This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.”
Observation
The Lord declares that heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool. Regardless of where the house is that they build for Him, He has made it all, and they came into being at His command.
The Lord has made all people, and yet they come to Him with offerings and incense even though they eat unclean food and worship idols.. People have chosen their own ways and delight in their sins, so therefore so therefore the Lord will punish them harshly.
Can a country be born in a day? This is what the Lord will do for his people. Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her.
The Lord promises to extend peace to Jerusalem and bring the wealth of nations to her.
The Lord will gather the nations together from all over the world. They will proclaim the Lord’s glory. All mankind will come and bow before the Lord.
Application
The Lord’s says that heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool.
The Lord is the one who made it all and owns it all, including the people on it.
Because the Lord controls the heavens those who think the stars determine their destiny are foolish.
And because the Lord owns the Earth, those who think they can live independently of the Lord are also foolish. He owns it all, including us.
Therefore , theright response to God’s grace is to surrender our lives to Him. God will punish those who choose their own way, especially those who have a veneer of respectable faith.
Let us give ourselves entirely to worshipping and obeying our Lord.
Prayer
Thank you Lord for the privilege of being called your child. Please help me to live for you every day. Amen.
The final session of the Apostolic Summit is Sunday morning, when the Summiteers combine with the standard Peace Apostolic Church congregation. During the service there was a celebration of 50 years of ministry by John & Hazel.
David Alley, John’s eldest son, brought the message, which was a sort of summing up of the weekend.
John 21 Third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after the resurrection.
Vs. 1-7 “It is the Lord!” The Lord directs everything
When Luther nailed the theses to the door, Zinzendorf took in the refugees, William Carey went to India, John Wesley heard the gospel, William Booth started preaching, it was the Lord!
In the early 1990s when John Alley sat down with Chuck Clayton for lunch in Sizzlers that was the Lord.
When the disciples first saw Jesus they didn’t recognise him. Sometimes things happen that don’t like the Lord, they are.
He is at work doing things among us.
If the Lord is not with us, nothing happens.
Vs. 8-14 Everything is about Jesus.
What’s the point of building the biggest church or visiting pastors in Africa, if it’s not about the Lord?
Vs. 15-24 Jesus is the focus Jesus tells Peter three things
Feed the sheep
How he will die
Don’t worry about what He does with others
Look to Jesus, not what other people are doing. He is the Lord! Don’t compare self to others. Don’t be grumpy because you aren’t getting what you want.
The session started with an invitation for people to share a testimony about what God has been doing in them during the Summit.
Many years ago David Smethurst prophesied that God was doing something here at Peace but it would be a slow, gradual process. It would be strong, but pure.
God is relational. One God but three persons – a community so bound together that it is one God.
If God was anything other than 3 person He could not be love, nor holy nor perfect.
If God was only one person prior to creation, there would be no love. Likewise if there were only 2, it would be just a mutual admiration society.
Here is the perfection of Holy love. Our responsibility is to become a community like the Trinity.
This mature community is supposed to be attainable in God’s grace.
John 17. Prayer in 3 parts
Jesus’s relationship with Father
The 11 apostles
Those who would come later – us
V.11 He asks that the people following Him then, be one as Jesus and Father are one.
This is meant to be on the earth, not for heaven only. This is why apostles are being released, so the community can be established.
V. 21 Jesus prayed that the ones to come will all be one… so that the world may know (v. 23).
Ephesians 4. A prophetic statement that Christ continues to give apostles etc until we all cone to the unity of the faith, measuring up to the fullness of Christ. What is this measure? That we are one with Him and with each other.
John 17:20-24. Christ has given us His glory,so that the world will see that God loves them.
A lot of people are happy with an ordinary salvation – happy life, no problems, no suffering. This is not salvation. We are to be raised above the angels with a kind of fellowship with God that is more profound than we can imagine.
He wants to transform us to lift us into this unity with God.
In Session 5, Apostle John Alley picked up some of the themes from the previous session, before moving on to talk about the Rapture and the General Resurrection.
God uses our bodies to get our attention. Most things in our bodies are spiritual. We are connected to the spiritual realm.
The body is used to communicate spiritual messages to us.
Example. Pain in the body during worship could be a sign of witchcraft, accusation from other churches. Nausea can be a call to intercession.
Pay attention to the body as a communication channel.
Security in the house of God comes from a pastor who is a son to a father.
