Powerful Revelations Part 1: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 We’re studying the book of Revelation, and, uh, this morning we’re going to look at the powerful revelations of Jesus Christ. Last week we talked about the revelation of the church. There’s more to come. I got emails and input from people saying how great that message was, because God’s word is great, amen, and we need to know who we are. Well, this morning we’re going to see more about Jesus Christ. First we’re going to look at the revelation of the keeping power of Jesus Christ. Revelations 2:1, when he addressed all these churches, I skipped over it last week, because they were, every one of them began with a revelation of Jesus Christ when he spoke to the churches, and this morning we’re going to go back through that and pick up the revelation of Jesus Christ: “He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks in the midst of the golden lampstands.”

▶ 1:00 Remember, the seven stars are the seven messengers of the seven churches of Asia, a church leader. Now, a church leader must be in the hands, and not only church leaders, all of us must be in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, not in a denomination’s hands, not in a religious group, not our own opinions and our own ideas, not self-appointed. Romans 10:14 says, “How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall that preacher preach unless he is sent?” He’s set apart on a mission by God. In Hebrews it says no man takes the priesthood upon himself, he has to be selected by God. Could that be an amen? And see, when we just go and we just anoint people, and [unclear] anointing, and just pick people, people without God’s hand upon them, we open them up for disasters in the church. Are you there? Now, the seven stars are in his right hand. It’s important that the messengers of God are in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 10:1: “He called unto him his 12 disciples.”

▶ 2:24 See, first he called unto him his 12 disciples, then it says he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and diseases, and these 12 he sent forth and told them, “Freely you receive, freely give.” First he, what? Called them to himself. Folks, you can go to seminary all you want, Bible college all you want, but until Jesus Christ invites you to be a messenger of the gospel of Christ, a minister, a leader in the church of the living God, you don’t qualify. You got to be in his hand, and we’re going to see why. Here it goes on to say in that verse, for they are going to reject you, they’re going to persecute you, your own family is going to rise up against you, and with all of this opposition you’re not going to handle it if you’re not in his hand.

▶ 3:30 Can I hear an amen? That’s why ministers have nervous breakdowns and they take sabbatical and they quit the ministry. Why? They were never called in the first place. Hallelujah. See, your own opinion only lasts until you go through a conflict, and then you’re going to fall apart, but when you’re in his hand, he’s responsible for you. Wow. And remember, these churches had some flaws in them, and yet the ministers of those churches were still in his hands and his presence was still in their midst. Don’t eliminate yourself because you’re not perfect yet. You understand that? Amen. And don’t eliminate a young minister or something because they’re not perfect. Forget it, if they’re in his hand, let me tell you, God is going to take the responsibility to back them up and get them through these things. Amen.

▶ 4:40 Very powerful, very powerful. In Deuteronomy 32:39: “There is no God besides me; I kill, I make alive; I wound, I heal; nor is there any who can deliver out of my hand.” There’s nothing going to be able to get you off track, to get you distracted, when you’re in the hands of Jesus. The problem is we get in our own hand, we start taking responsibility for our own life and we can’t handle things. We got to get back into the hand of what? Jesus Christ. Amen. He’s got these stars in his right hand, and nobody, Satan, demons, Satan’s children, the people that follow evil, cannot distract us, cannot disrupt us. Why? Because we’re in his hand, nobody can touch us. We can walk away, but nobody can come in and snatch us away. We have the freedom to walk out of his hand, but no one, no power can come in and take us out of his hand. Amen. And he’ll finish the good work he began in us. Hallelujah. Yeah.

▶ 6:00 That’s a powerful revelation of Jesus Christ. This is not a little religion we’re going through, this is an identity with a real person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has power to work in our life. It says in Isaiah 43:13, “There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.” Do you get the message? I told you before over and over, almost all New Testament scripture is found in the Old Testament. Why? Because God just keeps repeating himself, trying to get us to get the message. Hallelujah. And it confirms that the prophets in the Old and New Testament are all saying the same thing. Keeping power of Jesus Christ, John 10:28: “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” How many of you have eternal life through Jesus Christ? Come on.

▶ 7:00 All right, with that comes this. You see, this is what the American church is missing, and I told you before, I’ve preached all over the world, and America is going backwards, the other ones are going forward, because they depend on Jesus and they’re focused on Jesus, and we get focused on religion and our own opinions and what [unclear] say and [unclear] say. “I don’t only give them eternal life, but they shall never perish.” You’re never going to be bothered about the lake of fire and eternal damnation. Why? Because you came to him, he gave you eternal life, he saved you from that punishment, and he put you in his hand that Satan and the evil people and no one can come and touch you.

