By Apostle André Pelser 

The first sign

We landed on 26^th January 2010 in Chennai. India is the 60^th nation I go to before I turn 60 to preach the Gospel. It was India's 60^th celebration of their Independence on that same day! There were flags waving everywhere and the news broadcasts celebrated the event on almost every channel. It was a sign to both Yve and myself that we were stepping into the perfect will of God for our lives, walking in the footsteps prepared for us before the foundation of the world, as Paul describes divine destiny in Ephesians 2:10-12.

Pastor's Seminars

By ministering to 470 pastors over a period of eight days in the South of India we effectively reached as many congregations of thousands!

My book God's Genius about the apostolic reformation has gone to many pastors and Nola's Praise and Worship CD and manuals, Aje & Chantal's reformational songs have been sown in churches. Several pastors have asked me to return to India and promised to organize greater seminars and even crusades. The doors to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have been opened as a result of this mission to India!

Pastor James Raj of the Church of Pentecost in Ghana was our host. He oversees 72 COP churches in India and gets a salary from the HQ in Ghana.

Yve the missionary

It was a great privilege to take my daughter Yve with me on this trip. She was a tremendous team player and a great 2-IC (Second in Charge, as they say in the army). She took 14 hours of footage on hand held camera and over 500 photos. Apostle Aje and Yve are currently busy editing the footage on our new editing suite! There will be six to eight DVD's all together and one short one to summarise the adventure! Editing is probably the most painstaking process of film making and maybe also the most expensive. The fact that we have our own editing suite now is a tremendous advantage to boost our media division.

We have given all our DVD's to Brother Wilson to show on cable TV for 700 000 viewers over the next few months in India. Can you imagine what it would cost to pay for such an opportunity anywhere else? It would be a small fortune!

On TV with 60 million viewers

On the first of February (my late father's birthday) I coached cricket at Laidlaw College, a private school in Ketti, high up in the Nilgiris Mountains. When I finished coaching about 60 boys, there were two TV reporters who interviewed me and put my interview on the news broadcast of two local channels with a viewership of 60 million people! Amazing! Yve and I watched me on the TV that night.

They asked me what my own cricket highlight was and I could tell them that I took 6 wickets in 7 balls as an off-spin bowler! Imagine teaching Indian boys how to spin a cricket ball! Mr. Gardener, the headmaster, a wonderful old gentleman, received us in his office and pleaded that we should come back and coach other schools as well. I told him Aje, my son, was a professional coach and that he would love to come to India.

"It is a feather in the cap of India that we have Gary Kirsten from Cape Town, South Africa coaching our National team and now we have Andre Pelser from Cape Town as well to coach our schools!" They said on the news broadcast on both channels.

Our travels in India

Chennai used to be Madras. Many of the names of cities in India have reverted back to their original names before colonisation. From Chennai we went to Coimbatore. The following day we ministered in Pollachi for an entire day. The following morning we drove to Tirupur for a seminar and then travelled by train for 8 hours to Chennai where we ministered in two churches over the weekend. The early morning service was at 5.30 am to avoid the city traffic! We returned to Tirupur by train again.

The train journey in India was something to experience. It is jam-packed full of overnight commuters and curtains separate the compartments. Joshua a young boy that accompanied Pastor James Raj was Yve's constant helper and companion. He helped to carry all the bags of camera equipment.

Finally back in Tirupur we drove for four hours up the Blue Mountains to Coonnoor, where Pastor James Raj lives. He is actually an apostle and accepts the fact after our visit. From Coonnoor we drove through the breathtaking tea plantations on the slopes of the great mountains to Devarshola, a little village high up in the mountains to speak to another group of pastors. 

We visited Ooty the next day and also drove all the way to Glenmorgan Hydro-Electric Scheme. It is not open for public viewing, so special permission was requested and granted for us to visit it. It is situated in a quiet valley between several mountain ranges and there are three power stations. From the top of the mountain it looks as if there is nothing happening down there. But there is a 50 mile tunnel that the British dug through a mountain of solid rock to bring the water from another lake to the power station.

