[Note from Joel Killion: I purchased the CDs from when Jason Upton came to New Beginning’s
Church, here in Wilson, to take everyone, who was willing, to another level in their worship. I then
transcribed, as best I could, everything he said and some of what he sung, that I had the impression,
was important for us to remember and meditate on; you will see some text in parentheses, that are
mine, to help explain some of what was said that I’ve transcribed.
What you are about to read was and is a powerful prophetic word to Wilson NC. It was a NOW word
and it was potent to say the least. Every word was from the Lord, timely and relevant, for us and our
city, to remind, comfort, encourage, correct, adjust and enlighten our hearts with the simplicity and
power of Jesus Christ.
The place was packed out, to capacity I think. It was really awesome – FOR-REAL. I have done my
best to quote exactly what Jason said so there are no discrepancies. I hope you enjoy this. I didn’t
type out everything that was said and sung (didn’t have the time; but I did get about 95% of what
Jason said) so I would encourage you to get a copy of the 2CD set of when Jason came; you can get
it from New Beginning’s Church; just go to www.nbcconline.com.
I heard, through the grapevine that New Beginnings will possibly have Jason Upton back in the Fall of
2008 (again, that’s hear-say) keep checking the New Beginnings website to stay tuned. We love you
all. I hope you enjoy this.]
*Grace is so much more, it’s so much more, so much more than unmerited favor, it’s so much more. It’
s the grace and the power to live as the sons and daughters of the living God. What Jesus brought
us is way beyond religion; it’s way beyond politics; it’s way beyond the ways of this world; it’s way
beyond the traditions of man; it’s way beyond our strength; it’s way beyond our strength, it’s way
beyond the strength of any man, it’s way beyond the strength of any man. We cry out for grace upon
grace upon grace upon grace upon grace.
* And in Matthew 5 when Jesus preached on that mountain-top and when John talked about Him in
the first chapter of John, it’s a heartbreaking passage because Jesus is not upping the ante on sin,
He’s not saying, ‘OOHHH, you workers of the law, I’m gonna to up the ante on sin’, it’s not about that.
He’s saying to them, ‘You have just squeaked by on your own strength. You’re really frustrated by My
presence because My presence means that God is saying that you NEED Me; that your religion isn’t
cutting it.’
And that’s where we always want to live our lives; we always want to live our lives in the place of
NEED for God. I think the moment we stop consciously, everyday knowing that we absolutely,
desperately NEED God or we can’t live, I think that’s the moment we stop worshipping, no matter how
good we’re singing; I think that’s the moment we actually stop living the Christian life because I don’t
believe you can live the Christian life without grace upon grace. And He came to His own and His own
rejected Him. Grace upon grace.
* I think it was Billy Graham that said 90-some percent of what happens in the church goes on without
the power of God. (Prayer) Give us the real power, the real power that can actually love our enemies
and pray for those that persecute us. Grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. To
those who would receive Him He gave grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon
grace. Fill us with your grace.
* (Over and over, Jason sang out) “Victory is the Lord’s, is the Lord’s, is the Lord’s. Victory is Yours.
Victory is Yours. Victory is Yours. Victory is Yours. Victory is Yours. Victory is Yours. Yours is the
Kingdom, Yours is the power, Yours is the glory forever forever. Victory is the Lord’s, is the Lord’s, is
the Lord’s. Yours is the Kingdom, Yours is the power, Yours is the glory forever forever. Forever, say
it. Forever, say it.” (He prodded everyone to give it to Him, to give Him the glory for His victory. Then
he said)
You know what’s awesome about God is He doesn’t share it with any man. He doesn’t share it with
any man. He doesn’t share His victory with popes. He doesn’t share His victory with preachers. He
doesn’t share His victory with rich men. He shares His victory with the BROKEN; with the OPEN; with
the CONTRITE. He doesn’t share His victory with bishops, in high places, that think in their own power
and strength that their pleasing of men and their authority of men means anything to God. God doesn’
t share His victory with anybody except the BROKEN and the CONTRITE.
(Then Jason continued to sing to God) Yours is the Kingdom, Yours is the power, Yours is the glory
forever. Yours is the Kingdom, Yours is the power, Yours is the glory forever. Yours is the Kingdom,
Yours is the power, Yours is the glory forever. Yours is the Kingdom, Yours is the power, Yours is the
glory forever. Victory is Yours. Victory is Yours. Victory is Yours. Victory is Yours. (Jason kept
screaming out to the crowd to) Give it to Him. Give it to Him. Victory is Yours. Victory is Yours.
