Introduction Sibongiseni Khumalo
We greet the brethren all over the world. We thank God that we can meet in this way. Today we remember the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down. The Bible says that God’s children were all together in one place - in unity - and God came down in His power. May it be that we will hear God speaking to us today. We know that when God’s children are united in heart and mind God will work. If there is disunity, God cannot work.
Testimony Reverend Mthombeni
I greet the brethren in the name of Jesus. I am here to praise and glorify the name of the Lord that He came down in 1966. Last week I said goodbye but now I am back here. When I left here and arrived in my country, Zimbabwe, I saw the revival start. When I arrived home, the Lord had healed my wife.
I felt that I should share the revival with the president’s office, so I went there. It is not easy to speak to such people, however, the God of heaven - the God who came down in 1966 - went before me.
On entering you are required to leave your ID, but I was not even questioned. I was received with great joy. I laid the matter before them and asked whether they knew that revival happened in Africa as it did at the time of Pentecost in Acts 2. They said that they did not. I told them that I had just returned from the place where this happened. I said that that Spirit is ruling in me and the government should also be ruled by that Spirit. They asked me how I recognized that this was so different to our churches in Zimbabwe. I said that this Gospel reveals that people are separated because sin. This gospel makes blacks and whites live together in harmony. I told them that I was in the home of the leader of this mission and I was served by his own children, not servants. I told them that the whites speak Zulu. They humble themselves and are like the Zulus. I said that I wished that the fire I had received, they would also receive.
The man I spoke to put his pen down and looked me in the eye. He said, “I want to go to that place, KwaSizabantu.” I became fearful. This person has a high position, just below the president, he paid homage to all those who were in the liberation struggle. I drank coffee in that office. I said that the God of Rev. Stegen is to be feared. I saw how the power of the Holy Spirit moved and worked in his office. He called people from different offices to listen to what was said.
After I left that office, I came to KSB. This was too weighty for me to carry. Rev. Khumalo was surprised to hear that I was at the border on my way back here. The atomic bomb of the Gospel has spread in Zimbabwe. I saw how those people can be changed and convinced. Older people are not easily changed.
I thank the Lord for those who have supported me as I returned to Zimbabwe. God spoke straight to me. He fought the battle for me to be here. May God bless you, brethren.
I thank Rev. Stegen who has put me up in his home. I was served by angels. I saw the fulfilment of 1 Timothy 3, that the leader of a church should have obedient children. When Eli was old his children lived evil lives, but Rev. Stegen’s children and their husbands are like angels. They uplift the standard of the Gospel.
May God bless you, brethren. I thank the elders who listened to me. I fasted for 2 days before I spoke to them because I wanted the Lord to work and them to hear. I thank them that they have listened to God’s voice. A delegation from Zimbabwe will be coming here shortly. May God bless you elders, preachers. May God help you go forward.
Our destination is close. The trumpet sound is close. That day of reckoning is close - where you will be rewarded according to your works.
I was helped by listening to what I had heard about you on YouTube. To anyone who is in Europe or South Africa, if you say things that are not right about KSB, judgement day is coming where you will have to give an account for your deeds. The sun will stand still, the stars will fall and God will show Himself. You will need to account for what you have said. You might be someone who was not attentive and careless – repent and make things right. Remove things from YouTube otherwise that day will be difficult for you.
May God bless you, brethren. Tomorrow I will return home. Lord willing, we will meet again. If we do not meet on earth, we will meet in heaven.
Albu van Eeden
Friends, I will only touch on the main points of my sermon due to time constraints.
Today we celebrate the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit on His disciples in this world. We read about that event in Acts 2. My focus today will be on the results of what happened that day amongst God’s people. We should test and examine ourselves to see whether those results are still obvious and present amongst us.
43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 And all that believed were together and had all things common; 45 and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need. 46 And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved. Acts 2:43-47 (ASV)
This occurred after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit was poured out, the disciples spoke in the tongues of people who were present and they were amazed and said, ‘They spoke in my language to me!’ Friends, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on God’s children is not just for us to have a special experience. It should equip and motivate us all to serve other people. Too many people only think of themselves when they consider the blessings that come from God. This was the characteristic of this work at KSB and of the leader of this work. His passion, his heart, his desire, was never for himself, it was for the people around him, specifically the Zulu nation. Friend, you are not at KSB Mission for yourself. You are here to be a servant and a blessing to the people around you – to those who live here and anyone you may encounter. Right from the start, when the Spirit came upon them, it blessed the people who were there and who watched them. If the devil has succeeded in getting you to live for yourself, you are a failure as a Christian. You have failed in the calling God has for your life.
Note this: …with one accord in the Temple…Acts 2:46.
I will focus on one of the results of the outpouring of the Spirit upon God’s children: the unity in the church of Christ. I would like to focus on a few points that destroy the unity of the church. Think of unity as a car. If there is something wrong with the car, you will not get to the root of the problem unless you take the engine apart. Through the examples that I give, ‘take the car apart’ and find what it is that destroys the unity of the church.
