Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows,
but only empties today of its strength.
C. H. Spurgeon
but only empties today of its strength.
C. H. Spurgeon
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 humorous man of God with a poignant message for the church today.
Then the Holy Spirit gets you moving forward… and you learn how to contend, and you learn how to press in… and you learn how to keep moving… and as you keep moving forward, so you get bigger and the enemy gets smaller.
Eventually he bows the knee to you, and you stand on him and you get into the next level and where the whole wonderful process begins all over again.
Part 6 of 12
It’s called Life in the Spirit and it’s gigantic and wonderful. It’s your adoptive role, we are learning how to put on Christ. As He is so are we; we’re learning what that whole new nature is all about. When God begins to show you your persona you become invested with a legal authority over the enemy. You get permission to overcome every obstacle that comes against you. You establish the right to rule and bring peace. Your persona and your personality are two sides of the same coin. When your persona is made known to you now your learning what you need to become and how you need to act. All your life’s circumstances are to establish the persona that God has set for you. When God show up in our life and calls us to a specific task He’s introducing us to our persona as He defines it. That gives you an elevated status on earth. David became king, Abraham became the father of many nations, Moses became a deliverer, Joseph became Prime Minister, Deborah became a prophet, Esther became queen, Mary became the mother of Immanuel. God loves your true identity, He loves to tell you who you are; that’s why we have prophecy. When He introduces you to your true self, He then begins to relate to you in that way from that moment on. The difficulty is we meet His calling in our personality. The first thing that happens is, God prophesizes something over you about your persona and all the negativity in you rises up to meet it. That’s what persona does, it acts against your negativity. Immediately you’ll have a reaction. Let me prove it in Judges chapter six. Here’s Gideon hiding away in a winepress making bread, like you do when you’re depressed. He’s goy lots of issues. The Lord comes up and says to him, “The Lord is with you O valiant warrior.” He’s beginning to tell him his persona. What’s the first thing that rises up… his negativity.
“Then Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
[Edit fkj (Judges 6:13)]
Whoa, that’s a ton of negativity right there! The interesting thing is God totally ignores it, and just carries on as though Gideon never spoke.
“The LORD looked at him and said, ‘Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?’" [Edit fkj (Judges 6:14)]
Again he comes back and more negativity comes out.
“He said to Him, ‘O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house.’"
[Edit fkj (Judges 6:15)]
And again the Lord totally ignores what he said… because it’s irreverent.
The Lord is saying to you, ‘Excuse me dude, dudette, I’m speaking now and I’m telling you who you are and who you can become.
Then the Lord said, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man."
You’re a valiant warrior, you have strength, you’re a deliverer, you will succeed in this battle against Midian, I’ll be with you, you will defeat Midian as one man… that’s your persona, you’re a warrior, you’re a deliverer, I am with you, you’re a man of strength… go for it!
This whole conversation is in two parts; there’s that initial conversation when all his negativity rises up and then there’s his eventual response… verses 17 through 21… when he comprehends that the Lord is talking to him about favor. He’s having his “Ah Ha” moment.
So Gideon said to Him, "If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who speak with me.
He goes in and cooks a meal… this is a really interesting thing to me, he doesn’t have some stuff pre-prepared in the fridge. He has to go and he has to kill something – he has to gut it, he’s got to skin it, he has to slice and dice it, and all the time he’s looking out the window thinking ‘I He still in the yard?’ The Lord is waiting out in the backyard while he’s cooking the meal. So we are talking about several hours here. What’s he doing all that time? He’s thinking about the Lord, ‘Oh my this is a visitation.’ He’s telling me who I am. He brings it all out and lays it there as an offering … and the Lord just touches it with His staff and… poof! It’s gone and the Lord is gone… it’s just take-out.
"Please do not depart from here, until I come back to You, and bring out my offering and lay it before You." And He said, "I will remain until you return."
Then Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour; he put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, and brought them out to him under the oak and presented them.
The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so.
