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Breaking Cycles and Walking in Your New Identity
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Church, we live to an audience of one, and never forget that. It doesn't matter if the world loves you or hates you. If you live by man's approval, you will die by their criticism. So don't let that be a factor in your walk or in the way you do what God has called you to do. Just grab hold of it and go for it with everything you've got.
We don't intentionally want to upset people, of course not. But remember, the gospel does offend. The Bible says it offends. Why? Because it offends people's lifestyles. You cannot be a Christian and live a life that is the opposite of what Christ calls you to. Every time you sit under the Word, you'll feel that conviction. You'll be fighting. Your fence will constantly be taken. It might feel like, "They're always having a pop at me." But it's not.
It could be that the Holy Spirit is getting to work on certain things within your life, saying, "Look, you've been entered into the family of God now. You're part of the family of God. You've been adopted as a child into Christ's family. You're a brother, you're a sister, you're a son, you're a daughter. You don't do certain things anymore. Those things need to fall off you."
There can be a grace period when we first come to faith, but no one's perfect overnight. But let me tell you: if you've been a Christian for 5, 10, 15, 20 years and you're still doing the things that you once did when you were not a Christian, it's time to mature. It's time to say, "Okay, I need to deal with this area of my life."
It's not a case of letting the weight get on top of you, falling on the floor, not being able to get back up, being depressed, thinking "I'm such a rubbish Christian. I'm no good. I'll walk away." No. I'm going to face this head-on. I'm going to hit it head-on.
Why? Because our human flesh wants to do certain things. There are certain practices and ways that we have lived all our life. Imagine if you came to Christ when you were 40 or 50. You've lived your life for 40 or 50 years a certain way, and then all of a sudden you come to Christ. This new conscience—the Holy Spirit—starts to change you from the inside out. There are certain cycles and patterns, certain ways of life that you have been engrained in and always done. Now those things are being removed step by step. It's a process.
You are a new creation though. As we spoke last week or the week before: the old is gone and the new has come. When the Holy Spirit makes his home in you, it's time to say, "My old life needs to be my old life. It cannot keep reappearing in my new life because I'm a new creation. It must be put to bed. Kill it."
Remember: the flesh cannot destroy the flesh. But the spirit of God can defeat the flesh. The flesh cannot defeat the flesh, but the spirit can defeat the flesh. If we rely on our own strength, we will win some battles, but eventually we will fall again. And then the cycle begins again. What happens? We get depressed. We get, "I'm no good Christian. What am I doing?" And the enemy is winning day after day after day.
The enemy will stay dormant in your life. He'll stay quiet. He'll stay like a ninja, and when all of a sudden, at the right time—his perfect time—he'll jump out. "Got you again." And back into the cycle you go.
Who wins? Well, you're not winning. Christianity is not winning. God's not winning. God may still have you. You may still be adopted into his family. But you're not winning. You're not living your best life.
You know these books sometimes put out about "seven ways to live your best life now"? Usually they come from Christian prosperity-type preachers, and it frustrates me because there's no mention of persecution in any of these books. Actually, persecution is where the church grows the most.
If you go to China and want to talk about your best life now, if you go to a church in Pakistan and speak to them about seven steps to the best life, you'll realize it's different from the American dream that's been written about. We need a reality check at times. Our only dream should be kingdom dream. That's the only dream we need to be interested in: kingdom dream.
God is interested in you. When God means everything to us, it means those things that keep reappearing in our life—it's time to deal with them. It's time to kick them to the side and say, "Enough is enough. I cannot keep going here."
Why? Because the Bible says that a dog returns to his vomit. Church, you're not dogs. So don't keep returning to your old life. Don't keep going back there. It's just the enemy keeping you dragged in and keeping you placed back in that place.
For some of us, we need to hear that word today and we need to deal with it. For some of us, we need to take that on the chin and go, "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Holy Spirit speaking to me."
The only way any of us learn is if we're willing to accept our mistakes. The only way any of us learn is if we're willing to put our hands up and go, "Okay, that one's for me." I've been there. I've done it. As I always preach: you know that one-pointed finger? There's always three pointing back at me. So as I point one out, three come straight back at me. I preach to myself before I preach to anybody else.
Some of us in the room today might need to hear that and we might need to do something about it. If you've been a Christian for 12 months, ask yourself: "Am I still doing what I used to do 12 months ago? Where's the new creation?"
It's not just for those that have been Christians for 20 or 30 years and we've got it all together. No one's got it all together. We're all on a journey, but don't give the devil a helping hand. Break some of those cycles in your life that need breaking. We got to fight. We got to fight. We're too quick to give up, let the enemy knock us down, stand on top of us, rub our face in the dirt, and just accept it. We got to fight back.
