Hans Hopgood shares testimony and teaching on prophetic witness at Rivers Apostolic Centre
Hans Hopgood speaks at Rivers Apostolic Centre, weaving personal testimony with teaching on the prophetic significance of testimony and the value of faithfulness in small things.
Summary
This episode features Hans Hopgood speaking at Rivers Apostolic Centre, Brisbane, introduced by Aaron Salisbury. The service opens with communion, during which the importance of discerning the Lord's body — specifically, that Jesus' broken body was for healing — is emphasised. Hans then delivers a message built around the theme that testimony is prophecy: the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, and sharing what God is doing is the core function of the New Testament prophetic gift. He traces a multi-year prophetic journey he and his wife Naomi have been on, beginning with a weeping encounter with Ezekiel chapters 40–47, through a series of confirming signs including a German house plaque reading "Haus immer schön" (house forever beautiful), prophetic dreams about September the 1st, and words about kings going out to war in springtime. The message concludes with a sustained encouragement to value the small and the hidden, drawing on the image of the trickle from the throne in Ezekiel 47, and an invitation for prayer for those struggling to value what God has placed in their hands.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Welcome, Communion, and Opening Prayer
Aaron Salisbury: Yes, He's worthy. Let's just lift our hands in this place. Let's lift up holy hands in this place. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus, you are worthy to receive power, glory, honour, and strength. Lord, we celebrate your great name. Lord, we submit this morning afresh to your lordship. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. Let's declare that together. Great is the Lord. Let's say it together. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. Hallelujah. We worship you, Lord. We honour you, Father God. In Jesus' wonderful, wonderful name. Hallelujah. You may be seated this morning.
Thank you, Lord Jesus. Wonderful to be here this morning in the presence of the Lord. Lovely to see you all. Welcome to some people we haven't seen for a while. Welcome back. Lovely to see you this morning here in the house of the Lord. Hallelujah.
The Lord's Table — Discerning the Body
If you have your Bibles with you, I want you to turn to a passage that is often read out when we're about to celebrate communion. I'm reading this morning from the New King James Version. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, starting from verse 26:
"Therefore as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come."
The context of this passage of Scripture is the Corinthian church, and the Corinthians were Christians coming to the Lord's table in a very unworthy manner. They were drinking the cup and ravenously eating the bread and dishonoring the Lord's table. So the Apostle Paul had to write this letter to address the unworthiness that was happening at the Lord's table.
This morning I want to welcome you to the most powerful table on the planet. This is not the Rivers Apostolic Centre table. This is the table of the Lord. And the Lord is the one who split history. We are in 2026 because the Lord Jesus, in his death, burial, and resurrection, split time. Time was not set in a way that it just continued on and on and on. Something so powerful happened when the Lord Jesus Christ died that time itself changed.
This table that we celebrate this morning — the challenge is that because we here at Rivers Apostolic celebrate it every single week, we can kind of just think it's some sort of ritual, or that's just a thing those Rivers people do on a Sunday, and we can so often and so easily miss the power of what actually happens here and what takes place.
The passage that we just read — I've shared this before, but I just felt this morning to share it again. When I was growing up, I went to a church that never explained what it meant to eat in an unworthy manner. And I was encouraged to confess all my sins. I remember confessing a whole lot of sins I never committed because I was so worried I might miss something out and come to the table in an unworthy manner and God would be displeased with me.
But I have since learned — hallelujah — I have since learned, and in a few moments we're going to be sharing some more things that I learned through the missions trip through Apostle Lionel. But praise God, I've since learned that eating and drinking in an unworthy manner is not so much about confessing your sin — which is important, by the way, confess your sins absolutely — but eating and drinking in an unworthy manner is about not discerning the Lord's body. Interesting that it doesn't say discerning the Lord's blood.
Another way of looking at this: most of us are convinced that we're saved. We're convinced of the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. No question. So here's something I want to put to every one of you. Why do we drink this cup? Why do we do this? We remember. What are we remembering? The sacrifice. What was the sacrifice? The sacrifice was the blood of Jesus Christ. What does the blood of Jesus Christ do? It cleanses us. So we're fairly convinced — yes — of the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. We celebrate the cross. We're good with that.
But the bread — well, why was Jesus Christ's body broken? Healing! His body was broken for our healing. And the Apostle Paul is saying, hey, don't you get the power of this table?
I wasn't going to share a personal testimony, but I so want you to get this this morning. As you all know, I have a certain condition. I won't go into the detail of it, but it's one of those conditions that is basically incurable in the natural. But as I have understood this and started to celebrate communion — and I encourage you, take communion at home — it was wonderful just this week to go and celebrate communion in hospital with a brother. We sat there and we celebrated communion. And as we took the cup and we took the bread, as I was celebrating with that man in hospital, it was so wonderful to feel the presence and power of God. And the presence and power of God is here right now.
