Sunday Sermon by Pastor Rajesh Mathew, 28 April 2024 

1 Thessalonians 1:3- Remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 

• Everybody has work but that which pleases God is work of faith. 

There is a walk of faith and there is work of faith. 

Work of faith is not a cheap talk. It is an action. 

• There is an anointing of faith in this House today, to do certain things in faith, to carry out the works of faith. There is an anointing to manifest forth works of faith in your life. 

In the world of faith, there is no victory for the lazy. It is always a work of faith. 

• Smith Wigglesworth says- The Acts of Apostles was written because the apostles acted. May you move under this anointing to show forth mighty acts of faith. Get hold of that anointing.

It takes the work of faith to see faith at work 

• A disciple once said that it is always the move of man that provokes the move of God. If you will step out in faith, I will work through you. If you are willing to move, I will move, says the Lord. This morning, if you move, the Holy Spirit will move with you. 

God will move with the movers, He will work with workers 

• The Holy Spirit put a thought in me- How many of you desire to walk in what God has kept for you, in your life? You need faith for it, But I have a thought from God- Faster than faith. 

The Holy Spirit said- a transport bus that runs late all the time. Imagine this transport bus getting transformed into a supersonic jet by the grace of God! 

The years that you have lost will be restored to you. You will soar high this year. There will be speed like a supersonic jet. There is an anointing for this in the house of God today. The years of delay are over. It is the time for the church of God to soar and fly high.

• The years for you to sit and get late and miss out is over!

The things that you waited for are going to come to you super-fast. 

• Let that spirit of delay be broken. May things be faster than faith. Very fast. Your health, family life, peace, children issues, ministry, career, peace of mind- whatever it is will come fast! • Even certain matters of the church were delayed about the vision God gave me. When I bought the current property of the church, I cried, fasted prayed and the property we bought now is double the size of this property! The delay was broken. If this happened in the church it will happen in your life too by the Holy Spirit. Glory to God.

Faster than faith

Is there something like this?

• In Genesis 27, Isaac is calling Esau and saying ‘My time is near, get me some Venison meat. Hunt for me some and then I want to bless you. Esau went out to hunt. Rebekah overheard this and called her second son Jacob and said, I will show you a shortcut. No need to go out to hunt. Pick up a sheep from the backyard.

The Holy Spirit will give you a short route for your blessings. Let people who want to take the long route, take it. Do you want your next level and blessing to come to you fast? God will show you a shortcut to it.

• Maybe you took 30 years to build your first house, your second house will be done in two years. Maybe you had to struggle to serve God the first time but God will take you fast very fast to what He wants you to do this time around.

Maybe you started your first business at the age of 40 years. It may not be established still, but if you are a person who believes in the prophetic, take my word, that your local business is going to go global! God’s speedy work will manifest forth for you.

• Isac is expressing a specific desire- not duck meat, or chicken meat but Venison meat. The father wants to release something into his son. For this to happen, the son needs to bring something specific to the father as he expresses his desire; the son needs to act. 

There is an action that is required here for something to be released to you. 

• Rebekah tells her son, I know your father’s taste. Let me tell you what to do. Even if your father curses you, let that curse fall on me. I will show you a shortcut. You bring the sheep from the backyard. Jacob says, my brother has a lot of hair and I don’t. Rebekah says don’t worry. Bring that sheep and sacrifice it. 

1) SACRIFICE

Sacrifice is a spiritual shortcut. You can either use faith or you can use sacrifice. 

• Abraham is the father of faith. But he took 25 years to see the promise fulfilled. Sacrifice is faster than faith. 
• Let me tell you a practical experience- A wife wants her unbelieving husband to come to the Lord. It might take 30 years to get him to the Lord. You might be praying. But if you apply sacrifice in your life you can win him over. Otherwise, you will be breaking bondages, generational curses etc, even when asks you for tea, you are sitting in the room and praying in tongues. Just get up, make him tea, give him love, sit with him and speak well to him. Your sacrifice will win him over faster than 20 years of praying.
• The Older son (Esau) went the long route.
• Rebekah got Jacob’s clothes changed and sent him to the father. Isac touches him and says you feel like Esau but sound like Jacob. Jacob lies and says, I am Esau. A liar was about to be blessed! 

It is not your character that gets you your blessing but your sacrifice. 

• Why did God bless Jacob? It’s is because God already had a plan to transform him into an Israel. In Gen 32, there was a planned transformation for Jacob.

But if you want speed in your blessing, it is not even your character, it is your sacrifice.

• If you sacrifice unto God, He will come in and move in your situation. I am not saying this is a licence to sin or to have loose character or lie. But far too many people think that they are not getting blessed because of their bad character or because they are not good enough.
• But today if you choose to sacrifice unto the Lord, He will speeden up your blessing. May that lie be broken. It is not your righteousness but the righteousness that comes from the Blood of Jesus and the justification that comes from the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, because of which you can come with a sacrifice of praise. 

Many people are trying to be blessed by their works and by maintaining a good character. I am not saying that is not important! I am not a man of God, I am a HOLY man of God. I also handle my finances correctly. I do all that but still, the faster route for your blessing is sacrificing unto the Lord and not your character. 

