An apostolic-prophetic testimony to encourage, strengthen and strategically direct God’s Ekklesia in South Africa, Africa and the rest of the world.
Introductory:
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; love and faithfulness go before You.”[1]
As a Council of Servant-Leaders from all walks of life and different backgrounds, we stand here in all humility, but also with a certainty, as representatives and ambassadors of a King and a Kingdom not of this world but in this world.
We believe He taught us to pray for South Africa and Africa,
“Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” [2]
We believe our mandate is to be His voice proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom in South Africa, but also in the rest of Africa, and the rest of the world.
Our focus is especially on South Africa, because the citizens of this country, after more than three centuries of living and journeying together, confess and honour this King and His Governance as Lord and God in the Preamble of the Constitution of South Africa in the following way:
“We, the people of South Africa,
Recognise the injustices of our past;
Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land;
Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and
Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.
We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to
- Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;
- Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;
- Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and
- Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.
May God protect our people.
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika. Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso.
God seën Suid-Afrika. God bless South Africa.
Mudzimu fhatutshedza Afurika. Hosi katekisa Afrika.”[3]
Therefore, our hearts’ desire is to be a voice of this God in the here and now.
We only want to say what we believe He said we should say as ambassadors of His Kingdom coming.
The Kingdom of God is our primary focus
“… Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”[4]
As believing followers of the King, we have a passion for the Kingdom of Heaven coming to earth and are looking at how to complete the plans and the agenda that God has for the Kingdom of God.[5]
The Kingdom of God is in many areas of the world an unknown entity, an unknown goal, and an unknown message.
It seems that people have not really heard about the Gospel of the Kingdom. They heard all about church, and what we can call the gospel of the church. But many are surprised to hear that Jesus never spoke about a gospel of the church coming or growing but rather about the Kingdom of God coming and growing here on earth.
As was revealed in Heb. 1:1,2:
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by [His] Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds”
Over a period of three years, during His public ministry here on earth, we heard and saw Jesus, the Son of God, as the new Anointed King, proclaiming, illustrating, teaching, and ministering the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven, coming (again) to earth. Just as was prophesied by the prophets and the rest of the Old Testament Scriptures.
From the very beginning of His ministry here on earth, we heard Jesus saying:
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." [6]
Luke confirmed this and helps us understand that everything Jesus did and taught, from the very beginning to the very end of His public ministry, was all about this Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, coming to earth.
During the last forty days, while He was revealing Himself as the Risen King, we read in Acts 1:1-3.
“The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”
Jesus even said that this will be the message that He wants his followers to talk about, and witness about to all the world.
But because only the Spirit of God could convince and reveal the truth about Jesus, the Anointed, being the Saviour and new King, what God’s people needed was to be anointed with the Spirit of God in and on them.
“Then He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”[7]
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” [8]
For this reason, we hear the Paul proclaiming to the Roman King Agrippa, that King Jesus appeared to him, telling him …
“But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you.
I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.
Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.”[9]
All around the world, among the followers of King Jesus, this conversation about the Kingdom of God is gathering momentum. Also, among us as a council of Servant-Leaders, an open, positive conversation is going on about what it should look like when the Kingdom of Heaven come to earth.
What shall it look like and how will it change everything that is going on in this country and the rest of Africa?
The Kingdom of God is …
But, let us get back to basics and try and explain what we are talking about.
Now, let us define, for the time being, what we believe the term “Kingdom of God” means.
It means, the place where God is King over His people.
King = His is the King
Dom = We are the Dom.
We can describe the Kingdom as the domain where the reign of God is welcomed and where His rule is uncontested. People love Him and they want Him to be their King.
Let us say it again: The Kingdom of God is the welcomed, uncontested rule of God.
There can be no contest. No compromise. No rebelling against it. It is the place where God is in command. It is His House. He is the Lord of this House. Where He makes the rules and you ship in or you ship out. If you rebel against those rules, like the economic rules of the Kingdom, you will find yourself not going far in the Kingdom of God. You may go far in Christianity, but not in the Kingdom of God.
