[MUSIC] This is the Kingdom Encounter Podcast with Glenn Blakeney. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] So let's just, I want to read two verses from the book of Exodus, chapter 25, verses 8 and 9. And just want to share some things the Lord has been speaking to me about the season that we're in. And you know, a lot of what God is doing, sometimes we say, behold, Isaiah 43, the Lord does the new thing. Sorry, sorry, let me say it, Isaiah, there we go. Isaiah 43, and you guys speak the real English, I know. But, so Isaiah 43, behold, they do a new thing, right? And we always talk about that. But do you know that the Lord wants to bring us back sometimes to the ancient pathways? Jeremiah 6, 16 talks about that. There are ancient pathways, there are foundational things that we have to go back and we have to build upon the right foundations. So everything we know in the Old Testament, of course, was really a type and a shadow. The body or the fulfillment of it is in Christ Jesus. So here, the Lord speaks to Moses. Moses had been hanging out with God for 40 days and 40 nights on Mount Sinai. And often when we think about that occasion, what immediately comes to mind is how the Lord gave him the Ten Commandments. But do you know that there's just really a small portion of the Book of Exodus that is devoted to the Ten Commandments, it's in chapter 20. But then when you continue to read the rest of the Book of Exodus, there is so much that is devoted toward what we're just going to look at. And that is God gave Moses a set of blueprints. God gave Moses a set of blueprints to be able to build this thing called the sanctuary sanctuary. You say, how do you say it in Australia, in British English? We say sanctuary, it's like got an extra syllable in there, but let's read it, okay? And let them, God says, make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it. Wow, there's so much in here. But God is saying, look, Moses, I'm going to give you a set of blueprints so that the children of Israel will build me a sanctuary later. It would become known as the tabernacle, it was with them in the wilderness, of course. But God says that I may dwell among them. Now, when we think about the book of Exodus and the Old Testament, the law, you know, we kind of, the law kind of gets a bum wrap, really. The point is, God was always looking for people that would be obedient to Him, would honor Him. But ultimately His desire is that we do this out of intimacy and relationship with Him. Jesus said, if you love me, you keep my commandments. So we love God, we have this intimate relationship. I mean, think about it in a marriage. I mean, if the only thing that is preventing a husband or a wife from committing adultery is fear, fear that they'll lose their ministry, fear that they'll be exposed, fear that they'll lose half of their assets, then obviously that is not a good motive. But there has to be a sense that I am so in love, I'm so committed that, you know what, how can I sin against God and do what is evil in His sight, like Joseph said? So there's a place where we live out our relationship with God out of true love and compassion, and it's really not an issue. I mean, it's like, what? How could I do that, like Joseph said? As if that's going to happen, that's not going to take place because I am so committed to the Lord, so I love God because He first loved me, 1 John 4 19, and therefore what I do is I do those things that are pleasing in His sight, and that is not legalism, that is love, and we have to get back to that place. All right, God says, "Moses, tell them to build me a sanctuary." Now, interestingly, He says, "I want to dwell in your midst. I've always wanted to be with my people. I've always wanted to spend time with my people. I've always wanted to have that relationship. I don't want you to worship me from afar. I want you to be intimate with me, and I want that for all of my children." Of course, that became a reality in the new covenant when Jesus died rose again. The Spirit of God lives in each one of us now. The veil was torn from the top to the bottom. We have access into the holy of holies where we can worship face to face with God up front and intimate with Him. That is what He did through the cross, but understand that Jesus has always wanted to have a relationship with you and with me. It's always been His desire that we have this intimate relationship with Him, that we hear His voice, that we know His will, that we sense His presence, that we feel His heartbeat, that we know that He is with us and we are close with Him and we even know His thoughts. You know, I wrote a book recently, just a short little book. It's called Three Ways to Know That God Is Moving You in a New Direction. It's a great little book. It came out of my experience when this happens and that door closes and the brook drives up and people that you were walking with kind of seemingly lose interest with you. Often what is seemingly men's rejection is God's redirection. That happens in our life. I believe that, but