* So hey, the way I see it is, why not just get on the train with God cause He’s the victory. Ya know,
some of you are bound in all kinds of stuff. The Bible says that everything that can be shaken will be
shaken but there’s this really beautiful parenthetical there and I think the writer put it in for a reason.
It says ‘everything created by man.’ So, that means all the things that you’ve given over to God; there
is no Kingdom run by you. Jason Upton has no kingdom. There is no ruling power and authority over
and above the Lord and the Kingdom of God. And a lot of us don’t have victory and we’re going to
see many many many many many fall and we’re going to wonder why their falling. Well, ya know the
greatest thing is falling when you’re not too high up. I mean if you’re going to chose a time to fall you
might as well be in the low place.
* There is no prophetic ministry that leads you to themselves; it’s not prophetic; it’s called psychic. It’s
called witchcraft. All prophetic and all apostolic leads to the Father. There is no worship that leads to
man. It all leads to the Father. If it doesn’t lead to the Father, it’s not worship; it’s called
entertainment; entertainment means I detain you from entering. Jesus said, ‘Eternal life is this: that
they would know the Father.’ Jesus - all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him; all
authority was given to Him; John 17; all authority. You know the power of Jesus’ authority? The key of
David to open every door and nobody can ever close it again. That means every door that He’s ever
open, everything that He’s ever created, when everything that can be shaken is shaken, everything
that He’s created will not be shaken because it can’t be shaken. That means every door that He’s
closed, cannot be shook open. Jesus had some serious authority. Jesus was given the key of David. I
wasn’t given the key of David. You weren’t given the key of David. Jesus was given the key of David.
It’s interesting that Jesus didn’t abdicate the key of David to His disciples. He gave them all kinds of
authority but He didn’t give them the key of David. The key of David was given governmentally in
Isaiah 22, from the Father to the Son.
This is the powerful thing about authority: True authority is seen in Jesus in John 17. You should read
John 17. The prayer of Jesus, the urgency of Jesus is this; He says, ‘I’m just so excited to tell you
Father, that all the authority you gave me’ - it was given to Him so that every single person given to
Jesus would have eternal life. And then Jesus gets so excited to tell His Father, ‘Father, every single
person that you gave Me, I kept.’ And He’s specifically talking about those 12 and then He says, ‘Well,
except that son of perdition’ but it’s almost like Jesus says, ‘But that was Your fault, that’s so the
Scriptures could be fulfilled.’ But ‘Every single person You gave Me, I’m just so excited to tell You, that
I kept. I took all the authority You gave Me and I poured all that energy into this one thing: that they
would have eternal life, that they would know you Father.’
So here I am and I’ve been given just a little authority, I’ve been given this platform; so, what’s the
urgency? The urgency is that we not waste our time on forms. Forget about forms. If you don’t like
the way I worship, then don’t worship the way I worship. I don’t come to tell you HOW to worship. This
is a time for me to worship and lead you to the Father.
How many of your know that music has become an idol in our worship? It’s also become a means for
creating great division in the Body. In A.W. Tozer’s book, Whatever Happened to Worship?’, he said
this, ‘The Church is like a sleeping giant and every time there’s a massive move around the world,
spiritually, and many many people get saved, all that happened was that sleeping giant moved in its
sleep.’ But I really believe there’s coming a day when we’re going to set aside our idolatry and we’re
going to come together in union, and we’re going to demand one thing and one thing only in our
worship: that it takes us to deep places of revelation and relationship with the Father. It doesn’t
matter if it classical or jazz; it doesn’t matter if it’s fast or it’s slow.
So lift up your hands and say, ‘Victory is Yours Father. Victory is Yours Father. Every place is my life
that I’m still trying to hold on with control, God, I give it to you; it’s Yours; it’s Yours; It’s Yours. My
house is Yours Lord. My life is Yours Father. This church is Yours Father. It’s Yours. It’s Yours. It’s
Yours. It’s Yours. It’s Yours. It’s Yours. It’s Yours. It’s Yours. Yours is the Kingdom, Yours is the power,
Yours is the glory, forever. It’s Yours. Yours is the Kingdom, Yours is the power, Yours is the glory,
forever. In Jesus name.’
