The simplicity of love and the teachers of the Kingdom

Notes loosely taken from a sermon given by Heidi Baker :
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THE TEACHERS OF THE KINGDOM

Heidi Baker: Best Taught by children and the poor 18 March 07
The Kingdom
Matthew 18:2
He called a little child ….unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the Kingdom.
So mothers, you are blessed, you have been given little teachers who knows a lot about the Kingdom of God.

There is another group of children, besides children, whom the Kingdom of God breaks through for, it is the poor in spirit.
So how do we become childlike and poor?
In my 20’s I felt my calling was to preach to the multitudes. We preached to thousands of people every night. I liked the excitement. I really thought that it was powerful when they would raise their hands and come to Jesus.
One day He said “stop”. Three times.
And He said :”I want you to sit with the poor”.
By that time I already had a masters degree in church growth leadership.
So I found the worst slump possible, between prostitutes and drug addicts and budhists.
I sat on the street corner, and I have to be honest, I am a slow learner, and I sat there at the slumps for 18 years, my teachers, just listening to them, they taught me so much about the Kingdom. They were always desperate. So I became desperate. A little desperate woman in the dirt, learning about the Kingdom.
Maybe now that I have learned, I thought, maybe I can teach at a University.
So again I went back, and again I sat at a street corner. With no money. I gave it all away.
I don’t have any food, no money, no place to live. Twelve years ago. And I prayed, “help help”. I was as poor as anybody on the street.
So the Lord said “the Kingdom belongs to the children, I want you to take all the children home”. I said “I don’t do children”. And God said “now you do”. I was arguing how I never had done Sunday school. I said I don’t get it. I said I am not the right person. He said, you are now. I want you to take the children home so they can teach you.
Anyway, the children started teaching me about the Kingdom of God. In a way that I have been longing for 33 years as a teacher I had been longing for, God taught to me through the poorest of the poor children. I sat under the most famous theologians in the world, but I have learned my greatest lessons from children, and my greatest lessons from the poor. And I want to share with you the lessons from my hero’s.
In the Kingdom there is no sickness, there is love, there is no need.
Blessed are they who mourn because they will be comforted.
I found so many mourning little girls who found comfort and taught me about comfort.
Her mother was a prostitute. The mother named the two children the same name. This little girl was a picture of mourning. She was miserable. She used to bite and throw things and steal. I found her on a garbich heap. She had been raped so many times.
The way she taught me was to watch her life. I watched this girl who had been full of darkness, she could throw and toss 4 pastors, but when the light of God came into her, she started pouring out beauty and mercy to all those around her. When I feel tired, sad, discouraged in Mozambique, and I would be on my face, on the dirt sometimes, and here she would come and hold me in her arms and rock me and weap and she would comfort me. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted and they will become comforters.
The Kingdom of God looks like you carrying the beauty of Jesus to somebody who is not feeling comfort. When God takes you out of your place of mourning to a place of comfort, you will become a comforter. I know where she came from and I am watching her and she is standing up on a flat bed truck, and there were extremely violent muslims and they were throwing rocks, and she is standing there saying, “I am not afraid of you”, “I know who I am”, “Jesus loves you”, I used to be dying…..and she preaches…this little girl, preaching, to Muslims, carrying the presence of the Mighty Mighty God. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
Another story.
I’m so happy God let me share it.
There is a man named Jose. He was sitting under a tree one day. And the Lord said “he is going to pastor with you”. And asked me to go get him. So I got to know him. Found he is a desperately poor man, loving Jesus. He was so excited. One day he said that he really want to get married. So we had salad – but we ended up getting Cholera from the salad, not having clean water to wash it.
