He walked by me and I just knew he was different. I felt the evil. He wore black. He never smiled and never looked at anyone of us. His black leather jacket with his black jeans and black boots made a statement that was quite evident. I later found out that John (not his real name) was not allowed into our school grounds, but he came anyway. John came as he pleased and recruited ignorant teenagers into the religion of Satanism. This was my Grade 11 year at Port Rex Technical High School. I was 16 years old. It was 1997. Satanism wasn’t really spoken about amongst youngsters. It was more like something you saw on television and experienced in the movies. What did I know about Satanism? Not much really. All that I knew was that they didn’t like God; they hated Jesus and wore a lot of black clothing with pentagrams around their necks. That was it. Little did I know, but our city of East London was one of the satanic hot spots in South Africa and this guy was pretty high up in the ranks. I’m not sure how high, but he wore a lot of black.
At the same time, our Student Christian Association (SCA) at the school was a growing one. We had roughly 30 to 35 teenagers that gathered weekly to sing some songs and to hear one of the leaders share a message. But one afternoon, a group of the SCA members did a Jericho walk around the school. Donny, who was one Christian guy that I really looked up too, lead the charge that afternoon. I wasn’t there, but I heard that they did some warfare and claimed the school for Jesus. It sounded like a cool thing to do. I’m sorry I missed it.
Some months went on and rumours started to circulate that some of the girls and guys in Grade 11 and Grade 12 were involved with John. They were gathering at certain times outside of school hours and doing a lot of ‘satanic’ things. One of the instances reached the local newspaper. A guy was murdered with an axe and it was John’s name that appeared in the newspaper as the murderer. Rumour has it that it was a botched sacrifice to satan. They were supposed to take the man’s head, but things went wrong and John was arrested. The police questioned some of the guys at our school that John hung out with and even some went for counselling. Whether they were directly involved, I don’t know, but it did have a serious effect on them.
One girl named Janet (not her real name) who was involved with this crowd asked the school principal if she could read a scripture out of the Bible at the school’s daily devotional. Daily devotionals happened in front of the whole school every day before school began. Janet got up in front of the school and read a scripture that still to this day I cannot remember. After reading a few verses she looked up and said to the school that she had realised that through her experiences with the ‘wrong crowd’ (i.e. John and company) that satan was a liar and that Jesus was the only true God. She has realised that she needs to get right with God and she needed to do it today. By now she had started to cry. She asked the SCA committee to come to the front and pray with her to receive Jesus so that she could be born again. We went to the front and stood on the stage with her. By now she was bawling and so were some of the teachers. Many of the students had no clue what was happening. We lead her in a prayer right there on the stage in front of the entire school of around 1100 students and 30 odd teachers. She made Jesus the Lord of her life. By the time she had finished praying, everyone knew what was happening and even some of the students were crying. Our chairperson announced that straight after the devotional time the SCA committee would be in the hall to pray with whoever wanted prayer. About 300 students and about 10 teachers came. All this happened on a Friday at around 7:45am. At 9:15am, it was time for the ‘Life Skills’ period. SCA held a mini church service during this time every Friday. We would normally use a classroom that seated up to 40 students. That day we used the hall as we had over 400 students attending.
None of us knew what to do! We had never seen such a big crowd before and we now had to entertain them. As it so happened, it was my turn to speak to the SCA group that day. I had prepared a cute 10 minute sermon that I had hoped I would speak to as little people as possible. Why you may ask? Because this was the first time that I was going to speak publicly and 30 to 40 people was more than enough for me. (What was that quip about God having a sense of humour?) I went to Donny and said ‘Bru, I cannot do this. You do it man. I can’t speak to 400 people about Jesus. I’m too nervous. Why don’t you do it?’ Donny looked at me and smiled. He said one thing to me that smacked me right between the eyes. He said, ‘Ross, the Bible says that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.’ I don’t know how to explain it but a supernatural peace came over me that I still to this day I cannot explain. The nerves that I had and my shaking hands came under control. I walked into the hall with Donny. The praise and worship had started and there were around 400 students in the hall, students that I had seen everyday on the sports fields and in the classrooms, singing songs to Jesus! It totally blew my mind as to what God was doing.
