Gateway Church's Podcast
Paul De Jong
Tonight, I want to talk to you about something that, if you're anything a little like me as a human being, it's easy to lose, and that is the topic of expectation. I want to talk to you at the beginning of this new year. Here we begin another season, 2009, about how we can enlarge our expectation. It's been great in the service to hear some of the desires that people have in their hearts about what they need God to do and be a part of this year. And I want to get straight into it, is that cool? Can you understand me? All right, you just know I'll even if you can't and give me a wave just to encourage me, all right? But we're going to go to the Old Testament, and I want you to take your Bible. We're going to go to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 37, and for some of you this will be a well-known chapter, but it's my prayer that God will use it to really encourage us to lift our expectation into this new season. Ezekiel, chapter 37, and we're going to pick it up in verse 1. The Word of God says, "The hand of the Lord," Ezekiel says, "the hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord. And he set me down in the midst of a valley, and it was full of bones. Then he caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in this open valley, and indeed they were very dry. Then he said to me in verse 3, "Son of man, can these bones live?" So I answered, "God, you know." And he said to me, "Then prophesy to these bones, and say to them, 'Bones or dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord.'" Thus says the Lord God to these bones, "Surely I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live." How many are thankful for this chapter? You see, it doesn't matter. Really where we are positioned tonight, where we have come to, whatever season we've been through, we have a God who is able. And God takes Ezekiel, and he says, "I want to teach you something, and tonight I believe that God the Holy Spirit is here, and he's moving in our world in a way that we have not seen him move before." You know, there are a lot of Christians I talk to, and they say, "What do you think about the economic crisis? What do you think about what's happening right now in Israel? What do you think in the destabilization of a lot of what's taking place? And I shock them, because I often say, "You know what? I think God's doing what he wants to do." And they say, "Yeah, but it's infecting, or it's impacting who we are." And I'm saying, "Do you know what? We've been praying for years. God, change our world." Well, what do you think God's going to do? God's going to pick it up and shake it, and blow it a little end tonight, whether you're watching this, as I said at home, or you're over on the NRH campus, or here at Gateway. It's a message to my own heart. If I feel like my world has been shaken, if actually I end 2008 and say, "God, I had a whole lot of expectations on the table." And to be honest, I'm wondering what you're doing with who I am, then I reckon this chapter could be the word of God for you tonight. Because God takes Ezekiel, and the first thing he says is, "I want to show you something, and that's how dry it is around you." And then I'm going to ask you something, and this is what I'm going to ask you. "Hey, Son of Man, can these bones live?" Do you know his answer? What did he say? He said, "Lord, you know that's not what God was asking." He said, "Can these bones Son of Man live?" You know with the church, and maybe many of us tonight, and I know I've been in this place, there are many times I've hit a crisis. I've had a part or a period of my life where I wonder what God's doing, and I've known that God could do it, but I haven't known that God could do it through me. And it's like God needs to take us and cause us to be stunned by how much we need Him. But then He asks us, "Son of Man, can these bones live?" And we respond, "God, you need to take hold of my circumstance, you need to take hold of my year, you need to take hold of what's around me, and you need to do something." And God says, "No, I want you to learn something that you need to take hold of your circumstances, and you need to take hold of me, and you need to begin to prophesy." You need to now begin to apply what you know is right, and begin to take the wonder of the experience of the Holy Spirit, and release the Holy Spirit through your dryness, and begin to call on the name of the Lord and proclaim what you have never seen before. Not just believe what God can do, but proclaim what you have never seen before. You see, tonight I'm talking about enlarging our expectation, not just kind of waiting to see what God will do, but enlarging our expectation. We had Ryan and Hunt Bonkey come and speak for us at the beginning of last year, and I loved what he said, and it kind of took me by surprise when he actually said it. He said, "You know that the Word of God in your mouth is as powerful as the Word of God in Christ's mouth." Wow, did you get that? You see, even the creation of our great world, remember the Holy Spirit hovered. He was awaiting the instruction of the Word, and when God said, "Let there be," he was released to bring the miracle. I hope you're capturing something tonight. Because it's like God saying this year could be a repeat of every other year you've had, you believe God can, you're faithful in your worship, but actually God wants