05/09/2024
I S O L A T I O N - P A R T T W O
The journey from fire-filled to lukewarm
As I entered the school of the spirit, I experienced something so spiritual and intense something only afforded by those who are willing and ready to pay the price without question. You'd have to be willing first to even fathom the cost of this experience.
I met individuals who had bypassed the free gift of salvation and yearned for the presence of the one giving the free gift. At this point, many who call themselves Christians cannot relate even on the lowest level, the level before the entry-level. It was not about doing church, merely marching to the gates of that sacred building.
It was a deep sincere cry for death to self, the continuous adjusting and repentance seeking that Christ be glorified in self first. Thus started the nights on knees and faces prostrated before His Majesty The King.
Years before Theophilus Sunday sang "Kill what is left of me, so that only you can be seen oh Lord". To see ourselves crucified, buried and resurrected was the ultimate desire of our hearts, even more so their hearts than mine.
How could I desire such, I barely even understood what this cry meant.
I just caught the fire and started burning for the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how we burned for him, so much that daily we met to pray in houses and the unspeakable would happen.
So when I say I know his presence trust me, I know if for real and when it's not real. In the some breath when I say I know lukewarmness don't doubt me for a second. Which of the two would I choose, we'll come to that.
This fire couldn't be contained it was very true and soon was known everywhere.
Imagine a person 1.57 m tall standing in an overcrowded train, all you hear is a voice preaching the gospel of repentance. I remember my very first preaching was from Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."
I preached my heart out. The once noisy coach was captured in absolute silence—you could hear a pin drop. Finding where the voice was coming from was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
When I was fourteen, in school uniform, the fire in me cared for nothing except to have Christ glorified. You'd think the atmosphere in the train would consume the fire, but it didn't at all. The fire kept burning until I made it to school, and there, without boundaries, it burned.
That was the birth of TFJ (Teens for Jesus), we gathered daily for both breaks under a tree. Oh, the Lord still honours us for those beginning days. I am not ashamed of the gospel was at the ultimate test, and tested and ridiculed we were. The more challenges came from opposition from students and teachers alike the more we grew stronger in word, prayer and numbers.
This fire grew beyond the boundaries of General Smuts High School to Riverside High School, Mopholosi Secondary School, Meyerton High School and others. It became a movement that can't be questioned, God was at work and no one could doubt it.
Growth was rapid, we'd shaken the gates of hell. Yet, with growth come challenges.
Lukewarmness was knocking at the door of my heart, excited by the growth and impact I began to neglect the very things that started the fire in the first place.