So I watched what happened – all these people started becoming sick. Until we had 80 people in the hospital. We were persecuted because of the cholera. The police came because of the cholera. They sticked their guns in my face, closing the centre and said that I was trying to kill all of Mozambique.
There was a man who is also a pastor, working with me. Jose and this man is both meek. So I asked God, what should we do? So this man said “let’s just trust God”.
There is this tent where people are not allowed to go, it is called the dying tent. And the Lord said “go in there”. So we both went in, because we felt God lead us. I just walked through the tent door and said “hi mama”. They said “hallo mamma”. I’m watching the people, and I’m holding the people, and they are vomiting on me, one after another. I am looking into their eyes and just feeling they are going to live and not die. And I think of Jose, he doesn’t want his wedding to be marked with death and not life. The doctor said, you are an idiot you are going to die. I said, no I am going to live and they also.
I looked them in the eye and held them.
Then this pastor with me did the same and we had a beautiful time with God. Then the people started walking out. In three days the entire tent was cleared out. And the doctor said “Your God is God”.
She came and works for us now in our medical clinic. Thank you Jesus!
Here was Jose, here was his wedding, marked by Cholera, and then marked by miraculous healing. Now he is living with his wife, but the rats are chewing on his toes. So we gave him an offering so build a house of cement. So I saw him weeping and shaking on the cement. He said it is beautiful, fabulous. Jesus said “give everything you owe away”. So I waited…and heard, he gave all of his supplies, all of his cement, and he told us to build a church.
He prays for the people with aids and the dying and they get healed.
And God allowed an inheritance to come upon this man. I watched the anointing of God flow upon this meek man. I saw provision come. Within a few months he was given a house. Later electricity. What did he do? He filled the house with orphan children. God is releasing Kingdom to him.
He went from sitting under a tree, becoming a leader leading more than 6000 churches in Mozambique. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.
Will you hunger and thirst for that which are true?
Do you understand what true hunger is. A desperation. If you are a hungry man or you have a hungry child, you will do anything to be fed. I saw girls selling their body for a piece of bread. Can you see enough to see the dying. Do you want righteousness released on the planet. Are you desperate for righteousness and justice and kingdom authority to pour forth in your city. I prayed for the riches of hunger to be released unto you today. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.
I have a friend Louis. He told me about radical mercy. He was my professor of mercy. His body was burned from head to toe because his friends lit his cardboard house on fire with him inside. He was when I met him a very angry man. I invited him to come and live with me. He was shocked. He said “why?”. I said because Jesus loves you and I love you too. He said “how?”. He said I need that kind of love. He said he wanted it. He knelt down in the street and he asked for mercy.
One day I was desperate. I planted a church at a brothel. The girls didn’t want to leave the brothel, so I planted the church at the brothel. Every week I had church service there. Louis was one of my favorite ministers to come with me. I was desperate. I was on a 40 day fast. I said to God I cant stand for these girls to sell their bodies any more. So these girls ran to me, weeping, fell on their faces, crying “mamma, mamma we cant sell our bodies any more, take us out of there”. I wept. Sometimes you wait so long for people to change. And Louis was on his face. In the dirt. And the Lord said if he will pastor the girls. He can not even read. I said :Louis will you pastor these girls they finally want to leave? And he was so touched, that God would have such mercy on him, and started crying, and said of cause what a great privilege. He led them all to Jesus. That man taught me about mercy. He taught me about radical mercy.
God rescued us all from the rubbish heap.
For more about her http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=heidi+baker+youtube+700+club&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=zUHoSqnYLIX4-AaRn62FBw&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CB0QqwQwAw#
From her sermon to Oxford…. (see http://www.staldates.org.uk/BrowseBySpeaker.asp?intPreacher=220)