What impressed me was the peacefulness of the whole scene - and yet it supplies the power to 60 million people! That is more people than we have in South Africa! I think with all the trouble we have in our electricity supply from Eskom we could go and learn something from the way things are done in the South of India!

We drove back down the mountain to Coimbatore and flew to Chennai, to Dubai and back to Cape Town.

The journey there took 33 hours with all the delays and the stopovers at airports and our return journey was only 22 hours!

Incredible India

Incredible India! It is a wonderful experience just to be there. The poverty is shocking, the vast crowds are stunning, the traffic is frightening and the hot humid weather is stifling - but the food, ah, the food is exquisite and the teas are an education to the western palate.

The thing that impressed me the most was the friendliness of the people. They are not friendly to get a tip from you in the hotels, in fact, they don't want a tip. They are friendly because they like being friendly!

I thought about that for a long time. Then I realised that most of them believe in Reincarnation. They are friendly and they love to serve because they believe they will come back on a higher level in their next life! Their concept of eternal rewards makes them wonderful people to be amongst.

Shouldn't the concept of Eternal Life have the same effect on Christians? Maybe we don't really believe in an afterlife as we should. Maybe we need to preach about it more often.

Pastor James Raj

Pastor James Raj was amazing. He was always talkative, always friendly, always a good PRO and translated all my sermons into Tamil or Hindi. He can speak four Indian dialects. There are over 700 and 130 official languages. Yet the country is not divided. It is not language that bonds them together but culture.

Pastor James Raj survived the Dehli bomb blast 13^th September 2008 in which 30 people were killed and more than 200 seriously injured. He was 12 feet away from the suicide bomber in a busy market place. The people who were serving him on the other side of the tables were all killed. He and the two people with him had burns and cuts on their backs and on the back of their legs. They were the first to be dismissed from hospital. Hundreds of people died that day. His testimony was on the front page of the daily newspaper the next day. The headlines read something to this effect, Death came but God did not allow it for this pastor!

Apostle Thomas

There are only 2% Christians in India - and most of them are Catholics. The idolatry of the Catholics fits the mind-sets of the Hindu's and the Buddhists.

The Catholics have made a shrine of St. Thomas Mountain in Chennai, where Apostle Thomas was murdered by the Brahmins. He went to India in 40 AD and died in 70 AD. He gave his life to sow the seeds of the Gospel in India.

The church leaders still call him, ‘Doubting Thomas', but wherever we went I vindicated the apostle by explaining that the moment of doubt lead to the revelation of who Jesus really was: he was the first apostle to make the confession: ‘My Lord and my God!' He was the first apostle to believe that Jesus is God, not only the Son of God! So whenever anyone referred to him as doubting Thomas I corrected them immediately and said, He had great faith.

It was wonderful to walk in Thomas's footsteps - but it was disgusting to see how the Catholics have commercialised the scene of his murder. Religion has a way of messing up something very precious because it wants to stamp its own imprint on an event instead of letting it speak for itself. They even have a giant poster with an image of what Apostle Thomas might have looked like, with the inscription: ‘Come I will take you to Your Lord!'

The need in India

There is a great need for upgraded bible school material in India and also a need for a training centre to train incumbents from 700 000 villages in India.

There is also a great need for discernment of spirits because people cannot discern what is demonic and what is from the Holy Spirit.

The level of dedication among pastors is also very low. They do not live the kind of life you expect from a minister and they all have the excuse that they have to do ‘other things' in order to survive.

There are many young men who want to go into the ministry but they cannot afford to go to a theological seminary. The need for a proper apostolic training centre is great and the need for new dimension churches even greater.

Christianity needs an enormous boost of finances to support the ministry as well as spiritual refreshment or reform in order to push back the forces of darkness in this great country.

There is also a great need to teach new believers to leave their old Hindu and Buddhist ways as well as those converted from the idolatry of Catholicism. They tend to add Christianity as another collection to their many gods instead of forsaking their old lifestyle of idolatry and demon worship.

