One who faces his own failures,
is steadily advancing on the pilgrim's way. William Temple
is steadily advancing on the pilgrim's way. William Temple
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.
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.
Part 7 of 12
What’s the difference between a wimp and a warrior? Well it might just be courage…the development of courage. What if all your circumstances then are about developing courage? So then, the Holy Spirit is going to be encouraging you… what’s the enemy going to be doing?..discouraging you. So now the issue becomes courage. After the prophecy always comes the process. And the process is designed to make you fit the design that God has agreed over your life.
There was a point in the relationship between God and Moses, when Moses wasn’t getting it. The negative side of his personality was so strong it was actually fighting and warring against his persona. There are a number of people in here, you have been fighting that battle the last few years. There comes a point where you have to see something about yourself. If you don’t see it, you can’t get it you can’t become it. And so we have Exodus 7:1.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I make you as God to Pharaoh,”
He’s not inviting Mo to become the fourth member of the Trinity. What He’s saying is, ‘When you walk into that throne room… (now Moses knows because he’s been there… it’s not going to be a private audience… there’s going to be hundreds if not thousands of people there). Everyone’s going to be listening!
Pharaoh is going to want to establish his authority before everyone who comes before him. So you cannot go in to this throne room at a level below where Pharaoh is. Not only that, but you can’t go into this throne room and demand what you’re going to demand by being on the same level as Pharaoh. You have to go into this throne room at a level higher than Pharaoh has ever attained.
Don’t forget that in Egyptian law, Pharaoh is the son of Ra… he is elevated to god-like status… he has a divinity. So you have to go in at a higher level than his divinity. “I will make you as God to Pharaoh.” What the Lord is saying is, Listen Mo, by the time we are finished… the only way that Pharaoh will be able to understand what just happened to him is – ‘why he (Moses) must be some kind of God in human form.’ And the Lord’s really happy about that ea? It’s not like Moses is ever going to be that much competition for Him. The Father’s really secure in His own identity. “I will make you as God to Pharaoh…. and Aaron shall be your prophet.” This is what passes for fun in heaven ea? We can do this, I’ll put you into a really high place in the Spirit for the purpose of dealing with Pharaoh. I’ll create an identity just for that encounter with the enemy. I’ll make you as God to Pharaoh; I won’t make you as God to Israel… I’ll make you as God to Pharaoh. It’s a specific… a temporary identity for the purpose of overcoming. The Lord doesn’t listen to a word that Moses said about why I can’t do this.
Your persona is your permission to step outside the confines of your personality into the fullness of God. What if fullness and abundance is only linked to your true identity? You know lots of intercessors have not really stepped into their truest identity. They are still praying like a widow, when they could be praying like a bride. They are still begging God, asking God to do things, instead of proclaiming that He has. They’re not understanding their bridal identity in intercession…they are still praying like a widow hunting for scraps.
When you see your identity, you can see the resources that are attached to it. If you don’t see it, you can’t develop it. As we learn to put on Christ we are also learning to live in our persona regarding His call. When God speaks your persona, He begins to deal with you that way whether you appreciate it or not. That’s why so many of us right now are realizing this is the reason I am having conflict within myself the last few years. How many of you know that God has already spoken to you your persona? You’ve had prophetic words, you’ve had Scriptures, you’ve had dreams, you’ve had encounters. How many of you are realizing that all of my life’s circumstances… Oh my God, they were supposed to help establish that? How many of you have held on to the negative things about yourself? Come on show me… I’m holding my hand up too, I’ve been there. All your life’s circumstances… it’s the process that makes you rich, not the impartation. It’s the process that makes you rich… God will never divorce Himself from the process. You can have all the impartation you want, and process is attached to every single one of them. It seems to me that God works in both those ways, you’re either in process for a while… at the end of that process God gives you an impartation. He either gives you an impartation at the end or He gives you one at the beginning, but either way, impartation and process are intimately connected. So if you have an impartation at the start then process is going to open up, because that impartation now has to be established. If God takes you into process, and walks you through that process and you get to the end of it, He wants you to have an impartation at the end of it so something is firmly established in who you are. Impartation and process will always go together. Impartation without process is like believing in magic, and God doesn’t do magic.
Most people want impartation because they believe something incredible will happen to me and I’ll get changed in such a way that I won’t have to work out my salvation. [Ed. fkj Philippians 2:12 NASB “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”]
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.
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.
Part 7 of 12
What’s the difference between a wimp and a warrior? Well it might just be courage…the development of courage. What if all your circumstances then are about developing courage? So then, the Holy Spirit is going to be encouraging you… what’s the enemy going to be doing?..discouraging you. So now the issue becomes courage. After the prophecy always comes the process. And the process is designed to make you fit the design that God has agreed over your life.
