I was dreaming I saw a huge map of Africa and then the next
thing was Africa became washed in the precious precious blood of Jesus.
From south the north and west to east and I heard
a voice cry. That voice was something extra ordinary
I'm sure it was the voice of the Holy Spirit. And he cried Africa shall be saved, was like
a thunder. I woke up.
I said oh that was wonderful, the Holy Spirit was
in the bedroom. I've read the anointing of the spirit of God.
And then my German brain began to tick again. I thought my ministry has no impact in this
tiny little country of Lesotho.
And now I hear God say Africa shall be saved. There's something wrong I must have eaten
bad bananas last night But I had that dream four consecutive nights.
And after night number four I said to my wife, honey I think God is trying to tell me something.
The mission ward of the _______ to which I belonged, came to investigate the whole situation.
And I thought they were pleased that I was doing so well, but then he took me aside and
he said, You cannot go on doing this.
The printing press, all my evangelistic developments. They wanted to stop and I was just to be a
missionary like the other missionaries. They didn't want anyone to fry an extra
sausage. You had to stick to the rules, be like everybody
else. And now I was pregnant, kind of pregnant with
that vision of bringing the gospel of salvation to the whole continent of Africa.
So I was now somehow in a dead end road. I didn't want to offend my German superiors
but I didn't want to offend God.
And then I decided to go and hire a room in a
hotel. Right there at the border of Lesotho.
And I thought I'm going to pray here until God
has spoken to me. I fell on my knees at the bed right there
and I said Lord for the sake of peace please allow
me to agree with my German brothers.
And I prayed and I prayed and I prayed and I prayed.
And then the Lord spoke words that made me shake like a leaf in the wind.
He said to me if you drop the vision I gave you
of a blood washed Africa, I have to drop you and
give it to someone else to bring it about. I shook, physically, I shook like a leaf.
I jumped up, I hadn't been longer than one hour
in that hotel room. It was a very short fast.
I paid my bill and jumped into the car. I drove home and I said Anni, Anni, Anni.
God had spoken, where's my typewriter? I'm going to write a letter to ... and I'm
going to resign.
Oh and she said can't you please sleep one night over it?
I said no, no, I can't. I can't sleep any night because God said he's
going to drop me if I drop that vision. So I wrote my resignation and a peace, a deep
peace came into my heart and I've never looked back.
Those very men who tried to prevent it later on
congratulated me for not having obeyed them. So that is the blessed outcome. So here's the principal that I want you to grasp
tonight. If you won't do what God's calling you to
do he'll find somebody else who will.
But my friend if God has to pass you over and
if he has to find someone else, then the one who's going to be the loser is you.
A good example of this is Esau. Esau was the first born son in his family.
He should have been his father's heir. He should have been the one to carry on the
family name. He should have been the one through whom
God would fulfill that great promise that he
had made to Abraham. But Genesis 25:34 says that Esau despised
his birthright.
And so God passed over Esau. Because Esau was so flippant with that birthright,
you know what he did? He gave it to Esau's younger brother Jacob.
Jacob inherited the destiny that should have been Esau's
And Jacob ended up becoming one of Israel's greatest patriarchs
My friend if you're going to despise the gift that
God's put in your life, don't worry, God will give
it to someone else. Eli is another good example of this.
Eli was the high priest in Israel. His family had been called and anointed by
God to the very prestigious position of serving in the high priestly office.
First Samuel 2:12 says that Eli's two sons had no regard for that calling on their lives.
They desecrated the tabernacle with sexual perversion.
In fact they literally stole offerings that people
brought to the Lord. They blasphemed the very name of the God
they were supposed to be serving They were spoiled brats who had a sense of
entitlement. They thought they were indispensible because
their daddy was the high priest. And they were born into a powerful privileged
family. But my friend God tore the priestly calling
away from them.
He took it away from Eli's family and he gave it
to a little boy named Samuel who ended up leading
the nation in their stead. My friend if you don't want to honor the calling
that's on your life, don't worry. God will find somebody else who will.
Saul is another good example of this. God chose Saul to be Israel's first king.
But Saul disobeyed the lord, he hardened his heart time and time again.
Saul's children and grand children were supposed to be the ones sitting on the throne.
But because of Saul's rebellion God cut his family off.
And instead he anointed a young man named David.
And it was through David that ultimately the Messiah
was to be born. My friend if you're not going to obey the
call and the will of God, don't worry, he'll look
for someone else who will.
The purposes of God will not fail. It's the one who chooses to disobey who is
going to suffer. God's plan will still come to pass even if
he has to raise someone else up to fulfill it.
John the Baptist gave a sobering warning to the
Jewish leadership of his day. He knew that since they were a part of God's
chosen people, they had a sense of superiority and indispensability.
But in Matthew 3:9 John says don't suppose that you can save yourselves, We have Abraham
for our father; for I say to you, from these stones God is
able to raise up children to Abraham.
My friend God is able to raise up the next world
changer over night. He can take someone from the gutter like
Esther who was a nobody, and put her in the palace
and he needs nobody's permission to do it. And Mordecai said Esther God's purposes will
come to pass one way or another, with or without you.
But then his warning became even more severe. Mordecai went on to say Esther if you keep
silent now relief and deliverance will arise from
the Jews from somewhere else.
But then he said you and your father's house will perish.
My friend God's purposes are like a freight train
that cannot be stopped. And the most dangerous place in the world
to stand is on the track in the way of those
purposes. So either get on the train or get out of the
way because God's purposes will prevail with or
without you. My friend we have been placed in this world
for a purpose and that purpose is to propel God's
Kingdom forward. And this is more than a preference or a privilege,
it's a divine responsibility and a duty which we will
be held eternally accountable. We talked about this in our very first lesson
you probably remember the illustration with the
rocket ship. Propelling God's Kingdom forward is not a
side issue.
It's the reason you were saved. It's reason that you were born.
My friend you have come into the kingdom for such a time as this. God will not allow anyone
to thwart him or his plans, no. He puts people out of the way and puts people
in the way. But those who are willing to go that way.
I felt God could, overnight, raise anyone, anyone.
Anyone else to do that job. But I was so keen to go with Him and see nations
shaken for Jesus. Before we had the big tent which sat thirty
four thousand people, we had one that was sitting
about ten thousand people.
And it was the so called ten thousand seater and
we moved around South Africa, southern Africa at that time.
And so I came to the ____ and while we were in midst of our gospel crusade, I heard
that a very famous African Evangelist was just
about fifty kilometers away. I knew his name and I was thrilled that he
was so close.
So the next day I drove all the way to that other
tent and it was not the man there I had expected. Not that great African Evangelist but one
of his deputies, but we talked.
And he said the big men of God in 1972 decided to drop his crusade ministry on a large scale.
I listened and listened and listened and suddenly I remembered it was 1972 that God gave me
the vision of a blood washed Africa. That shook me to the core.
In those days I had not even known that great man,
but the Lord unbeknown to me already put in a
replacement. He has replacements and they are all top choices,
they are all top choices. They may be number two or number three, but
when God gets hold of a man or a woman, he enables
them to fulfill that task.
And I humbly submit that that was the case in my
own life. The moral of the story is if I were you, I
would not procrastinate and I would not just postpone
it. I would jump and I would do as God has told
me to do.
It's in any case the highest calling possible on
earth. It's the highest form of human living on earth.
That's what it is. And to have the honor to be called by God
is more than being the president of the mightiest
nation on earth
