is us. I believe we are live and this is wild exciting. I'm so pumped to be bringing this
to you. So if you, if this is, if you're just joining in now, if you're watching live or you're
coming for the replay, then I want to say really tune into this message. This is called Love
Unstoppable and we are going to explore what I believe is probably the single most powerful
testimony in the entire New Testament. We're going to be looking at the Moses of the New Testament
and what unfolded around this life that we have never seen the likes of before or since. So stay
tuned in this. I am crazy pumped and excited, like so excited to be sharing this powerful story with
you and to be going deeper in this chat and this conversation around unstoppable love. So let me
just do a quick check, make sure everything's flying correctly as it should be in the tech
side of things. So yes, it's happening. Very cool. Wonderful to be having you with me.
There it goes. So how are you doing? Let me know how you are doing. Just drop in the comments
where you are. What time is it? How are you doing? Have you been a part of the previous two chats
that we've had? We've looked at the broken heart of God. We've looked at the burning heart of God.
We've been exploring the dynamics and the beautiful dimensions of divine love, and it has
been glorious. So it's 6am for me here in New Zealand time. I've been up for quite a while,
and I am really, really looking forward to this moment together this morning. So
let's pray for a moment before we jump into this really sacred testimony that is
mind blowing and beautiful and powerful. And let's pray together.
Beautiful Abba Father, King Jesus, Holy Spirit, we love you.
We welcome your glory to come right now. We honor you as the God of the impossible, the God of
wonders. Well, as we look at who you are, as we look at your power and your majesty and your awe
and your wonders, we are undone to the very core of our being. We are undone. We are mind blown. We
are set ablaze. We are left in awe and wonder of who you are. So we lift you up. We exalt you on
high. We love you. We love you. We love you. Holy Spirit, I ask that you would come as we look at
the all-consuming flame in this topic. I ask that you pour out your all-consuming fire on us.
I ask that you would renew our minds and renew our hearts. And I ask that you would leave
no stone unturned in us, that you would begin right here, that you would begin right here on
the altar of our hearts, that you would bring a purifying fire upon our lives, that you would bring
a spirit of renewal upon our minds, that you would take us into higher, wider, deeper, broader
dimensions of the wonders of who you are. I'm asking, Holy Spirit, that you would do a deep
work in us, that where we feel like we've reached maturity, that you would take us to whole new
realms, that you would show us what you have available for us, that you would take off
the blinders for us. I'm asking, Holy Spirit, that you would inspire us like never before.
I'm asking, Holy Spirit, that you would awaken us to a degree that we have
never imagined possible. I'm asking that you would renew our hearts in a way that we never
imagined possible, that you would refine us. Holy Spirit, I say, start with me and leave no stone
unturned, but go right into the core of our being, Holy Spirit. Leave no stone unturned,
renew our minds, refine our hearts, bring your fire on us. And Holy Spirit, this is our prayer,
this is our cry, this is our anthem, that your all-consuming fire would consume everything
that can be consumed, that only Christ would remain. Burn everything up, Holy Spirit,
that veils Christ in us, that the full measure of who you are would be on display in us, that Christ
would be manifest in us, that Christ would be evident in us, that Christ would be
manifest through us in Jesus.
name. We love you and we give you all the glory and all the honor and we welcome you to move by
your spirit. Holy Spirit, I thank you for an outpouring. I thank you for a moving. I thank you
for a breaking out and a breaking through and I thank you for breaking open hearts and minds and
new dimensions and new love and cameras and new inspiration and fresh faith and fresh dreams that
Holy Spirit you would break out and you would move and you would grab a hold of hearts and
lives in this session and you would breathe on us and we say take us Holy Spirit as we come
in total surrender and we lay our lives down as sacrifices we ask that as we lay down as
living sacrifices that your fire would fall that we would be the sacrifice and you would be the
flame and we will be consumed by your all-consuming fire and Lord we just ask again that you would
consume everything in us that can be consumed you would shake everything in us that can be shaken
that you'd leave no stone unturned in our hearts and in our minds that you would find purity in
our hearts and in our minds as you consume everything that can be consumed so that only
Christ remains for your glory amen whoa wow um oh my gosh uh we are going to go so deep um right now
into a beautiful beautiful story we're talking in this session we're talking about love
unstoppable all right love unstoppable we've had uh we've had the two chats so far about the broken
heart of God where we looked at the dynamics of God is a lovesick romantic he's a lovesick father
and he is brokenhearted as he waits for us as he not just waits for you and I but as he waits
for entire nations all right God is waiting for entire nations to run for him Christ is the hope
of nations he's the desire of the nations and the broken heart of God is waiting longing for
entire nations to run to him that's what he's dreaming for that's the call uh so there's
there's that part of the broken heart of God that waits that that is it's broken waiting for us to
come and then the other part of God is broken because of the injustice and the tyranny and the
oppression that his beloved children suffer under that his heart is breaking with his people so
we explored then in our last chat the dynamic of the burning heart of God that it burns right
it burns uh as a lovesick parent as a lovesick romantic it burns for uh the fruition of the
desires of God oh hang on let me just quickly check um here
um just checking are we still live here are we still live oh sure
um just give me a heads up if we're still live here
yep we're still live give me a heads up just in the comments i just saw a notification that made
me wonder if we're live but it looks like we still are okay sweet yep we're still live there
sorry i just had a funny tech moment there um so we looked at this dynamic of the burning heart of
God that is it's burning for something it's burning for heaven's finest to be fulfilled so
it's burning the the burning heart of God is burning for John 14 12 and we looked at some of
the stories of uh some of the ancient saints who walked in phenomenal power and phenomenal signs
and wonders that are just mind-blowing in their magnitude their intensity their glory and that's
John 14 12 in fulfillment which got Jesus he said anyone who has faith in me will do what
I've been doing they will do even greater things than these and they understood their inheritance
they understood that they understood Christ in them the hope of glory and this is what God is
longing for us to step into is John 14 12 that we would reset anyone who has faith in me will do
what I've been doing and they will do even greater things than these so this is the thing that God's
heart burns for you to know your inheritance know your identity know your destiny no seamless union
no effortless bliss know the power and the awe and the wonders of God and walk in the fullness
of the signs and the wonders and the miracles that he has destined for you so there's the burning
heart of God that longs for you to step in and step into fullness and then there's the burning
heart of God that longs for the fruition
of Matthew 28, 19 to 20, where he said,
go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
And surely I am with thee always
to the very end of the age.