The singing finished and I was introduced after Donny had prayed. I remember that I had prepared a message on salvation and that God was not judging us but instead drawing us by his love. It was a simple message about Jesus. I gave a call for people to stand up if they wanted to receive Christ as Lord of their lives. Close on 400 students stood up that morning and I had the privilege of leading these students in a prayer for the gift of salvation. Still to this day, I regard this as the biggest honour given to me by the Lord.
From that day, our SCA meetings grew from 35 students to close on 200 on a regular basis. The Holy Spirit was using a bunch of Baptist believers to usher in revival that year. From 1997 to the end of 1998, we saw the Holy Spirit save students who were heavy into porn, drinking and partying. The guys that I thought would never get saved, started coming to our meetings for one reason – to get saved. One guy, who is still serving the Lord today walked into a prayer meeting at break time. I thought he was lost (literally). I said, ‘What you doing here?’ He said, ‘I don’t know. I just know that I have to get inside here.’ I had the privilege of leading him to Jesus at that prayer meeting. He is still serving in the worship team at his church.
We had students getting baptized in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. We had a student getting filled with the Spirit to the degree we had to take him to ‘sick bay’ after the prayer meetings as he couldn’t go to class in a drunken state. My friend, Donny, and I were called to the principal’s office twice to tell us to calm down because some students and their parents were worried at the religious frenzy going on. We assured him that we were not doing anything out of the ordinary except praying for those who wanted prayer. The frenzy was God’s fault. Thank God he was a believer. He just smiled and asked us to be careful.
There is one thing that I have seen in the life of many boys, girls, men and women; and that is that Jesus changes lives! I have experienced it in my own life how Jesus can change a person who is completely surrendered to Him. There is nothing Jesus cannot do with a life that is devoted to Him.
If you take some time to read the story of creation, you will notice that when God created the fish of the sea, he didn’t speak to himself. He spoke to the sea. And out of the sea came fish. When God created the plants and trees He spoke to the ground. And out of the ground plants and trees came. The sea became the source of the fish. The ground became the source of the plants and trees. That’s why if you take a fish out of the sea it dies. It dies because you are removing it from its source. If you remove a tree or plant from the ground and throw it into the sea it will die. That’s because the source of the tree and plants is not the sea, but the ground. If you remove it from its source it will die. When God created man, he did not speak to the sea or ground. He spoke to himself. And out of God came the spirit of man.
That’s why sin is so dangerous. Sin separates you from your source – God. And what happens if you remove something from its source? It dies. That’s why the Bible says the wages of sin is death. It’s because it removes you from your source. Jesus came so that sin may be done away with in order that we, as God’s creation could be rejoined to our source – God! That’s why salvation (life) is found only in Jesus. He is the way, truth and the life. We come to the Father through Jesus – Jesus is our way back to life – back to our source – back to God! The devil doesn’t care if you worship him or not. The devil’s only purpose is to steal from you, kill you and destroy you. His chief purpose is to keep you from God; because that’s the only way you will find life. It doesn’t matter to the devil that you serve a hindu idol or worship money. The only thing that matters to him is that you do not find Jesus; because if you find Jesus, then you will find your source and when you find God, you ultimately find life.
This might shock some people to hear this, but the most natural thing a person can do is to make peace with God and enter into a relationship with him. People think Christians are weird! Actually, it’s quite natural. If you speak to a person who has been united with God, they’ll tell you how fulfilled and complete they are. It’s like an emptiness has been filled that money or pleasure or porn or sex or alcohol or parties or their career just could not satisfy. Every person is searching for fulfilment. What many don’t know is that what they are actually searching for is the reconnecting with their source. Once the plant is in the ground and the fish is in the sea, they are satisfied and can grow from there. Unless a person is connected with God through Jesus Christ, they’ll live unsatisfied, unfulfilled and frustrated lives searching for things that will quench the thirst of their souls that only God can fill. Coming into a relationship with God is the most natural thing to the human being! To be separated from God is unnatural in all matter of speaking.
Before we go any further into this discussion, we have to talk about the One that brings us into relationship with the Father. He’s the funniest guy you’ll ever meet. He’s the gentlest guy you’ll ever meet. And He’s the easiest person to get on with that you will ever meet. I’m talking about the one and only – I’m talking about Jesus.
