Jehovah-jireh

Jehovah-jireh is a Hebrew term used by Abraham on mount Moriah, after God provided a sacrificial lamb as a substitute for his own son, Isaac. It means "God the provider".

Early 2013, My wife and I have had an urge to move to move across the country for a long time. Eventually, beginning of March 2013, that urge became reality as we felt good about the move. Financially, we took a shot with the move and amazingly, we received a lot of financial support from people without asking for help. That in itself was special to me and started off our journey to trusting in God's provision.

Moving unfortunately meant paying more rent, petrol and taking a cut in my salary. We knew it meant tight times ahead, but we trusted that it was God who started the prompting for us to move and so it would be God who was going to carry us through. A couple of unexpected expenses crept up and our expenses were more than my income every month, after having cut out all of our entertainment and extra money. Month after month we took money from our savings account to cover our basic needs. Through many stressful nights laying awake, questioning the move, my ability as the provider in our family and countless tears in solitude, I begged God for help.

In this time I had a strong urge to go to Zambia on a mission trip. I couldn't urge to go and I knew it was God leading me. It meant taking 2 weeks of unpaid leave and a hefty amount of money to go. I worked out that it would take our last savings for me to go. I still couldn't escape the feeling that I must go and so eventually I decided against all rational logic to use our last funds and go.

I came back from Zambia very sick and had some medical expenses that I needed to cover. I sat in the car with my wife in a parking lot one night and told her that we need to check how much money we have left and figure out how we could earn extra money to cover our expenses. I checked on my phone, expecting a double digit balance, only to find the same amount as before all the Zambia expenses. I still haven't been able to put a rational explanation to this and have conceived to call it a "miracle". I also got a promotion at work and we were once again able to cover our expenses every month.

This was the start of a couple similar stories following, where we found ourselves between a rock and a hard place, but time and time again, God has provided. We have not once neglected giving God the first 10% of our money that comes in and I believe that God rewards not the amount we give, but the heart by which we have faithfully continued to give even in the toughest times.

Seek first God's kingdom and desire to do right. If you do this, God has promised to provide you with your needs.

Matthew 6:25 - 34

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Led to Lego Lady

We got together ready to go wherever God would lead us. After some prayer we all mentioned the things that the Holy Spirit showed us while we were praying. The things that we thought of or images that we got during the prayer session were the following:

• Tall buildings
• Tower with red light
• Guy with a 2 coloured T-Shirt, dark blue on top and light blue at the bottom
• Lego
• Rose
• Shark
• Staff members with black clothes
• Father with 2 children
• Sun
• A feeling that we would get resistance and would need to share our testimony

So the 4 of us headed off to the Centurion Mall as someone remembered some tall buildings next to the mall. When we got there, we saw the Ocean Basket sign and saw that the waves on the sign had 2 different colour blues, exactly the same colours the 2 coloured T-shirt one of us saw during the prayer also we guessed that shark was a confirmation of “Ocean”. We headed down to Ocean Basket and when we got there we prayed that the Holy Spirit would show us what we must do there. Whilst we were praying a couple of us had names pop in our heads. The names were Bianca, Ben and “C”. One of us got the name “C” and asked God to show the full name, but all they got was “C”. We asked at Ocean Basket if there was anyone called Rose, Bianca or Ben” working there. They said we must try next door and so we asked next door and Ben and Rose were waiters at Cappuccinos. The waiters outside asked how we knew them and we told them that it was a word from God, but seemed to have trouble believing us. We had the opportunity to pray for the waiters who were outside, but the manager of the place seemed a little irritated with us keeping the waiters out of work so we carried on walking and spotted a tower with a red light in the distance (exactly as one of us had seen it in a vision during prayer). This just gave us confidence that God is leading us. We eventually saw a guy with a brace around his leg and one of us had a conviction to pray for the guy, whilst another one of us also had hip and knee problems on the same left leg. We chatted with the guy and then prayed for him. We could tell by his expression that our prayers meant a lot to him. We then saw a Lego sign and followed it to find a Lego shop. There was a lady staff member in the Lego shop with black clothes talking on the phone. We waited until she was done and then asked her what her name was. She said we must just call her “C”, that’s what everyone calls her. Having confidence that God led us to her we chatted for a bit and one of us then shared a testimony about how they went through a very similar time and testified how God helped them through. After a while of chatting with her she had to lock up and leave, so we prayed for her before she left.