Maybe this morning, as you come — because if you're a visitor this morning, what we do as a church is we invite you to come to the table, to come to the Lord's table, to come and experience the power of God — taking the cup and the bread, can I encourage you this morning to hold the bread and receive, as you take the bread, your own healing? But maybe you want to stand in proxy for someone else. Maybe you have a relative, maybe you have a friend who is unwell this morning, and maybe you've been crying out for their healing. Well, let's believe the Lord. Let's believe the Lord together this morning for some healing. Who wants to see some good healing happen in this church? Who wants to see some miracles this morning?
Let's stand this morning. Thank you, Jesus our Lord. As we come this morning to partake of the bread and the wine, we thank you, Lord, for the Lord's table this morning. We thank you for the power of this table. We thank you, Father God, that you are here in power, Lord, to bring healing, to bring restoration, and to bring wholeness. And Lord, as we take the cup, we celebrate your shed blood. Lord, as we take this bread, we celebrate your broken body, which was broken for our healing. And we thank you this morning for our healing. In Jesus' wonderful name, amen. God bless. Let's come and partake, everyone.
Prayer for Graham Oliver
Powerful is the blood of Jesus and the broken body of Jesus. I'd like us just to pray together. If you'd all join me in praying, we're going to be praying for Graham Oliver, who's in the PA Hospital. Thank you to those who have gone to visit with Graham. So let's just agree for him. He's probably going to have some surgery this coming week, and we're just going to stand for him, as we've just heard about the power of the broken body of Jesus. So let's stand together and let's agree for Graham.
Father, we thank you for Graham. We lift him up to you. Lord, we bless him in his bed in the PA Hospital and we declare healing and life. Lord, we thank you — where his heart is broken, Lord, we thank you that you would fix his heart. Lord, every part of it, every chamber, every vessel, Lord the aortas, Lord the capillaries, Lord the muscles — every part of him, Lord, we declare him healed. We pray even now, Lord, that he would feel you moving and working on his heart. Lord, that he would know that he is beloved, that he is your beloved son. We bless Graham today and we bless his family and we give you thanks for amazing testimony to come out of this trial. So we thank you for your preservation upon him. Thank you for his life, Lord. We bless you and we thank you that you come to give life and give life in abundance. So we bless him today in Jesus' name, and everyone say it — amen.
Please reach out to the family and bless them at this time as well.
Acknowledgements — Kahoos Team, Goldmine Outreach, and Offering
Well, we have an exciting morning this morning. We're going to be sharing a number of different things, and it's been a very active past month with God moving in such profound and powerful ways. I'm going to take up the offering first and just take a moment first to ask Auntie Sue to come forward. Let's give Sue Crawford a hand.
Thank you so much. My new official title from the Kahoos — Aunty Sue. We would just like to thank every person that cooked and baked and helped in the kitchen over the Kahoos time. We could really, truly not have done it without you. When we broke down in Dalby, we had food that we could share and have — we had frozen meals, we had biscuits, we had cakes. It was wonderful and the team never went without because of your generosity. So we're just — you were as much a part of the team as anyone else, truly, way beyond what we thought. And for those of you who might recognise next weekend that we are using some of your wonderful cooking — we had so many generous offers that we still have things in the freezer left. So next weekend for our missions lunch, we're going to use your offerings for the missions as well. So thank you very much.
Hallelujah. Let's give Sue a huge hand. She cooked day and night for like a week, so bless her. Thank you, Jesus.
One of the things that really stood out to me during the week — and I'm taking up tithes and offerings next week for missions — but we do have our missions baskets out throughout the time, you're welcome to give to that today as well. That missions fundraising lunch next week — don't bring any food. We're going to be paying for our lunches next week just to support missions. We've got a number of different missions coming up, one of them being the mission to Port Moresby next year as well. So let's be praying into that.
But as I was receiving funds — and I have that privilege of doing funds at the church — an envelope came into the church this week and I thought you'd love to hear the story, because you'll know that the Goldmine outreach has been so significant in this house.
I first want to honour the young men in this house who used to come and sleep over and start praying at 4 a.m. in the morning with Andrew. There are a number of them who are sitting here today. And they laid the ground for prayer and for the Goldmine. And then we've had people going out. We honour the men who go out into the Goldmine and now a team of ladies as well who go out into the Goldmine. And this is a place where we give into the Goldmine every week — food, clothing. We've got a blessing storehouse here where things go out into a very small demographic area of Woodridge. And God is working in powerful ways there.
But this week we got an envelope back and it was filled with coins. And it was for the Kahoos team from the Goldmine. And so I just wanted to encourage you that it's going out and it's flowing back in again. I thought of this story in Luke, chapter 21, verses 1 to 4:
"Looking up, Jesus saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury, and he saw also a poor widow putting in two mites — copper coins. And he said, 'Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them, for they all gave out of their abundance, but she has contributed out of her lack and her want, putting in all that she had on which to live.'"