Lying signs and wonders

In Tirupatti in Andraprodesh there is a temple where healings and miracles and signs and wonders take place on a regular basis. People pay millions of Rupees and sell their houses and give it to the miracle working priest at the shrine. They bring diamonds, gold and bank certificates and hand over entire bank accounts in order to be healed from their diseases. And they do get healed! The demon spirits make men successful in their businesses and makes people rich and famous, besides healing them. The cash rolls in all the time!

Many pastors go to these shrines to obtain spiritual power to make their ministries powerful and to make them wealthy...many come from overseas as well...

In Sabari Malai (only for men) there is another such a shrine in Herala State where similar things happen. They fast 40 days and wear black Dhoti's (linen cloth wraps around their waists) instead of pants and keep from women for 40 days and walk barefoot.

In Bangalore, Sai Baba was announced as ‘god'. People give their properties to him. He vanishes and appears somewhere else. He can be transported by evil spirits. He called an evangelist to preach Sai Baba as Jesus and promised to make him very rich and famous.

‘If I show you Jesus will you preach me?'

Then he spoke some mantras and Jesus appeared on the cross in front of the evangelist - alive!

The voice of the Holy Spirit told the evangelist; ‘Look at Jesus, he's blinking. Look at his hands, they are not pierced!' Then the evangelist rebuked Sai Baba: ‘You devil this is not the real Jesus!' Then Sai Baba disappeared. People then came to fall at the feet of the evangelist to worship him. He tried to stop them but they made sacrifices to him, but he kept yelling, ‘Don't worship me, I am just a man!'

These kinds of things happen all over India. The healings are temporal. The diseases lift for a while and then come back with vehemence. You fall under the spell of an evil spirit if you go to get your healing in those places. The demonic spirit in the healing priest controls you now. He can use you for whatever he wants to do with you.

They contact you in the spirit realm, in dreams and by other forms of spiritual communication, even by appearing to you, and command you to do certain things for them. If you don't, you will be punished.

The difference between Hinduism and Christianity

The Hindu gods make people suffer. The people live in fear. Jesus suffered for us. Christianity is too simple for Hindu's. They find it hard to believe that someone else will pay the price for their salvation.

The people go on long pilgrimages, barefoot, and carry heavy idols, so that their feet bleed and their bodies collapse along the way. They get robbed and mugged and even killed before they get to the shrine. Yet the number of pilgrims is on the increase every year. They want to earn their healing or their blessing.

Apparently these shrines and temples belong to the government and most of the money goes to the government. The priest gets a salary from the government!

There is so much to learn in India

Travelling in India is an education in itself. We have learned so much about so many things; it would take a book to write it all down! For instance, Biriyani is derived from the Persian word, ‘Birian' which means, ‘fried before cooking'. Pastor James Raj's wife cooked the best Biriyani we had in India!

India is the land of spices...and the spices are not just there to satisfy our taste buds, they have medicinal use and healing qualities. When Yve had a bit of a head cold because of the cold air con in the one hotel room, the cook in the restaurant prescribed Masala tea four times a day. You cook the tea leaves in the milk mixed with water and it has an amazing effect - almost immediately!

The British have done so much for India in education, organization, infra-structure and legislation that you feel the effect of the British everywhere you go. Like Pastor James says, ‘if they had stayed longer, they could have done more!'

Sponsors make missions possible

The mission to India was made possible by the generous giving of sponsors. We only received one offering in India which we gave back to Pastor James for petrol money. The entire trip cost a small fortune, but think of the riches invested in the saints and then everything was worth it all. Who could calculate the value of a soul? Who could calculate the work that the Holy Spirit did on this trip in the hearts of 470 pastors who came to attend our seminars and in the churches where we ministered? Who would know just how big a harvest the seeds of reform would produce in years to come? How many hundreds of thousands of viewers will be reached in the next 5 months on cable TV? How many lives have been touched as a result of this single venture?

Yve and the Indian women

Yve was a hit with all the Indian women. They just loved her and loved to touch her skin and her hair. Even though they could not communicate in language they had many heart to heart talks. One such old lady could only say five words in English: ‘sorry, sister, brother, mother, father!' So she kept on talking to Yve mentioning those five words and Yve would talk back to her. Yve decided to talk to her with an Indian accent and bobbing her head along with the old woman. In the end they were screaming with laughter and everyone else joined in.

