Episode 46
A Kingdom Forward People
This powerful message dives into Matthew 11 and exposes the truth many believers forget: the Kingdom of Heaven is under assault, but we are called to advance it with holy passion, fierce devotion, and unshakable courage.
John the Baptist wrestled with doubt in the darkness, yet Jesus reminded him—and us—that the Kingdom is advancing even when it feels like hell is resisting. This is your rallying cry to push back, rise up, and move forward with radical obedience, prophetic boldness, and surrendered hearts.
In this video, Glenn Bleakney unpacks the meaning of “the violent take it by force,” explores insights from early church fathers, and releases a prophetic challenge for believers to become a Kingdom-forward people—a remnant marked by hunger, holiness, and spiritual tenacity.
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker A:So we're calling this kingdom forward.
Speaker A:Kingdom forward.
Speaker A:And one of the.
Speaker A:The things that I love about this passage which we're going to look at is this call to advance the kingdom of God.
Speaker A:That's on the church.
Speaker A:Okay, so we're going to start reading Matthew 11, starting at verse two through six, and then we'll jump down.
Speaker A:So it starts in verse two.
Speaker A:And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, are you the coming one, or do we look for another?
Speaker A:Jesus answered and said to them, go and tell John the things which you hear and see.
Speaker A:Notice that hear and see, the blind see and the lame walk.
Speaker A:The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Speaker A:Blessed is he who's not offended or who does not fall.
Speaker A:The Greek word scandalizo, it means a trap.
Speaker A:You're not made to stumble or fall.
Speaker A:Because obviously what John was dealing with was doubt in the darkness.
Speaker A:The same one that had proclaimed, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world has now been arrested for his boldness, his faithfulness, his tenacity.
Speaker A:And he's in prison and he's doubting, are you the One?
Speaker A:Has this all been in vain, or should we expect someone else?
Speaker A:Maybe I got it wrong.
Speaker A:Maybe I pointed to the wrong guy.
Speaker A:But Jesus responds, and he says, look at the signs.
Speaker A:We know that John was the greatest prophet, but he was Old Testament.
Speaker A:And those who are in the kingdom, it actually says greater than John.
Speaker A:The least in the kingdom was greater than John.
Speaker A:And John never performed any miracles.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:Because Messiah came with a specific mandate and the credentials.
Speaker A:Acts 2.
Speaker A:22 says his credentials were signs, wonders, and miracles.
Speaker A:So what happens is now we see Messiah bursting onto the scene.
Speaker A:Signs, wonders, miracles.
Speaker A:The forerunner prepared the way.
Speaker A:And specifically, his calling was not to be in the spotlight.
Speaker A:He's not the one.
Speaker A:When they asked him, are you the one?
Speaker A:No, not me.
Speaker A:I'm just the one who's to prepare the way.
Speaker A:That's my role.
Speaker A:That's my job.
Speaker A:And so here he is, and he's struggling and he's vacillating and he's doubting.
Speaker A:So then we jump down to verse number 11.
Speaker A:Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women, there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist, as I mentioned, but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Speaker A:All right, here's the verse we want to zero in on.
Speaker A:Verse 12.
Speaker A:And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent.
Speaker A:Take it by force.
Speaker A:From the days of John the Baptist until the present, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent.
Speaker A:Take it by force.
Speaker A:Now, there's a lot here.
Speaker A:There's a lot here.
Speaker A:I'm going to try to keep this super short.
Speaker A:Now what we want to understand here is that John, in this place of darkness, in this place where he's incarcerated, he's locked up, he's doubting, he's struggling.
Speaker A:Was it worth it?
Speaker A:Did I really hear God?
Speaker A:Hello?
Speaker A:Have you ever been there?
Speaker A:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker A:And so he's actually going, what's this?
Speaker A:What's this?
Speaker A:And so what happens is he actually wants an explanation, but Jesus gives him a revelation.
Speaker A:John thinks prison means the kingdom isn't moving.
Speaker A:But Jesus said the kingdom is moving so powerfully that hell had to lock him up to shut him down.
Speaker A:The metrics in modern day Christianity.
Speaker A:Come on guys, we need to get back to the word.