* We can either take the authority He’s given us to push aside the things that distract us from Him or
we can even sit in the middle of religion, completely bound by the system of this world. (Then Jason
began to sing) Nothing’s going to hold me back, nothing’s going to hold me back from You. Nothing’s
going to hold me back, nothing’s going to hold me back from You. Nothing’s going to hold me back,
nothing’s going to hold me back from You. I want to be where You are, I want to be where you are, of
Father. I want to be where You are, I want to be where you are, of Father.
* You know I was doing this interview, this person was encouraging me that, saying that I was radical
because I’m not, that this ministry isn’t and everything we do, isn’t about performance and I remember
talking to this person. I said, ‘Oh no no, you don’t get it. See, it’s just that all the mistakes that I’ve
made, the only things I look back on and think were a waste of my time, was the times that I thought it
was about my music or my talent; you see, that’s for the entertainers, that’s for the system of the
world. Great. Go for it. Be famous. I’ll come and buy a ticket and watch your show. AAAAHHH (He
sighed).
But man there’s these times; I feel like I’m in this season where (He begins to sing) Nothing is more
wonderful. See, it’s not humility or radical-ness to say that; that’s just like mere Christianity. That’s like
the basic. That’s not radical. Radical is the martyrs – I was just with Heidi Baker in Mozambique (Heidi’
s pastors, the ones who she puts in leadership over her 1000s of churches are being martyred ALL
THE TIME, on a weekly and almost daily basis) – THAT’S radical. I’m not radical. I feel like I’m just
beginning to live the Christian life. I’ve been doing this a long time but it takes a long time to just
begin. (He sang) Nothing is more wonderful, nothing is more beautiful than You.
* Right now, we just pray for the world, and we pray for all our brothers and sisters in the world; the
Catholics and the Methodists and the Episcopals and the Lutherans and the Baptists. Jesus bring the
union; break down the division and bring the union and fill us with the energy of Your grace Father, to
love the unlovable, to love the unlovable, fill us with the energy of Your grace, to care for the broken,
even when the broken are our enemy. Fill us. Fill us. Fill us. Fill us. Fill us. Fill us.
* (After singing ‘Teach us Your ways, teach me Your ways, teach me Your ways,” he went on to say)
And I say this only because I’m realizing this in my own life that my identity is not that I’m a worshipper,
or at least not that I’m a singer in front of people on a stage; my identity and my calling is first and
foremost - when I stand before God on Judgment, He’s going to say, ‘Were you faithful to keep those
that I gave to you?’ I’ve got three children sitting at home – Samuel, Emma and Lucy – and more
importantly than whether I encourage the Body of Christ worldwide, more importantly is, the end of my
days, can I say to the Father, ‘Everybody that you gave to me – Al (Jason’s drummer) and Brian (his
bassist) and James (his guitarist) and Shawn (his sound guy) and my children and my wife and vice
versa I would hope’, the focus of our attention and our energy was just that we kept them.
We’ve taken the Cross out of the church and put up a globe and that’s become our vision. We’ve
taken and started teaching, as doctrines - the stuff that Paul said keep your doctrines closely to save
you and all your children too - we’ve taken and created new doctrines so much so - so many divisions
in the church - that there’s a new doctrine for every division. And I really believe that what the Lord
wants to do is not restore us back to the days of the New Testament church but to restore to our day
the doctrines of the New Testament church, what Jesus actually called us to. Right?!?! (He started
singing) Teach us your ways. Teach us your ways. (he said) Isn’t that what you want? I don’t want to
waste any time on the earth. I want to be faithful with the ones You’ve given me. (He continued
singing) Teach us your ways. Teach us your ways. We want to walk in Your Truth. I want to walk in
Your Truth. I want to walk in Your Truth. I want to walk in Your Truth.
