Imagine going to church poor, worried about money, working yourself to the bone and getting upset that the pastor is not talking about the antichrist and the number of the beast. A good pastor should be a money man, but so few are.
Forty percent of all bankruptcies in the UK are born- again Christians, when we are less than ten percent of the population. You know people in your church who are struggling to pay bills, taxes, their rent! Yet, when a pastor talks about money and prosperity they get annoyed! What is wrong with people – a failure to recognize God’s gift of a money man to them.
Someone recently told me if God wants to prosper people He will do it without my help. That sounds spiritual but it is stupid. That’s like the people who told William Carey that if God wants to save people in India He will just do it without you. No – if you do not hear you will not believe, and if you do not have a preacher willing to preach then you will not hear! That’s how God works.
A good pastor will tell you to tithe. Any pastor that says tithing is not for today or not relevant is not a money man. They will never help you financially, they are too scared to upset you to help you. A money man will also tell you to pay your taxes and not defraud the government. They will help you come to a place where you have enough money to leave an inheritance for your children’s children, to give to the church, to give to other ministries, to give to world mission, to give to your future and your success – and to give enough to ensure your pastors are paid well.
A good pastor will not platform someone through preaching, the gifts or worship who does not have the integrity and faith to tithe, even if that person then gets so upset they lie and tantrum. They will love people enough to help them, no matter the evil treatment they receive. No matter if people misunderstand them. No matter if people think they are only after their money. They know that unless you know the Biblical principles about money you will never have the power to change the world.
One of the most powerful moments in your life is when you hear a pastor preach on money and rather than criticise, faith rises up in your heart. Just like God sent Elijah to a broke, starving, dying widow with no income and no assets and changed her life forever, God has sent a money man into your life to change your life forever. I pray you recognize them. If it is me, if it is Tree of Life, I suggest you become a tither if you are not right now, I suggest you give a generous gift, and push past your unbelief and get into a place of sowing generously so you can reap generously. If you think I wrote this just to get money, you are not there yet, keep listening.
Let me help you recognize your money man. They will have to be a very strong person because the persecution when a pastor speaks honestly about money is exceptionally intense. When a pastor has money, that’s even worse. There will always be satanically inspired people in that pastor’s church who will not tithe or give (sometimes saying things like – “we give to better ministries”, and if you believe that you need to get into the Word) and dissuade others to stopping giving too. Or at least just tip a few pounds, the church doesn’t need that much money. No – it doesn’t – you desperately need to give that much money because you are trapped in a weak, faithless life and need to do something to break free. A money man is not looking to learn about your chains, he just wants to break them.
Every money man is like Elijah, they know what it is to have the ravens feed them, they have seen miracle after miracle in their own lives. They will be tithers. They will not be sharing things they do not know. They will have testimonies of giving huge amounts of money, they will be giving far more than a tithe every month. You may fail to recognize them because they are not interested in listening to how bad things are or giving their money to you because what you need is not money but wisdom. DId you notice that Elijah never once moans or whines about the brook drying up to raise money! A money man is not whinging about his own financial pressures, he lives above them to help you!
Like Elijah they may seem very controlling. Elijah said to the woman – give me a cake first. That would not be appreciated by most British Christians today at all! But it was the key for this woman to become rich! He gave her an instruction she did not want to do. He didn’t cry with her, give her money, give her some raven food. He came with an instruction to give. She could obey or disobey. She chose to obey in faith and became rich. That’s a money man! Do not fail to perceive who God is bringing to you.
A money man will confront the biggest problem in your life to prosperity. It’s not a lack of money, it’s a lack of faith for money. It’s a lack of imagination, a lack of a renewed mind, it’s a lack of knowledge about the Biblical principles about money that is destroying you.
Your money man will speak words that provoke you to either act in faith or back off and have unbelief. He has faced a dried up brook and the loss of raven partners so he knows how to handle these situations. He has personally fought poverty and won, and therefore can help you win.
