Lord, I Need Your Test to Prove My Love to You!
WARNING: As a Ministry, we received some concerns from brethren who reported that a certain 'apostle Peter Daniel' claimed that the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him that people who took the Covid-19 vaccination was going to go to Hell. We have written extensively on this matter in our 'Mark of the Beast I, II, and III' articles in which we explained and by virtue of a revelation from the Lord that the vaccine was not the mark of the beast. The Lord has revealed to us that the testimony of this brother or 'apostle' is false.
Furthermore, Brethren, we must guard the truth we received and following Scriptural guidance is our only truthful measure. Indeed, the Lord did warn us that many false prophets will arise (Matthew 24:11), and our times have seen countless false prophets who are chasing fame and money from others while gathering a following for themselves.
Additionally, the article we wrote a few years ago goes with the heading as 'The unfaithful witness' and that vision we may now reveal actually refers to Pastor Chris from Christ's embassy. The Lord is NOT happy that he encourages people to smoke and drink. We appeal to you not to follow that teaching or encourage others to smoke or drink. We received revelation from the Lord regarding smoking and that those who smoke will end up in HELL. Anyone who encourages others to smoke will be responsible for their souls.
Thus, the scripture that declares that we are the temple of God through which the Holy Spirit dwells in us is the appropriate scriptural reference pertaining to smoking, drinking, drug abuse, and any form of gluttonous indulgence (1 Corinthians 3:16). Also, the brother encourages greed as well saying that gambling is not a sin, this is equally encouraging people not to work but to depend on the spirit of 'luck' (Ephesians 4:28; 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12). As a former gambler myself, I can confess that gambling promotes greed and selfishness. It is a spirit that drives one which makes a person totally addicted and where there is an addiction there is a demonic possession (Romans 8:5-9).
Finally, our theology should not encourage us to mislead others or be impetuous (Forwardness to try to please others) the Lord warned a few members of this ministry against such a spirit. As ministers of the gospel, our teaching should always seek to please God Almighty and not be men-pleasers (Galatians 1:10).
From the above heading, we are sharing a compelling testimony on testing and how the Lord Jesus Christ drew our attention to the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Having been a Christian for over 20 years, I have seen and met many believers who despise tests, and some of them don’t realize that testing is necessary and is meant for our growth and expression of love to the Lord. As the apostle Paul observed, tests produce the fruit of the Spirit in us (Romans 5:3-5). Most of us have read a newspaper article or storybook how a hero showed his love to someone, even to the point of death. This might be a true gesture of love, and we should appreciate that, but the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins is even more priceless as it holds an eternal benefit to the entire human race (John 3:16). This is the love we should embrace willingly and without restraint. In sharing our testimony, we do not intend to bring focus to ourselves, but rather to prove the inerrancy and authoritative nature of God’s Word. All evidence of truth must be Scripturally-relevant and grounded on God’s Word. I, therefore, encourage you strongly in the lord Jesus Christ to ponder this strong Scriptural evidence and ready yourself to serve the Lord. We are all called to put our faith and love for the Lord to the test, through service and self- sacrifice. May the Spirit of the Living God guide and lead you into all His truth.
Truthfully, the tests that we pass through and those experienced by some individuals in the Bible were not necessarily pleasant experiences (Deuteronomy 8:2). Those being tested cried out to God for help! (Job 19:7; 30:20; Psalm 69:29). In this life, it is difficult to imagine how it would be if there was no test to bring out pain, excitement to show triumph, love to show belonging, and hurt to express a need for forgiveness. In the absence of the above, if there were no uncertainties and disruptions, the human experience would be meaningless, rigid, and without an adventure. When God placed the human race on the earth, He made us remember things we did in the past. However, He hid from us knowing the future outright, so that we might discover the future through Him (Genesis 2:16-17; Isaiah 46:10). To the human race, the future is uncertain, and by experiencing life, we discover our faults, the truth about things, and God’s grace in helping us cope with life’s uncertainties (Isaiah 58:11; Psalm 32:8). Therefore, the door of tests opens our lives to character building and brings our hidden weaknesses out for us to acknowledge and work on them. As humans, we grow and learn more about ourselves by self-discovery and through environmental pressures. Going through tests exposes our inner attitude and helps measure how much we value God, others and appreciate life.
Because we cannot foresee the future, the path ahead of us is hidden and uncertain, and we consciously sense the pain or excitement of our journey through life. When the going gets tough, we either decide to continue on our own or find help from God or others to ease the burden of our life’s journey. If we have built our lives through the experiences, sacrifices, and pain of others before us, this makes the journey through life more comfortable and with less effort. Unfortunately, when we are “cushioned” from the harsh realities of life or are building on someone’s foundation, we may become complacent and think that we do no need God because we can do everything by ourselves or through the help of others. Such a faithless attitude promotes spiritual laziness while developing bad fruit and attitudes which demons feast on to keep the person captive. Modern society, especially in the developed countries and urban cities across the world, is trapped in the comfort of effortless enjoyment of life’s luxuries because we can buy our way through. Under such conditions of ease, experiencing life through test helps to develop appreciation, gratitude, humility, and empathy as the hardships can help us identify with those needy in society and, hopefully, be moved to offer help where needed.
Today’s Christians, especially those who have embraced the feel-good, prosperity gospel, regard God as our servant whom we demand to help us when tests and trials strike us. Similarly, there are some fine and prestigious Bible institutions today, and in my experience, the individuals they have produced have the knowledge and the qualification on paper, but the heart is running without the real fruit of truth and of service to advance the Christian course. Conversely, we have a few Churches where the Bible is fully taught and the knowledge of the Word of God is at a peak with people using Scriptural references to comfort themselves and share with others as they await the soon return of the Lord—this is where we ought to be.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was the only Person not born to uncertainty because He knew the arduous road that He would travel through this life; this was set out for Him from the foundation of the world through eternity (Ephesians 1:4, 1 Peter 1:20). His life unfolded as He willed it, and it turned out to be the way He purposely chose (John 10:18; 12:23-28; Luke 22:10-13, 20:19-26). Based on these Scriptural examples, there was nothing the Lord did not know. He purposely chose the Cross, including the suffering and the humiliation associated with it (John 10:17-18). He boldly and fearlessly declared: “I came to this hour” (John 12:27). The Lord’s fearless attitude showed purpose, destiny and a clear intent on accomplishing what He came here for, which is to redeem man from hell and rise again to go and prepare a place of rest for us, Hallelujah! (John 14:3).