And it reminds us of the heart. Jesus is looking at our hearts. And as we've had a heart to reach the last in the city, things are flowing back into the house in the way of funds, people, opportunities, and challenges.
So this morning I'd like us just to stand. If you were a part of the prayer team that used to meet in the early morning hours, I'd like you to come and stand up here. If you're part of the outreach team that goes to the Goldmine, I'd like you to come and stand up here. And if you are praying into the Goldmine on a regular basis, I'd like you to come and stand up here. And we just want to pray for every provision for these ones — not just financially but in the spirit — that they might have the wisdom as to how to work in that space.
Darren Brunson is not here, I don't think, but we bless and honour him in this space. So all the intercessors, you can put your hands up as well, because you guys have been praying. Let's just pray for these team here. Reach your hands out to them and let's bless them. Andrew as well is reaching out there. Steph's gone out as well. Reach up to these ones.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we give you thanks that you take us to the treasures. Lord, in your word you say that there are secret treasures hidden in dark places. And so we thank you, Lord, for each one of these that have sown into the Goldmine. Lord, I thank you that in whatever place they're at in their own lives, Lord, that you would encourage them. Lord, that you would give them courage to continue to sow into these places. Lord, I pray for a supernatural wisdom upon each and every one of them, Lord, that they would be able to go with the flow of the Holy Spirit of God. And so Lord, we give you thanks for what you're doing in the Goldmine. We give you thanks for people coming in last week and being saved and baptised. We give you thanks, Lord, for a mother and a son who have been here for two months and who are completely isolated and alone, Lord. We thank you that they've found people because of the kindness and the love and generosity of these ones here who have sown and sown. So Lord, I thank you that your word says you give seed to the sower. So Lord, I pray for seed and abundance for each one of these people here and their families. And we bless them, Lord, for their sowing and their generosity into the Goldmine. And we ask for more, Lord. We pray for more salvations, more baptisms, more disciples, Lord. More people set free, healed, delivered from addictions and demonic spirits. And we give you thanks, Lord. We give you all the praise, all the honour, and all the glory. In Jesus' powerful name we pray. Amen. Hallelujah. We give the Lord glory. Thank you, Jesus.
Introduction of Hans Hopgood
We are in for a treat today because we have the amazing Hans Hopgood coming to share the word. Thank you, Hans.
Testimony Is Prophecy — Hans Hopgood
Hans Hopgood: I just want to gather up some of this oil and testimony. Thank you, Lord. If anyone wants to come and just grab some of this and... Well, it's testimony day today, so I'm going to share some testimony as well.
It's been a couple of weeks since we've been here. You may have seen less and less of us. That's because there's been a whole lot going on for us up north. And I've been encouraged to share some of that because honestly, we've been dreaming too small. And the Lord's been doing too big things. And we want to share what that is.
When you follow the little whisper and you just sniff it out and you think, Lord, we need to go out and do your work — when you go out to do the work of the Lord, you realise that you are actually only following behind what he is already doing. And you just get to pick up the pieces. Basically, your role in mission is to be amazed. It's not to go and do — and yes, we get involved — it's to be amazed. It's to be amazed at what he is doing. And that's all we did. We went to the park and then we were all just amazed just by chatting with people. It was wonderful. So mission is amazing. And we've been on that journey too, and we have been amazed by what the Lord has been doing. I want to share some of it.
But I want to weave in a little bit of word and a little bit of testimony and see how I go. My teaching gift — I can't bury it. I try to keep it down. It's like, we just want you to share your testimony, and then the teaching bit comes up a little bit. But I want to encourage you that testimony is so valuable. Testimony is valuable. It is the announcement of what God is doing. And God is never not doing anything, so we should always be just in announcement mode. This is what God's doing. Hey everyone, look at what God's doing. This is what he's doing. And that's what testimony is. It's so valuable. Testimony is the revealing of God and what he's doing.
The Testimony of Jesus Is the Spirit of Prophecy
This is why the testimony of Jesus is called the spirit of prophecy. The testimony of what Jesus has done and what he is doing is the spirit of prophecy. And the gift of prophecy is just all about revealing. It's one of the revelatory gifts. It's just about revealing. Prophecy is about announcing who God is, what he's like, what he's doing. And testimony is prophecy.
So as you are hearing testimonies — you hear ours, as you go out and see God — testify to what he's doing. Because my life has been continually changed by the testimony of others when they share and they go, this is what the Lord's doing. And it either does two things. It provokes you to jealousy — you're like, I want to see that stuff too, and you go into your prayer room and you're like, Lord, what about me? Or the second one is it just encourages you and fills you up. And our lives have been provoked by testimony. Testimony is so valuable in our lives. So I want to ask you to continue to testify to what God is doing.
