It is a warm summer’s night here in Africa, and my family has already gone to bed. I am still awake because I quickly want to write a newsletter before I have to leave for the weekend tomorrow. I minister away from home almost every weekend, and for that reason every precious moment I get to spend with my family during the week is very important to me.
It is so peaceful tonight. I can hear the frogs croaking, and all the night animals are starting to lift up their voices to the King. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,” is the song His creation sings to the King of the Universe.
This week I ministered at two events during the week at nearby cities. I don’t like to schedule events during the week, but because my diary is just so full, we couldn’t fit them in anywhere else. We all know that driving alone late at night is dangerous, and so I asked Tinus to take me to the events and arranged with Chantel to stay with the boys.
The second event was held in Johannesburg, and the venue was more than an hour’s drive from home. On our way home, Tinus and I prayed against Halloween that took place on the 31st of October, and the things that the enemy was busy with because of this dark festival. We also talked about the things that Aldo revealed to us through his letters of how the enemy really hates what we are doing for the kingdom of God. The realm of the spirit of darkness is constantly busy trying to destroy people’s lives; but unfortunately most Christians are so ignorant of the schemes of the enemy that we don’t realize what is going on in our lives in order to stop it from falling apart. Most people are happy to go to a doctor or psychiatrist for help, but they don’t understand that many times there is a spiritual root causing the problem.
At around 11:00 pm Tinus and I stopped at a red traffic light on our way home from Johannesburg. I was laying with my head against the headrest and just thanking God for the wonderful two nights we had in His presence. Many people accepted Christ that night. As I was lying there with my eyes closed, I suddenly heard the Holy Spirit say loud and clear in my spirit: “WATCH YOUR BACK!” I immediately sat up and turned around to look at the back window – right into the eyes of a hijacker! He was standing a few feet away from our car. I immediately reacted and screamed at Tinus to drive away! Our lives were saved because of Holy Spirit’s warning. If I did not hear and head His voice, we could have been dead! Spirit tot spirit – that is how the Lord speaks.
We later heard from Chans that Aldo was restless for most of the night while we were away, because the enemy kept telling him that his parents were dead. The next morning he wrote in his letter: “Mom, the enemy planned to kill you... I kept on hearing evil voices telling me that they were going to kill Ruth.” We explained to him that he has to rebuke the voices of the enemy; but we also know that he is so sensitive to what happens in the spirit realm that is seems very real to him.
We explained to him that when we keep our spirit connection with Yahweh open, He will always warn us and protect us; and that we are safe because we are covered by the blood of the Lamb. But we have to keep the connection open, and be attentive to His voice!
I can say thank You to my King today because He saved our lives and He held us tightly in His hands. “Thank You Yeshua for speaking so loud and clear. Thank You, thank You, thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit in our hearts that makes it possible for us to be one with You and to always hear Your voice.”
The man is full of revenge. He is angry and bitter and he wanted to kill humble Ruth the other night.
He is cruel, and he wanted to stop what Jesus Christ is busy building. He is gruesome. He wanted to kill my parents. I saw how my parents caught out the ram.
Wisdom says that man’s soul will not hear His voice, but we will hear His voice in our spirit. The boy Samuel hears the voice of God so gently in his spirit. Those who are full of fear are deaf to His voice. Wisdom asks us if we will listen to Him. His Word leads us. His Spirit leads us. Wisdom will provide in all our needs. Those who hear His voice will hear: “Samuel, Samuel, your life is in My hands. Don’t worry about anything. The Word of God says the boy will be healed.” I can hear His voice. Thank You so much Yeshua. Ruth, you will see that God’s promises will be fulfilled.
The enemy comes in and tries to break our connection with Yeshua in the spirit. Our spirit needs to be healed, and to be connected and tuned in to the Lord. Our spirit is the part of us that contacts the Lord. He doesn’t speak to the soul – but to the spirit. If your spirit is not in harmony with Yahweh, you will struggle to have faith and to hear His voice. We have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s voice.
There are so many people who are in a desperate state and who require a first class miracle; but first things first – we need to accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour and confess Him as our Lord.
Only after receiving Jesus as your Lord and Saviour can you receive eternal life and your healing. “But why don’t I see it?” many people would say. The moment you are born again, then your spirit can come into a close relationship with the Father, and in Him – in His life – is everything we need for our spirit, soul and body. Faith is a product of your spirit, not your intellect. Your intellect won’t produce faith – just as your soul cannot hear Yahweh’s voice, but only your spirit. Let me illustrate further: happiness can be found in your situations and surroundings, but true joy is a part of the living water that runs through your spirit.
So many people live from the soul realm, and receive temporary satisfaction from their surroundings, but they never drink of the streams of living water in the spirit. It works the same way with faith, hope and love – it springs from your spirit, from the hidden heart of the man.
