Are You Ready for the Shift?

Cleaned from the live recording. Lightly edited for reading.

Tired in the season

Good morning. I hope you're enjoying the black cake. I know some of you are looking forward to the hook-up on Old Year's Night. I hope you're enjoying the pepper pot. But most of all, I hope you're enjoying Jesus through this season.

(He recognizes Minister Roxson, who celebrated her birthday and brought ice cream.)

Let us pray. Forget about the black cake. Forget about what you need to do at home. Just release your spirit. In this season we can be so caught up doing different things that by the time you catch yourself, your spirit man is struggling. How many of you are still tired? You're honest. Thank you.

Some of us are still tired in this season. Even up to last night I was asking the Lord, how do you manage in this season as a minister, when you have obligations to family, relatives and friends to be out, and it's infringing on your quiet time, on your time of prayer? How do you manage that?

The Holy Ghost answered me this morning. But I didn't like the answer. I'm accustomed to waking at 3:00 and 1:00 to pray and then going back to bed around 6 or 7. This morning he woke me at a quarter to five, and I knew it was him. I lay on my bed and said to myself, I don't want to get up at this time. This is the time I usually go back to sleep. And I knew he was saying to me, you need to make adjustments. You need to use the unallocated time to do the important thing.

Sometimes it's easier said than done, especially when we're accustomed to a pattern. When we're used to doing things our own way, making the adjustment is difficult. But I decided to get up, because I knew I wouldn't sleep. A few minutes after I got up, the rain came down very heavily, and I said, good thing I'm up.

Tell your neighbor, you need to make the adjustment. We can make excuses. But when you ask the Lord certain questions, when you speak to him, he does respond. We need to learn to make the adjustment.

I don't really enter new years

As we go into the new year: for me, I don't really enter new years. I don't look at my life based on the calendar. I look at my life as one timeline with different seasons. Most times you don't hear me talking about New Year's resolutions. When I was a baby in Christ I listened to a lot of sermons about New Year's resolutions. But as you mature, you realize New Year's resolutions are foolishness. Do you think God stops every Old Year's to say, let us start anew, what we didn't get to do last year, let's make a resolution to do it this year?

As you pray, I want you to pray with focus. Look into the future. Pray into the future, looking at your timeline, your destiny. As you pray, allow the Holy Spirit to help you see where you are and what adjustments you need to make. And don't be fooled by the spirit of this age that says you're starting anew. That's one of the greatest lies peddled around this season. You're starting anew, and people love crossing over. I want to know, crossing over to where? Especially Christians. Crossing to where?

(The church prays in the Spirit. A prophetic word is given about transformation, a shift from the mindset of this world into the mindset of the kingdom, and a "replication" of sons like Christ.)

How to prepare a sermon

I'll try to do like last week and not keep you too long.

God spoke to Abraham. Sometimes you see me standing here, trying to figure out, Lord, what are you saying now? I can give you messages I've been studying, things I've been working on. But one of the things you learn in the life of a preacher, a servant of the Lord: you should always be hearing from him, in communion with him, and going through the word. There's some stuff I don't know when I'll preach. I don't know what year I'll preach it, what week. But that's the beauty of it. That's how you prepare.

Somebody asked me, how do you prepare a sermon? I can give you books. We can talk about homiletics, how you start, what you look for, what you do. But let me say this to the young ones. The way you prepare a sermon is by spending time in prayer and spending time in the word. Going through the word and studying it, not to preach it, but so it brings change to your life. See what the Lord is saying to you, not knowing when you'll preach that message. And you'll be surprised: when the time comes to deliver a message, the Lord will just go into the library and say, okay, this one.

So you need to have many messages, and the messages are not just written on paper. They're written on your heart. Because if it's only written on paper, it will just be another talking point.

How long do you expect to live?

When I asked you to pray and look at your timeline: how many of you expect to live beyond 75? About half the house. So I'm assuming the other half think you'll die before 75? Let me see those beyond 50, beyond 60 in the house. Oh, some people are really mature. I like your spirit. If you're older than 60, raise your hand. Put your hands together for them.

Whatever age you project in your mind, I don't project how long I'll live based on age only, but on assignment.