There was a point in the relationship between God and Moses, when Moses wasn’t getting it. The negative side of his personality was so strong it was actually fighting and warring against his persona. There are a number of people in here, you have been fighting that battle the last few years. There comes a point where you have to see something about yourself. If you don’t see it, you can’t get it you can’t become it. And so we have Exodus 7:1.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I make you as God to Pharaoh,”
He’s not inviting Mo to become the fourth member of the Trinity. What He’s saying is, ‘When you walk into that throne room… (now Moses knows because he’s been there… it’s not going to be a private audience… there’s going to be hundreds if not thousands of people there). Everyone’s going to be listening!
Pharaoh is going to want to establish his authority before everyone who comes before him. So you cannot go in to this throne room at a level below where Pharaoh is. Not only that, but you can’t go into this throne room and demand what you’re going to demand by being on the same level as Pharaoh. You have to go into this throne room at a level higher than Pharaoh has ever attained.
Don’t forget that in Egyptian law, Pharaoh is the son of Ra… he is elevated to god-like status… he has a divinity. So you have to go in at a higher level than his divinity. “I will make you as God to Pharaoh.” What the Lord is saying is, Listen Mo, by the time we are finished… the only way that Pharaoh will be able to understand what just happened to him is – ‘why he (Moses) must be some kind of God in human form.’ And the Lord’s really happy about that ea? It’s not like Moses is ever going to be that much competition for Him. The Father’s really secure in His own identity. “I will make you as God to Pharaoh…. and Aaron shall be your prophet.” This is what passes for fun in heaven ea? We can do this, I’ll put you into a really high place in the Spirit for the purpose of dealing with Pharaoh. I’ll create an identity just for that encounter with the enemy. I’ll make you as God to Pharaoh; I won’t make you as God to Israel… I’ll make you as God to Pharaoh. It’s a specific… a temporary identity for the purpose of overcoming. The Lord doesn’t listen to a word that Moses said about why I can’t do this.
Your persona is your permission to step outside the confines of your personality into the fullness of God. What if fullness and abundance is only linked to your true identity? You know lots of intercessors have not really stepped into their truest identity. They are still praying like a widow, when they could be praying like a bride. They are still begging God, asking God to do things, instead of proclaiming that He has. They’re not understanding their bridal identity in intercession…they are still praying like a widow hunting for scraps.
When you see your identity, you can see the resources that are attached to it. If you don’t see it, you can’t develop it. As we learn to put on Christ we are also learning to live in our persona regarding His call. When God speaks your persona, He begins to deal with you that way whether you appreciate it or not. That’s why so many of us right now are realizing this is the reason I am having conflict within myself the last few years. How many of you know that God has already spoken to you your persona? You’ve had prophetic words, you’ve had Scriptures, you’ve had dreams, you’ve had encounters. How many of you are realizing that all of my life’s circumstances… Oh my God, they were supposed to help establish that? How many of you have held on to the negative things about yourself? Come on show me… I’m holding my hand up too, I’ve been there. All your life’s circumstances… it’s the process that makes you rich, not the impartation. It’s the process that makes you rich… God will never divorce Himself from the process. You can have all the impartation you want, and process is attached to every single one of them. It seems to me that God works in both those ways, you’re either in process for a while… at the end of that process God gives you an impartation. He either gives you an impartation at the end or He gives you one at the beginning, but either way, impartation and process are intimately connected. So if you have an impartation at the start then process is going to open up, because that impartation now has to be established. If God takes you into process, and walks you through that process and you get to the end of it, He wants you to have an impartation at the end of it so something is firmly established in who you are. Impartation and process will always go together. Impartation without process is like believing in magic, and God doesn’t do magic.
Most people want impartation because they believe something incredible will happen to me and I’ll get changed in such a way that I won’t have to work out my salvation. [Ed. fkj Philippians 2:12 NASB “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”]
Forget that! That ain’t never gonna happen. It’s the process that makes you rich… listen God is relational… if He were not relational than impartation would be a functional thing – we’ll just do the stuff and it would be magic. We’d all be worshipping Gandolph. God wants to build a relationship with you, that means He wants to hold your hand through all the circumstances of your life. He wants to show you who He is. He wants to have a conversation. He wants to show you things; it’s the process that makes you rich.
He wants to give you a new mindset and new perspective and new language. He wants align you with that persona. Right now for many of us who are realizing ‘God has already shown me my persona,’ you’re realizing that you’ve taken sides against it. In many ways by carrying on with the negativity, the ‘I’m no good’ and everything else… you are aligning yourself with the part of yourself that you don’t like and don’t want. The Lord keeps coming along and challenging you about your persona so you get glimpses of it. But you don’t realize that every time gives you a glimpse of it, He’s saying to you “It’s the process!”
End part 7
He wants to give you a new mindset and new perspective and new language. He wants align you with that persona. Right now for many of us who are realizing ‘God has already shown me my persona,’ you’re realizing that you’ve taken sides against it. In many ways by carrying on with the negativity, the ‘I’m no good’ and everything else… you are aligning yourself with the part of yourself that you don’t like and don’t want. The Lord keeps coming along and challenging you about your persona so you get glimpses of it. But you don’t realize that every time gives you a glimpse of it, He’s saying to you “It’s the process!”
End part 7
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