Sovereign Lord

Oh Lord I lift Your name up
I worship You my King
For You are the Sovereign I Am
Deserving of all glory
All honour and all praise
For You are the Sovereign I Am

Sovereign Lord
Your ways are not my own
Your wisdom never ends
Sovereign Lord
You've created the heavens
Yet You call me Your friend

Your love reaches the heavens
Still You hold me when I'm weak
Your faithfulness is unending
For You reach the depths of me

Wow! What a lovely song - Sovereign Lord. In the third instalment of the "Go Fish" series by Andy Stanley, we hear of the spontaneous prayer of disciples in Acts 4 which started with "Sovereign Lord …" Yes the Sovereign Lord is the creator of all that I see and more. He is my Lord and I pledge my allegiance to him. How can I keep quiet, when even the birds sing of Him? When I grow weary and when fear has me by the throat, Jesus puts me on his shoulders and I squeal like a little boy being carried by his father. When I want to take control, He proudly stands behind me ready to catch me when I fall. He is my Sovereign Lord, my awesome Dad. No matter how many times I have let Him down, he has never left my side. Now I want the world to know that the Sovereign God wants to be your friend too.

Enable me oh Sovereign God, to speak your Word with boldness

Good people don't go to Heaven, forgiven people do.

Well, a lot of things have been going down this week and I seem to be running out of time on all sides. Last Tuesday was wonderful, I had no reason to be anxious about leading, and with all your support and input, I found myself relaxed and for this I thank you. A lot of the fishing talk we spoke about, I actually used this week. "Good people don't go to Heaven, forgiven people do."

What really came out strongly for the group in the second part of the "Go Fish" series, was that all those other religions are striving to come closer to God, but they are missing only one main ingredient and that is Jesus. Unless they are told about Jesus, they will never know salvation. This is why we are compelled to speak about Jesus.

For those who weren't there last Tuesday, I mentioned my Gran who is a devout 82 year old catholic and in the last couple of months has had a few strokes. A few years ago Carol and I spoke to her about Heaven and Hell. Did she know where she was going? She answered that she did not know, matter of fact no-one knew. We told her that we knew and went through the scriptures were it says that once you have asked Jesus to forgive you and become your personal Saviour, he will. His grace will cover all our sins past and future. "Good people don't go to Heaven, forgiven people do." She did not want to carry on with the conversation after that. However, we prayed that the seed was sown.

This month, one of my clients had not yet paid me, which meant no bills could be paid. Last Tuesday I had only enough petrol to get me to work the next day which added to my stress. Money came into my account from another source at midnight on Wednesday, and on Thursday, I was happily thanking the Lord for coming to the party. At about 11:30 that very morning, I got a call from my Uncle Ronnie and between the tears I learned that my Gran has just had a heart attack. He needed to get to his mother and he asked if I could take him. The last time I took him anywhere, was about 10 years ago to Durban to bury his oldest son who had put a gun to his head. So I picked Ronnie up in Rustenburg and headed for Durban. On the way down, it dawned on me that God had released that money just for this. We arrived in Durban the next morning at 12:30am and could only see my Gran later that morning at 11:00am. When I saw her, I saw a very weak and broken woman. She looked confused and could not speak. After conversing with the medical staff, I found out that she had 3 stokes and a heart attack on the left part of the heart, which they said was lucky for her, as it wasn't on the right side.

Later that day while having lunch at the Pavilion, I started thinking to myself, that this was a waste of my time. I had so much work and I could not afford to be here. What was I doing here? I resolved to go back the next day, and again God intervened. He told me clearly that I was here because he wanted me here and by the way, what was I doing in a fast food restaurant? He said to me to get back to the hospital now and tell my Gran about Him. I went, but along the way wondered what God wanted me to say.

At the hospital, I found the family. With only two allowed at a time, I had to go in with someone else. Hoping that I rather be alone, I stood at the foot of her bed and watched as Ronnie pushed a rosary into her hand. I told God that I can't, these catholics would rip me apart. I said to God if He wanted me to speak to Gran, He must create a opportunity for me. Ronnie then turned to me and asked if I would like to speak to her. I nodded, and as he moved aside I said to him "alone", so he simply walked out.

Again, I said to God I can't, what could I say. He said to me "Just tell her about me". So I asked her if she remembered that conversation about Heaven and Hell. She nodded. I took her hand and said that Jesus is the answer. Just call on His name. Jesus has all the answers you are seeking. With that she got very fidgety and her eyes were everywhere. I prayed a short prayer over her and as I left the room I said to her "Jesus, Jesus is the answer".

