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.
As John Alley says, “We are Australian and we are civilised people. We do not skimp on morning tea.”
Morning tea is a good time to hang out with your mates, no matter how young they are.
After the break, Apostle John continued the teaching.
The soul is the command centre of the whole being. It is the soul that is either soaking in or rejecting.
The heart grows at the root of the soul. That is where the values are. The words of the mouth come from what is in the heart.
“The worth and excellency of a soul are to be measured by the object of its love .” Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man
What we love shows the value or worthiness of our soul.
Hebrews 4:12. The word of God is living and active. We have to seek the word of the Lord We read the word because we have a yearning to know the Lord. While we are doing that, God intervenes in our hearts to remove the sins and thoughts that beset us
We need to seek ever increasing maturity in the Lord.
1 Peter 1:3-23 The prophets searched and inquired carefully but they received revelations in the searching. We must not be conformed to the passions of our former ignorance. We must purify our souls by obedience to the truth. Love one another earnestly.
2 Peter 1:3-11 If we are diligent in pursuing the Lord, there will be richly provided for us an entrance into the eternal kingdom. If we do these things we will not fail.
In Session 2 of the Summit, Apostle John Alley spoke about what the Bible says about human nature. WE are body, soul and spirit. The bible speaks about the heart and the conscience. How do these all fit together?
When you are eager to promote a gift or idea, you need to make sure that you are not inadvertently undermining other important things. Example of a man who promoted miraculous signs but in doing so downplayed the teaching of the word.
Jn 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life ; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I speak are life
We are body, soul and spirit. Cannot separate the three.
1 Thess 5:23-24. “may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
Heb, 4:12 Word of God divides soul and spirit.
What about words like heart, conscience, etc? How do they fit?
Soul- contains mind, memory, will, emotions Body- 5 senses, pain, adrenalin, Gut, Chemicals, fitness, sickness Lot of interaction between body and soul Spirit- knowledge, memory, revelation, spiritual gifts, discernment, conscience, inner witness, emotion… your spirit can rejoice or have dread
We are designed with this complexity because we have to live in the spirit realm and the physical realm.
Lots of interaction between spirit and soul.
Unbelievers are dark in their spirit. They have a conscience for example. The spirit is alive but separated from God until they are born again.
God can speak to sinners. eg Cain.
Your spirit can be weak or strong, bound or free. We need to work on our relationship with God. Ephesians 3:14-16
Psalm 139. I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Romans 2:14-16. Gentiles do not have the law, but their consciences lead them towards righteousness
2 Corinthians 4:2.The conscience provides the inner witness.
2 Corinthians 5:11 Conscience provides confirmation of Paul’s message
1 Timothy 4:1-3 A seared conscience.
The Heart
New heart when born again:
The heart is the sum of all the parts- body, soul, and spirit. It’s what is at the bottom of it all.
Our heart gives us longing for good things as well as sinful things. The Lord will give us the desires of our heart. That is why he tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus.
Romans 12:2. Be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
Submit to Lord, not trusting own ability, previous success
Pray for spirit of understanding to be on the church
Prophetic pain
Much of sickness, pain comes from our own thinking, allowing demons to pull us down.
Some comes from criticism, accusation etc.
Some is a message from the Lord, a call to prayer. Pain in the body is symbolic of something. Praying for healing won’t work. Find what the message is, pray into it.
Paul Botha
What he is doing is only possible because of the foundation laid by John and Peace.
Peace Church is not just an apostolic community but a prophetic voice also.
The days that are coming are going to be substantially different. The West is on the precipice of change. The church can either lead the process or be taken over by the change.
The church before Pentecost was praying but they woke up the next morning and everything was changed. Empowered to change the world
1.What is the Apostolic?
Primary gifting- first in function.
Struggle for identity for apostles and for the church
Regional transformation. John 4. Samaritan woman.
City Elders – functional unity
Unless the church understands the times and invades the culture the nation will be radically different.
Current move of God :
Reset– dining saloon changed to troop carrier
Reposition – – church is being repositioned for mission. Culture responds to the gospel. Not nice Christians, hot Christians.
Reap
What are we meant to do about it?
Develop Father and Son relationships with functioning apostles
Commission for this Summit is to revisit the core topics of Sonship and Community.
Central heart message of apostles will be about love.
1 Corinthians 13. Normal healthy apostolic life.
Need a major input of Grace that changes our heart. Apostles are meant to help this happen.
Supernatural outpouring of love. Power to understand the length, breadth, depth, height of God’s love. This is the fullness of God.
5-fold work with apostles to raise church to relational maturity. Find the supernatural anointing of Holy Spirit that gives us greater love.
Chuck Clayton. Thoroughly unique. Full of love and wisdom. Made mistakes but God didn’t want John to make same mistakes.
Great prophet. Never felt anything so just talked and hoped it was God, but always accurate and powerful.
Great pastor. Loved people, pastors.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-5. Paul walked in faith, hope and love. Known by his lifestyle. “You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.”
Too much in minds of some pastors is the desire to be the “big man.” Heart of apostle is to be a servant. Apostle has to teach pastors how to serve.
1 Thessalonians 2:1-12 Don’t let courage fail you in strife. Don’t fail to tell the truth when others have different opinions. Like a mother, gentle, not the “big man.”
V. 8 Not here to sell a product. Apostle is there to share himself with them. Power is not in healing the sick, but power to change the heart. That is what apostles are here for. Progressive work over time.
V. 11. Only now does Paul mention fathers. It is a gentle, giving grace.
Anointing by which community is built. After John released this anointing the church was changed. Cell groups started working, relationships healed.
Need both the teaching and the anointing. Knowledge and power.
Signs and wonders do not make you an apostle. An apostle seeks an answer to people’s problems and signs and wonders follow. It is gentleness and love.
New Life Narrabri 