He clothed Himself with the Fruit of the Spirit, most notably He was humble and became a servant to experience human pain, suffering, and shame (Philippians 2:6-11). The life and suffering of Christ were well chronicled in the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 53, for example) and many other passages in the Bible. This was a powerful statement of God saying: “I love My creation!” This complete work of the cross and our Lord’s resurrection ushered in a new dispensation in the order of creation. Through it, we see that this current state of all creation, including Heaven, is passing and a renewal is looming (Matthew 24:35; Romans 8: 19-23). All things are to be renewed and reconciled through Christ (Colossians 1:20), Who learned obedience through the things He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).
Obedience to God comes at the price of denying self in order to serve God. When we must obey, there must be no “what about me?” It is all about giving ourselves over for the benefit of others; this is the principle of the Kingdom of God (Philippians 2:3). Because we are in service to God, we can trust Him to provide for all our needs (Philippians 4:19). Hardships, which help reveal the condition of the heart, therefore, produce character (either negatively or positively) in our submission to God. Every born-again believer in Christ has a unique opportunity to experience salvation through test and service to God and others. Our salvation does not just come through repentance; it is also revealed through ministry service, obedience and the bearing of fruit (John 15:1-15). As it is, our repentance must lead us to bear fruit to serve God and others (Matthew 13:8). In a strongly worded message to his hearers John the Baptist said: “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10). To avoid being “axed”, we must resolve to serve Him faithfully through the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior displayed all the fruit of the Holy spirit through His life. His conception through the Holy Spirit had the ‘seed’ of the Fruit present to produce fruit (Luke 2:51-52). The fruit of the Spirit attracts both man and God to us, and as such our Lord did this. Our testimony and discipleship are shown not just through our knowledge of God’s Word, but through the fruit as well (John 13:35, Acts 4:13). Unsaved people are only attracted by the fruit we bear; they look for the fruit in us first before believing our witness and testimony, and then they decide to obey or despise the Lord. The Holy Fruit of the Holy Spirit encompasses very high virtues of excellence and perfection. Biblically, the God-Head is known through these eminent qualities, and Christ Jesus endows those He has called with these fruits (John 15:5). When we live by the fruit of the Holy Spirit, there is no law to convict or find the Holy Spirit guilty, because no unrighteousness, sin or prejudice is found in love. He, the Holy Spirit, being in us produces selfless justice and He defends the weak through the strong virtue of love (Romans 8:8-10, Galatians 5:22-25). We must follow the Spirit and His law of love will conquer all human situations.
Every born-again believer who received the baptism of the Holy Spirit by faith should bear fruit in their lives (John 15:8). Our Lord Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would testify about Him and bring glory to Him (John 16:13). We will, therefore, bear much fruit if we are saved and apply the Word of God in our lives (John 15:7). As believers, why do we often desire the gifts more than the fruit of the Holy Spirit? From my experience, it’s mostly because we want the power to attract others to us and have convincing signs. While this is good, the Lord has also given the Fruit of the Spirit in the body and to individual believers to minister and display His character to humanity. Life is uncertain and full of pain and suffering, but the Fruit of the Holy Spirit gives us hope and helps us cope with life. As I alluded earlier, followers of Christ are identified by the fruits of holiness. Further below we will attempt to show how God used tests to help us appreciate the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, resulting in fruit-bearing.
If we commit ourselves to following and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ, we will face and attract persecutions (Matthew 5:11; 2 Timothy 3:12). This is part of the Christian experience because the cross requires us to die to self (Matthew 7:13). This is an essential Christian training, just like the Lord Jesus was tried and tested by Satan himself (Matthew 4). Now, He didn’t need to learn obedience; He simply had to show His obedience and submission to God the Father (Hebrews 5:8). The word ‘learned’ in the above Scripture refers to Him accepting suffering, rather than being tested to learn. If we submit to God, He promises to do the pruning and impartation of fruits while changing our attitudes (John 15:1).
When we go through tests and trials, we may experience pain, whether physical or emotional or both. None of us likes the discomfort of pain, especially emotional pain, which is much more unbearable because it leaves us without the fruit of peace. I have observed that every bad fruit is manifested when a person does not have peace within. The good news is that words of comfort can heal the heart of emotional pain and revive peace (Proverbs 16:24).
The Bible clearly states that every virtue and gift from the Holy Spirit operates outside the human will; He distributes to each one individually as He wills, not as we want (1 Corinthians 12:11). In other words, we cannot simply force the Holy Spirit to conjure up a gift or fruit. He manifests as we willingly submit to His guidance and He does this to minister to a need in honor to God. Therefore, when the fruit of the Holy Spirit is manifested, it results in the growth of ministry, and the Lord wants to use believers to meet people’s needs through the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Kindly allow me to share the following testimony. Before I got the job the Lord promised and subsequently provided back in February 2010, we were totally broke financially. My wife and I discussed the matter, weighing the options of where and to whom we could go for help. We decided to just use our faith and pray in agreement, asking the Lord to provide me with ‘taxi-fare’ to attend my scheduled interview. Since the Lord was speaking to us regularly and knew what I needed the money for, we decided to inquire of Him. When He visited Charis that evening, she asked Him: “Lord Jesus Christ, my father says he must go for an interview tomorrow, and he is asking if the Lord can please provide taxi-fare for him.”The Lord replied, saying: “I will send someone today to bring your father money [indicating the amount] for his interview”. The next day, my wife’s friend, who is not a born-again Christian, came over for a visit. Remember, the Lord did not reveal the identity of the person He promised to send to us. My wife’s friend reached for her purse and took out the amount money we believed the Lord for, without my wife asking her for it. This moved my wife into a rapturous joy without divulging to her why she was excited. Surely, it was not the money that stirred our excitement, but the faithful fulfillment of the Lord’s promise. In this situation, the Lord used the gift of giving through an unsaved person to meet a need. When we later revealed to this precious woman how the Lord used her, she was moved into tears and a feeling of being unworthy to be used so innocently by the Almighty.
We had a separate teaching from the Lord on how He chooses to bless. In my experience, the Lord may choose to bless us directly with the thing we trusted Him for, and in rewarding us He would surprise us and this gift from Him is always unexpected. In 2011, a sister in our ministry decided to bless my wife and me with a sum of money. While we had money of our own, and being conscience of the spirit of greed, we decided to ask the Lord through Charis if we could take the money from the sister. The Lord answered saying, “Your father may take the money [indicating the amount] from My daughter Grace (not real name). It is not My daughter Grace blessing your father; it is Me”.
