What that tells us, that even if Jesus Himself stood here in the room, physically in front of you, unless you meet the conditions required, you'll receive nothing. Now this is astonishing. What you've got to realise, it goes past that. Any person that God sends into your life, to help you in your journey to get where you need to get to, unless you respond to them properly, they cannot do any mighty work for you. Think about that. Think about over your life, all the people that God may have tried to send into your life to assist you, help you, grow you, shape you, influence you, challenge you, confront you, whatever; and because you didn't respond properly, God's work, or that mighty work through that person, was stopped. So that means that how you respond to a person can make the difference between whether what God has given them for you is released, or whether it is retained, or hindered, or locked up. Now that's extraordinary.
See, God brings people into our life, and connects us with people, to help us to get where He wants us to get. He has got a destiny for you. He's got a journey for you to take. There are issues for you to face. There is a personal growth journey you have to take, and for you to do that, God brings into your life the people that can help you get there. Now you may think: well I don't see that. I don't see it at all. Well get this, that if you don't respond rightly to people, then you shut down the ability of God to work in your life. Isn't that extraordinary! Now we would love to come into a meeting, and lift our hands and pray, and sing some songs, and ask God to do all kinds of wonderful things; but God sometimes sends people into your life to help you, and how you respond to the people He sends determines whether there is a release of God's gift. Remember, God's gift is always a person. We tend to think of the gifts of the spirit, but what we forget is, actually we tend to think of gifts. Actually what you get is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit reveals Himself in various ways. We call those giftings, but actually the gift is the person.
You think about the answers, well people need healing. No, actually God gives the gift of Jesus the healer. People need peace, God gives Jesus the prince of peace. When you have Him, peace comes. When you have Him, healing comes. When you have Him, deliverance comes; but the whole thing is receiving Him, and so He could do no mighty work. Now why was that? Very simply, they dishonoured and disrespected Him. It's as simple as that - dishonour and disrespect shuts down the flow of the gift of God into your life from another person. In fact, this is so important a principle, that God says there are two people - the first one is your father and your mother, your father and your mother - God says: if you will honour them and respect them, then you will live long, and life will go well for you. In other words, what it's saying, if you learn to treat the first representatives of God in your life with honour and respect, then it guarantees you will release into your life wisdom from God, to help you grow in your character, and prepare you for life.
You think of why so many young people go off the rails. It's simply this; they actually disrespect a father, or disrespect a mother. They rebel, because they disrespect them. See, once you've disrespected and dishonoured someone, then it will create the excuse for you then to reject what they have to give into your life. So an example, I've seen in families young people, I've seen in a family with an unsaved father, he had wisdom that would have protected the child, but because they despised him because he wasn't a Christian, his wisdom was rejected, and the child got into trouble. I've seen it over and over and over again. Respect and honour will release for you what that person has gifted by God for you, and when it comes to authority in our life, or people God puts over us, this is one of the vital principles. So you think about this; you go everywhere, you hear people running down their boss, they're criticising their boss. What that means effectively is, that everything God intended to bring into their life through that boss is blocked, because of the attitude of disrespect.