Crossing into a new day

Most of us can relate with the house of God but we don't know how to relate with the God of the house, says Jonathan David

by Helen Gardiner

GOD is wanting to take the Church into the final stage of Her journey into full inheritance; He is wanting to take Her from Mount Sinai into the Promised Land. So says Dr Jonathan David, key speaker at the Foundation Ministries May conference, hosted by Highway Community Church in East London.

The theme of the conference was: "Strategic Directions of the Spirit" and much of Jonathan David's teaching was focussed on five key things which the Spirit is currently bringing to birth -- so that the Church can move from Mount Sinai into the Promised Land.

Jonathan's teachings are long and so we have chosen to feature here an edited version of just one of his sessions. We believe it was a key session, but we do recommend to that readers get the full set of tapes or videos from Highway Community Church (address at the end of this article).

Dr Jonathan David is the founder and senior pastor of Full Gospel Centre, Muar, Malaysia, which is also home to the Permanent School of The Prophets. He is the founder of the Apostolic Network of Prophetic Churches and Ministries (ANPCM), a network of governing territorial churches and ministries across the nations. Jonathan has been recognised and ordained by Dr Bill Hamon, and he is also affiliated to the United Christian Ministries founded by Graham Cooke (England) and is one of their international directors. He is also closely affiliated to the World Breakthrough Network of Dr Noel Woodroffe (Trinidad). Jonathan resides in Muar with is wife, Helen, and their two daughters, Joanne and Marianne.

In sessions previous to the one featured here, Jonathan spoke about the first three major strategies of the Spirit at this time: 1. To ensure that all eyes will see Him -- but in different intensity and revelation; 2. To give the blueprints for building the tabernacle, so that every person will be assembled accurately, and 3. To place the laws of the Kingdom in the hearts of His people.

He then went on to give the final two strategies of the Spirit.

"These days of 'God encounter' are very powerful days and we can't cross into the new day until we have met with Him. Jacob ran with revelations; he ran with prophecies; he had angelic encounters -- he had all the charismatic experiences. He got what he wanted on this earth. He had everything.

"On the earth he was really successful. But he knew inside his heart that he was going to be left alone. In Genesis 32, it tells us that he was left alone and an angel wrestled with him. Friends, this wrestling that is going on is not the devil in us, it is God in us, because God is out to get something: He has an inheritance in the saints. He has put His treasure in earthly vessels.

"There are things He has placed in our lives; He has put those seeds in there and He has nurtured them and He is looking for that harvest inside you. It is not only that we are looking for the harvest of the earth, but He has put things in our hearts that He has wanted to grow and mature unto manhood so that he can reap a harvest out of each one of our lives. When that harvest is complete, then this body which is perishable will be swallowed up by the imperishable.

"All the gifts, all the anointing, is to mature the man on the inside. At the end of the day, when you get into Heaven, and you stand at the gate, Gabriel will say, 'All right drop the anointing; put that gift aside...' What is left behind is what God is looking for. So you are going to be honoured in Heaven according to that dimension of Christ-life which is on the inside of you. The works you have done will be rewarded, but the glory you are going to attain is not according to the works, but according to the stature of the man, Christ, within you.

"...In these times of 'God encounters' some supernatural things are developing. Jacob begins to understand that. He is left at Jabok and the angel wrestles with him. And the angel said to him, 'Let me go -- for a new day is dawning,' but he said, 'I won't let you go until you bless me.'

@SUB1:A new day dawning

@BODY2:"There is a new day dawning and if God doesn't touch our lives, we won't be part of it. We will be cut off from it. You see, there are a lot of people here who have received all kinds of words and revelations; they have received gifts, talents and success, but we can't cross into the Promised Land until God touches our lives. Jacob knows that God has to touch him.

"What blessing was Jacob asking? He had everything, but he knew he couldn't cross into the Promised Land unless God touched him because his name is Jacob and Jacob cannot inherit. A schemer, a swindler, a hypocrite cannot touch his inheritance. You cannot touch your inheritance unless you have a changed life. The promises are true -- they are yeah and amen -- but they are for a changed life.

"So when God gives you a promise and you attain to it, in the process He has changed your life to make you ready for that. So every time God promises something big, remember there is a big work that needs to be done first...

"God is going to want us to have such deep roots that in any given crisis we will still bear fruits. Our roots determine our fruits."