He is not interested in experience, he is interested in expectations. He is not interested in your past, but wants to help you build a future. And it’s your job to perceive your money man and honour them. Then their wisdom will be close to you. What you perceive you honour, and what you honour will move closer to you.
In Greek mythology, there is a hero called Achilles, he is the main character in the Iliad. His mother dipped him in the River Styx as a baby to make him immortal and super-powered, but she held him by the heel so the heel never went into the river. Therefore, he could be killed, but only by a blow to the heel.
It’s a story that has lasted centuries because it contains a truth that is universal to humanity – every one of us contains weakness. As Christians, we are earthen vessels containing great treasure. God is very aware of this – “He remembers we are but flesh” (Psalm 78.39). But you need to be aware of it too. You need to perceive your weakness, not so you can exalt it, but so you can be aware of it and ensure it does not destroy you. A refusal to look and perceive that you have weakness will lead to your destruction – pride leads to destruction.
Once you perceive your main weakness, your Achilles heel, you are going to save yourself a world of pain! I know several brilliant men who have failed to perceive their frailness and weakness, and I have watched that weakness destroy them. A weakness not addresses will grow – Jesus talks about yeast that infects everything. You cannot afford to ignore your Achilles heel. Your treasure is in a vessel of clay, and if you do not dominate that vessel, it will move your life towards destruction.
The truth is we all have sinned, so we all have vulnerable areas in our life, in our thinking, and if you do not deal with it you will end up in trouble. Judas had a weakness – it was a love of money (twinned with envy, as it often is), and he did not address it and ended up possessed by satan. He could have been one of the twelve, he could have spent decades ministering in the early church filled with the power of the Spirit taking the gospel to the nations. But he did not perceive his weakness, he did not deal with it, and ended up betraying Jesus for a price.
Satan loves to get involved in your weakness. He sent messengers to Judas to offer him money, he sent Delilah to Samson to offer him immoral sex, and he left Job’s wife alive to strengthen his self-doubt. Satan has an agenda to get you to sin so that you can die (see James 1.15).
Jesus loves to reveal someone’s weakness to them, not to patronize them, but to help them. He told Simon that his weakness was the fear of man and that within a day he would deny Jesus due to the fear of man – and He prayed for Peter too.
You need to know that your weakness is a magnet, and will attract the wrong people to you. The amount of people that tell me they always attract the wrong kind of man or woman – it’s because they have never dealt with their Achilles Heel! Your weakness also separates you from the right people, it makes you uncomfortable in the presence of people who will not justify your weakness.
Now once you perceive your weakness, your Achilles heel, you cannot beat it with will-power. If you could, you would have done by now. You need the power of the Holy Spirit. You need to feast on the Word of God, you need to see yourself how God sees you and you need to listen carefully to Jesus. You don’t need to tell the world, but you do need to tell someone. You need someone strong and mature in Christ to stand with you and help you be accountable before it grows. YOU CANNOT CHANGE WHAT YOU NEVER CONFRONT. If you think it is just a small little sin, and everyone has a little vice, then you are in big trouble and heading to destruction.
I believe that when David killed Goliath, the entire nation changed. I believe when you deal with the heel, everyone around you will change. You need Scriptures to deal with it, and you need to remember that dealing with it will bring a Heavenly reward.
Become an enemy to your Achilles Heel. Let your story be one of victory – do not become a retelling of Samson or Saul. If Judas had the power to walk away from thirty pieces of silver, we would have a very different Bible and his name wouldn’t be synonymous with back-stabbing.
If you have failed, get back up and start looking forward. Struggling? Good – that means you have not been beaten yet.
Finally, choose friends who weaken your weakness. If your weakness is gossiping about your pastor, there are friends who will look at you with shock in their face when you share something. Keep those friends. There are friends who will join in and nurture your weakness and grow it – they are not friends, and I recommend ditching them.