And his heart's burning for that.
His heart, the heart of God is burning
to see nations, disciples, entire nations.
He's not longing for us to make disciples in nations,
but to make disciples of nations.
And God's heart is burning for that
because he's a lovesick parent
for every single child that isn't with him.
He's a broken hearted, lovesick lover,
romantic longing for every single one of his children
and longing for all nations to be swept
into relationship with him
and to become swallowed up in the divine dance.
That's what he's longing for.
And so what we're checking out in this session,
Love Unstoppable, is the power of love.
What is the extent?
What is the magnitude?
What is the power of this love?
As we obey, as we respond to the call of God,
as we say, yes, God,
the burning heart and the broken heart of God
has this anthem, which is,
whom shall we send, Isaiah 6,
whom shall we send and who will go for us?
Whom shall we send and who will go for us?
And so what we're looking at is Love Unstoppable
is the response that we have to this calling.
Now, what is your response gonna be to this call
when God says, whom shall I send and who will go for us?
God's heart is broken and God's heart is burning
for you to bring his lost sheep home,
his lost sons and daughters home.
How, what's your response gonna be?
So we're gonna explore some of the responses
people have had to this.
So, you know, oftentimes,
actually, I wanna read this one verse to you today,
and then we're gonna get into some stories
that will blow your mind.
Okay, so Acts 1, verse eight,
Jesus says this, he says,
that you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes on you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
And one of the meanings of the Greek word
used there for witnesses is actually martyrs.
So we'll be martyrs, we'll be missionaries.
This is what Jesus prophesied,
that you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and Samaria
and to the very ends of the earth.
Okay, so, wow.
What we've got happening here in humanity
and the story of humanity is what happens
is we have so many people that have responded to this.
Millions and millions of people
have responded to that verse,
and it's looked like all sorts of things, you know?
And so many people, there's just countless numbers of people,
millions of people who've laid their lives down
in response to this, in response to the gospel.
If you look at just a couple of stories,
let me just take a couple of examples.
You know, when Korea, right,
when missionaries first started going to Korea,
it was a completely Buddhist nation,
and to be caught even possessing a Bible
was an instant beheading, all right?
And so there was executions all over the place.
Korea was saturated in the blood of the martyrs,
just like so many other countries.
I'm sure you can name multiple countries
where to get there, to get the gospel in,
the gospel advanced on the shedding of the blood of the martyrs.
Another place, you know, that you see massive amount of death,
and it wasn't, well, they were martyrs,
but it wasn't bloodshed,
but it was when missionaries went to Africa, right?
The water and the disease just started killing,
it killed entire families.
And so you had this dynamic of people responding to the gospel
and becoming just sent out as missionaries
and it paying the ultimate price.
And so what we're gonna look at right now
is the story of what I believe is,
I would call this person the Moses of the New Testament.
This story, this testimony is beyond what anyone,
well, I would say that this story,
as we go deep into it,
is beyond what most people would have imagined possible.
People would not have even imagined
that this is part of our legacy,
part of our heritage as the church,
but there is a New Testament Moses,
and we're gonna explore that today,
and that is St. Patrick.
So say St. Patrick.
Now, March the 17th,
many people are familiar with St. Patrick's Day.
There's all sorts of mystery surrounding St. Patrick
and all sorts of myth as well surrounding St. Patrick.
But what we're gonna do today is jump into the story,
because when you look at the actual story of it
and what actually happened,
this is more mind-blowing
and probably the most mind-blowing, most impacting story.