Speaker A:2nd Timothy 3:12.
Speaker A:Yea, and everyone who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
Speaker A:When's the last time you heard that preached?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:If you are standing for the truth, if your heart is pure and your heart is undivided and it's fully God and you're standing for the truth, you will not be popular.
Speaker A:And not just in the world, even in the church with certain people.
Speaker A:For those who are lukewarm, those who are half hearted, those who compromise because you are a contradiction, you are a confrontation.
Speaker A:But we are called to be a people of tenacity, a people of boldness, a people of character, a people of conviction.
Speaker A:So Jesus sends the message.
Speaker A:Basically what he's saying is, John, you didn't miss it.
Speaker A:The kingdom is not failing, it's advancing so powerfully that hell had to lock you up just to shut you down.
Speaker A:Yeah, this is what's happening.
Speaker A:And so then Jesus is declaring, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, but the violent take it by force.
Speaker A:This is one of the most difficult verses in the Bible to interpret.
Speaker A:Can I just say that in fact, over the years there are various English translations that have actually changed their original interpretation.
Speaker A:Now if you look at this, I don't want to get too technical, but any Bible nerds in here, There's a word here in Greek that's a very powerful term.
Speaker A:It's biasitai and bieazatai means to suffer violence.
Speaker A:But it can also mean to forcefully advance or press forward and it depends on what voice the Greek is in.
Speaker A:Okay, so the idea.
Speaker A:The problem is we're not really sure what voice it is because the present tense doesn't always make that clear.
Speaker A:So it's.
Speaker A:It's a.
Speaker A:The present tense doesn't always make it clear what the voice is.
Speaker A:Am I getting a little too technical?
Speaker A:So it's either passive or it's middle.
Speaker A:Middle means simply this.
Speaker A:We are the ones who are called to be violent and advance the kingdom.
Speaker A:Passive means the kingdom is suffering violence.
Speaker A:It's being assailed, it's being attacked.
Speaker A:Most scholars believe that the context for this actually favors the fact that the kingdom of God is being assaulted by hell.
Speaker A:So I know we don't like that because we've heard it preached.
Speaker A:The kingdom of heaven, you know, suffers violence, but the violent take it by force.
Speaker A:It preaches so well.
Speaker A:But if it's not exegetically sound, I'm sorry, you just need to find another passage to preach.
Speaker A:That's actually biblical.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Sorry, I'm a bit of a nerd that way.
Speaker A:But the fact is, what he's saying here, it isn't a stretch to actually say it can mean both.
Speaker A:The primary meaning, particularly of the kingdom suffering violence seems to be that of passive.
Speaker A:The kingdom is being attacked.
Speaker A:But he also says the violent take it by force, that it's a similar word.
Speaker A:It's biastai.
Speaker A:And biastai means violent aggressors or attackers.
Speaker A:It can also mean forceful, zealous ones.
Speaker A:And so the idea here is there are those who attack the kingdom, but then there's those that passionately pursue the kingdom and they take it by force.
Speaker A:This word means to seize, to snatch, to take by force.
Speaker A:And it's used by hostile seizure or determined claiming.
Speaker A:Hostile seizure or determined claiming.
Speaker A:So the context determines whether it's hostile or passionate.
Speaker A:Okay, so if you study, and this is always worth your while to study, what the early church fathers had to say about this.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Well, actually, they interpret it both ways.
Speaker A:So that's why for me to say that this verse actually means the kingdom is being assaulted, it's being attacked.
Speaker A:But on the other hand, we as God's people have to respond in a way of aggression to lay hold of the kingdom in order to advance it and to be part of what God's doing.
Speaker A:So many of us sit back passionately.
Speaker A:I'm sorry, passively, not passionately, waiting for God to do something, when the Bible is so clear right here that we must advance the kingdom through our passion.
Speaker A:The kingdom is being assaulted, but the violent Take it by force.
Speaker A:The violent.
Speaker A:Take it by force.
Speaker A:What is happening is we see violence comes from earthly powers, religious spirits, demonic agendas, cultural opposition.
Speaker A:But the early Church Fathers, take for example Chrysostom, he said this.
