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Series: Other Speakers
Sun am 6th January 2013 – Johan Cronje
(Gen. 17:5); Eph. 1:3-4, 11; Jer. 29:11; Psa. 139:13-16; Eph. 2:10 (Ampl.); (Rev. 13:8-KJV);
(Ps. 40:7); (Heb. 10:5-7); Mal. 3:16; (Eccl. 3:14-15); Heb. 4:3; (Eph. 1:3); (Ps. 8:4); Prov. 8:22-30;
Job 38:3-7; (Col. 1:27); Isa. 43:1-; Isa. 55:11
Bizweni, perform your sonship; everything starts with obedience. Obedience comes before faith. Faith comes after you say, “Yes Lord!” Then God comes and will honour your obedience. You do not give to get back but you give because of obedience. We know He will supply all our needs.
If God blesses something, He invokes Himself in what He blesses and it starts to multiply. He speaks to Himself, He calls upon Himself in such things that He blesses, and out of that things start to multiply. When I pray for or bless someone, I speak to the Christ in that man or in that situation. The word “bless” means to invoke the Christ that is within that man or in that situation. It is to “call upon” or “speak to”. In this sense God has spoken to Himself, He called upon Himself in that situation, and it starts to multiply. When he took the bread and the fish, He blessed it; He spoke to Himself in the bread and in the fish and it started to multiply physically. Even with Abram, “the exalted one”, when God blessed Abram He put Himself in the name of Abram and he became Abraham. God said, “You will no longer be the exalted father but you will become the father of many nations” (Gen. 17:5). Multiplication because of the blessing of God! When He took the bread on the night of the Passover, He broke it and said, “I bless it”; the bread which is His body. Here is the result of that blessing that night, you and I born again into the Body of Christ. The Body will multiply because of the blessing of God that night at the communion table.
It is important to have a regular Word intake. It is not a magical thing that we can bless and it will multiply, it involves believing in God. With Abraham righteousness came out of that, because he believed God. Invoke, call upon and speak to God in the situation. If you make a study of the word “bless”, it has a reference to speech. God wants to hear your voice. There is something when you are loaded with the Word of God and you speak to your problem. When you speak the blessing of God there comes prosperity, it multiplies.
God has blessed you with all spiritual blessings in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3-4, 11). It is where you come to a final place of rest; not when you die but now while you are on the earth if you know you are in Him. He chose you and spoke you into a spiritual being. That is what it means to be chosen of God. I am a spoken Word of God! When? Before the foundation of the world! God saw us in the womb of Christ before the foundation of the world.
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them (Ps. 139:16). The book of remembrance or the scroll of God is not the book of life where only your name is written. Before you existed, your life was sealed and guaranteed. Nothing on earth can change the plan of God for your life. You cannot change your destiny; you can connect and align with it. His plan is to prosper you and not to harm you (Jer. 29:11). For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live] (Eph. 2:10-Ampl). Jesus was prepared to give His life for God’s plan for your life. The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the earth (Rev. 13:8-KJV). When Jesus cried out on the cross, “It is finished”, He was referring back to that day when He was slain. We were in Him on that day. The minutes of that meeting became the volume of the book or the scroll (Ps. 40:7; Heb. 10:5-7). It is not the book of life where your name is written, it is a book of the plans for your life. It is not about you, but it is because of the many-membered Body of Christ. Each and every one’s life story is in that book. The whole story in that book is about you and about us. Maybe you are the verb in a sentence, but the verb cannot stand on its own. You need someone to be an adverb to you. The adverb is another man’s life. You may be a noun in the sentence, but the noun needs to be supported by adjectives that say how good and how beautiful you are. That is why we need each other to complement each other. We need each other so that the sentences God has written in the book make sense. It is a corporate Word made flesh, the many-membered Son. The Word is written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God (2 Cor. 3:3). The prophet Malachi speaks about the book of remembrance which represents the people of God, His sons (Mal. 3:16).
You have to download God’s plan for your life on the earth. We are spoken Words of the living God. We are chosen by Him. The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world; the Words of God were finished at that time, and you and I were in Him before the foundations of the world. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account (Eccl. 3:14-15). And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world (Heb. 4:3b).
The everlasting covenant is not the covenant of Abraham, it is not the covenant of Noah nor the covenant that Jesus made of His disciples; the everlasting covenant refers back to that time when God planned before the foundations of the world. You and I were there in Him when the work was finished. We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings, when? In Christ! (Eph. 1:3) You and I were there in Him when Word was finished. You are a special one-of-a-kind Word out of the mouth of God. If He has chosen us, we are a special kind of people. God knew us in Christ before we entered the world. We have always been in his mind; He is mindful of us (Ps. 8:4). God just spoke His mind. We were in His thoughts; thoughts that were even before a Word was spoken (Prov. 8:22-30; Job 38:3-7).
To be in Him – ‘in’ is a fixed position, a place, time or state. ‘In’ expresses a relationship of rest. To be in Christ means I have come to a place of rest because I know my boundaries. The boundaries are Christ. Being in Christ is also an environment. The Father was the environment in which the Son lived. He did only what He saw the Father do, that was the ‘in’ boundary. We are the same in Christ. Christ also lives in our environment; it is Christ in us (Col. 1:27).
To be chosen means to select for one’s self. God has selected you for Himself. ‘Chosen’ in Greek is Eklegomai (ek-leg’-om-ahee) ‘Ek’ means out of or from; ‘lego’ a verb, from the noun ‘logos’ which means something is said; the expression of a thought. You were in His mind before the foundations of the world, He was thoughtful of you. When He chose you it was an act of speaking forth. Something comes into being when you speak your mind. He spoke the plans which He has of you, to prosper you. We need to download those plans. I have summoned you by name; you are mine (Isa. 43:1).
God spoke to the firmament to bring forth stars. He spoke to Himself in the firmament and the firmament gave birth to the stars and galaxies. God spoke to the waters and out of the waters came fish and everything that lives. Then God wanted to create you and the only way was to speak to Himself and out of Him, you and I were born. So will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them (Isa. 55:11b – Message). We have diluted this to mean that a sermon will not come back empty, but it actually refers back to before the foundations of the world. What God intended for you, you will be, that which God has spoken over you. You have purpose! God wants to show off with you!