Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to the Chroma Church podcast.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Well, this is wonderful. I really want us to prepare our hearts for what we're going to receive from Chris. Now, I believe he carries the word of God. He's my friend. I've sat in more meetings than I care to think about, of every type with him. I've sat in difficult business management team meetings. I've been in conferences. I've listened to him preach. I've been in the room where he's had difficult situations with staff and other stuff like that. I've been with him through that time, and I know him.
I know how seriously he takes carrying the word of God.
He doesn't take it lightly. But there are just a few things that, you know, when sue and I first got to Bethel in 2001, I think we began to learn quite quickly from him. And I just want to make sure that we're all on a similar page. You see, I believe what's about to happen is that Chris is going to drop some seeds around this place because the sower and the seed for me is often in my head, the prophetic. And the seed is a prophetic word. And I love the prophetic. My life, our lives have been led and guided by prophetic words. But I probably love prophetic culture more than prophetic words.
And I actually believe that one of the things that I'm believing from Chris is a fresh release of a prophetic culture for us, a fresh understanding of what it really means to walk in the prophetic.
When Chris very first trip, I believe I wasn't there at the time, but he made from weaverville, which is 50 miles to the west of Reading, California, where Bill and Chris and others came from. He traveled down to Reading and he was asking the Lord, you know, what do I bring to this house? And the Lord said, I want you to call out the gold, call out the greatness. Now, many of you probably know that, are aware of that, but I don't think we can emphasize it enough. The prophetic, especially New Testament prophetic, is to call out the greatness. Sue, my sue, she usually manages to drop a few things in to a conversation before I preach that are like, oh, I need to make sure that's in there. And last night she was having a conversation, and then she replayed it to me about saying, when, you know, when the prophet comes, sometimes people get nervous about standing up. They get nervous about standing up because they're afraid they might be exposed. New Testament prophetic isn't for exposing. It's for encouraging it's for calling out the greatness.
We must get that. It isn't for us to come in here and go, you know, I see this sin on your life. Every one of us who's got any sin in our lives is fully aware of our sin. We don't need anyone to tell us that. We need someone to say, there's a great and glorious future for you. God will turn your life around. You may think that you suck, that you're this, you're that, but God has another plan for you. And it's really important that we start there and we realize that as Chris ministers here, his whole life has been dedicated to calling out the greatness in people.
And we need that in this land. We've got too much of a culture of putting people down, of criticizing, of tearing others apart and, and disagreement. And I believe this is something that really needs to be released and refreshed amongst us. And so for me, that's a huge piece of the prophetic. It must be about encouraging, about calling us up to the next level of our walk with the Lord. And that, for me, is really important. I also remember, I could tell you, actually, virtually the chair I was sitting in the first time I ever heard Chris teach about going from paupers to princes. And he carries that message. Why do I think this is important for me to say this in preparation?
I'm not trying to repeat his message. I couldn't do that. I'm not sure what he's going to bring.
But when Chris ministers, there are words and then there's what's on the words. There's an anointing and there is an impartation, and if we're ready, we'll get it.
And I believe that there is something for us in this land, even beyond individuals, that we shift from pauper mindset to prince mindset.
We need that shift now. Many of us have had that journey, been on that journey, have read the books on sonship and father Heart and sat in the sozo chair or whatever. But I believe that there is another level for us to go to as believers in this land of shifting. He carries that. It's on him. He'll release it. He also carries, I believe, an anointing for breakthrough in the area of finances and wealth. He's a man who ended up being bankrupt owed. I don't think he ever bankrupted, but he ended up owing a load of money and the Lord miraculously enabled him to pay it off. And there will be people in here that you need that kind of Breakthrough in the area of money and wealth and finance. There's something on him for that. Does this make sense? See, what we need to do is to make sure that we position ourselves to receive this particular prophet in the name of the prophet. And I don't think I've ever done this before, but I knew that this is something I needed to do today just to prepare some ground. Because when the seed falls, what land, what ground would it fall in? Will it fall on the hard ground? And you know, by the time you get to the car park, the bird's taken that prophetic word away? Or will it fall amongst the weeds and get tangled amongst the lies of life? Or will it fall and hit the obstacles that you put in its way? Or will it land in the healthy soil?