Jonathan went on to explain about the work of an apostle. Apostolic ministry is not just something people think they would like to do. They do not choose it for themselves. People grow up into becoming apostles and God gives them a special grace -- without which the burden of apostle would be too hard for man to bear.

"Men who try to embrace this type of call; the first thing that gets attacked is their soul and their body gets broken down. That is why we need this apostolic grace of which Paul writes.

"I know a lot of guys think this a fantastic, glamorous thing: you wear an ephod and some robes and you call yourself some big title and you run around bossing everybody: that's called 'a Red Indian chief.' Sometimes we have got so many Red Indian chiefs that we have very few Indians.

"What we have to understand is that it is a ministry designed to bring the pattern of the father into the life of the son. The job of father raising up sons is not just to boss them around but it is to put a pattern on the inside of him; that pattern of life and value and system that will carry the boy all through his life. Train up a child... training is to put patterns... this is a training conference; it's to put things into your spirit."

Then Jonathan spoke about the fourth strategy of the Spirit, to take people from Mount Sinai into the Promised Land:

"The formation and positioning of tribes was established around the tabernacle. I believe that God is raising up many tribes and giving them tribe anointings. If your father is Judah, the tribe of Judah will receive an anointing for praise, and that is the inheritance in the house. That is an in-house anointing, an in-house inheritance. That is why you have got to know that God is moving people out from different cities and out from churches and moving them around so that they can come into their tribe.

"What is essential is this: God is positioning people out from so many different environments. He is going to move even pentecostals out of pentecostal churches because some of them are as dead as doornails.

"In the charismatic move, God moved people out of mainline churches into the dimensions of the Spirit, but I want you to know that there is an exodus taking place even out of pentecostal churches because some of them don't even speak in tongues."

Jonathan said that since the Azusa Street revival in 1906, some people have never developed tongues. They still say things like: "chandelier, chandelier, chandelier!" In some places they are a little more militant: "da da dadadadadada!" That is supposed to be tongues: but, as Jonathan says, "it is just a one syllable word that is not even a language! How on earth is it going to edify you if you 'dadada' for one hour! Your neighbours are going to think you're chanting.

"It is very important for us to develop this language so that our spirit becomes more in tune with the things of God. So you take it to the next level of intimacy. How can you teach a church about intimacy with the Holy Spirit when they don't even have a relationship with God.

@SUB1:The tribe anointing

@BODY2:"I believe very strongly that there is a formation of tribes: that is why God is re-structuring churches; changing the way that the churches operate so He can give them a tribe's anointing. With Foundation Ministries there is a tribe's anointing that comes with the patriarch and with his networks. There is a special anointing that God works upon them and gives them a special release and those who are of like-frequency will relate and join.

"If you are not of the tribe of Levi, you cannot partake of the ministry of a priest and if you do, you will come under judgement. You start relating with groups of people where you feel that you are part of that tribe and part of that flow of anointing and so you start to relate, and not only will you receive the heritage of that tribe but also your inheritance is determined. How far you are going to go in your life depends on what you become part of.

"Some people never make it very far in life because they join that which is dying. People are so loyal... listen, our loyalty is to God and we need to be faithful to what He has deposited on the inside of our lives.

"I believe God is shaking everything that can be shaken so that He will bring every one of us into the right place.

"There is a declaration in Heaven that is going out: every article that was in the House of God, which is now in the temple of Nebuchadnezzar is going to be released. God is going to take those vessels and release them so that they can come back to Jerusalem to build the house.

I believe that there is a Cyrus declaration going on in the Heavens, that is why prophets and apostles are declaring that every vessel that God has desired and designed for the future for His plan and His will which is now sitting in the house of gods (people sitting behind religious curtains) will be released. I am not advocating church splits, but God is going to split them. He is going to say, 'Let My people go!'

"He is also going to take us out of loyalty to careers of our own so that we can finish God's will. Our loyalty is to His will.

"Have you ever been into a place where you come in and you just feel so at home -- because that is your home. God is going to do that because He needs to place a tribe anointing on your life and form your life, your ministry, under that kind of anointing. When you go into the Promised Land you are going to be divided according to tribes. What you're going to attain in life is going to be because of what you have become a part of.

"Find yourself in a place where the church is growing; churches formed and shaped by God, built by God, made by God. Every pastor in this place -- you need to have the Holy Ghost work so strongly in your heart so that you start to form, allow God to form you like a tribe and tap your tribe's anointing.