In yet another teaching, this time the Lord revealed to us that screaming which arises out of anger comes from the devil. In discouraging this kind of behavior, He rebuked a sister who was in the habit of screaming in anger, saying: “My daughter Sue (not real name) must not scream; it is from the DEVIL. My daughter Sue must have a spirit of love”. I have added this to warn those mothers and fathers who like screaming to their children and others. The Bible talks about Satan being the king of terror (Job 18:14), and he uses screaming to induce fear and submission. So, be careful not to be angry and start yelling at the top of your voice! In contrast, the Lord gives peace to drive away fear. As a reminder, remember we cannot just switch the fruit of the Spirit “on” or “off”. The Holy Spirit chooses to manifest, influence and work through an obedient, discerning, and a God-fearing child of God. In a message to me, the Lord told me that obedience and faithfulness are very pleasing to Him because these are an expression of our Love for Him.
Let us briefly examine the Scriptures to learn how God brought forth the fruit of faithfulness and patience through test in some of His most notable servants. The Bible says that God tested Abraham through his willingness to obey Him and sacrifice Isaac (Hebrews 11:17). For Abraham to pass the test God gave Him, he had to obey submissively and by faith. We have had a firsthand experience that the test given by the Lord is not always easy. It involves a selfless giving and submission to His will. I will briefly share later how we were subjected to test by the Lord. Abraham, the patriarch, was called by God to leave his father’s land (Hebrews 11:8) and to prove his obedience to God who subjected him to testing (Genesis 22). In teaching Abraham patience, the Lord gave him promises which we might not be able to wait for so long. After his faith endured, Abraham received God’s promise (Hebrews 6:15).
Considering a few more examples of test in the Bible, the children of Israel were tested when God took them through the wilderness (Exodus 15). Even so, our Lord Jesus Christ was tested (Matthew 4). Job was also tested (Job 1), and so was the prophet Daniel and his friends (Daniel 6:16-28; Daniel 3:1-30). In addition, faithful women of God like Esther and Ruth endured test. Therefore, from the above examples, every man or woman of God who walks in obedience to Him will be tested. Testing might even happen at the expense of one’s life and against one’s personal interest (Luke 17:33 and Luke 14)—even to the point of death (Revelation 2:10). In this kind of experience, we willingly and submissively set our own goals aside to serve the greater good of others (Galatians 5:13).
Nowadays there seems to be some kind of competition among some Christians in their pursuit of worldly wealth. I can recall when I attended Bible school classes at a well-known charismatic church. We were encouraged to trust God for wealth with Scriptures being cited out of context to promote avarice. Just because God chose to bless Abraham and others, we were taught to claim the same right. Brethren, this kind of teaching elevates and inflates needs, more than holy living. In my understanding, this teaching runs similar to the one the prophet Jeremiah confronted when he challenged the “peace preachers” of his day (Jeremiah 28:9). Satan has set a trap and blind-folded many believers into believing that riches is what God wants for them. It is a shameful thing to show off our godliness through our wealth when we have neighbors who are starving. The question we should ask ourselves is, do we accumulate wealth to attract people to us and for power? Biblically, a truly humble servant of God serves and such a person hardly has any desire to be recognized by man (Matthew 6:1-4). While it is acceptable to give some of our money for the work of the Lord, we are also commanded scripturally to minister to those around us (Galatians 5:13). While using your money to support the work of God is an acceptable offering, how about us being the living sacrifice? (Romans 12:1-2, Luke 14, Acts 4 & 5).
Since the establishment of this ministry, we have been ministering to many believers who are struggling with some sinful habits. In helping me to minister to some of them, the Lord told us that their suffering is self-inflicted, with disobedience and a lack of faith playing a major part in their suffering. The evil desires and cravings feast on them, and they are being smitten by the weakness of the flesh, leading to disobedience (1 Peter 1:13-14). My godly advice to those who are unable to shake off bad habits is this: spend time daily reading the word of God and praying. As I personally discovered, if you do this, you will experience deliverance and the Lord will impart fruit in you for service. When we overcome tests and trials we receive more faith and fruit of the Spirit (1 Peter 1:6-7).
Today, the apostasy of the prosperity teaching only feeds the younger believers God’s promises without preparing them for real service through suffering. As it is, suffering produces character and character produces faith and it sustains with endurance (Romans 5:3-5). The Holy Spirit, who is our Helper, uses our knowledge of the Word of God. He convicts us so that we obey the Lord, and through our obedience, we are being pruned to bear fruit (John 15:1-2).
I will now share some practical test we endured as a ministry and a family. We are not sharing this to attract attention to ourselves nor do we seek pity; instead, we are sharing this to encourage you and to let you know that the Lord is using tests to impart fruits of service leading to obedience.
Initially, we would like to use the word “suffering” in explaining some of our experiences. This was new a territory in our Christian lives, and we experienced some degree of pain, rejection and discomfort. Previously when we did ministry work, we did so with ease, without any kind of pressure or discomfort. However, similar to the Bible examples we cited above when the Lord gave us a test, a lot of people started withdrawing from us. It was like separating the faithful from the unfaithful. The believers who did not have faith thought that what we were doing by witnessing late at night and praying till late was both impractical and ‘ridiculous’. In our obedience, we acted by faith and we persevered patiently until we could understand what the Lord was doing. Below we briefly detail the various tests from the Lord. As you keep reading, put yourself in our shoes: Do you think you would be able to endure?
In November 2010, the Lord put my wife and me through a prayer and fast test for a full month. He told us through Charis that we must fast for a month and besides our normal daily prayers, we were to start with intercessory prayers from 11:30 PM every night. During this time of devotion, the Lord commanded that our children not be home when we pray. In other words, we should have no one disturbing us. The Lord did, however, allow us to spend some time daily with our daughters and just before dark we would take them to my mother-in-law who agreed to look after them. Our Sunday evening prayer times was especially meant to start from midnight. My wife and I agreed on a list of things to pray for weekly. As an encouragement to the husband and wife who are serving the Lord, praying together holds lasting peace in the family bond and it also gives greater breakthrough in family matters and problems. The Lord did not forewarn us that we would be attacked by the devil, but He promised us protection. At first, we did not realize what He was referring to. We only realized later that He would protect us from Satan’s attacks, and indeed, fulfilled this promise.