to take us to a place where we understand that expectation is the seed of the miraculous. And we need to learn how to enlarge that expectation rather than waiting to see what will happen. God has given us an authority to take His Word and not just kind of say, "Well, God, if you will, I hope it happens." No, you know, we're positioned in New Zealand in a nation that actually doesn't even believe God exists by and large. Do you know that many people that come to Christ in our services have not even heard about who Jesus is? And when we went there 17 years ago, I was amazed by how many pastors said, "Well, you're coming back to New Zealand." You know, New Zealand's not like it was in Australia for you, and New Zealand's not like America, and you can't expect to see what you're believing in your heart to see, and I'm saying, "Hey, listen, it's not the circumstance that matter. It's the Word of God, active by the Holy Spirit in us that we can speak into being the creative, wonderful power of God, and by God's grace today, we're seeing what's never happened before in our history." What about you? I wonder if God's got a hold of you. You see, expectation, no matter who we are, has a number of enemies, and I want to touch on these briefly, and then I want to talk about keys to expectation. But you know, one of the enemies of expectation is very simply a devil that wants to dominate. See, we get so spiritual sometimes that we don't realize we are in a war. When Paul finished his life, he said, "You know what, I've had to fight for things. I've got scars on me." It's kind of like, "Well, if we're really walking with God, it's not going to be easy. Come on, somebody say amen." It's kind of like, "Well, God, you know, if I'm really in the will of God, it's just going to be like angels floating through the sky." No, friend, if you're in the will of God, you're at the front line. He comes to, "What, kill, steal, and destroy." You think about that for a moment. Not only does he come to kill us, separate us from God, if he can't kill us, he'll steal from us. So much of the church has been stolen from because of what they've gone through, and now instead of building God's kingdom, they're actually pulling it down, still in church, still know that God exists, but not breaking through. And the devil's quite happy for you to have an easy life as long as you don't understand the authority you've got in Christ. Tonight I want to encourage you that it's time for us to stand and lift our expectation. You know, Isaiah 56 and verse 9 has been a great verse for me. This is what it says. It says, "When the enemy comes in," and that's the pause in the original. "When the enemy comes in, then like a flood, the Spirit of God raises a standard against it." I thought I would have had a hallelujah in Texas, just because the Dallas Cowboys didn't have a good year. You're going to lift your expectation. We're in church tonight, isn't that right? Come on. But how does the Bible teach it? You say, "Yeah, but pastors," you know, things aren't going, "Hey, you give me your list, I'll show you mine." But when the enemy comes in, this is how God responds. "Well, it's all like a flood, the Spirit of God." You say, "Yeah, but, you know, I'm not that kind of person. We'll change who you are," because the Spirit, the creative power of God, lives in you. And we've got to realize there is an enemy that seeks to dominate who we are. There's another thing that will dampen and weaken your expectation. It's an attitude number two of simply enough, having an attitude of simply enough. How you doing? I'm doing pretty good. What does that mean? "Oh, well, I got more than most. God's good." "Well, I have another good year. Are you expanding?" "Ah, I'm happy." You might not understand that, but if you come across my path, I want permission to slap you. You say, "What do you mean? 'Cause that's not Bible theology. God had to take me out of New Zealand for 10 years, plant me in the Hillsong church, so I could get a bigger mindset and a bigger spirit and a bigger understanding because New Zealand is a small nation, four million people, where it's 60 million sheep." So that's why we all are talk funny, you know? And it was like, "I didn't know, but at 21 years of age, God took me out, put me in a big environment because he wanted to take me back." I didn't know with a bigger spirit, believing for more. And when I got back there, it was amazing how much of the church had said, "Well, you know, as I said, we're not Australia, we're not America. We're doing okay for who we are, and I'm going, "No, no, no, no, no, no." Now, under him, who was able to do exceedingly, abundantly above everything that we ask or think according to his power that works in us. Now listen, his power that works in you is surrounded by your power, 'cause the soul, our thinking, can keep contained the potential of God that's on the inside of us. And God says, "You know what? I mean, you have an attitude of, man, I just want to get through, it's not my attitude. Let me put this before you. If you have an attitude of saying, "You know, I've got enough, we're happy, our family are at peace," could be the most selfish attitude anybody could have, 'cause all you're thinking about is you. You know what? God wants to use you, he wants to use me, he wants to use churches all over this nation, all over the world. He wants to use people in houses to touch their streets