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The simplicity of love

For more about her http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=heidi+baker+youtube+700+club&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=zUHoSqnYLIX4-AaRn62FBw&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CB0QqwQwAw#From her sermon to Oxford…. (see http://www.staldates.org.uk/BrowseBySpeaker.asp?intPreacher=220)

The reason I do what I do…I want to share the simplify of love…God has reduced me to love….I just learned to be simple. It has taken me a long time to get this simple.

Do you know the parable of the good Samaritan? Would you mind if we look at it again. Maybe Jesus would give us eyes after tonight. That we can see just a little bit more.

In Luke…On an occasion an expert of the law..an expert of the law is testing Jesus, the Son of the Most High God.. he had a good question.
Teacher, teacher, what must we do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus answered a question with a question. What do you think? What is written?
This man could spew out the answer with his lips. The answer was in his mind. But was it in his heart? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and might.

The simplicity of the gospel, is all about passion. Being passionate with everything that you have, to the one who is beautiful. He understood this question with his head. But the distance between his head and his heart was so huge. He couldn’t really just understand. It was all about radical passion. Passion and compassion.

Then he said “love your neighbor as yourself”.

After 10 Years of systematic theology, I found it to be as simple as this.
But this man didn’t really want to do what he knew was right to do.
If things are complicated, you see, we can wiggle our way out of it. Because we have an excuse. We can plead ignorance. I don’t understand. I don’t know. Then I have an excuse “I just don’t get it, so I don’t need to do it”. But when it is this simple, we are stuck. We either do it or we don’t.
Jesus said, you answered correctly. Then He said. Do this, and you will live. You want to live? Do what? Love God, love your neighbor.
Surely it cant be that simple. Surely, surely at least there is some more keys.
To think it is really that simple. Do this and you will live.
What ? Love. Love God, love your neighbor.

Here is a story. A man walking down the street. From Jerusalem to Jericho.
Robbers stripped this man (Samaritan), here is this man lying on the road. He is just a naked dying man lying on the road. That is it.
I often tell stories, because they help me to understand. I love stories.
When I was trying to understand this portion of the Word, when I was trying to understand what the core of the gospel was, the Lord would sit me with the poor.
I was in my twenties leading thousands to Jesus. And the Lord told me to stop. And I rebuked the voice twice. I didn’t think it could be God? I said what do you mean stop? Why I said, I am leading all these people to you, aren’t this making you happy?
Then the Lord said, stop and sit with the poor. I want you to move to the poorest of the poor and sit with them. Then we moved to the slums of Hong Kong, we learned about the Kingdom.
There is something about the poor…they are in need, they are desperate, they cant do it themselves, and they know that they can’t. I cancelled all meetings around the world. And then sat hidden away with the poor, learning about the Kingdom of God.

One day I had an extremely horrible thing happened.
It totally changed the way I was thinking.
When God tells us to pick up a dying man, we think he would be kind and cuddly and sweet. But sometimes they vomit in your Mercedes, and sometimes the dying man is cruel, and do not know what kindness is.
One day the Lord lead me to a drug addict. We brought one home. Hasing.
He raped our 4 year old daughter with a knife.
I remember having to make a decision that day.
I remember just kneeling on the ground in Hong Kong prostrating myself on the altar. And the Lord said. Will you still love the poor?
And I said “yes Lord”. Even though I do not understand I will still love the poor.
Then I went to England to study.
I have forgiven this Hasing, I had to go back to Hong Kong, I said to the Lord, I don’t want to see this man however. The Lord said if you truly forgave this man you would see him again. He asked me to forgive him.
My daughter was still waking up screaming every night.

Then I met this man in Hong Kong.
I said “Hasing pray for me”. Hasing prayed for me on the street, that God would give me more love. I knelt down in the street full of urine and drug needles and he prayed for me for more love.
From that day my daughter slept through the night, and today she is totally healed and anointed of God.
There is power in love that is beyond what we can describe.
The Gospel is about love, and we need more.

I remember another day, I will never forget it, ….it means a lot to me.
I actually saw Jesus this day.
A friend of mine stopped along a tree and found a little girl dying. We know about broken and dying children. This was just one. Often we want a huge thing don’t we? We want to know what revival looks like? We want to shake Oxford? We want to see God do something to change a nation. And God is saying, if you really want to know what my heart looks like, I just want you to step next to one person every day and love them. We have complicated the gospel to death. Here I am asking God for something to do. And God said, just love on them.
This little girl had a big bloated tummy, she had been raped many times, worms on her toes, lice on her hair, flies stuck to her eyes, blood red eyes, I rocked her in my arms and I saw Jesus in those eyes.
That little girl, the doctor said, just let her die. The doctors didn’t want to touch her. She was hideous to look at. Yet I saw the one I love looking right back at me…..
Just a couple of years ago, she was standing in my garden, fully totally completely healed, beautiful, wearing a white wedding dress, and I married her to her bridegroom. That was a great day for me. The gospel looks like love.