Speaker A:Where the kingdom is sown, there the violent rise against it.
Speaker A:Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin, the vulgite, said the violent are those who attack the kingdom, persecutors like Herod and the Pharisees.
Speaker A:Augustine said, persecutors try to seize the kingdom, though they understand it not.
Speaker A:But interestingly, these same Church Fathers spoke of the positive aspect of the kingdom as well.
Speaker A:Chrysostom says this, the violent are also those who by force break the chains of their sins and hasten into the kingdom.
Speaker A:Origen said, the one who's fervent, eager, burning with desire that one seizes the kingdom.
Speaker A:Jerome, once again, his words are, the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who seize it with burning zeal.
Speaker A:So both of them actually converge.
Speaker A:This is not a contradiction.
Speaker A:Both actually converge.
Speaker A:The kingdom is being attacked from the outside by hostile forces.
Speaker A:But we have to enter the kingdom from the inside by being forceful and passionate and pursuing the things of God.
Speaker A:So let's look at John.
Speaker A:John, the one who laid down his life, the one who prepared the way for Jesus.
Speaker A:You know, the most amazing thing about John was he was a Baptist.
Speaker A:He wasn't even Pentecostal because it wasn't a Pentecostal church yet.
Speaker A:That just proves the Baptist came first, right?
Speaker A:I'm just kidding.
Speaker A:Forgive me, I had to throw that in.
Speaker A:So John is the one who exemplifies what it means to respond with aggression, to respond with kingdom violence.
Speaker A:When being attacked and assaulted by the enemy, he shows us how to respond.
Speaker A:John's life was a life of radical obedience.
Speaker A:Yeah, radical obedience.
Speaker A:When God called him and he was in the wilderness, he didn't try to negotiate.
Speaker A:He said, oh God, you know, I'm available on this day and next month or next year, I'm available.
Speaker A:No, no, he didn't negotiate with God.
Speaker A:He said, okay, God will do whatever you call me.
Speaker A:Radical obedience.
Speaker A:All in.
Speaker A:Secondly, prophetic boldness.
Speaker A:He confronted Herod's adultery, knowing it would cost him everything.
Speaker A:But he nevertheless, he did it.
Speaker A:Thirdly, self denying surrender.
Speaker A:He said, I must decrease so that he can increase self denying surrender.
Speaker A:And lastly, he had a fierce focus.
Speaker A:He did one thing with such intensity that his joy was complete.
Speaker A:What do I mean by that?
Speaker A:What I mean by that, guys, is single hearted devotion to Jesus.
Speaker A:We shared this morning.
Speaker A:The Bible tells us in Psalm 119, verse 32, it says this.
Speaker A:Lord, I run in the ways of your commandments.
Speaker A:When you enlarge my heart, there's a place, Psalm 86, 11, where God says, the psalmist cries out, he says, unite my heart to fear you.
Speaker A:One translation says, give me an undivided heart.
Speaker A:That's really not the best translation in the Hebrew.
Speaker A:The idea is this fragmented, scattered, you know, all of these different things in our lives.
Speaker A:We've got this over here, we're there.
Speaker A:We've got one foot in the world, we've got one foot in the kingdom, one foot compromised, one foot where we're trying to obey God.
Speaker A:And then David cries out and he says, no, no, no, God, I see this, I see this fragmented.
Speaker A:I see this in my life.
Speaker A:Now bring it together.
Speaker A:Give me this heart that's single, this heart that's yours.
Speaker A:Help me not to be enticed.
Speaker A:Help me not to be deceived.
Speaker A:Help me not to be distracted.
Speaker A:Help me not to be seduced by the things of the world.
Speaker A:Paul said that in 2nd Corinthians 11, he said, I pray that you would have single hearted devotion to Christ.
Speaker A:Just like a chaste virgin is what he says, your heart would be his fully.
Speaker A:So there's this call to radical obedience, fierce focus, deep consecration.
Speaker A:We don't even hear this preached very often today.
Speaker A:But God is looking for a kingdom forward people, a kingdom forward people.
Speaker A:What is a kingdom forward people?
Speaker A:A kingdom forward people.
Speaker A:Those who recognize, yep, the kingdom is going to be assaulted.