where you work. He wants to use you not just to have enough to do what you need to do, but to begin to be a resource to help others do what God's called them to do. And if your expectation is not high, I tell you, it's 'cause you don't realize you're in a fight, and when you are in a fight, there will be times when things happen that the enemy brings that you just give up on and you just live in the shit. Now you can't give up no matter what comes your way, and don't settle with just enough. A guy by the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson said this, "People seem not to understand that their outlook on life is a confession of their own character." Wow. Think about the way you pray. Think about the expectations you've set for 2009. Is it all around you and your family? Is it all around the benefits that you need or is it about God's heart? Which includes you and your family, but it's about all those people that are yet to come to Christ. It's about all the churches that are different to us that are still His church. It's about having a kingdom spirit, something that's bigger than what we've been through, but see, an attitude of simply enough is going to rob you from expectation. The third thing that's going to rob, expectation is what I call a failure to fund enlargement, a failure to fund enlargement. You say, "What do you mean by that?" I mean, we come to God with some pretty grandiose prayers sometimes and we don't realize that to step up in God, it's going to cost us something more. If you want more seed from the field, you're going to put more seed into it. We have a leadership conference in New Zealand every May and we have around 2,000 pastors and leaders that come from New Zealand now and Australia and some from around the world, and a few years back, Pastor Casey Treet was speaking, and he stood up before all the pastors and he says, "You know what I reckon? Most of you pastors don't want your churches to grow." You could have heard a ping drum. It was quieter than Gateway. I'm just playing with you. I know you're with us over there at NRH. I appreciate that. You guys are on the team. And even in the lounge room, I can see you rolling off the chair right now, clapping. That's fantastic. But this is what he said, "You don't want your churches to grow in everybody. What do you mean? We wouldn't be in a conference." Now, he said, "The thing is, if you want to grow to a new level, it's going to cost you more." So we pray big prayers and then God says, "Okay, then, are you going to step a little higher, stretch a little more?" See, one of the big mistakes we make is that we hit a new season, and I thank God for seasons 2009 as a good season, and I'm thankful we've got a new year. But listen to this, new seasons still require seed. Just because you're moving to a new season doesn't guarantee any change, because you've got to seed a harvest of change. Even in the Bible says that God said to Abraham, "In your seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed." It's what you're prepared to lay down. The fourth thing that will rob our expectation, and getting something out of this is what I call a loss-centred experience. We just don't have a devil that's trying to dominate. That's not the only thing we contend with or an attitude that really is more about us or just getting through, or we don't fund enlargement. We go through things in life which are what I call loss-centred experiences. In this room would be filled in the lounge room all over the world. There are many of us that are saying, "You know what? I didn't expect to go through what I went through." So now I am really just asking God to help me to get through rather than having an expectation that is founded in the heart of God. Wherever the Holy Spirit moves, He's calling us to prophesy more life. When you go through stuff, sometimes you don't know how that stuff happened and you don't know what to do with that stuff and you don't know how to respond. Earlier last year, the beginning of 2008, my son went on a school trip. He was 16 years at that age at that time and went with his whole school class and they broke into activities and a whole group of his classmates went to a river expedition and there was a flash flood and in half an hour, six students and one teacher was drowned. And he awakened to the fact as the news began to break as they were a long way away from home. In fact, five hours in a bus that he had lost his four best friends and a teacher that he loved the most. And I can't begin to explain the tragedy of what he went through and two days he went to six funerals. You need to understand when you lose someone you know is going to die, it's hard to recover. When you lose someone you never expected to die, it's far harder to recover. When you lose four of your best friends and a teacher you're closest to at 16, how dark is that night? And understandably, he had some of the hardest months that anybody could have and in fact it's only been the last six weeks that we've had Daniel begin to surface again. Because there were so many questions and there was so much darkness. There were many things that just didn't turn out the way they should have turned out because it was a Christian school and there were a lot of things that we didn't understand and you know we didn't try to say well Daniel you know it's all okay, it's kind of like Dan, we don't have all the answers but we need to