As we labored in these late night prayers, we experienced various attacks against our bodies and minds. At times, fatigue and sleepiness would set in, and we further experienced heavy attacks against our bodies, leaving us with feelings of deep discomfort. It felt as if our bodies were being tormented, and we had sleepiness and numbness. We felt as if we had no control over our bodies, and we sensed evil in our room with things making a crackling sound. There was a spirit of slumber too, causing me or my wife to fall into a deep sleep while still praying. We only realized this after being awakened by a strong hand from the Lord. As we continued, we would walk in our bedroom praying, sitting or lying down; and I at times would crawl on the floor trying my best to shake off the uncontrollable feeling of discomfort. To best describe that feeling, it was a restlessness, partial numbness and very irritating sensation affecting both the body and the mind. I knew my soul was troubled by this pressure. This attack from Satan, which included pain, fatigue, and discomfort to my body, was meant to discourage us from praying. It seemed that his attacks were particularly elevated on Sunday evenings. Our every longing was the completion of this task and, in the end, the Lord gave us the strength to overcome. This test brought about a great sense of deliverance from our own troubles. About three days after being on this assignment of fasting and prayer, the Lord commanded us, along with our fourteen prayer partners to pray for two weeks gathering together every night. These fourteen prayer partners were people the Lord asked us to find and pray with us, and He had given us one week to find them.
As a result of this late night prayer test, some women experienced persecution through their unsaved husbands. While others, whose husbands were saved, were pressured to stay at home using the “wife must submit” Scripture (Ephesians 5:22), and some others were not interested.To clarify the Scripture on submission, the only time we must not submit to man’s authority is when we must obey God (Proverbs 29:25; Acts 5:29).
In commanding these late night prayers, the Lord purposely did this to assess our attitude towards prayer and our obedience to Him. Let’s be honest: there are Christians who enjoy praying for their own needs but too busy to attend combatant or intercessory prayers for the good of others. They prefer being comfortable, but the Lord duly rewards the discomfort He allows us to face for the benefit of His Kingdom. As in our situation, many of the brethren who left due to the various pressures they had, re-joined their old habits of watching TV while restricting themselves to only Sunday services, without any active participating in witnessing or other affairs of the body.
After we completed this course of prayers over five weeks, the Lord needed my wife and me to get twenty people to pray with us every Saturday night while He would send us out to witness in our community every Friday night. He told Charis that we must start witnessing from 8:30 PM until about 11:30 PM. From the original twenty people, only six obeyed and joined me and my wife. We armed ourselves with prayer and some tracts; handing them out to everyone we came across on the streets. Because it was too late for us to knock on people’s doors, we also placed tracts in their postboxes and on their fences.
This was hitherto an unknown experience and we put our trust in the Lord, who protected us from dogs, thugs, and fear. We understood later that the Lord was targeting youngsters in our community who were either on drugs, clubbing and those going and sitting in the pubs to drink liquor. In our drive to ‘impress’ the Lord, we also went fearlessly into these pubs, handing out tracts while witnessing to the patrons. I was the only man witnessing with six very brave women, who left their husbands and children at home and gave up early sleep to chase souls for the Kingdom of God. This test went on for about six weeks until the Lord changed the times to our current witnessing time which was from 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM every Friday evening.
In August 2011, the Lord told Charis: “I have a big task for your mother and father and the witnessing team on Monday”. When the Lord came that Monday, He said: “The witnessing team must witness and fast for a full month starting tomorrow (Tuesday, August 2011) in (indicating the area) from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM every day. Your father may only witness with the team when he is off”. This message caught all of us off-guard and we did not have enough money for car fuel expenses and gospel tracts to go out witnessing. We called a meeting and as a team of seven, we discussed the task, planned and prayed while checking our resources. We ordered additional tracts from a local supplier and also requested for tracts and donations online from some faithful brethren. As a ministry, we give glory to the Lord for the believers who responded by faith, obedience and discernment by helping us in our hour of testing. Their response came as a great encouragement to us and to us, all these precious Christian brothers and sisters were united in purpose. Now may the Lord bless them with everlasting life and comfort them in their struggle of faith.
During our witnessing for the month, we were greeted by scorching heat during the day and bitter cold some nights, along with the fear of dogs and thugs since we were witnessing in a community where we were not known. Many times we also went witnessing while fighting hunger pangs, and we were tortured by exhaustion, fatigue and rejection. The Lord opened the hearts of some residents to open their homes to us to use their toilet facilities as we went along. We love our country and it is not my intention to use this book to speak down on our country, but the reality is, crime is a problem that affects us all. Every area has thugs and their share of gangsters. Although we feared for our safety, especially during the night, we obeyed the Lord and persevered by faith. Being all alone with mostly women, the Lord faithfully watched over us and protected us. In seeing us patrolling their streets, some residents mistook us for either night watchmen or villains, so as we approached them to witness and hand them tracts, some would run away thinking we intended to harm them.
In my absence, while I was at work, my wife and the rest of the team, all women, continued and went out witnessing all by themselves and nothing harmful happened to them. Praise be to God! As a challenge, we often ran out of tracts, but this did not deter us from witnessing. We would decide to witness door to door using our Bibles only and reserving whatever tracts remained to witness at night; we placed them in post-boxes, fences or slipped them under doors. Since it is a bit risky and somewhat odd to knock on people’s doors after 7:00 PM, we resorted to witnessing in lighted areas, like petrol stations and frequent hangout places.
Furthermore, we honestly thought we could do with some rest so we asked the Lord about our corporate prayers and weekly services. Instead, He regarded this work as fundamentally important and suspended our prayers until we finished this task. During the short breaks we had, we did short prayers which were our lifeline. As a team, we prayed in turns for about five minutes before leaving for witnessing. As unpleasant it is to say, frustration got the better of some of us, resulting in bitter feuds, but the Lord held us together, encouraging and rebuking the faithless. Geographically, this was a very large area, and we walked very long distances with some houses located sporadically.
Kindly allow me to share briefly my observation regarding the attitudes of some Christians including pastors. The church today uses the Sunday pulpit routine as an excuse not to witness to the unsaved. While enriching themselves with the tithes and offerings, pastors preach every week to the same people who ought to be witnesses themselves! What has become of servants called to serve if they only want to be leaders? (Matthew 20:26) Will the church become silent with the Gospel and allow the tyranny of the devil to use world leaders and evil men to silence us and make us feel ashamed of the gospel? The richness of our Christian history does not allow for silence, but bold preaching (Acts 18:9).
There is not enough time to mention every test we went through including personal test, but I tried to be brief. In addition, the Lord advised that we testify about this to highlight the importance of soul-winning and the need of the gospel to save sinners. My wife was about a month pregnant during our witnessing campaign in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg. She never used her pregnancy as an excuse not to witness; in fact, the Lord encouraged her to witness with us until the last week before the baby was due to be delivered. She herself was very eager to go witnessing. Although I was concerned, I leaned on the Lord’s assurances, and so supported her efforts.