Then the angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight.
[Edit fkj (Judges 6:17-21 NASB)]
It’s just take-out, the Lord goes back to His throne room… ‘I’ve got some chicken here… want some?’ ‘I’ve been down to Gideon’s place for chicken, anyone want chicken?.. any angels want chicken?’ Extraordinary way to get take-out.
Your persona develops the positive side of your personality, but it will make war with your negativity. Because, you don’t need it, you don’t want it, and neither do all your friends… nor your wife, nor your husband, nor your kids. They don’t want your negativity either. When the Lord shows you your persona, the first thing that rises up are all the reasons that you can’t do this. ‘I’m no good, I’m not strong enough, I’m not good enough’… all that kind of stuff. Your persona is designed… the first thing it will do is work on you. Before it can work out in the world it has to first work on you. You make war on your own negativity, until it is eradicated and your personality and your persona are compatible. We loose that victim mindset, we loose those fears, ‘I can’t do this, I’m no good,’ we loose that low self-esteem, all that nonsense. It is called growing up into all things in Christ.
We take on board the persona that God has given us.
Your persona is going to cause a conflict in your life. But it is only going to be conflicted with all the things you don’t like about your life anyway. All the areas where you have all this learned behavior, that actually isn’t of any use to you at all in the kingdom.
Moses faced a similar internal battle, when God called him to deliver Israel.
“Who am I that I should go?” [Edit: fkj Exodus 3:11] All the Lord says is, “Certainly I will be with you.” [Edit: fkj Exodus 3:12] What if they won’t believe me?... Well I will give you all these signs… But I’m not eloquent… I’m slow of speech and slow of tongue… I’ll be with your mouth and I’ll teach you what to say… In other words, God will give you all the training and equipping and releasing and empowering that you need for your persona to become active and effective. He does all of that through your life’s circumstances. Once God has outlined your persona, from that point on, everything in your life is about developing that persona. If you get a prophetic word that you are going to be a warrior and currently you’re a wimp… then your process is going to be about moving from wimp to warrior.
End Part 6
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 humorous man of God with a poignant message for the church today.
Then the Holy Spirit gets you moving forward… and you learn how to contend, and you learn how to press in… and you learn how to keep moving… and as you keep moving forward, so you get bigger and the enemy gets smaller.
Eventually he bows the knee to you, and you stand on him and you get into the next level and where the whole wonderful process begins all over again.
Part 6 of 12
It’s called Life in the Spirit and it’s gigantic and wonderful. It’s your adoptive role, we are learning how to put on Christ. As He is so are we; we’re learning what that whole new nature is all about. When God begins to show you your persona you become invested with a legal authority over the enemy. You get permission to overcome every obstacle that comes against you. You establish the right to rule and bring peace. Your persona and your personality are two sides of the same coin. When your persona is made known to you now your learning what you need to become and how you need to act. All your life’s circumstances are to establish the persona that God has set for you. When God show up in our life and calls us to a specific task He’s introducing us to our persona as He defines it. That gives you an elevated status on earth. David became king, Abraham became the father of many nations, Moses became a deliverer, Joseph became Prime Minister, Deborah became a prophet, Esther became queen, Mary became the mother of Immanuel. God loves your true identity, He loves to tell you who you are; that’s why we have prophecy. When He introduces you to your true self, He then begins to relate to you in that way from that moment on. The difficulty is we meet His calling in our personality. The first thing that happens is, God prophesizes something over you about your persona and all the negativity in you rises up to meet it. That’s what persona does, it acts against your negativity. Immediately you’ll have a reaction. Let me prove it in Judges chapter six. Here’s Gideon hiding away in a winepress making bread, like you do when you’re depressed. He’s goy lots of issues. The Lord comes up and says to him, “The Lord is with you O valiant warrior.” He’s beginning to tell him his persona. What’s the first thing that rises up… his negativity.