uh possibly the greatest testimony in all of Christian heritage. So uh if you're familiar
with Saint Patrick let me know in the comments that you know a little bit about him but Saint
Patrick uh he uh he was uh he was brought up in Britain okay so when he was young he was in
he was in Britain his parents were uh there and at age 16 there was raiders came through right
they came through Ireland both his parents were murdered they were killed by these raiders his
his sisters were kidnapped and he was kidnapped and they were all taken different places by these
raiders and so Saint Patrick became a shepherd a slave and he was kidnapped by by pirates but
before that the life of Saint Patrick was already marked out by notable signs and wonders Saint
Patrick was already even as a young man known as someone who walked in extreme intimacy and extreme
power he was carried by his uncle at one stage to an event there was a gathering and his uncle
carried him and then during that time his uncle fell down and it was assumed that he was dead
and and Patrick had even at that age a young age before he was even 16 had such a reputation
of being a man of God that they said Saint you know so they were like Patrick what are you going
to do he's fallen down and he actually raised him up right then so you know some people say he might
have been dead but he raised him up right then there was multiple stories of Saint Patrick
moving an amazing power before he was even 16 so this is a life this is a man whose life was set
apart and he was marked and God had his hand on him from the very time he was born so at 16 he's
kidnapped by pirates and he's taken to Ireland and there he's a slave six years he's tending sheep
out in the wilderness and he would just he devoted that time to prayer and he we have some really
good records of Saint Patrick some of his own journals and diaries have been really well preserved
so we've got some really amazing insights into his story which was really powerful so
he spent about he would in his own journals he would talk about this how he'd spend about you
know he'd pray about a hundred times during the day and about a hundred times during the night
and he was out in the cold but he would be he was so filled up with the Holy Spirit that he'd be
praying and he would be feeling the fire of God in him so that that even the ice and the snow and
the cold wasn't impacting him he would be staying warm as he was praying and so he developed over
the six years as a slave learned the Irish language learned the Irish ways and customs
but also got stepped into a place of extreme extreme intimacy with the Lord and what happened
is one night he had a vision that his ship was waiting for him to take him to freedom now this
ship that was waiting for him that he saw in the vision it was over 200 miles away which is a big
deal okay so you have to imagine walking 200 miles by foot and as an escaped slave if he was
seen he could be killed on sight but he managed to escape he got to the boat that he'd seen in
the vision and he said to them hey can you please take me on board and they actually said no we're
not going to take you so he walked off praying and then actually they called him back and said
actually we will take you we'll take you back and so Saint Patrick he got on this boat he got taken
back and he actually got taken into captivity again one other time but then he came free and
then he had this you know time goes on a little bit but he had this vision and this encounter with
God was calling him back to Ireland and in this vision his dream he saw the Irish people calling
him back and so he decided he begins to really devote his life to that call back to Ireland
and this next season of his life is not a short time okay so he was kidnapped at about 16 he was
six years in a slave in Ireland so he's come back at about in his 20s and then he begins to devote
his entire life to becoming a missionary who will go back to the Irish but this is not a short
process he spends nearly 40 years in intense preparation he ends up traveling all around Europe
he meets many of the amazing saints of his day he's the part of all sorts of ministries and
he meets yeah he just meets so many of the powerful saints of his age and in preparation
for this moment when God will send him back to Ireland and then the time comes and he's
this will be encouraging for you if you've been waiting for a while
let me know if you've been waiting for a while for the call of God
was being promised, what he'd been looking for to happen. Well, St. Patrick is probably in his 60s,
around 60, nearly his 60s, somewhere in that age bracket before he finally gets to go to Ireland.
So he's even commissioned by the Pope to go as the bishop to Ireland. There had been a missionary
to Ireland before St. Patrick, but that guy really didn't see, saw next to no fruit, right? So there's
pretty much no Christian establishment in that place at all in Ireland. So he goes back,
and the first place that he goes to land, they are quite hostile, so he kept moving,
and then he found a place where they welcomed, well, you know, where he received a bit of a
welcome from just a couple of locals, and so he got established there. But now is where we need
to kind of pause for a moment and understand the magnitude of what is about to be told. Now,
there are many myths around St. Patrick, and I have done my very best to find the most reputable
sources of information to bring to you about the life and the testimony and the miracles of St.
Francis, because there are some really, really good accounts, and they are mind-blowing. There
are myths, and I've done my very best to stay well, well clear of the myths, but to take the
very most reputable sources of fact about the miraculous supernatural wonders that followed
St. Patrick, because they were extreme. And I will preface it that it's hard to know the,
it's always hard to know the exact details, because when we go to St. Patrick, he was born
in the 4th century, towards the end of the 4th century. It's not known exactly when,
but towards the end of the 4th century, they would think it's around about there,
and he lived well into the 5th century. Okay, so St. Patrick, we'll talk about this later,
but he lived a long time, and what we're going to do is just be really careful to
share with you this, but I have to preface it with this, because the signs and the wonders that
followed St. Patrick were so extreme that even for most supernaturally minded Christians,
they could be hard to believe. Okay, what we, you have to understand is what the testimony that
we're about to go into is possibly the most supernatural, most mind-blowing, most powerful
series of events, of missions, of evangelism in world history. So there is a level of,
like, this is a sacred story we're going into. There is a level of awe and wonder and the fear
of God attached to this, and we just need to preface it with that, so that you don't think
that we're going into something casual, something light, that though this is one of the most sacred,
most awesome, most awe-inspiring and holy testimonies of the entire New Testament.
There's many saints and many mystics and many people who've walked in wonders, but
I don't know of anyone who walked in the level of power, apostolic power,
nation-discipling power, that St. Francis did. Okay, so let's begin. Like, here's how St. Patrick
began to actually impact and disciple the nation. You've got to have this in mind that St. Patrick
hasn't gone to Ireland to make disciples in Ireland. He specifically went to Ireland to take
on that nation. He wanted the nation. He wanted to disciple the entire nation. So his strategy,
when God gave St. Patrick amazing strategies, he went, his desire was to witness to the King. He
wanted to convert the King. Now, Ireland, at the time, had actually a phenomenal level of
infrastructure and political infrastructure and spiritual infrastructure and community
infrastructure. Ireland was a really sophisticated culture at that time. It hadn't been
overtaken by the Romans. It had actually known peace for a long, long time. It was one of the
few places that the Romans never managed to take. And so Ireland had known peace for a long time.
They had a well-established culture and structure and hierarchy of greater kings and smaller kings
and druids and priests. And so St. Patrick, because he wanted to win the nation, wanted to
disciple the nation, he wanted to have a top-down approach, which means you've got to start with the
kings. So they had this festival there, and as part of this festival, the law was that there
was not allowed to be a single fire lit in the house.