The next two family members went into the room and I found my aunt Maryanne and Ronnie in a waiting room. While sitting there casually making small talk, I started telling them about the Heaven and Hell conversation that I had with Gran a few years ago. Ronnie said that his mom will go to Heaven as she has suffered so much in the past and God will reward her for that. I just looked at him and said "Good people don't go to Heaven, forgiven people do." He went quiet. God then said to me, that this not just about Gran, and the word "Curse" came burning into my mind. I looked straight at Maryanne and said "This family is cursed" Without missing a beat she answered me "Yes, and I know what the curse is all about". Ronnie reacted like I thought anyone would after been told that their family is cursed. He wanted to know what was the curse about, but Maryanne said that she could not tell anyone of the curse until Gran was dead. After picking up my jaw off the ground, I said to God that I have done what you have wanted me to do, I am way over my head on this, but you lead and I will follow. With my Gran, it was "Jesus is the answer she is looking for, what ever she is trying to keep hidden, Jesus is the only one who can take that burden and give her peace". Now with Ronnie "Good people don't go to Heaven, forgiven people do." and with Maryanne "Nothing is hidden from God and this curse what ever it is will come into the light where God will deal with it".

Driving back to where I was staying, Theresa, my sister came strongly to my mind. I just had to speak with her and tell her what had just happened. Later that evening Theresa phoned me to get feed back about Gran, so I told her everything about that day. She then said to me that the previous day God had laid Gran on her heart. She had this feeling that Gran was trying say something that was hidden in her heart. Theresa prayed that God would send someone to Gran.

That someone turned out to be me. God made sure money came in and that I would go down to Gran. Another strange thing happened that I should mention here, well I should never be surprised when God is in control. Theresa said she was awoken at about midnight, her alarm went off. She had not set it, but she felt that she had to pray. Even though she didn't know what for. I said to her at that time I had driven into a lot of mist on the way down and could not see clearly. God wanted me safely down in Durban to deliver His messages. The seed has been sown. God has spoken and I pray that they listen to Him as He is the answer.

We were all fish once

"Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men"- Jesus

Do these words scare you?

On Tuesday night we started a new series called "Go Fish" by Andy Stanley. The first part of this series was "We were all fish once". Yes once we were ordinary people just minding our own business and along comes an extraordinary Saviour who calls us to follow him. My fear of being a fisher of men was that I could never land a fish or in my terms "close the deal". What Graeme Codrington said on Sunday and what Andy Stanley reiterated that it had nothing to do with that at all. It is to be in the right place, at the right time so God can take control and use us in an extraordinary way. It may be a smile, a hug, or just being there and God can use that to leverage someone's short time on earth for eternity.

Prayer came over strongly in our discussions. Prayer is the key. As on Sunday, Andy encouraged us to think of someone who has not found the Lord or who has turned away so that we could pray for him or her.

At the end of the first part Andy gave us homework. He asked us to write a letter to the person who was responsible for bringing us the Lord. Now you don’t have to do what I am about to do but being who I am, here is my letter to my best friend.

Hi Robbie,

I am writing you this letter because my cell group and I just started a series by Andy Stanley called "Go Fish" and he encouraged us to write a letter to the person who God put in the right place, at the right time and said the right things that then ultimately lead us to give our lives to the Lord Jesus.

Now you were not actually there when I gave my life to Lord way back in 1984 but you were instrumental in putting me on the right path. But let's start from the beginning.

As you know way back in the early 80s I was a very introvert and shy teenager, who was rejected by my family and shipped off to hostel. Friends were security I desperately needed. I attached myself to your "clique" of friends and made them my friends. Nothing beats getting instant friends. You took me home to your family one weekend in February/March 1983. Do you remember sneaking me onto the bus without a bus ticket? What I found at "Breezy-Knoll" was a family that I did not have, a family that I longed for. Your family went to church that Sunday as a family. There was laughter and fun around the lunch table not the fear that I had become used to in my own family. From then on your dad and mom used to pick me up at hostel every Sunday to take me to church. Your mom became the mom I didn't have, your dad the dad I didn't have, you became my brother and your siblings my siblings. Looking back this was the start of God's plan.

Church was still simply church for me and Jesus was someone who died 2000 years ago. On the first day of second school term in 1983 you where excitedly chatting to Jens Deppe at the back of the class about how in the April holidays during a church camp in Margate you met the girl of your dreams, Kathy Bailey. Do you remember us teasing you about this "Rust on the Crust" from Pietermarizburg? So I decided that I would go to the next camp just to meet this Kathy. So the following year off I went to camp. I went to the church camp not to meet Jesus but Kathy. Do you remember how I boldly went up to her in the kitchens and said that you liked her? Anyway I am digressing, back to what this letter is about. At that camp I learnt who Jesus was. How he loved me for who I was and that He wanted me to join His family, no questions asked. It was only later that year at another camp in June that I gave my life to the Lord. Do you remember Mr Anderson, a geography teacher? He invited me to this church camp on an orange farm in Bainesfield near Pietermarizburg. It was amongst the orange trees on my knees that I opened up my heart and let Jesus in. Now I suppose you are wondering what that was all about.

Well, I want to thank you so much just for being my friend when I was so obviously immature. God wanted you to invite me home on that weekend in 1983. It was that weekend of which I have so many fond memories that God used you to put me on course for eternity. We don't get together often anymore on account of me living in Joburg but I want you to know that you Robbie are still my best friend.