George Stormwald, personal friend of Smith Wigglesworth, had such a presence of Christ that people would weep when he preached. His secret was that he would meditate on Revelation 1 before he preached.
Every truth about apostles is about Christ. It is never about ambition of man. People can build things and claim to be apostolic but be slightly off because it is about their efforts.
Resurrection
We assume that Jesus did not go to heaven and be glorified until Ascension Thursday. There were bodily appearances in that period. He was taken up to heaven on Easter Sunday.
He could appear but He was already taken up to heaven.
Daniel 7:13-14. Cf. Revelation 5. When did this happen?
John 20:17. Easter morning, he says “Don’t cling to me. I have not yet ascended.”
Luke 24:39. That evening, “Touch me.” He had already gone to heaven, received the authority of the “scroll”
Rapture
We have been hoodwinked by the Rapture boosters.
Overall teaching of Scripture is there is a single General Resurrection. That is, sinners and the redeemed are raised at the same time. Majority of church teaches this.
This is in all the early confessions, including Apostles and Nicene Creeds.
Matthew 25:31-33. All the nations gathered before the Son of Man, He will separate the sheep from the goats.
Matthew 13:30. Harvest then separation of weeds. Matthew 13:37-43. Interpretation is that the harvest is the end of the age.
John 5:21-29. Believe Jesus pass from death to life. First resurrection. In v. 28, He shifts to the future. All who are in the tombs will be raised to the resurrection of life or to the resurrection of judgement.
We believe in a general resurrection, not in a rapture of the believers before the resurrection of the sinners.
John 6:37-40, 44.
Revelation 20:5-6. Those who share in the first resurrection, that is are born again, will not taste the second death. They will reign with Him for 1000 years – an unlimited period of time. Not a literal 1000 years time.
Ephesians 1:17-23. We are already resurrected beings. We need to pray for revelation and wisdom. 3 things that Paul thinks we need Revelation.
Know the hope he has called us
The riches of the inheritance of the saint’s
The immeasurable greatness of His power that is at work in us.
Christ is the head over all things in heaven and earth and he is giving this authority to His body the church.
Ephesians 3:8-11. Paul preaches to us to bring to us the plan of the mystery hidden in God. The church teaches the angels and demons about God’s wisdom. We have the task of taking authority over the powers in order to change the world. Over time the church breaks bondage.
Session 6
Most of this session was an interview with Lloyd Gill, John’s apostle to Africa, Lloyd talked about his many ministry trips to Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and about what God is doing there.
Te session concluded with John sharing some prayer points to pray for people in ministry before he prayed for Lloyd and those in ministry in the conference.
Prayers for ministry
A greater word and greater understanding of the Word of God. Luke 24:44-45. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
For advancing authority. We want more grace on the words we speak. 2 Corinthians 10:8
Pray to be fruitful in raising sons Hebrews 2:10-13
Pray that messages have power, full conviction, the power of the Holy Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 1:5
In this session, John shares the history of how he came into the apostolic ministry.
From 2002, anywhere John went to preach the Apostolic message, it would rain, even in places that are normally very dry.
In 1994, John started a relationship with Chuck Clayton. Although the Lord was raising John as an apostle, he himself needed an apostle for spiritual covering.
He was teaching father/son relationships, but it was just theory. Formalised the relationship, declared they had apostolic covering, but it was still theory.
In 2002, at Family Camp, they had a strong move of the Holy Spirit. God revealed what it means to relate to God as Father.
Later that year, Chuck came to preach. John was behind in his tithes to Chuck. John gave him cash on his arrival. First meeting was at Oakey. John declared him the apostle. It started to rain, and the rain kept up until the end of the Summit, the following Sunday.
During the Summit, John received an outpouring of love for Chuck. It was a work of the Holy Spirit. John had become a son to a father. Tony Ponicke received the same breakthrough in his relationship with John.
Important steps
John sorted his tithe
He honoured Chuck
Result was breakthrough in relationships and finances
John was changed. He received grace and confidence to preach with power all over the world.
The Lord gave John a download about the relationship between Elijah and Elisha. The thing that made it possible for Elisha to receive the double portion from Elijah was that he longed to be with him.
Maturity of relationships
Depth of longing for connection
See something in father to appreciate what is in them.
Chuck had much more to offer John, but it wasn’t until John’s heart was changed so that he could see what Chuck had that he could receive it.
Father /son relationships (wholehearted, love for leaders) are the key for ministry. You have to love your pastor. Senior ministers must have proper apostolic covering.
New Life Narrabri 