* Jesus said, ‘All of the law and the prophets can be summed up in this one commandment.’ What is
it? To love God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
* (Jason began to sing over the crowd) Do you know that you’re a word from Heaven? Do you know
you’re a child of God? Do you know? Do you really know? Every word sent down from Heaven, will
not go back, till it succeeded in what it’s sent to do. Do you know your word from Heaven? (He then
began to declare) We pray over your children tonight. Every child in this place. YOU WILL NOT GO
BACK TILL YOU’VE SUCCEEDED IN WHAT HE’S SENT YOU TO DO! We declare it over you! Life,
life, life, life, life, life, life!!!! We pray that you’ll be kept from the Evil One; that you’ll be kept from the
Evil One; that you’ll be kept from the Evil One.
[CD 2 starts]
* So, think about this: God’s already raising up a whole generation right now on the earth, already,
that is walking and raising and keeping everything, walking with and raising up and keeping, every
single person that has been given to them. It’s already happening. Ya, there’s a lot of hopelessness
too; there’s a lot of, like, politics, religion and garbage. That stuff is a joke. That stuff is worth
laughing at because it’s going to all be shaken. The reason we laugh at it, the reason we sometime
say, ‘What was that?” is because the Church is the only hope.
* I also want to set us free in that to be a critical thinker, is not to be critical. The difference between
being critical and being a critical thinker, is a big difference; being critical means that you’ve put
yourself in a place of judgment; being a critical thinker means that you’re protecting your own. It’s
actually something that’d be very good for us to actually use in the church a little bit more because
what I see is there’s all kinds of people that are normal Christians being called radical and all kinds of
people that I don’t even really know if they’re following what Jesus has called them to follow, being
called normal Christians. What Jesus has called us to – man – that’s it; there is nothing else. He’s the
One. He’s the Dude. You know what I’m saying? It’s like me and my kids have this prayer, ‘Thank you
Father for this food, bless it to our bodies Dude. Amen.’
* Some of us men, we’re just missing it because we don’t see that the reality of the power of Jesus
Christ was the intimacy with His Father. Some of us are homophobic and we think when we talk about
intimacy with the Father that somehow that’s a weird thing. The reality of homosexuality is the lack of
intimacy with the Father. So if you’re really scared of being a homosexual, you better run after your
father/Father. I’m telling you the Truth. Some of us men just need to cry out to our daddy/Daddy and
say, “Daddy, won’t you dance with me.”
* One of the big doctrines that come to the church has been this doctrine called dispensationalism
which really came from England, from the Brethren Church and there are so many wonderful things
that came from the Plymouth Brethren but dispensationalism wasn’t one of them. Because what it
tried to do was it tried to create an order of things, tried to create a time frame of things, tried to
manipulate the time order of how everything was going to go down. Cessationism also kind of came
out of that whole process of somehow there was an end of the gifts of the Spirit. The Body of Christ
worldwide really doesn’t believe that. It’s a thing that’s really quite young actually…an infant. Some
people think your rebellious if you don’t believe in Cessationism when I say to them exactly what
Jesus said, ‘Don’t make doctrines out of commandments of men.’ Be very careful when someone
makes a doctrine out of a dream, or a new vision. The doctrines we should hold closely are the ones
Jesus came in the flesh and taught us. One of the things that Jesus taught us was not that there were
going to be these little dispensations of things. He just said, ‘This is deal. Wait for Me. I’m coming.
And I’m going to send the Holy Spirit to comfort you.’
Most of us in this room don’t believe that God is distant; we’re not deists here; we believe that God is
close. In fact we teach our children that Jesus is in our heart, Jesus is in our heart. But at the same
time, we have this demonic doctrine of dispensationalism that somehow God is distant from us, and
even that Heaven is distant, that it’s a place that we’re all going to go on a train and we’re going to
get on this train and the train’s going to fly through the sky and we’re all going to be in this by-n-by
place, with pie, up there, your favorite kind, you know what I mean? But Jesus, in the Sermon on the
Mount, didn’t teach us about that. Jesus taught us about the Kingdom of Heaven and Jesus taught us
that it’s here, that it’s right here. So, I don’t pretend to know. Maybe, there is this distant place in the
sky, in the by-n-by, where we’ll eat our pie. It could be but I think it’s just as possible, Biblically, and
certainly more of what Jesus taught us was that Heaven is just one step away. They say there are
over 11 dimensions that we have factually known. 11 dimensions! What if that ripping of the veil is
really (ripping sound) the unveiling of those other dimensions, to show us what it’s really all about,
here it is (ripping sound).