whole area right the the only so this particular night every fire had to be put out and no
fire could be lit until the king lit his fire so the king has this big hill and he's making
a massive bonfire and he's got this huge bonfire prepared and he's gonna gonna light it and
it's gonna be that like ta-da the start of the um the festival and the festivities are
gonna go for a few days but on another major hill saint patrick built his own enormous
bonfire and he lit it before the king which uh was a wild crazy thing to do okay that
was like that was you could be put to death for doing that okay but saint patrick he was
not afraid he did not care he was after an audience with the king and this is and he
knew this is how he would get it so the king is in total rage okay and um something i was
going to mention before as well is that when it comes to saint patrick and you'll find
this in a lot of cultures is that they already have that god's actually already spoken to
their people interesting that you know god will even speak to um you know druids or spiritual
people who don't even uh know christ yet but he will often even give them accurate prophetic
information and in the culture the irish culture they actually had a very specific prophetic
word about the coming of saint patrick before he came even to down to you know like what
he would be dressed like what he would look like there was a prophetic word in their culture
about a man coming who is going to bring uh this message about a new god okay so they
had that actually embedded in their culture and some of them actually feared that saint
patrick might be that man as they've heard reports about him coming and so there's a
little of like oh what is this and uh so the king's like what should i do about this fire
and his druids said to him oh you've got to go and put that out and they actually prophesied
they said to him they said to him if you do not put that fire out the man who lit that
fire uh that he said that fire will never go out in ireland and the man who lit the
fire will be more famous than kings and queens and so they're like oh my gosh let's go and
put this out so they they go over there they traveled a lot by chariots and so they went
over uh to they found saint patrick and the druids advice him like king don't just go
up to him like actually you're like seeing some people so they sent some people they
summoned saint patrick and so saint patrick is coming they're all sitting down they've
all been instructed not to stand up right because standing up would be to receive them
and they're obviously not going to want to receive him they want they want to dishonor
him and disrespect him and so saint patrick comes comes down towards him and he's singing
at this time right he's singing some trust in horses and some in chariots but i trust
in the lord our god and so he's singing this to them you know this this this is like him
they're thinking that he's walking to his death right and here he comes singing like
what is this and even though they were all instructed not to respond not to welcome him
not to honor him one person uh they just can't help they're just overwhelmed they jump up
and they actually end up uh converting to christ but then he comes in front of the king
and all his druids and there's a really really powerful druid there who is boasting about
his supernatural power he's boasting about all these things now it's time to get ready
for some of the awe of the miracles of saint patrick we're we're talking here this story
i'm about to share with you right now the events that unfolded over the next few days
are some of the greatest uh power encounters of the new testament this is on par with moses
and pharaoh okay so so get ready for mind-blowing huge enormous signs and wonders and miracles
that have like a real awe and a real fear of god about them so this druid stands up
and starts boasting about how he is the greatest he's the most powerful druid and there's no
power greater and he starts levitating in front of the whole group right and so saint
patrick prays and this druid who's levitating in front of them dies and falls down dead in front
of them all and so some of them are like whoa what is this like who is this guy right but then the
druid they've got all these followers and then they're like they're not ready to respond to
christianity at all in fact they like they turn out in rage right they they respond in rage and
anger and they want to kill saint francis saint patrick so they actually draw their swords and
they go to attack him and he prays again and look as he prays again something wild happens actually
there's this big tempest this big storm sweeps and not only that it actually puts a confusion
there was a confusion from god came on all of those guys who are about to kill saint patrick
and they all turned on themselves and they just started attacking themselves this is like
King Jehoshaphat in the story of 2 Chronicles 20, these guys all start attacking themselves.
They turn on themselves, and they actually kill about 50 of themselves, right?
And then they're like, whoa, what's going on?
And so at that point, the king says, okay, okay, okay, now, why don't you come to the
palace?
Come and see me tomorrow, come to the palace, come join the festivities, okay?
So the king goes back to the palace, goes back to the festivities, but he lays an ambush
for St. Patrick, okay?
He has all these druids lying in wait to kill St. Patrick along the way.
So they set out the next day to see this, to see the king, all right?
And now they've got all these druids lying in wait with an ambush ready to kill St. Patrick.
And along the way, let me introduce you to St. Patrick's period, because this is the
day.
I'm not sure if this prayer has developed over time, but this is the day that St. Patrick
wrote this prayer.
This prayer is basically a prophetic song that came out this day as they were walking
along that day through the wilderness.
This is like a prophetic song that came out through St. Patrick.
It's called the Prayer of St. Patrick.
So let me read you the Prayer of St. Patrick, and then I'll tell you what happened after
he prayed this prayer.
It says this, I arise today through a mighty strength, through the invocation of the Trinity,
through a belief in the threeness, through confession of the oneness, of the creator
of creation, I arise today through the strength of Christ's birth and his baptism, through
the strength of his crucifixion and his burial, through the strength of his resurrection and
his ascension, through the strength of his descent from the judgment of doom, I arise
today through the strength of the love of cherubim, in obedience of angels, in service
of archangels, in the hope of resurrection to meet with reward, in the prayers of patriarchs,
in preaching of the apostles, in faiths of confessors, in innocence of virgins, in deeds
of righteous men, I arise today through the strength of heaven, light of the sun,
splendor of fire, speed of lightning, swiftness of the wind, depth of the sea, stability of
the earth, firmness of the rock, I arise today through God's strength to pilot me, God's
might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's eye to look before me, God's ear
to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me, God's way to lie before
me, God's shield to protect me, God's hosts to save me, from snares of the devils, from
temptations of vices, from everyone who desires me ill, afar and near, alone or in a multitude,
I summon today all these powers between me and evil, against every cruel, merciless power
that opposes my body and soul, against incarnations of false prophets, against black laws of magic,
against false laws of heretics, against craft of idolatry, against spells of women and smiths
and wizards, against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul, Christ shield
me today against poison, against burning, against drowning, against wounding, so that
reward may come to me in abundance, Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of
me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ
in the ear that hears me, I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the trinity,
through a belief in the threeness, through a confession of the oneness of the creator of
creation. Whoa, how wild is that prayer, oh my gosh, so that's like a prophetic song, a prophetic
prayer, prophetic declaration that rises up and bubbles up out of Saint Patrick's spirit as he's
walking along to the castle, and listen, and here's what happened, right, because as he's praying that
prayer, there's all these druids and soldiers, they're all in wait to kill him, okay, now you've
got to think that the island that Saint Patrick went to be a missionary to, this is a pagan island,
they do not have any desire for Christianity, they want to kill Christianity, and they've already
tried to kill Saint Patrick and had this confusion come upon them, and it cost them the death of one
druid, and it cost 50 men who actually turned on themselves and killed themselves, so you can see
Sovereign hand of God protecting St. Patrick and so again here with this ambush laid, all those
people that are waiting in ambush, St. Patrick's walking through the forest and he's got eight
people there who are there with him, you know, his little ministry team. And what the people who are
in waiting see is they see eight doe, eight deer, trotting along through the forest followed by a
fawn. How amazing is that? That's what they see, but they never even see St. Patrick and his team
going through. And then they get to the palace and the king can't believe that they've actually
turned up, right? He can't believe that they've actually even survived and made it and turned up.