Speaker A:I signed up for this.
Speaker A:Guess what?
Speaker A:Hello.
Speaker A:If you join the military and then you actually go, oh my gosh, I actually have to go to war.
Speaker A:I mean, I have to fight someone.
Speaker A:I have to go to battle.
Speaker A:Like, yeah.
Speaker A:And you sign up for the kingdom, guess what, you're going to be attacked.
Speaker A:Warfare, spiritual warfare is part of it.
Speaker A:Opposition, resistance, part of it.
Speaker A:Your flesh, yeah.
Speaker A:Your own desires, your affections at times will scream out, I don't want to pray, I want to sleep in.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:And I don't want to do this.
Speaker A:I don't want to give.
Speaker A:I don't want to go.
Speaker A:I don't want to.
Speaker A:I don't want to repent of this.
Speaker A:I. I don't want to stop.
Speaker A:You remember the story of David Wilkerson?
Speaker A:If you guys are so young that you've never heard of who he is, you need to.
Speaker A:He wrote a book called the Cross and the Switchblade and that story of him in New York City and what God called him to do and he led Nikki Cruz to the Lord Teen Challenge, was birthed and all of the amazing things.
Speaker A:When I was younger, I actually was able to spend time with David Wilkerson on several occasions.
Speaker A:Was in his office in New York City.
Speaker A:And I can tell you, he was the real deal.
Speaker A:He was the real deal.
Speaker A:He prophesied over me crazy stuff.
Speaker A:He walked with God like very few walked with God.
Speaker A:And what changed his life was every night, I believe it was from approximately 11pm to 1am he would work all day in ministry labor doing all this stuff, and come home and he's like, exhausted.
Speaker A:He'd say, ah, these next two hours are mine.
Speaker A:Watch television.
Speaker A:That was before Netflix.
Speaker A:That was before TV.
Speaker A:Didn't even go 24 hours, not even in America.
Speaker A:So what happened was the Lord spoke to me and he said, david, what if you took this time instead of watching television?
Speaker A:He began to pray and seek my face.
Speaker A:You began to just draw close to me.
Speaker A:He was busy doing the ministry, but he didn't have that deep relationship with Jesus, and he was running on fumes.
Speaker A:So he obeyed the Lord and he said, yes, Lord, I'll do what you've called me to do.
Speaker A:And he began to pray, and God spoke to him and he said, david, I have a call in your life.
Speaker A:I want you to go to New York City.
Speaker A:I want you to go to the worst of the worst.
Speaker A:I want you to go to the gangs and tell them how much I love them.
Speaker A:He obeyed and he went.
Speaker A:The rest is history.
Speaker A:Nikki Cruz, president of a Latino gang called the MAU MAU, Puerto Rican gang, was converted.
Speaker A:He preaches the gospel, had the privilege to meet him.
Speaker A:And it's an amazing thing what God has done through one man.
Speaker A:The legacy.
Speaker A:The legacy of a man who would just set apart time to seek God.
Speaker A:Saints.
Speaker A:Can I tell you that a lot of the stuff you're dealing with today, the only way against it is, yes, you're being assaulted, yes, you're being confronted.
Speaker A:Yes, the battle is real.
Speaker A:But you've got to push back.
Speaker A:You've got to pray, you've got to contend.
Speaker A:You've got to go deeper with God and not just take it.
Speaker A:Push back, press in, Go deeper with God in your prayer, go deeper in your warfare, Go deeper with your obedience.
Speaker A:Become a kingdom, forward, person.
Speaker A:You can choose.
Speaker A:Religious maintenance, comfort, convenience, low risk.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Spectator faith, consumer Christianity.
Speaker A:Serve me.
Speaker A:Mindset.
Speaker A:What's in it for me?
Speaker A:What does that church have to offer me?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Where did that come from?
Speaker A:Yeah, I know exactly where it came from.
Speaker A:It didn't come from the Bible.
Speaker A:So we have that or a kingdom forward people are a people of surrender, sacrifice, obedience, courage, hunger.
Speaker A:And they have a send me mindset.
Speaker A:Send me mindset.
Speaker A:You see a problem, be the solution.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Pray, address it.