And that's my heart, that's my hope.
And it's been so much a part of our experience, Susan, my experience of being in Bethel, the privilege of being in a prophetic culture, so that when the prophetic word lands, it takes root.
Because we don't want prophetic words if they don't take root.
I love the Peter where he let me go straight to it rather than butchering it. So we have the prophetic word made even more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. But know this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will. But men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
And so I just want to encourage you, just to check yourselves, you know, are you expecting to be called out to greatness? Whether it's corporately or individually, making sure that we've got healthy soil, we've created a healthy culture that we're really wanting to be princes and sons and daughters and princesses, not have a pauper mindset, not be looking to find things that might not be quite the way we want them to be, but being able to receive it all so that we can grow, you know, I was given a prophetic word in 2012, was early February. I've shared this in loads of places. It was a Sunday night. I was on the end of the road and an evangelist from the Jesus People Movement days gave me a prophetic word. He said, paul, you're preaching stadiums.
I mean, honestly, I don't think there's anyone else in the room that believed that word. And I don't think I did in many respects, that word was given to me that I would raise up young evangelists, that God would restore to me the reason why he brought me into the kingdom.
And about a week later, Bill came back from a trip and he said, oh, I watched the video. I saw that word. Isn't that amazing? And immediately he was like, it's going to happen. It was this culture. It was like it got rid of the doubts and the question marks. Three months later, Bill walked into the Sunday morning meeting. We used to have a 7 o'clock prayer meeting before church. And he said, oh, this week, Reinhard Bonnke called me. He wants to have a school of evangelists, and he wants me to send my 10 best young evangelists to his school. And Bill looked straight at me and he said, paul, because of that word, you're going. And in here I'm like, I'm not one of your 10, your best, your young, or your evangelist.
But he's sending me.
You see, we can so easily reject if we've got. If what's going on inside rejects it. So, number one, I just want to encourage you to position yourself now and to receive so that the seeds that are released, whether they're for us as individuals, whether they're corporately for the church or what I believe for this land, that we receive them and that we nourish them. Because honestly, for me, to be sent to Reinhardt Bonnke school was crazy. I mean, I sat in a room with 99 evangelists and me. That was really what it felt like.
But it was a school that changed my life and probably changed the course of my life and one or two other people's, to be honest.
So let's get ready. Let's get ready to receive and to receive a prophet in the name of the prophet so that we get the privilege of growing. Obviously, sue and I have a very close relationship with Chris and we love him very dearly.
Another thing that I just want to talk a little bit about, and I talked to the leaders about it yesterday, and I'll touch on it in a couple of different ways, is that one of the things that Chris is carrying is about a righteous reformation. How many of you have heard any of Chris's messages about that recently?
Okay, now, Juliet was talking about boldness, and I've definitely stepped into something around this subject, and I'm going to just try and unpack something. You see, I really do believe it's revival time.
I really do believe it's reformation time. I really do believe it's renaissance time. I really do believe it's restoration of Judeo Christian government time. But the problem can come is that while we believe that we might not know what it looks like and we might not know what's being asked of us to step into that.
And I believe that what's the theme that really is emerging? And it's not just Chris.
There's many people touching on this, But I believe that we are on the edge of an era of a reformation of righteousness, and we need it, and we just need to make sure that we are positioned for that.
Sue and I happened to be in America for the presidential election in November, and we were there. And, you know, we're Brits in America who, you know, who lived there for 15 years. And we had many times conversations about if we become citizens, who will we vote for? And obviously, especially the last three elections with Donald Trump running.
And so we were there with Donald Trump winning. And then the Sunday after that, Chris preached a message about a righteous reformation. I'm not going to touch on that in any detail because I expect him to share something, but I feel like I need the help with some preparation, and I hope that doesn't sound patronizing, but I feel like I need to. You see, I love this Psalm, Psalm 89, 14. Let me go there because I have a really bad habit of butchering verses. I think a lot of preachers do. In all honesty, I try and go back to the original and read it properly. Psalm 89, 14. Read, Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loving kindness and truth go before you. If there are four words we need in our world today, it's those four words.