• You should be holy! You should not lie! You need to walk blameless, yes! But do not expect to be blessed or receive accelerated blessings because of this. You will experience speeded blessings when you know the principle of sacrifice.

We often hear this- Give God your best. The Bible doesn’t say this. Give God only what He asks you. Your obedience to what He asks you will get your blessing. 

When I was in Africa with a Man of God. He had gifted 24 planes to his associate pastors. He came in his private plane. We were planning to give him an offering and we were wondering what to give someone who was already so prosperous. He was humble enough to accept our offering. We asked the Lord, what should I give him and we gave Him what God told us. And because we obeyed, he humbly accepted. 

Give God only what HE asks for. 

• The father asked for venison meat. Sacrifice is the shorter route
• Live a life of sacrifice. Anything that benefits you is not a sacrifice. Gifting a washing machine to your wife (to wash your dirty clothes) is not a sacrifice. A sacrifice is when you can't do it but you still do it. That is sacrifice.
• Example: On a Sunday morning you are just tempted to stay back home because of the heat but you still pull yourself out of bed and make it to church. That is sacrifice.

You can make your marriage better if you know sacrifice. 

• Worship is a sacrifice at times. You don’t feel like worshipping but in the midst of that, you are saying Jesus I love you. You want to go to bed soon at night after a tiring day but amidst that, you kneeling, worshipping the Lord and reading the Bible is a sacrifice. When all your friends are going to a party, you decide to go in for prayer. That is a sacrifice.

God sees your choices and He will release blessings fast when He witnesses your sacrifice. 

• Solomon offered God 1000 sacrifices at one go and THAT very night God appeared to him and asked him what he wanted. He asked God for wisdom. Because He asked God for wisdom, God gave him that and more! 
• Today if you sit before God with a sacrifice, your blessing will be speeded. 

2) AUTHORITY

How many of you have received a healing from God after praying? How many of you experienced that same illness return after some days? Do you know why that happens? Because you have not learnt to us Authority.

If you want to remain in that healing, you must learn to exercise your authority in the Name of Jesus. Authority means a token of control. 

Some people never learn to use authority. 

• How many of you have children? All the children decided to go to a club with friends. And you are calling the prayer line and praying on your knees. But if you learn to use your authority, the problem will be solved. Learn to use your authority. Command the devil to leave your family! God has given you the authority to trample over snakes and scorpions.
• May that bondage be broken in Jesus’ name, speak it and take authority. Command that the bondage preventing your children from experiencing the blessing of marriage be broken, take authority! Today your generations will be blessed. My family will not stand in debt this bondage will not touch my children. 

Taking and walking in authority is faster than 40-day fasting and praying. 

Authority is not in your family name. 

• A cop’s authority is his uniform. You have a uniform too. There is a mantle of anointing upon you given to you by Jesus through his sacrifice 2024 years ago. 
• The Israelites should have entered the promised land in 15 days but they took 40 years, going around in circles. 
• Take authority! Calling forth those things that are not as though they are. Let the weakness and fear leave your life! 
• We think I’m a new believer, I just started going to church. I don’t think I have authority but the truth is the very day you get to know Jesus, you have gained that authority. • You need to speak and say ‘I will not ever experience this headache again’. 

Don’t run to the pastor all the time for prayer. You pray and you speak over yourself. 3) YOUR MAN OF GOD

• Your man of God is a gift from the Lord to you. If you understand this truth, things will move faster than faith. Your response to the one whom God has given you determines how God does certain things for you. 
• God told me to hold Spiritual Durbars! And to do this in many places. Do you know what a durbar is? It is the court of the King, the place where He works. It is a place where the King offers solutions to people's problems. Spiritual Darbars are where God provides solutions to a person’s problems.
• If your business is given to you by God, He will tell you what to do. God told people where to cast that net. He will tell you which share to invest in.
• I bought my land to build my house by investing in one share God told me to buy. It went up by 300%.

Your fish is where your man of God is.

• When you have a relationship with God and understand that your Pastor is a gift from God, someone will show you where that money to pay your taxes will come from.

The King of kings will show forth for you. 

• Whatever God has spoken, He will do. Not just buying this land for the church, but the nations of the world will come here and people will crowd and flood this church. The Holy Spirit and the angels will minister here. The plans, purposes and the victory of Jesus will be revealed here. Nobody can stop it.

It shouldn’t take you ages to get into your blessing. 

• Your attitude towards the blessing and gift of God determines your blessing. God took a fast route at the wedding of Cana. Jesus did not tell them to bring the grapes to make the wine. He only said ‘Bring water’ and His hand moved upon it to make it into wine.
• Put these three principles into practice and you will see dramatic changes. The one who called you is faithful. Some of you said you wanted to be a part of the church land purchase. If you want to be a part pf it, ask God what should I do, Lord? Everyone who belongs to this church must be involved. How? 

Exodus 25:2- 2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. 

Don’t give without gladness or love in your heart. Do it with willingness and give it with love. The work of God is a work of faith and no one can stop it. Do it out of Love and do it unto the Lord.

Sacrifice, Authority and Honouring the gift that God has placed above me is faster than faith. It is in honour that God moves!