God wants to take us to a place of simplicity. To learn how to love, because Jesus is love Himself.

In this story, of the good Samaratan….I see this priest as going to a “church growth conference”, and he paid pounds for the books and the badge, and he absolutely had no time to stop for this man, this man could not make his church significant in any way. So this man on his mission to see his church grow for the glory of God walks straight pass this man on the street, for he is blind. For if he saw him, he might have to stop. If he stopped, his heart may need to break, and he might actually have to hold him in his arms, and he couldn’t deal with that. So he just quickly went by to learn how to grow his church.
Next man, I see being on the worship team. He can pray in the spirit even. He is a “Levite”. He sings…..Blind….Going to the holiest of holies…but not hearing the heartbeat of God. When you truly live in the secret place you will hear God say, I want the dying, I want the sick, I want the broken, I want my lost sheep….
Next man, look at him,…the next man…he is a Samaritan. The dying man is so desperate he is even crying out to a Samaritan. I’m like a Samaritan in Mozambique – I’m white. I look a little pale there. I’m all wrong. Wrong gender. Wrong race. Wrong educational background. When looking at me in Mozambique in the flesh – I just look wrong.

One day I saw Jesus preparing a feast – in a vision – on the garbatch heap -after the vision I took one of my sons (whom I also found dying) with me. So we rock up to the dump for I saw Jesus there. I was just so thrilled. Guess what, they were so ticked off, a white woman with a truck was in their “dump”. There was a boy who walked with a broken bottle, threatening to kill me. "Get out of my dump you white woman".
I said “I saw Jesus on the garbitch heap preparing a big feast”. Are you hungry? This man touched your big stomach and it went flat. This man put a robe around you. He touched your sores and it healed.
He said – this man brings ok, bring him here. I said I did bring him, He lives inside of me.
He looked at me, threw the bottle on the ground. And he said, alright, I want to know about Him.
He was the first man giving his life to Jesus.
It’s not about the complicated things, its just about loving. I could tell you about all kind of signs and miracles that would make you go “wow!”. Or about church growth. Or I could just tell you about the simplicity of the gospel.
I have a miracle story for you. Actually its my miracle. It is a miracle I believe God wants to do tonight. In this story, one man had eyes to see. This man was a Samaritan. Because Jesus broke every rule. He sat with an unclean woman. What was He thinking? Who was childless? Worse. She had been married 5 times. She wasn’t loved any time. You don’t get woman at noontime, in that heat, unless everybody hated you. Yet Jesus stopped for him. He didn’t care about gender, and socio background, etc, because His heart was beating with the heart of the Father. He sat down and He talked to her.
He gave her dignity.
He asked her would you give me a drink? Nobody wants to be a project. Jesus understood the human soul. And he broke the rule. And He asked the unclean woman for a drink of woman. Whatsoever you do for the least of these my brothers, you do unto me. Jesus wants a drink, will you give me a drink? He loved on her. And he listened to her. And He told her about her life. And He loved her again. She ran and told everybody about him.
In the story, there was one man who had eyes to see. The Samaritan. And He found the simplicity of the gospel.
I had a powerful experience with God. Wow experiences with God. Where the prophet comes. Anybody heard of a prophecy? I had one of those, it came with electric shock. It was just wild and wonderful. God wants to know…do you want the nation of Mozambique? I was in a powerful experiential mode. So I said – Yes!!! And God said, the blind will see, the cripple will walk and the poor will hear the good news. I was stuck to the ground for 7 days and I couldn’t do anything. The Lord said, you can do nothing without me and you can do nothing without the body of Christ. Because I couldn’t move, I needed 4 people to take me to the loo. How humbling. I would need the body of Christ. And I heard this amazing word of God, I was so excited.
Then I went back to Mozambique and I was very excited. I expected God to move.
Then I would grab people and say “in Jesus name be healed”. And then they wouldn’t be healed. They would just be blind as a bat still. About a year this continued. Nobody ever “saw”, nobody “heard” nobody “walked” but they met with the Lord, they met the love of God.