recently I was doing a prophetic webinar online and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and He said, "There is a better way. There is a better way rather than just signs." And this is what the Lord said to me. I say this respectfully, He said, "Only people that are hard of hearing need sign language." So do I have to keep slamming doors in your face? Do I have to keep drying things up? Can I just tell you, this is the way, walkie in it? Can I just say to you, "Hey, here's what I want you to do." Read the book of Acts, right? The Holy Spirit speaks to Philip. Go here. Go then do this. Go and do that and they obey and they listen. Guys, He wants to bring His church to that place where He knows exactly what He's saying to us with clarity, but it comes out of intimacy. He says, "So I want to bring my church to that place. Let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them, that I may dwell in their midst." Of course, the word "sanctuary" comes from the Hebrew word "kadesh." In Ezekiel, chapter 20, verse number 12, we're introduced to Jehovah-kadesh. And it literally means to be sanctified, to be set apart. And this particular word in the Hebrew language was never used casually, just like of some mundane venue or building, but it was always used in regards to a sacred place, a place of worship. So as God says specifically, "Let them build me a sanctuary." Let me just put it this way, God won't dwell just anywhere. God needs a holy set-apart people that prepare themselves to become a sanctuary. And then He continues and He says this, "Build this according to the pattern of the tabernacle and all of its furnishings, just so you shall make it." In other words, build it according to the specifications of the blueprints and the pattern that I'm giving to you. Don't deviate, don't cut corners, do it exactly according to what I reveal to you. So in other words, we cannot worship God just any old way. We cannot approach God in the way that we think is best. We need to understand what God requires of us, and the Bible tells us that the children of Israel saw God's mighty acts, but Moses knew His ways. Many of us need to shift from just being spectators where we go to a conference, we see God move, we see the power of God minister to the place where we know His ways so we can begin to release this power, we can begin to walk under the favor and the anointing of God and see His blessing and His glory released on the earth through us. God is serious, y'all. He's serious. He's saying all that stuff, people building it whatever way they want, whatever way they think is best, I'm done with it. It's over. We're going back to the Bible. We're going back to the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ Himself, the chief cornerstone, and we're going to build according to the pattern, Hallelujah. The church is God's plan to reach the world. He does not have a plan B. If we stuff it up, it's just not going to happen. So God will always have a remnant, we know that, but ultimately He's placed and given us this responsibility to make sure we do things according to the way that He desires that it be done. God wants to reveal His glory. God wants to manifest His power and His presence, and He does it through His people. Jesus had been praying, you know, that how He prayed in John's gospel and we call it the high priestly prayer, chapter 17, and He began praying for Himself, then He began to pray on His disciples at that time, and then all those who would ever believe in the Lord Jesus Christ through the success of generations. But one of the things He said in verse number three is this, this is eternal life. So He has said, what is eternal life? This is eternal life that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you sent. So eternal life is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ. The Greek word gynosco, gynosco means to know experientially. It's the Greek synonym for the Hebrew Yadda, and the idea is to know by experience. So example, after Jesus was born, we know that Joseph knew Mary and there were additional children. It's the Greek word gynosco. It speaks of intimacy, it speaks of knowing experientially and personally. This is eternal life. Jesus died not to give His pie in the sky and the sweet by and by, but now to bring us into relationship with the Father so that we would know Him and we would walk in that place, that zoe life that we can experience and walk in. Then in verse 22, He says this, Father, the glory that you've given me, I've given them that they may be one in us. I give you the glory that we might be one. Oh, I've written a book on this topic, and I want to tell you, just give you a quick summary here of what happened when we were created in the image and likeness of God. It's really saying that we were created in His glory, Isaiah 43, 7, each, everyone whom I've created for my glory. We're created for His glory, guys. We're created to receive His glory and to release His glory. In fact, the Hebrew speaks about that image and likeness in the Hebrew