Most of us believe that God will never give up on us, right? But our theology is a little complicated
when we believe that He will give up on this world, that He will give up on His creation. If we believe He’
s not giving up on us, than He’s not giving up. And many of us think, ‘Oh ya, He’s just going to give up
on the world, yyaa, just trash it. It’s ok, ya know what I mean? Things are going to just get
progressively worse and there’s going to be a nuclear bomb and it’s going to blow up but we’re going
to get out here before that happens.’ I love that one, ‘We’re going to get out of here by the rapture.”
Let’s remember: “Left Behind” is a fictional book series. It’s whole premise is fictional. It’s not the
theology of Jesus Christ. He didn’t teach us that when the persecution comes, we’re outta here.
I was just with my friend Heidi Baker. Most of her pastor-friends were preaching the Gospel and their
lips were cut off and their tongues were cut out of their mouths and they were left there to die. I think
it’s a little arrogant when the American Church preaches this idea that when the hard times comes to
America, we’re all going to be outta here.
I’m ok with the silence. (It got really quite in the auditorium…really quiet)
In the last 25 yrs there’s been more martyrs in the Christian faith than all other centuries combined
and we all think that when it comes to America, we’re all going to be outta here. And Jesus is saying,
“No, listen, I’ve created you to be light and salt; I’ve created you to go into that world and heal the
broken, heal the sick and not just let them die; go after them with redemption and life cause you’re
going to be here for a while.’ In fact, at best, after Jesus comes back, we’re probably going to be here
– I mean, if you get really crazy and mystical – you at least have to be here for 1000 yrs no matter
what you believe on this stuff.
Fear has gripped the Church. We’re the ones all scared about the nuclear war and what’s going to
happen. Let me tell ya, we’ve given Israel enough nuclear weapons not to trust God. Don’t worry
about them (Israel). They got enough. Iran’s not going to get them because they have enough
nuclear weapons not to trust God and so they won’t trust Him. They’ll just trust in us just like we trust
in us. And the reason we trust in us is because we’re so arrogant; we trust in us because we think we’
re trust-worthy. And I guess we’ll see how trustworthy we are, won’t we? (laughing)
We say no to fear!
The point is - We want to be in control. And what God wants to say is, ‘Oh Jason, if you could only
see that I’m really in control. And if I need to I can kick some you know what.’ We need to BELIEVE.
That’s been my New Year’s resolution: I want to be a Christian that BELIEVES! Father, I want to
BELIEVE You, that if I trust You, You’re going to protect me.
Israel’s our example. They’ve never been so protected with all the nuclear weapons and everything -
if you believe in the Kingdom, if you believe in God - they’ve never been so protected as when they
were in the wilderness having to trust the Father everyday for daily bread.
My whole life, I was told that one day I’m going to go away on this train, to this far place, but having
inside this deep desire to know the Father, the way Jesus said I could. So I don’t really want to wait
until we’re in Heaven. I want it now. Jesus said I could have it now. We can know the Father right now.
* So, the power of the Kingdom being here is really special because Jeremiah 33:3 says, ‘Call to Me
and I will answer you and I will show you what I’m going to do.’ God is looking to answer you when you
call to Him. There’s this really beautiful thing called Listening Prayer where we begin in our worship
to, not only pray to God, but believe that when we ask and call to Him, we have to believe that He’s
going to answer. Sometimes, the only way that we can hear Him is if we quiet ourselves long enough
to hear Him.
I’ve been learning from a friend of mine that the capacity, even for comforting the suffering heart of
God, the broken heart of God – see, a prophetic generation, to be a prophetic people isn’t just to be
a psychic people where we have sorcery powers; to be a prophetic people is when we’re
overwhelmed by the feelings of God’s heart. A lot of times, throughout church history, you can see
this, if you just look in historical books, a lot of times when the church was dancing, God was crying.
Even in the Scriptures we see that. A lot of times, when we think we’re getting what we need, or what
we think God wants us to have, a lot of times those are the moments when God is crying, broken. A
lot of times when we think everything’s just dead, God’s dancing.
No matter what happens, no matter what people say is going to happen, whatever makes us broken
enough to want more of God, is going to make God dance.
So there is a prophetic generation. There are people that feel the heart of God. There are people
who are present to Him.
Jason Upton Worship Experience
New Beginning’s Church, Wilson, NC
Saturday, January 12, 2008
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