When you're given a job, what do you do? You check how long it will take to accomplish. Or you just set off on the job and don't care when it starts or finishes? If you're working day work, especially for government, or a contractor gives you day work, you don't care when the job finishes once you're getting paid. If it's a six-day job and it takes you sixty days, and the home builder pays you every day, you'll just show up and collect the money. But if it's job work, you try to finish as fast as you can so you can move on to another job. Everybody's looking at me strange because you're not contractors. How many of you ever worked on a project and got paid for the project? I wish most of you would get project work. Receive it. Not just day-to-day work, but project work. You have to have a timeline in terms of expectation.

What time do I leave?

Let me ask it this way. How many of you took a job, went to the interview, got the job, but never found out the hours you need to work? You just asked when do I come in, but never asked when you leave? Everyone wants to know what time do I come in and what time do I leave. What are my contracted obligations? You don't want to give the company more than you should without being compensated.

If you go in at 8:00 and they have you working beyond 4:30 with a fifteen minute lunch break, and you're young and never worked before, the first thing you'll do when you come home is go to your mother and father, or ask a colleague, or go on the internet and check the labour laws of Guyana. You'll know you need to work this amount of time each week. How many hours is it? Forty. And beyond that you need to be paid overtime. If you're not getting overtime, you know something is wrong. You also know that if you join certain organizations, you may not be working an eight-hour day. It may be longer. So you have expectations.

In the past, many people who went to work would ask, how long do I need to work before I get a pension? When do I get my gratuity? How long before I go on vacation? And the one I really love: how many days vacation will you give me, and what package of money will you give me so I can enjoy it?

Why do you want to know these things? So you can plan your life. So you can order your life. If I'm getting so much a month, I know before the year is out I'll be able to buy a car, or I can't buy a car, I need to buy a scooter or a bicycle. I'll be going on vacation with this money maybe to Kaieteur or to Lake Mainstay when other people are going out of the country. I'll have to accumulate money over time before I can fulfill certain dreams, before I can go into the bank and get a mortgage for a house. It takes time. It takes planning.

I remember the days when you'd pull out your calculator, multiply your salary, start doing deductions, and realize with your current salary it will take you a long time to achieve certain things. But we plan.

January the first will not change your salary

How many of you are working right now? Do you think the new year will magically affect your salary? I know some of you are waiting on the budget.

What I'm trying to get to you is this. The new year will come and there'll be continuity. January the first will come and there'll be continuity. The plans you had for retirement, for getting a home, for buying a car or upgrading your vehicle, will still be there. Switching from December 31st to January 1st will not magically change that.

So why, as Christians, do we live our life looking forward to this crossover and make it such a big thing? The reason I'm asking is this: can you look at your life in terms of God's plan for you?

How long will you live? Minister Tracy, over 80. Put your hands together for her. Why do you want to live over 80? Can you see yourself living over 80 but walking healthy? Nobody has to take you around. Nobody has to take care of you. Nobody tells you a story and five minutes after you ask, what did you say? None of that.

Planned before they were born

God asked Abraham to leave his father's house and look for a city whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). God said to him, I want to bless you and make your descendants like the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky, and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 22:17-18, Genesis 12:3).

God looked at David and raised him up. He had planned for him to be king over Israel. David wanted to build a temple for the Lord, and the Lord said, no, your hands are bloody. Your son Solomon will build a house for me (1 Chronicles 22:8-10). David understood that even though this was his heart's desire, this assignment was allocated to another. So he prepared the materials, he prepared the blueprint, he prepared everything for his son (1 Chronicles 28:11-12).

When we look at Solomon's life and achievements, he did build the temple of God. He understood his life's assignment was not only to be king but to build a dwelling place on earth for the Lord.

Look at Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, all of them. When you read their stories we're amazed at their exploits. But if you pay attention, God had something planned for each of them before they were born (Jeremiah 1:5). And just like them, there's something planned for you before you were born.

So in this season when people are talking about transition, I want you to think with a mind of continuity. There is a plan for me. I'm not living my life in the seasons of men. I'm living my life in God's seasons.

Jesus came, and he understood his assignment. He came to live, to show mankind how to walk on the earth the way God intended us to walk, and then to pay the ultimate price so we can do that. Then he died and transitioned from this world. His assignment took thirty-three and a half years. Thirty years in preparation and three and a half years carrying it out.

If you're planning to live to 80, what are you doing with those years?

Where are you on God's calendar?

Can you tell me what date it is? You're certain. How do you know? You can check it.

As it relates to your timeline, where are you on God's calendar? Are you at the place in your life where you should be? Have you received all God planned for you at this time? Are you doing what God expects you to be doing now? Are you at the spiritual maturity God expects you to be at by now?