And so they walk in there and again, everyone's seated, they're sitting down and they've been
told not to respond, not to honor, not to welcome him. But as he comes in again, even a few more
people just can't help, they jump up and they receive Jesus in that moment. And then they
they welcome St. Patrick kind of superficially and they give him a poisoned drink and he blesses
the drink and then he tips the drink upside down. Now, what do you think would happen when you tip
the drink upside down? It's going to tip out, right? The only thing that fell out of the drink
was the poison. Then St. Francis drank it and he sat down with these guys, right? So
then things get into discussion, into debate because they are not happy about St. Francis
in any way. And then there's the next chief druid who's like, nah man, this is going down,
we're going to have a battle. And so this is like Elijah and the prophets of Baal stuff start
happening. And so this guy's like, right, let's have a battle. So the king's like, okay, right,
let's set the conditions of this power encounter of the struggle. Let's see who is the real power,
okay? So the king suggests, why don't we have you throw your holy books in the water and see which
book comes out dry? And St. Patrick says, yeah, sure, let's do that. Knowing in faith, there's
just this radical boldness. And there is so much boldness on St. Francis. He is fully persuaded,
he is convicted, he has faith on fire. I don't know anyone who walks in faith like St. Patrick,
but he's like, sure, throw the book into the water and my book will come out dry. But then
the druid's like, no, no, no, no, his God is the God of the water, let's not do that.
So the king says, right, let's throw both your holy books into the fire and see which one doesn't
burn. So St. Patrick's like, yeah, let's do that. And then the druid's like, no, no, no, his God is
also the God of fire, let's not do that. So they end up coming to this really elaborate and like,
intense, like this goes intense, crazy, insane, like the power encounter and the conditions that
they set up on it. Here's what happens is they say, okay, right, here's what we'll do. We will
we'll take one of St. Francis's most loved disciples, and he's going to put on one of the
garments of the druid. So he looks just like the druid, and they're both going into a house and
they surround St. Patrick's disciple with all this dry wood that's ready to burn and blaze.
And then they surround the druid with wet green wood that's really unlikely to burn that's covered
in water. And then what they do is they actually lit the house on fire, and then they and then they
left it to see what would happen and St. Patrick prayed and the green wood around the druid got
burnt up, the druid got burnt up. And the only thing that got burnt up on the disciple of St.
Patrick was the druid's garment. Now, you might be thinking, okay, this seems a little bit far
but let me tell you, what is so obvious and attests to the legitimacy of these miracles
is the fruit of what starts to happen. So bear with me as you start to see the fruit of what's
about to start happening in Ireland as a result of these crazy signs and wonders. And then because
then the kings thought, oh my gosh, this is crazy. So then the people, the followers of that druid,
they rage against St. Patrick again. They go into like full-on rage mode,
they're ready to kill St. Patrick, there's a whole mob of them coming. And this is where it
gets to like Moses level. This is why I call St. Patrick, he's like the Moses of the New Testament
because it's recorded in history. Now I'm not making any of this stuff up, it is wild supernatural
stuff. But what happened is the testimonies and the records and the accounts of that day
that the ground opened up and swallowed all the followers of the druid who are coming to
kill St. Patrick. The ground literally swallowed up and consumed them alive.
And then the fear of God fell on that place, okay.
Now, let me contextualize this again, right?
South Korea, I just mentioned this before,
Korea, when missionaries went there, it was covered.
It was baptized in the blood of martyrs.
Countless martyrs beheaded, just death everywhere.
So many places where missionaries have gone,
there has been just a massive amount
of persecution and death.
And even to this day, we know the world is so thick
with persecution of Christians
and thousands upon thousands of Christians
are killed every year in persecution.
Well, let me contextualize this
in the context of St. Patrick taking Ireland,
there was only one martyr, okay?
In the taking of this entire barbarian land,
there was only one recorded martyr in the entire time.
And that was a guy who was another really prestigious,
well-known disciple.
And that guy, there was another attempt
on St. Patrick's life, and this guy knew the area
and he knew there was a place coming up
where they would quite likely take an attempt
on St. Patrick's life.
And he asked St. Patrick
if he could drive Patrick's chariot in that moment.
And they released the ambush
and they actually killed that guy
and they missed St. Patrick.
So that was the only martyr in the whole taking of Ireland.
And one of the big reasons for that
is because the fear of God came on people so dramatically,
so outrageously as druids,
like the chief druids of the nation
are falling down dead in these power encounters.
And then those that are coming to attack St. Patrick
are literally dying or being supernaturally sovereignly,
Patrick is supernaturally sovereignly protected.
No one can touch him.
This is the level of favor
and the level of the hand of God on St. Patrick
that nothing they do actually can touch him, can kill him.
God protects his life.
And so this is one of the major things that breaks open.
And I wanna share with you one other major event
that happens before Ireland just completely breaks open
to a flood of heaven on earth.
So, and this is another parallel between the life of Moses
is that St. Patrick then goes up onto a mountain,
which is now called Mount Patrick,
but in Irish, not Mount,
but I think it's like Crag Patrick,
something like that in Gaelic.