Yve spoke to the young women in India where she was asked to address a congregation. They simply adored her.

If hearts can meet, language is almost superfluous...

We touched hearts in India and India touched our hearts.

We returned on the 5^th of February 2010 to Cape Town. The first time I ventured out overseas, I returned on the 5^th of February 1972. Now on my 60^th mission I return on the same date.

Yve met an actress friend of hers on our Emirates flight. She had become an air hostess. When she saw Yve she screamed with delight and lost her air hostess pose completely! It was a sign to Yve that we had to be on that flight that night. There were a few complications at the airport because our agent had booked us for the next night. So we had to pay a penalty and eventually after a big struggle we got onto that particular flight at 3.30 am in the morning in Chennai. If we had not been on that flight Yve and her friend would not have met. The friend bestowed all the goods on us that she could. She treated us like royalty in economy class!

If you want to support our mission to reach the world for Christ

You can write to us at P O Box 276 Milnerton, 7435, South Africa

Email:  pelser [at] harvesterchurch [dot] org [dot] za

Phone: +2721 552 6593

Or deposit into our account and send a fax to +2721 552 6598 to confirm the deposit:

Dr. A. J. Pelser, Absa cheque account, Montague Gardens, Account Number 1057210776

Check our websites at:

www.harvesterchurch.net

www.pelsermedia.com

www.householdoffaith.co.za

You can also read my blogs at  http://apostlesnotebook.blogspot.com/

If you have any prayer requests

If you want us to agree with you in prayer let us know and we will certainly help to carry that load to the Lord Jesus Christ who gave His life for all of us so that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

by Apostle Andre Pelser

Today I want to give you three examples where people said, "Remember me".

• Joseph
• Nehemiah
• The thief on the cross

My Grandmother used to sit at the piano and sing a very short little chorus:

    Remember me Almighty One

    Remember me Almighty One

All of us want to be remembered somehow. That is why people leave rich legacies behind – to be remembered. There is a statue of a man in Lagos. I asked the taxi driver who the man was. He simply said, ‘I don’t know his name but he did a lot for the country’.

We remember Neels Labuschagne every time we give a bursary to a student. He left an investment in the earth that will be remembered as long as Miracle Bible College continues. This year we have a student from Malawi to whom the bursary has been given. We have trained another student from Sutherland in South Africa for two years, Lundell Baadjies. His father was part of the Bible School right at the beginning and is doing evangelistic work on the farms surrounding Sutherland.

When Joseph was cast into prison with a false accusation, he served the prison warden so well that he was promoted to run the prison. He also served fellow prisoners by using his gift of interpreting dreams. When the king’s cup bearer was released from prison after Joseph interpreted his dream Joseph asked him: ‘remember me when you are established again.’ But the man forgot about Joseph in prison.

Only when the king had a dream that troubled him did the cup bearer remember Joseph. He told the king: ‘there is a man in prison that interprets dreams.’ The king had Joseph brought out of prison and changed his prison clothes.

Joseph had a habit of always leaving his coat behind: when his brothers tricked him and threw him into a pit they took his coat of many colours that his father especially made for him and tore it and dipped it in blood so that they could lie to their father and say that Jospeh was eaten by a wild animal. That animal was jealousy! They sold him to travelling traders for 30 pieces of silver.

Amazing Joseph’s worst moment became significant in the eyes of God! Jesus was betrayed by Judas for 30 pieces of silver! It is amazing how God honours those whom He favours: even your enemy’s worst shot turns out to be in your favour! If the devil knew he would not have crucified Jesus on the cross! His best shot became Jesus’s highest promotion! You never suffer in vain for the Gospel’s sake! It becomes your blessing in disguise!

So Joseph was brought before the king and the king asked him if he could interpret the dream. Joseph immediately gave the right perspective and said, ‘it is not for me to interpret the king’s dream, but there is a God in heaven that interpret’s dreams.’ Wow, what a confession! What a way to honour God in front of a heathen king!

