Pastor Anish Mano Stephen

Let us keep on declaring that we are no longer slaves, but sons of God. When do we become slaves and how do we become sons of God? When we read Galatians chapter 4 verse 22 onwards we come to know how we became a slave and how we can become a son. Here Paul brings in the example of Abraham. Paul says that Abraham had two sons- Isaac and Ishmael. When God told Abram that he will become a father and Sarai that she will become a mother. The promise of God was available still and He told them not to worry about His timing and will give
them a child of promise at the right time. But as we know, Abram operated in fleshly
thought. According to the Jewish tradition, a boy should be born out of husband’s body. So
any girl can fit in or any surrogate mother can fit in to bring the boy. Sarai may have
thought, anyway I am old. Sarai told Abraham to take Hagar their servant girl to bring the
heir as promised by God. They acted according to their own wisdom.
But I want tell you a revelation- when you are sons of God, you will completely trust God
fully without doubting and wait on the fulfilment of God’s promise in your life. But a
when you have the servant mentality, you start taking the promise of God to be fulfilled
according to human wisdom. That is when you will be bound in bondage. Therefore, if the
Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. [John 8:36]. We will be free because of the
revelation of sonship in our lives and our bondages (servant mentality) are broken. Are you
an Abraham? Are you trying yourselves to fulfill God’s promises in your life?
The beauty of our Almighty God is that He is a zealous God, He does miracles. He doesn’t
share His glory with others. What He promised, He will fulfil at the right time for the sons
of God. Since we are no longer slaves but sons of God Almighty there arises two
problems, Paul says we can either be a servant or a son. What is the problem with servant?
Abram and Sarai took the fulfilment of God’s promises in their hands.

Slavery

For example, let us assume God promised that He will bless you financially in 2021. And
nothing is happening. Suddenly one day, your friend comes and he says, ‘do you know to
bid coin, do you know about cryptocurrency? See how many lakhs I am earning these
days’. You are struggling financially. You have a promise that before December 2021, you
will have a blessing. And suddenly you will feel it is from God. Many times, believers
don’t recognise, what is from God and what is from world, or what is from your flesh.
Abraham knew God deeply, still he could not pick it up, this thought about taking Hagar as
wife, is from flesh and not from Holy Spirit Let us declare, in this year 2021, as we are
growing in spiritually, Lord I want to crucify all my fleshly desires with you. I don’t want
to walk according to the flesh anymore. I want to live and walk according to the Holy
Spirit.

Holy spirit does what’s best for our life:

God’s concern over our material blessings:

As believers, the flesh is the source of problem and not the devil. The devil is so scared to
come near us since Jesus lives in our hearts. But the problem is we are carrying flesh with
us. But when we are led by the Holy Spirit, it is so beautiful. In my life, when I was 26, my
father told to get ready for marriage. My father asked me what kind of girl you are looking
for? My father was expecting that I will tell that I’m looking for born again, Spirit filled,
prayerful girl. Unfortunately, I was in Bangalore and here the fleshly thoughts will work
more than in Kerala. So I replied, she should be tall, beautiful, etc. These are my fleshly
desires. We will always say, God will always give the desires of my heart. But remember
that is when our heart and God’s heart are one. Then we will have only God’s desires in
our life. My father used to pray every Wednesday fasting. ‘Lord please bless my son with
you perfect choice’. My father is a renown servant of God in Kerala. He knows many
pastors. He can easily find an alliance within his known pastors. But not even once he
tried, because he had the revelation of sonship in his life. That is when the alliance came
through a matrimonial website, that is of daughter of Devasia Mullakkara. Prayerfully, we
went ahead with the alliance. They met together, but both of us did not like much one
another. Because we are seeing in the eyes of flesh. When we came out of Greeshma’s
house, my father told. ‘this girl will be your wife’. That time I said, it will not work out.
But remember when God does something, our flesh involvement is zero percentage,
because our flesh is crucified and buried with Lord Jesus Christ. Let us declare what we
want a life with Holy spirit. God did our marriage. When God does something, when Holy
Spirit is leading to a promise, it is blessings on sonship, not on slavery. Let us declare that
we want to be Spirit led. I am so happy, many of the decision in my life, was led by Holy
Spirit, including coming to full time ministry. When your desires become God’s desires,
God does much more than what you desire in your heart.

