Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Praise the Lord. Usually in Cameroon when we say, praise the Lord, we usually a great shout of Amen. Praise the Lord. Good. That's good. Uh, it's really a privilege, uh, for me to bring the word to you on, on this international Sunday. Uh, mark had to look for an international speaker,
Speaker 0 00:00:30 <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:00:31 And, um, it's really, I just really want to thank you to, um, um, to God for the privilege and the grace he gave me to, to complete my PhD. Um, so I had my vibe on the 30th of September and um, like the results was good, the remarks were good, and I just really want to give praise to God for that and also for my family. My wife is here, Danielle, my kids say, yeah.
Speaker 1 00:01:04 Um, I think my family has been in the UK with me, I think for the past nine, 10 months now almost. And God permitted that because I would usually come to the UK and then go back to Cameroon. And I really want to thank, uh, also my brother afi and especially Lita. There have been of huge support and huge heart, huge generosity towards us facilitating even our in session into et cetera. And to the whole rediscover family. This morning I said, thank you. I feel at home here. Uh, it's a pleasure for me to be part of the rediscover family, and I just give praise to God. Amen. Amen. And so this morning you had a bit of, uh, African praise. Yeah. So usually in Africa, in Cameroon, we call that high praise. That's the kind of praise that you do. And then God steps in to fight your battles.
Speaker 1 00:02:07 The Bible says when, when Peter, um, sorry, Paul and Sails were in prison in arts chapter 16, they were held, they were in shackles, their hands were tied, their feet were tied. But at midnight from verse 25, the Bible says the started praying and singing praises onto God. And what were the results? The Bible says there was a great trembling of the prison and the prison gates were open and the shackles and the chains fell. So don't mind when you see people praising in that manner, it is actually a warfare praise. And when you praise God in that manner, he steps in and he fights your battle. Amen. And the kids, the other day, we were going home and my son Nathan, were in the bus and suddenly, yes, Jesus love me. Yes. And everybody was like, and then Danielle was like, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 00:03:08 I said, no, leave him. Let him sing. You know, <laugh> I, amen. So I really want to t discovery land for what they're doing in the lives of our kids. Amen. And so this morning I'm going to be sharing a bit or teaching a bit on the presence of God. I mean, it's interesting when I did the Estes and so my results came out teaching and, and prophetic. So I was going to like, I'd never done that kind of a test before, but I knew those like where the principle graces upon my life. And so in my heart, I was like, I'm really going to test whether this algorithm is true or not. And so when I got my result, I was like, oh, this guy did a good job <laugh> coming out with with that model. And we thank God for that AEs. And so if you've not taken the Estes, uh, do yourself well to take the AEs because it's going to help and direct you.
Speaker 1 00:04:10 You know, the things that God is leading you to and the graces and the ministries that he has deposited in you and in your spirit. I Amen. And so this morning I'm going to be teaching. And by the grace of God, we might have a bit of that prophetic component and don't be surprised about it. And so I want to share about three dimensions of the presence of God. And the very first one is the omnipresence of God. We know, um, from studies and from theologians, when they talk about the moral attributes of God, the characteristics of God, it's usually said God is omni prep, omnipotent, omnipresence, and omniscience. And he's full of wisdom. Amen. And so we are celebrating International Sunday. And in the first service I said, God is international because he's everywhere. He's in the uk, he's in England, in et cetera, in the fullness of himself, the same way he's in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Malaysia, and all the nations of the world. He's in the same dimension. The fullness of himself, the Godhead, because he's omnipresence, omnipresence also says that he's present everywhere and at all times. Amen. And there is a beautiful scripture, um, from um, this, this beautiful portion of scripture in Psalms 139 verse seven and eight that reads, I dunno if we can have it.
Speaker 1 00:05:48 Sams 139 says, where can I go from your spirit? And where can I flee from your presence? David is the writer of this particular psalm. As we know there are many other writers of the book of Psalm. He says, if I go up to the heavens, you are there. Even if I make my bed in the Deads or in <inaudible> or in Helle, you are there. That's a beautiful portion of scripture showing that God is present everywhere. He's present in the heavens and he's present even in swell where probably we would not expect him to be there, but he's there that shows the fullness of his presence. Amen. The Bible says He feels all things in, in all. So where can I go from your spirit? God is spirit. Amen. The essence of who he is is spirit. And the rite of Hebrews also puts it beautifully somewhere. He says that God is the father of spirits, all spirits are from him. And all spirits bow to him no matter the spirit. Good spirits, angelic spirits, heavenly and Celeste beings or the devil and also his angels. All of them are subjected to him. He is the father of all.