Then after a year, one day they started to see. Finally after a year of believing my prophecy and seeing absolutely nothing. In fact the year of the prophecy all hell broke loose after that. Everything went wild. Our children was beaten up. We were left homeless…..it was like all hell broke loose.
Then after a year, finally somebody see. They said “Mama Aida” can see. But that was my name. Then I saw another blind begger. Very excited. And I grabbed the man. And he did not see. I thought I was on a role, but he couldn’t see anything. In fact it was like he could see less, he could see shadows before, and now it was like he couldn’t see anything.
The next village, here is another blind lady. So they brought her, hearing about the other lady. I held her in my eyes saying Jesus, Jesus. Then she screams “you are wearing a black shirt!”. I was so excited. Took the lady out. They said “Mama Aida can see”. The second person healed had the same name as me.
Now I went to another town. And I got very Pentecostal. I said “Bring me the blind”. Here was one blind lady and a little boy was leading here. There she came up. In Jesus name, I prayed. And right in front of me she fell down and her eyes became brown. And her family starts screaming “Mama Aida can see”.
My friend was German, she could believe it. She said “Your name is not Mama Aida”. Yes, she said it is. Then I said to God, what does this mean, because I am sure there is something prophetic about it. Three blind people healed with my name. What I heard then was. “You are blind”. I said “no, I am not”. He said it loudly “You are blind”. The second time. I said “I am not blind, I am a missionary, I love the poor”. A third time “ You are blind”. Then “Yes Lord”. “Help me to see”. And when I opened my eyes, I saw you, and then He said “won’t you love them too”. Now I travel around the globe also. Because Jesus told me “wont you love them too” and I saw what I couldn’t see before. The Lord said that I tell you this story, that sometimes the poor in front of you, you have seen what is a disguise, and the Lord wants to open your eyes, that they are dying, broken, sick, desperate, and they are in need of love. And though my ministry and my work is far easier than yours, a place of simplicity, where people are running to Jesus, for they know they are desperate and sick, but Jesus is asking you, will you love, will you stop, will you be my hands extended.
Here is a test.
This man, when he knelt down, he poured wine and oil on the dying man. Where did this come from? He had the anointing of God. Love looks like something. If you know somebody who is depressed. Or failing. Then love looks like something. Sitting at a coffee shop and listening. Caring. Oil and wine. Passion and compassion. The very glory of the gospel. He will give you more and more of Himself. Until you are overflowing with love. To bring Jesus to that dying man.
He wants to give you more oil. So you would each and every day stop for the one.
Revival has a face.
Revival has a face.
Jesus wants you to see the face of the one dying man.
I feel to end with this story. And then to pray for your eyes.
This story is a British story. The one in Jesus’s story the one with mercy was the neighbor.
I lived with the people on the street, just loving and holding them. And as you know not everybody is nice. You may share a potato and they may throw it. Or beat you up. Or spit at you…
So we would be out in the street telling people Jesus loves them, listening to the book and doing it. This one man told me to “go to hell” for a couple of years. Sometimes it takes a little time to love somebody. Sometimes it takes more time you thought. I tried to bring him food “go to hell”. Tried to hug him “go to hell”…
Then one day I was getting beaten up by this girl who was a lesbian, raped 16 times and she had issues, she hated everybody, and she was dressed like a man. She had a broken bottle. She said, I am going to slit your throat. I said Jesus loves you. She was on drugs, she kicked and bashed me, she said, No He doesn’t love me, he is a man.
So this guy who always said “go to hell” wanted to call the police, but I said no. So he said “go to hell”. And just as I didn’t have any more strength, this man came over and rescued me. He said, for 2 years you told me about love, but now I saw it. He said he wanted Jesus. And he met Jesus. A week later, this lady came to my house with a dozen roses. Saying that she is sorry she tried to kill me. She said “I want to know Jesus”. And she knelt down and received Jesus.
Love conquers everything.