▶ 7:51 Are you there? You can give in, you can give up, but nobody can touch you. Hallelujah. So see, our choices are important. I’m in his hand. Bring on the world, bring on Satan, bring on the kingdom. When I was in Africa, I told them, “Bring on these witch doctors, I’ll take them on, I’m not afraid of them.” The pastors of the local churches were afraid, the people were afraid, because they didn’t understand the three areas of witchcraft that’s in the Bible, and they didn’t understand that the name of Jesus has power and authority over the highest one, and that’s demonic witchcraft, and the word has authority over the fleshly and the chemical witchcraft.

▶ 8:49 Yes, yeah, they look good till somebody comes along that knows Jesus Christ. And I told you before, I told them, “Do something to me, come on, show me your stuff, kill me, put a [unclear] on my nose, do something. You got no power over Christ, you got no power over, I’m in the hands of Jesus.” Man. Are you out there, church? See, this is the revelation of the power of Jesus Christ in our lives today, and it’s given to all of us who have eternal life. Hallelujah, hallelujah. We need to start focusing on these other issues. We can’t just be thankful we’re going to go to heaven when the rapture comes and all that.

▶ 9:40 No, you got to be a mighty force in the earth to be reckoned with today in this hour. Hallelujah. “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all.” Now, here is part of the Trinity thing. You know, people can say, you know, the Trinity was a created word, and, you know, it is, somebody created it, but it really explains how the Bible describes God. There is a Father, there is Jesus Christ, and there’s a Holy Ghost, and the Father has superpower over Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ has superpower over everything else, and then the Holy Ghost is sent to us to empower us to live for him. And this scripture brings it out, and these Jesus-only people are missing it, totally missing it. He says, “My Father, which gave them me,” who brought the people to Jesus?

▶ 10:38 The Father is greater than all. Who has the most authority? The Father. “No man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand, and I and my Father are” what? One. He is the Father and he is the Son, and yet there’s three beings in one. Jesus plainly said it. Amen. So if you don’t want to believe in Jesus and you believe in God, he’s still Jesus, and you’re still in his hand. Man, get off your hobby horse and get with the program. Amen.

▶ 11:28 You know, we like to just discuss doctrine, we don’t like to be empowered by doctrine, just discuss it, show everybody what we know. We need to possess it. Hallelujah. Now, how many of you glad you’re in the hands of Jesus? Yes. And because of him, see, his camp is great because he’s great, he’s strong. Jesus Christ in the assembly. Revelations 2:1: “He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.” He’s in the midst of the churches. Though they had problems, they left their first love, they had sexual immorality going on, they had idolatry going on, they had unrestrained people living an unrestrained life, you remember what was happening in the church, and yet his presence was where? In the church.

▶ 12:34 His presence is not his approval. His presence is his faithfulness to back up his word, to finish the good work he began in you. He’s always trying to change you into someone that is a light to the world, a likeness of him, that is his goal, and to get you to that goal he had to forgive you your sins and save you from eternal damnation, and all we dwell on is what? Being saved from my sins and eternal, you know, life, and we don’t think about the objective. The objective is to reach the goal. Now, we need Jesus in the church, and the most important person in the church is not the pastor or the Pope or the priest or the evangelist; the most important person in the church is the one that’s in the midst, and that’s who? Jesus Christ. And in America we get distracted from that by good speakers, by music groups coming in, and music and all the rest.

▶ 13:50 We get distracted from him who is the essential ingredient when we assemble together. Isn’t that true? Or we come for a socializing, social club, to see our friend or to find a woman or a man or whatever. We should be coming because Jesus, when we come together, is there, and the focus should be on him, not distributing food to the poor. It should be on him. He is the most important thing, not the youth group, not the children’s church, not senior citizens, not the addicts of drugs and alcohol and sex, and certainly not psychology, how the human mind works, and that’s what’s creeping into the American church. And that’s why a church must worship and pray and praise and wait on Jesus and preach and prophesy the [unclear] living word of God, because he’s in our midst and we need to hear from him.

▶ 15:02 Hallelujah. King David in the Old Testament said, “The Spirit spake by my mouth,” and that’s what we need to do. I was in a board meeting once, and they were covering some really heavy issues, and I finally stopped and I said, “You know, all I hear is humans talking. I never hear the, I’m not hearing the Spirit anywhere.” And we need to hear what the Spirit’s saying in things. We need a transition from our mental and our physical and our human capabilities into his capabilities. Could that be an amen? And preachers preach without that. Remember, these seven churches were doing these disappointing things, and he was there, and remember he walked in the midst. He promised to be in the midst without music.