But he goes up onto Mount Patrick
and he prays and he fasts for 40 days.
Now, he is engaged in that time
in extreme spiritual warfare.
It is going crazy.
Okay, what St. Patrick is doing
when he was 40 days on the mountain
is he was taking on the principalities
in the heavenly realms over Ireland.
He was going into battle against them.
There is testimonies of angels visiting him
and just amazing encounters with God.
But then also the mountain ends up getting covered.
This huge oppression comes on the mountain,
a huge oppression comes on St. Patrick
and the mountain gets covered in black birds, okay?
This is the recorded testimony of it,
that black birds from all over came
and flocked to the mountain
and the mountain was covered in black birds
and St. Patrick was going through this anguish in prayer,
but then he got the breakthrough
and all these black birds fled
and white birds came and landed on the mountain
and St. Patrick started having all these encounters
with angels and started making amazing requests of God
and just in this real amazing time of breakthrough,
so similar to Moses on the mountain.
And then God grants St. Patrick all these crazy prayers.
And then after that moment, okay,
after that moment, you see Ireland just breaks open
for the gospel.
St. Patrick goes somewhere
and they're already waiting to be baptized.
St. Patrick goes out into a field,
people flock to him over land,
but St. Patrick goes somewhere,
people flock to him by boats, by foot.
They are now like, like Ireland has gone
from a completely like radically opposed place
that's just completely, you know,
like hating him, barbarian, pagan, dynamic,
full-on druid and blood sacrifices.
And you think of, you know,
the extreme druidism and occult practices,
the whole spiritual realm of Ireland has broken open
and now people are flocking to the gospel.
St. Patrick himself with his own hands
baptized over 120,000 people.
Now we're not talking big crowds in cities like we have now.
Everywhere he went, he was baptizing people
and then his followers were baptizing people.
The whole place is engulfed in this atmosphere of heaven.
Now there were pockets of places
where people were still opposed to him
and that's where he had that, you know,
that other attempt on his life.
But on the whole, everywhere.
he went, it just broke open. Okay, so that is just wild. He planted over 300 churches.
He then established, now we want to transition and I want to share as we kind of wrap this up,
like the strategy that the Lord gave him next, that was what set the world on fire. All right,
St. Patrick did not just influence Ireland, he set the world on fire. And first of all,
he got the most radical breakthrough in Ireland. He plants over 300 churches. There's other people
planting churches all over the place as well, but he then creates monasteries and creates this
monastic movement. Okay, and so the monasteries and the monastic movement, what that looks like
is they create these monasteries where they are devoted to prayer. And you might have heard this
quote, I've said this a couple of times lately, I've just been really inspired by it. It actually
comes from a monastic movement, the Tyburn Prayer Movement is where this quote comes from. But
this is the quote, our lives are devoted to perpetual adoration. Our lives are devoted
to perpetual adoration. How beautiful is that, right? Our lives are devoted to perpetual adoration.
I don't know if you have a life motto, but I think I want that to be my life motto, right?
My life is devoted to perpetual adoration. Oh, that, right there, that, I want that to be my
motto. I want that to be your motto. Well, St. Patrick created these monastic, these monasteries,
and people went there. And when we talk about monasteries, these monasteries that grew and
expanded out of this monastic movement, we're just talking a few people going there, but
thousands of people would end up going to these monasteries, and they would devote their lives
to prayer. And they devoted their lives to prayer, they devoted their lives to working the land, so
they were always out farming. And these monasteries became the hubs of creativity. So it's a place of
amazing creativity, a place of education, they became places of business, they became places of
technology, as there's inventions and technology coming out of this place. You know, this move
that Francis, a move of God that, sorry, St. Patrick, this move, there's so many St. Francis's
as well, and they all did monastic movements and monasteries and things like that as well. So
sometimes I say St. Francis by accident, but St. Patrick, this move of God that he ushered in,
it meant that Ireland never experienced the Dark Ages, when the rest of Europe is going through
the Dark Ages, Ireland is experiencing this major season of enlightenment. And so their monasteries,
the places, hubs of phenomenal creativity, the most beautiful artwork and sculptures and gold work
and just beauty and writing and literature and study and education and business and technology,
they were thriving, phenomenal hubs. And they were so beautiful and so well revered, that royalty
from around Europe would send their kids to these monasteries to be raised in these monasteries and
to be educated in these monasteries, because everyone was like, oh my gosh, I want to be
educated by the Celtic monks, I want to be educated in this place. So we would have royalty
and commoners, because they would give free education to the commoners of the land as well,
right? So that you'd have royalty and commoners, you're just your average guy and royalty all
learning together in these monasteries under these Celtic monks, which was amazing too, right,
because all these royalty are getting raised up, and then they go back into places. And later on,
they release extreme favor for the Celtic missionaries, who explode out of Ireland,
all over the world. And now one of those missionaries is a guy named Columba. And he
goes to Scotland, right? And he basically, prototypes, he basically mirrors in the 6th
century, he mirrors what Patrick saw in the 5th century in Ireland, he mirrors it in Scotland,
he basically wins Scotland in a really similar way, wild signs and wonders and miracles. And he
establishes a monastery called, a monastery on Iona, on an island off the coast of Scotland,
he establishes the Iona Monastery, which is a phenomenal monastery, it becomes one of the
greatest monasteries of all time, it becomes one of the greatest hubs in that part of the
world of Christendom, it becomes one of the greatest hubs of business, trade, education,
technology, spirituality.