Let me take us to the Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus 23:41-43:
"You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for 7 days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for 7 days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths. That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God."
The Feast of Tabernacles was one of the great feasts. At this time, the Israelites are looking back to the Exodus—when God pulled them out of Egypt. At the same time, it's the end of harvest and the start of the winter rains were about to come.
In far eastern times, many people used to worship the land, the seasons, the soil, the earth. But this feast did a great shift. It's no longer worshipping the creation, but worshipping the one that created the creation. It's worshipping the one that created the land—the one true God.
The feast lasts seven days. Day one is literally a day of rest—a Sabbath. Then they go out and collect branches from four different types of trees. They make these fragile structures—booths—to remind them of the Israelites of the past, when they came out of Egypt. How they lived in temporary accommodation. How they lived in these temporary booths. How they lived outside and ate outside. All these things happen for seven days.
God commanded them to be full of joy. Deuteronomy 16 says:
"You shall observe the feast of tabernacles 7 days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your wine press. And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates. 7 days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses. Because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hand, so that you surely rejoice."
God commands them: you must rejoice. This is a season—a week-long rejoicing. They would sing songs, they would sing psalms from Psalm 113 to 118. They would be singing and chanting throughout the week in celebration.
This feast involved animal sacrifice. There were so many sacrifices. On the final day they would sacrifice seven bulls and a goat was sacrificed every day—about 12 lambs every day. I think it was 98 lambs over the seven days that were sacrificed. Then you've got goat sacrifice, bulls. All this blood sacrifice is taking place. Our God—we're coming, we're making a sacrifice. It's all of me loves all of you, a little bit like the song that we spoke this morning.
As the feast evolved over time, new practices came into it. Around 600 years before Jesus, they started adding what we call the water rituals. The priests would go with a jar down to the pool of Siloam, and they would dip it in. Then they would walk back up to the temple gates, go through the water gate, walk around the altar one time, and then pour the water on the altar along with the wine as a sacrifice.
This happened every morning of the feast until the seventh day, when the priest would go down and do this seven times. Seven times he goes around the altar, seven times he pours the water on the altar.
The Sadducees and the Pharisees—these two groups of religious people—would argue over this practice. The Sadducees said, "This is not in the Torah. This extra ritual that you've started is not in the Torah. We shouldn't do it." But the Pharisees said, "No, this shows the world how much we depend upon God. This is beautiful. At a time when we need water, we pour a water offering on the altar." It took on its place, and that's what it became.
They also had a practice called the illumination. They had these 75-foot candles. They put them in the women's court. It was to illuminate. You could see it from a distance. You could see it from far.
Remember the story about Jesus in John chapter 8? After the feast, he walks into the temple gate. He comes across a woman that has committed adultery, and they're ready to stone her. He draws a line in the ground and says, "Whoever of you has not sinned, you cast the first stone." And everybody, one by one, they start to step away and walk away.
That was the day after the Feast of Tabernacles. Those big lights, those big candles had just been in that same temple court. And Jesus' words in John 8 were: "I am the light of the world." He knew what he was doing in that moment. That light was there as a symbolizing form, remembering the fire at night that had guided the Israelites through Egypt. Jesus was literally saying: I am that light.
Now, go back just a day or a couple of days earlier, on the final day of the feast. We get John chapter 7:
"On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out."
You know what's different? Rabbis in Jewish time used to sit and talk when they taught. They sat and they talked. Jesus stood and cried. The Greek word for cry literally means to scream, to screech. He made himself known. This was on the last day.
What's happening on the last day? Silence is happening. Rest is coming. The climax has come. It is not a time when all the kids are running around and everyone's making noise. No, it's silence. And Jesus stands tall and cries out:
"If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink."
He's using these words. He's just been part of this seven-day feast where they're pouring water on the altar, going down to the pool of Siloam, crying out to God and saying, "God, will you send the winter rain so that Israel, the nation, can continue to thrive? We need it. We've just gone through the dry season. We need the rain to come."
And Jesus says:
"If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
But this was spoken concerning the spirit whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Jesus had not yet died and risen again. The Holy Spirit, the counselor, had been left for his people. Jesus said, "I will not leave you as orphans."
The last day, Jesus decides to make a scene. The last day, Jesus knew what he was doing. He knew what he was doing. The people around him straight away associated this water being poured on the altar. They were crying out to God, and Jesus stands up on the last day and said the very prayers that you've been praying.
