Changing atmospheres

I really like believing the reality of WHO is in us! To those who believe in Christ, there is an amazing truth here. Let me use an analogy: If I wanted to buy a BMW at the end of the month, the dealership would ask me to put down a deposit to book the vehicle. By me, the soon to be owner, putting down a deposit for that BMW, means I am coming back for that BMW. I have booked it. In my mind it's mine. No one has any rights to that vehicle except me; coz I'm the one who was prepared to put a deposit down for it. In the same way, God has given us the Holy Spirit as a DEPOSIT, guaranteeing what is to come. The fact that I have been given the Spirit of God is testament that God is showing his ownership and right to me. No one has the right to me any more. I am HIS. And he is mine. His Spirit is in us, He empowers us, He loves us, He speaks to us and He wants to change the world through us. 

The thing is: the Holy Spirit is like a prisoner in most believers; and He wants out! He wants to change the world around us. He wants us to BELIEVE what He can do through us! He wants us to truly believe that because we have HIM, we can effect atmospheres around us, release the supernatural and impart heaven's realities into this one. The cool thing is that the Holy Spirit gives US the choice. "The righteous shall live by faith." Paul writes. Just how much faith we have in what HE can do THROUGH us is the billion dollar question. If you believe he can open blind eyes through you, he will. If you believe he can raise a dead person through you, he will. If you believe he can release joy through you, he will. "Be it unto you according to your faith." "Call the things that are not as though they are." "With God all things are possible." Yes, these are promises in the Bible which we say we believe. I think it's time for all of us to believe: YOU, my friend, are a walking revival just waiting to break out!!

The Spear of controversy.

"Wow! Okay. Sjoe. Hectic. Mmm.....not sure if that's right." It was pretty much in that order that my mind reacted to Zuma's painting by Brett Murray. At first I was shocked that someone actually did it. Then I realized that someone had actually done it. And then I was left wondering if someone should have actually done it? 


Gareth Cliff has said "If you don't have an appreciation for art, you have no business claiming it offends you. Just because something is in bad taste does not mean you can ban or censor it. Especially if you're just some politician." 
It's just that, I wonder if Gareth would say the same thing if Brett painted his penis for the whole world to see? Or what if it was Gareth's dad or mom?? Would he be so damning on the people who are offended?? 


I wonder what action would be taken if Barak Obama was painted in the same way? Or Margret Thatcher mind you?? Would those countries' authorities leave it and write it off as freedom of speech or would they have the painting removed and destroyed??


I'm not sure the answer to the above, and not sure how our politicians are going to work all this out, but I have am forced to consider the following thoughts:


Firstly, I, like all South Africans, know the shenanigans that Mr Zuma has been involved in. Most of which are unacceptable for the head of any state. Still not sure if a country like USA, Australia or even Mongolia would have elected a man who was linked to charges of rape and corruption. We all have our own feelings towards the current SA president. BUT!!! And this is a BIG BUT...! BUT, the man's private parts have been interpreted, painted and have been put on display for the entire world to see. Without his consent. Guys....WITHOUT....his consent. Is that fair? Is that right? As a human being, are not his human rights even considered here? 


Secondly, this isn't just any man. This is JACOB ZUMA, the President of South Africa. Yes, yes, he has done a lot wrong and many of his moral practices are questionable.  Yes, we've heard that in the press! But surely, there is a certain amount of respect that the office of the president of a country holds?? The position alone needs to be respected. He's the president of our country for goodness sakes??!! There must surely be a level of respect that one gives to the man that holds that office; one which certainly doesn't allow a graphic nudist painting to be hung up and dislayed for the world to see....WITHOUT his consent?!


In my opinion, and this is just my opinion, I think the whole freedom of speech argument is a bit lame for this one. It was stretched by Jonathan Shapiro a few years back (The raping of Lady Justice drawing). It's been broken by Brett Murray. Does my freedom of speech allow me to paint a picture of you with your penis hanging out and post it on Facebook?? Why should it allow an artist to do that with someone else? Even if he is Jacob Zuma...

My Fire and Brimstone Sermon...

I remember preaching a message way back when I used to pastor and preach. To me it was a 'cooker' of a sermon. It would tackle lukewarm Christians and get them into shape. It would challenge the Christian living of many believers and would challenge them in very strong words to change.


I would start by sharing a joke about a golf game between Moses, Jesus and the Father. It was a really funny joke! And it would end with the Father winning! My catch phrase at the end of the joke was spoken in a slow but serious tone....and it went like this "Do not.......play games.......with God." I would then turn to Revelation 3:15 and speak on how believers need to decide whether they want to follow God or follow the devil. You cannot have one foot in the church and one foot in the world! It was time for hypocrisy to stop and that we had to get serious in our relationship with God. It was time to fully commit and to stop living for Jesus only on Sundays and living for the world from Monday to Saturday. It's either all for Jesus or all for the world. 


I thing is...what I didn't know at the time, is that I was disqualifying believers right there and then based on their life style, whereas God had qualified them based on their faith in Jesus. I wasn't speaking to what Jesus had done, His finished work and how God sees them! The gospel is a redemptive message. It brings redemption to all of us. We all need a savior! The world isn't filled with good people and bad people. We're all bad and we all need a savior. The gospel brings that truth and brings faith to a person who needs Jesus. My sermon did exactly the opposite. It showed Christians why they are disqualified, why God is angry with them and put the onus on them to change in order to qualify themselves in order to be in right standing with God. It was a different gospel. And you know what....deep inside, I truly believed that I was preaching 'God's word'. I truly believed that I was being lead by the Spirit and saying what he's saying. Thank God for His grace!


That's why we, those who've been given a revelation of the finished work of Jesus, shouldn't turn into grace pharisees and be hard on those who speak to people's condition rather than to their position in Jesus. May we excel in love and patience with those who are still coming around.


I thank God that he is saving us all. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we might receive his righteousness and know that all our sins, past, present and future, are forgiven and they have been washed away! I thank God that he has transferred us who believe, from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Jesus has made us right with the Father forever those who believe and walk in the faith he has given us. Christians are no longer sinners. Our sinful nature, the sinner, was crucified with Jesus on the cross. It was buried with Him. We are now new creatures, our new natures were born again when we believed and we are now saints, holy and righteous, partakers of the divine nature in which we have been placed because of Jesus. We are hidden with Christ in God. May our minds be renewed to who we are in Jesus, to how much Father loves us and may we walk and live lifestyles that are full of Christ's finished work, full of mercy and full of grace!

I saw a REAL revival. I did.

He walked by me and I just knew he was different. I felt the evil. He wore black. He never smiled and 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. 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 this Satanist named 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 black 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 had no clue what was happening. We lead her in the sinner’s prayer right there on the stage in front of the entire school of around 1100 students and 30 odd teachers. 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 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 could not 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 was 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 guys and girls 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. 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 students getting filled with the Spirit to the degree we had to take them to ‘sick bay’ after the prayer meetings as they 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 and some students and their parents were worried at the religious frenzy going on. We assured him that we were not doing anything, but praying for the kids. 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 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. And I love it! Jesus is really cool.

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.