I asked how you know it's the 28th of December, and you said, you can check it. It's not just that you can check it. You checked it. When I ask where you are on God's timeline, you look at me like, how do I know that? You need to check it out. Tell your neighbor, you need to check it out.

What I'm getting at is that we can follow a manmade timeline for our life. We can follow human seasons and the crossover. Nothing is wrong with that if that's how you want to live. But where are you on God's calendar? Can you see if God has set an appointed time for you?

What's the ETA?

If somebody says they sent you money, what's the first thing you ask? You don't leave it vague. When they say they sent a box or a barrel, you ask, what's the ETA, the expected time of arrival? Then you ask the size, or how much, because you want to know what you should receive, what belongs to you. When the shipping agency calls and says your package is here, they can tell you whatever figure they want. Because the sender gave you a receipt saying this is what was sent, you'll argue until you get what is on the receipt.

What are you contending for in this season? What is God's plan for you? What are you expecting to receive in this season? If you're crossing over, where are you crossing to? What's the destination?

If I open a door to step through it, don't you want to know what's on the other side? Or are you just adventurous? Have you ever seen people build a door for an upstairs veranda but never get time to put on the veranda? The door is there. Suppose they invite you over, you open the door, don't look outside, and decide to take a seat. We saw that a lot growing up, with Tom and Jerry.

Look at your neighbor and tell them what you're expecting when you cross over.

How do I know?

Some of you think I don't believe in crossing over. I believe in crossing over. During the year I've had many crossovers, many transitions. Even now I'm going through a transition, and before the next couple of days are out, I'm going to be at another level. I'm glad you're clapping for me, but I don't like that clap.

How do I know that? I know this is not a typical Sunday morning message. But how do I know that? How do you know? You need to ask the Lord, what are your plans for me in this season? And then you need to expect an answer.

I don't know anybody who was promised something and didn't show up to collect it, especially money. How many of you ever shipped things in and didn't go to the shipping agency to collect them? When we speak to God, we need to expect an answer.

Three things, confirmed

A few mornings ago I asked God a question. While I was praying, I don't know if I fell asleep, but I saw myself on the bed, and Pastor Sarah woke up and started to talk to me as though God was saying something, as though she was prophesying to me. But she wasn't saying anything. I was trying to get it: what is he saying? And she just went back to sleep.

So I opened my eyes and started to pray again, and I said, maybe what I saw means the Lord wants to speak to me in a dream. Maybe I should go and lie down. So I went and lay down, about 6:00, 6:30 in the morning, and started to dream. In the dream, Apostle William and I were in a big meeting. When he came to me he laid his hands on me and said, the Lord is saying three things to you. One, two, three. I know you're waiting to hear the three things. Sometime you'll hear them. I woke up at seven. Within half an hour I had good rest, the Lord spoke, and I started to jot things down.

Then we were at a particular campaign and I saw Brother Randelle. We spoke for a few minutes. About half an hour later I saw him again in the street and he said, Pastor, I really wanted to see you. I was hoping to find you here. The Lord showed me something about you. And he related a dream that confirmed the three things the Lord told me the morning before.

When I checked my phone, I had missed a call from Apostle Jonathan Corley. When we got through to each other he said, I was calling because I had a vision of you last night, and the Lord was doing one, two, three. He said, I was going to call your wife and tell her she doesn't need you the last couple of days in December. You need to fast. Confirming the very things the Lord told me.

And the same day the Lord spoke those three things to me, when I looked at my phone that afternoon there was a message from Bishop Bloomer, checking how we're doing and saying he'd like to be back in Guyana with us in the new year.

I'm telling you this, even though I didn't say the three things, and you'll hear some of them later, to say you can know.

How did Sarah know?

When God went to Abraham and told Abraham and Sarah they would have a son, how would they know? Let me ask all the mothers who have given birth, how do you know? You feel pain. But before the pain there had to be some pleasure. You jumped straight to the pain. Let me leave that there for the marriage seminar.

Before you feel the pain, there have to be signs you're carrying something. How would Sarah know she was pregnant? She knew what pregnancy was, the stages for a child, and she knew she wasn't pregnant. That's why she sent her husband in to the bondservant (Genesis 16:2). Because she knew what pregnancy looked like, what childbirth should feel like, what holding a child in your hands should look like.

God spoke to her. And I'm sure when God spoke, she and Abraham said to themselves, even though we're old, we have to try. And when they tried once and twice, they said, even though we're old, we still have to try again. We must see changes. And because we must see change, we will work until change comes.