Speaker A:Do whatever you have to do.
Speaker A:See, God isn't looking for maintainers.
Speaker A:He's looking for kingdom movers.
Speaker A:We are called to advance his kingdom.
Speaker A:We choose to be a kingdom forward people.
Speaker A:So we have to surrender our agendas.
Speaker A:What do you want to build here?
Speaker A:Not what can this church do for me.
Speaker A:Remember John F. Kennedy's famous line, ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.
Speaker A:So we're saying the same thing about the kingdom.
Speaker A:Ask not what the church can do for you, but ask what you can do for the king, for his church, for his people.
Speaker A:Surrender your expectations, your preferences, your ideas about what church should look like.
Speaker A:Maybe it's skewed.
Speaker A:Maybe you don't understand things because you see it through the lens of tradition, not the word of God.
Speaker A:But we need to get back into the scriptures.
Speaker A:We need to go deep in the word.
Speaker A:And so what is it that the church was supposed to look like?
Speaker A:See, we surrender our expectations like John in the wilderness.
Speaker A:Guess what?
Speaker A:Your assignment may look foolish to religious observers, but what?
Speaker A:Take it.
Speaker A:Anyways.
Speaker A:When we were praying about what we should do, we're up here in the Sunshine coast, had been on staff at a very large church, serving on the senior leadership team, even been asked to consider being in another position of leadership.
Speaker A:And the Lord spoke and he said, no, I want you to relocate to the Sunshine Coast.
Speaker A:Now you can say, well, that's not God.
Speaker A:Like, no, yeah, it is.
Speaker A:Because God always gives you the desires of your heart.
Speaker A:No, I'm kidding.
Speaker A:If you delight yourself in him, if you delight yourself but in the natural.
Speaker A:There's a lot of things, guys, that we had to walk away from.
Speaker A:And literally the last Sunday that we were there, people came up to us and they said this.
Speaker A:They said, you're leaving.
Speaker A:This is not God.
Speaker A:You need to stay here.
Speaker A:God is going to use you here.
Speaker A:You need to stay here.
Speaker A:Don't leave, don't leave.
Speaker A:And then finally, one prophetic person who had been praying and saying, you guys, you know all along, you need to stay.
Speaker A:You need to stay.
Speaker A:God's going to do something.
Speaker A:That person finally came to us on that last Sunday and said this.
Speaker A:I heard the Lord say that legacy is better than loyalty.
Speaker A:Legacy is better than loyalty.
Speaker A:You can be loyal to what people expect of you, or you can build the legacy that God's entrusted to you.
Speaker A:And at that point, after we came up here and we just started to ask the Lord, I had.
Speaker A:I had a particular pastor that I hadn't heard from in 10 years.
Speaker A:He reached out to me.
Speaker A:Don't you love those people?
Speaker A:They never say anything.
Speaker A:They're on your social media page.
Speaker A:They pop up, and it's always just negative.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It's like, I have the power to block people like that, and I have no qualms about it.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So what happens is he says, need to have a chat with you, Glenn.
Speaker A:I'm like, okay, all right.
Speaker A:So we set up a meeting, a zoom meeting, and we're talking, and he says to me, mate, what the heck are you doing?
Speaker A:And I said, what do you mean?
Speaker A:He goes, you're planning a church on the Sunshine Coast.
Speaker A:What are you doing?
Speaker A:He said, that's not God.
Speaker A:That's not good stewardship.
Speaker A:You have a call of God on your life.
Speaker A:You could potentially go and pastor a church that's sizable, that's already got everything up and running, got all the resources, got all the people, and you could do all of that, and that would be better stewardship, what you're doing.
Speaker A:I don't think it's God at all.
Speaker A:So I politely.
Speaker A:I wanted to just hit the end button, you know, End, right.
Speaker A:But I politely said, well, thank you for caring.
Speaker A:But I said, we prayed about this, and we'll continue to pray about this.
Speaker A:And then the Lord spoke very clearly to us, and he said, I want you to build something.
Speaker A:He gave me a particular verse.
Speaker A:The verse is song of Solomon, 1:6.
Speaker A:It says, you've been laboring in your brother's vineyards, now you need to work in your own vineyard.