All of us have a bunch of gifts from God, but I also believe with all my heart that every one of us has been given by God a superpower. We have a gift that when we use it, we put in minimum effort, get maximum results, other people go “wow, how do they do that”, and you effectively change the world. Every one of us has a superpower, and so few people ever perceive theirs so they do not benefit from it.
David was one of the most gifted people who ever lived. he could worship, sing, he was a remarkable shepherd, he could play musical instruments, he could invent things. But none of those things was his superpower – his superpower was he never lost a battle. No matter who David fought, he beat them. When Goliath turned up, David did something no one else had ever done. He beat the giant.
Joseph was another gifted man, Prime Minister of the largest nation on earth, a remarkable leader, an organizer, and he could interpret dreams. None of those were his superpower though. His superpower was he really loved other people. In prison for a crime he didn’t commit, he noticed that the baker and the cupbearer had a sad face. No one else noticed, but he did.
Paul had a superpower, again a gifted teacher, a prophet, a learner, a writer. But he introduced himself as “Paul, an apostle” – his superpower was to walk into any town anywhere in the world and pull a church out of Heaven into earth and watch it manifest. He was more than a writer or philosopher, he got stuff done because he discovered his superpower.
You have a superpower, but what is it? Jesus wants you to perceive your superpower. Not just a power, but your superpower. Your greatest gift. You were given a superpower, and with great power comes great responsibility – and that power is there to serve others and help others.
I believe most Christians never discover their superpower, they never discover what God has designed them to do. We need to spend time fasting and praying and find out our superpower.
If it’s a superpower it works best in difficult times. Someone once said that you get £30 an hour to paint a house, but £150 an hour to paint the top floor of a skyscraper. You get more reward for doing things at altitude. The giant discouraged the nation, but inspired David, and made him bold. When you are in a challenge, that makes others back off but excites you – that’s your superpower.
My superpower is not what I reckon you reckon it is. My superpower is similar to Paul’s in that I can start things that have never started before. Some people plant churches with a million pounds in the bank and three pastors on staff before their first meeting. That doesn’t excite me at all, when I have bills coming in from every direction, a meeting with eight people and none of them could at that moment lead anything, that’s when i get excited.
It is unlikely that your parents will be able to tell you your superpower, They normally are better at telling you your flaws and lacks! You often can tell your superpower when you see someone else with a similar power – it’s like your spirit wakes up and you really want to do that. Just be careful it’s that, rather than you idolizing someone who is just successful and popular. Listen to your heart!
Imagine having a superpower and letting a crime happen right in front of you. Well, if you didn’t know you had the power you might! Do what it takes to find out your superpower. It will be what you would do if money was no object. If every job paid £15 an hour, what job would you do – there’s a clue.
What energizes you like nothing else, what makes you get excited. There’s a clue. God will reveal it to you if you seek Him!
God told Adam that it was not good for him to be alone, but Adam looked around at the kangaroos, the giraffes, the lions and tigers and bears and thought – no, I do not want to be married to any of those. So God made a spouse, a helpmeet for him, and from the beginning of creation, God showed that He loves marriage.
Now, marriage today has become something that people mainly do to make themselves happy. But a spouse was never created by God to make you happy. What is designed to make us happy is not the presence of a spouse, but the presence of the Lord (Psalm 16.11). If we are depending on a spouse to bring us to fullness of joy, we will always be disappointed in our marriages. When someone divorces because their spouse did not make them happy any more, they are showing that they did not perceive the purpose of marriage. They did not perceive, so they did not exalt their spouse and their marriage, and eventually it fell apart.
You need to realize if you are married that your spouse is a gift from God given to you to protect you and help you. One of the main benefits of marriage is a second set of eyes. I am a very focused person, which means that inevitably there are things I will miss, because I am looking in one direction. Like a camera, if you focus on one thing, you will miss other things. If you are gazing north, you cannot see what is south. So, God gives us a spouse who will see things we will not see. If you and your spouse learn to see things together, you will have a 3d image and not have blind spots.