find God when we go through something we didn't expect to lose. As he's begun to come out I said to him not that long ago I said Daniel the thing is if you can get through this you'll have something in life that I never had. And I'd like to suggest that if you're hurting at the end of 2008 and whatever you've gone through in life God knows who you are and God's not trying to cause you to turn away from the dead bones he wants to take you and face the dead bones and he wants to take you on a journey where not only will you believe that God can turn it but he wants you to begin to realize you are a key in him turning it. Because the thing is I reckon we learn more in darkness than we do in light. Now we may see more in day or see more in light but we learn more in darkness. Because we develop senses we wouldn't have had before and I just want to bring encouragement to you tonight I hope you're getting this. That no matter what you go through God is able to do something in that and it may not happen in one meeting or in one season of your life but if you begin to speak the word of the Lord over those dead bones begin to rattle sin you begins to join them and there is the emergence of something with power and strength no matter what you go through. You see failure is only fatal if we see this final. To see Daniel emerge and the churches had a pretty bad rap in New Zealand I've got to say that because there's been a lot of crazy people that have got before the camera but out of this Christian school tragedy there has never in the history of New Zealand to my knowledge been such a great representation of what it is to live with a trust in God. Parents have got before the camera and said you know we are distraught but our trust is in God and the nation has been moved by the fact that God exists and I want to say to everybody here tonight I want to say to everybody listening to this message tonight doesn't matter what you've gone through how deep the hall how dark the night a lost-centered experience will try with the enemy to crush your expectation but we've got to do what James says count it all joy when we fall into various trials knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience and when patience has in process completed it's perfect word we become complete mature lacking nothing we win in the end and we don't give up. You know we all go through so many things but I want to turn this around in the next few moments that we have and I want to give to you just four thoughts is that okay about how we can develop that expectation as we move into a new season how we can develop that expectation here's the first thing that I believe we as God's people need to develop it's what I call a living in a revelation a living in a revelation see without the Holy Spirit we can be people that believe the wonder of the Word but the Holy Spirit has been given to us to teach us that God's Word becomes flesh in us and this next season if you can capture this I think it will change you completely because we need to be men and women of conviction of revelation that we know God has given us something because some of you that are listening have had something from God in the past but the enemy has waited and waited and attacked you and you lost that expectation then you began to live a life that's saying as long as I'll get through will be okay and then you didn't realize that actually you were missing out on what God wants to take you through whereas we're going to be men and women that carried the Word of God in our heart in New Zealand Marie and I and our boys and our team that are so faithful we started 17 years ago and over the years people are saying how long you gonna be here I said we're here that's it we're here to see the church change the city we're here to see the church influence the nation we're here to see a church touch your world what in little New Zealand yeah because before we started 17 years ago when God said would you go back to New Zealand I said no and God said but would you go to do something that's never been seen before I said yes so we didn't go to start just a church we want to start something that transforms a nation by God's grace but over the 17 years the devils come dark nights have arrived that I never expected to arrive I've settled at times but you know what's kept me strong is I've got a revelation and that revelation is that God has spoken to me if I could get this out just in a few minutes Christians live mostly by understandings so we hear somebody preach we read the Bible we read a book we watch a movie we do something that stirs us with an understanding we say that's cool you know maybe shaking the hands as people walk out the church they pass a great message today you know what my heart says I hope it's more than a great message because you've got an understanding but an understanding is not going to change you because you'll get an under another understanding when you get into the car and have a fight with your wife you know what I'm saying and there are a lot of Christians that give up and they don't have high expectation why because they don't live by revelation this is what happens you're going to take your understandings and allow them to mature into revelations how does that happen when you get an understanding in your mind you've got to marinate meditate listen to it if you hear a word and say that word was for me don't ever not listen to that