“Then Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”
[Edit fkj (Judges 6:13)]
Whoa, that’s a ton of negativity right there! The interesting thing is God totally ignores it, and just carries on as though Gideon never spoke.
“The LORD looked at him and said, ‘Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?’" [Edit fkj (Judges 6:14)]
Again he comes back and more negativity comes out.
“He said to Him, ‘O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house.’"
[Edit fkj (Judges 6:15)]
And again the Lord totally ignores what he said… because it’s irreverent.
The Lord is saying to you, ‘Excuse me dude, dudette, I’m speaking now and I’m telling you who you are and who you can become.
Then the Lord said, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man."
You’re a valiant warrior, you have strength, you’re a deliverer, you will succeed in this battle against Midian, I’ll be with you, you will defeat Midian as one man… that’s your persona, you’re a warrior, you’re a deliverer, I am with you, you’re a man of strength… go for it!
This whole conversation is in two parts; there’s that initial conversation when all his negativity rises up and then there’s his eventual response… verses 17 through 21… when he comprehends that the Lord is talking to him about favor. He’s having his “Ah Ha” moment.
So Gideon said to Him, "If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who speak with me.
He goes in and cooks a meal… this is a really interesting thing to me, he doesn’t have some stuff pre-prepared in the fridge. He has to go and he has to kill something – he has to gut it, he’s got to skin it, he has to slice and dice it, and all the time he’s looking out the window thinking ‘I He still in the yard?’ The Lord is waiting out in the backyard while he’s cooking the meal. So we are talking about several hours here. What’s he doing all that time? He’s thinking about the Lord, ‘Oh my this is a visitation.’ He’s telling me who I am. He brings it all out and lays it there as an offering … and the Lord just touches it with His staff and… poof! It’s gone and the Lord is gone… it’s just take-out.
"Please do not depart from here, until I come back to You, and bring out my offering and lay it before You." And He said, "I will remain until you return."
Then Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour; he put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, and brought them out to him under the oak and presented them.
The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so.
Then the angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight.
[Edit fkj (Judges 6:17-21 NASB)]
It’s just take-out, the Lord goes back to His throne room… ‘I’ve got some chicken here… want some?’ ‘I’ve been down to Gideon’s place for chicken, anyone want chicken?.. any angels want chicken?’ Extraordinary way to get take-out.
Your persona develops the positive side of your personality, but it will make war with your negativity. Because, you don’t need it, you don’t want it, and neither do all your friends… nor your wife, nor your husband, nor your kids. They don’t want your negativity either. When the Lord shows you your persona, the first thing that rises up are all the reasons that you can’t do this. ‘I’m no good, I’m not strong enough, I’m not good enough’… all that kind of stuff. Your persona is designed… the first thing it will do is work on you. Before it can work out in the world it has to first work on you. You make war on your own negativity, until it is eradicated and your personality and your persona are compatible. We loose that victim mindset, we loose those fears, ‘I can’t do this, I’m no good,’ we loose that low self-esteem, all that nonsense. It is called growing up into all things in Christ.
We take on board the persona that God has given us.
Your persona is going to cause a conflict in your life. But it is only going to be conflicted with all the things you don’t like about your life anyway. All the areas where you have all this learned behavior, that actually isn’t of any use to you at all in the kingdom.
Moses faced a similar internal battle, when God called him to deliver Israel.
“Who am I that I should go?” [Edit: fkj Exodus 3:11] All the Lord says is, “Certainly I will be with you.” [Edit: fkj Exodus 3:12] What if they won’t believe me?... Well I will give you all these signs… But I’m not eloquent… I’m slow of speech and slow of tongue… I’ll be with your mouth and I’ll teach you what to say… In other words, God will give you all the training and equipping and releasing and empowering that you need for your persona to become active and effective. He does all of that through your life’s circumstances. Once God has outlined your persona, from that point on, everything in your life is about developing that persona. If you get a prophetic word that you are going to be a warrior and currently you’re a wimp… then your process is going to be about moving from wimp to warrior.
End Part 6
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