What can we learn from Joseph’s betrayal, slavery and prison experiences

THE JOSEPH PROCESS

There are some important lessons that we need to learn from the life of Joseph as it is written in the book of Genesis in the bible.

God has a plan for each of our lives, each one of us has a destiny from God. Yet there is a process that we need to go through in order to fulfill the plan that God has for our lives. There are stages of growth and development along the way to fulfill all that God has planned for our lives. In order to receive promotions we need to go through character development. God allows circumstances to come our way with the specific intent to do a deeper work in our lives, that we may be matured and then move on to further promotion.

How we respond to conflict and crisis will determine how fully we are able to move along and fulfill all that God has planned for our lives. Joseph was betrayed and found himself in all kinds of difficult and unpleasant circumstances but he didn’t become bitter about it. He still believed that God would work through the problems that he faced and ultimate success would come to him. If Joseph had allowed bitterness to creap into his heart and if he stopped believing in the goodness of God he would not have been able to fulfill the full and ultimate plan that God had for him, being the number two the Pharaoh.

Maintaining the right attitude towards circumstances that come our way and not becoming bitter against God and people that have hurt us and betrayed us is vital to our fulfilling our God given destiny. Wisdom is to understand that all circumstances that we go through are somehow meant to mature us and help us to grow and advance.

Watch the three part video below to understand more of the vital principles.

Grace and Peace to all of you in Jesus Christ

John Marcus

The Joseph Process - Part 1

The Joseph Process - Part 2

The Joseph Process - Part 2

Overcoming the “qualifying spirit”

Hi there everyone,

Greetings in the Name of Jesus. In this video I have an important message to share with the body of Christ across the world. This is a very in season relevant word for the body of Christ at this time.

What I have found in the church across the world today is that although we are born again and part of the New Testament church, there are so many Christians that are still living with old testament mentality and thinking.  One of the areas where this is true is regarading the QUALIFYING SPIRIT. Some many Christians today think that they are not qualified enough to be used powerfully by God. That they don’t qualify to be caught up in the spirit and taken up in the chariots of God and shown wonderful things in the spirit. That they don’t qualify to enjoy the miraculous supernatural things of God. That they don’t qualify to heal the sick, cast out demons, preach, teach, minister to others in the power of God.

This is all about the “qualifying spirit”. That we think we are unqualified to enjoy all these New Covenant blessings.  This qualifying spirit is a kind of religious spirit that attacks Christians, making them think that they are qualified, thus the enemy is able to side track and make Christians ineffective for the kingdom of God.

The good news and the truth is that we have all been qualified already. Jesus has already qualified us all. Through his death, burial, resurrection and ascension, we have all been qualified, as we have already received the gift of righteousness. Now we can simply enjoy the benefits of the New Covenant and enjoy the supernatural things of God. See angels and have angels minister to us and minister with us when we minister to others. Enjoy the supernatural dimention of the Holy Spirit.

This 30 minute message has been divided into three parts. Please enjoy to watch it and allow the Holy Spirit to set you free from any qualifying spirit that has held you back, so that you may move forward to enjoy all that God has for you and your ministry and walk with the Lord.

Grace and Peace

John Marcus

Hugs to all of you

OVERCOMING THE QUALIFYING SPIRIT by John Marcus

Part 1

Part 2 

 Part 3

 

Growing in maturity of Character

Hi everyone,

Have you ever been in a situation where people or a person has said something or done something that has made you really mad. You reacted and responded to that person quickly and promtly and then said something or reacted in a way that you later regreted.

We have all been there and done things like this. But what many of us find is that we need to grow and mature in how we respond to people and control our reactions. We are all responsible for what we say and how we behave, but we are also responsible for how we react to other people.

I have found that God uses our spouse, our family, all our relationships with people around us and even people that we don’t know very well at church and at work and at other places. God uses these people to actually help us mature in character.

We have to learn to respond to people in the right way. If people hurt us or abuse us or say and do things that they shouldn’t or even people that go out of their way to harm us or attack us, how we react to them is very important to our ultimate maturity.