again get the CD listen to it a dozen times so it goes from here to here because what happens in here changes doesn't matter which conversation you're in so soon as something else fills your head the understanding moves around but when it becomes a revelation it goes from your head to your heart and your heart holds that revelation keeps you and lifts your expectation that's why God said to Ezekiel can these bones live God you know and God saying no I want to go here you prophesy well I can't prophesy what I don't carry a revelation about so what do you know that you know that you really know you know that you know you know because I tell you what we wouldn't be still in New Zealand 17 years on if it was just about another church but we know this is what happens understand things become revelations revelations become convictions what's a conviction it's an activated revelation and as most of the church don't live by convictions we go okay it's another year as I'm saying we hope it's going to be different you're still with me on the other campus good we can hear you from here it's fantastic and those in the lounge room that have gone for a coffee get back real quick we're here listen understanding revelation it's something now that you carry in your spirit it's being birthed and then you've got to activate that revelation somewhere somebody's going to get up and say this is the word of the Lord your time is now bones live somebody say him into that I mean here's a revelation I just got recently how many no Romans 10 17 faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of God this is what I've always been taught faith comes my hearing the word of God that's not what it says what does it say faith comes by hearing this is literally what it means hearing comes by the word of God so as I read the Bible I'm reading I'm hearing the word the more I read the word the more I get attuned to the language when I went to Holland the birthplace of my parents when I was 19 I didn't understand Dutch the longer I sat in front of the news listening to what I didn't understand the more I got to understand it faith comes by hearing the more you take the word and hear the word the more you understand the language the more you get the revelation revelation brings faith hearing faith comes by hearing hearing by the word so as I soak myself in the word I get a revelation faith is based on revelation not just a generic belief wow see some of you aren't getting the breakthrough because you don't have faith on it yet you've just got an understanding it's got to become a revelation revelation pushes into conviction then we start doing what we have here see I can't backdo some of the things we're doing because they're a word in my spirit see even in New Zealand it's it's like we can't get the finances to do what we need to do in church so 17 years ago I knew that would be the case because we don't have a lot of wealthy people so I said God if we're going to have a church that's going to change a city influence a nation touch a world how will we do that God said you'll do it through business so now we've started all kinds of church businesses we've got the largest privately owned car park for Auckland Airport we've got two childcare centres we're working on other business in the end I think we might go for a warm up you say why because then we can get Americans to pay for the vision we have honestly whether that's the case or not we have been called to start businesses and people say well that could go wrong but God told us to do it so revelation in here so that's the way we're doing it and now people are getting to say people are beginning to say man you're making a lot of money of that I said nothing compared to what we will why because God's given us the revelation if you're not called to do it then it's not your revelation and it will only screw you up are you allowed to say that okay so what you've got to do to really are you getting something you've got to have a living inner revelation secondly you need a personal investment of seed you want to build your expectation start sowing the water see it's easy to sow somebody else's seed but when you start sowing what costs you there are pastors all over the nations that's so church seed and they wonder why they don't get financial breakthrough because you've got to sow personal seed to get your breakthrough as I said we're in a new season the new season doesn't guarantee change unless you put fresh seed into it so wherever you need the breakthrough you start putting the seed into it you say yeah but our marriage has lost its expectation because you're not putting seed into it yeah that's all right for you you married the right person that's why we're having a break on a birthday we'd be married for 26 years and it's getting better and people say you're lucky I say you don't see what happens behind the scenes because she commits herself I commit myself and we sow personal seed you know what's personal seed it costs you I thought marriage would be just all nice come on some of you aren't being really real with what you're going through just help me a little bit I'm Corinthian three I planted a pulse watered God gave the increase then we say verse 7 yeah so neither he who plants is anything or he who waters is anything but God who gives the increase no stop and read verse 8 the next verse now he who plants and he who waters are one