The Bible is God’s written Word. Yeshua uses the teachings of the Bible as a Sword to divide between our soul and spirit. Wemust obey Yeshua and everything He teaches us in His Word if we desire toembark upon a true spiritual path.
God’s plan is for you to yield your soul to theauthority of the Holy Spirit, and then to enter into His rest. After you yieldyour soul completely to the Holy Spirit you come to a place of surrender anddependency on God, whereas before you made your own plans and you were anxiousabout the future, shutting God out of your problems. After you surrender youcan calmly start trusting God for His plans for your life.
Once we were full of anxieties and stress but nowas we surrender we receive His peace in our hearts. Once we entertained all ourown desires, dreams, plans, ambitions, hopes – now we consider God’s will, andknow that it is the best for our lives. The more we obey His voice, the morejoy and peace we will start receiving; and I have found that with completesurrender comes perfect peace. Test your own heart today – as soon as you feelanxious you can know that you are holding on to your problems and that you didnot surrender it all to God. A Soul under the rule of Holy Spirit will stopworrying about its own needs. Matthew 6:25 says: “Do not be anxious about yourlife, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and the restshall be added to you.” That is the blessing of yielding: If we yield, we canfocus our attention on God and His Kingdom, knowing that He will supply ourdaily needs. To surrender is to surrender all of yourself: self-centredness,self-seeking, pride, and all of your own plans. When we surrender we say:“Father, all I am is yours. I surrender all into your hands.”
To surrender becomes a part of your life in Christ– just as worry was a part of our old life. The difference is that our face isnow always turned towards God, and no longer turned towards our problems anddifficulties. We will experience how God provides in all our needs. This willstart happening naturally because Holy Spirit in us guides us step bystep. I have learned that a soul that is governed by Holy Spirit is a trusting,believing, peaceful soul.
When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me (Ps 63:6-8)
We learn many hard lessons in life, especially inthe winter seasons – but the most important lesson I have learned so far isthat I should never operate independently from God – in no area of my life:spirit, soul, and body. When we yield to Holy Spirit we give the Lord room inour lives to lead us and to instruct us.
Like I mentioned in my previous letter, Aldoreceived surgery on Monday to remove what we thought was a cyst. In the end wediscovered it wasn’t a cyst, but it was a little piece of plastic and somestitches that weren’t removed properly when his shunt was taken out about threeyears ago. His wound kept on getting infected and forming fluids.
Through this practical example the Holy Spiritreminded me again that our pain will keep on infecting us until the root iscompletely removed. I can remember that at the beginning of this year onestitch came out with the fluids of the wound, and we were so excited about thisbecause we thought that this one stitch was what caused the infection. But itwas only the tip of the ice-berg, and none of us could have dreamed that therewould still be a piece of the plastic clamp from the shunt waiting for us to bediscovered.
The physical manifestations were always there,because the wound never quite completely healed and it was continuouslyinfected with puss coming out of it. Until one day when we all just put ourfoot down and said enough is enough! Our good friend, Dr. Schalk, who hasassisted with many of Aldo’s operations, suggested that we do the operation in thesmall theatre at his office and not in the hospital. We were all so happy aboutthis arrangement because it meant that we could stand around the bed and prayfor Aldo while Dr. Schalk opened the wound and removed the plastic clamp.Hallelujah – our God reigns! Layer by layer, step by step, we are getting there.Please Father, show us the roots in our spiritual foundation that are stillinfecting us, because until we are completely free from it we will keep onfighting.
This afternoon we are going to friends of ours on afarm, and we are going to have a nice traditional South-African braai in theopen field. We are also going to help give milk to the little lambs. Can youjust imagine how excited these city kids are? There is just nothing thatcompares to a holiday at Yzerfontein!
We all went to bed very late the previous night(except Aldo, who was already in bed by 8 o’clock), and I made us some latenight snacks and tea. Much later I was still busy reading my Bible and I couldhear Josh and the girls giggling in their room downstairs. I wondered if Ishould go and put them to bed, or if I should just allow them to enjoy beingkids on holiday. For such a long time everybody had to be quiet for Aldo’ssake, and therefore I decided to let them have their fun. “Please Abba,” Iprayed, “just keep Aldo’s ears closed from the noise so that he won’t wake up.”
Later I heard their voices and laughter coming upthe stairs, because they decided that they no longer wanted to sleepdownstairs, but that they preferred to sleep upstairs in Josh’s room.Eventually the laughter dissolved into silence. I went to check on them and toput off the lights, and saw that they were sleeping all over each other.
For too long our house was quiet because Aldocouldn’t talk, and there weren’t many moments of laughter. Today Aldo can speak(even if it is loud – just like his niece Elisma), and we are so thankful forthe sounds of joy and happiness in our home. Because of this I kneel before myGod, and just say “thank You, thank You, thank You Yeshua, for the laughter inour lives. Thank You that we can yield our soul to You. Thank You for the bloodof the Lamb. Thank You for laughter!!”
I love You with everything in me. Thank You, thankYou, thank You.
Love Retah and family.