Righteousness, justice, loving kindness and truth. Because I see the opposite of that in lots of places.
And I came back from that trip to Bethel. I'll say a couple of other things in a moment, but I came back from that trip to Bethel with something inside of me about righteousness that I couldn't let go of. And I knew that the first time that I preached after that trip, I had to preach on righteousness, and I had to step into something because I could feel it on me.
And here's what I believe. For us in this country, we have an opportunity.
I believe we have an opportunity to gain courage from what's happened in America. And I'll unpack a couple of things in a minute just to try and make sense.
But I believe we have an opportunity to take courage for a stand for righteousness, not because of people, but because righteousness is the way we Must go.
You've gone very quiet on me.
Let me just say maybe you don't know what righteousness is. Maybe I need to unpack that a little bit. See, one of the problems with righteousness is many of us were raised in churches where we thought righteousness was a set of rules to live by. And justice was what happened when you broke the rules. Anyone go to that church?
See, righteousness is to be in right standing with God.
It is to be in alignment with heaven, with heaven's principles, with heaven's values. And justice is everything. You need to accept the invitation because you were justified by Jesus on the cross.
Any of you right now that are using a computer or an iPad, you are justifying the text.
It was an engineering term.
Justification is an engineering term.
The justification that you're using, you know what I'm talking about, don't you? Left justify, right justify, centre justify. Most of us left justify the text, we line it up with the left hand side of the page. The artists and poets, they center justify because it looks pretty and a few weird people write justify. But what you're doing is you are aligning your text with the original standard of the page. That's what happens when we're justified. We are aligned with the original standard. That's why justice and righteousness are the foundation of his throne. Because we need to be realigned with the standards and the principles of heaven.
And we are given, as it were, the key to be righteous by Jesus on the cross who justifies us.
So justice and righteousness are really, really important. I mean, a few verses around it. One of my favorite verses on righteousness is job 3:16.
Job's worth quoting a few times at least.
My two favorite verses in Job are, I know that my redeemer lives. I mean, even he knew that his redeemer lived. And this 1, Job 3:16.
When the helpless find hope.
When the helpless find hope, unrighteousness must shut its mouth.
That's a good verse to teach your kids in Sunday school because they can legitimately say, shut your mouth.
When the helpless find hope, unrighteousness must shut its mouth. You see, we have a society where many people have been left helpless by the unrighteousness of our world.
And when we release hope to them, unrighteousness is silence, which means the voice of righteousness is able to speak.
And righteousness, Proverbs 11:10, it causes the city to rejoice.
And we also know that righteousness exalts a nation.
We need righteousness. Is everyone okay with that.
So what am I observing that I feel as though we can take courage from?
I think there's a little bit of understanding that it's helpful for us to do, as Brits, in observing America, because I think we can sometimes make assumptions of what happens in America based on our experience of politics here. And they are very different.
Very different. Now, I'm no expert on this, and if there's an American here, I'm probably going to butcher something. But there's a couple of things that I become very aware of in recent months.
See, it's very easy for us to pick up from the media in this country, opposition to somebody like President Trump.
And let me just say, to clarify, I'm not his greatest fan. I was with Cheon recently. It was very clear that he wasn't even convinced that President Trump had become a Christian.
And there isn't much evidence to suggest that. But.
And he is an unrighteous man, but he is carrying some righteous principles.
And one of the bad dangers is that we reject righteous principles because we reject a person or. Or the politics.
And what is often presented to us here takes a little bit of understanding. You see, for me, as I observed the last election, my observation is between Donald Trump, an unrighteous man, but fighting for some righteous principles, versus, initially, it was President Biden, who has a health secretary who is a man dressed as a woman called Rachel Levine.
For me, no brainer.
So why am I saying this? Because I believe that what's happened in america now, what Mr. Trump does about transgender, what he does about abortions, what he does about prayer in schools, what he does about what children are taught in schools, I don't know what he's going to do. And that's not our issue.
But I think our issue is to look at our world and say, are there some places where we can gain courage for righteousness? You see, one of the reasons why he's doing what he's doing is he doesn't care what people think.
