Jacob was in a hard place. He made his bed on stones and took a rock to use as a pillow. It was a place called Luz. The name of the place means ‘almond tree’ but it was a Canaanite town. Isaac charged Jacob not to take a gentile Canaanite as wife and his mother Rebecca encouraged him to go to his uncle Laban in Haran to get a wife that is part of their people.

Jacob’s name means ‘deceiver’ because at birth he grabbed hold of Esau’s ankle as part of a twin. He deceived his brother to obtain the first born right from Isaac according to his mother’s scheming devices. He was running away from Esau for he feared what Esau would do to him. In this hard place he received a heavenly plan. The Scripture says: ‘then he dreamed…’

It seemed that Jacob would not amount to much. His future looked bleak. He had nothing and would probably amount to nothing. But ‘then he dreamed…’

God speaks to us through dreams & visions. We need to believe those dreams. Jacob dreamt about the house of God. God spoke to him there. He changed the name of the place to Bethel, the house of God or the house of bread.

Nola & I started our first church in Australia in Fortitude Valley. In those days (1984) it was known as a red light district. No one gave us any chance to succeed. But we gave our church the name of ‘Valley of Blessing’ to change the name of the place. Many people were blessed there. God gave me an idea to prophesy to every visitor that came to that place. Many of them stayed on and became members or attended our Bible School. Today that area is a major attraction in Brisbane. It has been converted into China Town.

God repeated the promise he gave to Abraham to Jacob, three generations later. You can enter the promises of God generations later! God told him what He told Abraham: ‘I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south, and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

‘Behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.’

Many years ago, when I was in a hard place, I took the promise from the Scriptures for me. I entered the promise God made to Abraham. It took the promise for me and my children and my children’s children and for all who would participate in our ministry to support and help us to fulfill our divine mission.

Not many people thought I would amount to anything. How can an artist or an actor become something in this life? The previous generation preachers told me: ‘you cannot preach. You just talk to people. You are not a leader.’

But someone believed in me. My mother. Like Jacob’s mother Rebecca. She believed in Jacob. She believed he would amount to something. And then God gave me a wife, Nola that believed in me. Then he added children that believed in what we were doing. Then he added many people that supported our vision and our dream. Now we have grown to many churches around the word. We spread out to the east, to the west, to the north and the south because the Lord gave us increase according to the promise he made to Abraham, Isaac & Jacob.

Jacob saw a ladder in his dream that was set up from the earth and its top reached to heaven and angels of God were ascending and descending on it. He knew it was the house of God. We can set up a place of worship on earth that touches heaven! ‘But you have come to Mt. Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the Firstborn who are registered in heaven, to the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.’