Format the Hard Drive and Command the Churches to Grow

Sermon outline

Believers pull down the strongholds in their own thinking and then, as people of prophecy, pray and speak growth, healing and provision over the church, the city and the nation.

1. Pull down strongholds and lead every thought captive

   Insecurity, feeling unloved when someone does not greet you, and fear when finances dip are small strongholds left over from the past, and they are only strategies of the devil. Nobody else can see what is going on in your head, so you and you alone must bring your thoughts captive. Get the word into you, format the hard drive, rewrite the old DVD with who you are in Christ, and speak to your bank account as a new creation.

   Illustration: Like a computer, you format the hard drive and take out the junk. A husband says one thing and a wife presses rewind on the old DVD, so she must rewrite it: 'I have a wonderful husband.' Leading thoughts captive is like going to gym and getting rid of the excess fat.

   “For too long we've been living a low life, we've been called to a high life in God.”

   • 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
   • Romans 8:37
   • 2 Peter 1:3
   • 1 Timothy 4:7

2. Welcome the Holy Spirit, the builder of the church

   He leads the people to worship the Holy Spirit, who loves them, wants to walk and talk with them and wants them to talk to Him. He thanks the Lord that He separated and consecrated them for the Master's use and that the Holy Spirit is building the church, adding daily. He declares that fifties are becoming hundreds and hundreds thousands, not by might nor by power but by the Spirit.

   “Thank you precious precious Holy Spirit, you are the builder of the church.”

   • 2 Timothy 2:21
   • Acts 2:47
   • 1 Peter 1:23
   • Zechariah 4:6
   • 2 Timothy 1:7

3. Words of healing in the meeting

   While they worship he calls out healings he sees for particular conditions and has those people lay hands where the pain is. He then prays for everyone present with any condition, rebuking and cancelling pain, sickness and disease in the name of Jesus.

   “I rebuke that pain. I cancel that pain. I cancel that sickness. I cancel that disease.”

4. Covering the pastors, leaders and every family

   He prays for the leaders of the wider ministry family and their churches, then for the church's own pastors, cell leaders, ushers, deacons, security team and praise and worship leaders. He covers every man, woman and child with the blood of Jesus, prophesies that they are made rich, strong and protected, and prays against premature death.

   “We cover them with the blood of Jesus, we pray the glory of the Lord upon them, we prophesy over their lives.”

   • Psalm 91:16

5. We are the people of prophecy: you have no choice but to grow

   He has the church face each branch church in turn, Phoenix, Merebank, Richards Bay and Umlazi, point towards it and command it to grow, calling for people from the east, west, north and south and for the churches to burst at the seams. He prays for the coming miracle crusades and for the pastors by name, and teaches that when they pray the unseen world is more real than the seen, so the angels now have to do what needs to be done.

   Illustration: Nobody can agree which way Merebank lies from the church, and he laughs that the Spirit of God will have to help them, before the teenagers point the way.

   “When we pray, you know the unseen world is more real than the seen world.”

   • Luke 13:29

6. Labourers and resources for the harvest

   God adds numbers when the leaders grow, because He will not give a harvest to a church with nobody to handle it. He prays for labourers, men, women and young people, for those being held back to be released, and for the finances and dedicated, loyal people needed to support the vision. He then lifts up every home cell area by name and asks for grace, wisdom and anointing on each home cell leader so that the cells grow into churches.

   Illustration: A senior minister told him that morning, 'Get ready. God's given you 10,000.'

   “God cannot give us if we do not have people to handle the harvest.”

   • Matthew 9:38

7. Partakers of the grace on the ministry

   Because the church sows into the work of the wider ministry, it shares in the grace on that ministry, as Paul told the believers they were partakers of his grace. A pastor's testimony of a major contract the morning after a word was spoken shows that grace working, so they cannot lose and cannot be poor. He prays for a minister about to go and plant churches in the United States, and declares that they are growing, strong, the head and not the tail.

   “There's a grace on the ministry. And then there's a grace on our church.”

   • Philippians 1:7
   • Deuteronomy 28:13
   • Romans 8:28

8. Praying for the nation and taking the city

   He prays for the healing of those still waiting for a manifestation and for the jobless to be employed, saying 'let the weak say I am strong.' He prays for the president and deputy president, the ministers, the province and Durban, the army, air force, navy and police, and for the ports of entry to be kept from terrorists and drugs, and against the evil of pornography. He prays for Sunday's service, covers every home with the blood and declares that Durban is theirs.

   “You have given us Durban, Lord. We'll take it, Lord.”

   • Joel 3:10
   • 1 Timothy 2:1-2
   • Psalm 23:6

9. Built by the Spirit, it will stand

   After the prophetic song and words from others, he brings a prophetic word that what is built by the wisdom of the Spirit, and not of man, will stand through every wind of adversity because the Holy Spirit is its architect. He tells them not to go crazy when God is about to move but to buckle up and keep their eyes on Jesus, and that they compete with nobody, only with the goal and vision God has given them.

   Illustration: He tells how a minister began a church in Johannesburg with about twenty people that grew to thousands, so they cannot be small.

   “Anything that's constructed and built by the Spirit will stand in the spiritual realm.”