literally speaks about reflecting that nature so that emanates from us, that we are on display. We're showcasing who He is. Look at it this way. Jesus says, "If you've seen me, you've seen," right? Paul writes in Colossians and Ephesians, and I'm summarizing his message, "If you've seen the church, you see Jesus." When you look at the church, you should see Jesus, Ephesians 123 in the Amplified Bible Classic Edition. If you're going to read the Amplified, make sure it's the Classic Edition, okay? Are you ready? The church is His body, the fullness of Him who feels all in all. Or in that body lives the full measure of Him who makes everything complete and who fills everything everywhere with Himself. Ephesians 319, Amplified Bible Classic Edition, that you, Paul's praying for the church, may be filled through all your being unto all the fullness of God, that you may have the richest measure of the divine presence and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself, wholly filled and flooded with God Himself. Guys, come on. Come on now, we walk into a room, the glory of God goes with us. We walk into a room, guys. Our shadow heals the sick, true story, Acts chapter 5. There's handkerchiefs in aprons placed on Paul, taken to the sick, the demonized, demons come out, everyone is healed. This is what the Bible says in Psalm chapter 8 verse number 5, it says that we were created a little lower than, actually it's the word Elohim. Some translations say, translated literally God. We are created a little lower than God and we were crowned with glory and honor. The Hebrew word translated crowned means encompassed and circled. For example, when Saul was chasing David in the wilderness and he had him hemmed in, it's the same Hebrew word, he had encircled him, he had encompassed him, and the idea guys is this, figuratively it speaks of garments. It speaks of garments, so we were clothed with garments. Think about this, glory garments. So Adam and Eve mess up, they disobey God, and immediately they become conscious, they become acutely aware of their nakedness and they try to hide themselves, they try to cover up. Why? Because Romans says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory, so they were stripped of their glory garments. They lost the glory, and by the way the authority is in the glory. The hills melt like wax at the presence of the Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ, whom Paul bridges, which are you come out of the man, Paul we know and Jesus we know, but who the flip are you? Like guys, it's not the words that we speak. You can confess stuff, but if there's no authority, if you're not saturated and soaked and marinated in full of the glory, you have no power, you have no authority, and Satan laughs. Modern day Christianity has worked hard at growing churches. We've been taught how to scale attendance barriers, build leadership teams, implement vision, develop strategies to reach and integrate people in the life of the local church. In many places today, the metrics that measure or determine whether a church is successful are the three B's, bodies, buildings, and budgets, America's notorious for it. Go to a conference, how many people are you running on the weekend? Well, we've only got 200 people. Oh, you're a loser. You know, you see, COVID smashed that, didn't it? Now all of a sudden everybody's a loser. Well, I have, without saying names, I know certain people who literally repented publicly because they said, I wouldn't go and preach here, I wouldn't go preach there unless the attendance was this, unless the offering was this amount, and God showed me that I was so proud, so arrogant, and God's dealt with my heart, and I want to publicly repent from all of this stuff. Come on, guys, God is working in his church. God gives grace to the humble, but he resists the proud. Oh, hallelujah, I thank God for what he's doing. So I want you to understand something though, Jesus, he made it his priority to raise up a people full of the Spirit who would release his power and glory wherever they went. This is the way, think about it, Jesus didn't have a Bible college. He didn't even have a synagogue in his name, I mean, honestly. He didn't have any of these things, and he restricted himself to a very small territory. If you look at the map in the United States, it's kind of like looking New Jersey or Connecticut, that's kind of the size of Palestine in that time, Israel. And so Jesus, his purpose is pouring into and raising up a people. And modern day Christianity, in many places, focuses on filling church buildings with people. The gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached emphasizes filling people with the fullness of God. That's why, because he wants the earth to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Guys, you think filling up a building is a milestone? How many people in Melbourne still need Jesus Christ? It doesn't matter, listen, we have a calling to see the glory of God come into our cities, into our nations, and it's time that we shift into