The trouble is, as Christians, too many of us have ended up caring what people think too much.
There's a verse in Kings I've just discovered. It was hidden from me. But it's an intriguing verse.
It says, 2 Kings 17, 7, 8.
This is the phrase. They had walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out.
We have found ourselves walking in the customs of. Of the nations, as it were, that the Lord has driven out. We've embraced. Juliet was saying it in a different way. We have embraced unrighteousness. We have tolerated the intolerable.
Now, please don't misunderstand me. I am not Mr. Trump's biggest fan. There are some other names on the world stage right now that are saying and doing some things that I don't particularly like. But what I'm beginning to look at is, is there a principle that they're fighting for? Is there something that I should be paying attention to? And some of. I believe what Chris is going to bring will come with that in the background and it's worth us just understanding where that comes from so that we don't put a, you know, a boulder in the way, as it were, of a prophetic word, because we are judging based on a person or politics and missing something. See, there are some things we need to fight for in our world, some principles of righteousness we need to fight for in our world. There is some insanity that has gone on in our world in recent years and the trouble is that the pace of change has become so fast that we can't afford to just go, well, let's not worry about it for a couple of years, let's see how it pans out. No, we've ended up with some insanity in our world. Who would have thought that we would see some of the things that we see.
See when, when the poll, when the Christians in America are encouraging their people to go to the polls, we can easily see it as, oh, it's just there they're telling, make sure you vote for either Biden or Trump. And that's the only thing in our thinking, because when we went to the polls, there were a few boxes on a page and you put an X in one name, that's all you've got to do.
You weren't voting for anything else in America in LA and the election in November, the polling sheet was a double page spread virtually the size of a Telegraph newspaper.
Because they are going to vote on other issues. So they are voting on things like propositions.
Propositions, many of which are to do with moral issues and many of which are to do with things that if they're passed, will be enacted the next day. For instance, LA had a proposition that it was legal for 14 year olds to have sex, which means that a 14 year old boy, it can be made legal for them to have sex with a 46 year old man who happened to be the age of the man who proposed that proposition. That's why there is a greater emphasis on encouraging people get out and vote, because their vote is actually, my phrase, an X in a box for Righteousness, and we haven't had that opportunity in this country. When was the last time you had an opportunity to put an X in a box for righteousness?
I doubt. I doubt it exists.
So I came back with a real renewed sense that this was right, that a direction of believing for a righteous reformation is something that I am positioning myself for. And I believe that there is going to be a release and an impartation from Chris. But the reason I'm preparing is. I mean, it's not about the people.
You see, I believe there are some people that are shaking things. I'm not the greatest fan of Elon Musk, let me just put it that way.
But he's done something for free speech. Now, whether he's done it right, whether he's done it the way it should have been done, but why does it matter? It matters because we must protect free speech in our land because otherwise we won't be able to preach the gospel.
It's important. Does it matter whether Elon Musk believes or not? It's like, no, that is a righteous principle.
And I was drawn when I. When I started developing, actually, it was an almost immediate thought. And I came home and I put a movie on called the Lincoln Lawyer. How many of you have watched that?
Not the TV series, but the movie. It's a great movie.
The move is basically about this. Would you rather imprison an innocent man or release a guilty man? As a lawyer, it's a great question.
But where I was was, see, Donald Trump's an unrighteous man. There's not a debate about that. Okay? But there are some things that he. Now, I'm not going to agree with everything. You understand where I'm coming from, don't you?
But if we can actually get the meat out of this, get rid of the bones, we can see that there are some things that he will stand for to do with moral issues.
And I believe we can gain courage from that in our land, to stand for some things where we need some courage.
Now, he's an unrighteous man carrying righteous principles.
Does that make sense versus to be honest, we have had a very significant person in this country in a position of great leadership for the last decade or so, who everyone would call a righteous man. But he's presided over unrighteous things happening in the church.
That's all I need to say on it. See, which do you want? Do you want a righteous man who allows unrighteousness or an unrighteous man who pursues righteousness?
What I believe We've got to do is we've got to find, as it were, the ways of heaven.
Our problem is not what Mr. Trump does.
