living My Word in your world makes the difference Issue 11 - 2006
Jacinth
Afr raii cn a. .n. out of a few enters the
from the
walls & the heart
of
Jerusalem resounds a message... c a n
y o u
h e a r
i t ?
08 11 9 771812 324004
124 pages of inspiration, values and real life It’s all about
OUR TEAM:
This simply means that as you page through MY World, you will be inspired, you will be touched and you will be brought closer to Jesus. (This issue’s cover: Part of a ladybird’s function in nature is to eat the pests that attempt to destroy a harvest. So too we as God’s children should be watchful in our prayers. As we call upon Jesus, we will by the Power of the Holy Spirit working within us, be able to overcome in those areas where we need victory. Our prayers destroy the pests!)
EDITORIAL Lindie Gouws Ena du Plessis Retha Fick Zoë Simani
Founder and Editor Copy-Editor Editorial Assistant Proof Reader
CONCEPTUALIZATION AND DESIGN Lindie Gouws Conceptualization and Graphic Design Liezl du Preez Photographer Cindèle Blake Photographer/Website ADMINISTRATION Celia van Wyk Erika J v Vuuren Zoë Simani Enocentia Maraya Cherise Helena Andries Erasmus Patricia Mosadi
Personal Assistant Administrator Administrator Administrator Administrator Accountant Office Assistant
CONTRIBUTORS Acknowledged at respective contributions
Phe-tiwe Media and Publications (Pty) Ltd reserves the copyright to the content of MY World.
Contact Details Tel +27(11) 953-5214 Fax +27(11) 953-4281 Postal Address Private Bag 2003, Krugersdorp, 1740 Physical Address No 1 Windsor Road, Mogale City, Gauteng Advertising +27(11) 953-5214 Subscriptions +27(11) 953-5214 Electronic Subscriptions subscribe@myworld.za.com Printing Printability
Directors: Lindie Gouws Johannes Gumede Futhi Masuku All graphic illustrations have been conceptualized and created by MY World and remain the property of Phe-tiwe. All photos (unless otherwise stated) have been commissioned by the Editor and remain the property of Phe-tiwe. Scripture references were taken from: The Amplified Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan (1965) King James Version The Message. Colorado Springs: Navpress (1993) New International Version. Colorado Springs: International Bible Society (1978, 1984) New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thoman Nelson Inc. (1979, 1980, 1982) New Living Translation Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers (1996)
I’m currently reading the 10th issue of MY World. There are books besides the Bible that help one feel a closeness and intimacy with our loving Shepherd, but never before did I read a magazine about which I not only felt amazed, but which really caused me to feel embraced by His mercy. You just have to stop reading to drink in His presence and loving kindness.
My wife gave me this mag of yours this morning on our way to work. I just paged through it at first and put it aside. I picked it up later after I had settled in. After reading the first story I disappeared between the pages of this mag – reading one story after another. I can’t put the book down! Well, keep up the good work. Stand firm and don’t give in to the offers of the devil even though they sometimes look so innocent. This is a good magazine and it’s here to stay. God bless.
Well done, staff of MY World, to bring us, the readers, so close to our Father’s Heart. May love and blessings from above always surround you and help you to keep going. I love you with our Father’s Love.
Gerald Hugo Eersterus, Pretoria
Letters to
Deseré Rhode Cape Town
To all our readers... Thank you, thank you, thank you! To everyone who phones... Your calls are welcomed and so encouraging! Please e-mail your letters to
What an inspiration! Reading I would like to thank you very letters@myworld.za.com or post them to through your magazine only made much for the six months’ Private Bag 2003, Krugersdorp, 1740. me realize once again how subscription I received after the privileged we are to know our interview Lindie had with Radio Please phone us at +27(11) 953-5214 God and to be one of His own and Rippel. how many are still out there going hungry, cold and naked MY World is such an enthusiastic because they do not know Jesus magazine, full of inspiration! Christ - the Way, the Truth and Abundant Life! When my new issue is due, I can’t wait to go to my postbox to start reading my new magazine. When in possession of God bless you all! my new issue, I start reading from page one right through to the end, whereafter I hand it over to my friends, so that Carina de Bruyn I can share your inspiration with them. Heidelberg, Gauteng Mariette van Heerden Wierda Park, Centurion
Jacinth Issue
Contents
REAL LIFE From the walls and the heart of Jerusalem resounds a messsage...
16
66
Can your hear it?
Africa
72
“South Africa, turn back to God!” “Arise Africa for your light has come!”
44
74
You can choose
Fruit stories Port Shepstone
WORK AND PLAY God’s Word on tithing One day in the life of a rubbish collector Making sure your bin is empty
Louis Brittz and his passion for worship
Blessing or curse
FRUIT, FRUIT, FRUIT
Proclaiming His praise with one voice
36
“Out of a few enters the African rain”
Something louder than song
64
50
78
IT WAS GOOD Striking strelitzia
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to the Voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” 1 SAMUEL 15:22
SPIRIT LIFE Beatitudes on the Mount
84
Blessed are the meek,
WHO TOUCHED ME?
112 Amakhaya
Once rejected, now accepted
for they shall inherit the earth
WORDS OF WEALTH
Obedience
90
118 Find the word
Spiritual warfare
96
119 What’s in a name?
The armour of God
Y-TALK! In the eye of the storm
THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD Kingdom Antventures
100
a word in
season
6
“Get up!” Welcome to Jacinth - our issue of obedience Jacinth, Issue No 11, is a very special issue of MY World. Special as all the previous issues, yet exceptional! As the “mother” of MY World, I would say that each issue certainly has a unique character, like a child. Born into the family of MY World, Jacinth. Walking in the reverential fear of God, a warrior of the Cross - fearless of the devices of the enemy, Born with a definite, God-given, end-time assignment, Jacinth! Flowing from its heart, a word that says: Get up! Two months prior to commencement of production of this issue, the Holy Spirit gave me the word for Jacinth. I heard His Voice in my spirit, “Get up!”
Faithfully, He confirmed this word through John 5:1-15. “Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie – the blind, the lame, the paralysed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learnt that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’ ‘Sir,’ the invalid replied, ‘I have no-one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ At once this man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.’ But he replied ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Pick up your mat and walk.”’ So they asked him, ‘Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?’ The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.’ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.” Jesus, the Son of God, walked into the life of this invalid man. When He spoke, it was Truth. Presented with the Truth, this man had a choice. He believed and obeyed the instruction Jesus gave, “Get up!” and he was empowered to go and witness. As believers in Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord, we need to obey the Holy Spirit’s prompting, “Get up!” As God’s children we must obey His call. By the power of the Holy Spirit within you, “Get up!”arise as His witness… for His Glory. It is time!
7
“dear
reader
”
In our previous issue we shared the history of how MY World came to life. We have decided to include this introduction in Issue 11, Jacinth, again - as there are so many new readers with each issue. We hope that your life will be enriched by the content of this issue. MY World is unique and challenges the paradigms set within the publishing industry. Part of MY World’s uniqueness lies in the shape, layout, contents and standard and these did not originate in a human design, but were given, prompted and fulfilled by the Holy Spirit. Many people are interested in the reason for the square shape and the foundation theme. This is how God gave and inspired the “making of MY World”. I come from the corporate industry. I was serving on the directorate of a couple of companies and doing research in strategic transformation and development when God called me into media. In October 2003 I was asked to become involved in a national publication as editor, which I did. Yet then God started working in my heart to begin a new South African Christian family magazine. After wrestling with God concerning this (because my life was very well organized) I received a clear word and instruction from Him. This was later confirmed through a prophetic word I received. 8
It was then that God started working with me more intensely. He gave me the name: MY World. When I applied for the name and trademark, I was informed that a large publishing company already owned the trademark. I just believed that if God had given me the name He would release it to me. A few days later the publisher sent me a letter informing me that they were releasing the name! MY World’s motto is: living MY Word in your world makes the difference. I asked God for the vision of MY World and He answered me one evening by saying that we have to be like a tree planted at the Living Waters of Life, bearing fruit and bringing healing. The next day we had our first contributors’ meeting. We were looking for a specific verse in the Book of Revelation when we opened on Revelation 22:1-2: “And He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the Throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” That was confirmation. Then God showed me the calling on South Africa: Nine provinces, nine fruit of the Spirit. He said, “South Africa, you are a basket of fruit, ripe and ready for the picking.” He told me, “Publish it!” He then showed me a vision of a square, which was later confirmed when I asked Him to help me with the various colours for the name MY World on the cover of each issue. He answered by directing me to Revelation 21. I opened my Bible and God drew my attention to the 12 foundation stones in the wall of the New Jerusalem (the first being Jasper, the second Sapphire, the third Chalcedony, etc). So, as from January 2005 the colours of the various issues of MY World have been according to the foundation stones of Revelation 21. I read on in Revelation 21 and saw that the New Jerusalem was laid out as a square. God had confirmed the shape of MY World! I also had a vision of the cover of the Key Issue, containing 12 faces. Initially I did not understand but later while researching the 12 precious stones, my copy editor brought me a book on the breastplate of the high priest. I was astounded as I saw the 12 stones set in the spaces of the vision I had seen. We then designed a cover with 12 faces and dressed the people in the colours of the precious stones as they were mounted on the breastplate.
the covers of our Key Issue and foundation theme our first series, based on the 12 foundation stones in the city wall of the New Jerusalem
an uncompromising voice in media
Jaciinth Jacinth
“dear
reader
”
God gave me a word concerning the vision of the breastplate for the cover of the Key Issue.
“I teach you to guard your heart with all diligence because from it will flow forth the issues of life. I also teach you that your calling is irrevocable. I will use your gifts to fulfil your call. “Now the high priest had to wear a breastplate to protect his heart and daily you need to wear a spiritual breastplate to protect your own heart. “Tell the people of South Africa that as they fulfil their individual callings I, God, will take them and mount them individually as precious persons in the positions of precious stones in a spiritual breastplate. “As they are individually mounted, collectively they become a breastplate that protects the heart of South Africa. Then flowing from the heart of the nation will be issues that will bring healing to many others.” 10
In the Key Issue we published an article on the miracle that took place in 1994. From threatening anarchy South Africa was taken to unity. We are proud to be South African. I pray that you will feel my heart concerning MY World. MY World is really like my child. As in the natural dimension, when a baby is born and then raised, we as a team experienced the spiritual birth of a God-given vision and “child”, MY World. Our responsibility now is to take care of MY World as one would take care of a real child. Being the mother I nurture and protect MY World. With every issue I will continue defining the theme and delivering the specific message I receive from God as well as directing, designing and editing. My personal assistant Celia helps me to be the best “mom” I can be. My fellow editorial team members Ena and Retha together with the contributors, fulfil the role of teachers. A mother will entrust a child to teachers to assist in moulding the child’s character. Through the team and contributors’ writing, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, this is done. Our administrative team, Andries, Enocentia, Zoë, Erika, Cherise and Patricia, is responsible to feed MY World by ensuring that all the administrative and general office tasks are done correctly. Photographers Liezl and Cindèle dress MY World in a colourful array of photos. After publication of our ninth issue, Topaz, MY World was truly born. Then it started to grow - the 10th issue, Chrysoprase, by eight pages and this issue, Jacinth, by 16 more. A child first learns to crawl, then walk and run. MY World is crawling by firstly being available in leading bookshops and through agents. Since Topaz, MY World has been available at certain SPAR outlets nationwide. Soon MY World will walk by being available in other outlets and then run by being freely available on the internet. Issue 12, Amethyst, will conclude the foundation theme. God has already provided me with the theme for the next 12 issues – the 12 gates in the wall of the New Jerusalem as mentioned in Revelation 21:12, “It had a great high wall with twelve gates and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.” We pray that through this theme, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we will continue to spread God’s Word, to fight the good fight and to be victorious in Jesus Christ. May many souls be won for Jesus!
Reference: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane
of the storm
e Ey
in the words: cherise helena; waldo nagel
photography: courtesy of NOAA
"Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything." James 1:2-4
“One day He and His disciples got in a boat. ‘Let's cross the lake,’ He said. And off they went. It was smooth sailing, and He fell asleep. A terrific storm came up suddenly on the lake. Water poured in, and they were about to capsize. They woke Jesus: ‘Master, Master, we're going to drown!’ Getting to His feet, He told the wind, ‘Silence!’ and the waves, ‘Quiet down!’ They did it. The lake became smooth as glass” (Luke 8:22-24). When problems bombard us from all directions, it might feel as if a storm has broken loose against us. To see our circumstances the way God sees them, however, is our challenge as followers of Christ.
wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
A PHYSICAL STORM consists of various components. We will take a look at three of these. In the outer sphere of a storm we find the rainbands. Showers of rain, thunderstorms and high gusts of wind, which spiral toward the storm centre, are found here. The centre of the storm is bordered by the eyewall. The worst wind damage is caused when this eyewall passes over land, because in this band we find the strongest wind. The storm centre is called the eye of a storm. The eye is normally calm and cloudless and thus no rainfall or thunderstorms occurs here.
The way to reach this place is described in Philippians 4:6, 7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” In John 14:27 Jesus says, “I am leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn’t like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”
Let’s take another look at a storm, but this time with the eyes of our hearts. We often experience that our organized, harmonious lives are disrupted by difficult circumstances. We feel as if we are in the rainbands of a storm, tossed about by the showers of rain and high gusts of wind. Then, as if that is not enough, we meet the eyewall where our spiritual fitness and stamina are severely tested. This is when we are faced with circumstances that we perceive as hopeless and we might even wonder whether our faith and prayers are amounting to anything. In the eyewall we fight against “elements” such as accusations, uncertainties, doubt and fear. In order to keep standing when the storms of life are raging around us, we need to live according to the principles Jesus gave us in Matthew 7:24-27: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Firstly we must ensure that our faith is founded on the Rock. Psalm 18:2 says, “The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress and my Deliverer; my God is my Rock, in whom I take refuge.” Secondly we must put His Word into practice. By living according to the Bible through the Power of the Holy Spirit we can be successful and prosperous in any given situation. Joshua 1:7, 8 reads, “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law My servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful
The eye of a physical storm is a place of complete calm and we too can reach this place of peace and rest in the midst of our storms in life. The realization that God loves us and cares for us helps us to reach the eye of our storm. “‘Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing Love for you will not be shaken nor My Covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you” (Isaiah 54:10). Exodus 14:14 reads, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
God never forgets us, even though our circumstances might make us feel that He does. God remembers us; He has us in mind all the time. According to 2 Timothy 2:19, God knows His children: “Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are His.” Let Jeremiah 29:11 remind us what God plans for us: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” We are only human and will not always understand God’s ways. “‘My thoughts are completely different from yours,’ says the Lord. ‘And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine’” (Isaiah 55:8). So let us think differently about our circumstances! James encourages us in James 1:2-4 “Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.” Let us remain in the eye of the storm, where there is perfect peace, in the centre of God’s Will.
101
through the
eyes of a child May the Lord make you
increase,
both you and your
children.
Psalms 115:14
1
Do yyou remember what happened last time? me On their way to Uncle Antique at he water w the tower, Antique and his friends saw the little anteater Sammy. He was in trouble and they decided to help him.
Obedience
illustrations and words: dewald and marilese van heerden
3
We have to go now, otherwise Uncle Antique will be very angry with us.
2
That’s a pity, where are you going?
ANTINA
ANTONIO
ANTOINETTE
4
ANTOINE
We’re going to the water tower, we…
5
When Antoinette said, “water tower”, Sammy became very excited. He had to go in the same direction, so he walked with his new friends.
6
While Antique was waiting, something interesting happened. He also made friends with someone. Do you have any idea who his new friend could be? It was Sammy’s mommy. They were about to start looking for the young friends together, when they heard the sound of the Antmobile and laughing voices.
7
Uncle, we can explain‌
85
9
Mommy, Mommy, I was so scared!
Wait, Antoine, I am so grateful that you are safe. You must be hungry and thirsty; let us first have something to eat and drink, then you can tell me everything.
8
ANTIQUE
10
While Uncle Antique was taking out food for everyone, Sammy told them everything that had happened. How he had wandered off, become stuck in the tin, and how they had helped to free him. Sammy’s mommy had tears in her eyes. Nobody had ever wanted to play with her child, and now the Lord had used four little ants to show mercy to her child and to save him.
The Lord has given
11
me a poem: “If God tells us what to do We must not ask who Act as soon as you can
12
The sheep listen to the voice of the shepherd – when he calls, they come to him.
It is part of His plan.”
We are obedient when we listen to God. 13
I have realized that I should be obedient even if I don’t feel like it. Do you remember the part in the Bible about Jonah?
14
15
The Lord asked Jonah to go to Nineveh, but he didn’t want to go. Jonah then went on board a ship that was sailing somewhere else. He thought he could hide from God. A storm came and the other people on the ship threw Jonah into the sea. A big fish swallowed him and after Jonah had prayed for three days and three nights the fish spat him out at the place where he came from. What happened to him, showed him that it is important to be obedient to God.
Obedience is not always easy. Think of Noah. God told him to build an ark – the people made fun of him because they didn’t understand. Yet today all people and animals are on the earth because Noah was obedient.
16
You are right, all of you. Do you know that Jesus always did what God wanted Him to do?
18
19
I really want to be like Jesus in everything I do.
Can you think of other heroes in the Bible who were obedient? What about Moses, Joshua, David, Joseph…
20
Me too! Mommy, I am sorry for being disobedient and not playing close to home. I could have been hurt badly. Would you please forgive me?
21
I forgive you, my child. Always remember, obedience makes God happy and it makes us happy as well.
LET US PRAY TOGETHER: Lord Jesus, please help me to be obedient. Amen.
85
You are always at my side, A perfect, patient, steady guide; Thank You for Your Love so rare, And for Your constant, gracious care! Jesus, You’re a God of Grace, I feel secure in Your embrace; You are my Shelter, my Hiding-place, One day I’ll see You face to Face. You are the Rose of Sharon, The Bread of Life to me;
In the Bible, the Book of Psalms is a collection of
When You saved my soul,
150 poems written to celebrate the glory of God.
You forgave and set me free!
We would like to encourage our readers to follow the example of David and the other Psalmists, and to send us your poetry. If your contribution is placed, you will receive a beautiful New
There is no God like You, Jesus, You are faithful and true; Compassionate, merciful and kind, You also give sight to the blind.
International Version Bible published by Struik Christian Books.
You heal the sick, You deliver and save, For the whole world Your Life You gave! I love Your Word and consider Your ways,
Come on! Put your pen to paper and s e n d y o u r contributions to letters@myworld.za.com o r P r i v a t e B a g 2 0 0 3 , K r u g e r s d o r p , 174 0 .
I’ll walk with You all of my days! I bless You Lord, I lift my voice, In adoration to my King, I dance and clap, I will rejoice,
Thank you to René Meredith and Kathy van Dyk for sending your b e a u t i f u l p o e m s . Yo u r B i b l e s a r e o n t h e i r w a y. M a y y o u b e b l e s s e d b y G o d !
I leap with joy, to You I sing! René Meredith Lyttelton
oem em em
heart
AN ODE TO JESUS
THE RESURR
ECTION (Matthew 28 )
Mary and Mar y at dawn ca me to see The grave of the Christ, bu t it was to be Not death th at would mee t them, But an angel from High,
“Fear not for the future fo r the grave is but bare. Released fro m the dead, the Christ is there. not He goes befo re you, go qu ickly and tell Of Christ that has risen, an d all that is well.
“For in death there is life th rough the Blood of the Lamb. Go quickly an d tell, you mus t understand, God’s plan fo r salvation in death is revealed the grave that is empty - with this it is sealed.”
Kathy van Dyk Napier
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We have received numerous inspiring testimonies from our readers. It is encouraging to see what God is doing in the lives of those who have been touched by MY World. As a team we treasure each letter and invite you to share your testimonies. I felt deep down in my heart that I had to share how awesome God is. Lindie always writes how God leads her to discover things in amazing ways. But this is what happened to me since the Lord had led you to publish my story in the 10th issue of MY World (Chrysoprase), which turned out to be a green issue – for new life. The night before meeting the MY World team to share my testimony, I asked my mom what she thought I should wear and her reply was, “I don’t know – the Lord will tell you, so ask Him before you go to sleep!” This I did, and that whole night I dreamt of green. Everything I saw was green, so I knew I was to wear green! Then it turned out the issue was on mercy – and our ministry is a ministry of mercy, called the Lighthouse Mercy Ministries. When I received my copy of Chrysoprase, I opened it to find Lindie’s letter about Deborah and the tent peg. The Lord had told me that I was a Deborah in His Kingdom. He is raising many women as Deborahs in ministry worldwide. It excited my spirit tremendously to see that He is speaking the same language everywhere. Then I saw on page 23 the verse from Numbers 23 – the same Scripture Father God gave me after my healing. On the 25th of June I turned 21, which was a milestone, as there had been many attacks on my life, including my illness. But nothing was impossible for my God. Even our plans to celebrate my 21st birthday had been under major attack, so I knew all Heaven was thrilled and watching. We had a very small gathering of around 18 close friends and family. That day it hit home to me how special and important to people I really was. Later a lady who had been trying for ages to get hold of us, managed to do so when a friend had given her a copy of MY World. Her 20-year old daughter was dying of cystic fibrosis. She was on ventilators and drips. Her stomach shunt was malfunctioning, so she had not eaten for four days. She could neither sit up nor walk. We were called to her bedside in Uitenhage and spent a day there, praying for them and ministering to them. The lady’s son had died of the same condition and medically speaking there is no cure. After we had left, she sat up, walked, and ate from a plate. God had touched her. This is also why I am writing – to tell you that your work is a major ministry to the people of this nation, a mighty tool in media. We must get the media back for Jesus. When we serve Jesus, mighty attacks come. If he can’t get us from the outside, he tries to get us from within. So as a family in Jesus, keep praying much. We are praying for you too. Do not be afraid, Jesus has overcome for us. Each issue has become more anointed than the previous one. You are making a major difference. Nicole Hutchinson Port Elizabeth
“readers’
testimonies” I need to share with you my amazing experience. My three-year old had to get stitches last Saturday after playing like only a three year old boy can do. While we were waiting for the doctor, he picked up a magazine between twenty others. "Look mom, look at the man with the boxing gloves," he said, pointing at a picture of a man in a white shirt with white boxing gloves. "Yes, my love”, I said, “I see…" I put down the magazine, not that interested in paging through as I was more concerned about the blood dripping on his T-shirt. He brought it back three times, for me to look at the man with the boxing gloves. As I put it down the third time, my eye caught the picture of a pretty little girl. Something just told me to read the article. While looking at the picture, I saw the date mentioned in the article – the 22nd of May 2001. This is the date on which our baby boy passed away after a car accident. We were on holiday in Cape Town. A car accident took the lives of both my parents and JC was declared brain dead the next morning. I had cold shivers and read the rest of the article, to find out that this was indeed the little girl who received the liver of our little darling boy. I had tears in my eyes and still do, when thinking about the way this information came to us. This was indeed God’s way of telling us once more that there was reasoning behind what happened in 2001. It is the most wonderful feeling to know that Callan (the little girl) was healthy and that she indeed brings joy and love to everyone around her. I'm so grateful to have this information and so excited that she is so beautiful and so alive. We pray that God will keep her safe and will bless her and her family throughout their lives. This was the first time ever I've seen MY World. Isn't it amazing that my boy brought me the copy three times – a 2005 issue. I thank God for the fact that there is no such thing as co-incidence. We thank God for healing… and for strength to carry on. We thank God that we can believe and trust that He is in control. In order to protect the privacy of both families involved, the writer’s details have been omitted. The following letter we received just prior to publication of Jacinth. Judith was unaware of the wheat on the cover as well as the article on Israel. This is undoubtedly the working of the Holy Spirit! Wow! My sister-in-law Merilyn Rowntree introduced me to MY World and straight away I was touched by your integrity and the fact that you are undoubtedly being led by the Holy Spirit, listening for His Voice every step of the way. Lindie, your time in Israel must have touched you very deeply. How do you feel when you see the latest political developments and the escalating tension? Thank you for your obedience to the Lord in presenting us with such big meaty pieces of inspirational writing. The presence of the Lord is evident. I pray for you to go from strength to strength as you prepare the finest of wheat for your readers to eat. Judith van Wyk Randburg, Gauteng
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photography: liezl du preez
who touched me?