Our goal as a council of Servant-Leaders, was to open up a conversation about what this means practically in our country, in every sector and area of Life.
We believe our mandate and message is to voice to government and every individual in this country, and even the rest of Africa, what we’ve been discovering, embracing and fleshing out about the Kingdom of God in our own lives, in different areas, in our work, in our economy, in our governance, etc.
Of course, this will be a journey for all of us. It will be in part, discovering the Kingdom of God around us as we stumble into it or stumble over it. Like a treasure in the field, as Jesus described it in one of His parables.
Some of us will discover it, but keep quiet about it for a while, till we can buy that field, even if it means selling everything you have to embrace it.
Yes, and sometimes, part of this story about the Kingdom is a love story about your intimate relationship with the King, that is part private and precious to you. Because of that, we have decided among us, not to try and broadcast those personal experiences. But allow also other people to have other stories and other discoveries, and to recognise it is the same cake! It is the same Kingdom!
This also means, recognising the fact that is not so important where we all came from and even what the detail is of what we believe, but it is of more importance where we all go to.
Because God is busy raising up the Kingdom of God.
One of the most striking passages in the Bible about the Kingdom of God, is Daniel 2.
Where you find a prophetic picture of this statue that describes human empires.
The first readers of this prophecy found the Persian, Babylonian, Greek, and Roman Empire described over there.
And it ends up with brittle clay mixed with iron.
You will also find that stone, cut out, but something not human (so, divinely!). Because God was (and is) totally in charge!
Nothing there is responding to any human activity!
And where that stone, representing Christ, strikes the most vulnerable place of that whole statue, its brittle toes, what followed was a lot of momentum.
If you read this passage, you will see and hear these strong sounds and movements. You will hear the word, “strike”, which is not just something gentle and soft! No, it depicts a very violent act! And then you will hear of how this stone “crushes” this image and bringing to an end an entire kingdom. That is a strong statement!
Some may even want to water it down, but God is saying: This is what the Kingdom of God will do! It will break things to pieces! It can happen in slow motion, but, I believe, then it can also happen very fast!
Then there is this second movement happening: When this stone became a mountain that filled the whole earth!
Can you believe, a stone becoming a mountain! How can a stone grow into a mountain?
The answer is by adding other stones that are made out of the same core, the same stuff that the stone is!
That is exactly the idea of 1 Pet 2:5.
God is interested in taking living stones and building it into His spiritual house. Which is the Kingdom, the House of God.
That is what Jesus and His Father both are working on.
In Joh. 14: 1, King Jesus said: I am going to build a place for you in My Father’s House.
God is inviting you and me to be part of that building.
And that building is not some or other church or ministry. King Jesus said that He is building His Father’s house. And you are either with Him or against Him!
This brings us back again to the fact that what God is building, is large… It is a mountain! And it is bigger than a Kilimanjaro or a Mount Everest! It is huge. It fills the entire earth!
In Is. 9 it says, the increase of His government has no end! It means, it is ongoing! It keeps going … till it reached its goal!
To read the whole article, download the article The Kingdom of God.
[1] Ps. 89:14 (from the ESV)
[2] All quotations from the Bible are from the NKJ-Translation, except when indicated that it is from another translation. Matt. 6:9-13
[3] https://www.gov.za/documents/constitution-republic-south-africa-1996-preamble
[4] Matt. 6:33
[5] Most New Testament commentaries agree that the four terms, “Kingdom of God”, “Kingdom”, “Kingdom of heaven” and “Kingdom of Jesus” in the New Testament used in similar contexts, depict the same meaning.
The word in the Greek that we’ve translated with “kingdom”, is the same, basileia. In the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on the Semantic Domains, Vol 1, of JP Louw and EA Nida, “basileia” depicts “an area of district ruled by a king”, or “kingdom”. “Kingdom of heaven” indicates “the abode of God” or “where God lives” or “from where God governs”.
[6] Matt. 4:17
[7] Luk. 24:46-49
[8] Acts 1:8
[9] Acts 26:16-20