“We want, in fact, not so much a father in heaven
as a grandfather in heaven:
a senile benevolence who, as they say,
‘liked to see young people enjoying themselves’
and whose plan for the universe was simply
that it might be truly said at the end of each day,
‘A good time was had by all.’" (Clive Staples) C. S. Lewis
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.
One of my best friends Bobby Mumford years ago called me up and said, “Graham, you’ll never guess what the Lord said to me this morning…” I said, “You’re totally right about that.” And he said – the Lord to me, “Bobby, you and I are incompatible and I don’t change.”
Part 9 of 12
Which is about the nicest way that you could ever say to somebody “It’s time for an upgrade.”
Your persona has been given to you in order for you to be delivered from fear, and from inadequacy, and insecurity, and pessimism, and unworthiness, and being overly self-conscious.
Your persona has been given to you as a part of your deliverance. When you take that persona on, your persona becomes the means for other people to find their freedom… yeah?
Your persona carries with it the faith that you require the creativity that you need and the power you need to succeed in the appointed tasks that God has given to you. You’re learning how to step into that place and abide. Listen, you never have to use any power to enter into anything with God. It is always given as a gift. You need to do nothing to get into that place… you have to do everything to stay there. Everything is given… when God allocates your persona it’s your permission to come right in. What you are learning is how to abide. It doesn’t take any energy to get into what God… He put us into Christ. He didn’t consult you before hand. “Hey, would you mind if I did this?” “I’m thinking about putting you into Jesus so that all of His favor and blessing would automatically come to you… is that O.K. with you?” He didn’t ask your permission. He put you into Christ, you’re in! Why don’t you just nudge your neighbor and say “Dude, you’re in!” What you’re learning is how to stay in. You’re learning how to stay in, how to abide… you’re learning how to dwell, you’re learning how to remain, and you’re learning about the momentum that abiding gives you. When God shows you your persona He’s just saying, “Your in.” “This is yours, you’re in.” Some of us had our persona shown to us a long time ago… you know, fortunately for you, you know God has an understanding about calendar events that makes Him think that a thousand years can look like one day. So if He prophesied over you twenty years ago, that’s about twenty-eight minutes, He still remembers it. It’s still fresh, it’s still current… Don’t you love Him?! Who He is, what He’s like! And, this is the kicker right, He tells you your persona and then the Holy Spirit is your come-along-side-helper and tutor and best friend to help you become established in that.
And He is a flat out genius at that kind of stuff. He told me to tell you that. “Tell them I’m a genius, because most of them live like they don’t know it.”
He is the total genius at doing life. By the way, the Holy Spirit is the most enthusiastic person you will ever meet in the whole of your life. He is like this world-class athlete, He’s always up on his toes, He’s always bouncing… He’s like Tigger to the power of a million. He’s rude with health, He has a great sense of humor… He has a lot of material to work with, He has a great sense of humor… and it’s really, really difficult to upset Him. Most of you will probably never manage it. It’s hard… it can be done, but it’s flippin hard. He’s so enthusiastic, so excited about everything… and everything is doable! “You want to do that? Yea I’ll do that!” “I can do that, that’s my specialty!” If you talk with Him long enough you realize everything is His specialty. “You want Me to do that? Yea, I can do that!... Yea, I’ll help you with that… that’s My specialty!” “What, you need help with thinking?.... I’m great at thinking!... I’ll help you think.” “You need to believe something… I’m brilliant at believing!” “Hey listen, confidentially, the Father is the believer, Jesus is a believer, you’re in Him, you’ve got no trouble believing!” “I’m a believer as well, all three of us believe, and we are all right with you.” “What is your problem?” “We all believe, it’s great”… “I’ll teach you how to trust, I’m really good at getting people to trust.” “Oh, and I’m really good at opening peoples eyes, I have this whole deal about enlightenment!” “I can show you stuff… it’s part of My job!” “I’ll even show you things to come in your own life so you can get ready for them.” “This will be great, I’m a great coach, I’m fabulous at praying… I can teach you how to speak in tongues…”
I love those moments when the Holy Spirit shows up and says “Graham!... let’s speak in tongues!” O.K! Because He’s so enthusiastic about everything! He’s excited… always excited. And, everything… “That’s doable!” “I can do that!”