God honours those who honours him! In Chariots of Fire the Scottish athlete that refused to run on a Sunday in the race that he was sure to win, had to compete in the 400 meters which he never raced before, but before the race the American athlete that won the race that the Scot refused to run on a Sunday gave him a note in his hand that read: God honours those who honour Him. With that note the Scot ran and won a gold medal in the Olympic Games!

Joseph was promoted to become the Prime Minister of Egypt. His dream of his brothers and his father bowing before Him finally came true. They had to come and buy food from him in Egypt because there was a famine in their land.

Joseph had a very clear perspective about his experiences. When the brothers finally confessed their sin against him for selling him as a slave to slave traders, he explained; ‘No it was God who sent me ahead of you to prepare provision for you in Egypt!’

He even obtained a whole city from the king of Egypt for his family! They were given a large area where they could farm and make a living! How about that!

God remembered Joseph...

When God remembers you He honours you!

Nehemiah was working for a foreign king. He served as a slave. He was the king’s cup bearer. But the king saw that he was not really happy. So the king asked him what was wrong. Nehemiah said, he would like to go and rebuild the walls and the temple of his city from which they were evicted as slaves.

He prayed and asked God to give him favour with the foreign king.

The king honoured him and gave him all the material he desired to rebuild the wall and the temple. He even gave him an escort of soldiers so that he could arrive safely.

When Nehemiah arrived at the ruins of the house of the Lord, he rode alone in the moonlight to convey the place. It stirred him so deeply to see the house of the Lord in ruins that he made up his mind to make this task his life time task. Nothing would deter him from finishing the work!

When Sanballat and his cohorts tried to prevent Nehemiah from finishing the work by using false accusations against him to turn his men against him, Nehemiah simply told God to take care of it and carried on with the work. When Sanballat saw that his false accusations couldn’t stop Nehemiah he sent a posse to tell him to come down to him so that they could discuss another treaty. Nehemiah simply replied, ‘Can a man like me come down to you? I am doing a great work for the Lord and I do not have time to come down to you!’

The enemy always tries to pull you down, to humiliate you to destroy you. Jesus said, the thief has come to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come to give you life and life more abundantly!

When the temple and the wall was rebuilt, Nehemiah brought the prophet and the scribe called Ezra to read the Word of the Lord to all the people. The people cried when they heard the word and they repented of their sins. Nehemiah not only rebuilt the physical wall and the temple but also rebuilt the people’s spirits. He reformed a nation!

Then Nehemiah prayed a wonderful prayer and said, ‘Remember me for good oh Lord, for all that I have done for you!’

You can only remind God to remember what you have done after you have done it! Many people talk about doing things but they do absolutely nothing.

When I was 12 years old and old prophetess by the name of Aunty Raper came into our home in 65 Gardenere Avenue, Brakpan and prophesied to my father that he would be on the Executive Council of the Apostolic Faith Mission and that God would use my mother to help a lot of people by giving them scriptures if she would read the bible more. My father ended up in the Executive Council when he became the Chairman of the Western Cape, when we lived in Milnerton. Here we are labouring in the field where my father was honoured. My mother became an inspiration to thousands of people and I remember how she would share scriptures with her music pupils. She trained many pastor’s wifes to play the piano so that they could lead worship where their husbands pastored a church. She wrote to us wherever we were doing missionary work and planting churches and always included scripture verses. Both my parents fulfilled Aunty Raper’s prophecy.

Aunty Raper prophesied over me: ‘There is a calling of God on your life. God will also use you in other lands.’

Tomorrow, Yve, my daughter, and I are going to India on a mission to trian pastors in the rural areas in the south of India. This will be the 60th nation that God will use me in. Before I turn 60 I go to my 60th nation!

I can pray Nehemiah’s prayer, God remember me for good for all that I have done for you!

The thief on the cross turned to Jesus and acknowledged that Jesus was a king. He said, ‘Lord, remember me when you get to your kingdom!’ Jesus said, ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise!’

Amazing, it didn’t take a three hour prayer to get the job done! It was a simply heart felt prayer that reached the heart of our Saviour! Remember me!