that place where we recognize that what we need to do is begin to focus on seeing people come into true intimacy with the Father, lies consecrated, delivered, set free so they can go forth in the power of the Holy Spirit, raising the dead, casting out demons, prophesying, and declaring the kingdom has come, not only in word, but in power. I love the new normal. Oh, I know what God say in the new normal is, glory, presence, miracles, lives, yielded and transformed, guys, that there is such a huge shift in changing of the guard. God is raising up men and women who have David's heart, who hunger and thirst after him. Ben said their lovers first of Jesus so good. That's what it's all about. Coming back to that place where we love him, we worship him. Guys, I'd be happy not to preach today, but I'm telling you, man, after what God was doing, I was like, oh, Lord, such a joy, such a pleasure, such a privilege. You know, the apostles in the book of Acts, Acts 17, verse 6 were rightly accused of turning the whole world upside down, turning the whole world upside down. So what was it that caused people to, in that day, take notice of them? Well, look at Acts 4, verse 13. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. In other words, it wasn't their education, it wasn't their eloquence, it wasn't their expertise, but it was their association. It was the fact that they had spent time with Jesus. They were kind of a chip off the old block. It's like, man, it's like deja vu, who are these guys? You know what I'm saying? They remind me of Jesus. They talk like Jesus. They do the same things Jesus did when he was on the earth, and it's because we spend time with Jesus. We spend time with Jesus, and out of that we have boldness, out of that we have authority, out of that we have anointing, and we carry his presence, and we host the glory of God. You know, the secret of revival is very simple. Revival will occur in any individual or people, a family, a church, even a nation that has learned to stay continuously connected, continuously connected to the presence of God's Spirit, and to be able to transition from one level of glory to the next, 2 Corinthians 3, 18. Transition from one level, man, we had some serious glory going on this weekend. Not saying transition to the next, transition to the next level. Go to the next level. I want you to experience more. Guys, until you walk into a room or somewhere, and demons start screaming until that happens, you're just not there yet. You just come on now. I mean, really, it's an amazing thing when we begin to walk in that level, wow, the abiding presence, make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among you, listen to this. Those who would be used by the Lord powerfully in this prophetic time where God is saying, I'm going to bring waves of my glory back to my people, back to my house. You're going to clean up. He's going to clean up. Let God refine you. Malachi 3 is very prophetic right now. God says, let me be that refiner of fire. But if you won't let God refine you, the rest of Malachi says, you're not going to be used. You may even be put aside in this season. And God is saying, this next thing I'm doing is all about my glory. No man is going to get the glory. Nobody's going to look and go, oh my gosh, they can preach. I was at a pastor's prayer gathering thing recently in Dallas, Texas, and there was a man that was introduced to us, and he began to tell us in his humility how God was using him so powerfully and how he has, I don't know, one million TikTok followers. And he preaches, and as a result of him having all these followers, he was actually contacted by Hollywood, and they want to make a reality TV show about his life. And I was listening to him, and I'm very, very sensitive to those kinds of things because I just feel like the Lord has given me his heart and when God gets nauseous and wants to throw up, so do I. So I said, excuse me for a minute, I'm going to go puke, I mean no. So being that this young man is younger than me, it was necessary and even incumbent upon me to have a fatherly talk with him. So I just went and had a chat with him afterwards and asked him about his ministry and what he was doing. And he was telling me again about how many people follow him and how he is a chorus, if you really want to learn to preach, you can take my course and all that kind of stuff. And I said, can you tell me when the last time you cast a demon out of someone was? And he looked at me, and I said, how about, have you ever seen someone heal the cancer that you've ministered to them, or you know, or sometimes a miracle happen like this? And I said, listen to me, it doesn't matter how good of a preacher you are. Everyone was talking about William Seymour, Pastor Corey was. He was not eloquent by any means. And guys, the Lord showed me this passage. It's so powerful and we know it. We're very, very familiar with it, but it's 1 Corinthians 2, 4 and 5. Here's what Paul said, Paul the trained rabbi, Paul who was schooled in Greek orator. Paul says