After my wife gave birth, the Lord gave us a new test: we were to have a deliverance service during our Wednesday services from 6:00 PM to 2:00 AM. Inside I grumbled: “Lord how could you choose this time for deliverance? Our baby daughter is only three days old and she needs her mother!” Although I was troubled, the Lord knew my thoughts, so we obeyed. This was a deliverance session, so no children were allowed. We made arrangements to take the baby and our other daughters to my mother in law’s place until after our deliverance service which ended 2:00 AM. On another occasion of testing when our little girl Cailin was about three weeks old, my wife longed to witness with me and the team. The Lord saw her heart’s desire and allowed her to join us on the witnessing field after the Lord gave us a new witnessing area to cover. My wife took the baby along, nursing her while witnessing. In concluding this testimony, my wife did not rest from service after she gave birth. After two weeks she was back full time in ministry work and during these times, we left our children in the care of my mother-in-law. Bless her heart! We pray that this testimony will move you into action.
This testimony is for encouragement and for the body of believers and our prayer is that the Lord will move many believers to faithful service and readiness. He is coming very soon. His promise to us was: “...I am coming very soon!” For those of you wondering whether to home-school your children or not in these perilous last days; this is a decision that parents should make through prayer and faith. He who promised is Faithful. He will not tarry long but come!
The Lord bless you to pass all trials and tests. May He protect you and help you resist and overcome the enemy to the end. Amen!
Blessed love to you all in Jesus' name,
Brother Glenn Van Rooyen.
Tests Expose Our Hidden Weaknesses and Make Room for New Fruit
Truthfully, the tests that we pass through and those experienced by some individuals in the Bible were not necessarily pleasant experiences (Deuteronomy 8:2). Those being tested cried out to God for help! (Job 19:7; 30:20; Psalm 69:29). In this life, it is difficult to imagine how it would be if there was no test to bring out pain, excitement to show triumph, love to show belonging, and hurt to express a need for forgiveness. In the absence of the above, if there were no uncertainties and disruptions, the human experience would be meaningless, rigid, and without an adventure. When God placed the human race on the earth, He made us remember things we did in the past. However, He hid from us knowing the future outright, so that we might discover the future through Him (Genesis 2:16-17; Isaiah 46:10). To the human race, the future is uncertain, and by experiencing life, we discover our faults, the truth about things, and God’s grace in helping us cope with life’s uncertainties (Isaiah 58:11; Psalm 32:8). Therefore, the door of tests opens our lives to character building and brings our hidden weaknesses out for us to acknowledge and work on them. As humans, we grow and learn more about ourselves by self-discovery and through environmental pressures. Going through tests exposes our inner attitude and helps measure how much we value God, others and appreciate life.
Because we cannot foresee the future, the path ahead of us is hidden and uncertain, and we consciously sense the pain or excitement of our journey through life. When the going gets tough, we either decide to continue on our own or find help from God or others to ease the burden of our life’s journey. If we have built our lives through the experiences, sacrifices, and pain of others before us, this makes the journey through life more comfortable and with less effort. Unfortunately, when we are “cushioned” from the harsh realities of life or are building on someone’s foundation, we may become complacent and think that we do no need God because we can do everything by ourselves or through the help of others. Such a faithless attitude promotes spiritual laziness while developing bad fruit and attitudes which demons feast on to keep the person captive. Modern society, especially in the developed countries and urban cities across the world, is trapped in the comfort of effortless enjoyment of life’s luxuries because we can buy our way through. Under such conditions of ease, experiencing life through test helps to develop appreciation, gratitude, humility, and empathy as the hardships can help us identify with those needy in society and, hopefully, be moved to offer help where needed.
Today’s Christians, especially those who have embraced the feel-good, prosperity gospel, regard God as our servant whom we demand to help us when tests and trials strike us. Similarly, there are some fine and prestigious Bible institutions today, and in my experience, the individuals they have produced have the knowledge and the qualification on paper, but the heart is running without the real fruit of truth and of service to advance the Christian course. Conversely, we have a few Churches where the Bible is fully taught and the knowledge of the Word of God is at a peak with people using Scriptural references to comfort themselves and share with others as they await the soon return of the Lord—this is where we ought to be.
Jesus Christ our Supreme Example and Model for Obedience
Our Lord Jesus Christ was the only Person not born to uncertainty because He knew the arduous road that He would travel through this life; this was set out for Him from the foundation of the world through eternity (Ephesians 1:4, 1 Peter 1:20). His life unfolded as He willed it, and it turned out to be the way He purposely chose (John 10:18; 12:23-28; Luke 22:10-13, 20:19-26). Based on these Scriptural examples, there was nothing the Lord did not know. He purposely chose the Cross, including the suffering and the humiliation associated with it (John 10:17-18). He boldly and fearlessly declared: “I came to this hour” (John 12:27). The Lord’s fearless attitude showed purpose, destiny and a clear intent on accomplishing what He came here for, which is to redeem man from hell and rise again to go and prepare a place of rest for us, Hallelujah! (John 14:3).
He clothed Himself with the Fruit of the Spirit, most notably He was humble and became a servant to experience human pain, suffering, and shame (Philippians 2:6-11). The life and suffering of Christ were well chronicled in the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 53, for example) and many other passages in the Bible. This was a powerful statement of God saying: “I love My creation!” This complete work of the cross and our Lord’s resurrection ushered in a new dispensation in the order of creation. Through it, we see that this current state of all creation, including Heaven, is passing and a renewal is looming (Matthew 24:35; Romans 8: 19-23). All things are to be renewed and reconciled through Christ (Colossians 1:20), Who learned obedience through the things He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).
Obedience to God comes at the price of denying self in order to serve God. When we must obey, there must be no “what about me?” It is all about giving ourselves over for the benefit of others; this is the principle of the Kingdom of God (Philippians 2:3). Because we are in service to God, we can trust Him to provide for all our needs (Philippians 4:19). Hardships, which help reveal the condition of the heart, therefore, produce character (either negatively or positively) in our submission to God. Every born-again believer in Christ has a unique opportunity to experience salvation through test and service to God and others. Our salvation does not just come through repentance; it is also revealed through ministry service, obedience and the bearing of fruit (John 15:1-15). As it is, our repentance must lead us to bear fruit to serve God and others (Matthew 13:8). In a strongly worded message to his hearers John the Baptist said: “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10). To avoid being “axed”, we must resolve to serve Him faithfully through the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The Fruit of the Holy Spirit: A Must-have for Believers
Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior displayed all the fruit of the Holy spirit through His life. His conception through the Holy Spirit had the ‘seed’ of the Fruit present to produce fruit (Luke 2:51-52). The fruit of the Spirit attracts both man and God to us, and as such our Lord did this. Our testimony and discipleship are shown not just through our knowledge of God’s Word, but through the fruit as well (John 13:35, Acts 4:13). Unsaved people are only attracted by the fruit we bear; they look for the fruit in us first before believing our witness and testimony, and then they decide to obey or despise the Lord. The Holy Fruit of the Holy Spirit encompasses very high virtues of excellence and perfection. Biblically, the God-Head is known through these eminent qualities, and Christ Jesus endows those He has called with these fruits (John 15:5). When we live by the fruit of the Holy Spirit, there is no law to convict or find the Holy Spirit guilty, because no unrighteousness, sin or prejudice is found in love. He, the Holy Spirit, being in us produces selfless justice and He defends the weak through the strong virtue of love (Romans 8:8-10, Galatians 5:22-25). We must follow the Spirit and His law of love will conquer all human situations.