Most people don’t experience the wonderful, passionate and rich intimacy and fellowship between the Father and His children, because their spirit is deprived of communication with our Abba Father, and from eating His Word. Without fellowship our spirit gets weakened, and as your fellowship weakens, your faith and the eating of His Word will decrease.
How is it that we so clearly understand that our flesh needs food, but we don’t seem to realize that when we don’t feed our spirit with God’s Word, our ability to hear Yahweh’s voice will weaken?
In 1 Tim. 4:7, Paul admonishes Timothy to: “train himself to be godly”. I have learned in these past seven years that my spirit needs to be trained through exercise in order to be healthy. Here are some of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned:
1) I need to feed on God’s Word.
2) I must confess what I believe – because we cannot ever expect to rise above what we confess with our faith. So repent of unbelief and doubt, and start confessing what God’s Word says.
3) Confess Yeshua – proclaim your faith in Christ and what He means to you. Confess His faithfulness, His completeness, His redemption.
4) Have communion with Him by feeding on His Word, talking to Him (prayer life), loving Him and spending time with Him.
5) Humbly trust Him and have faith in Yahweh.
6) Obey His voice.
It may sound very simple, but these things produce a wonderful, intimate, love relationship with the King in spirit and truth. It is all a part of the healing process that Yahweh is busy teaching me for spiritual, mental (soul) and physical healing.
Let’s look at the relationship between our physical and spiritual life:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize (1 Cor. 9:24-27).
Paul said that he kept his body under control, lest he be disqualified after preaching to others. Not lost, but disqualified. Why disqualified? Because if we just live our lives to gratify our sensual appetites – eating, drinking, lusting after the desires of the flesh – we will definitely lose our spiritual strength; our flesh will become stronger than our spirit. If we spend more time gratifying our flesh (worldly appetite) than spending time with the King, our spirit will become weaker and our flesh stronger. Your connection with the soul will be stronger that your connection with the voice of Yahweh in your spirit.
In the beginning of last year I started praying this prayer: “Lord God, please give me and my family a hunger for Your Word – even a greater than our hunger for food.” I started praying this, because I realized that if you lose your hunger for the Word of God, you start to develop a hunger for something else. The more we eat the word of God, the stronger our relationship with Yahweh becomes and the more we start knowing and understanding His character. The more we know his character, the more we fall in love with Him. The more we love Him, the more we trust Him. And that is how our faith grows in the spirit – from Spirit to spirit.
Spirit to spirit is being in His presence – you walk in the fullness of life and fellowship, from your spirit to His Holy Spirit. You receive first hand revelation, He guides you step by step, He warns You, He gives you the answers to your questions... it is where you walk in the realm of faith – the realm of miracles.
I often see how people sometimes move purely in the realm of intellect and try to figure our Yahweh with their minds. God is Spirit (John 4:24), just open your heart and receive all of Him.
I see healing as a spiritual thing. Yahweh doesn’t only want to heal our physical infirmities and weaknesses; He wants our entire being – body, soul, and spirit – to be healed. The power to heal the sick comes from God, and He wants to use us as an empty vessel to bring His Kingdom to earth. It is because we are all so full of pride (wanting to argue and fight, rather than just loving and obeying Yahweh’s Word), that we don’t always experience the miracles; and then we turn around and say that miracles aren’t possible anymore today. No, our God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Let’s stay in fellowship with Yahweh through our communication and deep love relationship with Him. There is no power in hell than can separate us from His love and His fellowship – other than our own will!
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39).
Beautiful Holy Spirit wants to talk to us through our spirit. He wants to unveil the Father’s heart to us through the Word of God to our intellect; and as we yield ourselves to Him and as we feed on His Word, He wants to bring our intellect and our affection into perfect harmony with His will for our lives, for: “man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt.4:4). If you say that you are not hungry for God’s Word, maybe it is because you are filling yourself with the wrong things - things that you ought not to eat.
I am so thankful that we can deal with Aldo’s trauma day by day. Oh, how the Lord is busy teaching us! Ma’am Patrys said the other day that God used this painful journey to teach us how to deal with the pain of the soul. I know today that if you don’t look your pain in the eyes and deal with it, you will not receive healing for the body, soul or spirit. We are busy with this process, and I tell you it is a deep and painful process – but I see the healing coming!
Moya, our dog, woke up when I made myself some coffee just now. She got up and thought that it was already morning because she heard the kettle boiling. “No Moya, my girlie, go back to sleep... it is still dark outside.” Josh says that Moya is filled with the Holy Spirit because she wags her tail when we pray. The house is very quiet because everybody is already fast asleep. All I want to do now is to spend time with my King – just loving Him and thanking Him for saving our lives. Not only for protecting us from the hijackers last night – but for that night seven years ago when He took us out of the world and gave us eternal life!
I bless you from Africa – grace and love to you,
Retah and family