The witnesses of God's love for Himself

God is completely consumed with love for Himself. Against our way of thinking?! Well, if it wasn't so why would we worship Him? He is so set on self love that He is using this creation to proclaim His character. And we are privileged to be part of it. We are witnesses to what LOVE is.

In John 17 we are invited by Jesus to listen to the intimate God relationship and see the character of the LOVE for Himself. The followers of Jesus bear  witness to the love of God with Himself. Jesus prays for the same unity for  the followers as there is within the unity of God. For this reason He sends the Spirit to live within us to experience the love unity. The grace of receiving the unity in love is for another crowd to witness, the church. The church bears witness to the darkness of the human creation, and it again to the spiritual realm and beings.  In the church the fullness of love is reached. O, how wonderful to be part of such a mindbogglingly awesome love.

- As God's love for Himself bear witness to Jesus' followers
- So the Spirit within us as followers bear witness to other followers to grow in love for God and unity
- And as the followers grow in love in unity, we as church bear again witness to the world, and the unbelievers
- Onto this the heavenly world witnesses the Love that God has for Himself.

My prayer for you dear reader is found in Ephesians 1:17-23 (NET)

"I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him,   – since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened – so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints,  and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength.   This power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms   far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  And God  put  all things under Christ’s  feet , and he gave him to the church as head over all things.   Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all."

Pray it onto yourself to grow in intimacy with God, for this intimacy He wishes for us, for Himself.

How Bellville taught me about church planting

Cape Town Bellville station - markets

O, what an excitingly interesting place. I dearly enjoyed visiting the Somalian Muslim people of Bellville. With two men at my side we set off to find people of peace. People who we believe God already prepared for receiving the love He wants to show to them. We entered the Belleville market and not being presumptuous or expectant to find anything specific other than seeing God's glory.

Being warned about the aggression of the Somalians we were on the lookout for reasons for concern. To our surprise the first stall we entered we found a couple who were openhearted and quite loving people. We were welcomed into their stall for the next two hours. During this time they took turns to go for prayer, but continued making us as comfortable as possible, answering our questions and even introducing us to a few of their friends, who allowed us to pray for them. They indicated a clear openness towards Christians by way of friendship, telling of some of their friends who became Christan. This couple seems to be good news for entering the Somalian community in Bellville area. We prayed for them before we left, and will continue praying for them.

Many other eyes further on in the market exposed souls of hurt, lust, anger, hate, and coldness - everything we were told to expect. This was also prominent in many of the other conversations.

This experience just highlighted the importance of finding the people and houses of peace if we were to plant churches in communities. People and houses where they openheartedly invite you into their homes and network of friends and families. Luke 10:1-11 became personal to me for the first time in the Bellville Somalian Muslim community.

If you would like to know more about serving among the diaspora people, please hook up with diaspora hope

In the presence of the Almighty and most Holy God

Holy Holy Holy is God Almighty!!!
Jesus Christ is more beautiful and attractive than any person I know. Well, to be honest, He is the perfect man anyway! And to make Him more attractive He grants people the privilege to grow in likeness to Him through the power of His Holy Spirit.
Somehow I got caught in a lei that only through man can we know and grow towards God. This was only partially true, for it is the man Christ alone, and that through His spirit.
I came to know the following to be true: You can not buy or work for the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit. In my proud prejudice I tried to manipulate those men I fell in love with who portrayed Jesus' character. Like the Simon who wanted to buy the power of the Holy Spirit from Peter and John in Acts 8, I tried to buy a second hand relationship with God, and in a way ended up either worshipping that man, or depending on myself. God, in His loving you kindness came to embrace me, sending a crowd of believers praying for me, and revealed the all-so-clear mission of His children that I had to submit under His Holiness.
Submission is never easy, just as Simon cried out to said to Peter and John that they should pray for him, I also pleaded for others to pray with and for me.
The message became clear that I needed to enter into His presence and ask. God hears the cry of His children's hearts and remembers His promises onto them. This became mistakenly clear to me as God reached out to me and continues to grant me the freedom from the bitterness and bondage I was in.
I started by saying that you cannot buy or work for the presence of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and I want to proclaim the good news that in being broken and vulnerable in the presence of God and other believers you can receive it. To stay in His presence you only need to love Him, for God said that those who love Him, submit and obey Him, and He comes and lives with them, and never leaves them - John 16.