How the Fruit Grows in a Believer
Every born-again believer who received the baptism of the Holy Spirit by faith should bear fruit in their lives (John 15:8). Our Lord Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would testify about Him and bring glory to Him (John 16:13). We will, therefore, bear much fruit if we are saved and apply the Word of God in our lives (John 15:7). As believers, why do we often desire the gifts more than the fruit of the Holy Spirit? From my experience, it’s mostly because we want the power to attract others to us and have convincing signs. While this is good, the Lord has also given the Fruit of the Spirit in the body and to individual believers to minister and display His character to humanity. Life is uncertain and full of pain and suffering, but the Fruit of the Holy Spirit gives us hope and helps us cope with life. As I alluded earlier, followers of Christ are identified by the fruits of holiness. Further below we will attempt to show how God used tests to help us appreciate the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, resulting in fruit-bearing.
Tests and Trials Produce Fruit of the Holy Spirit
If we commit ourselves to following and obeying the Lord Jesus Christ, we will face and attract persecutions (Matthew 5:11; 2 Timothy 3:12). This is part of the Christian experience because the cross requires us to die to self (Matthew 7:13). This is an essential Christian training, just like the Lord Jesus was tried and tested by Satan himself (Matthew 4). Now, He didn’t need to learn obedience; He simply had to show His obedience and submission to God the Father (Hebrews 5:8). The word ‘learned’ in the above Scripture refers to Him accepting suffering, rather than being tested to learn. If we submit to God, He promises to do the pruning and impartation of fruits while changing our attitudes (John 15:1).
When we go through tests and trials, we may experience pain, whether physical or emotional or both. None of us likes the discomfort of pain, especially emotional pain, which is much more unbearable because it leaves us without the fruit of peace. I have observed that every bad fruit is manifested when a person does not have peace within. The good news is that words of comfort can heal the heart of emotional pain and revive peace (Proverbs 16:24).
God Gives through People
The Bible clearly states that every virtue and gift from the Holy Spirit operates outside the human will; He distributes to each one individually as He wills, not as we want (1 Corinthians 12:11). In other words, we cannot simply force the Holy Spirit to conjure up a gift or fruit. He manifests as we willingly submit to His guidance and He does this to minister to a need in honor to God. Therefore, when the fruit of the Holy Spirit is manifested, it results in the growth of ministry, and the Lord wants to use believers to meet people’s needs through the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Kindly allow me to share the following testimony. Before I got the job the Lord promised and subsequently provided back in February 2010, we were totally broke financially. My wife and I discussed the matter, weighing the options of where and to whom we could go for help. We decided to just use our faith and pray in agreement, asking the Lord to provide me with ‘taxi-fare’ to attend my scheduled interview. Since the Lord was speaking to us regularly and knew what I needed the money for, we decided to inquire of Him. When He visited Charis that evening, she asked Him: “Lord Jesus Christ, my father says he must go for an interview tomorrow, and he is asking if the Lord can please provide taxi-fare for him.”The Lord replied, saying: “I will send someone today to bring your father money [indicating the amount] for his interview”. The next day, my wife’s friend, who is not a born-again Christian, came over for a visit. Remember, the Lord did not reveal the identity of the person He promised to send to us. My wife’s friend reached for her purse and took out the amount money we believed the Lord for, without my wife asking her for it. This moved my wife into a rapturous joy without divulging to her why she was excited. Surely, it was not the money that stirred our excitement, but the faithful fulfillment of the Lord’s promise. In this situation, the Lord used the gift of giving through an unsaved person to meet a need. When we later revealed to this precious woman how the Lord used her, she was moved into tears and a feeling of being unworthy to be used so innocently by the Almighty.
We had a separate teaching from the Lord on how He chooses to bless. In my experience, the Lord may choose to bless us directly with the thing we trusted Him for, and in rewarding us He would surprise us and this gift from Him is always unexpected. In 2011, a sister in our ministry decided to bless my wife and me with a sum of money. While we had money of our own, and being conscience of the spirit of greed, we decided to ask the Lord through Charis if we could take the money from the sister. The Lord answered saying, “Your father may take the money [indicating the amount] from My daughter Grace (not real name). It is not My daughter Grace blessing your father; it is Me”.
Bad Fruit is caused by Satan
In yet another teaching, this time the Lord revealed to us that screaming which arises out of anger comes from the devil. In discouraging this kind of behavior, He rebuked a sister who was in the habit of screaming in anger, saying: “My daughter Sue (not real name) must not scream; it is from the DEVIL. My daughter Sue must have a spirit of love”. I have added this to warn those mothers and fathers who like screaming to their children and others. The Bible talks about Satan being the king of terror (Job 18:14), and he uses screaming to induce fear and submission. So, be careful not to be angry and start yelling at the top of your voice! In contrast, the Lord gives peace to drive away fear. As a reminder, remember we cannot just switch the fruit of the Spirit “on” or “off”. The Holy Spirit chooses to manifest, influence and work through an obedient, discerning, and a God-fearing child of God. In a message to me, the Lord told me that obedience and faithfulness are very pleasing to Him because these are an expression of our Love for Him.
The Impartation of the Fruit of Faithfulness and Patience through Test
Let us briefly examine the Scriptures to learn how God brought forth the fruit of faithfulness and patience through test in some of His most notable servants. The Bible says that God tested Abraham through his willingness to obey Him and sacrifice Isaac (Hebrews 11:17). For Abraham to pass the test God gave Him, he had to obey submissively and by faith. We have had a firsthand experience that the test given by the Lord is not always easy. It involves a selfless giving and submission to His will. I will briefly share later how we were subjected to test by the Lord. Abraham, the patriarch, was called by God to leave his father’s land (Hebrews 11:8) and to prove his obedience to God who subjected him to testing (Genesis 22). In teaching Abraham patience, the Lord gave him promises which we might not be able to wait for so long. After his faith endured, Abraham received God’s promise (Hebrews 6:15).