and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor your life by the way is a reflection of the seed you've sown wow I've only got one shot so I thought I'd give it everything number three to increase your expectation there needs to be an understanding of seasons we don't teach this we think God's got one season see sometimes we want God to do what it's not the season for and then we say God why aren't you doing it God says you just got to understand the season now concerning the seasons brethren I would not have you ignorant Zeke please yes he's chapter three for everything there is a time and a season you can have the right thing but the wrong timing and you give up and you lose your expectation but you've got to see the seasons correctly by the way it goes on to say there is a time to plant there's a time to pluck up a lot of the church all we do is keep planting and we wonder why the new plantings don't take root because the old things that God has finished with are taking all the nutrients out of the soil so you got to clear the old that God's over and finished with to put the new ones in so they can thrive because they get choked by everything else we've got in the garden just in case oh that's another message and here's the final thing you know if we're going to enlarge our expectation let's have an active prophetic voice that's not for the pastors it is for them but it's not for the prophet to prophesy over you it's for you to begin to hear what God was saying to Ezekiel it's a new day it's a new season but you've got to enlarge your expectation you got to prophesy what you're believing is going to take place when Jesus stood and he was given the Bible and he opened the book at Isaiah in the synagogue what does he say he said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me and God is on me why is he on me to preach the gospel he sent me to heal the brokenhearted etc etc and then verse 19 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and I'm going to wrap up tonight because I want to speak to you hard I want to say you know what whatever you're being through whether the enemy is dominated whether things have happened that you never expected would happen no matter what you went through God is calling your spirit to rise up and begin to look at the dry bones and not get depressed but say it is the day for the greatest miracle to happen come on there's going to be a rattling like there's never been a rattling before and get the team to come and join me behind you got to understand that the devil who sought to destroy doesn't have the last say and don't you dare live in the place where you're just going to get by no you're called to be a provider of the things of God and begin to realize that to go to another level is going to cost you something more but God's there in the middle of that cost and if you've gone through a lost scented experience like my boy this last year if you can find God in the middle of that remember in the storm Jesus said peace then he said be still you've got to find your peace whatever you've gone through before the still comes and then God's going to take you and he's going to begin to say hey you begin to live by what's in your heart every one of us tonight God wants to put that in a revelation and if you've had a revelation in your heart and you've wondered where God is you just say I'm not going to let go of that I don't know when God's going to change New Zealand but I'll tell you what I'm going to give it everything I've got God's timing is his timing and we're raising up a generation so that when our time's up they're going to move into the same dream because they've got the revelation in their heart people come to our church they say how do you get your people so committed I said because they're not people that just believe God they've got a revelation of what we're there to do don't you give up on your revelation come on an inner revelation that's living a personal investment of seed an understanding of seasons and an active prophetic voice did you hear me you know get the keyboardist to play my mum only told me this when I was 21 she said son you know you're one of eight I said yeah I know because we didn't get much food growing up and I was number four before me were three girls so I had to wear dresses and I've had to go through a lot of healing about all of that sort of stuff he says when I was pregnant you know I'd had Yvonne Sonja and Diana I'm pregnant with number four she said back then they couldn't do scans they didn't know what was there but she says I remember she's a real godly woman laying my hands on my pregnant belly and I said God she used the old King James language she said God if this be a man child I'm going to devote him to the temple like Samuel and I think that's why ever since I was born I knew I was sold out just to serve God in the church I said to mum in the joke I said does that mean I changed from a girl to a boy at that stage or what does that mean she said no I mean I actually believe it was her prayer it was her prophetic cry that set the destiny of my life and tonight I'm saying to you no matter what you've gone through don't let your expectation level at your experience don't give up on what God's given you to do no matter what you've gone through you've got to release and prophesy to every bone because if you don't prophesy God's hands are tied to work in and through on your behalf you [BLANK_AUDIO]