Perhaps you cannot say that you have been so faithful as Joseph that the Lord should honour you to remember you today; perhaps you have not done much for the Lord so that you could pray the prayer of Nehemiah that God should remember you for good – perhaps all you can pray today is to ask the Lord to remember you like the thief on the cross.

I have Good News for you today: the Lord will remember you!

When God remembers someone He honours and blesses them. Today if you sincerely cry out and ask the Lord to remember you, He will remember you! What a privilege to serve a God that hears our prayers! He is not a dead God made of wood or stone, He is a living God and Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God!

Do you want God to remember you today? Just pray this simple prayer with conviction: Lord, remember me!

You will be amazed at the eternal consequences!

31 December 2009

Jesus said men’s hearts would fail in the end times because of the terrible things that would come over the earth. We are living in those times. Paul gave three reasons why we live in pernicious and terrible times: men are lovers of self, lovers of money and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

As we look back over the last decade, specifically over the past year, we have very little to encourage us. We face the 21^st Century with great uncertainty. In Australia they termed a phrase ‘The One-ders’ to refer to people who live in the 21^st Century.

I have good news for all who are prepared to believe in Jesus Christ: if He knew what we would face, would he not have given us all we require to live a godly life in these terrible times? He has given us keys to spiritual fortification in His Word.

God who gave us His own son also gave us all we need to face life in the 21^st Century. He has held nothing back. But we have to come to Him on His terms and learn to walk in His ways. We have to apply the spiritual re-enforcement.

God’s ways are not our ways and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. They are higher than our ways and our thoughts. But as the rain comes down and waters the earth and causes it to bud and bring forth fruit, so the Word of God shall not return void but accomplish the thing to which it was sent.

In the world, Jesus said, you will have tribulation, but do not be afraid I have overcome the world. John the apostle of love tells us that it is our faith in Jesus Christ that helps us to overcome the world. We can have peace in our hearts and minds, in spite of the condition of the world we live in, because of our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Baghdad is being bombed non-stop but finally Iraq is going to have its first general election since Saddam Hussein was deposed in 2003. This also infers that Iraq will use its own currency instead of the American dollar.

In Tehran in Iran the re-election of Mahmoujd Ahmadinejad was vehemently opposed by unauthorized political rallies supported by young and old. The atmosphere was more of a street party than a political rally.

The Guinea dictator Moussa Dadis Camara survived an assassination attempt. He is still in power.

US president Barack Obama has finally signed the deal to repay Native American Indians what has been owed to them for use of tribal lands – close to $3.4 billion. The pact still needs to be approved by a federal court and authorized by congress.

In Rio de Janeiro streets kids and vagrants have been killed by police since 2003. These injustices simply go unpunished.

Remote control unmanned airplanes will patrol the coasts of America for surveillance to keep a watch out for smugglers and illegal immigrants off Florida’s coast. One aircraft costs $13 million.

 Romania’s political stalemate continues due to infighting and accusations of fraud during the election. The government in Romania has collapsed.

On the other hand Bolivia that is notorious for coups and has had five Presidents in five years has been stabilized by the re-election of Evo Morales, the first Native American President in Bolivia’s history.

Vladimir Putkin intends to run for re-election in his bid for presidency in Russia in 2010. When asked if he had plans to retire, he said, ‘Don’t hold your breath.’

Al Quada boss Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts is always guessed at and yet much of the suicide bombing in the world is directly related to this extreme Muslim sect.

The war in Afghanistan is increasing. 60 000 US Marines were deployed towards the end of 2009 to strengthen the presence of American soldiers in that desolate area. The soldiers march sometimes for 6 days in 57 degrees Celsius with 54 kilogram packs on their backs. At night they dig shallow firing holes to sleep in. One soldier remarked: ‘It feels like sleeping in a narrow grave, but you do feel safer.’

Michael Jackson passed away but lives on in his on screen presence the Thriller dance parties that were performed in no less than 14 difference cities.

Edward Kennedy was buried in the dark in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. The Secret Service brought in a light to help the funeral goers to see where they were going.

China is going to build one of the largest solar power stations in the world at Crescent Moon Lake, in the desert of Dunhuang.