Fourteen-fold Blessing

I was doing a sports climb at Kings Kloof in Krugersdorp but only had 7 quickdraws. A complete set of quickdraws would be between 10 and 12. During the climb on one of the walls, I was 1 quickdraw short of summiting the climb, but spotted a quickdraw on the last bolt, which meant that I could make it all the way to the top. I took the quickdraw home after the climb and was quite happy since I now had 8 quickdraws meaning that I would be able to do a handful of climbs with 8 bolts. I saw on the climbing forum (Lost and found section) that someone would like the quickdraw back if anyone could get it off the last bolt on that route. I really wanted to keep this quickdraw, because with 7 of them I would have to buy a new one which cost about R160 on average. I eventually felt the right thing to do is to let the guy know I have his quickdraw and give it back. After making the decision I posted on the forums asking if anyone would like to sell an old quickdraw or 2. A lady replied to the post saying that she would give me her old set for free. The set had 14 quickdraws and I also got a free sling. It was amazing how giving up the one quickdraw meant receiving 14 in return. It was great to see how God blesses obedience.

Disappearing books

Two of us went to a book store and had a look around in the Christian section. We saw a controversial book on the rack that teaches a lot of “Christian” nonsense which is completely unbiblical. We asked one of the guys there how many of these books they sell per week and he mentioned that they sell at least 2 every day (which means about a minimum of 14 in a week). We felt we should pray that people would become blinded to this book and not buy it. In total, there were about 15 of these books on the shelf and so we make a very small marking on the price tags of the books so that we can check next week and see how many books were sold and if it was less than normal.

The next week I went back to the shops and checked whether any of the books were sold. I couldn’t find the books and thought that they must have all been sold out (there were only 15 last week and with them selling 2 a day, it’s likely that they sold all of them). I asked a guy working there if they had the book in store. He checked on the system and said they have 15 in stock. He went to show me where to find the books. He couldn’t find them and so with a confused look he said that he would check the backroom to see if for some reason they were put in there. He couldn’t find it there either and eventually he gave up looking for the books, apologized to me saying that they definitely have stock, but for some odd reason he can’t seem to find the books. That’s when I realised that if they have 15 in stock it meant that not a single book was sold during the week and these books had mysteriously “hidden” themselves that even the employees of the book store could not find them.

Revealing a friends needs

We were sitting in bible school class and I saw one guy sitting there. I heard the words “He is overworked and doesn’t get out enough” with the added feeling that his heart was in need of fellowship and love. My shallow faith stumbled and didn’t think it was God, so as we do, I needed that other sign… you know how that goes… I said to God “If this is You… I will leave this and not react at all. If this is You… the words must come out of his mouth”, I left it there. Then after class as we were greeting people we walked past a friend, only to stop for a moment, and here this guy was standing. He asked me about ordinary life related things, I had forgotten what I had prayed hours earlier, and then his turn came to tell me what was going on with him and out of his mouth the words flowed that he was overworked and just wanted to chill a bit. Needless to say, my memory was very active again, and I invited the guy to play rugby with us and just shared with him what I felt he needed to hear.

I didn’t tell him about any of this, but it is still amazing to see how God uses us to be there for one another, maybe it didn’t even mean that much to him, I don’t know, but the whole thing meant a lot to me. I prayed for him and that is where I left it. God revealed, I was obedient (hehe, second time around) and reacted, and now I leave it with God, in faith.