It is wonderful to celebrate the day of Pentecost today, but what was the heart of the revival here? Where does revival originate? It comes from the reviving of the church to the state of the first church - when the Spirit of God came down. Rev. Stegen has often said that it was while they were working through the book of Acts, that God began working among them. While they studied Acts together, revival came and it revived the church to the state of the first church of Acts.
46 And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart…
There can be a so-called ‘unity’, but one can sense this is not true unity. You can be with a group of people and there is a superficial oneness of heart, and somehow you get the impression that each one is only ‘tolerating’ the other. Yes, we work together in God’s Kingdom, we work together on the mission, but is it with singleness of heart and mind and in total unity? Do people get the impression that unity is only on the surface. Below the surface I control myself so that it does not openly come out that I am frustrated with my brothers and sisters. This is a fake revival because we are not truly one of heart and soul. Rev. Stegen has often said that the biggest miracle in Acts was the unity among God’s children. That was a bigger miracle than anything else.
Allow me to use an example that ‘takes the car apart’ to see where the roots of these things may lie. I will use a testimony of Dr Helen Roseveare who worked in the Belgian Congo, the present DRC.
(It shows that God works in other places in Africa in the same way that He has worked here, and that this place is not a strange cult that abandons the Bible. The East African revival started there and spread to many countries, as well as West Africa, where the Belgian Congo was.
In her biography she writes:
“There were other difficulties too, on a more personal level, regarding my relationships with my fellow-missionaries. Early on these problems led to loneliness and a sense of insecurity, of not being wanted, welcomed or quite trusted by the fellowship. This, combined with the workload and
consequent inability to take a night off-duty, or to go away for a weekend, brought out in me an irritability and shortness of temper that often caused me considerable loss of sleep.
What were the results when her relationships with other missionaries were not as they should have been? These problems she mentions should not be in the church. Her problems led to loneliness. She experienced loneliness in the body of Christ. She had a sense of insecurity, a feeling of being unwelcome and not trusted.
These things should be red lights to any Christian. When you are with children of God but feel lonely and insecure; or you feel that you are unwanted or distrusted, that is very dangerous for any Christian, wherever he may be.
She says, this combined with the workload and constant inability to take a night off duty (in other words – a workload where she was on duty day and night) – unable to go away for a night or a weekend, brought out in her an irritability and shortness of temper.
I'd always had a hasty temper, but this had largely been under control for the previous eight years since my conversion to Christ. Now the hot and angry word would burst out again, before I could control it, and to my shame. Patients who came to the dining- room window while we were at the midday meal would get a sharp word from me to – ‘go to the dispensary, and not bring your germs to our home' - and a sad look would come to the faces of senior missionaries, who treated every visitor to their home with kindliness and respect.
These temper tantrums, these hot, angry words that you have, are a sign of something else that is wrong in your life.
Evangelist Dang, in charge of the catechists’ training course and the workmen's programme at Ibambi, took me to task for this un-Christlike behaviour. 'Don't excuse yourself. Call sin sin, and temper temper. Then face up to the fact that your white skin makes you no different to the rest of us. You need His cleansing and forgiveness, His infilling and indwelling, the same as we do.
If you can only show us Doctor Helen, you might as well go home: the people need to see Jesus.’ Dr Helen Roseveare, He Gave Us a Valley, p14,15
Thank God that the black man had the liberty to confront her. How often doesn’t race enter the church of Christ and it places different standards for different races in the church. I thank God for Dang’s boldness and I thank God for her humility that she could accept it.
These are the barriers Rev Stegen had to break through in order to create a platform where everybody of any race had one standard to fit into – God’s word – not culture, not colour but God’s standard.
In an ever-changing congregation like ours at Nebobongo, where patients came and went and the student body changed every two years, we needed continuous waves of revival to keep us alight. Joseph Adzanese from the Ibambi Bible School, with his wife Mary, and another couple came
to spend ten days with us. Much prayer had been made before and during the convention, and the Lord graciously worked in our hearts. Pupil midwives were first touched: sins were confessed, hearts were cleansed and then filled with joy. Next the blessing spread to the workmen and their families; and finally to the paramedical auxiliary students. Through the ministry of that convention, and a further ten-day visit to Pastor Ndugu's village, twenty miles away to the east, I also was deeply blessed by the fires of the Holy Spirit. In particular, the Lord revealed to me the sin of criticism of
others, pride in my own achievements, failure to trust Him in my own inabilities, almost glorying in my frustrations. He showed me again the dangers of over-busyness, much doing, tireless activity, if it wasn't backed up by prayer. How easily it would all lead to spiritual bankruptcy, and work for work's
sake, with no goal of spiritual fruit. In a prolonged period of time apart, alone with God, He filled me again with intense joy and the deep peace of His abiding presence. Dr Helen Roseveare, He Gave Us a Valley, p19
The next example comes from the Bible, where we read of people who were taken out of the blessing of Pentecost: This is very seldom preached about, but this is the most common thing I have seen which causes people to leave this revival. Sinners come here; they are broken. They come to the Lord and confess their sins. They are healed and they become human beings, they become whole again. Some continue with their studies and become something. The next thing, they are going somewhere else. This has baffled me for many years. How is this possible? Do you know what it is? The love for beautiful things. This is one of the biggest dangers for pastors - the love for beautiful things.