Pasig City in the Philippines was almost destroyed by Typhoon Parma and a sports arena near Manila turned into an evacuation center housing 1000 destitute families. Because there was no toilet facilities and people couldn’t bath it was like the smell of a dump site.

Saturn’s equinox revealed a third dimension to the planted that was never seen before.

Old quarters in big cities have been revamped to become the playground of the rich and famous. For instance, Woolloomooloo in Sydney-East, is now the home of many famous and rich Australians. Russell Crow lives in an $8, 5 million penthouse.

The Copenhagen Summit for world weather changes delivered precious little answers and showed man’s inability to control the changes in nature patterns.

Here are several keys for spiritual reinforcement.

Ephesians 3:14-19

1.    Pray for a reason, not a ritual.

2.    Pray that God may grant you to be strengthened with might in the inner man. This happens through the Spirit of God working in us.

3.    Pray that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith

4.    Pray that you be rooted and grounded in love

5.    Pray to comprehend the size of Christ’s love in all its dimensions

6.    Pray that God will fill you with the fullness of God

7.    Pray to know and believe the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge

Remember that God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we think or ask. The word, ‘to know’ in this passage is ‘epiginowsko’ which speaks of experiential knowledge. We need to experience God’s love.

The width of God’s love

I Chronicles 23:17 the grandson of Moses was called Rehabiah meaning God is wide. He had many sons. Once someone understands the width of God’s love it can be passed on from generation to generation. This is also spiritual technology to reinforce our faith.

Christ’s patience, kindness and goodness, his forgiveness and his sustaining power are all proof of his love. He loves you until you learn to love Him.

The depth of God’s love

There is no shallow end to the deep, deep love of God. Shakespeare wrote, love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, oh no, it is an ever fixed mark that looks upon tempest and is never shaken, it is the North Star to every wandering bark…

The length of God’s love

To what length will love go to save a soul? God’s longsuffering towards us is proof of the length of Christ’s love – He just never gives up on anyone!

The height of God’s love

T he upward dimension of God’s love is as high as the heavens above. It speaks of the fullness of god. He supplies all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

As we increase in the knowledge of God we are strengthened with all might in the inner man according to His glorious power. This helps us to endure, to be patient and to maintain our joy in believing with long suffering.

Spiritual re-enforcement is required to keep Kingdom values alive when we go through trials and tribulations of our faith.

We are strengthened (dunamis, inherent power giving us ability) with all might (dunamis) according to his glorious (doxa, weightiness, power and strength, wealth and magnificence) power (kratos, god’s manifested power revealed in the earth). God’s power is manifested relevant to our need.

He has translated us from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of His love. He drew us to Himself with cords of love – away from lawless deeds. We have moved location; we have changed address!

He paid the ransom for our redemption in full, through his blood. Our sins are fully forgiven! (Colossians 1:11-14)

We ask and pray that we would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

Here lies a great secret of the church and the blessing of belonging to the body of Christ: when our hearts are knit together in love we attain to all the riches of the full assurance of understanding to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:2, 3).

When you are spiritually reinforced, your love will be grounded in Christ and your faith will be steadfast and not shaken or stirred. You will be established in the faith and abound in thanksgiving.

(Colossians 1:23 and 2:6, 7)

For this purpose I suffer all the things I do, because I am a minister of the mysteries of God. For this reason I labor and strive and face all the conflicts and temptations I have to face. For this reason I bow my knees to pray – for you. Pray for me also. I am your servant in the Lord.

Apostle Andre Pelser, Christmas 2009

Christmas has lost its value because of commercialization: Father Christmas and his presents have taken over from the true meaning of the birth of Christ. Christmas carols have been so commercialized that they have lost their message.

To reform our concept of Christmas we should look at the birth of Christ in the lives of people: to celebrate the born again experience, in other words, Christ being formed in people’s lives, is to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas when Jesus Christ was born.

But after birth there has to be growth: Jesus did not stay away in a manger for 2000 years! The commercial world does not mind a baby Jesus. It sells! But they do not want Him to be the Son of the Living God, or the Lord of lords or King of kings.