prayer, and they are praying 24-7. It's just this crazy, amazing, open heaven, dynamic,
supernatural wonders. And they all, like crazy, were devoted, devoted, devoted to missions,
devoted to preaching the gospel. And so you would have them, you know, they trusted God so much. I
mean, you think that their average mercenary was just so ablaze, so on fire. This, listen,
this generation that was connected, this, the generations, not just one generation, but you
know, St. Patrick, he actually lived so long. He was in ministry in Ireland for around 60 years,
so he would have lived around 120 years. And he actually established, you know, like successive
generations. He saw five generations of the people that he prayed in, right? So he saw,
he, when he retired from being the Bishop of Ireland, and he saw five successive bishops
established in their places, okay? So people that he knew from toddlers, he knew them until they had
gray hair. He was in ministry there for 60 years. This is wild, right? And so, but the people that
were attached to that move, they were of a different, they were of a different stock, can I
say, all right? The level of refinement of the fire of God in their hearts, and the fire of God in their
minds, and the culture that they walked in, the truth that they walked in, the revelation that
they walked in as their normal was an outrageous, phenomenal, look, it was a different dimension. I've
got to say that they lived in a whole nother dimension of an open heaven that we do not
understand. I don't understand it. I don't even pretend that I understand it, but you've got to
understand that their normal was so dramatic, so different. You imagine a generation touched by
these types of miracles, touched by, you know, just seeing an entire nation break open to an open
heaven, the powers of darkness expelled, the glory of God turning up. Oh my goodness, this was
phenomenal. So we have to understand that they lived in a different spiritual dimension to what we're
living in. You look at the culture of our day, right? It's just infused with chaos, infused with darkness.
Now, we have to be realistic and understand that it is most likely that some of the
atmospheric disturbance by the principalities and powers and the spiritual rulers of darkness
in our age, in our cultures, is actually causing a level of disruption. You know, like there's a level
of blindness that comes on us by being a part of this culture. Well, not so with them, right? It's
harder for us to fight and get a breakthrough in the context of an atmosphere of darkness, but in
the context of an open heaven that these guys were raised in, it was easy for them to walk in
crazy levels of revelation, and their lives were completely laid down for the gospel.
They had these little boats, they were round boats, kind of looked like half a walnut,
you know, cut in half and popped upside down. They were called coracles, just little boats,
and one or two of these guys would jump in there and they would say, God send me wherever you want
me to go, and they would actually be taken, right? They would just let the tides take them wherever
they went, and they would just go and preach the gospel, and the island was just sending out
missionaries, missionaries, missionaries, missionaries. They won all of Scotland for Jesus, and so much
of it happened out of their monasteries, okay? So there's the monastery on Iona, boom, and actually
one of the future kings of England comes and is raised in the monastery in Iona, and then he goes
back to England, then he gives them land in this place called Lindisfarne, and they create the
second greatest monastery there in Lindisfarne. So Lindisfarne becomes this huge monastery,
and you've got to understand as well that these monasteries, they're places of peace and prayer,
and they are dripping with wealth and gold. So when you had the 7th century happening, what
happened then is the Vikings came through, right? And when the Vikings came through with their
raiding parties, they came to these places which were basically an open heaven, where these people
just in prayer and in worship, not even thinking about warfare or anything like that, they're
dripping in wealth and gold, and they're just there in prayer and worship, and the Vikings come through,
and this had a huge impact on the expansion of Celtic missions, it's because the Vikings
came through, and boom, they just started, actually the two places the Vikings really
encountered first, which set the whole Viking world ablaze with a desire to conquer Europe,
is they actually found Iona and Lindisfarne, just little islands off the coast, no protection,
dripping in gold, and the Vikings sacked them, killed, murdered, raped, pillaged, took all the
gold, and went off. But you know what? Ultimately, the Celtic missionaries ended up reaching the
Vikings as well. So you had, in that time, so from Lindisfarne, they actually reached England,
because England previously...
had had the Roman Empire there, then the Roman Empire withdrew and the whole of Britain went
back to this crazy barbarian paganism, druidism. But then from Lindisfarne, they actually reached
England and converted England to a Christian nation. So if you're wondering how did Ireland,
Scotland, England become Christian nations, they weren't like that. They were full on crazy
pagan druid societies. And it was the Celtic missionaries and the missions that came out of
these monastic movements and these prayer movements that actually swept through and took
England and took Scotland and took Ireland for the gospel. And then not just that, they went all over
Europe. The Celtic missionaries went everywhere. They went all over Europe. They established
monasteries right through the Alps, through Italy, through nearly every country in Europe.
They went and they would just walk along. And often they would just walk along, 12 guys just
walk along and they'll just go and preach the gospel and just see what would happen. And then
because they'd had kings and queens, sorry, because they had all these kings and queens
raised in these monasteries, they would often go places and find amazing favour and find doors open.
Sorry, little thing going on here. So it's just phenomenal seeing that. And so what you had
is that this strategy that St. Patrick carried is what God is burning for, right?
What God is burning for is everything that St. Patrick was about, everything that St. Patrick
stood for, everything that he lived out is what the burning heart of God is burning for, all right?
This is phenomenal. Let me know if you think you would want to be a part of something like that,
right? Let me know if this stirs up your heart. I would love to hear, you know, how do you feel
about this? How does this cause you to feel? Does this stir up your heart? What is it like when you
hear these testimonies? Does this light you up? For me, this lights me up. It's left me like just
undone with a sense of awe and wonder. And oh my gosh, I've got one more verse I want to read to
you as well, right? This is a verse that we're called to walk in, a verse that Patrick walked in.
So let me read to you from Jeremiah 1, starting at verse 4. The word of the Lord came to me saying,
before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as
a prophet to the nations. Alas, sovereign Lord, I said, I do not know how to speak. I am too young.
But the Lord said to me, do not say I am too young. You must go to everyone I send you to
and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them for I am with you and will rescue you,
declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me,
I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot
and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant. How wild is this? Now I want you to
think about what would happen if we saw people of the caliber, of the power, of the grace and the
mantle and the anointing of St. Patrick walking the earth again, all right? He was invincible.
He was untouchable. He brought down all the powers of darkness. He brought down all the powers of
religion. He brought down all the powers of government. Everything bowed before him, right?