Two types of birth

It is not a one-time activity. Many times, we take many of the actions in Christian life as
one-time activity. Thus being born into bondage or being born into sonship is based on
every decision that you are taking in your life. Let us assume, one of you decided to come
to Bangalore. The decision can be of two things 1) Born out of bondage 2) Born out of
sonship. If that decision is not from God, you will struggle while you’re in Bangalore. But
if it’s born of God, it is best for your life, to be transformed in the way God wants.
As a young man, when I reached Bangalore on a Friday. On Saturday, my father called me
up and said you should go to FGAG church on Sunday. So I enquired my father what kind
of church is that. My daddy replied that it is an AG kind of church. I told my daddy I
won’t go to Pentecostal churches. But because my daddy insisted and told, ‘one day you
go there, if you don’t like, don’t go from next Sunday’. That night, me and my friend went
to find that church in Bangalore, and decided to go to that church. Next day, they went to
the church. But going to that church, was turning point in transforming a sinner called
Anish to a blessing for many people. Because it was a Spirit led decision of the Almighty
God, otherwise I would not have been saved. I would have never become a pastor, never
would have preached to all of you, never would have been able to bring many people to
salvation. My life is changed. My priority and desires are to be changed. It is by grace by
you and me are marked as the sons of the Almighty God, even before you and me were
born on to this world, to manifest the love and the power of the Holy Spirit.
New Jerusalem – the Church of God

When we read Galatians 4: 26, we can see a revelation, but Jerusalem above is free,
which is the mother of us all. The New Jerusalem- it is a place and it is a person. Who is
that person? It is the church of Lord Jesus Christ. You are not only fathered by God. God
used the church, even the local churches, the pastors, the spiritual realm in the church, to
give you birth as sons of Almighty God.

 The New Jerusalem which is above, that is the Church. If the Hope in Jesus Apostolic
Church of Christ, which is part of the universal Church of Jesus Christ was not there, many
of you seated here would not have been there. If the local churches where the pastors have
sowed into the kingdom of God was not there, many of us sitting here and listening, would
not have been doing so. If one person who is part of church of God was available in the
city of Bangalore, taking the pain to lead the church, because of that beautiful thing, as the
Bible says, the church of the New Jerusalem became your mother, you’re born out of
church of God. If you value this revelation, you will value the church which is the reason
for your salvation. Have you seen, some people who doesn’t value the church which was
the reason for their salvation? They don’t stay much long in the Lord. Instead, those who
value their church, God use them amazingly mightily, for the glory of God. Never speak
bad about the church, because it is the body of Christ. The Church of Christ is highly
valuable. We who have received the revelation of the church of Christ should value the
church. When I value the church and Jesus, I am led by the Holy Spirit and I am receiving
the promise of Almighty God.

What happens when you’re born as sons of God? There is great rejoicing and great
shouting out, as we read in Galatians 4: 27. For it is written, “Rejoice O barren, you who
do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who are not in labour. For the desolate has
many more children than she who has a husband”. When you come into this revelation,
you will always be rejoicing, because you’re part of the church. When you are a son, there
is always rejoicing, there will be joy irrespective of the circumstances that you are in. You
don’t worry about the things happening around you, there is always joy inside. Break forth
and shout. When we are part of the church family, break throughs will happen in your
lives. Let us declare that we will always experience breakthroughs. In our prayer ministry,
for almost all our prayer requests, God has given us breakthroughs. Because our God is a
God of breakthroughs.

Now, we children, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as he who was born
according to the flesh, persecuted, Him who he was born according to the Spirit, even so
it is now. [Galatians 4:28,29]. Today also persecution is there. Where is it? Inside of us
(our flesh). There is persecution happening in all believers. But the word coming cast out.
Ishmael was cast out from living with Isaac. Abraham didn’t allow Ishmael to continue
living with Isaac.

Nevertheless, what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for
the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” [Galatians
4:30]

So, the Lord is telling us that those who got in the revelation of sonship have the authority
to cast out all the effects of the flesh in our life, which was previously controlled by the
demonic powers. But when you receive the Holy Spirit in your soul, you become the sons
of God and you are filled, controlled by the Holy Spirit and walk with the Holy Spirit. Let
us declare that I am casting all Ishmael in my life. I will only be in sonship and not slavery.
Cast out anything which is hindering me from becoming the son of Jesus. The Holy Spirit
will help you to cast that hindrance from your life. I don’t want to be under a bondwoman.
I want to be a free son.