That's not our issue. What he does about those issues. I'm not even saying what I think he should do or what we should do. But what I do believe we can do is we can gain courage for righteousness in this season because our world is changing at such a pace that we need to find the courage to stand up and to stand for things that matter.
Something that really polarized this for me was that sue and I were at the dedication of a little baby girl, our spiritual kids 4th child. And I was doing the preach the message and in preparing for it I said to the Lord, what do I give this little girl?
And the only thing that other than we gave presents that we bore. But I knew there was something I needed to personally give from my heart.
And I looked her in the eye at however months old she is.
And I said, this is my gift to you. My gift to you is that I will commit the rest of my life for you to grow up in a more righteous world.
Which means that every time I see her, I'm going to be reminded. Did you, Paul?
Did you? So I believe that we have an opportunity and I want to just encourage you because I think it's very easy in our world, especially our social media driven world, our fake news driven world, it's so easy for us to have perceptions and to miss the real meat.
We have an opportunity. We have an opportunity. And I do believe in the next four years, I believe we have an opportunity to stand for righteousness because there are people who don't know God who are shaking things in our world. And the church has been too quiet and it's time for us because these are our truths, these are our issues. I said last night, holding a plumb line in my hand, see we have, we've walked in the customs of the nations and one of the most important things that we can do in the coming years is, is to re establish an understanding of truth.
The great Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, when he came out of prison and received the Nobel Prize for Literature, gave one of, in my opinion, one of the greatest speeches of all time.
And in that speech he talked about the Greek triad, talked about the Greek triad of beauty, truth and goodness. And he said, if there are three trees and those three trees, their branches are tangled and goodness and truth are cut down and beauty falls with them. Maybe beauty will one day rise again and take goodness and truth with it. What was he trying to say? He was saying there's coming a day when people won't know what moral goodness looks like, and that's our day. He was saying there's coming a day when we won't know what rational truth looks like, and that's our day. But what he said was, maybe beauty would rise again.
Which is why, for me, I believe there's such an emphasis coming on the arts and on beauty and on creativity and the creatives being able to carry the messages of truth and goodness.
That's our world.
And so I want to just encourage you as you listen, because it's very easy for us to get offended. I've been offended quite a few times over politics and over people. It's very easy for us to do that. But I want to encourage you if you can drill through and find the kingdom principles, because I do believe that Chris, when he talked at the beginning of 24 about a new era and the end of 24, he defined the era. I believe he is giving us something in this land.
I also want to say slightly, when I was sitting this morning, I got an impression that some of you are carrying prophetic words.
I believe that some of them might be for nations. And I have a feeling you have one Juliet that you've been given in some way.
I haven't checked that with you. Does that resonate? Anyone feel like you've been given prophetic words for this nation?
You actually carry them? No. None of you. Ah, that's better. I know it's the afternoon slot, but, you know, it's like, yeah, all right.
I felt like if that's you, I just had that. I don't know how many of you remember when Randy Clark talked, was at Toronto the day before he went to Toronto in 1994. God said to him something along the lines of, this is it, this is now.
Those words that you've been carrying, this is now, this is now.
And I'd encourage you, any of you that have prophetic words about our nation, go back and take it out. I rattled through my photos this morning because I knew I had one that I had to find that was given to us before we left the US And I read it and it was like, there's something about this moment that we can really begin to pray into and believe into. Because the moment that you've been waiting for, this is now.
See, one of the other things that I think we can get from America and we've been so blessed in this country, you know, Some of you go back further than me in terms of knowing the men and women of God that came over to this country. But the number that have come over here and have poured into our lives and ministered into our lives from the States, you know, obviously people like John and Carol Arnott, John and Carol Wimber, Bill and family, but many others other than that have poured into this land.
I think one of the things that it's really important for us to get hold of at this moment in time is that one of the keys to increase is to be part of something bigger than yourself.
And one of the things that America always gives me is you're a part of something bigger.
And one of our challenges is we tend to reduce the size of what we're believing for.
This is not time for us to reduce what we're believing for. This is not time for us to go, oh, it's just me. God couldn't possibly do that with me.
