Sometimes things happen in ways that we hardly detect - many times the things of God work that way. There is no fan fare, no red carpet, no great commotion, and yet it could be so significant in the eternal scheme of things! Jesus was born in a stable...buried in another man's tomb...raised secretly with only a woman seeing him raised...it is almost as if the things of God are kept secret, privately kept for the select few who needed to be there, to know about it, a few shepherds, three wise men from the East, where kings and rulers tend to miss the event designed to bring a massive change!
My call to be an apostle
Andre Pelser
It almost went unnoticed during the conference in Scotland that the 27th June was the 24th celebration of my call me to be an apostle. It happened at 6 am in The Blue Lagoon Motel, Dubbo, New South Wales in Australia on the same date in 1984. I heard a voice say out loud: ‘I call you to be an apostle’ . It woke me up. I got such a fright that I immediately got up and read my bible until Nola and the kids woke up. The first verse I read as the bible fell open confirmed the voice I had just heard:
Romans 1:1
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God…
An apostle is a person sent as a representative of another to establish the purpose of the one who sent him. He has authority of the one who sent him.
On the 12th of the 12th month 1992, Nola asked me in her sleep, ‘what are you?’ My reaction was, ‘I am an apostle.’ Then we slept peacefully.
The purpose of God is clearly drawn in verse 4 of the same chapter: we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name. Paul’s constant yearning is to go to other nations to impart what he has received from God.
Romans 1:11
For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established…
The reason being that he felt indebted to the whole world!
Romans 1:14, 15
I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise, so as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
On the 25 of August 1994 I dreamt we were in Italy! I am constantly dreaming about other lands and other places in my sleep. I visit certain places in my sleep that I have never been to. I recognise these places and I can describe them in detail. The one is a university! I know where the admin block is, where the parking lot is, where some of the faculties are! I can show you inside the admin block where to register and make your payments! I know the library very well.
Once I dreamt about a place and I saw a large piece of land jutting out into the sea. Below was a little fishing village with colourful fishing boats, bobbing on the water. When Manuel Bessa picked me up at the airport in Lisbon at 6 am I described the place to him. He said he knew where it was but it was out of the way. I insisted that we first go and view it. When we came over the hill and I saw the seascape in front of me, I had total assurance that I was in the place the Lord had shown me in the vision. It was déjà vu, yes, but it was a spiritual vision that prepared me to go to a foreign land. I have had many similar experiences and so has Nola. It is one of the ways that God directs our footsteps.
There is no set pattern, because we walk by faith and not by sight! So I don’t expect a vision every time before I go.
The Lord asked, ‘who will go for us and whom will I send?’ Then the prophet Isaiah answered, ‘here am I God, send me! I will go!’ And then God started dealing with him and showed him that he had to be cleaned up in order to be the divine messenger!
God does not choose perfect people, but people who are willing to go! It is in the going that the cleansing takes place. A tree that bears fruit is pruned so that it may bear more fruit. Most people want to be perfect before God can use them. They never do anything for God.
Nola and I realise we are one of the least of all the apostles, but at least we know what we are and what we are supposed to be doing. Apostles and Prophets are not always received, because people do not want to be challenged to change. They prefer ministries that can ‘bless’ them and just make them feel good, tickle their ears and confirm what they want to hear!
Apostles are often treated as the scum of the world, the off-scouring or sewage…but there are times that they are highly honoured as well.
If you receive a prophet in the name of a prophet you get a prophet’s reward – that is a prophecy! So, the same applies to apostles: if you receive one that is sent in the name of an apostle you get an apostle’s reward. Something is imparted to your spirit – it might only be manifested in three months time, but a spiritual deposit is being made that will affect your life and everything you do!
Apostles and prophets are like catalysts: they bring to the surface the things that need to be dealt with. God works with us personally in the same way, of course. There is never a state of perfection, but reform is an ongoing process. Once the Lord has dealt with one issue He goes on to the next, but as we trust Him in all our ways, He perfects that which concerns us and He will complete the good work He began in us!
By now, I have been to 53 nations! It is amazing to think, as little boy in Brakpan, where my father pastured the Apostolic Faith Mission church, I received a prophecy from an old prophetess, Aunty Raper, that God would use me in other lands, and that I have almost reached as many nations as the number of years of my life!