"We must allow people to move freely according to what the Holy Ghost wants. There are some people who will just never be blessed by my type of ministry -- it is too frightening. It is too cllose for comfort . It is hard for people when you are so strong prophetically that everything in their lives gets exposed.

"There are some people that need a different type of anointing. God allows all kinds of things to happen, but all for the same purpose. Some churches are tremendously anointed to reach out to a certain group of people which other churches are not anointed for. We must not try to do everything that everyone else is doing that is successful -- because we are a different tribe.

@SUB1:Being what God wants you to be

@BODY2:"We have got to function in that to which God has called us; we stay on that call and work to the original word and God will develop our anointing and begin to provide us inheritances which are in line with that kind of anointing and grace that God is raising up. I have got to be what God wants me to be. I can't touch something that others are touching even though I would like to.

"So God is organising and forming tribes and giving tribe anointings, but we have got to build and form our tribes; we have got to gather all of them and set them in order: the heads of the household. Sometimes our churches are just a gathering of people, but they are not assembled according to tribe order; leaders and structures of leadership are not properly established and so it is important that we allow that to take place. We have the role of the senior pastor, and then the leaders and other ministries are set in order.

"Now when that begins to happen, something wonderful begins to take place because wherever there is order there is a proper spiritual authority chain that is established. Once the spiritual authority chain is established, there is a proper covering for the lives of the people who come under its shelter. They are protected and have a liberty to get involved. The tribe of a Levi can go into the Holy Place and start to minister and hold the offering and get very close to God which other tribes cannot do."

Jonathan says that even the little children in the church will be able to draw that anointing into their lives. He said that back home in the church he pastors, children of nine years old are prophesying accurately and ministering to one another by the laying on of hands. They are seeing visions and having experiences that some men who have been in ministry for 30 years have not ever experienced.

"What we have, is going to be communicated into the next generation so that there is no generation gap. The old man touches it, the young man touches it because they are all under the same anointing flow. But at this moment we have equalisation problems. Some know more; some know less. Some are more committed, some are less committed... some are really holding onto the Word, others are just here for the fun and benefits. That is because the formation of the tribe has not really taken place. Once every person has found their place, you will find that there is equal passion. The whole church with one voice, one heart, one mind.

"Get into your tribe, honour your tribe leaders; honour your pastors, learn to work with them. It is no longer your vision and my vision. It is our vision. It is no longer what you want to do, what I want to do; it's what He wants done.

"In charismatic circles everyone wants to have a ministry of their own; they don't want to work together in a team because in a team you are not seen. We are not here to be seen. We are here to finish the will of God. We are not talking about who gets the glory. All we want is that He gets the glory."

Jonathan encouraged church members at the conference to judge the measure of their leaders by the leaders' hearts, rather than by the content of their speech.

"The generation today is so versatile, so charismatic, so flamboyant, so skilful. Sometimes all these things distract us -- we can't see the real life that is inside. But a father, you see him as he really is because you are at close range. The father is there in the house and you seen him as he really is. He doesn't have a working uniform.

"When we come to this understanding we can learn to work within our own churches, work with our own pastors and leaders and begin to help to build a strong work in a place. We need to build the work and form the tribes and gather the guys who are running around all over the place.

@SUB1:Anything loosely attached will fall off

@BODY2:"Some people remain like that forever. They are never part of anything. They get saved out of the kingdom of darkness; they come into the church but they are never part of the church. They are loosely attached. They say, 'Oh, I just fellowship at this place, I am loosely attached.' Anything that is loosely attached will fall off.

"They don't want to commit. They want to do their own thing. They don't want to come in, because if they commit, there are rules and regulations in the house. They want to be free; they don't want to be in bondage -- 'because God has given me a ministry.' Every ministry must be part of the house. My friend, nothing begins with you. Even if you have a ministry, you have to have the humility to bring it under a house.

"I believe there is coming a day when para-church organisations will have to come to a place of recognising that the church is maturing and they don't have to do what they are doing -- now they can do it through the church. The day is coming when the church is taking over missions and things. The para-organisations were there until we matured.

"Jesus said, 'I will build my church.' Now the churches are rising to do what the para-organisations used to do."

Jonathan sees his role as being one who builds, rather than blesses. "Some churches are like 'Bless me' clubs; nobody has built their lives; helped build their marriage and their thinking patterns; their behaviour. Nothing has been built into them and so they are forever unchanged, but they are being blessed, and blessed and blessed.