Speaker 1 00:07:17 And because God is a spirit, Jesus gave us an illustration in John chapter four, verse 24, that because God is a spirit, they that worship him must worship him in spirit and intrude. I had a brief discussion with one of our mothers here on that and she was saying that that blessed her a lot. Uh, when we talked about it in the first service. Many people confuse when they say God is a spirit and we must worship him in spirit. That does not necessarily mean that we must come. And you know, usually when as Pente Costa Christians, when we hear of in spirit, we think about speaking in tongues, you know, and all the other activities we like doing in the spirit. No, God is spirit and we need to worship him in spirit because without this, your spirit, that's your human spirit, you cannot connect to God.
Speaker 1 00:08:14 And because Adam seen and fell, he was cut short of the glory of God, he entered into a state of spiritual death because the Bible says that the day you shall eat of that fruit, you shall surely die. Adam didn't die physically, it took probably over 900 years for his body to die. But at the the day, the end of that fruit, they died spiritually. So every man that comes into the world is separated from God. It's religion puts it very well. He says, every man that comes into the world is born with his back turned to God. Our backs are turned to God. But when we turn ourselves to God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, our spirit comes alive. Amen. The prophet Ziel says in Ezekiel 36, um, chapter 36, as from verse 25, God was speaking, he says, I'm going to pour clean water upon you and I'm going to put a new spirit within you.
Speaker 1 00:09:20 And so God is not only everywhere, but he also has put his spirit in us so that we can worship him. I mean, our spirit comes alive and then we can connect with God who is a creator and our Father. Amen. And so the knowledge of the omnipresence of God is important because it encourages us to stay strong even in uncertain times because we know God is present. We know he's watching. He knows, we know, he knows about our situations, he knows about our difficulties, but also the notion or the knowledge of his omnipresence encourages us to live a life that is worthy of him because he's everywhere. Amen. There's a story of a young boy who would want to do something bad but will run and go and hide under a covering so that God will not, will not see him. God is everywhere.
Speaker 1 00:10:22 If you read that psalm, it says, even if you go to the furthermost part of the earth, he's there. And even if I go to hell, I make my bed in Shir. David says he's presence. He's still there. So our God is omnipresent and he's everywhere. As opposed to that the devil is not omnipresent. Many Christians tend to confuse and think that the devil sat and the enemy is omnipresent. He's not. He's an angel, he's a chair. We know from chapter 28 that he's an angel and angels cannot be in multiple places at the same time. Amen. Only God has that ability. Only God has that potency to be everywhere. So do not be worried about the enemy because there are times that you worry about him. Meanwhile, he's not even there. So instead, we should be focused on our Father who is everywhere. Amen.
Speaker 1 00:11:29 So also the enemy cannot peep into the thoughts of a Christian except you give him a portal of entry. It's possible. But as a Christian, a true child of God, a disciple of Christ, the enemy cannot peep into your thought patterns. And the reason is that what he does is that he can only predict our movements. He can predict our behaviors. Why? Because he's of old, he's older than all of us yet, and he knows how humans function, uh, in science. Like when the Corona outbreak started, people build models, predictive models, and they said, oh, given that this virus is like this, like this, this number of people or people with this type of disease and these conditions were going to, were going to die. There were models that also said, for example, in Africa that they were going to be corpses everywhere. But it turned out that most of those models did not go as planned.
Speaker 1 00:12:36 But there were other models that showed that some people actually died, especially those who had severe diseases like diabetes and everything. Why am I saying this? Certain model that he uses to predict our behavior comes from the test and the validation he has done throughout the years from the generation of the first Adam, because he has had time to see and to predict things in our lineages and in our families to know how we behave. That is why even at times when evil things happen to us, the Bible says he turns those evil things to our, to our good because God is the only one who has that final authority. We sung this morning that who has the final say? Ge ho has the final say. So Ge over is the one who has the final say over your life. He's the one who has the final say over your situations.