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will
never drive away. John 6:37
words: michelle frost
Ama-
kha
photography: liezl du preez
“Once rejected, now accepted�
ya
The contrast between the tall concrete palisade fences and the cheerfully painted walls which surround Amakhaya may leave one uncertain as to what lies within, but once inside it becomes clear that Amakhaya is all about hope, love and acceptance. Amakhaya is the Zulu word for “our home” and it is a children’s project aimed at sheltering and educating the underprivileged street children of Lenasia, south of Johannesburg. A thought-provoking quote painted on the wall of Amakhaya’s administrative building is sure to grab any visitor’s attention: “Geared to the times, anchored to the Rock.” Surely the success behind Amakhaya is due to the fact that it is a place where Jesus Christ is acknowledged as the Rock. THE FOUNDER AND director of this beautiful children’s project is Joyce Naicker (48), a trained child and youth care worker. Amakhaya started out as a street outreach aided by her church, The Christian Revival Centre in Lenasia. “The Amakhaya project began in 1996 as a ‘drop-in centre’ that opened at 7am, but there was no shelter for the children in the evenings,” Joyce remembers. She sought further help from the organization Youth For Christ (YFC). They agreed and Joyce applied for property. The application was successful and the ministry of Amakhaya grew when they moved 22 boys into a small home on 30 April 1997. This, however, is not where the story ends. In 1998 the girls began to state their need for a shelter too. Project Serve from the United States of America (in association with Youth for Christ) built a prefabricated room where the girls could live. Almost two years later something happened that expanded the focus of Amakhaya. “One day in 2000 a young girl was brought to Amakhaya from a clinic in Lenasia. She had been brutally gangraped by some boys on the street…”Joyce’s eyes fill with sorrow as she speaks of 16 year old Rethabile who became semi-paralysed after the attack on her young body. “She recovered, but on the 1st of January 2001 she became very ill. We rushed her to hospital only to find out that she had already been HIV positive. We hadn’t known that, so she wasn’t given any medication or treatment. Her condition deteriorated quickly and on the 27th of January she died.” Joyce’s voice is filled with emotion when she recalls, “We gave her a dignified funeral but to this day have not traced any family members. With that in mind I decided that we needed to start an HIV/Aids home. The HIV positive children need special care.” Joyce applied for two more houses and by God’s grace acquired them. They named the children’s village Rethabile in honour of the dear girl who lost her life to Aids. The home opened on the 23rd of August 2003 and has been extremely successful. Joyce fondly speaks of the first child to come under the care of Rethabile, “He was two years old and the doctors said he wouldn’t live past the age of four, but today we state on record that he is eight years old! He is living a normal life and is attending school.”
According to Joyce, Amakhaya/Rethabile Children’s Project takes care of 50 children in total. Joyce is pleased that many of the children return to the home to work as interns once they have matriculated. One such girl is Ditswanelo Neko, who works in Rethabile Children’s Village. “She initially heard about Rethabile in her home country, Lesotho, and one day she just arrived at the village! We managed to trace her family but when she got home the circumstances were unbearable and she came back with her 15-year old brother.” Many children return to Amakhaya for refuge and Joyce believes it is because they impart strong Christian values. The children’s project runs full Christian programmes in association with Joyce’s local church. “We would love for every child who comes through our programme to know Jesus,” she says. “They go to Sunday school and have daily devotions. Some of the children have even been voluntarily baptized!” Every child at Amakhaya is schooled through a mainstream school. “We try to run a ‘home’ situation,” Joyce explains. Amakhaya has 25 full-time staff members, two full-time street outreach volunteers and several international volunteers. The international volunteers give several months of their time to serve the children at Amakhaya before returning to their own countries. Joyce emphasizes that these volunteers are like older sisters and brothers, and that she believes in the importance of mentoring relationships. There are social workers who also work with the children in groups. Says Joyce, “We work closely with the department of Social Services. Our goal is to rehabilitate the children, reintegrate them into society and reunite them with their families.” Joyce testifies to the Lord’s provision at Amakhaya. “We send proposals to companies and then wait for God to do the rest. We have seen miracle after miracle as God has provided for our every need.” Joyce believes that God will continue to provide and she is excited about the future. “We want to strengthen families, perhaps through parenting workshops. Our aim is to make families self-sustainable.” Joyce would also love to start a day-school for uneducated adults and is trusting in God to give her the premises for such a facility. Not all the children at Amakhaya are orphaned. Many are forced onto the streets because of alcoholism, abuse and unemployment. Amakhaya’s biggest need, according to Joyce, is to provide the children with foster or even holiday homes. “Not all the children are able to return to their homes as they are not safe in that environment,” she explains. Joyce has taken the unloved, rejected children of Lenasia and its surrounding areas and has shown them the love and acceptance of Christ. “The only person I can give credit to is our Father,” Joyce says. “He gives me the grace to run this project and to overcome!”
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take a look
To advertise in the “take a look directory� please contact Celia at +27(11) 953-5214
directory
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To be a woman
Speaker: Gary Kieswetter. Enjoy a mouth-watering breakfast and live performances by Wanda Bam and EstĂŠ Geldenhuys. The cost is R130,00 per person. For bookings and enquiries phone Letsie van der Bank on (012) 334 -1284.
is to be free
Radio Pulpit and MY World will be presenting a lovely ladies’ morning at Utopia Place, Pretoria Saturday the 8th of September 2006.
words of
wealth
Month 10 Day 1
: Titus 2
/Jeremiah 24, 25, 26
Day 16 : Hebrews 11: 20-40
/Ezekiel 3, 4
Day 2
: Titus 3
/Jeremiah 27, 28, 29
Day 17 : Hebrews 12
/Ezekiel 5, 6, 7
Day 3
: Philemon
/Jeremiah 30, 31
Day 18 : Hebrews 13
/Ezekiel 8, 9, 10
Day 4
: Hebrews 1
/Jeremiah 32, 33
Day 19 : James 1
/Ezekiel 11, 12, 13
Day 5
: Hebrews 2
/Jeremiah 34, 35, 36
Day 20 : James 2
/Ezekiel 14, 15
Day 6
: Hebrews 3
/Jeremiah 37, 38, 39
Day 21 : James 3
/Ezekiel 16, 17
Day 7
: Hebrews 4
/Jeremiah 40, 41, 42
Day 22 : James 4
/Ezekiel 18, 19
Day 8
: Hebrews 5
/Jeremiah 43, 44, 45
Day 23 : James 5
/Ezekiel 20, 21
Day 9
: Hebrews 6
/Jeremiah 46, 47
Day 24 : 1 Peter 1
/Ezekiel 22, 23
Day 10 : Hebrews 7
/Jeremiah 48, 49
Day 25 : 1 Peter 2
/Ezekiel 24, 25, 26
Day 11 : Hebrews 8
/Jeremiah 50
Day 26 : 1 Peter 3
/Ezekiel 27, 28, 29
Day 12 : Hebrews 9
/Jeremiah 51, 52
Day 27 : 1 Peter 4
/Ezekiel 30, 31, 32
Day 13 : Hebrews 10: 1-18
/Lamentations 1, 2
Day 28 : 1 Peter 5
/Ezekiel 33, 34
Day 14 : Hebrews 10: 19-39
/Lamentations 3, 4, 5
Day 29 : 2 Peter 1
/Ezekiel 35, 36
Day 15 : Hebrews 11: 1-19
/Ezekiel 1, 2
Day 30 : 2 Peter 2
/Ezekiel 37, 38, 39
compiled by myna gouws
find the word
ord search 118
M W R K N D N R T E R S R A H X A O E A V F
Find these words
E J ABRAHAM
N K G V L O J
I
H M E O T
D T P Z O I
R O
M V N
ESTHER JONATHAN MOSES
S D U S A Y F M L
P I
A PAUL
M P E U K L
A R U O A T
SETH
O T G J
E B A D S H
BENJAMITES
A L
EVE S I
M O N B R N P C L
A
E R J
N
M H Z E E T Z J
M W B C H C T A X E M X
LOT NAOMI REBECCA SIMON
N B C M A H A R B A O I C A H N O G Y Y N E S G K K V T N A P L
H Y E B
DAVID ISRAELITES MAGDALENE NOAH
I
S R A E L
J
A O N L
I
S O
T
E S S L
I
O P Q P
Complete this word search correctly and send it to MY World, Private Bag 2003, Krugersdorp, 1740. The first three readers whose correctly completed word searches reach us, will each receive a subscription for three issues.
SAMSON SOLOMON
what’s in a
name?
In biblical times a person’s name had a lot to do with character and destiny. In some special cases, God changed people’s names... Abram became Abraham, Sarai became Sarah, Jacob became Israel and Saul became Paul. It is interesting to know the meaning, origin and spiritual significance of your name.
In every issue we publish a few names from The Name Book. Enjoy!
DONNA / DONICA / DONI
HILTON / HILLTON
IOAN / IOANN
Language / Cultural Origin: Italian Inherent Meaning: Refined Lady Spiritual Connotation: Dependent Scripture: Matthew 4:4 NKJV
Language / Cultural Origin: English Inherent Meaning: From the Hill Town Spiritual Connotation: Obedient Scripture: Revelation 22:7 NASB
Language / Cultural Origin: Romanian Inherent Meaning: God is Gracious Spiritual Connotation: Cherished Scripture: Titus 2:11 NRSV
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the Mouth of God.
And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this Book.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.
FELICITY / FELICIANNA / FELISSA
CAROLINE / CARALIN / CAROLINA
ELOISE
Language / Cultural Origin: English Inherent Meaning: Joyful Spiritual Connotation: Content Scripture: Philippians 4:4 NKJV
Language / Cultural Origin: French Inherent Meaning: Womanly Spiritual Connotation: Filled with Praise Scripture: Psalm 150:6 NKJV
Language / Cultural Origin: Old German Inherent Meaning: Wise Spiritual Connotation: Sustained Scripture: Psalm 121:5 NKJV
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
The Lord is your Keeper; the Lord is your Shade at your right hand.
PAMELA / PAM / PAMALA
119
TYSON / TISON / TYCE / TYSEN
Language / Cultural Origin: Greek Inherent Meaning: Honey Spiritual Connotation: Righteous Scripture: Matthew 13:43 NRSV
Language / Cultural Origin: Aramaic Inherent Meaning: Listener Spiritual Connotation: Attentive to God’s Voice Scripture: Job 22:28 NLT
Language / Cultural Origin: French Inherent Meaning: Son of the Ruler Spiritual Connotation: Gifted Scripture: 1 Timothy 4:14 NASB
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
Whatever you decide to do will be accomplished, and light will shine on the road ahead of you.
Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you.
F r o m
T h e
N a m e
B o o k
b y
D o r o t h y
A s t o r i a ,
B e t h a n y
H o u s e
P u b l i s h e r s
there
is a calling on
“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” (Isaiah 52:7).
living My Word in your world makes the difference
MY World is a ministry, committed to bringing you the Good News of Jesus Christ through a strong, uncompromising, Spiritfilled voice raised up for times such as these. Committed to bringing a word in season, in God’s time, striving towards His excellence, by His grace.
12
Thank you to all our readers for being so supportive. You are part of MY World. Many of you have phoned us, informing us that God is placing us on your hearts and that you are praying for us. Your support is priceless. Prior to founding MY World, Lindie received a prophetic word: “You will challenge the paradigms of publishing.” We find great joy in witnessing the gradual unfolding of this prophecy. During final production of this issue God made it clear that He did not want the publication of MY World to be confined to any specific pattern or dates. We are to wait on Him to show us when the time for each issue has come. He keeps astounding us by showing us how in control He is. We continue to be reminded that we really should not limit Him. We trust in Him to keep guiding us every step of the way into the fullness of what He has planned. The Holy Spirit is making us increasingly aware that God has not raised up MY World as a magazine but as a ministry in the form of a publication. More than ever we realize the importance of keeping close to Him in order to receive the message from His Heart for the specific season according to His perfect timing. (You will notice that God guided Lindie to rename the editor’s letter to “A word in season”.) Bearing in mind the responsibility that goes hand-in-hand with this calling, we want to emphasize our reliance on your prayers. Through regular radio advertisements, “What’s up @ MY World” and soon through our website, you will be kept updated. Thank you for your understanding and continued support. “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Write My answer in large, clear letters on a tablet, so that a runner can read it and tell everyone else. But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed” (Habakkuk 2:2, 3).
It’s all about You, Jesus
on the tour of Israel (June 2006)
His shredded back rubbed with salt and oil, Left the stain of His agonized toil, In the darkness He sat and thought of the morrow, He knew what would come, His day of great sorrow. Alone in the cave did He see my face, Just hours from paying the price of grace? What did He think of and what did He pray, Were angels surrounding the spot where He lay? In a musty cave of an ancient time, Emotions flood through my heart and mind, From here the greatest love began to unfold, In this cave of suffering, this cave of old.
Written by Angela Rogers
In a musty cave of an ancient time Emotions flood through my heart and mind. Is this a place where our Saviour bled, Where they placed the crown of thorns on His head? Closing my eyes I see them casting Him down, To this lonely hole, this pit in the ground. An ancient stain on the wall tells a story, Was it that of the Man who left Heaven’s glory? The print so clear of a suffering Man Was it the mark of the Great I AM? Is this the place where our Lord spent the night, Prior to suffering His greatest plight?
the
Then the time arrived to take the pictures for Jacinth’s spread pages. For that we needed real ladybirds. Celia phoned many places, trying to find out where we would get some this time of year. A university informed her that an organic farm would be able to help us. Liezl visited one of these farms, but could not find a single ladybird of the species that God had shown Lindie.
ladybirds?
Why
We were busy with final production of Chrysoprase (Issue 10) when one day Lindie said, “I wonder what we should put on Jacinth’s spread pages?” She had barely uttered these words when she told us God had just shown her in her spirit a picture of a ladybird. On two separate occasions a few days later God gave confirmation. Firstly, when Ena brought her two-year old daughter Colleen along to the office, Lindie immediately noticed ladybirds embroidered on Colleen’s jersey. Secondly, our friend Waldo, an interior architect, noticed a ladybird on the windowsill of our new offices – in the middle of winter!
One afternoon at the office, some days later, after we had kept asking God to provide us with the ladybird He wanted, Lindie suddenly told Retha, “Come, let’s go and fetch our ladybird.” It appeared that after Lindie had asked Him again, God had told her to go and fetch our ladybird. She stood up, took a little cardboard box and went to the garden with Retha. And God again proved His faithfulness. After searching for only a few minutes Lindie found a ladybird of the right species on a stem of lavender! Two days later while Liezl was taking pictures of the ladybird at Lindie’s home, Lindie and Cindèle found the other two ladybirds in the garden! You will see these special ladybirds showing off on the spread pages. In our search to discover the significance of the ladybirds and the reason for their appearance on the spread pages, we learned the following. We love to share it with you. • •
• •
•
•
Ladybirds are used worldwide on crops and in gardens as natural pest controllers. Just as pests destroy a harvest, there are certain things that have a destructive effect on our personal lives. To eliminate these things from our lives we need to pray continuously and rely on the power of the Blood of Jesus. Just as the ladybird cleanses the harvest, consistent prayer and the power of the Blood of Jesus will ensure that our lives are cleansed from “pests”. We can trust the Holy Spirit to show us anything that keeps us from victory. Trying to solve our problems with worldly remedies will not pay off. Manmade solutions often cause more damage, just as pesticides often have many harmful effects. The solutions and freedom God brings are real and forever. Using pesticides requires minimal effort. Ladybirds, on the other hand, take time getting rid of pests through persistent, hard work. Likewise, God’s Word urges us to be persistent in our prayers. Although we often do not see the results of our prayers immediately, we need to stand strong in our faith, knowing that God will provide the breakthrough in time. No worldly remedy, however instant or effortless, can compare to God’s answers to prayer. Ladybirds are not only beautiful; they add tremendous value. Although they seem insignificant, they do what they are created for and they do it effectively. Similarly we as Christians, if we are totally surrendered to the guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit, will make a difference wherever we go. We will be effective in reaching the world for Jesus and fulfilling our calling on earth. Corporately we as members of the Body of Christ must be like the ladybirds. Through our prayers we must eradicate the pests that want to destroy the harvest. Jesus is coming back to harvest the fields. He is coming for a “clean” harvest, a bride without blemish!
13
real life there is a
time
for everything, and a season for every activity
under heaven...
Ecclesiastes 3:1
from the
walls & the heart
of
Jerusalem resounds a message... c a n
y o u
h e a r
i t ?
Israel is not just another country. Jerusalem is not just another city. The Jewish nation is not just another people. In the months of June and July 2006 tension heated up in the Middle East. The main parties involved: Israel, Hezbollah, Hamas and Lebanon. The result: crisis in the Middle East. Israel is at war! It is important that we as God’s children keep our eyes on the current events surrounding Israel, as many biblical end-time prophecies relate to such events and the future of Israel. In the beginning of June 2006 I was in Israel. God often speaks to me through a sequence of events, and this time it was through a spiritual journey in Israel. Join me as I share with you how I received the message, “From the walls and the heart of Jerusalem resounds a message... Can you hear it?” - Inspired by the Holy Spirit, written by Lindie Gouws -
Israel is at war. Israel, the land of the Bible. Jerusalem, the city of God, where Jesus the Messiah was crucified, where He rose again and to where He soon will return. “On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two… The Lord will be King over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and His Name the only name” (Zechariah 14:4, 9). Daily we are faced with media reports on the conflict surrounding Israel. We try to make sense of the political scenario. We refer back to God’s Word – prophecy concerning Israel, certain things that have to happen and the Day of the Lord. We sometimes refer to recent prophecy given by men and women in ministry concerning Israel and the end times. We compare where we are at to where we are going.
18
There are so many different opinions. The world says more than one thing. Then we hear in some Christian circles, “Well, even in biblical times the coming of Jesus was thought to be near and look at how long ago that was.” 2 Peter 3:4 says “This will be their argument: ‘Jesus promised to come back, did He? Then where is He? Why, as far back as anyone can remember, everything has remained exactly the same since the world was first created.’” At the same time, we hear how in some churches and among fellow believers the return of our Lord Jesus Christ is fervently expected. One thing is certain – the Word of God will never fail. These things need to take place. The many signs of the times are becoming more obvious by the day and we may not ignore them. The return of our Lord Jesus Christ is coming closer and closer every day. So when, a few weeks ago, God opened a door for me to go to Israel (literally 10 days prior to departure), I knew that He was sending me. Seated on the plane on the day we left, I asked God to open my spirit for the Holy Spirit to speak to me. I went there not for myself, but for Him. God sent me so that I could share with you through MY World what the Holy Spirit ministered to me in Israel.
WE RETURNED FROM Israel a month before the war broke out. Looking back I am amazed at God’s timing. He allowed me to be there a month before these events began to take place. A period of a month is like a millisecond on eternity’s timeline. I could have missed it had I not been listening to His prompting. This was a divine appointment. When, in view of the Middle East crisis and my trip to Israel, I realized that God had given me an assignment to share in writing what He was saying to me, my immediate reaction was, “Father, I am not qualified to do this. I am not qualified to analyse or write about the current political state of affairs in Israel or the Middle East. I cannot comment either from a political or from a social point of view.” Then the Holy Spirit ministered to me: “Write only those things which I shared with you in Israel.” This reminded me of the words in Jeremiah 1:6-9, “‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.’ But the Lord said to me: ‘Do not say, “I am a youth,” for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you,’ says the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His Hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: ‘Behold, I have put My words in your mouth…’” So as a servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, I convey what I experienced in Israel. Through the inspiration of the precious Holy Spirit and by God’s grace I share the following with you. I will only write on the places where the Holy Spirit ministered to me and where I received revelation from His Word. Firstly allow me to share with you my affinity for Israel.
MY AFFINITY FOR ISRAEL My favourite passage of Scripture has always been Romans 11:33-36. In our prayer meetings at the office I often share this passage with the MY World team. Romans 11:33-36 says, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgements, and His paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counsellor?’ ‘Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?’ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.” God’s ways are unsearchable… Through all these years I had been unaware that it would be this particular passage of Scripture that God would have me write on concerning Israel. Seven years ago, in 1999, I joined a group from the congregation I belong to on a tour of Israel. On this visit I bought two magnets that say “Shalom Israel” and “I love Jerusalem” respectively. They have been on my fridge ever since. I enjoyed that tour but never would I have thought that a few years later God would lead me into a ministry (MY World) that is based on certain verses in Revelation 21 on the New Jerusalem. My long-standing affinity for Israel and Jerusalem has been growing since the beginning of MY World. God recently blessed me with a new home situated high on a hill, and the view stretches for miles on end. Here, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, I receive a different perspective on life. Seeing the sun rise and set, looking down on people moving about and buildings being constructed, I think, “What is man that God should be mindful of him?” Yet He is, and in such intimate and awesome ways. While I was renovating this house, I had the photos of the inside back pages of each MY World issue in the foundation series mounted and hung on the wall in my
lounge, with inscriptions indicating which foundation stone each represents. I also had three of the walls in my lounge cladded with whitewashed stone, according to my personal taste and style. When I arrived in Israel this year, I was amazed to see that most of the new buildings were clad with identical stone. The Holy Spirit had inspired me to create a special place of worship, reflecting my affinity for Israel and Jerusalem! A SUDDEN CALL We left for Israel three days after I had moved into my new home, in the midst of a tight production schedule. I furthermore had to postpone three ministry engagements that were to take place during the time of our tour of Israel. I even thought to myself that perhaps I should go at a later occasion, maybe on a possible MY World tour in 2007. But seeing God open the doors showed me that it was His Will for me to go to Israel in 2006. I knew I had to obey. I asked my colleague Retha to accompany me. I knew that it would be a wonderful experience for her as she had never been to Israel. Upon our return I was intensely aware of what God had shared with me in Israel but we had not planned on publishing an article on the tour. Then we experienced a divine delay in the production of Jacinth. The ways in which production was delayed were abnormal, yet I knew that God was in control. So we simply continued production. When I saw the news headlines “Crisis in the Middle East” and “Israel at war”, I knew. God’s Hand was in the delay of production so that we could share a message from Israel. As mentioned before I am only writing on those places that were of special significance to this message.
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HAIFA
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Haifa was the first city in Israel to be bombed in July 2006. It was also one of the first places we visited on our tour. Here we visited the cave where the prophet Elijah found refuge. When I heard that Haifa had been bombed, I immediately paged to my journal entry of the day of our visit to Haifa. I was astounded when I read: “City of Haifa. Third largest city in Israel. (+/500 000 population). A beach, normal life in the natural yet in a spiritual battle. My thoughts: Do they realize the times we are living in?” When I was writing this entry, did I realize what God was saying to me? Did I realize that it was the Holy Spirit writing in and through me? I immediately showed the MY World team what I had written and started praying about the significance thereof. God had allowed me to be in Haifa and to experience a spiritual climate there that I had not, at the time, perceived to be in preparation of what He would want me to convey. I realized that it was not me writing that day, but the Holy Spirit writing His thoughts through me. I repeat: A normal life in the natural, yet a raging battle to unfold… in the natural as a result of the spiritual. Do we realize the times we are living in? ON THE WAY TO THE VALLEY OF ARMAGEDDON On the way to the Valley of Armageddon we drove past many shops displaying and selling wedding gowns. I also saw a few pole advertisements displaying photos of women in wedding gowns. This was quite significant to me and when I mentioned it to some of the other members of our tour group, they replied that they too had noticed it. It struck me that most of these wedding gowns were cream in colour – they were not pure white. I thought of the bride of Jesus Christ. Revelation 19:7, 8 says, “Let us be glad and rejoice and honour
Him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and His bride has prepared herself. She is permitted to wear the finest white linen.” When women get married in the natural, the colour of the wedding gown is a matter of personal choice. Therefore please understand that the comparison between cream and white is not applicable to a wedding in the natural; it is a spiritual analogy for the church as a whole. The bride of Christ will be adorned in the finest pure white linen. Ephesians 5:25-27 says, “… just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” To me the cream symbolized a church that is lukewarm and compromising. There on the way to the Valley of Armageddon, people were being made aware of weddings. There was an exceptional presence of wedding gowns. I could not help but wonder whether they knew the significance of it all. Do they know of the ultimate marriage that is going to take place – the marriage of Jesus and His bride? A bride in preparation, longing for the return of the Bridegroom. There on the way to the Valley of Armageddon, I prayed and asked the Holy Spirit that we as God’s children would not be found needing, that we would not be clothed in cream garments, but that we would be clothed in the purest of white, passionately awaiting the King! THE VALLEY OF ARMAGEDDON The Bible says in Revelation 16 that in the last days a mighty battle is going to take place in the Valley of Armageddon. Standing on the top of the hill overlooking this valley, brought the reality of the future of
this place home to us. In the Book of Joel this mighty battle is described. In Joel 3 we read, “‘For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgement with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land. They have cast lots for My people, have given a boy as payment for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink. Indeed, what have you to do with Me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia? Will you retaliate against Me? But if you retaliate against Me, swiftly and speedily I will return your retaliation upon your own head; because you have taken My silver and My gold, and have carried into your temples My prized possessions. Also the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem you have sold to the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their borders. Behold, I will raise them out of the place to which you have sold them, and will return your retaliation upon your own head. I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off; for the Lord has spoken.’ Proclaim this among the nations: ‘Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your ploughshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am strong.”’ Assemble and come, all you nations, and gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord. ‘Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the winepress is full, the vats overflow – for their wickedness is great.’