The function of prophecy is to reveal God. And the entirety of Old Testament prophecy — there's so much that you can read. But didn't Jesus say that the whole of Old Testament prophecy was summed up in John the Baptist? He said John the Baptist was the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets. And his prophetic announcement was three words. It was just, "Behold the Lamb." Who takes away the sins of the world. Thirteen words maybe. Behold the Lamb. Behold the Lamb. That's our prophetic word. Behold the Lamb. All the prophecies summed up in just behold Jesus. Jesus, prophecy fulfilled. Jesus is the revealing of God. God is revealed in Jesus. We don't need anything else but to look at Jesus.
So John the Baptist is literally like, my prophetic word is — here he is. Don't listen to me anymore. Don't listen to anyone anymore. The Old Testament is not abolished, but fulfilled in this. Here he is. It's finished. Behold the Lamb. Every other Old Testament prophet, please take a seat, because the true is here.
And then Jesus says that the least of those in the kingdom of heaven are greater than John the Baptist. Why is that? I've taught on this before. It's because John the Baptist never lived long enough to see what Jesus was going to accomplish — in revealing all that he could about the Father. And when Jesus died on the cross, everything that Jesus did in his ministry on the earth was the revealing of God. Everything that Jesus said was the revealing of God. But everything that God wanted to say, he said on the cross. Everything that God wanted to say, he could say with Jesus on the cross. Everything he thought he could sum it all up — Jesus on the cross.
And the reason that we are greater than John the Baptist is because our announcement is not just "behold the Lamb" but "behold the Lamb who was slain." John the Baptist and all the prophets — they couldn't have seen that that was going to be the plan. And when God revealed it in Jesus on the cross, we all saw — we with unveiled faces beholding the true love of God, all the forgiveness. And we're now the prophets of the New Testament with the aha revelation of life. It's the Lamb who was slain. Don't look away from the Lamb who was slain. It will teach you everything that you need to know. Every problem that you have, you just bring it up to the cross and the cross will tell you what the answer is. Forgive your brother. Forgive. Release. Healing. Life. Blood. It's all in the cross.
So our announcement and our testimony is: behold the Lamb who was slain. And raised up again. And Jesus' testimony is not just about what he did 2,000 years ago, but what he is doing every single day. Because he is alive. He is alive and well in our community and in our lives and doing incredible things. So the story, the gospel, is continually being written.
The eyewitnesses saw what Jesus did, but Paul goes on to say, hey, my letter to the world is you guys. When I write to the wider world about what Jesus is doing, I write letters about you. You are my letter. You are my poem. You are my testimony. You are the testimony of what Jesus is doing in the world. Because I see a company of people who are laying their lives down because they have seen it in the cross. A bunch of people who look at the cross and then do what the cross says. That's the letter. That's the testimony of Jesus.
So I can announce the testimony of what Jesus did 2,000 years ago, but I can also announce what you guys are doing. Hey, my brother just the other day has this phenomenal story — you should go and talk to him. Phenomenal story about what God's doing. And people get saved. People are being saved by your testimony, what you are sharing about Jesus. It's wild. So good.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel, the good news, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Your testimony is the power of God. Prophetic testimony of Jesus is the power of God. And this is New Testament prophecy at its heart.
The Prophetic Journey — Ezekiel 40–47
So let me testify about what the Lamb has been doing in our lives. This is where I feel a little bit nervous, because you know when you share prophetic stuff and it means so much to you and you think, oh yeah, this just sounds so amazing, and you share it with someone else and they're like, eh. This little bird flew past me and it was just like, wow. I think I understand. I'm not quite sure. So this is our version of that. Because someone said this morning, we're following a whisper. It's just a whisper sometimes. It's not like the loud crashing thunder of, hey, Hans, Naomi, go and do this. It's like these little cryptic whisper puzzles that you have to piece together, and you find yourself going far away from your home and country like Abraham did, to a place that he will show you in the end.
So this is what God's doing, and it's either God or we're crazy. We'll leave that in your hands to decide whether we are crazy or whether we are listening to the Father.
I'm going to do some back history, some of which you've heard, some of which won't make sense, but we'll land it into a place which I think is pretty incredible.
Naomi and I live on the north side of Brisbane. We live in a place called Ocean View, up in the hills — it's about an hour and twenty minutes from here. We've lived there for about four and a half years, coming up to our fifth year. And we ended up there in 2022 because of the whisper of the Lord. And it started when I was reading the book of Ezekiel. I was reading chapters 40 to 47. Who knows what Ezekiel chapters 40 to 47 is all about? Maybe, probably not, because it's not the most exciting read.