It's time for us to start believing bigger. It's time for us, when we hear the word revival, not to go, oh well, don't think that'll happen in our time. No, it's time for us to believe it. To believe every one of us can take our place on the pages of history.
Every one of us, whoever we are, whatever we do. So I want to encourage you, think bigger because if you're anything like me, you know, you get always like, ah, well, I see what I can do with that. It's like, whereas I say I get, get around, I need one zoom with the senior team at Bethel and it's like it's dripping with the things that they're believing for, dreaming of investing in, going after.
See, one of the keys of this moment is not to dismiss words about revival, reformation and renaissance coming to our land because it's our time, it's Europe's time, it really is. I want to encourage you, get any small thinking out of the way. I've got a strange scenario coming up, won't go into details, but the first time in my life I'm going to have a coach. I'm pretty sure that that coach is going to be smashing some of my small minded thinking. I'm fairly confident of it.
In fact, I'm preparing myself for the whacking.
We need to start thinking bigger to believing that we're part of something bigger. The history of our land and our continent. I always say, you know, United Kingdom, British Isles, European, little bit of North Africa, little bit of the Middle East. Without that, the rest of the world did not get revival, reformation, renaissance. It didn't get the gospel. It didn't get the principles of Judeo Christian government. And it's our time.
I mean, it hasn't happened yet in football, but I do believe it's coming home.
I do. I believe it's coming home. And I'm not talking about a cup. I'm talking about what we gave to the rest of the world. It's coming home. It's coming back to our land. You know, we went to America and I heard Americans celebrating our heroes in this land more than we ever have. I learned more about Wigglesworth in Redding, California than I ever did here.
It's coming home. It's ours. But finally, what I want to encourage you, and it's linked to my book, not to sell it as such, but the message is linked to it, and that is this.
I want to encourage every one of you to position yourself for an encounter this weekend.
Position yourself for an encounter.
And you know, when I think about encounters, I think, to be honest, I think sometimes we presented encounters from stages that make them sound like they have to be up there and out there. They have to be so weird, so miraculous, so supernatural that only certain classes of Christians can have them.
And yet our Bible is a holy library of encounters of ordinary men and women who had encounters with an extraordinary God. And because of that encounter, they became the history makers and world changers that fill that book.
And what every one of us needs to start to believe is that if we could have a fresh encounter, a fresh touch from God, that we could step forward and take our place, as it were, in the continual holy library of encounter stories.
And don't limit encounters.
See, there are so many different ways that we can have encounters. That's what I tried to write about.
We have encounters in the Word of God.
They're probably my favorite.
I honestly can say, I would say 99 times out of 100, when I open my Bible, I am aware that I'm about to have an encounter.
And even the word itself, it's a word that kind of draws us into thinking, oh, it has to be big. The problem is when we're constantly thinking that the encounter has to be in some way dramatic, we miss those moments. The one word that jumps off the page from the Bible and we know, oh, that's for me, right now, today.
You see, encounters are meant to change you.
We lived in Reading, California. If you go for a walk down the river trail, you might meet an animal that can kill you.
That doesn't happen in Leicester.
There is no animal in this country that can kill you.
I mean, there are a few dogs, which is a bit worrying, but let's not go there. But you see, if I meet a mountain lion on the river trail in Reading, it will change the way I walk.
And I probably won't walk that trail alone again.
And if I'm a good American, I'll start packing a gun.
That's what's meant to happen when you have an encounter with the living God. It's meant to change the way you walk.
It means you never travel alone again because you have the Holy Spirit. And it means you spend the rest of your life packing power, supernatural power. Power.
We need encounters that change the way we walk and change the way we live. That's why Paul is so stunning for me that I dug into that. Those moments on the road to Damascus, that stunning moment when the least qualified man of all has an encounter, a power encounter, a suddenly encounter, a dramatic encounter, an emotional encounter, a blinding encounter, an encouraging encounter, a warning encounter, a prophetic encounter. And I could go on. He had an encounter and it changed him.
His zeal was repurposed, his ministry was birthed. His theology was completed.
The letters that he was carrying to condemn were rewritten to bless.
He had an encounter and it changed everything.