Speaker 1 00:13:38 He's the one who have, who has the final say over your children, not the enemy. Amen. We are of the breed of the second Adam. Amen. And the second Adam, the devil did not find anything in him. Amen mean we are of the breed of the Messiah. And so the models of the enemy cannot work in our lives because we belong to a different master. They have been a transfer of ownership and we've been translated from the kingdom and the power of darkness into the kingdom of light. Amen. And so be rest assured and be encouraged that God is always with you and that the enemy, the devil, is not with you. Amen. The second dimension of the presence of God, we mentioned it a while ago, is the indwelling presence of God in the life of a believer. Amen. We can read from John chapter 14 as from verse 15.
Speaker 1 00:14:43 Yeah. Jesus was going towards the end of his ministry and because he knew he was going to leave and he he was going to depart, he started introducing his disciples to the person of the Holy Spirit who hence for was going to stay with them. Amen. And he said, if you love me, keep my commands and I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate. Others veterans say, I'm not that comforter to help you and be with you forever to help you and be with you for ever. He is the spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he lives with you and he will be in you. And so from the viewpoint of that scripture, we can see that there are two categories of people on earth. The first category are those who have the spirit of God with them and in them.
Speaker 1 00:15:56 Amen. And I'm so grateful to God to be a part of that category, and I know that you are also. And the second category of people are those that John or in this rendition says they, they are of the world and they cannot accept. So they do not have the spirit of truth, but the spirit of truth is in us and he dwells in us. And it's very important. You, you, you mark the words that Jesus used, he said He's gonna be with with you and he's going to be in you. So has a disciple of Christ. Yes, seated the Holy Spirit dwells in you. Amen. The Holy Spirit is in you. How can you imagine that the creator of the universe, the possessor of the heaven and the earth, his spirit is in you. So you are not just anybody because you have the spirit of God in you as a believer in Christ, someone who has placed his faith in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:17:04 His spirit is upon you. No wonder Paul could say that God has sent the spirit of his son Jesus Christ into our hearts through which we can say God is our Father. Abba Father Abba Father says that God is now our source. I no longer belong to the family of my mother or father, even though I do, but spiritually I have a new identity. And that identity comes from above. And so I was talking about our spirit coming in life. And so that is the work of the Holy Spirit within us. And I've just talked about He brings us into the family of God. Amen. And that is why we can come from every nation yet suited and we are part and parcel of the family of God. He adopts us into his family. Amen. And we can become his dear children. The other thing that the Holy Spirit does in us is that he seals us.
Speaker 1 00:18:10 He gives us hope, even for afterlife. He seals us. We can find that inefficient chapter one, verse 13. He seals us. And in Romans chapter eight, verse 11, there's an interesting scripture there that says that if the spirit of him who raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives in you, he that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, that same God, that same spirit that dwells in you will give life even to your mortal bodies. Meaning that by the spirit of God who lives in us, we can have supremacy over the deeds of the flesh. We can have supremacy over the works of the flesh, overseen and over dead. Amen. It means that we can live a life that is pleasing to God by the spirit of God. You know, the Paul also teaches that, you know, the spirit lost after the flesh. It's like the spirit and the flesh there are in opposition, but because of the spirit of God who lives in us, he gives us power.
Speaker 1 00:19:21 He gives us the strength. He enables us, he transform our thoughts to live above the works of the flesh. And so he gives life even to our mortal bodies. Amen. And so the last thing that we are going to see this morning, that's the Ted dimension of the presence of God. It talks about the manifest presence of God. Hallelujah. You know, God is everywhere, as we've said it's true. He's, but he's not in every place. But there are certain places where you can have a tangible experience of the presence of God that talks of the manifest presence of God. And usually that is what, um, it's usually described or portrays in scripture as the glory of God. Amen. The shake, the cupboard, the heavy weighty presence of God. Amen. So we, we know that God is everywhere He dwells in us, but he also can manifest himself in us through us, us and in the places and in, in the lives of the people around us.