And heaven broke open. All the powers of hell and darkness were laid waste and heaven, heaven broke
open before him. And I'll say at this point as well, you're going to stay tuned because next weekend,
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we are releasing the three-day Open Heaven Intensive and this is going
to be huge, okay? So get ready for the three-day Open Heaven Intensive. We're going to go deeper
into how to actually accomplish this in our lives, in our towns, in our cities, in our nations.
But listen, imagine this, if we had people of this day rising up with the anointing, with the mantle,
with the grace of St. Patrick, where you had the capacity to bring spiritual forces to their knees,
religious forces to their knees, governmental forces to their knees, and force every knee to
bow to the name of Jesus and force everyone to come. And I'm not, like, just because you walk
in the awe and the wonder of God, I'm not talking about controlling people and forcing people, but
I'm just saying this is what happens. This is what happened to Pharaoh when the power of God was on
such radical display. It brings world superpowers to their knees. So I want to really inspire you
with that. I want to just, like, what would it be like, right? Because this, we have so much craziness
chaos and darkness unfolding in our world right now. But all we need is one St. Patrick
and we'll bring the world to its knees. Okay. One St. Patrick would bring the whole world
to its knees. So that's something phenomenal. This is what the burning heart of God is burning
for, burning for us to dream. Because what was St. Patrick walking in? He was just walking
in his inheritance, the same inheritance that you have, the same inheritance that I have.
Listen, what would happen if a hunger rose up in us to walk in our inheritance? What would happen
if a fear of God, if an awe of God, if a love of God came upon us? And what would happen if an
adoration came upon us like was upon them? I believe we could walk in what God has for us,
for our generation. Now, let me tell you something that happened near the time of St. Patrick's death.
Near the time of St. Patrick's death, he received a prophetic word. He saw a vision and in the vision
he saw the future of Ireland. He saw the future of the world in a sense. He saw that this light
that was burning and blazing over Ireland, this fire that was burning over Ireland, was slowly
whittled down and slowly, slowly diminished, slowly until it would eventually become just a burning
ember in the ground, just an ember in the ground. And he was weeping and towards his last days,
he was weeping and crying out to God and just petitioning God about this. He's like, oh God,
come on, this can't be the end of our legacy. It's sure it's not just doomed just to
wither to nothing. But then actually what happened is at the vision, he actually received more of the
vision and this ember that was in the ground started to be kindled to life until it raged up
again into a full-blown inferno, just consuming fire, full-blown inferno, consuming
Ireland again. But I believe it's not just prophetic for Ireland but for the world, right?
That this is what God wants to do. And why couldn't this be us? Why couldn't this be you? It has to
start with someone. It has to start somewhere. So there's a, you might be like, we could be right now
in this place where we're carrying a small fire but God wants to release an inferno. And so what
I'm suggesting that we do is like, let's position ourselves in hunger and desire to be those that
carry this flame. So that's us for today. Massive love to you all and really, really excited about
this tomorrow. And our last session in this chat on Love Unstoppable, our last session is
what does love look like? Okay, so we're exploring what this can look like for us right now with the
burning heart of God, the broken heart of God, love unstoppable, our day, our calling, our time, what
does that look like for us? So let me pray for you and then we'll look forward to seeing you tomorrow.
But Holy Spirit, Abba Father, while I'm undone, whoa, I'm undone, I'm undone, I'm undone
by this testimony, I'm undone by these lives devoted to you, I'm undone by the power,
I'm undone by the awe of God, I'm undone by the awe of who you are, I'm undone by the wonders
that you have worked, the power you have displayed. Papa, we're undone by our heritage, we're undone
by the wonder of this testimony of this mighty man, of this holy man, Saint Patrick, who won
Ireland for Jesus and marked the whole world forever. Jesus, you know that grace that was on
his life, Jesus, you know that fire, Jesus, what we're doing right now is we present our lives
as living sacrifices. We come in awe of you, we come in awe of you, and we say, Papa,
come and do it again, come and do whatever it takes. We lay down our lives, Papa,
and we say, refine our hearts, renew our minds, send your fire, do whatever it takes, Lord,
do whatever it takes in us, do whatever it takes in us, do whatever it takes in us to cleanse us,
to renew us, to transform us, to awaken us, to awaken us, to awaken us to this level of destiny.
Would you do what we've never had done before? And I'm saying, search out every part of us,
leave no stone in our hearts unturned, leave no part of us in darkness. I'm saying, would you
send that all-consuming fire? Would you send that all-consuming flame? Papa, what I'm saying is,
would you send your fire on us? Would you cleanse us, that all-consuming fire of love that consumes
everything that can be consumed, so that
Only Christ remains. May you send that upon us in Jesus. May you release that flame. May you
cleanse us. May you take us where we've never been before. Do it, do it, do it in us. Go deeper,
go higher, go wider. Set a flame, set a fire in us in Jesus' name. Set us ablaze in Jesus' name.
Amen. Wow. Love you very much family. Bless you. Have a wonderful, wonderful day. May this fire
gripped. I'm undone. I'm gonna say goodbye, but really, really feeling marked by heaven right
now. And I pray that that marking, that marking, that marking by the fire of God, by the awe of
God, by the fear of God, by the reverence of God, by the wonder of God, may that marking come upon
you. May it mark you, may it mark you like Isaiah was marked when he was encountered.
God in Isaiah 6 in the seraphim put the, put the altar on his lips. May it may be marked by
heaven in Jesus' name. May you never be the same. May something be awakened in you that desires
a greater move of God than you've ever known before in Jesus' name. Wow. Amen. May you be
marked. Love you. We'll see you tomorrow for What Does Love Look Like? It's gonna be a really
powerful section of how we can apply everything we've been learning here. Love you. Bless you.
Bye-bye.