"Is it any merit to abstain from wine
if one is intoxicated with anger?"
Augustine
Graham Cooke
Voice of the Prophets
4-16-09 Christ Community Church Camp Hill
Notes fkj
When you talk to Graham Cooke, you can sense he’s been hanging out with God. He’s at the same time down-to-earth and full of spiritual wisdom on everything from prayer to spiritual warfare to prophecy to intimacy with God. Cooke is well known for his prophetic training programs and has a passion to build prototype churches that can reach our postmodern society. God also uses him to help transition churches into higher levels of vision and ministry.
The following are my notes from a sermon by Graham Cook which was presented at Christ Community Church’s ‘Voice of the Prophets convention’ on April 16, 2009. I believe Graham is a very anointed yet humorous man of God with a poignant message for the church today.
Graham Cooke Voice of the Prophets Part 1 of 12
Don’t you love this recession time?
The truth is that only God has abundance; the enemy has a budget.
When the enemy fell out of heaven
he fell out of abundance,
and now he has to make do with a budget.
The reality is, it’s the devil whose going broke.
He can no longer afford his plans for world domination.
When Jesus asked the question: “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15)
He wasn’t fishing for a compliment.
He was making a crucial point about identity!
The truth is, when you know who you are
then you also know how you are supposed to live,
both within yourself
and towards the people who are around you.
When those people know your real identity
then they have to act accordingly with you.
That is what passes for relationships in the kingdom.
We are all aware of one another’s identity in the Spirit,
and we act accordingly towards one another.
That means we are intentional about
how we live together,
how we commune together,
how we work together,
how we serve one another
and how we minister in team and so on.
What is fascinating to me when Jesus asked the question
“Who do men say that I am?,”
He got back four distorted images:
Ø Some people said “You’re John the Baptist”
which is a little disturbing,
because he had just been murdered a few months ago.
Ø Other people said “You’re Elijah
Ø Others said “You’re Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
Ø At other times people said, “Well isn’t that Joe’s boy?”
Didn’t he make us a desk about this time last year.
Isn’t he just a carpenter, isn’t he a Rabbi, isn’t he a teacher.”
Jesus asked the question because
he wanted His disciples to understand his true identity.
Because that revelation of Him would shape their own identity
and their relationship with Him.
I’m very fortunate, Theresa and I, to be part of a group of friends
in Backerville California where we live, which we call “our tribe.”
Over the last few years we have sat down deliberately with one another and talked about our dreams, our passions, our identity, our destiny, who we are now, and who we are becoming.
In our relationships we are very deliberate about how we live together as friends.
We are very deliberate about how we encourage one another, how we stand with each other in times of stress and strain when the enemy comes calling.
We are very deliberate on what it is that we are preserving in our current relationships with God and also about stepping into their life in order to create momentum.
We are discovering when the enemy comes against you, the point of greatest resistance is often the very point of the enemy’s real weakness.
We are learning how to push each other into a place of greater anointing.
We need to understand that we have to make the enemy pay for everything.
It is our role in life, it is our role in the earth.
Edit: added by fkj
“Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand, To execute vengeance on the nations And punishment on the peoples,
To bind their kings with chains And their nobles with fetters of iron,
To execute on them the judgment written;This is an honor for all His godly ones. Praise the LORD!”
Psalm 149:6-9 NASB
The role of the Church in the earth is to keep the enemy so busy he can’t afford to do half the things he wants to do.
The problem in the earth right now, I think,
why wickedness is expanding and increasing,
is because the Church is not doing their job properly.
We are not living in the radiant nature of God, we are not living in our true identity as the people of God; we are not giving the enemy enough work to do.
Very often, you can go into hole cities and realize
that there is no militant body of believers in that city at all.
No wonder it’s a wasteland spiritually.
Our role is to keep the enemy occupied, that’s the fun part of what we do!
The saddest thing is to talk to Christians who are scared of spiritual warfare.
This is the fun part of what we do!
Come on, we are condemned to victory!
You have to be a complete pelican to loose this fight…
God only commits you to a winnable war – one that is already won!
We are not fighting towards victory, we are fighting with it.
Spiritual warfare is about the most fun you can have without being indecent.
One of my promises from the Father is
that not only will no weapon fashioned against me prosper,
but that He will turn every curse into a blessing.
In the process of me interacting with occult people, I would be responsible for rescuing key people, key lieutenants out of the occult.
Now you can’t have a word like that without coming into contact with witches and warlocks and everything else.
So when you get a prophetic word you have to clothe yourself in it!
You have to put it on, you have to wear it…
sew it into a jacket and wear it.
I remember the first time that the enemy came calling.
I was in my office in South Hampton England, when I lived over there.
Everyone had gone for the day and I was sitting in my office just doing some studying when the phone rang… there was no one else there, and I never pick up the phones… (sometimes I think phones are like a demonic instrument).
For some reason I picked it up, and there was this witch on the line and he starts cursing me, and then this black cloud, this foul obnoxious cloud starts to form in my office. I’m looking at this could, smelling this thing and listening to this guy curse me, and I’m thinking “What a flipping cheek, what a nerve!” He obviously hasn’t heard about the prophecy I’ve gotten. So I said, “Dude give us your number and I’ll call you back.” And he said, “No, I’m not giving you my number.” So I said “Well hang on a minute.” So I just put the phone a few inches from my mouth and I took authority and said, “In the name of Jesus this cloud is gonna go!” I commanded it to leave. I said to him, “I’m sending it back to you.” And, like a few moments later it’s like, “Woah what’s that?” and he puts the phone down. I Fed-Xed it back to him.