Considering a few more examples of test in the Bible, the children of Israel were tested when God took them through the wilderness (Exodus 15). Even so, our Lord Jesus Christ was tested (Matthew 4). Job was also tested (Job 1), and so was the prophet Daniel and his friends (Daniel 6:16-28; Daniel 3:1-30). In addition, faithful women of God like Esther and Ruth endured test. Therefore, from the above examples, every man or woman of God who walks in obedience to Him will be tested. Testing might even happen at the expense of one’s life and against one’s personal interest (Luke 17:33 and Luke 14)—even to the point of death (Revelation 2:10). In this kind of experience, we willingly and submissively set our own goals aside to serve the greater good of others (Galatians 5:13).
Nowadays there seems to be some kind of competition among some Christians in their pursuit of worldly wealth. I can recall when I attended Bible school classes at a well-known charismatic church. We were encouraged to trust God for wealth with Scriptures being cited out of context to promote avarice. Just because God chose to bless Abraham and others, we were taught to claim the same right. Brethren, this kind of teaching elevates and inflates needs, more than holy living. In my understanding, this teaching runs similar to the one the prophet Jeremiah confronted when he challenged the “peace preachers” of his day (Jeremiah 28:9). Satan has set a trap and blind-folded many believers into believing that riches is what God wants for them. It is a shameful thing to show off our godliness through our wealth when we have neighbors who are starving. The question we should ask ourselves is, do we accumulate wealth to attract people to us and for power? Biblically, a truly humble servant of God serves and such a person hardly has any desire to be recognized by man (Matthew 6:1-4). While it is acceptable to give some of our money for the work of the Lord, we are also commanded scripturally to minister to those around us (Galatians 5:13). While using your money to support the work of God is an acceptable offering, how about us being the living sacrifice? (Romans 12:1-2, Luke 14, Acts 4 & 5).
Since the establishment of this ministry, we have been ministering to many believers who are struggling with some sinful habits. In helping me to minister to some of them, the Lord told us that their suffering is self-inflicted, with disobedience and a lack of faith playing a major part in their suffering. The evil desires and cravings feast on them, and they are being smitten by the weakness of the flesh, leading to disobedience (1 Peter 1:13-14). My godly advice to those who are unable to shake off bad habits is this: spend time daily reading the word of God and praying. As I personally discovered, if you do this, you will experience deliverance and the Lord will impart fruit in you for service. When we overcome tests and trials we receive more faith and fruit of the Spirit (1 Peter 1:6-7).
Today, the apostasy of the prosperity teaching only feeds the younger believers God’s promises without preparing them for real service through suffering. As it is, suffering produces character and character produces faith and it sustains with endurance (Romans 5:3-5). The Holy Spirit, who is our Helper, uses our knowledge of the Word of God. He convicts us so that we obey the Lord, and through our obedience, we are being pruned to bear fruit (John 15:1-2).
Trials to Test our Faith and Make us Dependent on God
I will now share some practical test we endured as a ministry and a family. We are not sharing this to attract attention to ourselves nor do we seek pity; instead, we are sharing this to encourage you and to let you know that the Lord is using tests to impart fruits of service leading to obedience.
Initially, we would like to use the word “suffering” in explaining some of our experiences. This was new a territory in our Christian lives, and we experienced some degree of pain, rejection and discomfort. Previously when we did ministry work, we did so with ease, without any kind of pressure or discomfort. However, similar to the Bible examples we cited above when the Lord gave us a test, a lot of people started withdrawing from us. It was like separating the faithful from the unfaithful. The believers who did not have faith thought that what we were doing by witnessing late at night and praying till late was both impractical and ‘ridiculous’. In our obedience, we acted by faith and we persevered patiently until we could understand what the Lord was doing. Below we briefly detail the various tests from the Lord. As you keep reading, put yourself in our shoes: Do you think you would be able to endure?
The Test of Late Night to Midnight Prayers
In November 2010, the Lord put my wife and me through a prayer and fast test for a full month. He told us through Charis that we must fast for a month and besides our normal daily prayers, we were to start with intercessory prayers from 11:30 PM every night. During this time of devotion, the Lord commanded that our children not be home when we pray. In other words, we should have no one disturbing us. The Lord did, however, allow us to spend some time daily with our daughters and just before dark we would take them to my mother-in-law who agreed to look after them. Our Sunday evening prayer times was especially meant to start from midnight. My wife and I agreed on a list of things to pray for weekly. As an encouragement to the husband and wife who are serving the Lord, praying together holds lasting peace in the family bond and it also gives greater breakthrough in family matters and problems. The Lord did not forewarn us that we would be attacked by the devil, but He promised us protection. At first, we did not realize what He was referring to. We only realized later that He would protect us from Satan’s attacks, and indeed, fulfilled this promise.
As we labored in these late night prayers, we experienced various attacks against our bodies and minds. At times, fatigue and sleepiness would set in, and we further experienced heavy attacks against our bodies, leaving us with feelings of deep discomfort. It felt as if our bodies were being tormented, and we had sleepiness and numbness. We felt as if we had no control over our bodies, and we sensed evil in our room with things making a crackling sound. There was a spirit of slumber too, causing me or my wife to fall into a deep sleep while still praying. We only realized this after being awakened by a strong hand from the Lord. As we continued, we would walk in our bedroom praying, sitting or lying down; and I at times would crawl on the floor trying my best to shake off the uncontrollable feeling of discomfort. To best describe that feeling, it was a restlessness, partial numbness and very irritating sensation affecting both the body and the mind. I knew my soul was troubled by this pressure. This attack from Satan, which included pain, fatigue, and discomfort to my body, was meant to discourage us from praying. It seemed that his attacks were particularly elevated on Sunday evenings. Our every longing was the completion of this task and, in the end, the Lord gave us the strength to overcome. This test brought about a great sense of deliverance from our own troubles. About three days after being on this assignment of fasting and prayer, the Lord commanded us, along with our fourteen prayer partners to pray for two weeks gathering together every night. These fourteen prayer partners were people the Lord asked us to find and pray with us, and He had given us one week to find them.
As a result of this late night prayer test, some women experienced persecution through their unsaved husbands. While others, whose husbands were saved, were pressured to stay at home using the “wife must submit” Scripture (Ephesians 5:22), and some others were not interested.To clarify the Scripture on submission, the only time we must not submit to man’s authority is when we must obey God (Proverbs 29:25; Acts 5:29).
