In March 2014 I was given the incredible opportunity to travel to India with the Encounter school of mission, it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
One of the highlights of the trip was the experience of preaching alongside the incredible Ricky Walker in the mountains to local church leaders
Below is an edited version of the talk I wrote, its different from what we said as we were literally deciding what we wanted to say right up until the point that we got up to speak
—————————————————————————————————-
Identity
Good morning everyone, can I begin by thanking you all for the warm greeting that I and the rest of the team have received, epically within this church your warm greetings and kindness have touched my heart. I would also like to thank Joe and commend his courage in letting me speak to you today, the rest of the team from Ireland will know that allowing me a microphone is a very courageous thing…..
Allow me to share briefly some of my story: I was brought up in a Christian household with parents who loved Jesus and really encouraged me in my early walk with Jesus, I gave my life to god when I was around 15 years old.
My early thoughts of what being a Christian meant was that I was expected to sit at the front of church every week, make notes on the sermon and be a good person. I spent time reading my bible but I didn’t really take it in and I definitely didn’t apply it to my life.
Throughout my teenage years I simply treaded water, I just floated around being a good, moral person and not much else. In my early 20’s I went to university and still maintained my morality however I lost touch with reading the bible and actually spending time with God. before my final year at university I was involved in a large car crash which left me on life support for two and a half weeks and in hospital for a total of 8. During that time in hospital I had a vast number of people praying for me, however not once did I pray myself or did I read my bible or anything like that.
I was angry at God, I had been a good person and now this had happened, after I got out of hospital and had begun my recovery I decided to go to church, not because I wanted to spend time with god but because the people had treated me well and I thought I should say thank you to them.
When I went back a friend of mine invited me to try a different church with her, the vineyard and so again being a good person I said yes and I went along and I’m so thankful I did.
It’s there I began to learn that I was living a Christian life that wasn’t what Jesus had intended for me, I begun to realise that there was so much more to the gospel that Jesus being a good person, I realised that the reason I only wanted to be a good person is because I didn’t see myself as worth of doing what Jesus did when he healed the sick, and performed miracles. I began to change my mindset so that I could release heavens authority through my speech and actions…. I always heard it said that once you allow Jesus to come into your life fully, it’s a wild adventure and as I stand here now in front of you all and look back over the last week It’s definitely been an adventure
Today I want to talk to you all about how I began to understand my god given identity through three areas of my own life.
Discovering who we are in Christ is so important, can you imagine if Jesus hadn’t have realised his identity ? If Jesus had’ve looked at the Old Testament prophets and felt unworthy, if he had of felt the same way that I did when I looked at him, everything would have been different, and heaven would not have been released in the powerful ways it was throughout Jesus life.
In John 14:12 Jesus tells us, truly truly I say to you whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do because I am going to father.
Once you discover your identity, you become dangerous to the enemy……
How can we not be dangerous to the enemy when we have the power and the authority to do greater works than Jesus!?!
The problem for most Christians however is that like I was, we get stuck with the dangerous label, where we have the potential to be warriors for Christ but never realise it, the sword that god has given us to defeat the plans of the enemy, mentioned in Ephesians 6, becomes an ornament and nothing else.
We are built to be more than dangerous to the enemy, we are built to be more than journeymen, we are built to proclaim the name of Jesus and take back ALL that the enemy has stolen……..
The first area of our lives we need to take back is our mindset……
We’ve been in India now for around a week and I can safely say it has given me the worst neck pains of my life, as every few seconds I seen something else that grabs my attention and I am constantly looking all around me, i couldn’t tell you how many photographs I’ve already taken, the vast majority being of things that you all would take for granted or as part of everyday life, for instance I have a photo of what I can only assume is a motorbike however there is so much stuff packed on it I genuinely can’t confirm 100% that is what it is !
In Ireland some traditional churches would close their service by reciting the Lord’s Prayer… Let’s look at part of that prayer
Matthew 6:9-10 our father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will will be done on earth as it is in Heaven
In this section were inviting heaven to invade earth, what would happen if that actually occurred? We’d seeing Healing’s, people speaking in tongues, people falling over and best of all I wouldn’t need to say anymore, I would be able to go sit down and enjoy all that god was providing.