I am hoping that we can position ourselves this weekend for fresh encounters, encounters in the word. Prophetic words are encounters too. A prophetic word is an encounter with a God who knows your future, who whispers from the future into the ear of a prophet today and says, let him know what he looks like.
It's an encounter.
The still small voice of God encounters where he whispers to you.
I had three over a 36 year period of my life. And one day I wrote them all down on the same page and I realized they were all related. And I'd never seen it. He'd been speaking the Same subject for 36 years in still small voice of God moments in my life, of course, some have dramatic moments, angelic encounters, angelic visitations. Some have theophanies, Christophanes.
Some have encounters through other people.
Person who walks into your life at exactly the right moment, exactly the right time and says something, you know, oh, you were sent from God.
What I believe we need to do is to become more hungry and more conscious and more aware and then make sure we don't waste our encounters.
Because the men and women who populate the pages of that book did not waste their encounters. Some of them, their encounters were just for a few Verses and we never read of them again. But they changed history.
Like Ananias. There's no Paul without Ananias who got the boldness.
Because that's got to be scary, hasn't it? Ananias, would you go a few streets down the road and have a chat with the guy that was coming to kill you?
But he did it. He was obedient. But that's all we got. There's three Ananias's in the Bible. But that Ananias, a very short moment on the stage.
I'm not suggesting your moment is short, but it might be that your impact is condensed into a very short period of time in somebody's life.
I believe that there is a release of encounters this weekend.
Encounters as we connect with each other, encounters as we worship, encounters as we receive prayer, encounters as we lie in bed and have a dream.
And I believe that God wants to release fresh encounters. I don't believe he's ever stopped. The problem is, have we been hungry? Have we been aware? Have we taken account of the encounters we've had? Have we made sure that we have not wasted those encounters?
One of my favorites in history is a great contrast because I guarantee you this, many of us go to churches where people have told us, be afraid of the. Be careful about the emotional, brother. Be careful with the emotional. Don't let yourself get carried away emotionally. Well, that's strange because there's a plaque on a wall in London that says in this place, on this date, Wesley's heart was strangely warmed.
That sounds emotional to me.
But it caused a revival which led to a reformation. And it began by his heart being strangely warmed. You see, let's not dismiss these moments that we have with God.
Come here over this weekend, hungry, hungry for encounters, believing that the God of all creation wants to touch you, speak to you, prod you, prompt you, encourage you.
And maybe you'll be the one that's heart is strangely warmed. And in a hundred years time there'll be a plaque on the wall that says, in this place there is no Christian faith without encounters. There's none because salvation is your first for most encounter. A few have one before Samuel in the Bible, just to give you a biblical example. So you don't think I'm weird? I mean, you can think I'm weird apart from that. But there is no Christian life without encounters.
What Steve and Juliet are leading here in this family of seeing 500 people walk up this.
500 people have walked to this front in the last 12 months. And given their lives to Jesus.
Their encounters. They're having an encounter with Jesus the Savior, being filled with the Holy Spirit, coming into a relationship with the goodness of God, our Father in Heaven. Our faith is an encounter faith. Let's not put it on a shelf. Let's not leave encounters for a certain group of people. Let's become hungry for them. Whether it's one word in the Bible I had a word a few years ago. I actually interpreted it wrongly the first time around. It was the name of a person, but I knew that God was speaking to me through one word.
The name was Benaiah, which is a bit weird, isn't it?
He wasn't one of the three, but he was one of the 30.
I've recently found myself doing what I'm beginning to call transition coaching, which is helping churches with the transition from one leader to the next leader. And I realized that Benaiah helped to put Solomon on the throne.
He wasn't one of David's three, but he ends up putting Solomon on the throne. And it was a prophetic word for me to prepare myself for understanding how to transition from David to Solomon, to find out the next person. One word. I'm not saying it. I'm just saying it can be simple.
Really simple. But we worship a God who speaks.
We have a God who is alive. And I believe that in these next two days he is going to begin to release fresh encounters for us.
Because we need those. We need them for revival, we need them for reformation. We need boldness. We need courage for where we're going.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to the Cromer Charge Podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship and how to donate, visit our website at Cromer Church.