I am preparing to write a book about all our experiences in the Mission Field of the Lord! There are so many interesting stories to tell, so many wonderful miracles to report, that unless I write it in a book, it will be lost to the following generations! Thank God, Luke took the trouble to write down what took place in the book of Acts! Otherwise we would not have known about it today. He wrote it to one man: Theophilus to whom he also dedicated his gospel!
If I had to make the effort to write the book of our experiences, I would dedicate it first of all to my wife Nola, and to my children, who stood by me through all the years of hardship and suffering, for the sake of Christ and His gospel. We have been persecuted and ignored for what we stand for, and often we are overlooked in the organisations of men. But we have this assurance: that we are known among the elders in heaven in the church of the First Born! (Hebrews 12:20-22)
I know I am far from perfect and I do not assume that I have arrived, but one thing I do know; I can ‘Go!’ if God sends me! Do you know that two thirds of the name GOD is GO? The D simply determines the Direction!
Luckily I have kept notes of all my travels and most of the things God did in our lives. It is impossible to record it all, for He did so much! What is written is a mere reminder that what He has done for others He can surely do for you!
I grew up with conversations around the table and in the lounge about miracles, healings, divine appearances and testimonies of provision, healing and divine direction. I thought it was normal to grow up in a house where the things of God are being discussed all day long! (I have recently found out that Pelser is a well known Jewish name in the Netherlands! With such a nose as mine I should have guessed it a long time ago!)
My parents and grand parents and house guests were always telling stories about divine healing and leading and guidance.
For instance: when may parents received a phone call that announced their call to come to Cape Town at 5 am one morning, my mother heard an audible voice tell her: ‘Hier slaan die gong: julle tyd is om in Brakpan!’ (Here strikes the gong: you’re time in Brakpan is up!) She could not have known who was calling at that time of the morning, but in those days it was cheaper to call before 6 am in the mornings. And sure enough, it was a call from the Maitland assembly in Cape Town who said the church board had prayed and decided to call my parents to come and pastor the church.
I had a dream a few nights later in which I saw the house in Milnerton that we would live in! I described it to my parents: a room down stairs where I have lots of friends! That house was on the corner of Grey Avenue and Park Street in Milnerton. Number 10 Grey Avenue, if I remember correctly. There was a room under the house where we put a table tennis table and many friends from school used to come and play table tennis there!
A divine call affects everyone else related to the one that is called, whether they like it or not. Many times, family members do not understand the calling. Luckily my parents were in the ministry and they gave me up to fulfil my calling. Nola also sensed a calling on her life to be a missionary so she understood my sense of urgency to always go to other lands. If she was not called it would not have been possible to do what we have done so far! Sometimes she travels on her own to other nations too – because she has a calling in her own right.
Now my oldest son, Aje, has also accepted the call into the ministry, which makes him the 4th generation of preacher in the Pelser family! He gave up his career and sport to be in the ministry. God has given him a wife, Chantal, that is also called. So the work of the Lord can continue through us.
Many are called, but few are chosen. I believe you choose to be chosen. God called me to be an apostle after I had already been doing apostolic work for years!
God does not force you to do things. He wants to see if you are willing to do it. It is not your potential that determines what you will become – it is your willingness to go the extra mile! All three my children showed great dedication in what they chose to do at school: Aje, in cricket and academics, Yvette in drama, Hilton at music and sport. Nola spends more time with the word of God than anything else. She also serenades the Lord in worship at home, sometimes for hours! That is why God chose her to lead worship and train worship leaders for 25 years! Chantal is the same.
So, when my entire family (including, Cherie and Ethan our grand kids) were with me on the 27th of June in Kilsyth, Scotland where we held our first Scottish apostolic conference, it was a great honour for me to celebrate my 24th year of having received my call as an apostle – with my family and the music and worship band as well as the dance leaders and a few other individuals from our church in Cape Town, as well as prophet Graham and his family from Birmingham and Stuart a long time friend of the family also from Birmingham – all together with prophetess Barbara, pastor Ian and his wife, the wife of pastor Mark and the worship team from Kilsyth community church and all those who attended the conference from all over Scotland! People even came from Sowerby Bridge in Yorkshire – Pastor Duncan and a few others!
To think…a little boy of 12 in a small mining town in South Africa…then a call of God in an audible voice many years later in an unknown town in Australia…and now the people who have followed in the wake of that call…it is something only God can accomplish!
Even though it may be small and insignificant in the eyes of other people, to us it was a great moment – and we humbly give God all the glory for accomplishing it all. To God be the glory in the church forever more!