But I'm sitting there reading Ezekiel chapter 40 and it is about the measurements for the temple. Ezekiel is pulled up into a vision and he is given the measurements for a temple, all the way through chapters 40 to 47. Let me just read the first part of it. Ezekiel chapter 40, verse 1:
"In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on that very day the hand of the Lord was upon me and he brought me to the city."
He's in a vision. And with visions of God, he brought me to the land of Israel and set me down on a very high mountain, on which was a structure like a city to the south. When he brought me there, behold, there was a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand. And he was standing in the gateway and he said to me:
"Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and set your heart upon all that I will show you. For you were brought here in order that I may show it to you. Declare all that you see."
That's the prophetic ministry. Declare what I show you. Ezekiel becomes a prophet. That's his commissioning. He's also commissioned in Ezekiel chapter 1, but he's commissioned in this way. And he says, I'm going to show you something and I want you to declare it. Prophetic ministry. He wasn't called a prophet because he was special. He was called a prophet because he saw something.
What did he see? He sees something fairly obscure. Chapters 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47 go on to describe in intricate detail the measurements of a temple. It's a boring read. One thing to note is that anyone who has been taken up into heaven and given measurements is being commissioned to something really great. Moses is brought up into the highest place in the mountain, deep into the glory. And there are pages and pages and pages of what he saw. And a lot of it is just measurement, measurement. One cubit for this and a cubit for that and this high. And garments and priests and the oil has to be made of this and this. And it's like, wow, okay, it's pretty detailed. He's being commissioned for something. He's seen the plans.
David was also someone who saw the plans and handed them to Solomon. And again, when Solomon's building the temple, it's just pages and pages and pages of measurements. But it's a big deal to receive measurements, to be led by the man who has the measuring reed in his hand. You're being commissioned to build something. It's a big deal. And here Ezekiel is receiving the measurements for a temple. So it is some sort of commissioning moment for him.
Now, as I said, for anyone who's reading that, it's not the most exhilarating read. Let me just read one portion of it just to illustrate:
"Then he brought me into the outer court. And behold, there were chambers and a pavement all around the court. Thirty chambers faced the pavement, and the pavement ran along the side of the gates."
And so on and so forth, page after page. Not exhilarating.
But back in 2020, when I was reading what was otherwise a boring passage of Scripture, I knew that something was happening to me because as I'm reading it, I'm weeping. I'm weeping. You know something's happening to you when you're weeping over passages of Scripture that for years you just passed over not knowing. I'm crying. I'm stirred. I'm weeping. I'm there with Ezekiel watching this glorious temple being measured out.
And the vision finishes with Ezekiel chapter 47 with a glorious vision of the river that flows from the temple — which we all know — the river that flows out and it comes up to the ankles. And the man with the measuring line measures out another thousand, comes up to his knees, comes up to his waist, up to his chest, and then becomes a river that he cannot cross. You swim, and there are trees on either side, and there are fishermen casting nets, and beautiful fish of all colours are coming into the temple, and everything that is marshland out there turns to sweet because of this river. And I'm weeping. I read this, I'm moved, and I ask out loud, Lord, are you commissioning me for something? Are you saying something?
And I was so moved that a couple of weeks later, I preached on Ezekiel 47 from this pulpit. This was January now in 2021. After I had preached, Rory steps up and preaches a three-week, three-part message on the prophetic. If anyone remembers 2021 — 2020, 2021 and the prophetic movement at that time. There was a need for a three-part series on the prophetic. It was slightly corrective and it was basic. And it was basically Rory saying, if you want to be prophetic in a season where everything's going on — prophecy is now political, COVID is happening, there's all kinds of stuff, the prophets are just getting sifted, nobody knows what's going on — she was bringing a corrective word. If we want prophecy, get back to the word of God. It is the prophetic scriptures. Let's ground ourselves again as a community. It was a wonderful three-part message.
And as she's landing her third part, tongue in cheek as we all know Rory to be, she says, well, who wants a prophetic word then? A bunch of hands go up. And Rory starts going up to people with her Bible and she just rips pages out of the Bible, handing them. You want a prophetic word? Here you are. Here's your prophetic word. There was joy in the room. The point was driven home. I don't endorse ripping pages out of Bibles. But people have been known to swallow scrolls — Jeremiah and all kinds of stuff. So we're not the weirdest of the prophets, that's for sure. Try lying naked on your side and cooking your food over dung. Yeah, anyway.
So Rory comes up to Naomi and I and she's like, would you like a prophetic word? And we laugh — yeah, sure. And she rips out pages of the Bible, hands them, and moves on. And I look down, and not a page more, not a page less — I have Ezekiel chapters 40 to 47 in my hand. Wild. And my jaw drops to the ground. We're just like, it is a commissioning. My goodness.