I remember Psalm 113 to 118. I think Psalm 118 has one particular line that they would cry out, and it was: "Lord, save us." Like, "Yahweh, save us." And Jesus stands up and says the very prayers that you've been praying. The very very things that you're crying out for—I am he. I am the answer to all those things. I am the one.
Zechariah, the prophet, he spoke about the Messiah and he said:
"In that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem. Half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea in both summer and winter it shall occur."
He was speaking of the Messiah and he said that living water shall flow from Jerusalem.
Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 13. This is Yahweh, God of the Old Testament:
"For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. And hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water."
What does God call himself? Yahweh calls himself the fountain of living waters. The fountain of living waters.
Jeremiah 17:
"Oh Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be ashamed. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters."
Back to John 7. The fountain that Yahweh calls himself—the fountain of living waters. Jesus is comfortable literally saying, "I'm the fountain of living waters." If you thirst, come to me. I am the fountain.
I spoke earlier at the front about breaking cycles and making changes. If you are that person or people that need to make that step—if you need to take this on the chin, if you need to get going, if you need to get serious—it's only in Christ that any of this can be made possible.
You can't work it up. If you work it yourself, that's why you keep failing at it. Because the flesh cannot defeat the flesh. It's the spirit of God that can defeat the flesh. So the same cycle that you go round in, the same practices that you keep going and returning back to—as the proverb says, it's because you try in your own strength. It's because you try with your own flesh, and it's not possible. You will keep failing.
Now, at the same time, I have to be honest. I'm a former drug addict. Being saved from drugs, turning my back on drug addiction, turning my back on crime—it doesn't make God real because many people that have been drug addicts have turned their back on drugs without giving glory to God, without turning to faith. Just by stopping drugs doesn't make God real.
But I can tell you that it made him more real to me. Because I know what it was like when I was in my pit. I know what it was like when I no longer wanted to live. I know what it was like when I gave my life to Jesus and said, "All I can say is it's like living waters like a fountain just poured upon me and everything changed."
Like my eyes could see clearly. The flowers—I was never bothered about creation. I've never been into flowers or anything like that. But the day after I gave my life to Jesus, I'm like skipping down the road. It's like: Drugs, who needs drugs? Gang, crime, who needs that? Roses are really beautiful. Everything just changed.
Now that happened because these living waters, these living waters from Jesus, he promises that when he was glorified, the Holy Spirit will come live inside of us. Now those living waters can flow from us as well. They can come out of us through the spirit of God.
This is when you give your life to Jesus. In your own strength, you can try and try and try to deal with stuff. Some things you can deal with, but the thing is, the enemy will always lay dormant. He'll always stay there quiet, ready to pounce if he's not truly rooted up and kicked out.
I don't believe that your temple—your body—I don't believe the Holy Spirit would share that space with another. So I personally believe: if you're a believer in this room, a follower of Jesus, a Christian, and the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, any kind of demonic oppression—I would say that's oppression from the outside. I wouldn't say that's demonic possession.
I do believe that as the Greek word demonized means to be oppressed from the outside, I do believe that many Christians, maybe in this room today, are oppressed from the enemy. They're chained. They've given the enemy a legal right to step in and start to mess up parts and areas of your life.
But God can deal with that. The enemy has no legal right when you've given yourself to Christ. Why? Because you've been adopted into the family of Jesus. You now have new rights.
Remember when Paul was put into Roman chains and he says, "I was born a Roman citizen"? Like, you can't do that. Soon as they found out, "Get those chains off him quickly. Get them off him." Why? Because he had rights. We have rights as citizens of heaven.
We have rights, and we don't need to keep putting up with the same trash that you've been putting up with for year on year on year on year. You don't need to put up with it. Why? Because you've got rights. You were adopted into the family of Christ.
That addiction that once held you has no right on you anymore. That struggle—it has no right on you anymore. You don't belong to the world anymore. You belong to Christ. The old is gone and the new has come. You are a new creation.
We live at times with a victim mentality. We keep ourselves in this place—a victim mode. We keep ourselves in this place of attack. Don't stay in a place like that any longer than you need to be. The moment you gave your life to Christ, you should step out of that place and start to walk in your new identity, your new way.
What is it that God says? What is it that the enemy will do? He will always attack your identity. Why? Because when you know who you are in Christ, everything changes. Everything changes.
So Jesus, when he was baptized, what happened? The Father opens up heaven. The Father says, "This is my son whom I love." Then the spirit led Jesus into the wilderness and the enemy came to test him for 40 days. And what was the first thing the enemy says? "If you are the son of God, turn this stone into bread."
The Father said, "This is my son, whom I love. With him I am well pleased." In the very next breath, the enemy steps in: "If you are the son of God."