God uses trials, suffering, hardship, persection to test us, that we may grow in patience. He also uses people around us that we may grow in the fruit of the Holy Spirit. When the heat really gets turned on, and the pressure builds up, how you respond under that heat and pressure will show your level of maturity in character. When other people around us are doing good to us and showing love towards us, it’s a lot easier to love in return. But when others stand against us, hurt us, betray us, throw insults at us and try to harm us, how do we respond to them. When be start to show patience, kindness, gentleness, self control, joy, love, steadfastness, perseverance, etc, then we know that we are growing in maturity of character.

Especially when you are learning to be patient and show self control under pressure, you will know that you are really maturing as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Watch this video of ten minutes on this topic if you have the time.

Love and Grace to you all

John Marcus

Loving what God loves and hating what God hates

Hi there,

What we find in scripture is that their are certain things that God loves, but other things that God clearly hates. This is clearly stated in bible scripture. It reveals God’s heart to us. We have to understand that God is a person with a heart and with personality. God hates idol worship, God hates people who lie, God hates the fact the people kill and commit all kinds of violence, God hates people who gossip and sow discord among the people, and those that give false reports.  God hates those who are caught up in pride and arrogance.

Then their are things that God clearly loves. When people reach out with genuine faith, this is something that God loves. When people display love and other fruit of the spirit, this is something God loves. When people help the poor and needy, God loves this. When people love God with all their heart soul and strength, He loves this as well.

We need to be set free from all forms of double-mindedness and having a heart that is divided. We need to cry out to God to give us His heart, that we too we love what He loves and hate what He hates.

When we start to live this way, we will receive opposition, we will have our enemies, but so did Jesus, but he never shrunk back, he kept on moving forward doing and saying what He needed to do.  God will give us a thick skin, to stand up against opposition. We will even be persecuted by some within the church, when we make our stand for what is right and wrong. But we need to have that apostolic perseverance, to keep standing in God’s grace and in His power and strength, under all suffring and persection. Amen.

Here is a ten minute video on this topic.

Peace and Grace to you all in Christ Jesus

John Marcus

Receiving God’s grace and free gift of righteousness

Hi there everyone

Something that I have learnt along the journey of being a child of God and disciple of Jesus Christ, is to daily waling the grace of God, to be covered by the grace of God. This is God’s ability and enablement in our lives, is strength and power flowing through our lives. We are weak but He is strong, when we learn so cease from our own effort and do everything in His grace.

We came to Christ by receiving His grace into our lives and receiving the free gift of righteousness. We stopped trying to do things in our own strengh and trying to earn our way into heaven and we received the finished work that Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. When we did this we also received the gift of righteosnes, that we are now clothed in the righteousness of Christ. We are positionally seated with Christ in heavenly places. We didn’t do anything to earn this or deserve this, it was simply God’s grace toward us.

Watch this video below on this topic, it’s about 10 minutes long.

Grace to you all

John Marcus  

Women in leadership and public ministry in the church today

Hi there everyone,

From some years ago, God began to speak to me about women in the church. I noticed that different churches have different points of view regarding woman in ministry in the church today. I have seen things from many different angles through the years that I have been a Christian.

I started out my Christian walk as part of the Brethren Assemblies. They love the word of God and they imparted into me, to always find my answers in the word of God. For this I am very greatful. Yet one thing always bothered me, in those years as a youth in the church gatherings with the Brethren. The women always kept silent, they never spoke in the meetings, it was only the men. I very rarely saw women even give a testimony. Also the women always wore coverings to the meetings.

Later I moved into Pentecostal and Charismatic circles. I noticed that in some Pentecostal churches they never invited women to preach or teach in the public gatherings of the church it was always the men. Also in some of these churches it was only the men who were allowed to be ordained as ministers and become elders in the church, there were never women elders in these churches. I also remember being a part of a Charismatic church who also taught that only men are elders. I remember seeing the pastors wife, who was clearly very gifted in the prophetic ministry and I guess she was a prophet, yet she was never allowed to preach or teach from the pulpit, even though she was the pastors wife.

Later I was exposed to networks of churches and ministries. One of these networks also taught that woman can have great gifts and leadership but should not be elders in the church. They also would not allow women to minister publically in camp meetings.

In more recent years I have come to know some churches and networks that do allow women to minister publically and even be elders and leaders in the church. It is wonderful to see some women stand up behind the pulpit and minister publicly and express themselves and use the gifting that God has given them. I have been greatly blessed by some women in leadership in the body of Christ over the last few years.