Hey, listen, I want to show you something about yourself. [responding to a smattering of applause (edit fkj)] Hey come on, this isn’t a golf tournament, no golf claps!.... He’s an absolute genius at life! He doesn’t do conferences, He doesn’t do meetings, He does life! He does life, and He’s brilliant at it. He’s a flat out genius…. at everything. Totally adores Jesus! I mean totally! And completely… adores the Lord Jesus Christ! Loves, to take the things of Jesus and show them. Loves it, loves it, loves it!
He totally gets who you are now… but, He totally knows who you are becoming!
And Jesus, whoever lives to make intercession for us [edit fkj Hebrews 7:25] …
What do intercessors do? They stand in the ___ [“gap” (audience response)]
Jesus stands in the gap between your present and your future, praying for your prophetic word. He’s the One saying to the Father… “But Poppa, You said…”
Praying for you that you’d get it… praying for you that you’d pass your tests. How many of us have had the same test, over and over again? The good news is, you know, God doesn’t fail you… He just gets you to take it again. And again… and again… and again. And again?! Until you pass! That’s what we call… what’s that word…. grace!
You know what, there’s grace right here today for you to be accelerated on your journey. You know beloved, hand-on-heart, a lot of us in this room will be honest enough to say… “ I’m behind the time of my own development.” “I need to speed up.” Well, God is redeeming time! How does He do that? He can put five years growth, into twelve months. He’ll teach you to say yes, faster. You do realize that when you say yes to God you have to say no to something else. If your yes to the Lord is not followed by no somewhere else then you will default to no. Your yes has to yes and your no has to be no. You have to have both; you can’t say yes to Jesus without saying no somewhere else.
If you’re going to say yes to your persona, you have to say no to the negative side of your personality. You have to know that your person is going to happily wage war on your negativity… for your good. And now you have to choose a side eah?
End part 9 of 12
as a grandfather in heaven:
a senile benevolence who, as they say,
‘liked to see young people enjoying themselves’
and whose plan for the universe was simply
that it might be truly said at the end of each day,
‘A good time was had by all.’" (Clive Staples) C. S. Lewis
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.
One of my best friends Bobby Mumford years ago called me up and said, “Graham, you’ll never guess what the Lord said to me this morning…” I said, “You’re totally right about that.” And he said – the Lord to me, “Bobby, you and I are incompatible and I don’t change.”
Part 9 of 12
Which is about the nicest way that you could ever say to somebody “It’s time for an upgrade.”
Your persona has been given to you in order for you to be delivered from fear, and from inadequacy, and insecurity, and pessimism, and unworthiness, and being overly self-conscious.
Your persona has been given to you as a part of your deliverance. When you take that persona on, your persona becomes the means for other people to find their freedom… yeah?
Your persona carries with it the faith that you require the creativity that you need and the power you need to succeed in the appointed tasks that God has given to you. You’re learning how to step into that place and abide. Listen, you never have to use any power to enter into anything with God. It is always given as a gift. You need to do nothing to get into that place… you have to do everything to stay there. Everything is given… when God allocates your persona it’s your permission to come right in. What you are learning is how to abide. It doesn’t take any energy to get into what God… He put us into Christ. He didn’t consult you before hand. “Hey, would you mind if I did this?” “I’m thinking about putting you into Jesus so that all of His favor and blessing would automatically come to you… is that O.K. with you?” He didn’t ask your permission. He put you into Christ, you’re in! Why don’t you just nudge your neighbor and say “Dude, you’re in!” What you’re learning is how to stay in. You’re learning how to stay in, how to abide… you’re learning how to dwell, you’re learning how to remain, and you’re learning about the momentum that abiding gives you. When God shows you your persona He’s just saying, “Your in.” “This is yours, you’re in.” Some of us had our persona shown to us a long time ago… you know, fortunately for you, you know God has an understanding about calendar events that makes Him think that a thousand years can look like one day. So if He prophesied over you twenty years ago, that’s about twenty-eight minutes, He still remembers it. It’s still fresh, it’s still current… Don’t you love Him?! Who He is, what He’s like! And, this is the kicker right, He tells you your persona and then the Holy Spirit is your come-along-side-helper and tutor and best friend to help you become established in that.