Speaker 1 00:20:36 And I bet you that is what God is longing to see in this generation. Amen. Amen. God is longing to see. And for a, for tho if you've been sensitive, I guess to what God is preparing us even as a church to do, you can, we can sense and you can sense that God is pulling us gradually into that place where he wants us to manifest his glory. He wants us even as the, the motor of the church says that he wants us to reveal the glory of God in the southwest and beyond. And God is not going to do that without you, without your participation. He's not going to do it without you. And before, and just to, to talk a bit about the manifestation of the presence of God, um, there is a story in the book of Exodus chapter 34, uh, as from verse 28.
Speaker 1 00:21:39 It says, Moses was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the CO and the 10 Commandments. And if you read further down, it says, when he came down from the mountain with the two tablets, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. And that scripture later tells us that the children of Israel had to put a veil because his face was shiny. That tells us that the more you spend time in the presence of God, his glory rubs upon you. His glory comes upon you. And so I believe it's a season where we, as a church, we need to decide to spend time with God because God wants to visit us in a special way. God wants to pour his glory upon us.
Speaker 1 00:22:35 God wants to pour his, his glory, his weighty presence upon us. Amelia, I I was praying in the morning and I saw you, and God says that he's calling you to a greater level of consecration because the oil that is going to release upon you is going to be a measure that you have not experienced before. So He, he, you, you, you are in a favorable season and it's like your agenda, or it's before, before the Lord in this season. And so you should be sensitive and pay attention to the things that God is laying in your heart to accomplish. Amen. And so God wants to call us to, to that dimension of his presence. He wants us to be carriers of his present. And as I close this, this word, um, I'll close with the story. Um, I think I was y in the UK in 2019, um, I think October, November, December.
Speaker 1 00:23:45 And one of those Sundays, I dunno if Mark remembers, um, we met at Saintsbury at the shop. I think that's when you introduced me to your daughter. We later got married. And um, so when we met, we discussed for a bit and then I turned, and when we separated, you were working and I turned, and then God showed me a vision. I think, I dunno, I've shared probably with Nita. And in that vision I saw a pot, a metal pot, a silver pot, shiny, it was on fire, and the fire was cooking and the pot was hot. And you know, when water is in the pot, and then it was bubbling, it was bubbling, and then, you know, sparks of water, you know, was like bubbling and coming out of that pot. And at the time, you know, when I saw that, I was like, oh, this guy is on fire here.
Speaker 1 00:24:41 I know, I know, I know he is on fire. But I believe God is saying that there is a point in your ministry and in rediscover, because now I have the understanding that is tied to rediscover where he wants to lift up the covering from that pot where that water, that hot water, is going to gush out. And in this season where God wants to do that is no longer going to be business as usual. He's going to call you into unusual parts. And I pray that you, I know you're a man of courage, that you have that courage to step out so that they shall be that hot overflow of the presence of God. And because it's, it's not only going to be a blessing to you, it's going to be a blessing to the rediscover family to us. It's going to be a blessing to the people of the southwest and beyond.
Speaker 1 00:25:42 And so I know God is calling us even as a people to that dimension, the dimension of his spirit. And whenever God calls a people to the dimension of his spirit, it means it's time for greater consecration. It is time for greater dedication. It's time to give yourself holy. The Bible says, in the days of his power, the people of God shall be willing. I pray that we are going to have a willing spirit in this season. I pray that we are going to have eyes to see what God is doing. I pray that our ears are going to be open to hear what God is saying in these days. I pray that we are going to partner with the Lord and to go where he's leading us. I pray that we are not going to be tired. I pray that we are not going to be lazy.
Speaker 1 00:26:37 I pray that we are not going to be held down by our past addictions, but that we are going to be free to run with the Lord, to be free to run with him to what and to see what he's doing. I pray for you, even as I pray for myself, that we will not lock behind, that we will run at the pace of the Lord. I pray that we'll not be like Jerusalem. Jesus in Luke chapter 19, the Bible says he got closer to the city Jerusalem and he wept. He why was he weeping? Because that verse says at the end he says that because they had missed the hour of their visitation. I pray that we shall not miss the hour of our visitation. I don't believe there's any generation on earth that has been blessed, like the generation that saw Jesus Christ. The Bible says in John one 14 that the be heard him as the one having the glory of the Lord, the express image of the Lord. But yet they missed him. I pray that we are not going to miss him in this season. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.