Those pages are now hanging on our wall as a prophetic reminder. Keep the testimony of the Lord always before your face, because you forget. And then you walk to your kitchen and you pass the things and the scriptures on the wall and you're like, oh yeah, that's right. That's why I'm cooking eggs this morning, because I need my energy to take care of Ezekiel chapters 40 to 47.
Psalm 27 and the Dream of "Haus Immer Schön"
But then I'm like, what then? What does it mean? What are you saying? I need more information, Lord. What are we building? A temple — what does that mean? What does that look like? And you have to press into the Lord for his answers. What are we building?
So I'm pondering all this and the Lord directs me to Psalm 27, verse 4:
"One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple."
That's what you're building. That's what you're building. A dwelling place for the Lord. Just an altar. That's all you need to build. One thing is required — to sit at the feet of Jesus. One thing. It doesn't have to be complicated. One thing. And he's just giving this scripture to us, Psalm 27 verse 4, and we start dreaming. We're like, well, if we're going to start a house of prayer or if we're going to start something or build an altar, I'd love to call it something like House Beautiful. One thing have I asked, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever, and behold his beauty. I've got these three words in my spirit — house, forever, beautiful. I'm like, I'd call something House Forever Beautiful, or House Beautiful, something.
So at the time I'm truck driving as a job, and I'm driving all the way from Dalby — I drove out to Dalby twice a week — and all the way from Hervey Bay, a big 300-kilometre radius all around southeast Queensland. I'm getting to know southeast Queensland like the back of my hand. I'm praying, I'm like, Lord, this place, southeast Queensland, Jesus, come on, let's go.
And I keep driving past where we currently live, Ocean View. I keep driving through there on the way to Woodford and then out to wherever I'm going. And it's really beautiful up there. It reminds us of northern New South Wales. So I say to Naomi, let's take a picnic out there one day and just enjoy ourselves. We're pregnant, we're living in Wynnum, with no desire to uproot ourselves. First-time parents, we want to be in Wynnum for the next five years of our lives.
And we're driving to have this picnic and there's an open house that we drive past. So we drive past and just for fun, even though we're not looking to buy anything or do anything, we think, let's just go into the open home. Pull in, the lady's like, oh great, I'm only open for half an hour. You've come — how about you have a look through? So we're like, okay. Look at the house — I'm like, it's horrible, it's disgusting. I hate it immediately. Why are we here? I thought we were doing a picnic.
We get to the front door and it's an old sort of Austrian chalet type looking house. We find out that the guy who built it was known to be an Austrian toy maker. So it's got this European feel and I'm like, okay, maybe. And I get to the front door and there's a plaque on the front door and it's in German. And Naomi goes, oh, there's a plaque here. It's in German. Do you know how to speak German? I'm like, oh, my name is Hans.
Everyone laughs.
I say, yes, I know what it means. It means "Haus immer schön" — house forever beautiful. And again, I'm just like — say it out loud. I'm just like, what? We stand there and we walk through the house and we're stunned. It's a German term for just keeping your house clean, basically. It's not spiritual, but it says house forever beautiful. And so the next six months are just a big wrestle of like, is this a prophetic sign? Or are we actually meant to buy the house? And in the end, we ended up buying the house.
I don't encourage, and I would never pastor anyone to buy and sell houses or date people or whatever, that kind of thing, on these tiny little whispers. But we do it. And if you've got the conviction in your heart to follow the voice of the Lord, then go for all your life. But I didn't say sell your house. Just putting it out there. I didn't say that.
Building the Altar — Ocean View
So we have this house and it's a complete doer-upper. We've had our first child and we move into a total renovation mess — nails everywhere. And we've slept in every single room including the kitchen. We've had our bed in every room of the house as we've renovated different portions of the house. And it has this tractor shed out the back, which was disgusting, had tractor oil stains, and we had to rip the whole thing down. But that was going to be the altar of the Lord. We're going to turn that into our house of prayer.
And the day we moved in was January the 1st, 2022. We started 22 days of worship for 2022 on January the 1st. We moved in and we started worshipping, and it was disgusting — and the worship wasn't disgusting. No, the shed was disgusting. Mice running through. Two possums would always crawl out because we were making a noise. But it was glorious. We had some experiences where we would smell fresh bread as the presence of the Lord came as we were worshipping. It's like, can you smell that? And everyone could smell the fresh bread. We had these miracles happen.
And it was during a time where there was incessant rain in southeast Queensland. Lismore got flooded that year. So our shed was literally like Ezekiel 47 — a river running through the shed, up to our ankles. And we're like, yes, it's a sign. Praise the Lord. Oh my soul, praise the Lord. Kicking water at each other. Anyone else would be devastated. We're like, it's flooding.