The enemy will always come at your identity. He will always come to pull down your identity. Why? Because a shaky identity, a cracked identity, will leave you going into those murky waters that you don't want to be in. Because when water gets into the ship, the ship starts to go down.
We are no longer what we used to be. You are not your past. You are not what anyone ever once spoke over you. That is not who you are. The moment you came to Christ, your identity changed, your rights changed, everything changed.
And out of you will flow living waters, too. Out of you, revival is what we want to see in this nation.
What is revival? Revival means something must be dead. Something must be dead for it to be revived. You were lost and then you were found. You were dead, but then you were made alive. Revival came in your individual life the moment you gave your life to Jesus. Everything changed. Everything changed. You no longer have to be that old man. You're a new creation. Revival came. Revival came in your life.
But this world needs revival. What this world doesn't need is another political party. What our nation doesn't need is another political party. Our nation needs Jesus.
When there was an issue in an area, what did God do? He rose up people. When there was an issue in the book of Daniel, he rose up Daniel. When there was an issue with the Jews—when there was going to be a wiping out of all the Jews—who did he rise up? Esther rose up.
We can go through the Bible. In every situation, when we focus our thoughts on the political state of this country and everything else, we start to go into the flesh. I find myself at times focusing too much on the things that are happening around me. It's like I've started to let the world tell me what is needed. I've let the world speak into this issue. It's a mistake.
I don't look at the newspaper through the world's eyes. I need to look at the newspaper through Holy Spirit eyes. Out of me comes living waters. Everything changed when I gave my life to Christ.
So what I see in the Bible—and this is why I don't think we need to be worried about what's going on out there—is this: when God's people have walked away from him, when they've disobeyed him, when they've made God second, when they've forgotten about God, when they've grumbled about him and turned from him—God brought their enemies to bring judgment upon them.
A little bit like what the UK has done. We have turned our back on God in many different ways. I think the church is experiencing judgment right now. I think our nation is experiencing judgment because of our turning away from God.
So I'm not worried. I'm looking forward to the end result. But that requires us—the church, the people—to wake up and turn to Christ, to get on our knees and say, "Father, forgive us. Forgive us our land. Restore."
You see, I think there's a wake-up happening in the church up and down this nation right now. I'm seeing loads of people get talking online. I've seen loads of these young evangelists going out on the street and debating. I'm seeing loads of this just spread out from nowhere. I think the church is waking up.
Where persecution came in the Bible, the church grew. Don't be worried about what's happening in this world. Trust and know God is in control. And all you've got to be worried about is: Were you adopted into the family of Christ, or have you not yet chosen Christ?
Because whether you believe it or not, Christ is Lord. Christ is real. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. And one day he's coming back for his church. And when he comes, he wants to find faith on the earth.
Firstly, everything that we do, our motivation, our talk—it must be from a place of love. If it's not from that foundation of love, don't ever entertain it.
My heart genuinely wants to see all people come to Christ because I know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. I have no hate for any other religion. I have no hate for any other people or ideology. I have no hate for people or individuals. I genuinely love them that much. I want to help save them. I want to see many Muslims come to faith in Christ—not because I want my gang to be bigger than your gang, but because I know that Jesus is the way. I know that he's the way. I know he's not just a prophet. I know he's not just a good man. I know that living water has flowed out of him. I know that when I gave my life to him, everything changed. Revival came in my life.
The Church Must Stand Up
Church, for too long, for too long, the church in this country has been silent. For too long, the church in this country has allowed people to take ground.
So when it comes time to stand, we stand. Just like Jesus. In their day, the rabbi sat and talked. But Jesus says, "Hmm, that ain't needed right now. What's needed is for me to stand and shout." And there comes a time when sometimes we've got to stand and shout.
If there's anyone in this room today that doesn't know Jesus as Lord and Savior, but today you say, "I want to know this Jesus that you speak about": The Bible says:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whosoever believes on him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
Our word, the Bible, tells us also:
"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life."
And this is why Jesus went to the cross. He went and paid a penalty that you could not pay because mankind cannot pay the penalty that was needed. But Jesus—a sinless man and yet fully God—he came and died upon a cross.
It wasn't fear that put him there. It wasn't being commanded that put him there. It was the love of the Father and the love of each and every one of you that caused him to get up on that cross and bear the stripes for each and every one of us. But it was the power of God that rose him from the dead. It was the power of God that rose him three days later.
And his promise was that he would leave the Holy Spirit for each and every one that believed on him and called on him. And so the Holy Spirit makes his home in you, and that's where the change begins.
If there's anyone in this room that says, "I want to know this Jesus that you talk about. I need to give my life to him," while every head is bowed and every eye closed: would you just raise your hand for me?