The second thing is you have to perceive is that marriage is also for prayer. You have someone available at all times that you can pray in agreement with and see results neither of you could pray about on your own.
Now, for those of you who have not married yet, my advice to you is think twice. Do not enter into marriage lightly, or for the wrong reasons. Marriage is designed to be permanent so consider it carefully. Learn to perceive what makes a godly spouse – it’s not expensive gifts and nice meals, it is listening, patience and the willingness to be corrected. You need to marry someone who loves Jesus, someone who celebrates your dreams If this person is not the first person you want to call when you are blessed, reconsider!
Do not marry someone who is not on fire for the Lord. So many settle for a Christian in name only, feeling proud they are not marrying an unbeliever. But that is not the way. You want to be very careful of anyone who is comfortable in an ungodly atmosphere, it means they are living from their flesh not the spirit. My favourite atmosphere is not some pub where people are drinking out of pain and rebellion and are being coarse and rude, my favourite atmosphere is in the church, worshipping with my hands in the air, spending time with my Father.
Make sure your intended has a pastor – not just a church they occasionally attend, but wiser Christians who are godly who minister to them and speak into their lives. Whose feet are they sitting at? If they are a rebel in church, and living without a covering, they will not let you be their covering, or be able to love you like Christ loves the church! Time to reconsider!
If I was getting married today, the first thing I would do is want to speak to my intended’s pastor and see if they are impressed with them. i would want to see them praying, hearing the Word, growing. If they had an ungodly background, I would want to see some pain and remorse at that lifestyle, not mocking it or being arrogant about it. That is the fear of the Lord and it is the beginning of wisdom. Be very careful about entering into marriage with someone who does not have a spiritual leader in their life!
Worldly advice on marriage generally makes me want to be sick. One magazine article said “how to stay sexy so your husband does not stray”. It doesn’t matter how sexy you are, it does not stop other women being sexy. So make sure you choose a man who fears the Lord. There are whole websites and books and industries teaching women to manipulate men and men to manipulate women, it is not the way of Jesus Christ. Be wary of flirtatious people – some men need attention from women and vice versa. Reconsider!
Men, pay attention to your intended’s best friend. If she is a rebel, living with a man and not married, mocking God’s Word and things living holy is a joke, perceive what this means and think twice! Reconsider! You should be marrying someone who has godly friends! Women, pay attention if he has a gang of friends and not one of them is living for God! That’s the level he craves.
Earlier today, I did a livestream with Marcus Wick about some of the concerns that we have with certain ideas and doctrines that are being taught in some sections of the church. It seemed to me that the source of every false doctrine was that people are not taking the Bible seriously.
Genuinely, the amount of success in your life is tied precisely to what you perceive when you see a Bible. If you see it as the master key to success, you will read it, meditate on it, think about it, say it, do it, base your life on it, you will never go a day without reading it. Jesus said the words that He speaks are spirit and life (John 6.63). When you hear Jesus speak by reading the Bible, you get more spirit and more life. That’s the truth. Some people have no life in them, you meet them and they suck life out of other people, their soul is a vacuum, so empty it sucks life out of other people. It’s because they do not perceive how powerful the Bible is.
Other people fail to perceive how powerful the Bible is and that when people love the Word they have great peace (Psalm 119.165). That’s why they are depressed and even mentally ill, because they fail to perceive how powerful the Bible is.
Whenever you, I, or anyone else do something foolish, it’s because we did not perceive the wisdom is in the Word to step above that decision.
Remember what we fail to perceive, we will fail to honour, and what we fail to honour will not have proximity to us. It’s that simple with the Word – fail to perceive how glorious God’s Word is, you will not honour it, it won’t be in your life and you will miss out on a power that will always put you over.
Some of you reading this are living in the dark, stumbling around like a confused muppet, when the entrance of God’s Word brings light (Psalm 119.130). Your Bible is somewhere in your house, gathering dust, while you are walking into walls, stubbing your feet and generally missing out when you could be in the light if you could just perceive how important the Bible is.