So fast forward to July of last year. We've been there now four years. We got into a faithful rhythm of worship every fortnight. People would come. We started hosting dinners last year to add to it, and it's just been slowly growing. But we've learned a lot about being so far away and worshipping just on our own at times. Two of us, three of us, four of us, five of us, back to three, up to 30 for no reason, back down to 10 the next week. People who are prophetic, they'll sniff out whether a night's going to be really on or not. And they're like, I feel like I need to be up there this week. For no reason, there'd be like 30 people in the shed. And we're like, wow, this is glorious. And then the very next fortnight, it would be back to like the shovel — just in the spirit, get your pickaxes out — and there'd be no one there. So we learned a lot about faithfulness. It was really good.
September the 1st — Prophetic Dreams and Confirmation
Then July last year, the next sort of significant prophetic was coming to us. And I've shared some of that here. I have two dreams — it's probably almost a year from today, this time last year. I have two people come up to me in that dream, significant people in the prayer and worship arena. They come up to me and they point at me and they say, September the 1st is going to be very significant for you. And that was the dream. And then I fall asleep again and I have the exact same dream. Later in the night, these two people come up to me and they point to me and they say, September the 1st is going to be really significant for you.
And I wake up going, I've had two dreams in the same night. September the 1st is going to be really significant for us. So I lean into the Lord and we start to sense from the Holy Spirit that September the 1st is the first day of spring, that we're going to be entering into a springtime of the Lord — perhaps even like a seven-year springtime — because we had been encountering globally a seven-year period of what seemed like winter and death and no fruit on the vine. I've shared some of this here before.
So September the 1st comes along. We're waiting for September the 1st. And I have two engagements on that day. The Lord sets up our calendar sometimes. I've got a ministry engagement down in Tweed — I'm teaching and leading worship down there — and then in the evening I'm leading worship at another event up on our place. So it's September the 1st and I'm anticipating what the Lord's going to say.
I get down to our engagement in Tweed and the Lord speaks to me through someone — the scripture where it says, in the springtime when kings go out to war. And I was like, oh, that's a new piece of information. Because I thought springtime — buds are just going to come on the vines. Like the cooing of the doves. I'm looking through Song of Solomon. Looking forward to this. And then, no, the Lord pivots and says, in the springtime when the kings go out to war. That's speaking of David. He was back in his temple. He didn't go out to war. But the Lord's like, in springtime when the kings go out to war.
So I get that piece of prophetic information on September the 1st down at Tweed. I go up to our next engagement. I'm leading worship up in our next place. And at the end — they're not connected to each other whatsoever — a guy comes up to me and he says, I have a prophetic word for you. And it's literally just one word. It's the word king. I feel like the Lord's saying to you that you're a king. And I'm piecing these two together. I'm like, oh, whoa, okay. In the springtime when kings go out to war.
At the very same time, the next day, we receive a letter in our mailbox. It's a show cause notice from council saying, we have reason to believe that you are running a church on your property — which is untrue, but we've been starting to post stuff on Instagram, so it's out there. In all this time we've never had a complaint from a neighbour. We still haven't. But there's an ex-councillor who lives around the corner who has seen all this activity all the time for years and reports us. And so we go through this show cause sort of situation.
I'm excited because it's the prickles in the nest, because we're sensing that the Lord's wanting to do something and expand out. And so we're not worried about it. But I call council and I'm like, yes, we are meeting, but it's private. And so we're allowed to do what we're doing. Is there anything that we're doing wrong? And he's like, no, we're just checking in. It seems like you're all good. You can keep doing it as long as it's private. Can't advertise, whatever. I'm like, that's fine, all good. So we satisfy their show cause claim.
But we're starting to think, well, maybe we're supposed to move this off the mountain. Maybe that's the whole September the 1st. It's September the 1st. It's like — time to move. Kings, go out to war.
Tent Pegs and Expansion
At that time, you would know that we had Darrell Crawford Marshall come down for the Jubilee, and he had a word for Rivers Apostolic Centre. He had a word for us as well about stretching out our tent pegs, and he gave that word to us. And then in that same week, we had a prophetic guy from the UK who came and stayed with us. And he came to our house with literal tent peg stakes and said, I have a word for you. The Lord wants to stretch out your tent pegs. And I want to put these tent pegs in each one of the corners of your property. And this is all in the same week — September the 1st kind of week, or by Jubilee, we're in October now.
So it's like, okay, we're hearing you, Lord. We're hearing you. This is fun. I'm enjoying this. This is great fun. But we still don't know what it means. Stretch out the tent pegs. So we decide, okay, maybe it's time to start looking for some property. And we start casting a wide net.
The Trickle from the Throne — Ezekiel 47 as Discipleship
But to land — it's 12 o'clock, so I'm going to land this really quickly. As I said, all of this has been coming out of our discipleship from Ezekiel chapter 47, which is the river that flows from the temple. I've shared this so many times here at Rivers, but I want to just emphasise that the discipleship that that scripture has been doing in us has been along these lines.