Prayer for Tires

We went on a weekend away, leaving in the early morning hours. On the road our one car burst both its left back tire and the spare tire we replaced it with. We had to find a tire repair shop, so we got into the other car, leaving the rest behind, and drove to eMalahleni (witbank) to try and find a tires place. After following the gps we got to a place that was still closed. So we decided to just keep on driving. While we were driving the one oke said we should pray for help; he prayed a simple little God help us find a place prayer, to which another oke added “and let the place be right around the corner”, not knowing the implications. Twenty meters later we turned left into a petrol station, jokingly jesting that this must be the place, only to find that the very building just before it was a big tires repair shop… literally meters away from where we prayed that simple little prayer, the very next stop we could have made. From where we came, you only saw a brick wall, nothing more… no way we could have known. To top it all off - the place even opened up thirty minutes earlier than we expected.

We started talking to the person whom opened the tires shop; it was still early so he was the only employee at work. He then told us about the biblical principal of sowing and reaping, and how that he sometimes does that. He then gave us discount on the tires, with a free wheel balance, just like that. We were in awe – all of this happened so hap-hazardously, we didn’t know what to think. So we asked him if he was religious, trying not to offend; from there on out we spoke for a while about God, sharing stories.

It would seem that something that started out with a seemingly silly little prayer – God took and turned into something tangible, really tangible. For us it was a little unexpected adventure, with God shaking our idea of living a life with him.

Salvation of a Friend

One of our girlfriends moved into her own apartment with an old school friend of hers. They organized a house warming and this is where we met her for the first time.

The Monday our friend walked into our home on the verge of crying... we could see something massive had happened in her life. She sat us down and told us that the new friend we met, the house mate, tried to commit suicide. It was startling, shocking – we saw her days before!

She told us how she got home and how her friend was very tired and went to sleep, and how later on the girl’s father called asking her to check up on her. She found her lying in her bed, dying of a drug overdose; she had swallowed a whole lot of pills. They rushed her to the hospital, to intensive care.

We started interceding, praying for God to please, please take hold of this situation and turn it around! That she would not die, but surely live! That God would show Himself mightily! We had nowhere to turn nowhere to run… we needed God! We prayed boldly filled with compassion, stretching our faith.

A few days later we all went to visit her in the hospital; she had a speedy recovery and could see visitors again. Not knowing what would come of all off this we were praying even more, thanking God for rescuing her and asking Him to take control of her life.

The hospital let her go a few days later and she got booked into a recovery clinic, where our girlfriend kept visiting her. After one such visit she came home telling us how they were doing tarot card readings at the clinic (heh, apparently she was an earthworm! lol). We weren’t impressed! This clinic is known as a Christian clinic and here they have people exposing you to the demonic… It was a Friday, we decided that we would go visit and warn her, we would not let satan reign freely… he already made his intentions known… this was war! So we prayed some more. I could feel the oppression against us that whole weekend, it truly was war…

The Sunday we would go to visit her, not knowing how any of this would go. Honestly a bit intimidated (hehe). I woke up that morning feeling “What on earth are you doing, what are you going to go say to this poor girl, she has been through so much, don’t disturb even more…” I rebuked satan.

The afternoon we went over to the clinic. Again praying like crazy! It took a while to find the place she was staying. After taking a corner we saw her sitting with her family outside, we told one another: “We can’t talk about all off this in front of her family that would be weird!” Luckily we soon got a gap – we shared our testimonies and how good God is, we also shared our demon possession from Rustenburg story, because she had also been busy with tarot cards and that opened doors in her life.

The clinic let her go and she visited us over the weekend, we all had a wonderful time. Also being visited by a very inspirational man of God – he told us so many amazing stories of what God was doing in his life. So the Sunday came and we invited her to go with us to church. The whole service we were praying for her, God told me “Do you remember how I asked Peter and the others in the garden of gethsemane to pray with me? That I must pray and not fall asleep.”