The problem is we say this prayer and don’t really expect anything to happen or to change, even though something has, it has to have, you can’t invite heaven into a room and not see anything change, with that in mind, I believe that God has healed some of you in this room right now, heaven is here so healing must have happened. Can we take a minute and try doing something you couldn’t do before and I’m sure we will see some people having been healed……
God is good!!!
Our earthly mindset tells us that absolutely nothing will happen when we invite heaven into the room, however our heavenly mindset tells us different
Romans 12:2 says and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
By changing our mindset and knowing that God does show up and with him his love, mercy and grace we can prove not only to others but also to ourselves what the will of God is.
Our minds are a battlefield and the enemy will try so hard to keep our minds set on earth rather than heaven, we will all have those days where we feel like we just should’ve stayed in bed, where everything we touch seems to go wrong and our mind begins to get over burdened with the concerns or everyday life, and suddenly we no longer feel like we have the time or energy to have heaven invade earth…… Let me encourage you now that in those moments to renew your spirit and look again to heaven, to invite heaven to invade not only your life but the lives of the people who discourage you, who put you down, who make your blood boil !! When you do that, even though the enemy is really attacking your day, suddenly you turn from being a dangerous Christian into a warrior clothed with the armour of their identity!
Now I know that when I first heard that I needed to renew my mind I loved the ides of it but had absolutely no idea how to begin to do that, the biggest mind renewal I had went though at this stage was realising I would not be a professional footballer !
I knew I had to start somewhere and where I picked was my speech.
Speech is such a massive weapon not only for God but also for the enemy
The enemy knows how much power our words carry and so attacks in different form, for some he creates in us a mindset of negative language, of putting people down, of criticism, while to others like myself he tries to rob us of our speech, he creates fear that we aren’t worthy, that we have no right to be heard.
1peter 4:11 whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles(authority) of God whoever serves as one who served by the strength that god supplies – in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen
This verse shows us that when we speak the words of God we are glorifying him and through that we are inviting his kingdom to rest upon us in our words and in those around us.
Can you see why the enemy focuses on speech ! We give glory to god through it, we invite his kingdom in it! What happens when we invite gods kingdom!!! GREAT THINGS HAPPEN ! GOD IS GOOD
By this stage that ornamental sword, is now a mighty blade, sharpened and not only ready to be used, but it’s eager to be used !!!
When I had my mindset of not being worthy to preform the will of god I kept quiet I didn’t speak because I didn’t feel worthy, I needed a renewed mindset and once I began to do that I began to speak the will of god and once I began to do that Jesus began to show up and change my life, those around me lives
Finally our actions,
James 2:14 what good is at my brothers is someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
This is a verse that should shake you, it shook me ! I spent my early Christian life having faith and being a good person but doing no actions, of course don’t get me wrong I still held doors open for people on crutches, I was polite to shop keepers and all those sorts of things but these are not the types of actions that James is talking about, you see instead of just holding doors for people on crutches I know now I should take the time to ask to pray for their healing, that not only should I be politely to the shopkeeper but I should thank them for the service they provide, through my speech I should invite heavens joy.
Faith is dangerous to the enemy, faith has the potential to wreck all the plans of the enemy, faith can take back absolutely everything the enemy has stolen!
Faith is knowing that god can heal that person with a broken arm, faith is watching the news about sex trafficking and knowing god can change that, faith is finding family life tough but knowing that things can get better…… Actions are praying for healing, actions are campo gaining against trafficking, actions are spending time with your family and working through the hard stuff….
Actions are holding the spiritual sword, looking the enemy straight in the enemy and saying NO TO YOUR PLANS!
It isn’t always going to be easy to speak and to act in a way that honours god and those around us, and that’s where the renewing of our mind is so important.
When I was a young Christian I was happy to be dangerous to the enemy, to sit in church with my notes….. Now that I fully know my identity in Christ, I don’t want to just be dangerous, I want heaven to invade every area of my life so that I can enable heaven to invade absolutely everything around me….
I want to be more than dangerous to the enemy
I believe today that Jesus wants to come into our mind, that he wants to renew it and begin to show you all new ways of inviting heaven into every day situations
———————————————————————————————————————–
As always thanks for reading and thank you to everyone who helped me get to India, prayed for the team and I while we were away and of course to the amazing team i got to spend two incredible weeks with.