Say it with me: I'll work until change comes. It doesn't matter how tired I am, how weak I feel, how discouraged I feel. It doesn't matter what my body is saying to me. Their bodies were saying it's impossible (Romans 4:19). But God spoke, and they were determined to work until change came.

But you must know what the change looks like. That's one of the things I was asking the Lord about. I must know what the change looks like. So when the Lord spoke to me in the dream and mentioned three things, I know what I'm looking forward to seeing.

Sarah knew what she wanted to see. She wanted to see a big belly. If her belly wasn't growing, some belly had to grow. That was her logic. She needed a son by any means. But that's not how the kingdom works. You need to do God's work his way and in his time.

So I'm asking each of you: what is the change you expect to see, based on what God said to you?

Don't live aimlessly

I'm going to wrap up. But I'm trying to challenge each one of you. Don't live your life aimlessly. There are things you can pick up in your spirit, and there are things you can know.

I think it was last year, while I was preaching, I sensed dominion is coming. I kept saying, dominion is coming. Suddenly, in my message, I knew dominion wasn't only a place of elevation in the realm of the spirit. I picked up in my spirit that Dominion was an angel. I said it. We went to the US... I've said these things before. I'm just trying to help you with how you live your life.

You think you have ten more years to live? Five more? Fifteen? Thirty? What is the Lord's plan and design for you that you need to accomplish within that time?

Jurisdictional authority

I remember a prophet saying to me, the Lord has brought you into jurisdictional authority. He said, do you understand what that means? I said, I think so. He said, with this type of authority, when you speak things, heaven will back it up.

I understood what that meant, because close to twenty years ago the Lord said to me through another prophet: your prophetic ministry will not be like other prophets, who speak because they heard. They hear me say something and they speak. You will speak, and God will act.

I understood that when the prophet said it, because when I was in Bible school another prophet from out of the country came and said, you are a man like Elijah, a man of great confidence, one who will laugh in the face of the enemy. I understood what that meant, because before I got saved I always wanted to be like Elijah and Paul.

I'm trying to show you timeline. Understand where you are on the timeline. At different junctures in my life, God will speak to different people, and sometimes before he speaks to them he speaks to me in the night. I walk into a service and watch the prophet tell me everything back, word for word, just as the Lord told me. I listen and I just smile. Sometimes I don't say anything. Jonathan, you understand. Sometimes when you talk to me and I just look at you, I heard you. Many times that's how the Lord speaks to me. He gives it back. I can stand in a place and see it word for word, or I can have a vision or a dream and walk into a place and see everything happen the same way, like deja vu.

I'm saying this so you pay attention, because that's how you live your life as a Christian. It may be business, a job, your career. God says something to you, and as you progress you see yourself elevated, like in the natural you move from clerk to supervisor to manager. During those seasons you have to put in the work. Tell your neighbor, you have to put in the work. You have to keep moving.

The Christian walk is not magic

So as a wrap-up: what's the next phase of your life?

I'm trying to tell you the Christian walk is not magic. As we live our life in the natural, so in the spiritual. God speaks. Sometimes he speaks to us and we're not listening, because we're looking for something spectacular.

Like I said, this morning when he woke me at five to five, I really didn't want to get up, because that's when I usually go back to sleep and let the morning go by. But then I asked myself: if I lie down here, am I expecting God to do something in these last couple of days before the year ends? I know he did it. It's done. But I want to be positioned so I lay hold of it. I want to be in the right place at the right time. Not just physically. Spiritually, emotionally, everything, so I lay hold of it.

It's like somebody throwing a ball to you. It's in motion. What do you have to do to catch the ball? You have to position yourself. Sometimes you have to stay put. Sometimes you have to run with speed, plunge and stretch out your hand. Whatever it takes, you need to be in position.

The stretching

Whatever it takes. The stretching. Trust me, with Abraham it was a stretching. With Sarah it was a stretching. With Mary it was a stretching. Do you think it's easy for anybody to come and tell you you're pregnant, while you're engaged, and not by the man you're engaged to but by somebody invisible? It takes a stretching for her to say, be it unto me according to your word (Luke 1:38).

Have you ever tried to figure out how you explain something like that to somebody you love, somebody you're engaged to? They'd look at you like that's next-level denial. Narcissist and all those fancy words in the dictionary now? I'm sure people called her all kinds of things. How do you explain that to your family, to your friends, in a believable way? Some of you can't even tell anybody some simple things you've gone through. They'll think you're nuts.