That night she gave her heart to Jesus! Oh how we wept! In a moment like this you feel closer to God than your own breath. It had been a wild three weeks! But oh, OH! How good is our God! He is amazing!

Afterwards she shared with us what had happened from her side. In the Muslim faith they believe in “devil whispers” which she told us she heard whilst she was at the mosque. The Friday before she tried to commit suicide, she was praying at the mosque and heard the words “Jesus Christ is the Son of God”. She tried to block it out – thinking it was “devil whispers”, but couldn’t. She also around the same time had a dream – in the dream there was a swimming pool in front of her filled with water. Jesus and satan was fighting over her and Jesus told her to get into the water to get baptized or what she said seemed similar to baptism. She listened to Jesus. She then saw how satan was drowning another guy in the water – Jesus then told her to breathe on his (the other guy's) behalf under water, which she did. She also had another dream where little gooey bubbles popped open; she could then see all kinds of little demons coming out of those bubbles. Jesus then commanded them to leave and they all got destroyed.

Who are we? That the living God that created everything would visit us in these ways? He is GOOD!
Now we get to see how God further grows her and forms her! Exciting times ahead!

Insane "Treasure Hunt"

On Monday evening we got together as usual at the party house and 3 of us were ready to hit the streets or malls or wherever God calls us. We started to pray that God would show us a sign of where to go. So here is the list of things that came up during prayer (Very random, since normally we just get an idea of a single place, maybe 2 and we go):

• Doringkloof shopping centre
• Family house
• Top of a shopping area
• Hospital Sign
• L
• Cross
• Apple
• Water running down / falling water

We decided that we would not ignore these things in case it was really the Holy Spirit speaking to us showing us all these things. So we headed off to Doringkloof to start off, completely baffled by the random things. We started to walk around the place trying to find things that would match the list of clues that we got. After not finding much, we sat down and prayed again. This is the list of things that we got during the next prayer:

• Waitress
• Black shirt
• Name tag
• Veronica
• Jennifer
• Bird
• Green plank / sign
• Motorbike
• Toys

This just added to the confusion and now we were more lost than before. With a few giggles we kept looking for these signs, which seemed to not at all be related. We thought of going to parrots in Centurion, but realised then to rather head off to Menlyn because we felt like it and there were more people, more grace to make mistakes. We felt good about Parrots because the Bird was a confirmation. On the way to Menlyn we saw a Hospital sign, confirming our first clue. Woohoo! So we walked to parrots and saw the water feature in Parrots, with a Toy store right across it and the Apple store next to it. Very excited for all the confirmations that got we asked the people at Parrots if a waitress with the name of Veronica or Jennifer works there. There was however no one with that name. Heading off to the apple shop, we saw the Clicks pharmacy, up one level and it was the cross and it was green. So we headed up and stood around there for a bit calling out "Jennifer!?", "Veronica!?". No one however seemed to respond at these names. Realising that the confirmations we were following were all in a definite path, we had the idea that the L meant to go left (since we didn't see any other things on the list). We went left and ahead saw a picture of an Apple computer in the distance. As we got there, House of Coffees was on the Top floor, which was a confirmation for top of shopping area and for the house clue. We then saw that the waiters and waitresses were wearing black shirts and had name tags (another 3 clues, OH YEAH!!!). So we asked the one waiter whether he knew of someone there with the name of "Veronica" and he says, yeah, but she's gone home. Excited by the fact that we were lead on a definite path with all the clues and even getting the name spot on, we asked if they knew anyone with the name "Jennifer". Jennifer turned out to be the person who takes over the shift of Veronica but was not there because it was her day off. Our faith was stirred and the waitresses and waiters at House of Coffees also seemed to have gotten a faith booster by the fact that we are asking for their colleagues by name.

So out of ALL (17) clues we got, there was only one that didn’t make sense, Motorbike!?. By the end of this, we were so filled with Faith. We gave them our number and said that we'd like to come back sometime to pray for both of them. Although we did not do much evangelising, I really believe God wanted to stir our faith.