I have always felt in my heart and in my spirit that men and women are equal, that we are to stand side by side and work together for the kingdom of God. Yet the enemy has been hard at work to silence and hinder and stand in the way of women from being all that God has intended them to be.

Recently I have begun a study and a search to find the biblical foundations regarding women in the church. And what I have found is that there is a general theme in the bible from Genesis to Revelation regarding the equality of men and women. Also a study of the New Testament and the writings of Paul, shows that he never hindered women from being involved in public ministry, actually women are also allowed to be elders and deacons and stand in leadership in the church. God has anointed and given gifts to women as well, and some women are anointed and commissioned as elders in the church. Some women are called and function as apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors and evangelists. They function in these offices right alongside the men.

Many denominations and church groups tend to look at some key verses in the bible and come to the conclusion that only men can be leaders and elders and minister publicly. But a closer look at these scriptures and looking at the Greek, one realised what Paul was really saying in his letters to Timothy and Titus. Paul clearly brings out in his letters that women are also involved in leadership and public ministry. Some women like Priscilla and Phoebe and others were outstanding leaders in the early church.

What I have realized is that often tradition and legalism get in the way of seeing women in leadership and public ministry. Many churches take relative truths that were meant for the people at that time in that culture, and try to make them into absolute truths, which they are not. When you try to turn relative statements in the bible such as - women should wear coverings on their heads or women should be silent in the church, or women should wear long hair - and try to turn them into absolute truths, the result is legalism. This is exactly what we have seen in many denominations and groups in the church today.

Below you will find my videos that I have made with some teaching on the subject of women in leadership and public ministry. Please watch them when you have the time. Please favourite or bookmark this blog, so that you can return to watch these teachings on my blog. You will also find other videos of my teachings attached to my other blog articles. You can go back and see the attached videos to my articles.

This is the time for women to arise and be all that God has intended them to be. Rise oh women of God.

I have a vision of men and women walking side by side and working side by side, men doing their role, women doing their role, and together in unity, side by side, turning the world upside down for Jesus, advancing the kingdom of God on the earth.

Here are the videos you can watch below.

Grace and Peace,

John Marcus

Below: Part 1

Below: Part 2

Below: Part 3

Below: Part 4

Below: Part 5

 

Using titles in the church

I truly think it’s best not to use titles such as apostle, prophet, teacher, pastor or evangelist. On a daily basis it’s best not to be called by these titles. We know that some function in these offices as gifts and leaders, which are all elders in the church, yet it’s not necessary that they be called by these titles. These words represent the way they function in the body of Christ, they are not meant to be used as titles.

We see in many denominations and networks that these titles are used to call people by on a day to day basis. For example pastor David or apostle Peter or prophet Steven. Every time they are spoken to in church circles, they are called by these titles. I don’t think that this is the biblical and best way of doing it. It’s far better to call people by their names and at the same time recognize the office which they function in. Yet if these titles are used all the time, it creates a barrier between the elders and the rest of the saints, which should never be created.

When guest ministers visit the church or at a conference its fine to introduce a person as standing in a certain office. This is good, as then all people will know how the person functions in the body of Christ. But in one to one conversations, it is far better to call people by their names.

This video will help you understand this topic a bit better.

John Marcus

The Christian wilderness experience

Every Christian will go through a wilderness dessert experience at some point along their journey with the Lord through the years. It’s so important to have the right attitude and keep hope and faith through the wilderness season of your life. This wilderness period is actually vital for our character development and putting down deep roots in our life. This video will really encourage you as you go through the wilderness experience.

John Marcus

Prophetic word for Great Britian

Great Britian was once a powerful spiritual lion for the kingdom of God with such great men of God as Wigglesworth, John Wesley and Patrick just to mention a few. With powerful churches and mighty moves of God, spreading the gospel around the world. Yet the enemy came in and much  ground has been lost over the years that followed and the spiritual lion became sick and deformed. Yet once again God is breathing on the UK with the Holy Spirit and healing the lion and causing the lion to arise once again. The shift has now come and the church has started to once again arise in the UK. Some wonderful years lie ahead for the church in Great Britian as revival fires will once again blaze through Great Britain, and the Lion will roar through Scotland, Wales, Ireland and England and move and touch nations of the world.

John Marcus