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that great day of God Almighty. ‘Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.’ And they gathered them together to a place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.” The commentary in the Spirit Filled Life Bible (Thomas Nelson) on this Scripture passage refers to the Battle of Armageddon as “the final end-times world war”. It further states, “Demonic spirits, under control of Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet, work deceptive miracles and manipulate the rulers of the world, causing them to gather in a great show of military strength against national Israel.” The commentary on Revelation 19:17-21, describing the Battle of Armageddon, reads, “West of Jordan, in the plain of Jezreel called Megiddo, the military forces of the Beast and False Prophet will be totally destroyed by the return of Christ… The kings of the earth will gather against national Israel in great numbers. Only Christ’s return to earth destroys them.” I could not help but wonder who the individuals would be who would make up the armies of the world to fight Israel. I could not help but think of the Israeli soldiers who would be fighting for their country. I shuddered when I thought of all the millions of people, souls! Many would be lost for eternity. I thanked God for His grace and mercy. Oh, I pray that many would come to know Jesus before that time, so that they would not be caught up in that fierce battle against Israel, but that they would be able to stand and look forward to the triumphant return of Jesus. The Valley of Armageddon is real and lying waiting for battle! This event is moving closer and closer by the day. THE SEA OF GALILEE The area surrounding the Sea of Galilee is special and beautiful. This is where Jesus spent the greatest part of His three years’
public ministry. Here I experienced peace and serenity. It is not a very large area, yet what Jesus did there is astounding. Sharing the Word at the various sites made us intensely aware of the Power and humility Jesus displayed in this special place where He performed many miracles. My thoughts: “This is such a small geographical area, yet here Jesus performed so many awesome works and miracles. You can be in a place where the Messiah, Jesus Christ, lived and performed many miracles, yet you can be spiritually blinded to it all and totally miss it. How careful and prayerful we must be not to miss the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and not to deny Him.” I was once again reminded that this was Israel, God’s country. Beautiful little purple flowers growing along the road caught my attention. This, to me, was very special. Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to pick or photograph the flowers. My thoughts: “Here in the area where Jesus lived for three years in His public ministry, grows the most beautiful little purple flower. It is the King’s royal cloak! The King is coming!” UP TO JERUSALEM On the night before we started our journey up to Jerusalem I read Matthew 5:38-42, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” And in Matthew 6:25-34 I read, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” The next day we started our journey up to Jerusalem. It was the start of Pentecost. That morning the Holy Spirit directed me to Zechariah 8, which is headed “The Lord promises to bless Jerusalem.” Zechariah 8 says, “Again the word of the Lord Almighty came to me. This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her.’ This is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain.’ This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.’ This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘It may seem marvellous to the remnant of this people at that time, but will it seem marvellous to Me?’ declares the Lord Almighty. This is what the Lord
Almighty says: ‘I will save My people from the countries of the east and the west. I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be My people and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God.’ This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘You who now hear these words spoken by the prophets who were there when the foundation was laid for the house of the Lord Almighty, let your hands be strong so that the temple may be built. Before that time there were no wages for man or beast. No one could go about his business safely because of his enemy, for I had turned every man against his neighbour. But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as I did in the past,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew. I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people. As you have been an object of cursing among the nations, O Judah and Israel, so will I save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong.’ “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Just as I had determined to bring disaster upon you and showed no pity when your fathers angered me,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘so now I have determined to do good again to Jerusalem and Judah. Do not be afraid. These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgement in your courts; do not plot evil against your neighbour, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,’ declares the Lord. Again the word of the Lord Almighty came to me. This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.’ This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, and the inhabitants of one
city will go to another and say, “Let us go at once to entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty. I myself am going.” And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty and to entreat Him.’ This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, “Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.”’” THE BAPTISMAL SITE OF JESUS On the way to Jerusalem we visited many biblical sites. A very special site was the part of the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized. This section of the Jordan is not accessible to tourists, yet for the first time in many years our tourist agency was granted permission to visit this site. Israeli soldiers accompanied us to the place of Jesus’ baptism. As we stood on the bank of the Jordan on the Israeli side, armed Jordanian soldiers were monitoring our movements from across the river. We arrived there at exactly 12:00. As I looked up I saw the sun shining directly from above. To me this was very significant. Matthew 3:13-17 says, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a Voice came from Heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” We were all deeply touched at this site and grateful to God for blessing us, a group of South Africans, with the opportunity to be there
at 12:00 during Pentecost and to experience His presence in a special way. JERUSALEM In Jerusalem we visited many places where Jesus walked and where the events leading to His crucifixion took place. The following were of especial significance to me: the Garden of Gethsemane, Caiaphas’s house, the Garden Tomb, the old city walls and the Wailing Wall. Although the Wailing Wall was one of the first places we visited in Jerusalem, I will relate my experience thereof last as this was in preparation of the message, “From the walls and the heart of Jerusalem resounds a message… Can you hear it?” THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE (MOUNT OF OLIVES) Before we left for Israel, I was asked to speak at a ladies’ breakfast. At that time I was not even aware that I would be going to Israel. The theme was “The Garden of the Beloved.” When I prayed about it, the Holy Spirit ministered to me that the Garden of the Beloved is not a romantic place as people could want to make it. We could romanticize it by thinking of birds and butterflies and beautiful flowers. But to me the Garden of the Beloved is Gethsemane. This is where my Beloved Jesus was alone and in agony, where He laid down His will for the Will of the Father. It is a place where His sweat turned into blood. Luke 22:44 says, “And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” In Gethsemane Jesus completely died to His own will. There, after an intense battle between soul and spirit, He drank the cup. Allow me the opportunity to explain to you how I was touched in the Garden of Gethsemane and what I experienced in my spirit.
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T H E O F
G A R D E N
G E T H S E M A N E
An ancient olive tree
Matthew 26:36-46 reads, “Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, ‘Sit here while I go and pray over there.’ And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, ‘My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.’ He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.’ Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your Will be done.’ And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then He came to His disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.’”
through an intense battle between His soul and His spirit on His own; where, as He was praying passionately, His sweat turned into blood. I realized that I could never truly understand what had gone through Him at that moment. While I was separated from the group for a while, I saw in my mind a picture that I am humbly sharing with you. Please bear in mind that what I am sharing with you is a personal revelation, given to me so that I might begin to understand something of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ at that moment. I imagined Jesus in the Garden, in intense, respectful conversation with His Father. A golden cup with red wine was placed in front of Jesus. He looked at it, and asked His Father to take it away from Him if possible, as it was too difficult to drink. Yet not His will, but the Will of the Father, be done. In this picture in my mind Jesus then picked up the cup and placed it aside, once again asking His Father to take away the cup. Yet not His will, but the Will of the Father be done. Jesus asked the Father a third time to take the cup away from Him, but repeated that He would submit to the Will of the Father. With such compassion and deep, deep Love, and with tears in His eyes, the Father picked up the cup and placed it before Jesus again and said, “Drink it, My Son”. At that moment in the picture in my mind (and I so long to believe that this was what actually took place) God allowed Jesus to see into eternity. God allowed Jesus to see Himself seated next to Him, the Father, at the Father’s right hand. But then… as Jesus looked further into eternity (and I also long to believe that He really saw this) a bride was coming towards Him… and that touched His Heart. His bride. Beautiful. Spotless. Focused on loving Him. Adoring Him from afar. Her eyes fixed and her heart focused only on Him! His beloved bride! Holy as He is holy. In this picture Jesus had seen you and me and that touched me deeply. I wept. In my mind’s picture, He then took the cup, drank it and said to the Father, “Thy Will be done and not My will.” Jesus rose from there completely Spirit Man. By the Power of the Holy Spirit within Him He was ready to face the Cross. CAIAPHAS’S HOUSE It was in the courtyard of Caiaphas’s house that Peter denied Jesus three times. Below the house is a cell where Jesus is said to have been held the night before His crucifixion. Mark 14:64-65 says, “… They all condemned Him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at Him; they blindfolded Him, struck Him with their fists, and said, ‘Prophesy!’ And the guards took Him and beat Him.” When I went down into this cell I took the opportunity to pray. It was as if I could feel the repentance Peter felt in his heart after realizing that he had actually denied Jesus three times. As I touched the wall against which Jesus is said to have lain, where once again He had been on His own, I realized that so often I too deny Him. As I turned to walk away, my heart was penitent – haven’t we all, like Peter, at some stage denied Him Lordship of our lives? I lingered with my hand against the wall as I once again became aware that His Love and His grace are sufficient for us. I wrote the following thoughts in my journal: “We all reject and deny Jesus at some point in our lives. It is only His grace towards us that allows us freedom in Him. Thank You, Jesus!” (On the inside of this issue’s back page is a close-up photo of the wall in the cell, accompanied by a beautiful poem written by Angela Rogers on her experience of this place during the tour).
When I walked into the Garden of Gethsemane I knew that this was going to be a very dear place to me. I saw the ancient olive trees and as I walked into the church in the Garden, the Holy Spirit touched me and I sobbed. I withdrew from the group for a moment. I was overwhelmed by intense love and passion in the spirit. Even in the bus after we had left the site, Retha allowed me some time to reflect on what she knew had been a dear moment with God. As I stood in the Garden of Gethsemane I realized that God had prepared me THE GARDEN TOMB for this experience by having me minister on “The Garden of the Beloved” – a place In the beautiful garden where we visited Jesus’ tomb I felt no sorrow. Instead I had a sense where my Beloved, Jesus, had gone of peace and victory. The tomb is empty, Jesus is risen. “The angel said to the women,
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‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay’” (Matthew 28:5-6). There I was reminded of our previous issue of MY World, Chrysoprase, and the words on the cover: “Resurrection life”. In the garden a concrete slab displaying the words “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” caught my eye. In Psalm 122:6-9 David says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.’ For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’ For the sake of the House of the Lord our God, I will seek your prosperity.” WALKING ON THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM: THE FIG TREE, THE MAN IN A WHEELCHAIR 26
We visited Israel at the beginning of their summer. We had the privilege of walking on the old city walls of Jerusalem. Although we walked at a fast pace, we were sensitive to the Holy Spirit and noticed a pomegranate tree, a carob tree (the fruit of which John the Baptist is said to have eaten) and a fig tree. That God showed me a fig tree in Jerusalem in the beginning of summer, struck me as very significant. I thought of the parable of the fig tree that Jesus taught in Luke 21:29-33, “Then He gave them this illustration: ‘Notice the fig tree, or any other tree. When the leaves come out, you know without being told that summer is near. Just so, when you see the events I’ve described taking place, you can be sure that the Kingdom of God is near. I assure you, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these events have taken place. Heaven and earth will disappear, but My words will remain forever.’”
As we came down from the walls of Jerusalem and were waiting for our tour bus, I noticed an old man in a wheelchair sitting next to a section of the old city wall. His posture was decrepit. I did not know whether he was praying, but my heart went out to him. My thoughts: “The sight of this man in his wheelchair is a reflection of a person or even a nation without Jesus.” WAILING WALL (Western Wall) The Israel Pictorial Guide and Souvenir (Palphot Ltd) describes the Wailing Wall as follows: “This has now become a meeting place for communal prayer and many public celebrations. The Western Wall is never deserted. At any hour of the day or night, winter or summer, one can always find Jews there, standing in front of the Wall in devout prayer – or placing their messages in the cracks and crevices between the stones.” This visit to the Wailing Wall was so different to my visit seven years ago on my first journey to Israel. This time I stood in front of the wall with my Best Friend, my Companion, the Holy Spirit. I noticed that the men and women are separated. They are assigned different parts of the wall to pray. Awaiting my turn to stand in front of the wall, I was deeply touched by these people’s absolute devotion to prayer. When I was standing in front of the wall, before I started to pray, the Holy Spirit prompted me to look to my left. I saw a group of women reading the Torah. They were earnestly praying to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, yet they did not recognize Jesus as the Son of God – they were still awaiting a Messiah. What I experienced at that moment can only be described as deep compassion towards the Jewish nation and sincere gratitude to God for allowing me to know Jesus. My prayer was, “Thank You God for allowing their eyes to be closed for a period of time in order for me to be saved. Thank You so much for
Your grace. I pray that one day their eyes will be opened to see that Jesus is their Messiah.” At that point I did not realize the significance of this prayer relating to the message God would give me upon return to South Africa. EILAT At the end of our tour of Israel we spent two days relaxing at Eilat, one of Israel’s prime holiday destinations. We visited the Coral World Underwater Observatory. Here motion-picture films are shown in which the audience buckles up to experience motions corresponding with what is happening on the screen, in order to make the experience as real as possible. We watched a film that created the experience of being in a submarine amidst the most spectacular underwater sea life. We experienced currents and bumped into coral ridges. When suddenly a major earthquake took place in the film, we were shaken in our chairs and some people were screaming. Though it felt so real I was thinking, “Here we are, experiencing this, yet it is not real. We are able to unbuckle ourselves from the chairs, get up and walk out of the theatre into an environment that has not been shaken.” I heard the words of Hebrews 12:26, “‘Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” This means that the things on earth will be shaken, so that only eternal things will be left.” I experienced a deep sense of reverence towards God as I realized that this was a promise from Him. I thought, “What if it were today? Would we have been ready?” We also had an opportunity to go snorkelling in the Red Sea. What an experience! This was the most spectacular sight I had ever seen in my life. The underwater life was beautiful and tranquil. As I was swimming and taking in the beauty around me, I became aware of the most awesome truth – that even there, under the water, the Holy Spirit was with me. He reminded me that nothing can
separate me from the Love of God as it is written in Romans 8:38, 39: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” OUR LAST NIGHT IN ISRAEL We spent our last night in Israel in Tel Aviv. As I sat down to read from God’s Word that evening, I knew it was the Holy Spirit who allowed me to unwittingly open my Bible on Isaiah 53. As I read it, I relived each individual moment I had had with God over the past few days. Again I prayed, “What am I that You are mindful of me, God, to meet me here once again and save the best for last?” He replied, “You are My daughter!” ISAIAH 53 “Who has believed our message and to whom has the Arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth;
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgement He was taken away. And who can speak of His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of my people He was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s Will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His Life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the Will of the Lord will prosper in His hand. After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light [of life] and be satisfied; by His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His Life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Looking back now, do you see the Bridegroom? I will forever treasure the memories of my visit to Israel in 2006. God answered my prayer of the day of our departure: that He would open my spiritual eyes to see what He wanted me to see. And He did so much more. We were continuously aware of His protection, direction and favour upon our tour group. I once more asked, “What are we God, that You should be so mindful of us?” His answer: “You are My children!” GOD’S WORD IN MY HEART During one of our prayer meetings in Israel, our pastor encouraged us to open our Bibles on our favourite passage of Scripture and to place our open Bibles over our hearts. He prayed that God would make those passages real to us. Of course I opened on Romans 11:33-36, “Oh, the
depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgements, and His paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counsellor?’ ‘Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?’ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.” That word has become a living word in my heart and only now do I realize that there the Holy Spirit was already preparing the message I will share with you from the Book of Romans. THE WORSHIP GOD SEEKS I was astounded at the simplicity of the landscape of Israel. Much of the countryside is desert, yet certain parts are fruitful. I compared it to the breathtaking natural beauty of places such as Switzerland, the Greek Islands or even South Africa. God created the whole world and all the most beautiful spots belong to Him. He could have chosen the most spectacular spot, yet He chose Israel, for to Him Israel is beautiful. There Jesus was born, not in the most lavish building of that time, but in a stable. The Holy Spirit taught me that so often the things we regard as important are of little or no value to God. God is so humble, yet so awesome in Power and Might. We should not present to Him things conceived in our minds as worship; we should present to Him worship in spirit and in truth. For only things of eternal value will stand. I could also easily have been distracted by the many decorations that have over time been placed in especially the birthplace of Jesus and one of the places where His crucifixion is believed to have taken place. But the Holy Spirit used this to teach me that when I come to a place to worship Jesus, I should focus only on Him. I must not allow anything to take my focus away from Him. “For God is Spirit, and His worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).
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T H E
W A I L I N G
W A L L
A place where Jews meet for communal prayer and many public celebrations
A SPECIAL MESSAGE... At the beginning of this article I mentioned that my visit to Israel was not for myself. God did not only touch and transform me on a personal level. When I learnt about the current war in Israel, I realized that He wanted us to share a message from His Heart. I asked the Holy Spirit to give me Scripture in confirmation of this message. He prompted me to read my favourite passage, Romans 11:33-36. I proceeded to read the entire Romans 11 and the preceding two chapters. Then I recalled once more my prayer at the Wailing Wall, “Thank you God for allowing their eyes to be closed for a period of time in order for me to be saved. Thank You so much for Your grace. I pray that one day their eyes will be opened to see that Jesus is their Messiah.” Now I fully understood that what I had experienced at the Wailing Wall did not flow forth from my own thoughts or emotions. It was the Holy Spirit placing into my spirit a message from God. FROM THE WALLS AND THE HEART OF JERUSALEM RESOUNDS A MESSAGE… CAN YOU HEAR IT? In its introduction to the Book of Romans the Life Application Study Bible (Tyndale) says, “Speaking directly to his Jewish brothers and sisters, Paul shares his concern for them and explains how they fit into God’s plan (9:1-11:12). God has made the way for Jews and Gentiles [through Jesus] to be united in the body of Christ; both groups can praise God for His wisdom and Love (11:13-36).” The NIV Thematic Reference Bible (Zondervan) in its introduction to the Book of Romans says, “Chapters 9-11 are Paul’s passionate struggle with the perplexing fact that most of the Jews have not come to faith in Christ.” Yet there is so much more to this section. It speaks to all believers and is a partial
revelation of a mystery of God. Please read the entire section of Scripture. It might seem long, but every verse is relevant.
ROMANS 9 ISRAEL’S PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE GOD’S SELECTION OF ISRAEL “In the presence of Christ, I speak with utter truthfulness – I do not lie – and my conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm that what I am saying is true. My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed – cut off from Christ! – if that would save them. They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s special children. God revealed His glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave His law to them. They have the privilege of worshipping Him and receiving His wonderful promises. Their ancestors were great people of God, and Christ Himself was a Jew as far as His human nature is concerned. And He is God, who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. “Well then, has God failed to fulfil His promise to the Jews? No, for not everyone born into a Jewish family is truly a Jew! Just the fact that they are descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, ‘Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,’ though Abraham had other children, too. This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. It is the children of the promise who are considered to be Abraham’s children. For God had promised, ‘Next year I will return, and Sarah will have a son.’ This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he grew up, he married Rebekah, who gave birth to twins. But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she
received a message from God. (This message proves that God chooses according to His own plan, not according to our good or bad works.) She was told, ‘The descendants of your older son will serve the descendants of your younger son.’ In the words of the Scriptures, ‘I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.’ “What can we say? Was God being unfair? Of course not! For God said to Moses, ‘I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.’ So receiving God’s promise is not up to us. We can’t get it by choosing it or working hard for it. God will show mercy to anyone He chooses. For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, ‘I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying My Power in you, and so that My fame might spread throughout the earth.’ So you see, God shows mercy to some just because He wants to, and He chooses to make some people refuse to listen. “Well then, you might say, ‘Why does God blame people for not listening? Haven’t they simply done what He made them do?’ No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to criticize God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who made it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? God has every right to exercise His judgement and His Power, but He also has the right to be very patient with those who are the objects of His judgement and are fit only for destruction. He also has the right to pour out the riches of His glory upon those He prepared to be the objects of His mercy – even upon us, whom He selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles. “Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, ‘Those who were not
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My people, I will now call My people. And I will love those whom I did not love before.’ And, ‘Once they were told, “You are not My people.” But now He will say, “You are children of the living God.”’ Concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out, ‘Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand on the seashore, only a small number will be saved. For the Lord will carry out His sentence upon the earth quickly and with finality.’ And Isaiah said in another place, ‘If the Lord Almighty had not spared a few of us, we would have been wiped out as completely as Sodom and Gomorrah.’ ISRAEL’S UNBELIEF
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“Well then, what shall we say about these things? Just this: The Gentiles have been made right with God by faith, even though they were not seeking Him. But the Jews, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law and being good instead of by depending by faith. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. God warned them of this in the Scriptures when He said, ‘I am placing a Stone in Jerusalem that causes people to stumble, and a Rock that makes them fall. But anyone who believes in Him will not be disappointed.’
ROMANS 10 “Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is that the Jewish people might be saved. I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with Himself. Instead, they are clinging to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. They won’t go along with God’s way. For Christ has accomplished the whole purpose of the law. All who believe in Him are made right
with God. SALVATION IS FOR EVERYONE “For Moses wrote that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. But the way of getting right with God through faith says, ‘You don’t need to go to Heaven’ (to find Christ and bring Him down to help you). And it says, ‘You don’t need to go to the place of the dead’ (to bring Christ back to life again). Salvation that comes from trusting Christ – which is the message we preach – is already within easy reach. In fact, the Scriptures say, ‘The message is close at hand; it is on your lips and in you heart.’ “For if you confess with you mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, ‘Anyone who believes in Him will not be disappointed.’ Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They all have the same Lord who generously gives His riches to all who ask for them. For ‘Anyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.’ “But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? This is what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ Yet faith comes from listening to this message of good news – the Good News about Christ. But what about the Jews? Have they
actually heard the message? Yes, they have: ‘The message of God’s creation has gone out to everyone, and its words to all the world.’ But did the people of Israel really understand? Yes, they did, for even in the time of Moses, God had said, ‘I will rouse your jealousy by blessing other nations. I will make you angry by blessing the foolish Gentiles.’ And later Isaiah spoke boldly for God: ‘I was found by people who were not looking for Me. I showed Myself to those who were not asking for Me.’ But regarding Israel, God said, ‘All day long I opened My arms to them, but they kept disobeying Me and arguing with Me.’