Ezekiel chapter 47 starts with the throne of God. And it says, from the throne, from the threshold. So from the threshold — beyond that threshold is the throne of God. To get over that threshold, you have to pass through the fiery swords and take a peek in. From the threshold of Eden, from the threshold of all that is God and all that is spectacular about God — all that we see in the book of Revelation, when you're in the throne room of God, it's just awe-inspiring power, thunderings, lightnings, glory, just everything that you think is magnificent about the Lord.
From that place, from the threshold, proceeds a trickle. You would think that if the Lord wanted to impact the world from all that glory, he would send out a fire hydrant. Just one big catastrophic flood of glory as the waters cover the sea. Just go. The Lord did it all by himself. But no, he decides to say, no, I'm going to contain all of that power and I'm going to bring all that power and compact it and bring it into a seed form and release it as a tiny trickle. A human-sized ability. A human-sized power. A trickle that humans can partner with. And from the throne proceeds a trickle. And as that trickle goes out, it will grow and grow and grow.
And that picture has discipled us so much and has encouraged us through seasons when what we were doing up on the mountain was just a trickle. And where you would be tempted to give up because it doesn't look glorious. It doesn't look special. It doesn't look like anything that you want it to look like. When you value it and look at it as the way the Lord intends you to look at it, you can see all of the glory that's in that trickle. You can see the Lord and his thunderings and his power in that trickle.
And how much more magnificent when you can boast in your weaknesses and say, wow, my prayers were so lame and look what they've toppled over — occultic temples and other things on the horizon. You're like, whoa, I get it now. The trickle, I can value. I can value the small. I can value the tiny. I can value the mustard seed. I can value the tiny rock that was hewn from the mountain that destroyed Nebuchadnezzar's idol. I can value the tiny rock that David had in his sling that slayed Goliath. And when I look through Scripture, I see it everywhere. It's all the small. And all that the Lord wants us to do is not overlook the small.
Not overlook the small. The Goldmine. The Goldmine is full of small things that we are supposed to go and value. The little — I will sweep the house so that I can find the tiny gold coin. Because this is a value. And if we can value the small, then it can grow. If you are faithful with the little, then I can give you much. And it's been a test to be faithful with the really small.
And so many ministries will start up with all their zeal gathered up as much as they can. We're going to do this big endeavour. And then hit some sort of wall and be like, ah, it wasn't what I wanted it to be. It wasn't powerful enough, or the healings weren't big enough, or this, that and the other. But the Lord is of a different spirit. He's like, no, you faithfully value your very small life. Value your time with your kids. Value your time in doing the washing. Value the time when you are in a tractor shed. Value the times that are hard. And out of that, once you find this contentment in it — where you're like, I don't need anything more. Actually, Lord, I'm good. I'm good. I'm good right here with my life. And like Paul, you're like, I've been rich, I've been poor, but in all things I'm just content now. I can do all things through Christ now because I found this place of rest. I don't need the Lord to do epic opportunities of ministry. I just need him to bring contentment into my small life.
And out of that, he does things. He's like, hey, rested soul, come with me. I'll show you some more. You're like, whoa, okay. And when you're in that place, you know not to grab a hold of the big things when they come. You're just like, off you go, Lord. You do you. I'm happy, but I'll follow you wherever you go.
Closing Prayer and Invitation
So just to land — if any of that resonates with you and you'd like some prayer this morning, especially around value, and you feel like you're in a situation or maybe a mindset or a mind space where you've been struggling to value the small thing that the Lord has put in your hands, I just want to pray with you to encourage you that the Lord values what he's put in your hand. He values your life. He values your weakness. He values the small gift and offering that you have in your hand. And not everything has to be magnificent, but the Lord is magnificent.
So if you'd like prayer for that, then come up front and let's worship. And even as I said before, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. If you just want to reach up by faith and lay hold of just what you've seen of the Lord and draw that into your heart, then do that this morning as we worship.
Let me pray. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you for your Holy Spirit. And thank you that you, the Spirit that gives eyes to see, that gives us revelation — you are the Spirit of revelation. You are the Spirit of wisdom. You are the Spirit of insight, Lord. Give us more insight into the ways of God. Give us more revelation to see God. Give us eyes to see you. We pray, Holy Spirit, you would open up the eyes of everyone's heart in this next season, Lord, to see your heart, your values, your ways. Train us in your ways. Train us in your power. Train us in your beauty. Train us in weakness and your power that is made perfect in weakness, Lord.
We just release blessing right now over the weak hearts, Lord, the feeble knees and the hands that hang by the side, Lord. We say, have strength and courage. The Lord values you. If you are hidden, if you are concealed, if you are tucked away, the Lord sees you and is with you and values this place that you're in. We just release blessing over you right now. In the name of Jesus, amen.