My challenge in 2025 is to read the Bible every day – what you do daily changes your life. Read it with an open and humble heart, perceiving how vital and powerful the Word is, speak it out loud, and pray with it. Make sure you have friends that help point you to the Word and ask you “do you have Scriptures for that”, and realize that if someone is not doing that – they are your enemy. They do not want you to succeed, I don’t care how sweet they are!
Perceiving the Bible to be the greatest source of wisdom in the world, the very Word of God, will truly change your life forever.
Can you perceive the next task God has for you to do? God is not a random God, He has created you to complete tasks for Him! You were created to add value to the world by completing tasks. You need to be able to see what your next task is that adds value to the world.
There are millions of task to do on planet earth, and doing tasks will give you credibility, income, favour, connections and a sense of purpose. Do the right tasks and all of that is multiplied immensely. But perceiving what the right task for you is takes time and prayer and wisdom.
There are many people who are poor today because they never perceived their task. They have never been promoted or brought to a place of increase because they haven’t done the task God designed them to do yet. There are tasks to do in your marriage, in your career, in your church, in your nation. As you do the next one, you develop skills, faithfulness and experience and then God trusts you with a bigger task.
The task God has called you to do next is probably in front of you, but you haven’t seen it yet because it is probably smaller than you thought and less important than you presumed. There is a task and you need to see it, do it and do it with joy. To rejoice in your labour is a gift of God (Ecc. 5.19).
Sometimes you can find out your task because that task being undone makes you personally angry. Moses saw the Egyptian punish the Israelite, and it made him angry. He did not handle that anger correctly, but it was a huge clue as to his personalized, heavenly task. Sometimes you can find your task by what you love and the skills you have.
Sometimes you can find out your task, because your heavenly task can be done any time any place. Anyone can kill an opponent in war, but when that opponent is a giant, and your weapon is a sling – that’s your God given destiny. David was a great worship leader, a great leader, but his God-given task was to win battles. He could win any battle any time against any foe. That’s a sign. I know I am called to preach, because I could preach anytime to any audience on any topic. It’s built into my heart.
Some tasks come from Heaven, and do not make any sense to our mind. Elisha gave Naaman a task to duck himself seven times in a mucky, filthy river. He did it and was healed. That took faith. At times it will take faith to do what God has called you to do.
Your task will always involve serving others. That’s why I used the word “task” in this post. I have been thinking about this for a while. A lot of Christians are talking about their destiny, their anointing, their calling, but if it does not lead to them doing hard work serving others they have absolutely missed it. I want you to walk in your dreams, in your destiny, but when your dream enters your life, it is dressed up in work overalls, and because of that, most Christians totally miss it. They don’t want to work and they don’t want to serve.
But as you serve others and do the task God has called you to do, you will find God serving you. It’s called sowing and reaping. It’s not called reaping and sowing, it starts with sowing: so if you are there waiting for something to happen, waiting to win the lottery before giving to the church, waiting for someone to give you a title before you help someone, waiting for a salary before serving, you will be waiting a long, long, long, long, time.
If you want to be a leader, remember it is “the hand of the diligent that shall rule” (Proverbs 12.24) – so be diligent and do something. There will be a task coming your way and you need to do it and do it with diligence, joy and faithfulness.
Some of you reading this are stuck because you have failed to perceive your next task. This Christmas season, take some time to find out what the next task is or next tasks are.
Paul told the Romans not to think of themselves more highly than they ought (Romans 12.3). Paul there is talking about perception – we have to see our own limitations. Not one of us can do everything, we can only do what we are designed to do. Kenneth Copeland was told by the Lord not to do anything other than what the Lord told him or he simply would not have the time to do everything he was told to do. I understand that.
Everything God makes has a purpose. Your cat cannot fly. Your dog cannot talk. That’s not their purpose. We have to perceive God’s design for our lives and do what we are designed to do, not what we just want to do.