ROMANS 11 GOD’S MERCY ON ISRAEL “I ask, then, has God rejected His people, the Jews? Of course not! Remember that I myself am a Jew, a descendant of Abraham, and a member of the tribe of Benjamin. No, God has not rejected His own people, whom He chose from the very beginning. Do you remember what the Scriptures say about this? Elijah the prophet complained to God about the people of Israel and said, ‘Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars. I alone am left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.’ And do you remember God’s reply? He said, ‘You are not the only one left. I have seven thousand others who have never bowed down to Baal!’ It is the same today, for not all the Jews have turned away from God. A few are being saved as a result of God’s kindness in choosing them. And if they are saved by God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s wonderful kindness would not be what it really is – free and undeserved. So this is the situation: Most of the Jews have not found the favour of God they are looking for so earnestly. A few have – the ones God has
chosen – but the rest were made unresponsive. As the Scriptures say, ‘God has put them into a deep sleep. To this very day He has shut their eyes so they do not see, and closed their ears so they do not hear.’ David spoke of this same thing when he said, ‘Let their bountiful table become a snare, a trap that makes them think all is well. Let their blessings cause them to stumble. Let their eyes go blind so they cannot see, and let their backs grow weaker and weaker.’ “Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! His purpose was to make His salvation available to the Gentiles, and then the Jews would be jealous and want it for themselves. Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the Jews turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when the Jews finally accept it. I am saying all of this especially for you Gentiles. God has appointed me as the apostle to the Gentiles. I lay great stress on this, for I want to find a way to make the Jews want what you Gentiles have, and in that way I might save some of them. For since the Jews’ rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, how much more wonderful their acceptance will be. It will be life for those who were dead! And since Abraham and the other patriarchs were holy, their children will also be holy. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too. “But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree, some of the Jews, have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, were grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in God’s rich nourishment of His special olive tree. But you must be careful not to brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. Remember, you are
just a branch, not the root. ‘Well,’ you may say, ‘those branches were broken off to make room for me.’ Yes, but remember – those branches, the Jews, were broken off because they didn’t believe God, and you are there because you do believe. Don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen. For if God did not spare the branches He put there in the first place, He won’t spare you either. Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe to those who disobeyed, but kind to you as you continue to trust in His kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off. And if the Jews turn from their unbelief, God will graft them back into the tree again. He has the Power to do it. For if God was willing to take you who were, by nature, branches from a wild olive tree and graft you into His own good tree – a very unusual thing to do – He will be far more eager to graft the Jews back into the tree where they belong. GOD’S MERCY IS FOR EVERYONE “I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud and start bragging. Some of the Jews have hard hearts, but this will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to Christ. And so all Israel will be saved. Do you remember what the prophets said about this? ‘A Deliverer will come from Jerusalem, and He will turn Israel from all ungodliness. And then I will keep My covenant with them and take away their sins.’ Many of the Jews are now enemies of the Good News. But this has been to your benefit, for God has given His gifts to you Gentiles. Yet the Jews are still His chosen people, because of His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For God’s gifts and His call can never be withdrawn. Once, you Gentiles were rebels against God, but when the Jews refused His mercy, God was merciful to you instead. And now,
in the same way, the Jews are the rebels, and God’s mercy has come to you. But someday they, too, will share in God’s mercy. For God has imprisoned all people in their own disobedience so He could have mercy on everyone. Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are His riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His methods! For who can know what the Lord is thinking? Who knows enough to be His counsellor? And who could ever give Him so much that He would have to pay it back? For everything comes from Him; everything exists by His Power and is intended for His glory. To Him be the glory evermore. Amen.” THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ROMANS 9-11 The Bible is God’s Word, written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is eternal for time past, present and to come. It is the same precious Holy Spirit who helps us to read and understand God’s Word and who brings it to life within us. There in Israel, while I was standing at the Wailing Wall, the Holy Spirit began to bring the message of Romans 9-11 to life within me. I will now share this message with you. 1. GOD CHOSE A NATION, ISRAEL, AS HIS PEOPLE In Ezekiel 20:5, 6 we read, “… and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On the day I chose Israel, I swore with uplifted Hand to the descendants of the house of Jacob and revealed Myself to them in Egypt. With uplifted Hand I said to them, ‘I am the Lord your God.’” On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands.” Psalm 135:4 says, “For the Lord has chosen Jacob to be His own, Israel to be His treasured possession.”
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2. GOD SENT HIS SON JESUS, AS SAVIOUR TO THE WORLD John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son [Jesus], that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
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Sin entered the world through man’s disobedience. In its commentary on Romans 3:25 the Spirit Filled Student Bible (Thomas Nelson) explains, “Sin separates us from God. His justice demands that a payment be made for all wrongdoing. “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” [Exodus 21:24] represents this holy principle. God provided the Blood of Jesus as the payment for sin so that we might be made right with Him and again have access to His presence. God’s judgement was fully put on Christ, the blameless Sacrifice, for all sins both past and present. It is through faith in the Blood of Jesus Christ that mankind is justified in God’s eyes. The Blood of Christ is now and forever the only means by which we may gain right relationship with the Holy God.” 3. Not all of Israel came to faith in Jesus; many Jews rejected Him as Messiah In Romans 9:30-33 Paul says, “Well then, what shall we say about these things? Just this: The Gentiles have been made right with God by faith even though they were not seeking Him. But the Jews, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law and being good instead of by depending by faith. They stumbled over the great Rock in their path. God warned them of this in the Scriptures when He said, ‘I am placing a Stone in Jerusalem that causes people to
stumble, and a Rock that makes them fall. But anyone who believes in Him will not be disappointed.’” Paul points out in Romans 11 that not all Jews rejected Jesus as Messiah. Paul himself was a Jew and so too nearly all the other early Christians. He emphasizes that God chose the Jewish nation (“His own people”) through whom – in Jesus – He would bring salvation to the world. 4. Although Israel was God’s chosen people, through salvation in Jesus Christ all people (Jews and Gentiles) could be members of God’s family In Ephesians 2:11-13 Paul writes, “Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders by birth. You were called ‘the uncircumcised ones’ by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from God’s people, Israel, and you did not know the promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you belong to Christ Jesus. Though you once were far away from God, now you have been brought near to Him because of the Blood of Christ.” Paul further writes in verses 18-19, “Now all of us, both Jews and Gentiles, may come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us. So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.” Paul continues in Ephesians 3:6, “And this is the secret plan: The Gentiles have an equal share with the Jews in all the riches inherited by God’s children…” The commentary on Ephesians 3:5-6 in the Life Application Study Bible (Tyndale)
says, “God’s plan was not revealed to previous generations, not because God wanted to keep something from His people, but because He would reveal it to everyone in His perfect timing. God planned to have Jews and Gentiles comprise one body, the church. It was known in the Old Testament that the Gentiles would receive salvation (Isaiah 49:6); but it was never revealed in the Old Testament that all Gentile and Jewish believers would become equal in the body of Christ. Yet this equality was accomplished when Jesus destroyed the ‘wall of hostility’ and created ‘one new person’ (Ephesians 2:14,15).” Let’s take another look at the Book of Romans. In Romans 10: 9-13 Paul says, “For if you confess with you mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, ‘Anyone who believes in Him will not be disappointed.’ Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They all have the same Lord who generously gives His riches to all who ask for them. For ‘Anyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.’” 5. Israel’s rejection of Jesus as Messiah – hardness of heart in part Romans 11:25 says, “I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud and start bragging. Some of the Jews have hard hearts, but this will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to Christ.” The commentary in the Spirit Filled Life Student Bible (Thomas Nelson) says, “Israel’s rejection is temporary, until all those who are going to be saved from among the Gentiles come to Jesus Christ.
Then salvation will come to a larger number of Jews in the same way it has come to people for centuries, and that is responding by faith to the message of Jesus Christ.” According to the commentary in the Life Application Study Bible (Tyndale), “The Jews’ identity as a people won’t be discarded. God chose the nation of Israel, and He has never rejected it. He also chose the church, through Jesus Christ, and He will never reject it either. This does not mean, of course, that all Jews or all church members will be saved. It is possible to be Jewish or to belong to a church without ever responding in faith. But just because some people have rejected Christ does not mean that God stops working with either Israel or the church. He continues to offer salvation freely to all.” 6. “We want what they have… Jesus Christ the Messiah” In Romans 11:11-25 Paul urges all Christians to live in such a way that it will make the Jewish nation jealous to also have the fullness of Jesus Christ. Verse 11 says, “Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! His purpose was to make His salvation available to the Gentiles, and then the Jews would be jealous and want it for themselves.” The commentary in the Spirit Filled Student Bible (Thomas Nelson) says, “Israel’s unbelief has opened the door of opportunity for the Gentiles. God’s purpose is that when unbelieving Jews see many Gentiles turn to Christ they will become jealous and will repent and come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. God has planned in the future that there will be a massive ingathering of Jewish people as they come to believe in Christ and are reconciled to God. This future revival of faith among the Jewish people is called ‘their fullness’ [Romans 11:12] or ‘their acceptance’ (Romans 11:15), and their being grafted into the olive tree (Romans 11:23, 24).”
7. Someone needs to deliver the message It is God’s Heart that all people will hear the message of the Good News and receive Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour. “The Lord isn’t really being slow about His promise to return, as some people think. No, He is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so He is giving more time for everyone to repent. But the Day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief” (2 Peter 3:9, 10). Paul understood that and a longing was created in his heart. “Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is that the Jewish people might be saved” (Romans 10:1). In the times we are living in, it is vitally important that we be willing to share the message of Jesus with as many as we can, irrespective of culture or nationality. As God’s children we need to take God’s message of salvation to others so that they can respond to the Good News. Not only must we take it, we must also live it. “But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’” (Romans 10:14, 15).
- “First, the Bible calls us to honour the fact that since they were the national avenue by which Messianic blessing has come to mankind, ‘They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s special children. God revealed His glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave His law to them. They have the privilege of worshipping Him and receiving His wonderful promises. Their ancestors were great people of God, and Christ Himself was a Jew as far as His human nature is concerned. And He is God, who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen’ (Romans 9:4,5). - “There should be a duty to… ‘pray’ with sincere passion for them, ‘Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is that the Jewish people might be saved’ (Romans 10:1). - “And [there should be a duty] to be as ready to ‘bear witness’ to any Jew as graciously and sensitively as we would to any other human being, ‘For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes - Jews first and
THE COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 11:19-24 IN THE SPIRIT FILLED LIFE BIBLE (THOMAS NELSON) SAYS, “… THERE IS ONLY ONE BIBLICAL CHRISTIAN’S
VIEW
CONCERNING
ATTITUDE
JEWISH PEOPLE.
TOWARD
THE THE
also Gentiles. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in His sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a rigtheous person has life”’ (Romans 1:16,17).”
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from the
walls & the heart
of
Jerusalem resounds a message... c a n
y o u
h e a r
i t ?
- The man seated in his wheelchair, facing the ancient wall of Jerusalem See the symbol of a nation or a person without Jesus!
- Walking on the walls of Jerusalem
Next to the ancient walls of Jerusalem a fig tree, a pomegranate tree and a carob tree are peacefully growing, clearly showing the signs of the beginning of summer in Israel.
“‘And there will be strange events in the skies – signs in the sun, moon, and stars. And down here on earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. The courage of many people will falter because of the fearful fate they see coming upon the earth, because the stability of the very heavens will be broken up. Then everyone will see the Son of Man arrive on the clouds with Power and great glory. So when all these things begin to happen, stand straight and look up, for your salvation is near!’ Then He gave them this illustration: ‘Notice the fig tree, or any other tree. When the leaves come out, you know without being told that summer is near. Just so, when you see the events I’ve described taking place, you can be sure that the Kingdom of God is near. I assure you, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these events have taken place. Heaven and earth will disappear, but My words will remain forever.’” (Luke 21:25-33, Jesus telling His disciples about His return). “Jesus shouted to the crowds, ‘If you trust Me, you are really trusting God who sent Me. For when you see Me, you are seeing the One who sent Me. I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in Me will no longer remain in the darkness. If anyone hears Me and doesn’t obey Me, I am not his judge – for I have come to save the world and not to judge it. But all who reject Me and My message will be judged at the Day of Judgement by the truth I have spoken. I don’t speak on My own authority. The Father who sent Me gave Me His own instructions as to what I should say. And I know His instructions lead to Eternal Life; so I say whatever the Father tells Me to say!” (John 12:44-50).
- At the heart of Jerusalem, the Garden Tomb
In the garden where our Messiah Jesus was laid to rest, only to be resurrected to life, lies a message displayed on a concrete slab: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem”.
O child of God, grafted into His olive tree by grace... pray for the peace of Jerusalem !
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photography: liezl du preez
silver rain
During the month of July this year, an international television network broadcast a campaign titled “Africa, a continent of possibilities”, focusing on the possibilities and future of South Africa and Africa. When asked about the special focus on our continent, one of the interviewees stated, “Africa has a story. It has to be told. And the time is now!” The eyes of the world are on Africa and specifically South Africa. What do they see? Do they see people on fire for God? Do they see a continent ablaze - shining His light into the world? Those who have an ear, let them hear the Spirit of God calling! Three South African women, daughters of God, speak with one heart, one voice... one purpose. out of a few
A r a i n ... frican
“OUT OF A FEW ENTERS THE AFRICAN RAIN”
Lindie Gouws (Founder: MY World)
I returned from Israel on Friday the 9th of June 2006. As I woke up the next morning, I clearly heard the Holy Spirit speak the words: “Out of a few enters the African rain”. He then showed me a vision of the African continent from above. Silver rain was pouring down from Heaven onto Africa. When I prayed and asked God for the meaning of the vision, the Holy Spirit ministered to me by saying: “I am coming to redeem Africa back to Me!” Whenever God gives me a word, I wait upon Him to confirm the word through Scripture. At first I did not understand how “out of” a “few” will “enter” African rain; however, I knew that it was God speaking to me. Some of those I shared the word with, also asked me about the meaning of “out of a few”. I replied that I could explain it to the best of my understanding, but that I knew without a doubt that God had said, “Out of a few enters the African rain.” My initial understanding was that there would be people across our nation who would answer God’s call to be willing, available and obedient and by their responding to His call, He would redeem Africa.
When I started to write this message, I was very careful to only write that which God meant with the word “Out of a few enters the African rain.” I earnestly prayed to Him to guide me. Whenever I write, I use more than one Bible translation. I picked up the Bible that always accompanies me when I travel, to look for a specific passage. I opened it on a place kept by my marker - Matthew 9. I immediately noticed the heading of verses 35-38, “The workers are few”. When I read this well-known passage I was almost speechless. “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.’” In these verses I found the full meaning of “Out of a few enters…!” Out of: “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out…”; a few: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”; enters: “…to send out workers into His harvest field”. I understood clearly what the Holy Spirit had spoken to me. There will be willing, available and obedient vessels of God out of whom will come forth the fruit of answering the specific call on their lives. Even while functioning in individual groups, through being submitted to and led by the Holy Spirit the body of Christ will rise with a united purpose and voice! As these people step out, God will allow that which He had deposited into their lives up to this point, to flow forth and flow out. Thus God will use them and the harvest will come in. It is time for the body of Christ in South Africa and the continent of Africa to arise with one heart, one voice, one purpose… to win souls for the Kingdom of God!
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Afrraiicna. n. . out of a few
enters the
JOHN 4:1-26 - A SAMARITAN WOMAN MEETS HER MESSIAH “Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples) He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria. “So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
“A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink.’ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, ‘How is it that You being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?’ For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you This word took me to two passages of Scripture: Psalm 51 and John 4. knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give Me a drink,” you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.’ PSALM 51 - DAVID’S PRAYER OF REPENTANCE The Holy Spirit reminded me of another word He had given me a short while ago, “Behold, I am doing a new thing. I will create in you a clean heart and renew the Right Spirit within you.”
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“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned. And done this evil in Your sight – that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your Face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. “Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise. Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.”
“The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?’ Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband’. “Jesus said to her, ‘You have well said, “I have no husband,” for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband: in that you spoke truly.’ The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.’ “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’ “The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When He comes, He will tell us all things.’ “Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’”
I compared the continent of Africa to the woman in this passage. For decades, some of the people of Africa and even South Africa have been giving themselves spiritually to various beliefs and religions, as the woman at the well did to many “husbands”. They have been worshipping gods other than God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. When these people are then presented with the Truth – Jesus – they do not recognize Him. From Psalm 51 it is clear that David understood the importance of repentance. He asked God to cleanse him from all the sins he had ever committed and was even born into, and to deliver him from the guilt of bloodshed. He asked God to create within him a clean heart and to renew a steadfast spirit. He understood that the presence of the precious Holy Spirit was vital in a believer’s life. He acknowledged that God seeks the heart of man and that God would not turn away from a repentent heart. As believers in South Africa and Africa we need to repent not only on our own behalves, but also on behalf of others and even our forefathers, for any sin committed or injustice done knowingly or unknowingly. When God sees the truly repentent hearts of His children, He will hear from Heaven. David said, “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart – these, O God, You will not despise.” Repentance is crucial to a “new thing”. 2 Chronicles 7:14, 15 says, “… if My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My Face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now My Eyes will be open and My Ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.” In light of the above Scripture passage, the Holy Spirit’s words “Behold, I am doing a new thing. I will create in you a clean heart and renew the Right Spirit within you”, imply that He has heard the many in our nation who have already come before Him in repentance and sought His Face for themselves, for others and for our nation: “… then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land…” He has heard from Heaven! He says, “Behold, I am doing a new thing.” By the Holy Spirit, who is all-present, all-powerful and all-knowing, a clean heart is being created within us in order for the Right Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to be renewed within us. We have to persevere in prayer to the only God of Africa – God the Father, the Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God promises that He will open His Eyes and Ears to it. “Now My Eyes will be open and My Ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place” (2 Chronicles 7:15).
silver rain
HOW THE SCRIPTURE PASSAGES APPLY TO “BEHOLD, I AM DOING A NEW THING. I WILL RENEW THE RIGHT SPIRIT WITHIN YOU”
I compare our prayer lives to the water Jesus asked for from the woman at the well. Our prayer lives need to be constant communication with Him and seeking first His Kingdom in all we do.
The woman at the well did not recognize Jesus as Messiah and could give Him no water because she had no vessel. When we accept Jesus as our Saviour and allow our vessels – our bodies - to be temples of His Spirit, the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”) the water that we receive from the Word will become in us “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). Then we will be able to present to Jesus water before He even asks. This water will be pure prayer and worship “in Spirit and in truth” flowing back to Jesus. Jesus said to the woman at the well, “… the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” Only when we are surrendered to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, will we produce Spirit-filled worship. Now is the hour to surrender all to the Holy Spirit. In the previous issue of MY World I wrote, “We have to become one – Jesus prayed for it. And to be one, we need to lay down our differences… that cause division. When the Holy Spirit of Truth, the Word of God, is in control all false doctrines, beliefs and manmade structures will come down. We will be united and He will make us one.”
Be ready to be part of “out of a few enters the African rain”
God – and God alone – will receive the honour for doing the new thing – creating within us a clean heart and renewing His Spirit, the Holy Spirit’s presence within us. Now God is looking at our continent and our nation to answer a call!
As for all who will respond to God’s call to be willing, available and obedient: pray continuously and allow everything you do to be an act of worship in “spirit and truth”… Be ready to be part of “out of a few enters the African rain”. In John 4:35 Jesus said, “Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”
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“South Africa, turn back to God!” God desires for South Africa to return to Him. He is waiting with His Arms wide open, ready to offer forgiveness, longing for the people of South Africa to turn back to Him and repent of sin. Now is the time to return to Him. God is using people, especially women from various backgrounds, to spread this urgent message. words: ena du plessis, retha fick
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photography: liezl du preez
ONE NIGHT IN 2002 Elza Meyer, minister at the Dutch Reformed Church Moreleta Park in Pretoria, had a visitation from God. “God spoke to me in an audible Voice,” Elza recalls. “This had never happened to me before, nor has it happened since. It was as if God was in our room that night. He instructed me to tell the people of South Africa to turn back to Him. ‘But they will not be able to hear me,’ I replied. ‘My voice is too soft.’ ‘I am going to give you a voice,’ God answered. ‘I want you to announce it.’ I knew then that I couldn’t keep quiet any longer. I uttered only one sentence: ‘South Africa, turn back to God!’ I could see how the sound waves resonated in the Drakensberg and over the Swartland. Farmers harvesting the fields looked up. In small towns I saw people running out of the shops to listen. Everybody listened.”
spoke to me again. He told me that He had gone from place to place in South Africa to look where He could bring revival. He could not find a place, because structures and systems were regarded more important than Him. People had kept Him out. God told me that He had now decided to bring revival through women. For this purpose He needed pure women.”
In 2005 God revealed Himself to Elza again at a women’s camp. “God revealed Himself to us in a way we had not experienced before,” she says. “During the course of the camp we discussed the different facets of the tabernacle. That specific evening we discussed the Holy of Holies – the part of the tabernacle that signified God’s presence. When we left the hall we saw that it was covered in a cloud. We could see the stars; the cloud was only surrounding the hall. The women knelt down in the cloud to pray. At 00:30 the cloud was still hanging over the hall.” Elza confirms that many breakthroughs occurred subsequently. As far as she knows several women who were battling to fall pregnant have conceived in the meantime.
This message was indeed sent all over South Africa! On the 16th and 17th of June 2006 just over three thousand women from all over the country attended the Hadassah Conference in Pretoria. At the conference many women discovered and rediscovered Jesus as their First Love. They were offered the opportunity to turn back to God. After the conference these women returned home refreshed, renewed and touched by the Love of God. Encouraged by their newly found freedom they were eager to cultivate a love relationship with the Lover of their souls and to spread the message. “You see, the life of Esther (Hadassah) demonstrates that the influence you have because you are close to the King’s Heart, should not be used for yourself but for your people, your country, your nation,” Elza explains.
“The Monday morning after the camp I was very tired,” Elza recalls. “While I was still lying in bed, God
Hereafter God instructed Elza to arrange a women’s conference for the third week of June 2006. “We knew that the conference should be called the Hadassah Conference,” she says. “Hadassah is the Hebrew name for Esther. When I started studying the life of Hadassah, I realized that in 414 BC, on the day that we know as the 25th of June, messengers were sent out in the Kingdom of Ahasuerus to tell the Jews that they were permitted to protect themselves on the day Haman planned to wipe them out. When I read this, I felt God was saying that in the third week of June He wanted to send messengers out all over South Africa to say: ‘God’s protection is on the way – salvation, redemption is on the way.’”
When Elza and her team started to plan the Esther Conference for 2007 they felt led to hold the conference in the month of March. They then realized that the date in 473 BC on which Haman planned for the Jews to be wiped out, corresponded with the 7th of March in our calendar year.
“Suid-Afrika, draai terug na God!”
(God intervened in the plans of Haman through Esther.) They proceeded to arrange the Esther Conference for the weekend of the 9th and 10th of March! Shortly after this planning session an acquaintance told Elza that he had heard they were planning an Esther Conference. He asked her whether she knew that the most appropriate time for an Esther Conference was the first week of March. It was at this time that the Jews celebrated the Feast of Purim, commemorating that they were freed from the death penalty that had been announced over them. “I realized that the Lord was doing something significant,” says Elza. “He is sending out people all over South Africa to tell them that the death penalty the enemy had in mind for South Africa and Africa is cancelled. He is going to put South Africa in a position where all will receive new life. “He is busy moulding His bride’s character and purifying her,” Elza further explains. “It is all about God and us. Women need to realize that it’s not about what we do for God but what we are before Him. He longs for us to be willing to turn to Him and to allow Him to purify our thoughts, motives, ambitions, dreams, passions, choices and emotions and to dedicate these to Him. What is important, is a love relationship with Him – to allow Him to shine His presence on every facet of our lives. As He reveals Himself in our lives, we will realize how self-centred we really are. Even our Bible study and prayer time revolve around ourselves. God wants to take His rightful place in our lives. God is not concerned about our strategies and the things we are busy changing and creating. He wants to fill our hearts and lives with a burning passion for Him. He can only do this when we take time from our busy schedules to spend in His presence.” Elza stresses the role of the church in this process. “God is busy breaking down the walls of the church,” she says. “Until now we have been trying to draw people to the church. The time has come to take the church to the people.” She feels that spiritual integrity is an important key. “There is no more space for empty words,” she says. “Nor is there a place for clinging to outdated ways of doing things. We must move swiftly with the Holy Spirit, obeying uncompromisingly. This is not a burden – it is freedom, it is a delight, it is a relationship, it is a journey.”
“ARISE AFRICA for your light has come!” words: ena du plessis, retha fick
photography: liezl du preez
God wants to restore Africa. He is urgently calling its people to repent and return to Him. He wants to give the continent back what it has lost and even more. To accomplish this He is looking for people who are willing to be used by Him. The message is clear: “Arise Africa for your light has come!”