Speaker A:Build something.
Speaker A:Build something fresh Awake nations isn't just a church.
Speaker A:It's a new movement.
Speaker A:It's a kingdom forward movement.
Speaker A:People are coming, are aligning, people are leaning in.
Speaker A:We actually are in conversations with various individuals in different parts of Australia and even other nations right now that want to align.
Speaker A:And it's not about branding, it's not being a campus.
Speaker A:But how do we come together as the body of Christ?
Speaker A:I don't want to go into that model, that stuff.
Speaker A:I don't like it.
Speaker A:Can I say that?
Speaker A:Been there, done it, don't like it.
Speaker A:Let's empower people to lead with what God's given them.
Speaker A:Let's be there to love, to support and champion them in whatever way we can.
Speaker A:So we're in a time where God is calling us to take risk.
Speaker A:Kingdom advance.
Speaker A:Step out.
Speaker A:Do something different.
Speaker A:Surrender your agenda.
Speaker A:Surrender your resources.
Speaker A:The question should never be, how much is enough.
Speaker A:The question should be, what does the king require?
Speaker A:What does he require of me?
Speaker A:My time, my money, my gifts, my influence.
Speaker A:Everything's on the table.
Speaker A:It's all his.
Speaker A:Hello.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It's all his.
Speaker A:We're stewards.
Speaker A:So are we hoarding resources for ourselves?
Speaker A:Are we stewarding them for maximum kingdom benefit?
Speaker A:What about comfort?
Speaker A:Surrendering our comfort?
Speaker A:Speak the truth when it's costly, not just when it's convenient.
Speaker A:Obey when it's inconvenient.
Speaker A:Engage in spiritual warfare when it's easy to retreat, when you just feel like going in your cave, stand up and look him square in the eye and confront.
Speaker A:Go after it.
Speaker A:Face your fears.
Speaker A:Resist the devil.
Speaker A:The Bible says, submit yourself to God.
Speaker A:Resist the devil and he'll flee.
Speaker A:Guys, resist is a very strong word in the Greek.
Speaker A:It means to fight, to content.
Speaker A:Fight, fight, fight, fight.
Speaker A:I remember a time when we lived in Canada, was praying, was seeking God, was on an extensive fast.
Speaker A:Holy Spirit showed up, powerful.
Speaker A:God was speaking to me.
Speaker A:And at the very moment I just felt the sense of.
Speaker A:Can I say it?
Speaker A:It was holy fear.
Speaker A:Like, I am in sacred ground and God is about to come in with such a holy awesome presence that is going to undo me.
Speaker A:And at that point, at that point, there was something in me that even started to fear.
Speaker A:Can I handle this?
Speaker A:Can I take this?
Speaker A:Am I willing to allow him to visit me like he did Isaiah, Jeremiah, or John on the book of Revelation?
Speaker A:Am I willing to allow him to come to me in such a way?
Speaker A:And there's something in me that was starting to struggle.
Speaker A:And then I said, yes, yes, Jesus.
Speaker A:And I was on my face on the carpet.
Speaker A:And when I said that, all of a sudden the phone rang.
Speaker A:Back in the day when you had phones on the walls, remember?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:The phone rang.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:You couldn't turn it off.
Speaker A:Well, I guess you could unplug it, but the phone was on the wall and I answered it, and there was a voice saying.
Speaker A:And it was like 11pm at night.
Speaker A:We have put a bomb in your backyard, in your home, and we're going to blow up your house.
Speaker A:Click.
Speaker A:How?
Speaker A:The timing of that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:With what was happening in the spirit.
Speaker A:Boom.
Speaker A:And I just said, all right, Lord, that's it.
Speaker A:I don't care.
Speaker A:I just kept praying.
Speaker A:I kept going.
Speaker A:I didn't call the police because the Lord said to me, I'm going to deal with this.
Speaker A:I continue to pray until the wee hours of the morning.
Speaker A:Holy spirit spoke to me and he said, it's your neighbor's daughter.
Speaker A:She's behind this.
Speaker A:Next morning, I let them sleep all night.
Speaker A:I was gracious.
