Gospel Outreach

‘Break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you.’ (Hosea 10:12)  

During July 1997 we took a critical decision which made a drastic change in our objectives and the way we operate in this Mission .  We had had various evangelistic outreaches into the city over quite some time, followed by the final one, lasting for six weeks during May and June 1997.  Many thousands of people gathered in our premises over this period to hear of the most godly preachers we could get together to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We distributed many thousands of Gospels of John in the city as well as untold tens of thousands of leaflets.  We had teams from two colleges and different Churches help us in the operation which cost close to R100, 000.00.  In the process we had many hundreds of responses to the Gospel invitation and counseled close on 500 of them on a one-on-one basis.  Our premises were one hive of activity from morning till evening, six days a week.  We kept meticulous record of our counselees, their problems and the actual counsel given.   

Then came the time for a thorough review of what we had done, after this which was to us an ‘herculean effort’.  Statistics can tell many things depending on how we want to use them, and we know that there are many fruits we cannot account for even till today.  However, the visible net outcome of it all was to us a major disappointment.  This final campaign was run under the title, ‘JO’BURG FOR JESUS’ but in truth there was not even a minuscule fraction of Jo’burg won for Jesus.  

We sifted through our counseling materials and sought the face of the Lord for the month of July to know His mind.  Our conclusions were very simply that, relative to those who came into our meetings, using the picture of the Parable of the Sower as recorded in Matthew 13, we had to conclude that the ’seed’ of the Word fell amongst the ‘weeds and thorns’.  These were not the pleasures of the world in the lives of these people but in fact the problems thereof.  

We realised then as we know till today, that unless the great ‘Plough’ of God, namely the Holy Spirit comes to break all this ‘fallow ground’ we shall continue to sow amongst the thorns to virtually no avail.  There was, as there is still today, only one answer namely: WE NEEDED THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT UPON US AND THE CITY OF JOHANNESBURG. 

Using the words of the text found in Hosea 10:12, we launched our drive for Revival on 31^st July 1997.  Little did we realise how costly this would prove to be, not so much to the Mission as to ourselves personally.  It brought us to deep personal heart-searching before the Lord for we knew then as we know today, that unless we ourselves are revived as we should be and filled with the Spirit, it is pure hypocrisy to pray for such an experience in the city.  God’s first dealings, and extensively as well as relentlessly so, were therefore with us at a personal level.  

Not only this, but we were challenged to take the Bible directly at face value and we have traversed Scripture, learning the deeper things of God together with many precious lessons about Revival.  It is one thing to preach about Revival or to write about it.  It is quite another to seek to put into practice consistently and honestly all that we know that the Lord has been revealing to us.  This, by His grace we have sought to do and, while the road was a tedious and costly one, it has brought to us riches untold.  We could say, that as Isaac had to reopen the wells which Abraham had dug but had been filled with dirt by the Philistines, so by the grace of the Lord we managed to see and reopen the wells of salvation that have always have been there, all found in none other than our Lord Jesus Christ.   

We were expecting to receive Revival certainly within less than one year but oh we did not realise how much fallow ground had to be ploughed up and how many precious fountains there were that we had to rediscover.  We have learnt, not to be impatient and certainly to watch against any presumptuous statements.  However, it has become evident to us that Revival cannot be far away.  We assuredly expect to see the outpouring of His Spirit in the not too distant future and therefore we can confidently say: ‘REVIVAL NOW!’  

In the months to come we shall share some blessed insights the Lord has granted us over these 8 ½ years of walking the Revival road and we shall certainly be quick to announce when we experience the true visitation of our Lord from above.  

May the heart of everyone reading this be stirred to cry to our God for this mighty renewed visitation of His people.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 25th, 2007 at 11:56 pm and is filed under Revival News.