Paul described apostolic labors when he tried to win back the allegiance of the Galatians’ believers who back slid into religious formalism of Jewish traditions soon after they experienced the joy of the liberty of the Spirit of God.

Galatians 4:8-11

⁸ Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. ⁹ But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again^b to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? ¹⁰ Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. ¹¹ I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Galatians 4:19 - 29

¹⁹ My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, ²⁰ ^† I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.

²¹ Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? ²² For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. ²³ But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. ²⁴ Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants^e; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. ²⁵ For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. ²⁶ But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. ²⁷ For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. ²⁸ Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. ²⁹ But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

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Here are several descriptions of labors that are required until Christ is formed in us all.

1.

Labor in Greek is kopos: it means taking a beating, striking, causing weariness hardship and trouble.

Nola and Renate…much labor, much trouble, weariness of the flesh and mind. It seems so unnecessary, but it is called laboring….

2.

Parecho also means to labor but it means to afford, to give. By giving to missionaries you are also laboring, or entering into their labors, so you will enter into their rewards as well. Jesus had women who supported his ministry. So did Paul. They obviously also had men who supported them financially.

3.

Ergon which is pleasant work: all work is not exhausting and wearisome! To labor in doctrine, to teach the word is an enjoyable task! What a privilege to be the messenger of the most high God!

4.

Mochthos is distressful labor causing hardship. We often have to go through things we do not like for the sake of others. This is how Christ is formed in them and in us: they eventually remember the price you paid on their behalf and then they begin to change. They are changed into the image of Christ.

5.

Cheimatzo is driving in winter’s cold. It is sometimes hard to get up to pray in winter. My mother used to wrap herself in a blanket and pray in the early hours of the morning. My wife, Nola, sits in bed praying for the family, the church and other people we are laboring for. She does not start the day without seeking God on behalf of other people. This is laboring in the spirit.

6.

Ergonizomai is laboring to the point of exhaustion. Jesus sometimes became so weary from his journeys that he had to sit down. Paul labored until he was weary, other apostles labored until they dropped. Nola and I have worked until we were worn out, physically, on several occasions. Then the Lord renews our strength and we go on laboring again.

7.

Philotimeomai is laboring seeking honor. The desire to be an elder or a deacon is a worthy pursuit. You have to sort your own life out in order to have oversight over other people. This sorting out never ceases. As you grow spiritually the Lord has to purify you and perfect you. He does this by chastisement and by correction. He brings hidden things to the surface so that you can recognize it. Then he deals with it, with your permission, of course. In the end we seek the honor of God, not just the honor of men.

There are different types of labor in the scriptures:

Laboring in physical labor

Laboring in imprisonments, tumults, watchings and fastings often!

Laboring by holding forth the word of life, by teaching apostolic doctrine

Laboring in companionship

Laboring in supporting apostolic missions financially

Laboring in prayers

Laboring to enter into the rest of faith

Laboring in patience

Laboring in withstanding evil

Scriptures:

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We labor until Christ is formed in all of us

The Greek definition of Formed:

morphoo (3445), like the noun (A, No. 1), refers, not to the external and transient, but to the inward and real; it is used in Gal. 4:19, expressing the necessity of a change in character and conduct to correspond with inward spiritual condition, so that there may be moral conformity to Christ.¶

We cannot produce Christ: it is a deep, inner work of the Holy Spirit in us. We can teach and pray, we can be patient, we can endure hardship, but only God can give the growth. Only God can form Christ within, the hope of glory.

We are often observers of the outward performance of people, which sometimes discourages us. We give up on people. We say that they will never change! We are not to judge what God is doing in their lives. Who knows, we might not see them for ten years and by that time, Christ has been formed in their lives and we are so surprised to see the change we could not bring about.

That is why we need to labor in patience…Love is patient and it is kind. Love does not seek its own, but the betterment of others and the greater glory of God.

Let us not grow weary in well-doing for in the end we will be rewarded for all our labors. Christ knows our works, and our labors…and He will reward us. There is no labor lost in the economy of God.

One life it soon will be past.

Only what’s done for Christ will last.