Dragon House

Monday afternoon.

We got together at the party house and prayed for God to show us where to go. During prayer, we got the conviction to go to a house in Lenchen Avenue, Centurion that has a Dragon statue / light pole in front of it. So off the 5 of us went. We stopped outside of this house and saw a man sitting on a chair in the yard. Three of us started praying over the weird dragon statue and house, whilst two of us headed off to speak to the man sitting in the yard. As we started speaking to the man, Julius, we realised that he was not very comfortable with us being there. He told us that he believes in God, but doesn’t know who Jesus is and doesn’t trust Him. After some chatting, trying to explain to him who Jesus is and what He did for us, we realised that he wasn’t listening. So we decided to leave and asked if we could pray for him before we go. He didn’t want us to pray for him either. So lastly, just before deciding to head off, we asked him if he had a bible. Julius told us that he did not have one, so we asked if we could bring him a free bible tomorrow. He told us that he doesn’t have much to eat either at the moment and asked if we could bring him some food the next day. So we told him that we would bring him a nice meal and a free bible tomorrow if we can pray for him tomorrow as well. He thought it was a good idea, so we left.

The next day, Tuesday, we brought him a bible and a nice meal. When he accepted our gift, he said we could now pray for him. After praying for him, he thanked us and said that he would like us to come back again the next day to pray again and said that he feels very dead inside his heart. We thought, no problems, we can keep coming back every afternoon as long as he keeps needing prayer.

Wednesday afternoon, we came to pray for him, but he wasn’t there. We waited for a bit and he eventually arrived. This time he had a friend with him, Bongani. He said that he told Bongani about us praying for him and about Jesus. He had been reading in Matthew last night and said he thinks he knows now who Jesus is. So both Julius and Bongani wanted prayer, so we prayed. During prayer, it was laid on our hearts to tell them about the early church in Acts and told them that if they wanted to follow Christ they needed to repent of their ways, accept Jesus as their Saviour and be baptized. They mentioned that they want to do this and also be baptised. Not long after, they jumped into our car, headed back to the party house where both of them got baptized and publicly called out to God to come and change their lives. Bongani then asked for a Bible, because he didn't have one and we told him that we don’t have one anymore bibles. He then mentioned that he would love to have a Zulu bible. Suddenly one of us realised that we do have a nice Zulu bible in in the house. We gave it to him and it was just amazing how everything worked out. They were only staying at that house where we met them until Thursday (the next day), going to a few classes and writing an exam. They were heading back to Germiston and we got to meet them just before they left.

Impossible Rain

It was very dry in this area and the mealies were suffering under the tremendous heat. They were withering away and no rain was in sight. What made matters worse was that not only was there a scorching heat, but no clouds were in sight. No rain in sight; or so I thought. Then the Lord spoke to me and said that it was going to rain tonight. I said Lord, "Really? But there are no clouds in the sky, how could this be possible?" As I discussed this with my wife that no rain was in sight, she mentioned the story of Elijah who prayed after a drought that it should rain. That afternoon we prayed for rain in the family on Saturday. Looking at the conditions I predicted that no rain was coming for the next days. The Lord again laid an impression on me that it would rain. I asked the Lord to give me 2 days for more spectrum to be right about the rain. In the evening we could not believe it, hearing thunder in the distance. I mentioned the story of a pastor in a congregation who said that "if the East Wind is blowing no praying for rain will help because It simply will NOT rain". The east wind was blowing from Swaziland. Lord could it be? Then a small band of clouds formed in the west with some lightning far away. That evening on the farm of my family it rained 73 mm. The Lord is great! It was as if the Lord said to me if I give you an impression it WILL come to pass. Share it with others without being afraid that it won't happen. The Lord is great in his deeds! He sent rain under "impossible" circumstances! We can trust him and share this with each other.