Series: Other Speakers

Sun am 24 July 2011 –  Riaan Sinden and Daniël Van Eeden 

Jer. 29:4-8, 10-14; Jer. 21:8-9; Jer. 24:1-5; Isa. 2:1-2; Rev. 20:1-4;

1 Peter 2:9; Eph. 2:10; Eph. 4:24; Matt. 6:10; Gen. 1:26, 28; Rev. 11:15; Dan. 7:18;

John 3:3-5; Eph. 1:18-23; Eph. 2:6; John 17:21-24

Riaan: Not only was the Lord letting His people be carried away into captivity, He also told them, “Settle in; don’t be in a hurry; build houses and gardens. Do the normal things and infiltrate Babylon” (Jer. 29:1-7). There is a principle here. God caused his people to be carried away into captivity. Why would He want to do this? Remember how God struggled to get them out of Egypt. Ten plagues later, 40 years of walking in the wilderness to get the slave mentality out of the people; then He takes them into Babylon. It doesn’t make sense; but God’s thinking is far above ours. The question remains, Why take the people into captivity? They didn’t really have a choice. The choices were “stay and die” or “go and live” (Jer. 21:8-9). There were people who stayed and people who left. “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans (Jer 24:1-5). There were three types of people who went – the princes of Judah, the craftsmen and the smiths. The princes have to do with government; but He is also taking the creative people – those who can work with their hands and make things. What better way of infiltrating a group of people than by serving them; they are taking control from the inside.

We are His express image; we are His glory, so we have to fill every sector, every place, every inch of this earth with the knowledge of His glory. We think we have been taken captive, but God says, “I am sending you.” You have been so filled up by the Word; now go out and make a difference in the world. We should be out there invading the systems without the fear of them changing our mindsets. Then they will flow; then they will come. “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD’s house  Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it (Isa. 2:1-2). If the nations are not flowing to it at the moment, where are the nations flowing to? Everything we do, we should do it as unto the Lord. Words never say as much as actions.

For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive (Jer. 29:10-14). This is a whole new level of relationship and of being restored. This is celebration time; we are not going to fail. God is not just sending us in captivity, He is sending us into a system that has to be changed because He wants to establish His Kingdom and we will reign with Him forever.

Daniel: Your position is your possession. So where we position ourselves in the Word as it comes, is what we are going to possess.

Here is what the church is called: But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim (show forth, declare) the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). How do I show forth? Do I talk about it? I can only give you what I have and what I am.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:10).   Born from above – for what? For good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in it.

We will possess the Kingdom and the Kingdom is about ruling and reigning (Gen. 1:26, 28; Rev. 11:15). Young people, please equip yourselves to rule and reign on this earth; not some day in heaven! Don’t limit your thinking into the “four walls” of church meetings. We need doctors, teachers, lawyers, administrators, chartered accountants, artists, entrepreneurs, men and women in whom the Kingdom of God has come. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on this earth, as it is in heaven.

The original intention of God, is that we should rule and reign in this earth. Unless you are born again you cannot see and enter the Kingdom of God. The born again experience means you reconnect with God’s original intention for your life.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. … And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who ^fills all in all (Eph. 1:18-21).

It is the interpenetration of God and man that will speak the loudest (John 17:21-24).  Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am. Where do I operate from? It’s your choice. As we behold His glory and see things from His perspective, the world will see –  because they will see it in us.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. The Lordsent them into exile, but He never said “mix”. Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. … multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare (Jer. 29:4-8).  Jeremiah told the people that God sent them there for a purpose, so that they could infiltrate the system. We are the salt of the earth; don’t lose your flavour (Matt. 5:13).