this, okay, 1 Corinthians 2, 4 and 5, and my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom. But in demonstration of the spirit and of power, listen to this, verse number 5, listen, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. When someone looks at us and we walk off the stage and it's all about, whoa, you are so eloquent, you're so gifted, and there's no sense in which people encounter the presence and the anointing of God, then what has happened is we are subtly promoting a form of idolatry. Ministry void of the anointing fails to place the focus on Christ and His power and draws attention to human ability. And when this happens, men unwittingly promote a subtle form of idolatry. Only the spirits anointing can ensure that people's faith is in the power of God and not in the wisdom of men. Guys, we got to get back to the power. And he says, well, look, listen, church growth movement, leadership movement, all of that stuff, guys, okay, we can learn some things, but ultimately, do you want to see your church growth? Do you want to say, listen, start ministering in the power of the spirit. Start Acts chapter 8, verse 6, and the people with one accord heated the things spoken by Philip hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. You will have a captive audience. If you demons are coming out of people, crippled are walking, people are being delivered and set free. Their lives are being transformed from the inside out, not just the external things. But you will have an amazing ministry. I remember I was in Nigeria a few years ago, we went into a war zone in Nigeria and I was flying from Toronto, Canada to Lagos and when I was on the plane, I met a businessman and the businessman who's a Nigerian said to me, where are you going in Nigeria? And I told them, well, I'm going to this place outside of Worry and it's on the Niger Delta in Delta State. If you guys know anything about that, it was literally they're taking people hostage. And this man, this Nigerian man, looks at me and he goes, you are very brave, sir. I said, I am very stupid, sir. Like I had no idea how bad this was. We went there, we preached the gospel, 50,000 people showed up, 50,000 people showed up, so many miracles happened, so many people were set free. It was powerful and I want to tell you when at the end of the crusade the police do not go there. It's so dangerous. The army asked if they could come in and the pastor said, don't come in, no, the people don't trust you, stay away. And so we had literally no security. Well we had an 80 year old woman with a stick. They had like some tape set up and if the little kids would cross that, she'd hit them. Don't mess with her. But that was the extent of our security provision. But guys, we saw God move so powerfully. The end of the three or four nights of this crusade, they came to me and they said, Pastor Glenn, you've just made history. I said, what? They said, you are the first in East Africa, it's Mizungu, white man, to preach the gospel here in over 100 years. And they told me the story that over a hundred years ago there was a Methodist missionary that went there. He preached, he tried to reach the people, they chased him out of there. He shook the dust off his feet, literally at the entrance of the village. And at that same place, that same entrance, there was a shrine to an idol, a god, a deity. And at that same place, that shrine is still there to this day. And we had our sign saying, we're doing a crusade, thousands of people came to Christ. God moved powerfully. But I want to tell you something, guys, what drew the people out was when they began to see the blind eyes open, when they began to see the crippled walk. I've seen this happen time after time, after time, not just in Africa, not just in Asia, not just in South America, or the Caribbean, or any of these other places, but I've seen it all the time wherever we go. And I want to pray for us today. I want to pray not just for miracles, we're going to pray for that. But I also want to minister to you that you would receive a fresh impartation, that you would go with a deep hunger. You would leave this place, guys, disgusted with the things of this world that you've been using to try to fill your void, the techniques, the methodologies, all the time you're wasting. Some of the books you've even been reading, get on your face, begin to cry out to God. Say, "God, raise me up. Let me see signs and wonders and miracles, God." You will see transformation. You will see your church grow. You will see lives really change. There is a call to consecration. There is a call to prepare yourself after this morning as a sanctuary, to prepare yourself. Kadesh, holy, dwelling place of God, I am Lord, preparing myself. I'm consecrating myself. I'm offering my body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to you. I'm going to seek you. I'm going to worship you. I'm going to say no to the things that grieve the Spirit, the Bible says in Acts 7, 51, they always resist the Holy Spirit. Do you resist the Holy Spirit? In