They may be things that can be bought. Or it could be a person of the opposite sex. You develop a love for beautiful things. The beautiful thing is not sinful in itself, but the love for beautiful things makes more people stumble in revival, sometimes, than anything else. This love gives us a love for money because money enables me to get hold of beautiful things.
In Acts 5, a man and his wife sold a property and they pretended to share the profit with everybody. There was no law that they should distribute their wealth with everybody, but they noticed that many people were doing it, so they also wanted to. They could not get rid of the love for beautiful things and they withheld some money - but told Peter that they had given all the profit to the church. God took that so seriously and He struck them both down, Ananias and Sapphira, and they died.
There was another man who lived in a time of revival in the Old Testament who also experienced the same problem. He was Gehazi, the servant of Elisha. Gehazi was part of Elisha’s life - which was a life of revival. Gehazi witnessed all the miracles that took place through Elisha’s ministry. Gehazi saw God raise people from the dead. He saw the woman who did not have much to live from pour out oil which sustained her. He saw a barren woman who bore children after Elisha prayed for her. He was part of Elisha’s ministry. When that same woman lost the son which God had given her, Elisha sent Gehazi with his rod and told him to put it on the child until he came. The child did not come back to life until Elisha prayed for and stretched himself over the child.
Friends, you can be part of the ministry of KSB. You can even be used. You can be sent by children of God. You can inherit a revival that you did nothing to receive. You came here and it already existed.
A Syrian general, the head of an army, came to Elisha because he suffered from leprosy. Elisha told him to wash in the river and after a long story he finally did it and was healed from leprosy. To thank Elisha, he wanted to give Elisha gifts, but Elisha refused to accept them and said that he did not want anything from him. An even bigger miracle happened than the healing from leprosy – the general was converted. He said, ‘There is only one God and He is the God of Israel. Let me take some soil from your country to my country so that I can worship your God there.’ I have seen many people who were touched and healed on the mission, but how many leave without really being converted? This man experienced not only physical healing but also spiritual healing. Then he left and Gehazi, Elisha’s right hand man, spoke to himself:
20 But Gehazi the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: as Jehovah liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him. 2 Kings 5:20
How many people, in the service of God, fall into the trap of rushing after things and not God, with all their hearts? Yes, you can leave having been healed, having received a qualification, having been made whole, but if the fire of God is not burning in your bones, the fire that makes God the first and the last for you, you have lost it.
Gehazi ran after him.
22 And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there are come to me from the hill-country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets; give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of raiment. 23 And Naaman said, Be pleased to take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of raiment, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him.
26 And he said unto him, Went not my heart with thee, when the man turned from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive yards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and men-servants and maid-servants? 2 Kings 5:22 – 23, 26
‘But Lord, was it such a serious sin? I just told a lie. Nobody suffered through it. I did not betray Elisha, like Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus. I just wanted a little bit of something for myself, I just appreciate beautiful things.’
Naaman arrived sick and returned physically healed and born again. Gehazi, after living with the prophet of God for many years, left sick with leprosy. Leprosy is an example of sin in the Old Testament. The same curse that was on the unconverted heathen man came upon this man, Gehazi, who had spent his life with Elisha. When Gehazi left the room, he was covered with leprosy, his skin was white as snow. 2 Kings 5:27
This is what happened to Achan when Israel conquered Jericho. They did not fight, but the city walls collapsed, and they walked in. Achan walked with the rest of the Israelite army into the city. His eyes caught sight of some beautiful things. He must have seen them amongst the rubble. It was some nice clothing and gold. Instead of walking past and ignoring it, he returned and looked again. Perhaps he removed some stones to see what was shining like that. Brother, sister, friend, it is not when your eye catches the clothing, something beautiful, but when you turn back, not literally, but figuratively in your mind and look more carefully – what did I see here?
Was that such a sin? He just wanted some beautiful things. What happened? His whole family, animals and servants were stoned to death.
Do not take revival lightly. If you come here and receive more light than the rest of the people or the country, God will judge you according to the light that you have received. With the light that you have, a small act of disobedience can cost you eternity. Which is why, if any of these things are in our lives - these desires, this feeling of loneliness and rejection; nobody understands me, nobody trusts me - deal with it because God gives you an opportunity to do so.