Supernatural sons

We have supernatural protection as His sons. Do you know that during this Covid season,
many people who increased their immunity by eating vitamin-C, all got Covid infection in
this season. But the Bible says for I,’ says the LORD, ‘will be a wall of fire all around
her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’ [Zechariah 2:5]. God has perceived you as sons
of God to be manifested, to bring many people in to the revival. All those who are living in
the world after Covid-19, let me tell you, God has marked you as sons of God and you
can’t run away from the sonship any more. So it just didn’t happen, you are marked by
Almighty God to be manifested a sons of God to bring millions of people to revival. You
are protected specially by Lord Jesus Christ. You can’t deny the fact that you are
protected. Great is the calling in your life.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be
entangled again with a yoke of bondage. [Galatians 5:1]. At last we have freedom, for
Christ has set us free! We must always cherish this truth and firmly refuse to go back
into the bondage of our past. [Galatians 5:1 (TPT)]. Here it is written that the Holy Spirit
doesn’t partially give us freedom but fully. The revelation of this freedom we have to
enjoy and refuse to go back into bondage, that way we can live a victorious life. This is
where people have a trouble. When we are born again, we enjoy this freedom. We cherish
the beautiful blessings of God, but after sometime we start thinking that there is no need
for ten commandments or law. Let us take one law and apply it on us. This is the problem
of the church. We don’t go to heaven because of the rules and regulations. Our names are
written in the Book of Life. God has manifested us as the sons of God by grace, through
faith you and me are saved by the blood of Jesus. When you come to the revelation you
understand how deeply Jesus loves you. When you come back to follow the rules you are
trying to tell, how much I love Jesus. So, the Bible says even though we are sinners, Christ
became sin on the cross of Calvary. Just remember that love. Just imagine, if the Holy
Spirit wants to give us rules and regulations, will the whole world be enough to store that
Bible. Do you know what the last words of the book of John are - And there are also
many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that
even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen. [ John
21:25]. That’s why Jesus said, ‘write the law in your heart for the inner man. I put my
sound, that sound or voice says, this the way’.

Law in the New Testament

Law is written to the Jews, but the law is a guardian to bring us to Christ. Advantage of the
law is that, it shows the sins that you are doing. For example, I used to smoke and drink.
How do we know that it is wrong? Because in the Bible it is written that if anyone destroys
the body, they destroy the temple of God. Only by grace we are saved. If I start valuing my
body which is the temple of the Holy God, then I don’t destroy God’s temple and allow the
Holy Spirit to work in our lives. When I was in Trivandrum an aunty came to me for
prayer. She said, ‘Pastor my neighbor is so cunning, that he has taken half cent of land for
road.’ I asked her, ‘What did you do?’ She replied that she had filed a case on it. They both
attend the same church. We shouldn’t be doing that because Jesus told us to love our
neighbors. Likewise, if you file a case and ask to obey the law, there is no use. Here Paul
says, why did you take to court before you could have taken her to the Apostolic
leadership. Anything that happens in the Church, it should be addressed to the Church.
This type of action has to be dealt carefully, because we don’t know the law, but we do
know the heart of Jesus. We can’t go by the rule book, because not all things are written in
this book. As I told earlier there is no space in the world, but there is space in your heart.
Because the Holy Spirit is there in each and every decision you make, for the glory of God.
I would like to tell a testimony. How many of you know Pastor Rajesh Elappara? He is
going to dedicate his new church. He was praying regarding the sound system. At that
time, we had gone to there, I saw the Church. Then we went to Ernakulum. We went to the
same sound system shop where we bought our speakers from. This was the first time I was
seeing them. There was this young man who called me, ‘pastor’. He is very cooperative. I
had asked a small help in one of our mixers and he did a great job on that. Yesterday, the
completion of installation of the sound system was done by the same young person in
Pastor Rajesh Elappara’s church. He took the mic and he sang a song. That video went out
to all the pastors and those who heard it said it was fantastic quality. Do you know how it
happened? God told Pastor Rajesh Elappara to call me and ask me to do the sound system.
I don’t know much about audio mixers, but when I prayed, I remembered this young man.
I told him that I don’t have much money and told him to do his best by faith. We gave the
advance. He took the entire system and installed it and when people hear it, they say it is
fantastic. One small decision but God worked in such a way, that it became a blessing. For
the same purpose we needed ₹ 25000 urgently. I asked my friend. He said, “I will give
you.” He put the exact amount. Because I didn’t tell how much I need, the Holy Spirit led
it.

If you want to be made right with God by fulfilling the obligations of the law, you have
cut off more than your flesh—you have cut yourselves off from Christ and have fallen
away from the revelation of grace! But we have the true hope that comes from being
made right with God, and by the Spirit we wait eagerly for this hope. When you’re joined
to the Anointed One, circumcision and religious obligations can benefit you nothing. All
that matters now is living in the faith that works and expresses itself through love.
[Galatians 5:4-6]

Do you want to be holy by obeying the law or the Lord declares that you are holy? For
example: there was a Formula 1 race. There was heavy rain on the day of the competition
thus they were not able to drive. So what did they do ?. They declared one person as the
winner, he never drove it but he won. Now he has to believe that he is the winner. He has
to go to the podium as a winner and he has to receive the prize as a winner. This is God
declaring you as a righteous person because of your faith in the blood of Jesus. That’s
where we are standing, where we need the Holy Spirit. In our mind we feel as if we didn’t
win the race. That’s where we move out of the grace of Jesus. In the revelation of sonship,
our Lord declares our righteousness because of the Holy Spirit giving you faith to believe
in the name and blood of Jesus and there by you are kept holy and perceived by the power
of God, by the blood of Jesus. And made us perfect in righteousness in the love of Jesus.

Conclusion

Prayer