End Part 1 0f 12
Voice of the Prophets
4-16-09 Christ Community Church Camp Hill
Notes fkj
When you talk to Graham Cooke, you can sense he’s been hanging out with God. He’s at the same time down-to-earth and full of spiritual wisdom on everything from prayer to spiritual warfare to prophecy to intimacy with God. Cooke is well known for his prophetic training programs and has a passion to build prototype churches that can reach our postmodern society. God also uses him to help transition churches into higher levels of vision and ministry.
The following are my notes from a sermon by Graham Cook which was presented at Christ Community Church’s ‘Voice of the Prophets convention’ on April 16, 2009. I believe Graham is a very anointed yet humorous man of God with a poignant message for the church today.
Graham Cooke Voice of the Prophets Part 1 of 12
Don’t you love this recession time?
The truth is that only God has abundance; the enemy has a budget.
When the enemy fell out of heaven
he fell out of abundance,
and now he has to make do with a budget.
The reality is, it’s the devil whose going broke.
He can no longer afford his plans for world domination.
When Jesus asked the question: “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15)
He wasn’t fishing for a compliment.
He was making a crucial point about identity!
The truth is, when you know who you are
then you also know how you are supposed to live,
both within yourself
and towards the people who are around you.
When those people know your real identity
then they have to act accordingly with you.
That is what passes for relationships in the kingdom.
We are all aware of one another’s identity in the Spirit,
and we act accordingly towards one another.
That means we are intentional about
how we live together,
how we commune together,
how we work together,
how we serve one another
and how we minister in team and so on.
What is fascinating to me when Jesus asked the question
“Who do men say that I am?,”
He got back four distorted images:
Ø Some people said “You’re John the Baptist”
which is a little disturbing,
because he had just been murdered a few months ago.
Ø Other people said “You’re Elijah
Ø Others said “You’re Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”
Ø At other times people said, “Well isn’t that Joe’s boy?”
Didn’t he make us a desk about this time last year.
Isn’t he just a carpenter, isn’t he a Rabbi, isn’t he a teacher.”
Jesus asked the question because
he wanted His disciples to understand his true identity.
Because that revelation of Him would shape their own identity
and their relationship with Him.
I’m very fortunate, Theresa and I, to be part of a group of friends
in Backerville California where we live, which we call “our tribe.”
Over the last few years we have sat down deliberately with one another and talked about our dreams, our passions, our identity, our destiny, who we are now, and who we are becoming.
In our relationships we are very deliberate about how we live together as friends.
We are very deliberate about how we encourage one another, how we stand with each other in times of stress and strain when the enemy comes calling.
We are very deliberate on what it is that we are preserving in our current relationships with God and also about stepping into their life in order to create momentum.
We are discovering when the enemy comes against you, the point of greatest resistance is often the very point of the enemy’s real weakness.
We are learning how to push each other into a place of greater anointing.
We need to understand that we have to make the enemy pay for everything.
It is our role in life, it is our role in the earth.
Edit: added by fkj
“Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand, To execute vengeance on the nations And punishment on the peoples,
To bind their kings with chains And their nobles with fetters of iron,
To execute on them the judgment written;This is an honor for all His godly ones. Praise the LORD!”
Psalm 149:6-9 NASB
The role of the Church in the earth is to keep the enemy so busy he can’t afford to do half the things he wants to do.
The problem in the earth right now, I think,
why wickedness is expanding and increasing,
is because the Church is not doing their job properly.
We are not living in the radiant nature of God, we are not living in our true identity as the people of God; we are not giving the enemy enough work to do.
Very often, you can go into hole cities and realize
that there is no militant body of believers in that city at all.
No wonder it’s a wasteland spiritually.
Our role is to keep the enemy occupied, that’s the fun part of what we do!
The saddest thing is to talk to Christians who are scared of spiritual warfare.
This is the fun part of what we do!
Come on, we are condemned to victory!
You have to be a complete pelican to loose this fight…
God only commits you to a winnable war – one that is already won!
We are not fighting towards victory, we are fighting with it.
Spiritual warfare is about the most fun you can have without being indecent.
One of my promises from the Father is
that not only will no weapon fashioned against me prosper,
but that He will turn every curse into a blessing.
In the process of me interacting with occult people, I would be responsible for rescuing key people, key lieutenants out of the occult.
Now you can’t have a word like that without coming into contact with witches and warlocks and everything else.
So when you get a prophetic word you have to clothe yourself in it!
You have to put it on, you have to wear it…
sew it into a jacket and wear it.
I remember the first time that the enemy came calling.
I was in my office in South Hampton England, when I lived over there.
Everyone had gone for the day and I was sitting in my office just doing some studying when the phone rang… there was no one else there, and I never pick up the phones… (sometimes I think phones are like a demonic instrument).
For some reason I picked it up, and there was this witch on the line and he starts cursing me, and then this black cloud, this foul obnoxious cloud starts to form in my office. I’m looking at this could, smelling this thing and listening to this guy curse me, and I’m thinking “What a flipping cheek, what a nerve!” He obviously hasn’t heard about the prophecy I’ve gotten. So I said, “Dude give us your number and I’ll call you back.” And he said, “No, I’m not giving you my number.” So I said “Well hang on a minute.” So I just put the phone a few inches from my mouth and I took authority and said, “In the name of Jesus this cloud is gonna go!” I commanded it to leave. I said to him, “I’m sending it back to you.” And, like a few moments later it’s like, “Woah what’s that?” and he puts the phone down. I Fed-Xed it back to him.
End Part 1 0f 12
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