Thursday, May 6, 2010

Building the Walls

Winter is here again. This is when we start making fires, and since Lesotho happens to be one of the coldest countries in Africa please pray we do not freeze! I like sitting around the fire, though, especially in the evenings with family and friends...so let's gather enough wood, coal and whatever else to keep the fire burning through this cold snowy season.

The past couple of months have been so enlightening, eye opening and wonderful in so many ways. To this day I know that God really wants me here in Lesotho for a purpose and for his plan. I always thank him for leading me in paths that are far beyond my imagination. Lately I have come to realize that it can be so easy to “do his work” and at the same time miss where his spirit is working and leading. So it's my daily prayer to be obedient and submissive to the Holy Spirit, who lives within us and who is here to lead us into all truth.

Speaking of truth, at the beginning of this year the Lord clearly showed me that I was to build, build the walls, walls of truth, walls of security and walls of faith that reveal God’s presence. It was so exciting to realize that I am called to build! In fact, we all are called to build. God made a promise that we will be called repairers of broken walls, restorers of streets with dwellings (Isaiah 58:12). As I asked the Lord what this meant, I learned that so much has been stolen from mankind and so many walls that haven been broken. As a result mankind was left living with lies, not knowing their true identity but feeling lost in a foreign land, and not experiencing the presence of God but experiencing all the things of this world that are evil.

I knew the Lord was saying to me that mankind is broken, disconnected from him and therefore living in ignorance and believing lies. There are so many things in life that the father of lies, the devil, has decorated or has changed so they appear to be true. These lies have been beautified so much that even we as Christians believe in some of them, and are eventually manipulated to act upon those beliefs. But praise God, Jesus is our Rescue in all of this! He is the source of all truth, truth that sets us free; he is the way the truth and the life. Praise be to God that we can now live in his truth. As I said at the beginning, I know God has me in Lesotho for a specific purpose. It’s so easy to believe lies about who we are and why we are on earth, but I know the fact that I am a Sotho, born in Lesotho, in Africa is not by accident. The same is true for each one of us, whether we are born in China, Iraq or anywhere else in the world is not by accident but for a specific purpose and for God's glory. The truth of God is that I am not less but I am great, I am not a tail but I am a head, I am a royal citizen and chosen, special and unique because of what Jesus did on the Cross. Colour, language, country etc does not determine who I am; only God’s Word can reveal my true identity.

As I was hearing from God more about how he wanted me to build walls, I learned that in this world so many walls in people’s lives are broken; broken relationships with family and friends, brokenness in the area of sexual purity, brokenness in the misunderstanding of true identity in Jesus. I have always wondered why believers struggle with self-pity, unforgiveness, anger and many other things, and God made it so clear that it is because of our belief in lies. People live in bondage, suffering under inherited curses, holding onto unforgiveness, self-pity, and negative ties and connections with the past. The lie that this is “just how life is” is so untrue, though many Christians live with these broken walls without even realizing it. We know the promise of the freedom we have in Christ, and it’s true that whom the Son sets free is free indeed, but we do not experience this freedom until we rebuild the broken walls mentioned above. We must believe in our hearts and confess with our months the truth of God to live in that freedom. We have the authority in Christ to demolish the lies of the enemy; we have the sword of the spirit to break down every wall that is fake, temporal and torturous.

God has called us for freedom; he has called us for building on his truth. Jesus said we should build on him because he is the rock of ages. I was so enlightened with the amazing truth that Jesus is here to set us free, only when we know and choose to live out the truth of his Word. I was encouraged to pass this revelation onto others who live in ignorance, so my team and I held a kids and youth camp based on the theme of building the walls of truth. We spent four days building into these young ones. During this time I saw many false walls of unforgiveness and pain being broken down by the truth of God and replacing those walls by building walls of truth. Friends, we cannot stop building; there is so much to construct! Look around you and find broken walls in the lives of those around you then ask God to lead you in how to build. The truth is that you have all the tools you need to build into other’s lives; we are not given the spirit of fear but of power, power to preach the good news to the poor and brokenhearted. I challenge you, at your work place, school, home, everywhere…to look for a broken wall and start building; don’t wait for “the right season”, this is it!

I ask you to be praying for me as I continue to seek God in this time of building. Also pray for my family and friends, and that my future and all my plans will be submitted to God. Please continue to pray for support of my ministry, and if you feel led to support me financially, please let me know. Jesus is the Rock and we are called to build on him, come let us rebuild the walls! (Nehemiah 2:17)

Blessings. Building the Walls,

Godfrey

Friday, January 29, 2010

The Mountain Top

I’m so thankful that I finally have this amazing opportunity to start a blog. I’m excited to share the goodness of the Lord in my life and in the lives of those who become part of my journey with God. It has been and continues to be an amazing journey. I believe that God takes every one of us on different journeys for the edification of others, so I would love the opportunity to hear about your journey as well. Many if not all of you will know that the Lord has put a calling in my heart to lay down my ambitions and pleasure so others in my home community (Nkoeng Butha-Buthe, Lesotho), neighboring communities, Lesotho, Africa, and other parts of the world can reach for their dreams in Jesus. The Lord passionately spoke to me through his word; Philippians 3:7-11. “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I might gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” He put a dream in my heart to pursue, he gave me a vision for his people, he set a goal to reach for, instilled a desire for more and posed to me a challenge to sacrifice.

I have found it amazing to be part of God’s plan, and a privilege to be a source of change and influence in the lives of the hopeless and the afflicted. I have loved the opportunity to set a standard for this young generation, and the chance to be obedient and reflect Jesus’ character. This amazing journey has not always been easy and smooth; there are times when challenges and trials have been part of my journey. But the bottom line is that I wouldn’t choose anything else. And so, I decided to start this blog so you can become part of my journey in the various ways the Lord allows.

I live in my home community of Nkoeng, which is my current ministry area, and disciple a group of kids and teenagers. We meet every Saturday to play games, do activities that challenge and build character, and build friendship and trust. We also learn to follow Jesus by studying the Bible together and applying it to our lives. In addition, we learn about true worship and we teach different ways of expressing our passion for Jesus through drama, guitar lessons, dancing and writing poems. We take these young ones to camp and expose them to doing outreach in other communities. The goal is that these guys will truly follow Jesus, experience a tremendous change in their mindset, love their neighbors as they serve and reflect Jesus, be leaders for God’s glory, and spread this holistic transformation not only to the neighboring communities but to the rest of Lesotho and beyond.

We also have the following ministry activities through the week: house to house visits with the goal of starting small discipleship bible groups; encouraging the child headed families and being Jesus’ hands and feet to them; visiting a group of high school students to walk a journey of abstinence. I also want to praise God for sending workers into this field; Thandi and Elizabeth are the two ladies who work with me in all these various ways of reaching out. We all are looking forward to this season and praying that God leads us into his will and purpose.

Please keep praying for the following

- My family

- Strength, obedience and wisdom in leading the team

- That God establishes the new plans and dreams for this year and for the time to come.

PS: Please let me know how you would love to be part of my Journey and I look forward to hearing where and how the Lord is leading you.

Blessings