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God instructed Linda Gobodo, founding pastor of His Church Kingdom Ministries in Sandton, Gauteng to spread this message: “The mandate is to go to every province in South Africa and every region and nation in Africa, declaring that God is going to restore the continent.” He began to speak to her about restoration in 1999, when He told her that He was going to restore the church and the continent. At an African House of Prayer conference in 2000, He gave this same message through prophecy to the entire group in attendance. “That day He asked for three types of people - burden bearers, couriers of His glory and channels of wealth. Burden bearers are people who are going to carry the burden of this prophecy and cry out to Him until it is fulfilled, couriers of His glory are people who are willing to carry His glory and channels of wealth are people who are going to make finances available for this work. “In August 2000, our church held a women’s conference to bring this message to women. From then on, I had the release to share this message wherever I go to preach and to call people to make themselves available as burden bearers, couriers of His glory and channels of wealth.” On the 17th of April 2001 they held an African Leadership Summit. God had told Linda two years before, not only the date on which this Summit had to be held, but also which speakers should be invited. Moreover He had said that this conference would be about the restoration of Africa. At the end of 2002, God started sending Linda out to specific places. “He said that He wanted me to go and light fires of restoration and that He would be with me. He gave me a strategy – to contact people I know in the church at the various places He sent me to. He told me to go, deliver the message and leave. So I did. He sent me to Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, Malawi, the DRC, Nigeria, and to every province in South
Africa. I went and delivered the message. They listened and said, ‘This is God’ and they ran with it.” Besides following this strategy, Linda wrote to various people in positions of governmental authority to explain the message and to ask for their support. “I told them about the mandate upon my life and that I was going to go to the African nations to spread this message. I introduced myself by sending all of them a letter and a copy of my book Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. “In 2004 the Lord said He wanted me to go to the Eastern Cape, the land of the tombs of my forefathers, and take this message to the Premier.” The Premier, Mrs. Nosimo Balindlela, who had committed to lead the Eastern Cape Province under the Hand of God, was so encouraged by Linda’s book that she agreed to meet with her. “So I delivered the message that God is going to restore the Eastern Cape, South Africa and the continent of Africa. She responded that she had been waiting for a message of this nature. ‘I commit to do whatever God says,’ she said. God reminded us that there is no restoration without repentance. He said that the people had sinned against Him and He instructed the church to lead repentance for the sins of the Province. So we worked for the whole of 2005 to prepare for a day of thanksgiving, repentance and reconciliation at Skenjane Hall in Bisho on the 16th of December 2005. On that occasion a group of about three hundred people repented to God and to one another and Premier Balindlela dedicated the province to Jesus Christ. The Premier furthermore decided to dedicate the 17th of December 2006 to the Lord as a day of thanksgiving. She wants to tell the nation how good God has been to her and to the province. “In November of 2005 God told me that He would use the Eastern Cape and Lesotho as models of His restoration. The first time I went to Lesotho I wrote to one of the intercessors I knew and she arranged for me to meet the queen mother. The queen mother was an intercessor who felt a burden for the restoration of Lesotho and unity in the church in Lesotho. She had been fasting and praying for 15 years, trusting God for a breakthrough. When she received my letter, she said that that was what she had been waiting for all those years. She had repented for the sins of Lesotho. She had called the government and they had had a day of repentance before I came. On my visit to the palace, she told me that God had prepared a way for me.” The outcome of this meeting was that Linda returned to Lesotho for a time of repentance at the Lesotho Convention Centre between the
29th and 31st of May 2003 in Maseru. “Everybody cried and repented,” Linda remembers. “Businesses repented, government repented, the church repented. Then a word came forth at that meeting. The Lord said that just as He had protected Lesotho from colonization many years before by telling the people to hide in the mountain, He was again calling them to the mountain – this time to pray. He told a group of intercessors to go to the highest mountain in the lowlands, the highest mountain in the midlands and the highest peak in Lesotho, which is also the highest peak in Southern Africa.” After completion of the first two climbs on the 9th of July and 10th of October 2005 respectively, the intercessors invited Linda along for the climb of the highest mountain, Thabana Ntlenyana, which was scheduled for the 12th of January 2006. “They told me that God was saying that I had to come and declare the restoration of Africa on top of that mountain,” Linda recalls. Never having been fond of sport or outdoor activities, she testifies that God supernaturally enabled her to complete the five-hour climb to the top of the mountain. “When we stepped on that mountain we wept,” she says. “I saw God in a way I had never seen Him before. There is no way that I could have walked up that mountain except through His Power. We had a service. We prayed, rejoiced and celebrated the Lord. I declared the breakthrough and restoration over Southern Africa and all of Africa.” Linda paid a price for making this declaration. While descending the mountain, she experienced an intense spiritual attack on her life. “When I had been walking for nine hours in total”, she remembers, “my body couldn’t carry on any more. My heart was getting faint. Satan was telling me that I was going to die there – then I realized that it was an attack. I started calling on the Lord.” Although it was already dark, a woman noticed that Linda was just about to faint. The woman reached out to catch her. Linda later learnt that this woman had known she had to be part of the trip because God had told her that there would be spiritual warfare, almost to the point of death. “When she noticed my condition she knew what was going on,” Linda says, “so we prayed.” God gave the victory through the spiritual and physical support of her fellow intercessors, He demonstrated His faithfulness and carried her through. Linda has no doubt that God will also be faithful to His promise of restoration. “God is going to restore Africa,” she says. “He is going to do it through us and we need to be available. This restoration is not something that you want to hear about or read about. You want to be actively involved, you want to be part of it.”
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for africa words: retha fick
photography: liezl du preez
words. It is a place where passionate love for God evolves in decision making and action. It is there where worship becomes a lifestyle; where justice runs down like water and righteousness is like a mighty stream. It is the place of obedience. Gospel artist, worship leader, evangelist, producer and writer Louis Brittz mobilizes thousands to find this place. the globe are being saved and countless answer the call to follow Jesus to the poor, the needy and the lost.
something louder than SONG...
LOUIS (37) HAS RECORDED 10 CD’s containing mostly his own songs in both Afrikaans and English. Performing close to 100 shows per annum, Louis finds great joy leading people to the Cross of Jesus and to experiencing the presence of God. His heart’s passion, however, is to challenge Christians to get out of their comfort zones and become involved in the lives of the weak and the marginalized. “To be in God’s presence in a time of worship is good and offers comfort, but if worshippers are not taken from there to being challenged to a life of obedience, then the most important thing about worship gets lost,” says Louis. “As we read in Amos 5:22-24, if worship doesn’t flow out as a river of righteousness, it is empty and it does not please God. When we sign up for Christianity we sign for a lifetime of challenges. We cannot be real Christians and only be spectators.”
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Louis’s passion and calling has taken him and a four-piece band of professional musicians to various countries, including the USA, England, Canada, the Ukraine, Turkey and Scotland. With their unique style built on acoustic rock music with African, European and American influences, they have a growing audience worldwide. Their performances offer a good balance between worship, evangelization and mobilization. It is in taking Louis to countries such as the Ukraine and Turkey that God faithfully keeps him to his first calling – “to the lost first”, no matter how his music ministry develops. Louis accepted Christ as his personal Saviour in August of his first year at university. “The next night I joined a group that did an evangelization outreach in the inner city and a whole new world opened up to me. Here I was, a new Christian, watching missionaries in action.” One week later he stood up at Campus Missions Week and dedicated his life to world missions. He completed his studies but knew that God had called him to be a missionary. Says Louis, “It is the most exhilarating thing to
see that God is keeping me to that commitment. I still have the card that I filled out at Missions Week – where I committed my life firstly to those who haven’t heard yet. My ministry has an element of reaching those who have never heard about Jesus.” While performing at a university in the Ukraine recently, Louis invited young people to a meeting at a church in town that same evening. “Those young people hadn’t had any idea who Jesus was,” says Louis. “That evening they committed their lives to God. Incidents like these show me that God has made this covenant with me; I have said yes to it, but it is God who is keeping me to it.” Back in his childhood years in Brakpan on the East Rand, Louis’s parents attempted to nurture his music talent by sending him for piano lessons, but the classical style of the training did not appeal to him. “I wanted to play the songs I heard on the radio,” Louis says smilingly. When he learned to play the guitar instead, his musicality started to develop. Because a degree in music wasn’t an option for him, he chose to study law after finishing school. “God used university as a Bible school in my life,” Louis explains. “I spent my university days on outreaches, camps and writing musicals.” Soon after completing his articles of clerkship, he was offered his first recording contract. “I knew I could not commit to a law firm while my passion and calling were to be in ministry. The two years of my articles, though, taught me a lot about life in the secular world and work ethics.” Louis got married to Hettie in 1992 and together they started pursuing God’s calling on their lives. “I just became an ordinary missionary with music as a tool. Like other missionaries, we had a few friends who supported us financially. Some of them still support us today. Nothing was easy in those early days. We had fixed expenses such as study debt and no certain
income. We literally did not know where the next month’s money would come from. Today we still don’t see ourselves as artists or writers, but as missionaries. We are still living in faith.” Louis’s personal journey with God took him on a road of discovery of the various relationships we have with Him. “There are so many different relationships we have with God: we are child, friend, instrument, warrior, bride... It takes a journey with God to discover them all. After my conversion, I just wanted to be an instrument in His Hand. I wanted to be a soldier. From there I experienced deep personal development. When He took me on a road of emotional healing, I came to know Him as a Healer – a facet about Him I’d never known. Later I came to know Jesus as my Friend and God as my Father. Then He took me through a season where I could come to know Him as Bridegroom. This was a long process because I wasn’t really ready for it. It took me years to understand what it means to be His bride. When I was ready, in 1998, I could record the song ‘With this ring I Thee wed’ and really mean it. We are in a season where God speaks prophetically to His bride, His church. We as the bride of Christ need to prepare ourselves and be ready for His return. God has given the church the bridegroom-bride metaphor to help us to understand the relationship He has with His church. In any culture in the world, marriage is significant – a celebration and beautiful. The discovery of this dimension of my relationship with God was not only personal but also prophetic – a simple but critical message in a season where God is busy preparing His church.” That God often uses large mobilizing events and movements to motivate believers to radical Christianity has inspired Louis through the years to be involved in events such as Love Southern Africa and The Joshua Experience. Says Louis, “Everywhere I travel, I meet young South Africans
who attended missions’ conferences in South Africa. There are young South Africans in the mission field today who attended Love Southern Africa 10 years ago. There are South African doctors in Canada and America who support missionaries because they attended a Joshua Experience. Worldwide I see the effect of mobilizing young people from South Africa. Youth workers and leaders of mission organizations all agree; we need to mobilize young people again.” For this reason, Louis has decided to put his energy into the Beat the Drum Project where hundreds of young people are challenged to be involved in the Aids crisis in Africa.
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“Southern Africa has been evangelized and yet has the highest Aids infection rate in the world,” says Louis. “The very real dilemma of HIV and Aids gives us an inroad to challenge people to not only accept Christ, but to be His disciples and live a biblical lifestyle. The Beat the Drum Project is a tool where the great commandment (to love one another) and the great commission (to make disciples) come together beautifully.” With its focus on discipleship, this faith-based initiative teaches and challenges school children to abstain from premarital intercourse, thereby aiming to change the future of Africa. Louis is a strategic consultant to the Beat the Drum Taskforce and a fundraiser for the project. “I love it when God’s strategy is one of using a real dilemma, resulting in discipleship,” says Louis. Young Christians who sign up for this initiative will be able to return to their local church with much zeal and equipped for continual involvement in the Kingdom of God. “We need to teach young people that you may be saved and worshipping every Sunday, but if you are not building God’s Kingdom in some or other way, you are missing the purpose of your life.” A significant milestone in Louis’s career
Louis’s latest CD “Louder than Song” is another milestone in more than one way. Not only is it the first CD recorded at Gone Fishin’ but it is also considered the best vocal performance of his career. “‘Louder than Song’ is a combination of worship and ministry orientated songs,” says Louis. “I wanted to show that life is a combination.” The lyrics were intended to be reflected on during quiet times. It is for the discerning listener who is interested to delve into the lyrics. The CD also features ‘Prayer for Africa’, which Louis wrote after asking God for a song to mobilize people to pray for the continent of Africa. “When we perform in the US and Canada, we ask people to firstly pray for Africa before they even consider sending money. We want them to realize that it is a spiritual war in the first place, and that dilemmas such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, malaria and malnutrition need to be unlocked in the heavenly realm. We need fervent and passionate prayer and that is the first thing I canvass for overseas. God gave this song for that purpose. I love it when God works in this way – when you trust Him for something, He gives it and you can see it in operation.” Louis, Hettie and their three children Idalise (7), Pero (5) and Simone (born on the 28th of May 2006) live in Pretoria. “We see our children as our first mission field. They are great. Our other passions need to make way for them and for that we need much grace and wisdom.” To jam with musician friends, to produce for other
artists and to mentor young musicians, helping shape their ministries, add to the joy of his life. “And I love real Columbian coffee!” Louis adds. Having been in full-time ministry for 13 years, Louis testifies of having learned that obedience to God’s guidance is the pathway to real fulfilment in ministry. “The road back to obedience is difficult, but I have learned that to live a life of worship means to glorify God by obeying Him in the specific things He calls us for. The glory of God resting on things you did in total obedience is what distinguishes ministry from anything else.” Louis Brittz’s music is for sale at Christian retailers, or directly at (012) 662 2344. He performs upon invitation. Contact (051) 522 4853 for more information.
(Excerpt from the song: “Prayer for Africa”) Lying in your red sand looking up to the sky see the rain clouds that wave as they drift by the moon is just a traveller, the sun but a tourist they come and they go, never stay in a serengeti dream, it’s the good things that stay and darkness that goes away Father, hear my prayer for Africa: Let Your Kingdom come Here on the earth You made and love hear me plead for her children who bleed in my native land
PRAYER for AFRICA
was reached when his own sound studio Gone Fishin’ was completed in August last year. The name originated when Louis found fabric at a discounted price for the interior of the studio. When he showed it to Hettie, she noticed the words Gone Fishin’ finely printed all over the fabric. “So, when I am not at the studio,” says Louis, “I am somewhere busy catching people for Jesus!”
Blood is the colour of her sunsets and darkness describes her the best says the world in its ignorance but how are we to separate her now from the pain when it’s buried in her seed and engraved in her name? In a Kayalitsha dream there’s a magical flood that washes the demon from her blood In a westerner’s dream she’s not there at all so easy to forget the call
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blessing bl bles lessing bl g orr
curse ur you can choose
freedom from pressures you thought you had to live with
WRESTLING WITH SHADOWS A curse could be likened to a long, evil arm stretched out from the past. It rests upon you with a dark, oppressive force that inhibits the full expression of your personality. You never feel completely free to be yourself. You sense that you have potential within you that is never fully developed. You always expect more of yourself than you are able to achieve. Or again, that long, evil arm may have the effect of tripping you up as you walk. Your way seems clear before you, but from time to time you stumble – yet you cannot see what it was you stumbled over. For some uncanny reason, the moments at which you stumble are those when you are within reach of attaining some long-sought goal. Yet your goal eludes you.
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Actually, the word uncanny could be likened to a red warning light. You experience events or situations for which you can find no natural or logical reason. It seems that there is some force at work that is not completely subject to the usual laws of nature or of averages.
grandfather saying again and ‘Things never go right for me.’”
again,
This pattern may occur in various areas of people’s lives: business, career, health or finance. Nearly always it has some kind of negative effect on personal relationships – especially marriage and family. Frequently, too, it affects not just one isolated individual, but a larger social group. Most often this would be a family, but it can extend to a wider circle, such as a community or a nation. It would be misleading, however, to suggest that a curse always causes a person to fail. A person may achieve what appears to be real success and yet be plagued by frustration, never enjoying the fruits of success.
Why don’t I ever experience real fulfilment?
There is one word that sums up the effects of a curse: frustration. You reach a certain level of achievement in your life and everything looks set for a bright future. You have all the obvious qualifications – and yet something goes wrong! So you start all over again, and reach the same level as before, but once again things go wrong. After this happens several times, you realize it is the pattern of your life. Yet you cannot see any obvious reason for it.
On a ministry journey in Southeast Asia I met an intelligent, well-educated female judge, who was descended from royalty. She knew Jesus personally as Saviour and was not conscious of any unconfessed sin in her life. Yet she told me that she was not truly satisfied. Her successful career and her high social position had not brought her personal fulfilment.
Many people have shared with me the story of a life that has a similar pattern. The individual details may differ, but the pattern is there. Often such people say something like, “The same thing always happened to my father. I feel as if I’m reliving his frustrations,” or, “I can hear my
As I talked with her, I discovered that she was descended from many generations of idol worshippers. I explained to her that, according to Exodus 20:3-5, God had pronounced a curse on idol worshippers down to the third and fourth generations. Then I showed her how to receive release
from this curse through Jesus her Saviour. Sometimes curses may not have their origin in previous generations. They may be the result of deeds or events in your own lifetime. Or it may be that a curse from previous generations has been compounded by things you yourself have done. Whatever the source of your problem, however, one thing is certain: You are struggling with something that you can neither identify nor understand. Like that judge, you, too, may have tasted success. You do indeed know the sweetness of it – but it never lasts! Suddenly, for no reason you can explain, you are dissatisfied. Depression settles over you like a cloud. All your achievements seem so unsubstantial. You look at others who appear content in similar circumstances, and you ask yourself, What is wrong with me? Why don’t I ever experience real fulfilment? Perhaps at this point your reaction is something like this: Some of these descriptions really fit me. Does that mean there is no hope for me? Do I have to go on like this for the rest of my life? No, there is hope for you! Do not be discouraged. As you read on, you will discover that God has provided a remedy and you will be given simple, practical instructions on how to apply the remedy in your own life. Meanwhile, you will find encouragement in the following letters I received from two people who listened to my radio Bible teaching programme on the theme “From Curse to Blessing.” The first letter is from a man and the second from a woman. “I listened to your messages on the curse and I found out that I had been under one for years and never knew it. I was never
able to be successful in life, and constantly suffered from feelings of homosexuality, though I never fueled the feelings into actions. I have been a Christian for 10 years now but because of the curse was never able to get as close to God as I wanted to. I became very depressed. Since I have been freed from this curse I have felt so free in Jesus and alive in Him. I have never felt so close to God!” “Thank you for your recent broadcasts on curses and your booklet ‘From Curse to Blessing.’ My life has been greatly changed by them. For most of my life I have been troubled by recurring depression, and altogether for five years I have been under the care of a psychiatrist. This spring a lady prayed with me and for me and I renounced all involvement with the occult, such as tarot cards and tea leaves. Praise the Lord, the beginning of real freedom! Then I heard your broadcasts on being under a curse without really knowing it and prayed with you as you prayed the prayer of release from curses. Now I am free! It is as if a dam has broken and God can move in my spirit. The blockage is gone and I have grown so much spiritually in a few weeks that I can only praise Him for His blessing. Sometimes I weep when I think about all He has done and is doing for me, and it is such a relief to be able to relax. Truly, we worship a wonderful God!”
HOW BLESSINGS AND CURSES OPERATE The forces that determine history fall into two categories: visible and invisible. It is the interplay of these two realms that determines the course of history. As long as we confine our attention to things that are visible and material, we will find ourselves confronted from time to time by events and situations that we cannot fully explain or control. To the visible realm belong all the normal
objects and events of the material universe. We are all familiar with this realm and feel at home in it, even though events often do not follow the course we would wish. For many people, the limits of their awareness do not extend further. Yet the Bible opens a door to another, invisible realm, which is not material, but spiritual. The forces at work in this realm exercise a continuous and decisive influence on events in the visible realm. In 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 Paul delineates these two realms: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” The things that belong to the visible realm are transitory and impermanent. It is only in the invisible realm that we can find true and abiding reality. It is in this realm, too, that we discover the forces that will ultimately shape our destiny, even in the visible realm. Paul makes it clear that success in life depends upon being able to apprehend and relate to that which is invisible and spiritual. Both blessings and curses belong to the invisible, spiritual realm. They are vehicles of supernatural, spiritual power. Blessings produce good and beneficial results; curses produce bad and harmful results. Both are major themes of Scripture. Two important features are common to both. First, their effect is seldom limited to the individual. It may extend to families, tribes, communities or whole nations. Second, once they are released, they tend to continue from generation to generation until something happens to cancel their effects. A number of both blessings and curses mentioned in the Bible
in connection with the patriarchs have continued to work for nearly four thousand years and are still at work today. This second feature of blessings and curses has important practical implications. There may be forces at work in our lives that have their origin in previous generations. Consequently, we may be confronted with recurrent situations or patterns of behaviour that cannot be explained solely in terms of what has happened in our lifetimes of personal experiences. The root cause may go back a long way in time, even thousands of years. The main vehicle of both blessings and curses is words. Such words may be spoken or written or merely uttered inwardly. Scripture has much to say about the power of words. The Book of Proverbs, in particular, contains many warnings as to how words may be used either for good or for evil. Here are just a few examples: “The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbour, but through knowledge the righteous will be delivered” (Proverbs 11:9); “There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health” (Proverbs 12:18); “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit” (Proverbs 15:4); “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21). The Apostle James also has much to say about the use of words. He points out that the tongue is a small member of the body, but the hardest of all to control: “Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it
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we curse men, who have been made in the similitude [likeness] of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so” (James 3:5-6, 9-10). James uses vivid imagery to emphasize the tremendous power that words have to affect people and situations, either for good or for evil. It is significant that he singles out both blessings and curses as words that can be charged with this kind of almost measureless power. Words are not, however, the only channels through which the spiritual power of blessings and curses may be transmitted. There are various ways in which, at times, physical objects may become vehicles for this kind of power.
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In Exodus 30:22-33 the Lord gave instructions to Moses for making a special anointing oil, which was to be used solely and exclusively for anointing the Tabernacle and its furniture, and also the priests who were to minister in the Tabernacle. In Leviticus 8:1-12 we read how this oil was applied. In verses 10-12 the account concludes: “Then Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and sanctified them. He sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, anointed the altar and all its utensils, and the laver and its base, to sanctify them. And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him, to sanctify him.” The word sanctify in this passage means “to set apart to God, make holy.” Thus the anointing oil became a vehicle to impart the blessing of holiness both to the Tabernacle and its furniture and to the priests who ministered in it. Later in Israel’s history, olive oil was used to impart appropriate blessing to the kings who were to rule the people on God’s behalf. First Samuel 16:13 records how the prophet Samuel set David apart as God’s
chosen king: “Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.” The oil poured on David’s head by Samuel became a vehicle through which the blessing of the Holy Spirit was released in his life to equip him for his task as king. In the New Testament, the emblems used in the Lord’s Supper likewise become vehicles of God’s blessing to those who partake of them. In 1 Corinthians 10:16 Paul says: “The cup of blessings which we bless, is it not the communion of the Blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the Body of Christ?”
Without faith and obedience, no blessing results For those who partake with scriptural faith, these emblems transmit the blessing of God. Paul speaks specifically of “the cup of blessing” – that is, the cup that transmits the blessings of the new covenant to those who drink from it. It must be emphasized, however, that in all the ordinances described above there is no room for “magic”. The blessings are not inherent in the physical objects as such. They are imparted only to those who apprehend the Will of God as revealed in Scripture, and who then by personal faith and obedience receive what is offered to them through the physical objects. Without faith and obedience, no blessing results. On the contrary, in 1 Corinthians 11:29, Paul says concerning the emblems of the Lord’s Supper: “He who eats and drinks in
an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgement to himself.” Such, then, are the alternatives. Faith and obedience receive God’s blessing through the emblems; unbelief and disobedience provoke God’s judgement. In both cases alike, it is the physical objects used in the Lord’s Supper through which the spiritual power is transmitted, whether it be for blessing or for judgement. The various instances given above establish one important scriptural truth: In certain circumstances, both blessings and curses can be transmitted through physical objects. On the other side, if we turn our attention from biblical practices to all the various forms of false religion and the occult, there is virtually no limit to the ways in which physical objects can become vehicles of curses. In Exodus 20:4-5, in the second of the Ten Commandments, God explicitly forbids the making of any kind of idol or image for religious purposes, and He warns that those who break this commandment will bring judgement not only on themselves, but also on at least three following generations. The curse not only keeps them from receiving the blessing God is offering to them. It also keeps them from realizing that the blessing is there to receive. Only when the Holy Spirit shines the light of Scripture into our lives do we begin to understand how the devil has been deceiving and cheating us.