You know I teach a lot on dreaming big and using your imagination, and I love inspiring and challenging and encouraging people, but I have seen over the years someone will misinterpret what I am – or what others are saying on faith and dreams and grace – and goes all out to walk in a dream that is not what God has called them to – either it isn’t Biblical or it clearly does not fit what God has designed them to do.
Listen – faith, grace, patience, dreaming big – it only works when you are going for the goals that God designed.
In addition to ensuring we find out what God has designed us to do and therefore perceive what we cannot ever do, we also have to perceive what we cannot do quite yet. I read a story a few weeks back about an aeroplane crash and the reason it crashed was the pilot was inexperienced and could not fly through certain conditions. That’s a tragedy. But I know Christians who try and do things they are not ready for and cause huge amounts of pain for themselves and others.
I know Bible College students who on the day that they graduate want to teach at leadership conferences or give advice to their pastors. They need to perceive their limitations or they will never ever be in ministry. One of the things they say about inexperienced policemen or firemen is that they do not know when to call for backup and get into trouble, that is true of all of us. As Christians, know when to get counsel, know when to ask for prayer, for help, for wisdom.
Now listen what I say next is going to help you win in life. This principle is so powerful it is like a cheat code to the universe. Here it is: if you fail to perceive your limitations, you will inevitably fail to perceive the powerful gifts in the people God has placed around you. In areas in which you cannot do what you are called to do, God has placed people to do that bit for you.
In addition, a perception of your limitations will bring compassion to you from others and prevent arrogance. It will help you realize when satan is trying to get you offended, and when he is giving you fake dreams.
Learn to perceive what you cannot do. And find someone who can!
If you have ever had the honour of staying at an expensive hotel, you will no doubt have met a doorman. I recently was lost in Zurich, and needed to get somewhere and needed to know which tram to get. Thankfully I was standing outside a very posh hotel, and spoke to the doorman who does far more than open doors, but knows how to get things and how to sort things and how to get places.
Now in the kingdom of God, not one of us can make it on our own. So God gives us friends in the kingdom. It’s ok to have friends, and it’s good to have friends who are sinners, but we are supposed to have godly friendships as well. When God in all His wisdom, sets up a friendship, you will find those friends to be like divine doormen in your life – better than angels. You will find that being their friend is a great honour, and not only that you will find it is the will of God that you befriend them.
God hides the secrets you need to win in life in the minds of your friends. Divine friendships are some of the greatest joys you will have in your life. They will pick you up when you fall, help you see things from a different angle, and get revelations you could never get on your own.
You cannot even pray all the different kinds of prayers without a friend. One of the kinds of prayers you pray is a prayer of agreement. You cannot do that without someone you agree with.
Now most of us, and let’s try and receive this with some humility, choose our friends based on fun. We hang out with people we have fun with. That’s great – we should have some people who are friends who are shaped like us, who get us, who enjoy doing what we do. But, let’s not confuse that with divine friends, who are there to walk with us in the Christian life and make following God fun.
God brings people into your life who are wiser than you – they are the leaders, pastors, fathers in your life. These people are there to lead you forward. God also brings people into your life for you to lead, for you to shepherd, for you to father and love. Those are people who push you forward. But friends are peers – so they can be the cheerleaders of your life. People often get upset with me because as a pastor, I am often their coach, and they are upset I am not their cheerleader. But divine friends will be your cheerleader and you theirs!
If you recognize good, godly friends and perceive them and work on those friendships then you will grow in so many ways. Now it can be hard to perceive the friends God is bringing your way, because they may not like the same TV, the same music, the same sports as you. So when you get together, you have to talk about the Word, about what God is doing in your life, about church, about kingdom things. That’s a key. Don’t dismiss those people – they will be the key people in your life.
Recognize these people, draw near to them, honour them. Have some relationships in your life where you are not talking about work, about babies, about sport or hobbies, but about the Lord. God will bring those people into your life. Learn to see them!
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