"One of the most frightening things to realise is this, that even though the people were cut off from God because they disobeyed Him and did not want to cross over into the Promised Land they still had manna the next day; they still had the sun and the clouds and the quail. They still had Moses but they were cut off and were only waiting for their time to die. They had the blessings, but they had no more advancement into the purposes of God.

"There are some churches like that: they still have the blessings and they still continue their services even though God has left, God has moved on.

"Number five of the current strategies of the Spirit: At Mount Sinai, not only is there the formation and positioning of tribes, but there is a new order for a greater dimension of worship and a clear approach to God's presence.

"Now God is going to come to the house. He is going to come down. People need to be taught how to relate with the presence that is coming down. Most of us can relate with the house of God but we don't know how to relate with the God of the house.

"We are so good at relating with ministry, we are so good with relating with work, we are so good with running around and doing things. You watch many people, they just cannot worship. But put them behind a pulpit and get them to preach -- they can preach the house down. But they just cannot worship. Any leader who cannot move to connect with God will ultimately seal his own destiny and growth. There is a new order and if God is going to come down and live among us, people must be taught how to relate.

"We must not wait for incidents like Ananias and Sapphira to happen within us before we teach people. We must not wait for judgement to come and then try and tell people about the fear of God. The more we teach people, the more they will honour the presence and the more it will precipitate among our lives. That is why I always encourage song leaders to lead, not just to sing. There is a difference between a gift for leadership and an anointing for performance.

"A lot of us have an anointing to preach, but you are not necessarily a good leader because a good leader takes people from point A to point B. We have got to take the people across; we have got to move them forward; we have got to elevate them to the next level; after you have ministered and preached, the standard of their lives must be on the next level.

"God said to Joshua, 'you, and all these people' cross over, not just 'you alone.' The ability to take everybody across into where you can go -- that is leadership.

"God wants real, human, honest, trustworthy leaders.

"There is a new order for worship. We are going to find God's presence will become very tangible. What has taken us so many years to breakthrough can happen in a single night. All of a sudden it just happens: the difference is -- He came.

@SUB1:He takes over when He comes

@BODY2:"We trust our stuff. We trust our skill. We trust our anointing. We trust ourselves. We think we really are that good. That is why when they built the temple of Solomon and they all began to prophesy with their instruments and the priests were declaring and they were singing and blasting trumpets... when He came down everybody had to leave. There is no more reason for you to function because He takes over when He comes.

"There are coming days in our midst when the presence of God is going to be so real; He is going to tell you He is coming, not to take the side of the pastor, not to take the side of the church members -- He is just coming to take over. I mean He knows nothing else... and it fills the whole place.

"We can have a basic structure of what we want to do, but when He comes, He has His own set of notes. He is going to fill, He's going to touch, He's going to heal, He is going to do what He is good at: save, heal, deliver, set free, change lives, make us like Him.

"We are welcoming those days. Before we see those works of the enemy, we must see Him. We have got to know our God, so that when we face the enemy we fear no evil because we have seen His goodness. We fear no sickness because we have seen the healer. We fear no darkness because we have seen the light.

"That is why God is coming into the temple. We are building a house of God so that we can bring the God of the house in.

"My encouragement to pastors and leaders is this: you have worked so hard in the days of Saul; you struggled, you were restricted, the enemy attacked you. You, as a pastor, built everything and today you have come into a position like David, but the first thing you say with your mouth will tell what has been in your heart all the time. In my heart there is only one desire: I want to see God come back and dwell among His people, because, if He does, then there are a lot of things that we will have to throw out of our ministry which really are only there because we know nothing better.

"David said, 'Come on let's gather all the leaders and the elders and let's bring back the ark of God which we did not seek after in the days of Saul.' Men who live by their flesh will never have any desire for the presence of God to come back. Now where did David have this burden in his heart? Because, history records there were 10 years that David went and lived with Samuel. Samuel was raised up in the presence of God and you remember that in 1 Samuel:3 Samuel cried himself to sleep and he was lying where the ark of God was.

"This man takes a young leader like David and he lays his hand on him and he speaks into him and he puts his heart into David's heart.

"David receives an impartation of that patriarch upon him and when he comes into a position, the first thing that comes out of his mouth is this,'Guys, let's bring back the ark because we did not seek after it in the days of Saul.'