MOSES’ LIST OF BLESSINGS AND CURSES Some people are happy to accept the fact that blessings are valid, but are skeptical about curses, which they associate with superstitious practices from the Dark Ages. Such thinking is unrealistic. We cannot focus exclusively on one aspect
of opposites because it is acceptable to us, and simply ignore the other because it is unacceptable. The opposite of hot is cold; both are real. The opposite of good is evil; both are real. In just the same way, blessings are real and so are curses. My ministry brings me in touch with Christians from many different backgrounds in many different lands. I find that most of God’s people do not know how to discern between blessings and curses. Many Christians who should be enjoying blessings are actually enduring curses. There are two main reasons for this: First, they simply do not know how to recognize what a blessing or a curse is, or how to discern them; second, if they are under a curse, they do not understand the basis upon which they can be released. God is the sole and supreme source of all blessings, although they may come to us through many channels. Curses, too, often proceed from God, but He is not the sole source. Later on, we shall deal with other sources of curses. The curses that proceed from God are one of His main ways of bringing judgement on the rebellious, the unbelieving and the ungodly. The history of the human race provides a long, sad record of the outworking of God’s curses pronounced upon such people. Over the years it has become fashionable to suggest that there is a dichotomy between the Old Testament and the New. According to this interpretation, the Old Testament depicts God as a God of wrath and judgement; the New depicts Him as a God of love and mercy. In fact, however, the two Testaments are consistent with each other. Each depicts God as being, at one and the same time, a God of mercy and of judgement. In Romans 1:17-18 Paul explains that the
gospel contains the supreme revelation of these two aspects of God, His mercy and His judgement: “For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith… For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” On the one hand, God’s mercy offers His righteousness, which He imparts to those who receive by faith the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus on their behalf. Yet, at the same time, this sacrifice is also the ultimate revelation of God’s wrath, poured out on Jesus when He became identified with man’s sin. Christians who question the reality of God’s judgement on sin should ponder afresh the significance of the crucifixion. Even Jesus could not make sin acceptable to God, but had to endure the full outpouring of His wrath. Further on, in Romans 11:22, Paul again presents these two aspects of God’s dealings side by side: “Therefore consider the goodness [or kindness] and severity of God.” To obtain an accurate picture of God, we must always keep both aspects of His character before us. His blessings proceed out of His kindness, but His judgements proceed out of His severity. Both are equally real. In Proverbs 26:2 Solomon makes it clear that there is always a reason for every curse: “Like a flitting sparrow, like a flying swallow, so a curse without cause shall not alight.” This principle has a double application. On the one hand, a curse cannot take effect unless there is a cause for it. On the other hand, the converse is also true. Wherever there is a curse at work, there is a cause for it. In seeking to help people obtain release from a curse, I have learned by experience that it is often helpful first to discover the cause. The 68 verses of Deuteronomy 28, which are devoted solely to the theme of bless-
ings and curses, reveal the primary cause of each. In verses 1 and 2 Moses deals first with the cause of blessings: “If you diligently obey the Voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments… all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the Voice of the Lord your God.” More literally, the first part could be translated: “If you will listen listening to the Voice of the Lord your God…” The repetition of the verb to listen gives added emphasis. Simply stated, the condition for enjoying the blessings are: first, listening to God’s Voice; second, doing what He says. The cause of curses is exactly opposite to that of blessings. Blessings result from hearing God’s Voice and doing what He says. Curses result from not hearing God’s Voice and not doing what He says. This refusal to hear and obey God’s Voice can be summed up in one word: rebellion – not against man, but against God. In Deuteronomy 28 Moses also gives comprehensive lists of the various forms that both blessings and curses take. The blessings are listed in verses 3 through 13, the curses in verses 16 through 68. Anyone who seeks to understand this whole subject should study this chapter carefully in its entirety. Out of my own studies, I have attempted to make two lists that sum up the blessings and the curses in the order in which they are mentioned. My suggested list of blessings is as follows: exaltation, health, reproductiveness, prosperity, victory, God’s favour. Reproductiveness is not a common English word, but it is intended to describe a condition in which every area of a person’s life is fruitful and reproductive. This would include family, livestock, crops, business and the exercise of creative talents. All these should reflect God’s
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blessing bl bles lessing g bl g
blessing in appropriate ways.
NO CURSE WITHOUT A CAUSE
In his list of curses in verses 16 through 68, Moses goes into much greater detail than with the blessings. Essentially, however, the curses are the opposite of the blessings. Here is my suggested summary: humiliation, barrenness and unfruitfulness, mental and physical sickness, family breakdown, poverty, defeat, oppression, failure, God’s disfavour.
The operation of blessings and curses in our lives is not haphazard or unpredictable. On the contrary, both of them operate according to eternal, unchanging laws. Behind every curse that comes upon us, there is a cause. If it seems we are under a curse, we should seek to determine its cause. Then we shall be in a position to take appropriate action against it.
SEVEN INDICATIONS OF A CURSE
Various moral and ethical sins
False gods
Through personal observation and experience, I compiled the following list of seven problems indicating that a curse is at work. When I compared my list with that of Moses in Deuteronomy 28, I was impressed by the close correspondence between them. 1. Mental and/or emotional breakdown;
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2. Repeated or chronic sicknesses (especially if hereditary); 3. Barrenness, a tendency to miscarry or related female problems;
The form of disobedience that most surely and inevitably provokes God’s curse is the breaking of the first two of the Ten Commandments, which are stated in Exodus 20:3-5: “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in Heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” What are the two sins God specifies here? The first is acknowledging any other god before – or besides – the Lord. It is not enough to acknowledge the Lord as the first or greatest of all gods. We must acknowledge that He is the only true God. There is no other besides Him.
In addition, the Old Testament also reveals a large number of secondary forms of disobedience upon which God has pronounced a curse. In this category, in Deuteronomy 27:15-26, Moses lists 12 moral and ethical sins, all of which provoke God’s curse. The 12 curses pronounced on the Israelites from Mount Ebal were detailed and specific. The following is a suggested summary of the main kinds of conduct covered by them: Acknowledging and worshipping false gods; disrespect for parents; all forms of oppressions and injustice, especially when directed against the weak and the helpless; all forms of illicit or unnatural sex. The final curse covered all forms of disobedience to the law.
curse ur
4. Breakdown of marriage and family alienation; 5. Continuing financial insufficiency; 6. Being “accident-prone”;
however, do not stop short at the more obvious forms of idolatry. They include a second, wider range of practices that are not necessarily openly idolatrous, or even religious. Because their true nature is concealed by deceptive terminology, they are appropriately described as occult (derived from a Latin word meaning “hidden” or “covered over”). These occult practices have always held a powerful fascination for fallen man.
7. A history of suicides and unnatural or untimely deaths.
The presence of only one or two of these problems would not necessarily be sufficient, by itself, to establish conclusively the working of a curse. But when several of the problems are present, or when anyone of them tends to recur repeatedly, the probability of a curse increases proportionately. In the last resort, however, it is only the Holy Spirit who can provide an absolutely accurate “diagnosis”.
God’s judgement on the breaking of these two commandments bears the characteristic mark of a curse: It continues from generation to generation, at least as far as the fourth generations. In some nations and some cultures, the practice of worshipping false gods goes back over hundreds and even thousands of years, compounding the effect many times over.
Anti-semitism
About 4000 years ago God made a choice that has affected all subsequent history. He was looking for a man who would meet His conditions so that He might ultimately become a channel of God’s blessing to all nations. The man He chose was called Abram (later renamed Abraham).
you can choose The sins that bring this generational curse,
God’s purpose in choosing Abraham is unfolded in Genesis 12:2-3. Characteristically, blessing and curse are closely connected. God pronounces four promises of blessing upon Abraham: “I will bless
you”; “You shall be a blessing”; “I will bless those who bless you”; “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Interposed in the midst of these blessings, however, is a curse: “I will curse him who curses you.” No-one can afford to hate or curse the Jewish people. This lesson was never more needed than it is today. Both socially and politically, anti-Semitism is one of the most powerful forces at work in our contemporary world. Yet ultimately it spells disaster for all who allow themselves to be controlled by it. Legalism, carnality, apostacy In Jeremiah 17:5 God pronounces His curse on another kind of sin, which, like antiSemitism, is at work in many sections of the church: “Thus says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord.’” The kind of person described is not a stranger to God’s grace. This is indicated by the closing phrase: “whose heart departs from the Lord.” If he had never known the Lord, he could not be said to “depart” from Him. A person of this kind has experienced God’s supernatural grace and power, but then turns back to relying on his own natural ability. His conduct reveals that he has more confidence in what he can do for himself than in what God can do for him. He has, in fact, “snubbed” God. It is this attitude that calls forth God’s curse. Theft, perjury, robbing God In Zechariah 5:1-4 the prophet describes a vision he had of God’s curse coming upon the homes of His people: “I looked again – and there before me was a flying scroll! He asked me, ‘What do you see?’ I answered, ‘I see a flying scroll, thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.’ And he said to me, ‘This is the curse that is going out on the whole land; for according to what it says
on one side, every thief will be banished, and according to what it says on the other, everyone who swears falsely will be banished. The Lord Almighty declares, “I will send it out, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by My Name. It will remain in his house and destroy it, both its timbers and its stones.”’” The curse that Zechariah depicts enters the house of all who have committed two specific sins: theft and swearing falsely. (The contemporary term for the latter is perjury.) Having once entered, the curse remains until it has destroyed the entire house – timbers and stones and all. Malachi accuses his people not only of a wrong attitude toward God, but also of theft in its most serious form: robbing not merely men, but even God Himself. “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation” (Malachi 3:8-9). Authority figures One important way a person may exercise authority is by blessing those under his authority. Implicit in the authority to bless, however, is the authority also to curse. Blessing and cursing can never be separated from one another, any more than heat from cold or day from night. This means that persons with authority may exercise it in one of two ways: to bless or to curse. The same authority that makes a blessing effective makes a curse equally effective. A father who is skilful with his hands, for example, may have a son who is unusually late in developing manual dexterity. After the son has bungled various practical tasks assigned to him, the father exclaims, “Your fingers are all thumbs!” or, “You have two left hands!” The father may speak these
words jokingly, not in anger. Nevertheless, they make a permanent impact on the son. Thirty years later he is still embarrassed or diffident every time he is confronted with even a simple practical task. This continues to be an area of his life in which he never succeeds, yet his root problem may not be so much lack of skill as lack of confidence. He has never rebuilt the confidence his father unintentionally destroyed in childhood. Self-imposed curses In Matthew 12:36-37 Jesus gives a solemn warning about the danger of words carelessly spoken: “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the Day of Judgement. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Jesus here focuses on “idle words” – that is, words spoken carelessly, without premeditation. Often when a person says something foolish or negative about himself, he then excuses himself by saying, “But I didn’t really mean it.” Yet it is precisely against words of this kind, which people “don’t really mean,” that Jesus warns us. The fact that the speaker “doesn’t really mean them” does not in any way minimize or cancel the effect of his words. Nor does it release him from his accountability.
THE POWER OF THE TONGUE IS MEASURELESS - WHETHER FOR GOOD OR FOR EVIL
With our tongue we can bless and we can curse; we can build up and we can break down; we can wound and we can heal; we can do great and do just as great harm. “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.” Psalm 141:3
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The list below repeats the seven conditions that may indicate a curse, but adds under each heading typical forms of speech that commonly open people up to the condition described. MENTAL AND/OR EMOTIONAL BREAKDOWN “It’s driving me crazy!” REPEATED OR CHRONIC SICKNESSES “I’m sick and tired…” BARRENNESS, A TENDENCY TO MISCARRY OR RELATED FEMALE PROBLEMS “I don’t think I’ll ever get pregnant!” BREAKDOWN OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY ALIENATION “Somehow I always knew my husband would find another woman.” CONTINUING FINANCIAL INSUFFICIENCY “I can’t afford to tithe.” 58
BEING “ACCIDENT-PRONE” “It always happens to me!” A HISTORY OF SUICIDES AND UNNATURAL OR UNTIMELY DEATHS “Over my dead body!” Servants of Satan There are those that deliberately opened themselves up to Satan, even though they may not be aware of his true identity. In pursuit of power and material gain, they systematically cultivate the exercise of the supernatural forces Satan has released to them. Such servants of Satan are recognized in almost all cultures and have been given a variety of different titles: witch doctor, medicine man, mchawi, shaman, tohanga, wizard, witch, priest or priestess of Satan, and so on. In almost all tribal cultures throughout the world there is a special name for this kind of person. Curses are one of the main weapons that
servants of Satan use against the people of God.
by other fleshly attitudes, such as resentment, anger, criticism or self-righteousness.
Soulish talk
The Holy Spirit will not endorse prayers that proceed form such attitudes, nor will He present them before God the Father.
Although the New Testament explicitly forbids gossip, many Christians regard it as a relatively “harmless” sin. Most definitely, however, this is not how God views it. In Romans 1:29-30 Paul lists some of the consequences of man’s turning away from God. Here is part of his list: “They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful.” The position of gossips in this list is significant. Some of the heart attitudes directly associated with gossip are strife, deceit and malice. Gossips themselves are classified with people who are slanderers, Godhaters, insolent, arrogant and boastful. Christians who indulge in gossip may think of themselves as “exceptions,” but that is not how God sees them. The danger of this kind of talk is brought out by the descending order of adjectives in James 3:15: “earthly, soulish, demonic. ” Christians who permit themselves to gossip about other people – especially their fellow believers – are directly disobedient to God’s Word. As a result, they find themselves on a slippery downward slope. Before they realize what is happening, they have slipped from the “earthly” to the “soulish,” and then from the “soulish” to the “demonic.” The words these people speak about others would not normally be described as “curses,” but their effect is the same. Soulish prayers Suppose we do not submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit and seek His direction. Instead, our prayers are motivated by envy and self-seeking (mentioned in James 3:14) or
Inevitably, therefore, our praying degenerates into the James 3:15 “syndrome”: earthly – soulish – demonic. The effect of such soulish prayers is like that of soulish talk: negative, not positive. It releases against those for whom we are praying invisible, indefinable pressures, which do not relieve their burdens, but rather add to them.
FROM CURSE TO BLESSING Have you come to see by now that your life has somehow been blighted by a curse? Are you wondering if there is a way out from under the dark shadow that has been shutting off the sunlight of God’s blessing? Yes, there is a way out! But there is only one: through the sacrificial death of Jesus on the Cross. The entire message of the gospel revolves around one unique historical event: the sacrificial death of Jesus on the Cross. Concerning this the writer of Hebrews says: “For by one offering [sacrifice] He [Jesus] has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). Two powerful expressions are combined: “perfected” and “forever”. Together, they depict a sacrifice that comprehends every need of the entire human race. Furthermore, its effects extend throughout time and on into eternity. It is on the basis of this sacrifice that Paul writes in Philippians 4:19: “And my God shall supply all your need according to
SEVEN STEPS TO RELEASE There is one – and only one – all-sufficient basis for every provision of God’s mercy: the exchange that took place on the Cross. Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven. Jesus was wounded that we might be healed. Jesus was made sin with our sinfulness that we might become righteous with His righteousness. Jesus died our death that we might share His Life. Jesus became poor with our poverty that we might become rich with His riches. Jesus bore our shame that we might share His glory. Jesus endured our rejection that we might have His acceptance as children of God. Jesus became a curse that we might receive a blessing.
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This is the provision we will now focus on: the exchange from curse to blessing. At this point we are confronted by precisely the same issues Moses put before the Israelites as they were preparing to enter the land of Canaan: “This day I call Heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). The issues were so solemn, and so far-reaching in their consequences, that Moses called Heaven and earth to witness Israel’s response. The alternatives were clear: life and blessings, on the one hand; death and curses, on the other. God required the Israelites to make their own choice. He urged them to make the right choice: life and blessings. But He would not make the choice for them. He also reminded them that the choice they made would affect not merely their own lives, but also the lives of their descendants. This emerges once again as a characteristic feature of both blessings and curses: They continue from generation to generation. The choice that Israel made at that time determined
their destiny: the same is true for us today. God sets before us precisely the same alternatives: life and blessings or death and curses. He leaves it to us to choose. Like Israel, we determine our destiny by the choice we make. Our choice may also affect the destiny of our descendants. All who desire to pass from curse to blessing must go through the same door. First, there must be a clear recognition of the issues God sets before us. Then there must be a simple, positive response: “Lord, on the basis of Your Word, I make my response. I refuse death and curses, and I choose life and blessings.” Once we have made this choice, we can go on to claim release from any curses over our lives. What are the steps that we must take for this? There is no one set pattern that everyone must follow. In bringing people to the point of release, however, I have found it helpful to lead them through the seven stages outlined below. 1. Confess your faith in Christ and in His sacrifice on your behalf. Faith in the heart is not fully effective until it has been completed by confession with the mouth. Literally, the word confess means “to say the same as”. In the context of biblical faith, confession means saying with our mouth what God has already said in His Word. To receive the benefits of Christ’s sacrifice, we need to make our confession specific and personal. 2. Repent of all your rebellion and your sins. Before you can receive God’s mercy, He requires that you repent. This must be a deliberate decision on our part: You lay down your rebellion and submit yourself without reservation to all that God requires of you. A person who has truly repented no longer argues with God.
Without repentance no effective faith is possible. 3. Claim forgiveness of all sins. The great barrier that keeps God’s blessing out of our lives is unforgiven sin. God has already made provision for our sins to be forgiven, but He will not do this until we confessed them. It may be that God has shown you certain sins that opened you up to a curse. If so, make a specific confession of those sins. 4. Forgive all other people who have ever harmed you or wronged you. God may now be bringing to your mind some person or persons whom you need to forgive. If so, you can look to the Holy Spirit for help. He will prompt you to make the right decision, but He will not make it for you. While you feel His prompting, respond. Make a clear-cut decision to forgive. Then verbalize your decision. Say out loud, “Lord, I forgive…” and name the person or persons involved. The ones you find it hardest to name are the ones you most need to forgive! 5. Renounce all contact with anything occult or satanic. If you have been involved at any time in such activities or practices, you have crossed an invisible border into the kingdom of Satan. Since that time, whether you know it or not, Satan has regarded you as one of his subjects. He considers that he has a legal claim to you. Since the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan are in total opposition to one another, you cannot enjoy the full rights and benefits of a citizen in God’s Kingdom until you have finally and forever severed all connection with Satan and totally cancelled any claim he may have against you. Making this break requires also that you deal with any “contact objects” – that
is, objects that would link you with Satan. If you have any doubts about how this might apply to your situation, ask God to put His Finger on anything that is offensive to Him. Then get rid of it in the most effective way: burn it, smash it, throw it into deep water – or whatever! 6. You are now ready to pray the prayer for release from any curse. If you have been willing to commit yourself to each of the preceding five steps, you are now at the place where you can pray the actual prayer for release from any curse over your life. It is important that you base your faith solely upon what Jesus obtained for you through His sacrifice on the Cross. Here, then, is the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that You are the Son of God and the only Way to God; and that You died on the Cross for my sins and rose again from the dead. I give up all my rebellion and all my sin, and I submit myself to You as my Lord. I confess all my sins before You and ask for Your forgiveness – especially for any sins that exposed me to a curse. Release me also from the consequences of my ancestors’ sins. By a decision of my will, I forgive all who have harmed me or wronged me – just as I want God to forgive me. In particular, I forgive … [name the person or persons]. I renounce all contact with anything occult or satanic – if I have any “contact objects”, I commit myself to destroy them. I cancel all Satan’s claims against me. Lord Jesus, I believe that on the Cross You took on Yourself every curse that could ever come upon me. So I ask You now to release me from every curse over my life – in Your Name, Lord Jesus Christ! By faith I now receive my release and I thank You for it.”
7. Now believe that you have received, and go on in God’s blessing! Remember that God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). Here is a simple form of words that you can use: “Lord, I now open myself to receive Your blessing in every way You want to impart it to me.” It will be exciting for you to see how God will respond! FROM SHADOWS TO SUNLIGHT Behind you now is a territory overshadowed by curses of many different kinds and from many different sources. Before you lies a territory made bright by the sunshine of God’s blessings. Before you go any further, cast your mind back to the summary of the list Moses gave in Deuteronomy 28:2-13: exaltation, health, reproductiveness, prosperity, victory, God’s favour. These are all parts of your inheritance in Christ, waiting for you to explore and to claim. It could help you to repeat these key words over to yourself several times – preferably out loud. As you repeat them, pause and thank God that each one is now part of your inheritance. Remember that giving thanks is the purest and simplest expression of faith. If you have had a long struggle with a curse over your life, there may be areas of your mind from which the darkness is not immediately dispelled. Repeating these positive words that describe the blessings will be like seeing the first rays of the sun shining into a dark valley, then spreading until the whole valley is illuminated. The transition from the dark to the sunlit territory may take many different forms. There is no single pattern that is standard for everyone. Some people experience an almost instantaneous release and seem to enter immediately into the blessings that Scripture promises. For others, who are equally sincere, there
may be a long, hard struggle. The more deeply people have been involved in the occult, the harder may be their struggle to escape. Satan regards them as his legitimate prey, and he is determined to hold on to them. On their part, they must be even more determined to assert their claim to the freedom that has been purchased for them by the sacrifice of Jesus. Over and above these factors, we are confronted with the sovereignty of God. God’s perspective is different from ours. He takes into account factors in a situation about which we know nothing. He always keeps His promises, but in most cases there are two things He does not reveal in advance: the precise way that He will work in each life, and the precise time that He will take. No one can dictate to God exactly how to fulfil His promises. What we must do is maintain an attitude of firm, unwavering trust that God will move when and how He sees fit. We must depend upon the Holy Spirit to guide us into our full inheritance and to show us how to appropriate what God has provided for us. To be “led by the Holy Spirit” is not a single, once-for-all experience. It is something on which we must depend moment by moment. It is the only pathway to spiritual maturity. He is a Person, and He wants us to cultivate an intimate, personal relationship with Him. The Holy Spirit has His own distinctive characteristics. He is not aggressive or “pushy”, nor does He shout at us. He usually speaks in soft tones and directs us by gentle impulses. To receive His direction, we must be attentive to His Voice and sensitive to His impulses. Only the Holy Spirit knows the special dangers that threaten us in any situation or the particular blessings that will meet our individual needs. He guides us faithfully through the dangers and opens up to us the blessings. CHOOSE GOD’s BLESSING!
fruit,fruit fruit, ...I tell you, open your eyes
and lookat the fields! They are ripe for
harvest. John 4:35
photography: liezl du preez
KINDNESS
GOODNESS
KINDNESS
words: marie liebenberg
words: retha fick
words: lindie gouws
On the first of April two of my friends Minet and Ena were travelling with me from Kirkwood to East London. Minet and I had agreed to take Ena to Hoërskool Grens. None of us knew where the school was, but I thought it couldn’t be that difficult. When we entered East London, however, I realized we had no hope of finding the place on our own.
On my way to the airport recently to catch a flight to Cape Town, I was listening to a radio programme with inserts on people’s opinions about South Africa and its future. Interviews were held with members of the public from different backgrounds and different walks of life. Many of the participants were quite negative about a future in this country – their comments mainly covering issues like crime and unemployment. Still reflecting on what I had heard, I reached the airport, parked my car and entered the airport building. While waiting to board the plane, I enjoyed breakfast and when I approached the cashier to pay, I noticed a delay. A foreigner was busy paying his bill but for some or other reason there was a problem with his credit card. With a heavy foreign accent he was trying to express his confusion and embarrassment. Next to him stood another man, and when he started speaking I noticed his broken English with a definite Afrikaans accent. “Here, take this,” he continued, offering a bank note to the foreigner to pay his bill. Touched by this display of kindness, I paid my bill and walked away. When I approached the plane a few minutes later, I noticed an elderly lady walking in front of me, struggling to manage with her hand luggage. The next moment a fellow passenger reached out, offering his help. Relieved and grateful she handed her load to him.
When Celia and I stopped at a red traffic light on our way from the printers one afternoon, I got out of my car to put the wiper back in position as an eager windscreen washer had lifted it at the previous traffic light. When we stopped at a shop a while later I wondered where my cell phone was. After searching my briefcase and the entire car I asked Celia to dial my number from her phone. Expecting it to ring somewhere in the car we were quite worried when we didn’t hear anything.