When you talk about stretching, look at Jesus in Gethsemane. He knew it was time to transition from this earth, to die on the cross, the very thing he was born for. Talk about stretching. Talk about perspiring until blood came through his pores (Luke 22:44), saying to his Father, isn't there any other way? Can't we find another way to fulfill my purpose? Then he looked at it and said, not my will, Papa. Daddy, not my will (Luke 22:42). This is what you want. This is what I'll do.

Jesus' whole life was a life of preparation, understanding what he was born to do, and living his life in such a way that he was able to do what he was born to do when he was called to do it.

Let us stand. Are you living your life in such a way that you can do what you were born to do when you're called to do it?

Who am I?

What were you born to do? How many more years do you need to accomplish it? Are you positioning yourself? If you want to be a doctor, what do you need to do, Jonathan? Study, work hard. But before all of that, you need to get into the right institution, the right program. And you need to know what kind of doctor we're talking about.

Who are you? Ask God this question: who am I? What is my function, my assignment? Help me, Lord. I want to know.

Vessels in a great house

Let's go to 2 Timothy 2:20 as I wrap up, so at least you'll have a scripture reference this morning.

Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use and some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master, ready for every good work (2 Timothy 2:20-21).

When I look at this scripture, notice: if anyone cleanses himself. It's not saying if God does it. You need to put in the work. Stand and say it: I need to put in the work.

You ever know you should be doing something but you don't want to? We all pass that way sometime. You know you should eat, you're hungry, but you don't feel like cooking. There's no delivery. You want to order but you don't want to leave the house to pick it up. You have to put in the work.

You remember me talking in the week about how I used to be top of the class from the bottom in spelling. I got one and two right every morning and I got the most lashes. I used to try to figure out how the others were getting them all right. Until one day I put in some work and got about five or six right, and I realized, my God, this is not magic. These people are going home and studying, and I'm going home and playing. That's the difference. They're putting in the work. That's what the scripture is telling us.

Fit for the master's use

It also tells us there are different assignments, different purposes we're called for. Some will be discarded and some will be used.

Simply put, when you buy utensils for the home, especially ladies, you say, I love how this one looks. It's expensive. I'm going to put it on display and bring it out on special occasions. This one here, the price is so-so, we'll use it every day. Which one is more important? It sounds like a trick question. The one you use day to day. Fit for the master's use.

It's not whether you're gold or silver or clay. It's not whether you're an apostle, a prophet, a pastor, a teacher, an intercessor, or you think you're just a believer. It doesn't matter. If you're not fit for the master's use, you can be apostle of what you want, prophet of what you want. The person you call just a normal believer can be more useful than you, because the master can use them. Aim to be a fine vessel, yes, but aim also to be useful. You want to hear, well done, good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:21).

I hate fancy china. You know why, as a husband? We have to contribute so much money to buy it and never get to use it, and it disappears from the house one piece at a time and you never used it. Don't let your life be like that. Useless. My wife is getting upset now.

You're useless if you never respond

We're wrapping up. I may continue this on Old Year's Night, if the Lord leads.

When we're talking about transitioning, I'm talking about being more useful for the Lord. I don't care how important you are. If I can't call on you on my behalf, you're useless. I don't care what important position you hold in Guyana. If every time I call you, you're always busy, you're useless. If every time God calls for you, he can never get you to respond to his call, and whatever he wants you to do, he wants you to tell somebody about him, not me, he wants you to visit somebody, and you give all kinds of excuses: useless.

Tell your neighbor, you will not be useless in this kingdom. Some of you are afraid to say it, like you know they're useless already. Tell them. No, you will not be useless. Even if you were useless in the past, you're becoming useful for the master's use.

Turn and tell them: you only become useful when you're relevant, when you're needed, when you're in position. Have you ever called somebody you know can help you and they said, no, the place is closed, I'm on leave? It's okay to be on vacation, but tell me who I can call to help me. When you just dismiss me, you're useless.

I know this is a different message this morning. Prophesy to yourself now: I am useful. I'm not a nice shiny Christian that serves no purpose in the kingdom of God. I'm useful. I'm precious, fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14), but useful. Lord, I thank you that you're raising me up to do wonders in this world. I thank you, Lord, that through my life many will give you praise and thanks, because you made me and placed me on my job, in my school, in that home. I'm useful, in Jesus' name. Amen.