▶ 16:02 There’s no requirement of music, no singing, no special speaker, no miracle worker, no miracles, no rituals, no casual clothes or suits and ties. I just, it just really agitates me when Christians say, “Well, I go to that church because I can wear casual clothes.” Well, where is that in the Bible? That’s not even mentioned. I mean, you go to church because you can look like a dud? You should go because he’s in the midst. Yes. And Africa had the best outlook on dressing to the house of God that I’ve ever run across. These people were dirt poor, and yet they came to church dressed their best, and this is what they told me every time: “If we go before our king,” they have little chiefs everywhere, you know, kings and all that, “if we go before our kings here on earth dressed our best, then we’re going to dress our best for Jesus Christ.” And I go, wow, that is a good attitude.

▶ 17:16 Hallelujah. But not in America. We got to build up, “I don’t have to shave, I don’t have to comb my hair, I don’t have to, you know, blow the snot out of my nose or anything, I can just go.” I tell you, Africa has the best idea. It’s just a gathering together, no rituals, just the gathering together. In Matthew 18:20: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name,” no music, no concerts, no dramas, no [unclear], no candles burning, just assembling together unto him. He said, “I’ll be there.” Now, and Friday night, as I watched these young people gather together as that service started, I just said, “God, they have no concept yet of how powerful you are.” Just because they’re here, they’re waiting for the music to start, and they’re waiting for [unclear] to run up and down, these things, you know, they’re waiting for the ritual. They have no concept to know how powerful you are here. Your presence is here because they showed up.

▶ 18:38 Amen. Yes. And you got Christians that won’t even show up. They don’t have to sing, they don’t have to do anything, they just show up, and Jesus said, “I’ll be there.” And the American church is the only one dwindling in church attendance; the other nations are increasing, as I showed you, millions worship him at a time in other nations. You can’t get 10 people out to worship God in America. Oh, you can get them to a concert, you can get them to a popular singer or popular speaker, but just to come because Jesus is there? How boring. No, he is everything. Church without him, we can what? Do nothing.

▶ 19:34 Acts 3:19: “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” See, we’ve all done that, “that the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” Oh, see, I have to repent, I have to change my life, but that’s so I can reach the objective and Jesus can come and touch my life and make me into his likeness, into his image. Now, isn’t that a good Bible? Amen. He does the changing, he’s promised it, and he has the power to back up what he promised, if I’ll just come and join with the ones I don’t even like, they irritate me, they drive me nuts, these hypocrites in the church. Yeah, come on, hypocrite, join them. How many’s heard that statement? “I go to church, go to the hypocrites.” Well, come on, hypocrite, you’re one of them. Actually, the church is not hypocrites. A hypocrite says one thing and does another purposely. Uh, many of God’s people just haven’t attained to things yet, and yes, they may look like hypocrites, but they are pursuing the goal, and that makes a difference. Amen. They have some flaws and they have some weakness and they have some sins they overcome, but they’re not justifying it, they’re pursuing the goal.

▶ 20:59 That’s not a hypocrite. Hallelujah. See, we need him to come in our midst and refresh us, inspire us, renew us. God chose to use music, God chose to do miracles so that people would believe, God chose these things, but when we get distracted by these things and we just go with miracles or the promises of them, or where we just go where there’s good music, we have lost the whole concept of Jesus in the midst of his church. Our focus isn’t on him, now it’s on the music. Could that be true? “I go to this church because they play country music.” Well, you poor little thing, God is limited to one kind of music.

▶ 21:59 “I go to this church because they play contemporary rock music.” That is, that’s not even in the Bible. God never said, “Hey, I’ll give you the music of your choice.” No, he said, “I’ll give you the music of the kingdom.” Are you there, church? Hallelujah. And we’re filling the big churches, one of the reasons they have a lot of members is they have rock music, they have the music that people listen to through the radio during the day, and they come into church and, and I’ve watched them, they’re worshiping music and don’t even know it. I sit there in amazement, because music has a high, music has a, it inspires you, it does something to you, it’s not a neutral vehicle, it does something to you, and because they’re experiencing the power of the music they think they’re experiencing the power of God, and I sit there in amazement, and I can prove it by saying, “Don’t play the music now. Worship.” And they’re dead on their feet.