When we stopped at a traffic light a car stopped next to us in the left lane. Minet rolled down her window and asked the driver of the car where the high school was. The woman replied that we had to turn left and because we were in the wrong lane we could go before her – she would make space for us. We were very grateful for this gesture of kindness, but after turning left, we realized that it didn’t help much because we still didn’t know where to go. The next moment the same car appeared next to us. The woman indicated that we should follow her and off she went. For the next five minutes (which felt much longer) we followed her, losing count of how many times we turned left and right. Just when we wondered if she still remembered that we were behind her, the car turned right again and made a U-turn right in front of the school. With a broad smile and a wave of the hand the woman drove past us and disappeared around the corner. Ena’s first words were, “She was an angel,” and we fully agreed. We didn’t have an April’s fool day but an April blessing!
I couldn’t help to be inspired by these two men, clearly willing to make a difference wherever they go. May we have the same attitude, showing the world that there is hope by bearing the fruit of the Spirit.
How surprised we were when within a few seconds a friendly gentleman answered! It appeared that this man had stopped at the same traffic light where I had got out of the car. He had noticed a black object lying in the road, realized that it could be something valuable and got out to pick it up. When he saw it was a cell phone, he tried to locate the owner by dialing numbers stored on the phone. He had already called at least four numbers. As if this had not been enough trouble, he came all the way to where we were to deliver my phone! I thanked God for this “stranger”. How would I have gone about retrieving all the information that could have been lost? I knew that this man was used by God. Let us be inspired to be used by God in a world that is desperate for His Love.
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Port Shepstone is the largest town on the beautiful Kwa-Zulu Natal South Coast, also known as the Hibiscus Coast. It is here that God is performing miracle upon miracle, uniting His people across the boundaries of culture, denomination and social standing, enabling them to spread His Word and His Love to the community.
“THE LORD HAS placed upon our hearts that the church in Port Shepstone should have one voice, one Spirit, one work,” says Pastor Toffie Ramdhin of Christ Alight Ministries. “There is something significant taking place here, there is no doubt. In the years we’ve had unison but I believe true unity is now becoming a reality between the ministers. One of the things that we’ve learned is that if the ministers can be united, the congregation can be united and then our community can become united.” “The Lord has been doing wonders,” confirms the Reverend Abraham Mashiyane of Norwegian Settlers Interdenominational Church. “Before, the churches were working by themselves, but now we see the Lord calling all the churches to come and work together.” The effects of this growing unity can be seen and felt throughout Port Shepstone and its surrounding areas. Ministries are being raised up to address the needs of the various communities, and undoubtedly their success can at least partly be attributed to the various communities’ and churches’ taking hands. One such ministry is Bread of Heaven, which provides sandwiches and meals to 1000 needy children every weekday. Bread of Heaven came into existence on the 16th of January 2001 as a project of the Interchurch Fellowship. The sandwiches are prepared by volunteers from six different churches and supplied to needy children irrespective of culture, language or religion. A ministry that testifies to the amazing way in which God calls people together from far and wide for His purposes, is the Genesis Project. Although the Genesis Project is being spearheaded by the Norwegian Settlers Church, it is fully interdenominational. “We don’t see Genesis as a Norwegian Settlers project,” says Nicole Klusener, PRO of the project, “we see it as a God project.” Genesis consists of five components. In the Genesis Care Centre people suffering from Aids are cared for. Splashes of Joy teaches skills such as sewing, knitting, gardening and catering to underprivileged people and helps them start their own businesses using these skills. Adult Literacy combines teaching of English and numeracy with skills development. The Youth Programme among other things provides a gym for street children as a healthy alternative to gangsterism and abuse. The Crèche is the most recent addition to the project. Hand-in-hand with all the activities of the Project goes the preaching of the gospel. Although Splashes of Joy has been running for between 10 and 12 years, the Youth Programme since 2004 and Adult Literacy since 2002, everything came under the Genesis banner on the 1st of March 2005, with the introduction of the Care Centre. In the coming into being of the Genesis Care Centre God did something amazing. One night 11 years ago He gave Annatjie Starkey (49), who was then living in Bryanston, Johannesburg, a dream. In the dream she was living in a house at the seaside, surrounded by strelitzias. She dreamt that she was taking a walk when she saw storm clouds gathering and many sheep that were in danger because of the threatening storm. She led the sheep to safety into a little old church building.
proclaiming HIS praise with one voice
words and photography: ena du plessis
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Annatjie knew that the Lord had spoken to her, so she and her husband Cecil (69) took the first obedient step by moving to the South Coast. The Lord led them to buy a property in Shelley Beach, identical to the one she had seen in her dream. They settled in Shelley Beach, opened a restaurant there, and later moved to Umhlanga at the North Coast while keeping their house in Shelley Beach. For seven years nothing further happened. “All the time I was wondering where the sheep that needed us were,” Annatjie remembers.
ing Annatjie explained the situation to her husband. He thought about it for a moment and decided, as the Lord had really blessed them in their business, to donate a substantial amount towards the first ward. God keeps using Cecil and Annatjie’s presence in Kwa-Zulu Natal to provide for Genesis – much of the linen, towels, curtains and the like for both the first ward and the second one that is currently being built, have been donated by the hotel in Umhlanga where their restaurant is and another hotel nearby.
Meanwhile, during a Sunday morning service in Port Shepstone around 2001, Pastor Trevor Downham of the Norwegian Settlers Church felt led to ask, “If this church had to close its doors, how long would it take for the surrounding community to realize that it was gone?” The elders of the church consequently did surveys to establish the needs of the surrounding communities. The problem of HIV/Aids and the related issues led them to explore the possibility of starting a care centre.
800 patients have to date passed through the Care Centre, many of whom accepted Jesus before passing on. Patients make the transition to their Eternal Home surrounded by staff members praying and singing hymns.
Shortly afterwards Pastor Downham heard that Cecil and Annatjie had been involved in hospice work. He approached her to find out whether they would help establish the care centre. When Annatjie went to meet Pastor Downham, she was amazed to see that the old church on Norwegian Settlers’ property, where the care centre was to be built, was the little church she had seen in her dream, where she had led the sheep into. Annatjie now understood that the sheep in her dream must have represented Aids sufferers all alone and on the streets. Eager to help in whichever way the Lord would want to use her, Annatjie became a trustee of the project. “For an entire year we tried to raise the funds necessary to build the first ward,” Annatjie recalls, “but nothing happened.” At the next trustees‘ meeting it became evident that a miracle was now needed. The next morn-
“God has been doing great and mighty things” All the ministries on the South Coast are being co-ordinated through the ministers’ fraternal, which meets twice a month and is facilitated by Pastor Brian Evans from Restoration Rock Ministries in Margate. The fraternal has also recently established a 24/7 prayer network. A church or group of churches takes responsibility for a specific day of every week, in order for the entire week to be covered in prayer. They are also in the process of linking up with prayer networks overseas. Even in the development of the fraternal as such, the rapid growth towards unity is evident. “When I arrived here in 1997 the fraternal was small,” says the Reverend Richard Seymour of Port Shepstone Methodist Church. “I used to go when I felt I
could make it, when I had no other appointments. Now I diarize it right from the beginning of the year.” The Reverend Seymour testifies of much co-operation in ministry. Within the Methodist Church as such, wealthier congregations twin with congregations from underprivileged communities, sharing their resources. The Lord has made the church intensely aware of a need to care for children. “Our heart is in raising up crèches and empowering people within the various communities,” the Reverend Seymour explains. “We must be housing and caring for over 800 children.” In this process the church has witnessed miracles. The Reverend Seymour recalls the example of what started out as a crèche run by an elderly lady in a room. Members of his congregation found the crèche and saw that the setup was totally unsuitable. For one, there were gas bottles everywhere outside the room, not far from where the lady was cooking. “We decided to move the children into the back of the church for the meantime and to see how the Lord would provide – and He did provide miraculously. Members of the community donated building material and machinery. A large company donated R20 000 and that paid for everything. It has now developed into a school caring for about 80 children. The donations must have totalled around R80 000 in worth. So the Lord’s Hand was upon it. We were trying to pull in the reins, but the Lord was saying, ‘Just let it go.’” The Methodist Church is also working hand-in-hand with Ziphakamise, a Christianbased NGO that is celebrating its 30th year and focusing on uplifting communities, to help underprivileged people establish vegetable gardens as a means of sustenance and income. Together the church and Ziphakamise also follow the route of letting church leaders of various communities work together.
“Networking with other denominations is coordinated by the ministers’ fraternal,” says the Reverend Seymour. “We get together and share our needs, our expertise and our giftedness. There are so many needs. On our own we’ll fight a losing battle. This is why it’s so important that we network with other churches and NGO’s, looking how we can assist one another and use our expertise. “Yes, we’re all diverse and different, we worship in different ways, but there are far more unifying factors and I definitely believe we are closer and striving towards even greater unity. I teach my congregation that the body of Christ is like a big jigsaw puzzle. Every church is like a piece of the puzzle and if you take it out of its rightful place, the picture is not whole. We need to pray for every piece. I also teach my people that we are to create bridges, not holes. I’m amazed at how many churches there are in Port Shepstone. If we could all work towards unifying, how glorious it would be.” Pastor Toffie Ramdhin of Christ Alight Ministries agrees. “If as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers we can all come together under one roof, we can take Port Shepstone for Jesus,” he says. “By reaching out we can get more help and instead of our duplicating what another church is doing, we can concentrate on winning souls or teaching, for example. We do not want to build our own kingdom; we want to build the Kingdom of God. By coming together, submitting to one another, buying in to each other’s vision, I believe that the five-fold ministry will truly realize.” A recent step towards greater unity was taken when Christ Alight Ministries amalgamated with Kairos Ministries pastored by Reggie John. “Since February we have been holding combined Wednesday evening services and we have held two Sunday
morning services together,” says Pastor Ramdhin. “God has been doing great and mighty things. We have concern and compassion for each other and above all respect for each other’s ministry. As a team we need to take each other’s hands and go forward, running the tremendous race to which Christ has called us.”
been travelling between Port Shepstone and Port Edward, teaching worship dance and reaching out to unsaved young people through the medium of dance. Particularly in the past three years Talita has witnessed many conversions as a result of her ministry, known as In Motion. She even testifies of three entire families who committed their lives to the Lord.
God’s praise is proclaimed through interdenominational dance ministries
Ruth Fanner (46), a dance instructor from Port Shepstone, recalls that her pastor kept asking her about two years ago to begin worship dance classes. “I thought I was too busy,” she says. “Then in December 2005 I attended a worship dance seminar. There and then God gave me the name for the dance ministry He wanted me to begin: the Potter’s Praise Dancers. He specifically told me it had to be interdenominational. I went back to my pastor and told him; he was very excited. I didn’t advertise at all; I simply announced that I was starting the ministry. On Saturday the 18th of February the classes commenced with 14 ladies. Now (three months later) we are about 23. The youngest is eight and the oldest in her sixties. We run the ministry like a cell group – we start every weekly meeting with prayer and sharing. We have already danced at about 10 functions.”
Equally excited about what they see happening in Port Shepstone, are Pastor Willie van Zyl and his wife Cisca of AFM Filadelfia. After committing their lives to the Lord in Port Shepstone 20 years ago, they moved away for 18 years and have now returned. “I think the grace of God is good for the South Coast,” says Pastor Van Zyl. Their congregation is partnering with the Norwegian Settlers Church in developing a home for abandoned babies. The project is called Ukuphepha and once it is fully functional it will fall under the umbrella of the Genesis Project. They have furthermore initiated a project known as Margate Christian Outreach, wherein they involve other churches and hold regular services on Margate’s beach. They also regularly arrange performances by Christian artists, to which they invite all Christians. The Van Zyls testify of God’s blessing upon all these initiatives. God’s praise is furthermore proclaimed through interdenominational dance ministries He is raising up. For the past five years Talita Helberg (33) of Uvongo has
One of the functions where the Potters’ Praise Dancers brought glory to the Lord, was the Global Day of Prayer on the 4th of June 2006. Between 14:00 and 16:30 on this day, celebration was in the air while believers from all over the South Coast were gathered together in Port Shepstone, worshipping God together and praying for further breakthroughs not only in that region but also in the entire nation and the world. Two and a half hours together in the Lord’s presence did not seem to wear out the large group of prayer warriors – when the gathering was officially over, most stayed behind singing their praise to the One who orchestrated the amazing revival in Port Shepstone.
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work &play devote yourselves
to prayer,
being watchful
and thankful. Colossians 4:2
“And it shall be, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His Name abide. And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. And you shall answer and say before the Lord your God: ‘My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty and populous. But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us. Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labour and our oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty Hand and with an outstretched Arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey,” and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which You, O Lord, have given me.’ Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God. So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.
DEUTERONOMY 26
“When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year – the year of tithing – and have given it
to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled, then you shall say before the Lord your God: ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. I have not eaten any of it when in mourning, nor have I removed any of it for an unclean use, or given any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the Voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me. Look down from Your holy habitation, from Heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, just as You swore to our fathers, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”’
“This day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgements; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you have proclaimed the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgements, and that you will obey His Voice. And also today the Lord has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honour, and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken.”
GOD’SON WORD TITHING DEUTERONOMY 26
photography: andrea badenhorst
words: michelle frost photography: cindèle blake
One day in the life of a...
RUBBISH COLLECTORS ARE OFTEN UNAPPRECIATED OR EVEN IGNORED AND YET IF THEY DO NOT ARRIVE FOR A DAY’S WORK IT IS QUICKLY NOTICED. THEIR WORK IS ESSENTIAL IN EVERY TOWN, CITY AND COMMUNITY. PHILLIMON MAHLAKWANA (44) AND THYS NEELS (26) ARE TWO RUBBISH COLLECTORS FOR THE EKURHULENI METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY. THEIR JOY AND PEACE CAN ONLY BE ATTRIBUTED TO THE LIGHT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WITHIN THEM. THEY ARE FAITHFULLY OBEYING THE LORD’S COMMAND TO LOVE AND SERVE THOSE AROUND THEM.
rubbish collector making sure your bin is empty
Thys relates that his work can sometimes be difficult as some of the rubbish they collect is heavy and less than fragrant! Despite this disadvantage, Thys loves his job. “I just love people and it’s exciting for me to talk to other members of the team and to try to empower them,” he says. Thys dedicated his life to the Lord in 1999. He had been an active member of a gang. One of his fellow gang members was invited to a cell group and Thys decided to go along. It was not long thereafter, at a church service, that Thys made the decision to follow Jesus. He testifies of experiencing a radical change in his life. He immediately became actively involved in a local church. Phillimon has been serving the Lord as a committed Christian since 1982. “I made a decision to serve God,” he says. “I have always trusted in Him to show me the right way.” Before he came to know the Lord, Phillimon had sometimes felt overwhelmed by problems, but as a believer he has found that God is faithful in providing solutions when he prays. Now both men serve the Lord faithfully and are active members in their churches. Both their families are supportive of their work, which is a great help to them. Unfortunately Phillimon must work far from his wife who lives in Limpopo. Thys and Phillimon have hearts that desire to serve the community. Thys confirms this. “Jesus served the community”, he says, “and so the desire in my heart is to serve too. We need to love our neighbours. I smile at every person I stop next to at the robots and I
in the life of a...
Thys has shown his servant’s heart by working diligently. This attitude has led to promotion. Just six years ago he was picking up papers in the street. Now he is a grade two general worker. He is currently in the process of obtaining his licence to drive the trucks. Phillimon, too, has rapidly climbed the ladder and after only three years as a rubbish collector became the team leader. He daily supervises five people. Says Phillimon, “There are many problems on the job, but as a leader I believe that God gives me wisdom. He helps me to be patient with my colleagues. I believe I have earned their respect.” He has worked faithfully in this line for fifteen years.
One day
PHILLIMON AND THYS are often at work by 6:00 and their working day begins at 7:00. Their work is physically demanding, ending only at 15:30. “Our days can be stressful and the work must be done daily,” Thys admits. Both Thys and Phillimon start their day by spending time with God, asking Him to empower and strengthen them for the day ahead.
rubbish collector
greet everyone I meet.” Phillimon maintains a positive attitude and his smile is sincere and contagious. “I love to work for the community,” he says. “I love getting up in the morning to come to work.” The joy of the Lord is evident as he speaks. “Sometimes people call me names like ‘dustbin boy’ but I don’t mind. I enjoy what I do! God is always beside me. I don’t worry about what people think.” Content with their lives and the blessing of their jobs, Phillimon and Thys look forward to the future. Thys believes that it is important to aim high. “You need a goal in your life,” he says. Ambitious yet humble, he looks to the Lord to be his guide and to provide for his family’s needs. The Lord has provided Thys and his family with their own beautiful home and Thys warns against the tendency to stereotype rubbish collectors. “Even though I come to your house and remove your rubbish I am still a husband and a father with a family, a house and a car.” Thys recalls hearing a prophetic word at his church, “This year we have to serve the community…” It excites Thys to know that he is serving not only at church, but also in his daily work. Truly, Thys Neels and Phillimon Mahlakwana serve their community day after day, year after year.
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good
it was
He has made everything
beautiful
in its time. Ecclesiastes 3:11
References: Strelitzia.biography.ms Uk.geocities.com www.answers.com www.clemson.edu www.crwflags.com www.plantzafrica.com
trikingg
strelitzia
STRIKING AND DISTINCTIVE with its spectacular, irregular flowers, the strelitzia is virtually synonymous with South Africa. The resemblance of its flowers to a tropical bird about to take flight, has given rise to its becoming known as the bird of paradise flower. It is also found in other parts of Africa, as well as Madagascar and South America. Five species of strelitzia are indigenous to South Africa – Strelitzia reginae, Strelitzia nicolai, Strelitzia juncea, Strelitzia alba and Strelitzia caudata. Also known as the crane flower, Strelitzia reginae is probably the best-known of the five species. Its flower is the main figure on the coat of arms of Kwa-Zulu Natal. As such it signifies the natural beauty of the province. The leaves of the Strelitzia reginae plant are grey-green and banana-like. The sheath from which the flower emerges, is placed at a right angle to the stem, which is what causes the resemblance to a bird’s head. The flower itself consists of three brilliant orange sepals (the parts that are in most flowers green and leaf-like and enclose the petals) and three bright blue petals. Two of the blue petals are joined together to form the flower’s nectar-secreting component. When a bird sits on the flower to drink nectar, the petals open to cover its feet in pollen. Strelitzia reginae grows wild in the Eastern Cape. When mature, it flowers in autumn, winter and spring. The lush Strelitzia nicolai or Natal wild banana is found in the coastal districts of the Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal. The tree-like plants form dense groups and grow up to 12 metres high. The shiny, greygreen leaves may reach up to two metres in length. They soon become tattered or torn by the wind, causing them to look like giant feathers. Strelitzia nicolai’s flowers are shaped similarly to those of Strelitzia reginae, but they are subdued shades of purple, blue and creamy white. Strelitzia nicolai flowers throughout the year, peaking during spring and summer. Occuring near Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, Strelitzia juncea or the narrow-leaved bird of paradise is unique in that its leaves do not develop but form upright, needle-like stalks. It produces flowers similar to those of Strelitzia reginae both in shape and in colour, however slightly smaller, from May to October. The Strelitzia alba or white bird of paradise grows in clumps of one to two metres wide and stands almost six metres tall. The leaves are shaped similar to those of Strelitzia reginae, but are much larger – about a metre long. Its flower has the same shape as that of Strelitzia reginae, but is much larger. It has white sepals, light blue petals and the sheath from which it grows is purplish. Strelitzia caudata is also known as the Swaziland strelitzia or African desert banana. Its flowers are cream or tan in colour. The bird of paradise flower, like so many other objects of beauty in creation, fills us with expectation of the time when we will be able to appreciate the splendour of Heaven. Meanwhile the spectacular strelitzia is magnifying God who designed, made and sustains it. “He waters the mountains from His upper chambers; the earth is satisfied by His work. He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate – bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart. The trees of the Lord are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that He planted” (Psalm 104:13-16).
ou know y d i ? d MY World is growing and is
now available at bookshops includ-
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Books, Fascination Books, SPAR and PNA. We praise God for opening these doors to us in the face of many distribution limitations. Still we realize that many
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chrysoprase
amethyst
topaz jacinth
our fo foundation da theme sardonyx
carnelian
chrysolite
chrysolite
8
beryl
12 precious p stones
3
chalcedony
jasper
sapphire
emerald
spirit life He must become
greater;
I must become
less. John 3:30
photography: liezl du preez
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on the mount words: andrĂŠ cloete
be atitudes
WE CONTINUE THE SERIES OF THE BEATITUDES ON THE MOUNT (MATTHEW 5:1-12.) BLESSED ARE THE MEEK: FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH IN THE BEATITUDES Jesus teaches His disciples. The first Beatitude “Blessed are the poor in Spirit…” emphasizes our need to recognize that we are nothing without God’s help. The second Beatitude “Blessed are those who mourn…” encourages and challenges us to see our crises as opportunities for growth and reminds us that His grace is there to see us through. We should realize the importance of all the Beatitudes, taking care not to forget any one of them. UNDERSTANDING MEEKNESS In the third Beatitude, Jesus instructs us to be meek. Webster Dictionary A-Z (e-sword.net) says that meekness is “to be mild tempered; soft; gentle; not easily provoked or irritated; yielding; given to forbearance under injuries”. Meekness is not cowardice, nor is it a weakness. It is an attitude of humility toward God and gentleness toward men, springing from a recognition that God is in control. In Matthew 11:29 Jesus says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.” Meekness is strength and courage with self-control, coupled with kindness. BIBLICAL EXAMPLES OF MEEKNESS The greatest example of meekness is captured in Isaiah 53:7 where the suffering of Jesus is prophesied: “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.” Even on the Mount that day, realizing what was about to happen in a very short while, Jesus confidently spoke about this inner strength that all disciples should have. Contrary to what people could have expected, Jesus was not at all a warlike Messiah. Instead, Jesus showed a greater power than armed might; He showed the power of humble wisdom and penetrating love. “Say to the Daughter of Zion [inhabitants of Jerusalem], Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey [a beast of burden]” (Matthew 21:5).
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No-one enjoys being afflicted or harmed. Many Christians carry hatred and unforgivingness in their hearts against people who wronged them. Instead we are instructed to clothe ourselves in meekness and to offer forgiveness. Colossians 3:12-13 encourages us, “as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” Jesus set the example by taking the punishment for our sins. As an innocent man, He paid with His Life the price more than 2000 years ago. The suffering that we have to endure is nothing in comparison to what He went through. 1 Peter 2:21-24 says, “This suffering is all part of what God has called you to. Christ, who suffered for you, is your example. Follow in His steps. He never sinned, and He never deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when He was insulted. When He suffered, He did not threaten to get even. He left His case in the Hands of God, who always judges fairly. He personally carried away our sins in His own Body on the Cross so we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. You have been healed by His wounds!” We should follow His example, choosing not to retaliate, but to forgive whoever wronged us. More examples of meekness from the Word are: MOSES – In Numbers 12:3 we read, “Now the man Moses was very meek (gentle, kind, and humble) or above all the men on the face of the earth.” The Bible makes it clear that Moses had an intimate relationship with God. (Exodus 33:11.) DAVID – After David had been anointed as king, he had to serve Saul for many years. Saul saw that the favour of God was upon David, and started to hate him. Saul tried to kill him many times. David had two
opportunities to retaliate and kill Saul, but his respect towards God and the fact that Saul was still reigning as king, kept him from acting in the flesh. In 1 Samuel 26:11 we read how David said, “The Lord forbid that I should raise my hand against the Lord's anointed; but take now the spear that is at his head and the bottle of water, and let us go.”
Blessing is an inner joy that we
WHAT IS GOD’S REWARD FOR MEEKNESS? The Beatitudes start off with the word blessed. Some translations use the word happy. However, this concept comprises more than worldly happiness. Worldly happiness is a temporal emotion. Blessing is an inner joy that we experience even in the face of trials and suffering. This inner joy comes from faith in our God, the One who turns tests into testimonies. The key is always to have the attitude of Jesus – one of meekness. God promises the following to the meek:
experience even in the face of trials and suffering PAUL – In the days of the Apostles, Paul sacrificed much while spreading the Word of God to many cities and countries. In the Apostolic letters to the churches, he often made reference to the suffering, pain and persecution he experienced, yet his attitude was always one of meekness. In 1 Corinthians 4:12-13 he says, “We have worked wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. We respond gently when evil things are said about us. Yet we are treated like the world's garbage, like everybody's trash – right up to the present moment.” He and the other Apostles received very small rewards for hard and dangerous work. In 1 Thessalonians 2:6-7 Paul, Silas and Timothy say, “As for praise, we have never asked for it from you or anyone else. As Apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but we were as gentle among you as a mother feeding and caring for her own children.”