Jerome

Deliverance

We have come to the end of the series on Spiritual Warfare and rapped it up with a rather difficult subject of Deliverance Ministries. Growing up in the 80s in the Brethren Church "it" was mentioned. But as the big baddie it was best for us to keep clear of it. The enemy has even used Hollywood to make himself look powerful and Jesus helpless. As a result many of us are scared to approach anything that resembles demonic. Last Tuesday we learnt that is not just about exorcism, it's about setting someone free in Jesus' name. Jesus is the key. Victory is through the cross. Victory is in the name of Jesus. Victory is in the power of the Holy Spirit. God is glorified and lives are changed!

The enemy is not going wait for us to get our act together. He is constantly on the prowl. All around us people are coming under his influence. We have to ask Jesus to remove the scales from our eyes and just look around. It starts off small but if not checked it grows … Oppression » Harassment » Obsession » Compulsion » Control and finally if you are an unbeliever Possession. We need to recognise first the enemy and then in name of Jesus tear down the strongholds he builds in the mind.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. - 2 Corinthians 10:4

We need to put on the armour of God and join the active ranks. No use just ignoring the enemy and hope he will go away. We need resist him and he will flee.

The Secret Weapon

Wow, I have just come back from an awesome prayer session at Minuteman Press in Parktown North. We as a group of men descended on Dave Tucker's new franchise to pray and dedicate it to God. Here we prayed, broke bread on our knees and anointed all the rooms. I felt that all the spiritual warfare lessons we did up to now have paid dividends. Here we were dressed up in our armour and claiming the ground for God. We carried God's Standard before the spiritual troops and planted it firmly at Minuteman Press in Parktown North. This here is God's country.

Okay that is enough of what has happen today in the battle. Now for what we did last Tuesday: At cell we spoke about the Christian’s secret weapon. Something we tend to rather use in defence not as it was meant to be use, in offence. And that weapon is Prayer. It is the weapon that the enemy fears the most. It is our Ultimate Weapon.

Prayer is so powerful that the enemy tries to break down the power before it happens. The enemy does everything to stop us talking to God. He distracts us from Prayer so that we become infective wimps.

Here is an extract from Edward Bounds' book "The Weapon of Prayer". It was written in the 19th century (This piece was reformatted by Katie Stewart) …

"GOD'S great plan for the redemption of mankind is as much bound up to prayer for its prosperity and success as when the decree creating the movement was issued from the Father, bearing on its frontage the imperative, universal and eternal condition, "Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession." In many places an alarming state of things has come to pass, in that the many who are enrolled in our churches are not praying men and women. Many of those occupying prominent positions in church life are not praying men. It is greatly feared that much of the work of the Church is being done by those who are perfect strangers to the closet. Small wonder that the work does not succeed. While it may be true that many in the Church say prayers, it is equally true that their praying is of the stereotyped order. Their prayers may be charged with sentiment, but they are tame, timid, and without fire or force. Even this sort of praying is done by a few straggling men to be found at prayer-meetings. Those whose names are to be found bulking large in our great Church assemblies are not men noted for their praying habits. Yet the entire fabric of the work in which they are engaged has, perforce, to depend on the adequacy of prayer. This fact is similar to the crisis which would be created were a country to admit in the face of an invading foe that it cannot fight and have no knowledge of the weapons whereby war is to be waged. In all God's plans for human redemption, He proposes that men pray. The men are to pray in every place, in the church, in the closet, in the home, on sacred days and on secular days. All things and everything are dependent on the measure of men's praying. Prayer is the genius and mainspring of life. We pray as we live; we live as we pray. Life will never be finer than the quality of the closet. The mercury of life will rise only by the warmth of the closet. Persistent non-praying eventually will depress life below zero."

"Go back! Back to that upper room; back to your knees; back to searching of heart and habit, thought and life; back to pleading, praying, waiting, till the Spirit of the Lord floods the soul with light, and you are endued with power from on high. Then go forth in the power of Pentecost, and the Christ-life shall be lived, and the works of Christ shall be done. You shall open blind eyes, cleanse foul hearts, break men's fetters, and save men's souls. In the power of the indwelling Spirit, miracles become the commonplace of daily living." -- Samuel Chadwick

May God give us the grace to take up the weapon of prayer, and to use it!

Helmet of Salvation

Just a short one this time.

Next in the series of knowing the enemy we covered the helmet of salvation.
In 1 Thes 5:8 it says "But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation ."
We discovered that the helmet is a very important part of the armour. The hope of salvation is for the head. It covers our minds, intellect and reasoning. Our minds are the playground of the enemy. He has known us for over 40 years (well that's in my case, please add the extra years to the 40 as you see fit ;-). He knows how we think so he can easily manipulate us into doing the wrong thing. The importance of the helmet does not need much convincing does it now. We need to protect our minds in the hope of God's salvation.

Shield of Faith

Last Tuesday we learnt how to engage our enemy by taking up the Shield of Faith. By faith we can move beyond just standing firm and being defensive, we can now face the enemy head-on. The shield gives us confidence. The shield is the faith in God's blood that was spilt for us one and for all. Faith that the victory has already being secured. Someone once answered the question of "What is faith?" with these simple words "I'm ignorant, and I cannot answer well, but I think it is taking God at His Word."

In God’s Word we read …
"Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds." (Psalm 73: 23-28)

I want to learn to choose faith, even when fear seems more reasonable.