In commanding these late night prayers, the Lord purposely did this to assess our attitude towards prayer and our obedience to Him. Let’s be honest: there are Christians who enjoy praying for their own needs but too busy to attend combatant or intercessory prayers for the good of others. They prefer being comfortable, but the Lord duly rewards the discomfort He allows us to face for the benefit of His Kingdom. As in our situation, many of the brethren who left due to the various pressures they had, re-joined their old habits of watching TV while restricting themselves to only Sunday services, without any active participating in witnessing or other affairs of the body.
After we completed this course of prayers over five weeks, the Lord needed my wife and me to get twenty people to pray with us every Saturday night while He would send us out to witness in our community every Friday night. He told Charis that we must start witnessing from 8:30 PM until about 11:30 PM. From the original twenty people, only six obeyed and joined me and my wife. We armed ourselves with prayer and some tracts; handing them out to everyone we came across on the streets. Because it was too late for us to knock on people’s doors, we also placed tracts in their postboxes and on their fences.
This was hitherto an unknown experience and we put our trust in the Lord, who protected us from dogs, thugs, and fear. We understood later that the Lord was targeting youngsters in our community who were either on drugs, clubbing and those going and sitting in the pubs to drink liquor. In our drive to ‘impress’ the Lord, we also went fearlessly into these pubs, handing out tracts while witnessing to the patrons. I was the only man witnessing with six very brave women, who left their husbands and children at home and gave up early sleep to chase souls for the Kingdom of God. This test went on for about six weeks until the Lord changed the times to our current witnessing time which was from 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM every Friday evening.
A Full Month of Witnessing and Fasting
In August 2011, the Lord told Charis: “I have a big task for your mother and father and the witnessing team on Monday”. When the Lord came that Monday, He said: “The witnessing team must witness and fast for a full month starting tomorrow (Tuesday, August 2011) in (indicating the area) from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM every day. Your father may only witness with the team when he is off”. This message caught all of us off-guard and we did not have enough money for car fuel expenses and gospel tracts to go out witnessing. We called a meeting and as a team of seven, we discussed the task, planned and prayed while checking our resources. We ordered additional tracts from a local supplier and also requested for tracts and donations online from some faithful brethren. As a ministry, we give glory to the Lord for the believers who responded by faith, obedience and discernment by helping us in our hour of testing. Their response came as a great encouragement to us and to us, all these precious Christian brothers and sisters were united in purpose. Now may the Lord bless them with everlasting life and comfort them in their struggle of faith.
During our witnessing for the month, we were greeted by scorching heat during the day and bitter cold some nights, along with the fear of dogs and thugs since we were witnessing in a community where we were not known. Many times we also went witnessing while fighting hunger pangs, and we were tortured by exhaustion, fatigue and rejection. The Lord opened the hearts of some residents to open their homes to us to use their toilet facilities as we went along. We love our country and it is not my intention to use this book to speak down on our country, but the reality is, crime is a problem that affects us all. Every area has thugs and their share of gangsters. Although we feared for our safety, especially during the night, we obeyed the Lord and persevered by faith. Being all alone with mostly women, the Lord faithfully watched over us and protected us. In seeing us patrolling their streets, some residents mistook us for either night watchmen or villains, so as we approached them to witness and hand them tracts, some would run away thinking we intended to harm them.
In my absence, while I was at work, my wife and the rest of the team, all women, continued and went out witnessing all by themselves and nothing harmful happened to them. Praise be to God! As a challenge, we often ran out of tracts, but this did not deter us from witnessing. We would decide to witness door to door using our Bibles only and reserving whatever tracts remained to witness at night; we placed them in post-boxes, fences or slipped them under doors. Since it is a bit risky and somewhat odd to knock on people’s doors after 7:00 PM, we resorted to witnessing in lighted areas, like petrol stations and frequent hangout places.
Furthermore, we honestly thought we could do with some rest so we asked the Lord about our corporate prayers and weekly services. Instead, He regarded this work as fundamentally important and suspended our prayers until we finished this task. During the short breaks we had, we did short prayers which were our lifeline. As a team, we prayed in turns for about five minutes before leaving for witnessing. As unpleasant it is to say, frustration got the better of some of us, resulting in bitter feuds, but the Lord held us together, encouraging and rebuking the faithless. Geographically, this was a very large area, and we walked very long distances with some houses located sporadically.
Kindly allow me to share briefly my observation regarding the attitudes of some Christians including pastors. The church today uses the Sunday pulpit routine as an excuse not to witness to the unsaved. While enriching themselves with the tithes and offerings, pastors preach every week to the same people who ought to be witnesses themselves! What has become of servants called to serve if they only want to be leaders? (Matthew 20:26) Will the church become silent with the Gospel and allow the tyranny of the devil to use world leaders and evil men to silence us and make us feel ashamed of the gospel? The richness of our Christian history does not allow for silence, but bold preaching (Acts 18:9).
There is not enough time to mention every test we went through including personal test, but I tried to be brief. In addition, the Lord advised that we testify about this to highlight the importance of soul-winning and the need of the gospel to save sinners. My wife was about a month pregnant during our witnessing campaign in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg. She never used her pregnancy as an excuse not to witness; in fact, the Lord encouraged her to witness with us until the last week before the baby was due to be delivered. She herself was very eager to go witnessing. Although I was concerned, I leaned on the Lord’s assurances, and so supported her efforts.
After my wife gave birth, the Lord gave us a new test: we were to have a deliverance service during our Wednesday services from 6:00 PM to 2:00 AM. Inside I grumbled: “Lord how could you choose this time for deliverance? Our baby daughter is only three days old and she needs her mother!” Although I was troubled, the Lord knew my thoughts, so we obeyed. This was a deliverance session, so no children were allowed. We made arrangements to take the baby and our other daughters to my mother in law’s place until after our deliverance service which ended 2:00 AM. On another occasion of testing when our little girl Cailin was about three weeks old, my wife longed to witness with me and the team. The Lord saw her heart’s desire and allowed her to join us on the witnessing field after the Lord gave us a new witnessing area to cover. My wife took the baby along, nursing her while witnessing. In concluding this testimony, my wife did not rest from service after she gave birth. After two weeks she was back full time in ministry work and during these times, we left our children in the care of my mother-in-law. Bless her heart! We pray that this testimony will move you into action.
This testimony is for encouragement and for the body of believers and our prayer is that the Lord will move many believers to faithful service and readiness. He is coming very soon. His promise to us was: “...I am coming very soon!” For those of you wondering whether to home-school your children or not in these perilous last days; this is a decision that parents should make through prayer and faith. He who promised is Faithful. He will not tarry long but come!
The Lord bless you to pass all trials and tests. May He protect you and help you resist and overcome the enemy to the end. Amen!
Blessed love to you all in Jesus' name,
Brother Glenn Van Rooyen.