“The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground” (Psalm 147:6); “The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way” (Psalm 25:9); “For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation” (Psalm 149:4); “The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord…” (Isaiah 29:19); “But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace” (Psalm 37:11).
PRACTICAL ADVICE Many people wear bracelets with the inscription “WWJD” or “What Would Jesus Do”. How do we react when our boss lashes out against us unfairly, somebody degrades our worth, or our rightful inheritance is taken from us by family members? In Psalm 37:1-4 God comforts us, “Don't worry about the wicked. Don't envy those who do wrong. For like grass, they soon fade away. Like springtime flowers, they soon wither. Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart's desires.” The best thing we can do when these things happen, is to return to and draw our hope from the Living Word of God. The history recorded in the Word, introduces us to many men of God who suffered such “unfair” trials. Abel was killed for loving and worshipping God. Joseph was beaten up, thrown into a pit, sold as a slave, accused of sexual harassment, thrown into jail and forgotten for many years. Looking back, we will always notice how God turned our trying circumstances into something good, whenever we submitted to and trusted in Him. We read in Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Rick Warren says in his book The Purpose Driven Life, “God never wastes hurts”! Psalm 46:10 gives us very good advice, “Be still, and know that I am God.”
Him always, staying humble and not falling prey to fear. Let us not react in the flesh, but rather wait upon God and draw from that inner strength that He gives; then we will inherit our promised land.
“Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness,
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INHERITING THE EARTH… This can also be translated as “inheriting the land”. In the Old Testament, the Israelites were promised that they would inherit the land of Canaan. God uses this phrase to express the principle of going from a “land of bondage”, to a “land overflowing with milk and honey.” Our walk with God also starts in “Egypt” and leads to “Canaan.” We also have our desert experiences; we also need to conquer strongholds in order to receive our promised land. The Israelites demonstrated weakness during their trials in the desert. This angered God, which resulted in that generation’s not entering their land of blessing. Only Joshua and Caleb had meekness and inner strength, believing in God for their deliverance. “For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Romans 4:13). God will do the same for us. Let us trust in
seek humility” (Zephaniah 2:3). References: Guthrie, D et al. New Bible Commentary. Inter-varsity Press, 1986. Hayford, Jack W. New Spirit Filled Life Bible – NKJV. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Bibles, 2002. Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry’s Commentary. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1961. Nelson’s NKJV Study Bible CD-Rom, Nelson’s Reference and Electronic, Div. of Thomas Nelson Publishers. www.biblegateway.com www.e-sword.net
THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK IN SEARCH OF BLESSINGS, BY KATHRYN KUHLMAN, PUBLISHED WITH KIND PERMISSION OF
BRIDGE-LOGOS
PUBLISHERS,
USA. PUREGOLDCLASSICS.COM.
BLESSED ARE THE MEEK
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Now we come to the third in the list of Beatitudes: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” I must admit that not many people earnestly desire to be meek. Be honest with yourself; look yourself directly in the face, and you (like most of us) will have to say, “I do not want to be meek!” We do not seek to acquire the meekness of a lamb, but rather prefer the qualities of a mighty tiger. Watch something. We all have the tendency to shy away from the word “meekness.” We think of meekness as weakness, but Jesus did not use the word here in that sense. No, in His statement He was not speaking of a weakling. Sometimes I think we purposely misunderstand the word “meek”, because we are afraid of the demands such a decision will place upon our life – surrender. Meekness represents complete surrender. To completely surrender oneself to God is one of the most difficult things that a human being can do. “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Our Lord’s words here may seem almost absurd to some. Inherit Heaven? Yes, we can understand that and we all look forward to the day when we see Jesus and Heaven becomes our home. But inherit the earth here and now, in this lifetime? You say, No. But in reality the meek do inherit the earth and they are the
only ones in whose hands is given power to inherit the earth. There is literally a place where man can surrender not only his body to Christ, but his mind as well. That one who meekly surrenders his mind to Christ is thus ruled by Christ. Then it is that the mind of Christ governs his thinking, that a greater understanding of spiritual things is imparted to him, as a greater understanding of the things of this earth and those things beyond this earth.
I am not afraid because I have given myself to a Power that is greater than myself God alone imparts great wisdom, divine wisdom – His wisdom. It is the Christian who surrenders himself and his mind to God, who inherits the world of the mind. Therefore, Jesus was right (as always) for the meek do inherit the earth. Over and over again I have been made to realize that no man really learns how to live and that no individual possesses the secret of living until he surrenders himself – body and soul – to the Lord. That Hebrew word which is translated “meek” really means “to be moulded.” As you surrender yourself in meekness to Christ, you allow yourself to be as putty in God’s Hands, to be moulded by Him. Yield yourself to the purposes of God. If you allow your life to be controlled by God, you will discover the greatest possible secret in living. I would be afraid to face
the future and I would be numbered among those engulfed by fear had I not given myself over to God’s control. One cannot deny that fear is one of the most devastating emotions that men and women can take into their lives. But I am not afraid because I have given myself to a Power that is greater than myself. I have given myself over to God’s control. I have perfect confidence in His Power and His ability. I know He will take care of today and tomorrow and all of the tomorrows of my life. Beloved, that word “meekness” means to be controlled by, to be submissive to, the divine plan of God. Do not forget that the laws of God were already established when we were born. His ways are fixed, but we have a choice in that we can accept God’s ways and live according to His laws, or we can rebel against Him and His rules. We cannot change what He has already done. If I am not making this point clear to you, let me share here an example given by a Christian gentleman with keen insight. It is fact that the world is round and the sky is blue. If someone says he does not like round worlds or blue skies and would rather have a square world and a green sky, there is nothing which that person can do to change what already exists. God’s world is round and His sky is blue, and so they shall remain. God’s laws of the universe are as unchangeable as is His universe itself. He has created seasons of the year. The farmer learns the laws of the seasons, and he is governed by them. He plants his crops when they should be planted, and thus he reaps when he should reap. He would get into a heap of trouble if he would rather sow his corn in winter. Why? Because in doing so he is working contrary to God’s laws of the universe. A wise farmer cooperates and yields to God’s laws. He has learned the laws of the seasons, and he is
governed by them. Therefore, he plants his crops when they should be planted and reaps when he should reap. For him to rebel against God’s laws and plant out of season does not alter the laws of God. It only produces failure of his own crop and he is the loser. Therefore, for the farmer, meekness means planting when he should plant. It means submission to God’s laws. So it is with life. God has His Will, and man has his will. Man has his choice of exerting his self-will or submitting to God’s Will in meekness. You and I can go against God’s Will or we can submit to the Will of God. We have the greatest example of meekness in the life of Jesus Himself. Jesus knew what He was talking about when He said, “Blessed are the meek,” for Jesus was man as much as He was God. Therefore, in His humanity, He had a will of His own. Even as He sat on that hillside teaching the very thing that I am giving you now, He knew that He had a will of His own which was a will separate and apart from the Will of God the Father. Jesus was preaching about one of the most difficult choices confronting each human being: to surrender to the Father, rather than to elect to do one’s own will. Jesus Himself found it necessary to submit and surrender His will to the Father’s Will, for He said, “Nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).
miss God’s best and to destroy oneself. It is impossible to go against the laws of God, to fight against the Will of God, to live a life of rebellion toward God – and experience joy and peace.
Those who surrender to Him will have peace. Those who surrender to His Will possess joy One of the greatest things in the world is to have peace of mind. Are you among those wondering why peace of mind and peace of soul always seem to elude your grasp? Pause for a minute to analyse yourself, your purposes and your situation. Are you fighting against the laws of God and, as a result, lacking the joy of knowing peace? Are you demanding your own will and insisting on having your own way? If your answer is “yes”, perhaps you do not like the results. It is possible that “your way” has played havoc with your life and you are the loser.
In Psalm 37:4 we read: “Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” In other words, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Psalmist is saying: When a human being delights himself in the Lord and becomes submissive to the Lord, he yields to a Power greater than himself. Then, as a result, the Lord Himself gives to that one the desires of his heart.
If you are such a person, some place, somewhere along the line you have been fighting against God’s laws. If this describes you, then you are like the foolish farmer planting seeds in winter when they should be planted in the spring. You are wanting green skies when God has made them blue. You are wanting a square world when God has made the world round.
On the other hand, to fail to become moulded or controlled by God’s Will is to
Be practical about this thing. You cannot expect peace of mind when everything you
do is contrary to the Will and the laws of God, and you are working in opposition to God’s Will and His laws. Under these circumstances, you cannot expect things to go right for you. You are heading down a one-way street, going in the wrong direction. Didn’t you see that sign informing you that you were travelling the wrong way? You chose to travel in the wrong direction, but it isn’t too late to change! Look up. Take your eyes off yourself long enough to see where the arrow is pointing. Realize that you are moving in a direction opposed to where God’s arrow is directing you. Those who surrender to Him will have peace. Those who surrender to His Will possess joy.
“Perfect love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18), but you must love Him enough to become submissive to Him surrendering all to God, and then you will be numbered among the meek who inherit the earth.
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obeed
words: christa cloete, ena du plessis, retha fick, lindie gouws, cherise helena
photography: liezl du preez
“I love and obey Your laws with all my heart,” declares the Psalmist in Psalm 119:167. And in John 14:15 Jesus says, “If you love Me, you will obey what I command.” Indeed, obedience is a natural result of our love for our Lord. And what better way to demonstrate our love? In 1 Samuel 15:22 we read, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
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THE THEMATIC REFERENCE BIBLE (Zondervan) defines obedience to God as “a willingness to submit oneself to the Will of God and to put it into effect”. Obedience is a sign of a living relationship with the living God. “We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands” (1 John 2:3). A relationship with God is based on and characterized by love: “… Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7, 8). Obedience is inseparable from His Love for us and our love for Him. Jesus says, “If you obey My commands, you will remain in My Love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love” (John 15:10). It is God Himself who fills our hearts with love: “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His Love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us” (Romans 5:5).
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Obedience springs from faith in God. Romans 1:5 says, “Through Him and for His Name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.” In Hebrews 11:8 we read, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” Sometimes God might expect things from us that we don’t understand. When this happens, it helps to remember that faith is all about trusting in God’s sovereignty and goodness even when we don’t understand. The connection between obedience and faith is made clear in James 2:18-22: “But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham
considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.” Obedience furthermore goes hand-in-hand with the fear of God – not fear in the sense of being afraid of God, but in the sense of deeply revering and respecting Him and acknowledging His holiness. In Psalm 128:1 we read, “Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways.” The words “reverential and obedient fear of God” are used to describe His Spirit in Isaiah 11:2: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the reverential and obedient fear of the Lord.” In Proverbs 8:13 we read, “To fear the Lord is to hate evil…” and in the same verse evil is described as “pride and arrogance, evil behaviour and perverse speech.” The better we get to know who God really is, the more we will want to obey Him. God who loves us and knows that obedience is for our own good, wants to help us follow Him. He does not expect of us to obey Him in own strength. Philippians 2:13 says, “[Not in your own strength] for it is God who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.” He gives us His Holy Spirit to assist us. In John 16:13 Jesus says of the Holy Spirit, “He will guide you into all the Truth…” We are urged to “… ever be filled and stimulated with the [Holy] Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). The Bible tells us that it is the Holy Spirit – “the Spirit of… the reverential and obedient fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2) – who fills us with love and respect for God, enabling us to obey Him: “And they will be My people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may
[reverently] fear Me forever for the good of themselves and of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will not turn away from following them to do them good, and I will put My [reverential] fear in their hearts, so that they will not depart from Me” (Jeremiah 32:38-40).
HEARING GOD’S VOICE How do we know what God expects from us? As mentioned above, He gives us His Spirit to guide us “into all the Truth” (John 16:13). He also teaches us His Will in His Word, the Bible. Like the Psalmist, we may ask Him to explain to us what He is saying in His Word: “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law,” and “Let me understand the teaching of Your precepts…” (Psalm 119:18, 27). In John 6:63 Jesus teaches us that it is the Holy Spirit who makes the Word alive to us: “It is the Spirit who gives life [He is the Lifegiver]; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever [there is no profit in it]. The words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life.” As we grow in our relationship with God through spending time with Him, living in constant awareness of His presence and allowing Him to use us for His work, we will also grow in obedience. The more we obey, the more we will experience intimacy with God. Growing intimacy will mean increased sensitivity to the gentle whisper and promptings of the Holy Spirit.
REWARDS FOR OBEDIENCE The rewards for obedience are great. Obedience brings joy and friendship with Jesus – in John 15:11 He says, “I have told you this [to obey] so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete,” and in verse 14, “You are My friends if you do what I command.”
Obedience brings blessing. In Psalm 128:1 we read, “Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways,” and Proverbs 28:20 confirms, “A faithful man shall abound with blessings…” Something of the unfathomableness of the rewards for obedience is carried across in Exodus 19:5, 6 where God promised Israel, “Now if you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, then out of all nations you will be My treasured possession. Although the whole earth is Mine, you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
obedience
Obedience leads to steadfastness and security. In Luke 6:46-48 Jesus illustrates this through a parable: “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on a rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.”
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THE OPPOSITE OF OBEDIENCE On the opposite side of obedience is refusal to act according to God’s Will – stubbornness, rebellion, disobedience. Whilst 1 Samuel 15:22 says that obedience pleases the Lord even more than sacrifice, the very next verse warns about His aversion to the opposite: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim (household good luck images)…” Why, then, do we who love the Lord and know that disobedience grieves Him, so often find ourselves acting against His Will? See how Paul words it in Romans 7:15: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” In verses 17, 18, 24 and 25 he explains, “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing
good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out… What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” By God’s grace we are set free from this slavery to sin through surrendering to the Holy Spirit’s control, as we read in the very next chapter in the Book of Romans. Verses 2 and 6 say, “…through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death… The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace…”
WHAT CAUSES DISOBEDIENCE? Various sinful attitudes of the heart give rise to disobedience. A few that can be distinguished from Scripture are: Greed and lust. Eve’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden is a prime example. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good (suitable and pleasant) for food and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she gave some also to her husband, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6). Impatience. Because they grew tired of waiting, the Israelites were disobedient by committing idolatry. “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down
from the mountain, [they] gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, Up, make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (Exodus 32:1).
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Fear. Fear (not the reverential fear of God, but feeling afraid) often keeps us from obeying God. Seeing that, as mentioned above, obedience springs from faith, and seeing that faith and fear are in a way opposites, fear will necessarily be an obstacle to being obedient. God urges us to place our confidence in Him. “But the just shall live by faith [My righteous servant shall live by his conviction respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, and holy fervour born of faith and conjoined with it]; and if he draws back and shrinks in fear, My soul has no delight or pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:38). A common fear that often keeps us from obeying God, is the fear of what people might think of us. In Galatians 1:10 Paul reminds us to remain focused: “Now am I trying to win the favour of men, or of God? Do I seek to please men? If I were still seeking popularity with men, I should not be a bond servant of Christ (the Messiah).” Pride and arrogance. A proud, arrogant attitude is evident in the words of the Pharaoh in Exodus 5:2: “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His Voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” The Lord warns us against pride in James 4:6: “… God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it).”
A CONSEQUENCE OF DISOBEDIENCE God is our loving Father and when we disobey Him, He disciplines and corrects us. In Hebrews 12:5-11 we read, “And have you entirely forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you, His children? He
said, ‘My child, don’t ignore it when the Lord disciplines you, and don’t be discouraged when He corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes those He accepts as His children.’ As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as His own children. Whoever heard of a child who was never disciplined? If God doesn’t discipline you as He does all of His children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really His children after all. Since we respect our earthly fathers who disciplined us, should we not all the more cheerfully submit to the discipline of our Heavenly Father and live forever? For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always right and good for us because it means we will share in His holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening - it is painful! But afterward there will be a quiet harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.” The commentary on the above Scripture passage in the Life Application Study Bible (Tyndale) reads, “Who loves his child more - the father who allows the child to do what will harm him, or the one who corrects, trains and even punishes the child to help him learn what is right? It’s never pleasant to be corrected and disciplined by God, but His discipline is a sign of His deep Love for us. When God corrects you, see it as proof of His Love, and ask Him what He is trying to teach you.” It is important to realize that disobedience to God is sin. Sin breaks our fellowship with God and that is not His Will. To restore our relationship with Him, it is important that we repent and commit to a life of obedience. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
TESTIMONIES ANTON’S STORY
JEANNIE’S STORY
CONCLUSION
28-year old attorney Anton Kotze from Johannesburg specifically asked God to enable him to hear His Voice clearly. On delivering documents near Church Square in Pretoria one day, he heard an elderly, blind man, singing on the corner of the street. “Buy this man a bottle of water,” Anton heard a Voice speaking to him. He knew for certain that it wasn’t his own thoughts.
Jeannie Cruz from Kempton Park, Gauteng, woke up at 2:00 one morning in February 2006, feeling led to pray for the protection of her great-grandson Chad. Jeannie obeyed, claiming the Blood of Jesus over Chad. Later that day her granddaughter Nikki Brown (Chad’s mother) phoned her and told her that their house had been broken into during the night. Muddy footprints seemed to indicate that the burglars had entered through Chad’s bedroom window. When Chad woke up that morning he immediately told Nikki that an angel had moved him from the bottom bunk, where he had been sleeping, to the top bunk.
The outcome of our obedience may not always be revealed in this lifetime, but one day we will stand before the Lord and hear Him say, “Well done… Come and share in your Master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21).
True to our human nature, resistance kicked in along with half a dozen of excuses varying from limited time to a lack of cash. Again he heard God’s Voice: “Who says this man did not pray for water as a sign that God truly exists? If he does not receive that water today, all attempts for his salvation will be lost!” Anton needed no further convincing. He started out on his endeavour. After half an hour of searching, he could only find one shop selling cold drinks. When Anton was about to buy a cold drink instead, God said, “What if this man has diabetes?” “But I can’t find water!” Anton argued. “Search!” God’s Voice replied. Minutes later, he stumbled upon a shop in an alley and bought the last bottle of water, hidden behind some cold drinks on the bottom shelf, with the only change left in his wallet – realizing that he still had to pay for parking. As he delivered the water, great relief and inner peace came over him. What about the parking? In his wallet he discovered money that he had not seen earlier. He was in awe at having heard God’s Voice so clearly and the words of Psalm 40:6,8 became a personal reality to him: “You have given me the capacity to hear and obey… I delight to do Your Will…”
At first Nikki didn’t take much notice as Chad had woken up on the bottom bunk, but later she noticed the outline of Chad’s body on the top bunk. Nikki and her husband Charles also noticed the burglars’ muddy footprints all over the lawn, which seemed to indicate that they had fled in a disorientated state. The burglars had furthermore dropped things on their way out and had left the radio they had begun to unplug and move. Nikki said she realized that the burglars must have seen something that gave them a huge fright, causing them to scatter. This shows how crucial Jeannie’s obedience was.
We leave you with the words with which Peter blessed the recipients of his first letter, “God the Father chose you long ago, and the Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed Jesus Christ and are cleansed by His Blood. May you have more and more of God’s special favour and wonderful peace” (1 Peter 1:2).
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The NIV Thematic Reference Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1996.
photography: liezl du preez words: corrie huyser
Lea, Larry. Learning the Joy of Prayer. Eastbourne: Kingsway Publications, 1987.
THE ARMOUR OF GOD
Reference:
SPIRITUAL WARFARE
The Apostle Paul had much experience of being a battle-ready soldier in God's Kingdom. We should take note of what he wrote about the armour of God in Ephesians 6:10-18, “In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides]. Put on God's whole armour [the armour of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil. For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere. “Therefore put on God's complete armour, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and, having done all [the crisis demands], to stand [firmly in your place]. Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins and having put on the breastplate of integrity and of moral rectitude and right standing with God, and having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firmfooted stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news] of the gospel of peace. Lift up over all the [covering] shield of saving faith, upon which you can quench all the flaming missiles of the wicked [one]. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword that the Spirit wields, which is the Word of God. “Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit, with all [manner of] prayer and entreaty. To that end keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding on behalf of all the saints (God's consecrated people).”
IN THE PREVIOUS issue we looked at the belt of truth as the first piece of armour to be used in our battle against the enemy. We will now take a look at the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS The breastplate of the Roman soldier was worn over the chest to protect the vital organs. It was sometimes called the heart protector. In spiritual warfare it is essential to protect our hearts with the assurance that, once we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Saviour, through Him we are righteous before God. It is important to realize that this righteousness, or right standing with God, can only be attained through faith in Christ. The breastplate of righteousness diligently guards our hearts. We read in Proverbs 4:23, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Knowing that we are right with God gives us the boldness to take a stand against the enemy. The knowledge that Christ made us right with God is our defence against the accusations Satan continually brings against us. Falling for these accusations keeps us from a victorious Christian life and from effective prayer.
God’s redemption of sinful humanity through the Life, death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 2:13, 14 says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the Blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace...” Wearing the shoes of the gospel of peace means to “put on peace that comes from the good news so that you will be fully prepared” (Ephesians 6:15, NLT) “to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news” (Ephesians 6:15, Amplified Bible). THE SHIELD OF FAITH The shield was used to protect and cover the entire body of the soldier. In the spiritual battle, our faith in Christ protects and covers us completely. In Colossians 1:4 the Amplified Bible defines faith as “the leaning of your entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His Power, Wisdom, and Goodness”. In biblical times the “flaming arrow” was used to soften up the enemy before the main assault. In our warfare they represent the sudden, unexpected attacks of the enemy. As long as the soldier had his shield, he felt secure; and as long as we trust in Jesus Christ, we are safe.
and dependence upon the fulfilment of His promises – in other words, it protects us against the enemy’s deception. THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT Ephesians 6:17 says, “Take… the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert, He set an example of using the sword of the Spirit. In Luke 4 we read how He said, “It is written…” Hebrews 4:12 says “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit to use God’s Word effectively. In his book Learning the Joy of Prayer, Larry Lea says, “In speaking of the sword of the Spirit or the Word of God, the reference here is not to logos or the whole Bible as such, but to rhema – the individual Scripture, statement, command or instruction which the Spirit speaks to our spirits or brings to our remembrance for use in time of need. Before we are able to wield [handle] the sword of the Spirit effectively, we must fill our minds with Scripture. The Greek indicates that the believer must receive this specific word from God for a specific situation. The special revelation can then be used as a sharp sword against the enemy and his onslaughts.”
THE HELMET OF SALVATION CONCLUSION
SHOES OF THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE The Roman soldiers of the time of Paul equipped their feet by wearing durable sandals. Part of the function of the sandals was to enable them to move swiftly yet securely. In the Thematic Reference Bible (Zondervan) the gospel is defined as “the good news of
The helmet is designed to protect our minds against the attacks of the enemy. Satan causes questions and doubts to enter our minds. He tries to lead us into doubting God, just as he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden. This is why our minds need to be firmly covered by the helmet of salvation. The knowledge of our salvation in Christ leads to the knowledge of His trustworthiness
The importance of the armour is also referred to in the Book of Romans. In chapter 13 verse 12 we read, “So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light,” and in verse 14, “… but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil its lusts.” By putting on the full armour, we clothe ourselves with Jesus who has already won the victory for us.
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y-talk Blessed are they who keep His
statutes,
and seek Him with all their
heart.
Psalms 119:2
Now the wall of the New Jerusalem had twelve foundations and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb
f o u n d a t i o n
e l e v e n
Jacinth
In Revelation 21, the names of the apostles are not written in a specific order. We know that Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone. We feature the apostles’ names purely as information as to who the apostles were. Their names are in the order in which they appear in Acts 1:13.
the name of the apostle for Jacinth J u d a s
s o n
o f
J a m e s