And He is a flat out genius at that kind of stuff. He told me to tell you that. “Tell them I’m a genius, because most of them live like they don’t know it.”
He is the total genius at doing life. By the way, the Holy Spirit is the most enthusiastic person you will ever meet in the whole of your life. He is like this world-class athlete, He’s always up on his toes, He’s always bouncing… He’s like Tigger to the power of a million. He’s rude with health, He has a great sense of humor… He has a lot of material to work with, He has a great sense of humor… and it’s really, really difficult to upset Him. Most of you will probably never manage it. It’s hard… it can be done, but it’s flippin hard. He’s so enthusiastic, so excited about everything… and everything is doable! “You want to do that? Yea I’ll do that!” “I can do that, that’s my specialty!” If you talk with Him long enough you realize everything is His specialty. “You want Me to do that? Yea, I can do that!... Yea, I’ll help you with that… that’s My specialty!” “What, you need help with thinking?.... I’m great at thinking!... I’ll help you think.” “You need to believe something… I’m brilliant at believing!” “Hey listen, confidentially, the Father is the believer, Jesus is a believer, you’re in Him, you’ve got no trouble believing!” “I’m a believer as well, all three of us believe, and we are all right with you.” “What is your problem?” “We all believe, it’s great”… “I’ll teach you how to trust, I’m really good at getting people to trust.” “Oh, and I’m really good at opening peoples eyes, I have this whole deal about enlightenment!” “I can show you stuff… it’s part of My job!” “I’ll even show you things to come in your own life so you can get ready for them.” “This will be great, I’m a great coach, I’m fabulous at praying… I can teach you how to speak in tongues…”
I love those moments when the Holy Spirit shows up and says “Graham!... let’s speak in tongues!” O.K! Because He’s so enthusiastic about everything! He’s excited… always excited. And, everything… “That’s doable!” “I can do that!”
Hey, listen, I want to show you something about yourself. [responding to a smattering of applause (edit fkj)] Hey come on, this isn’t a golf tournament, no golf claps!.... He’s an absolute genius at life! He doesn’t do conferences, He doesn’t do meetings, He does life! He does life, and He’s brilliant at it. He’s a flat out genius…. at everything. Totally adores Jesus! I mean totally! And completely… adores the Lord Jesus Christ! Loves, to take the things of Jesus and show them. Loves it, loves it, loves it!
He totally gets who you are now… but, He totally knows who you are becoming!
And Jesus, whoever lives to make intercession for us [edit fkj Hebrews 7:25] …
What do intercessors do? They stand in the ___ [“gap” (audience response)]
Jesus stands in the gap between your present and your future, praying for your prophetic word. He’s the One saying to the Father… “But Poppa, You said…”
Praying for you that you’d get it… praying for you that you’d pass your tests. How many of us have had the same test, over and over again? The good news is, you know, God doesn’t fail you… He just gets you to take it again. And again… and again… and again. And again?! Until you pass! That’s what we call… what’s that word…. grace!
You know what, there’s grace right here today for you to be accelerated on your journey. You know beloved, hand-on-heart, a lot of us in this room will be honest enough to say… “ I’m behind the time of my own development.” “I need to speed up.” Well, God is redeeming time! How does He do that? He can put five years growth, into twelve months. He’ll teach you to say yes, faster. You do realize that when you say yes to God you have to say no to something else. If your yes to the Lord is not followed by no somewhere else then you will default to no. Your yes has to yes and your no has to be no. You have to have both; you can’t say yes to Jesus without saying no somewhere else.
If you’re going to say yes to your persona, you have to say no to the negative side of your personality. You have to know that your person is going to happily wage war on your negativity… for your good. And now you have to choose a side eah?
End part 9 of 12
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