Ephesians 4 talks about grieving the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 10, 29 doing despite unto the Spirit of grace. Then we read in 1 Thessalonians, "Quench not the Spirit." Guys, the Holy Spirit is the one, he's the paraclete, the paracletos. That word in Greek was used of the one who was kind of like a general who would go in front of the armies into the battle. He would lead the charge, he'd lead the way. He'd be with his troops, but he would go first. Holy Spirit wants to lead us. Holy Spirit wants us to follow him. We put him in a back room and told him he's naughty and that if we let him out, will you promise you won't mess up our church services, Holy Spirit? Contrary to popular opinion, in Revelation 3.20 where it says Jesus is standing at the door knocking, he is not addressing a sinner. He's speaking to the church at Laodicea, a church that was going through the motions, engaged in religious activity, but Jesus himself was not even permitted to attend their gathering. As in that day, so it is now, religion has become a cheap substitute for the very presence of Jesus. Come on, stand to your feet. God is calling the church in Australia back to a place of full surrender and dependence on the Holy Spirit. Back to a place preaching the blood, preaching the power of the cross, preaching there's no other name, there's no other name, no other name, there's no other way of salvation. Guys, he shed it, his blood, he suffered. For what? He'd be on the outside looking in, knocking, glorious condescension, please let me into my church. Guys, I want to come in, I can do so much, would you just let me in? I know Jesus were good, we got this, we know what we're doing, we've been to the latest leadership conference, the latest church growth seminar, yeah it's going to look messy. But there is such a call in this day to surrender, to go after the ghost, to seek his face, to call upon his name, to be intentional about ministering in signs and wonders. Some of you guys, you've come from nations where you knew the power of God and then you stepped in to the western culture and you've adapted to church that has a form of godliness but no power. And God is saying to all of us no matter where we are from in this world that we must go after the power again. We have the sentence of death in ourselves that we might not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. Been through so much and I'm like, why did I have to go through that? Why did I have to experience that? Why have I had to suffer so much? Why did you allow this to happen in my life? And that verse I just quoted, 2 Corinthians 1, 9, is the Lord's answer to me. You have the sentence of death in yourself that you might not trust in yourself but in a god who can raise the dead, a god that can raise the dead, oh hallelujah he can raise anything that's dead. Come on right now, if your vision is dead, if your marriage is dead, if your health is dead, if your finances are dead, if you have a son or a daughter that seems separated from God and they're lost dead and trespasses and sins, if you're at a place right now where you need to see resurrection power, I want you to just raise your hands, just begin to worship the Lord, come on just begin to ask your Holy Spirit, bring new life, Holy Spirit, breath of life, come, resurrection power, resurrection power, resurrection power, the new my God, the ruach of God, of resurrection power, drive bones, hear the word of the Lord, come alive, live, live, raise up a generation that will take your fire. Lord I thank You Father, I thank You Lord, I thank You Jesus for what You're doing in our lives Lord, I thank You Lord for what You're doing, Lord have Your way and I just release over You this morning a fresh impartation of this fire, a fresh listen to me, I'm telling You receive this fresh impartation, whatever You need, I was praying for a man in Africa and I began to pray for him and Minister Jimmy fell out under the power of the Holy Spirit, he got up later and he testified, he said, I felt fire, go through my whole body, a few weeks later the pastor contacted me and he said, do you remember that man? And I said, yes pastor, he said, that man didn't tell anyone, he didn't even tell me, he said, but that man was HIV positive and after you laid hands on him, he said, he felt like he was healed, no one knew he was sick but he felt this fire go through his body, he went to the doctors and he was assessed again and he went to another doctor and he was assessed again and he was no longer HIV positive, today, 12 years later he lives in London England, he is not sick, he is not HIV positive, I'm telling you God, you're his power, come on raise your hands, come on like a lightning rod right now, come on just begin to call on his name, Jesus, Lord raise up this generation Lord, raise up this generation even if you don't understand it, even if you've never experienced the power of God flowing in you and through you before, receive it in the day of Jesus right now, receive your miracle in the day of Jesus.