Speaker A:I went over to our neighbor's house and I bang on the door and I said, hello, Hi.
Speaker A:The mom answered.
Speaker A:I said to her, this happened last night.
Speaker A:I believe your daughter's behind this.
Speaker A:She was a Christian and she understood the prophetic revelation that we walked in.
Speaker A:She understood that and she respected that.
Speaker A:And she said, she called her daughter.
Speaker A:She came running down the stairs, looked very sheepish, and she said, glenn said, this happened last night.
Speaker A:Someone called.
Speaker A:He said, it's you.
Speaker A:You're behind this.
Speaker A:You know something about this.
Speaker A:She put her head down and she said, yeah, I know all about was one of her mates.
Speaker A:They had done this.
Speaker A:And the whole thing was just exposed and uncovered.
Speaker A:You see, guys, we confront, we go after the darkness.
Speaker A:We're living in a time and a season where the church has been in retreat mode.
Speaker A:We've been passive and we suffer violence.
Speaker A:But it's time for us as the biesta, to seize it by force, to take it by force.
Speaker A:But it will cost you.
Speaker A:It will cost you convenience, it will cost you comfort, it will cost you a lot.
Speaker A:Pursue holiness when culture celebrates compromise.
Speaker A:Here's the last thing I want to.
Speaker A:We want to move from individual to corporate.
Speaker A:What's that look like for us as awake nations?
Speaker A:There's four things that I see in our identity moving forward in the next season.
Speaker A:Number one, A house of prayer that storms heaven.
Speaker A:We want to be a house of prayer.
Speaker A:A house of prayer that storms heaven.
Speaker A:We also want to be a training ground for kingdom warriors.
Speaker A:And then a launching pad cloud constantly sending, multiply, advancing some donations, marketplace planting churches, all of this.
Speaker A:And then we need to be a prophetic witness.
Speaker A:Our obedience so radical, our love so genuine, our power so authentic that people can't just sit back.
Speaker A:They must respond.
Speaker A:We've got to be that type of prophetic witness.
Speaker A:So the question isn't whether were capable.
Speaker A:What was special about John?
Speaker A:Nothing really.
Speaker A:But he was surrendered.
Speaker A:So the question isn't whether we're capable or we're qualified.
Speaker A:The question is, will we surrender?
Speaker A:Will we surrender?
Speaker A:Will we say yes, lord, to your will, to your way.
Speaker A:Yes, Lord.
Speaker A:Right isn't called or qualified.
Speaker A:He what qualifies called.
Speaker A:So what does that mean?
Speaker A:It means that we respond to the call and we say, yes, Lord.
Speaker A:If something is stirring in your spirit and you want to see a real move of God, guys.
Speaker A:Some of you have seen it years ago.
Speaker A:You were part of it.
Speaker A:You were part of it, telling you God wants to do it again.
Speaker A:He's looking for a people.
Speaker A:He's looking for a people, a kingdom forward, People that will say, yes, what the enemy is doing.
Speaker A:He's saying there is a remnant of those who will take it by force.
Speaker A:We'll take it by force.
Speaker A:This is something significant.
Speaker A:If it feels darker, guess what, the kingdom's a threat.
Speaker A:Have you ever been all of a sudden, like, man, I don't know, like, all of a sudden I'm coming under spiritual attack?
Speaker A:Well, guess what?
Speaker A:You hang around people that are on fire for God, you'll come under attack, right?
Speaker A:You start pressing in, going deeper with God.
Speaker A:You think the enemy's just going to sit back and go, oh, that's really nice.
Speaker A:I'm happy that you love Jesus.
Speaker A:You're praying, you're fasting.
Speaker A:You're going deeper in holiness now.
Speaker A:You think so?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:See, we have to refuse to stay where we are.
Speaker A:I don't care who we are, how long we've been in this, we have to refuse to stay where we are.
Speaker A:Kingdom forward.
Speaker A:Kingdom forward.
Speaker A:God's calling us to go forward.
Speaker A:We choose the kingdom.
Speaker A:We choose surrender.
Speaker A:We choose obedience.
Speaker A:We choose courage.
Speaker A:We choose advance.
Speaker A:It's good.
Speaker A:Kingdom forward.
