God has created us with a desire and need for Him in our hearts, that only He can fill. Nothing else on earth can fill that God-shaped whole in our hearts. People have tried. Retah has tried. To tell you the truth, I tried everything possible in the past to fill that whole in my heart – but I couldn’t.
I thought the Mrs. South-Africa title would make me happy, but I was still empty. I exercised two to three hours a day to get my body in perfect shape, but my body was just another idol that couldn’t fill the whole. I bought everything my eyes desired, and still I did not have lasting joy or peace in my heart. But the day when I cried out to the Living God – Yehovah, Elohim, Adonai – with a shattered heart while kneeling beside a car-wreck on a highway, He filled that void in my heart with Himself. What should have been the most devastating day of my life, became the best day of my life.
This feeling of being filled with His love in the midst of my pain is difficult to describe, but this is why I know that nothing will be able to satisfy that cry of your heart other than being in the presence of the Holy One – Yahweh.
I cried many tears of remorse after the accident because I had to let my heart be broken before I saw my need for God. For almost eight years now we have been walking this road of healing and restoration as a family. It has been a very lonely road, filled with many spiritual fights, and even stones of accusation being thrown at us. What I have learned through our journey is something the world doesn’t want to hear. The world is always looking for the easy way out. COMPROMISE is the trap that Satan uses to ensnare so many of Yahweh’s children. I am also still busy learning on this road of sanctification – so by no means do I “know it all”, and I hope and pray that the Holy Spirit will break this message open to you like only He can. Not by human arguments, but by the power and conviction of the Spirit.
Over the last couple of months I have seen how Christians philosophy about the road of sanctification; so many seem to be looking for a shortcut. Only after crying many tears can I write this message to you today. I have a child in my house that is extremely alert and sensitive to what happens in the spiritual realm, and together with Holy Spirit (or Wisdom – as Aldo calls Him), do we walk out this journey. I see firsthand how quickly we can open doors to the enemy, regardless of the fact that we love Yhwh. We are all fighting a battle against compromise.
Yhwh has given us a free will to love Him or not. We have a choice in whether we are going to obey His Word, or if we are going to bow to compromise and eat from the fruit tree of the knowledge of good and evil – the first act of rebellion that took place in the Garden of Eden. In popular Christian culture, we have looked for short-cuts to survive without Yhwh’s direct presence. We have started walking down paths we carved out for ourselves, and we have followed our own ways. The building of the tower of Babel is an example of this:
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth (Gen. 11:1-9).
In my own life I see how Yhwh chooses paths for me to walk that just doesn’t make sense to my natural mind – because it doesn’t seem to be to my own advantage. Recently I sought Him for answers when it seemed that other people benefited at my expense, and He reminded me of Joseph (see Gen. 37 – 50). You see, when we live our lives abandoned to Him, His plans doesn’t always have to make sense to us. You must just trust Him and follow Him wherever He leads – knowing that in the end you will see the whole picture, and that it will be a part of His perfect plan.
Al of us are contaminated by the sin that entered into the world through the fall of man when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s one and only command. That is the description of rebellion if you ask me. That is why we need to fight against it and give over to Yhwh. We need to stop rebelling against Him when it seems that things are not working out the way we thought it should. In the short term it might seem that our lives are falling apart, but let’s rather trust God, knowing that He sees much further than we can, and that His understanding is much greater than ours.
So, what can we say about sanctification? I believe that Yhwh is asking “sanctification” of us for 2012. Do I mean super-holy and legalistic? Or holier than my friends by comparison? No, not at all. We do not own the quality or characteristics of holiness. Our holiness always comes from reflecting His holiness; like the moon reflecting the rays of the sun. The moon is not a source of light, the only reason it shines so brightly at night is because it mirrors the glory of the sun. If the sun were to stop shining, the moon would be dark and dull.
The same goes for you and me. Our sanctification is because of our love-relationship with Yhwh, and because we reflect the light of His holiness. That is why we need to lay down whatever it is that stands between us and Him, because those things cause a shadow. We need to be “transparent” before the Lord. Only when we are one with Him, do we reflect His character. Only then can we be what He is. It is not an “act” we perform, but a state of just “being”. It is the same with romance between two people – it is not supposed to be a “job”, it should flow from sincere love and passion. When we walk a road of sanctification, know that it is a road of intimacy with Yhwh – to be one with Him, to be completely yielded to Him, to reflect His holiness, and not to be overshadowed by the compromise of the world. This is the only way that we will become transparent before Him, and reflect Him like a clear mirror. We will showcase His love and His character to the world. We will be His hands and feet here on earth. People will see Him reflected on our faces, without us having to say one word.
The things of the world will fade away. All our voids will be filled with His love and His peace – because we are yielded to Him, without any fear. Our Father carries our best interest in His heart, and He wants us to fulfil the purpose for which He created us, and to enjoy the good things He blesses us with. He knows that His plan for our lives will only work out if we yield our plans to Him, and if we reflect His holiness. Let’s choose holiness and a road of sanctification!
I am already in Knysna where I’m ministering this weekend. I am trusting Yhwh for a huge shift in the spirit over this beautiful part of our country, but where there is also a large demonic stronghold.
Stand with me, and let us start praying! Prayer changes things; not whispering and reasoning about everybody’s fears. Yhwh is Yhwh, and He will do as He pleases. Let us start praying like Daniel, because his prayers ignited a big shift and Yhwh honoured Daniel’s faith by answering the prayer of the righteous.
May the Lord bless you and keep you, make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the Lord look with favour upon you and give you His peace.
I bless you with Yhwh’s favour over your life for 2012. Receive it by faith.
Love,
Retah and family.