"Do you want to bring yourself back into a place of prominence, or do you want to bring God back. Do you want your ministry to be talked about or do you want God to be known and felt and handled and touched. The ministry is only a means, it is not an end. No matter how good you are, you are not good enough because a greater one is here. Sometimes you have got to shut down all the gifts because a greater one takes over. People say sometimes, 'Oh I'd like you to prophesy over me.' Sometimes you don't need a prophecy, you need Him. We have enough prophecy, we have enough revelations, we have got enough of the works -- we need more of Him.

"One of my greatest passions in life is to get into a church and to bring God's presence down and let Him work. Sometimes people give me the credit -- if they only knew the truth, how I fear many times to get on the platform lest He passes us by.

@SUB1:We are only a means to bring Him down

@BODY2:"The old-fashioned preachers knew: they never got on the platform until they had prayed their hearts out; until they had cried out for His presence and they felt His presence was with them. We have got to get back to those days of wanting Him more than anything else in life. We are only a means to bring Him down.

"Sometimes I fear in my heart for those of us who don't establish these five things that I have mentioned to you. If they are not established certain negatives will happen and you can see the negatives are already taking place."

Here follows a summary of the negatives which Jonathan expounded on:

1. There is going to be a rejection of God's appointed leadership. At Mount Sinai, the people rejected God's ordained leader, Moses. There are people in the Church who are rising up and attacking those whom God has ordained to lead.

2. There is going to be a rejection of true worship: the contention will be that the worship is too long or too loud. They will attack worship styles and forms. The devil hates worship given to God. People will not want to co-operate in worship: they will want to sit down and read their Bibles while you are worshipping; read the morning bulletin. Mark out these people because they are the ones who will ultimately turn against you because in their hearts they have no honour for His presence.

3. Existing leaders will become weak and compromising because of pressure in the house. Church members are becoming more forceful and forthright against their pastors. The flock begins to control the pastor; the elders begin to control the leader.

4. The priesthood retain their position but lose their calling and purpose. At Mount Sinai, Aaron made the golden calf but continued to be a priest to the people even though he had changed sides. In some churches today there is also idolatry: the people worship worship; they worship their ministry; they worship the anointing; they worship their position; their god has changed behind the scenes, but they are the same priests.

5. Judgement and separation will come in the house of God. The line is drawn. There is going to be a clear distinction between those who really serve the Lord and those who don't. There is going to be a clear distinction between true and false apostles; true and false prophets; true and false doctrine. There will be no grey areas.

We are in the hour of dawn which is a mixture of light and darkness -- but the day is coming. Stay with the light. Stay with men of God who really love God; they may not be perfect, but they really love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. Better to stay with a man who has a heart and life after God, than one who has all kinds of charismatic ministry. Life begets life.

6. God will keep the promise of the covenant, but will withdraw His presence. A lot of counterfeit manifestation and presence -- people still think He is there when He is not. God still blesses and gives promises but He doesn't come. Moses said, 'We are not going unless You go with us.' The love for His presence is going to bring the separation. His presence is going to cost you everything; if you want an anointing, you will probably get one if you fast for 40 days. When you get His presence, all the various anointings will be manifest, because He does all things well.

There is a lot of talk about great moves of God coming, but we won't get them, we will fall flat on our faces, if we have not built into peoples' lives the kind of things which Jonathan has been speaking about.

7. People will not see the glory of God; only a remnant will touch it. If you build wrong this will happen. If you build right, you shall see the glory of God and live.

Finally, as Jonathan exhorted people to readjust their lives, he made the following important point: "There is a real pursuit to make money, and more money, and there is a lot of teaching going around that God is going to transfer the wealth into the hands of the righteous: it is true, but the way people are going about it is demonic. It is greed.

"It is true that God is going to transfer the wealth of the wicked into the hands of the righteous because when the people came out of Egypt, God allowed the people to take out all the gold and the silver -- but it was not for them. When the gold and silver is placed in the hands of the people what you get is a golden calf, but all the gold and silver is for the building of the tabernacle. That is why every businessman who is blessed financially must understand that as long as the money stays in your hands it is going to corrupt you and destroy your life -- you will get a golden calf instead of God. God put the money in your hands so that you could build and establish kingdom purposes... make up your mind that the kingdom of God will take preeminence."

Video and audio tapes of all the sessions from the conference, as well books by Jonathan Devid, are obtainable from Foundation Ministries at +27 (43) 7321-858.