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Testimony of Nosipho Mazibuko of CYPSA
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Introduction M Ngubane
Remember this one thing – God’s eye is upon you. He goes to and fro and records everything you do. Sometimes things we ignore and despise are the very things God takes note of. He records this for when we will stand before Him one day.
Testimony of Nosipho Mazibuko of CYPSA
I come from Doornkop, Stanger. It is a privilege for me to relate to you where I come from through the Lord’s grace. The Scriptures say that he who has the Son, has the Father and has a testimony.
When I grew up I was troubled by an evil spirit. My friends took me to mediums and witchdoctors who said that I had the spirit of a man within me. I wore different things that they gave me but to no avail. This spirit was three-fold: the bisexual spirit (which people say one is born with – the male and female trait but I am not convinced about); the spirit which takes on the form of the sexuality of a female who loves a male but at the same time a female (referred to as a tomboy); the homosexual spirit – a female who plays the role of a male with other females. Since the age of 9 I was under the spirit of homosexuality. I loved playing with boys and wearing boys’ clothing. At school I played and fought with boys.
My parents disapproved of my lifestyle. My father said that no girl may wear pants and this fuelled a hatred towards my father because I felt he was taking away my right to live the way I wanted to. At high school I began smoking dagga and drinking. I was involved with young men in fighting. Because my parents did not approve of my lifestyle I ran away from home and lived with my uncle. He also disapproved so I left him as well and started on my own with other girls and we began pimping. I did not sell my body but the other girls did. This led to a day when I was beaten up by a group of boys so severely. My mother came to my assistance saved the situation.
My aunt found me and got me a job at KFC but I was unfaithful and stole money. After two and a half years I lost my job. My father’s mother passed away and in her will she left her house to me. I lived there and began trading in whoonga. I also used witchcraft to kill people. I was arrested but I did not complain because my business really prospered in jail. I traded in whoonga for 6 years and smoked it for 7. I lived on the streets, out of bins. Eventually I also used rock.
My mother heard about KwaSizabantu and tried to bring me but I was stubborn and refused. One day, however, a voice spoke to me and said, “Go to Sizabantu.” I was taken to Emseni Care Centre where I did not want to confess my sins because I felt the counsellors just wanted to listen to stories. One day, however, a word struck me through a devotion and I went for counselling. I said that I was a lesbian and exposed my heart. I confessed that I had been the downfall of many and killed people through witchcraft. I asked how I could ever receive forgiveness. The counsellor that there was forgiveness and that the person who confesses his/her sin will receive pardon. After confessing my sin of lesbianism I felt a load had lifted. This lifestyle of living as a male is very oppressive. I had often visited tent campaigns in the past and surrendered my life to Christ but on that same day I would return to drugs but here I experienced liberation and a newness entered my life. I was suddenly aware of a voice that spoke to me, it warned and reprimanded me saying, “That is not right, don’t do that, don’t dress like that.” I had never experienced this before.
Then I felt the need to return home and be reconciled with my parents and others with whom I had sinned. I had caused so many problems and much pain. I returned to the community where I had harmed people and was reconciled to them. When my friends invited me back I told them that God forbid me to continue with my previous lifestyle. People responded in amazement saying, “Your God is truly great!”
8 As for me, I would seek God and to God would I commit my cause. Job 5:8
It was not for me to make a judgement but God. I was not worthy of receiving any mercy but God through His grace and His children in this place, revealed Himself to me and I could change. God’s will has been performed in my life. I thank Reverend Stegen, Ms Ncamu and Dube. I do not say that they are angels but to me they were angels sent by God to save me from the life of Sodom and Gomorrah and pull me to the mountain top, a place of rest and refuge where there is no hunger or pain. Today I feel safe under wings. I do not wish to lose this place I have reached. My request to the Lord is to remain here. I serve the Lord who died on the cross for me and carried the burden of my sin. I want to tell people that what is impossible with man is possible with God. I am able to help on the mission switchboard.
Finally, I have been incarcerated for quite a long time where I also learnt about the 26 gang. The prison lingo is detrimental to people. When people are released from prison, they speak a particular ‘prison lingo’ which others enjoy copying. This is the language of Satan. Satan appeals to young people through this lingo. He promises great things but through it he enslaves and burdens people, dragging their lives into the pits. This jail lingo is Satan’s language. It is a contradictory language – a yes and a no at the same time. If you accept this lingo, certain traits become obvious in your walk, your talk, your lifestyle and your clothing because you like the numbers that are used. You become possessed by it. Prisoners speak of living on a white hill but it is a black darkness that they live in in prison. Satan has betrayed them.
Our country is sick. Children now have to undergo comprehensive sex education. Young people, what do you say? You were born innocent but the government wants to break this down. People will be raping children through this education and then we will be left with the shame, disgrace and oppression of rape. How will this sex education help us? What is our response to the government’s sex education programme? It will be the downfall of our youth.
Ntokozo Nhlabathi
We thank the Lord for this opportunity this morning. We are thankful for all that we have heard. I feel unworthy to stand on this pulpit. This place has its rightful owner, Reverend Stegen, who has requested me to take this morning’s service. He asked me to greet the congregation.
I was deeply moved when I heard the testimony of our sister, Nosipho. What struck me was that after she had made her life right with God and was reconciled to Him, she began to hear His voice speaking to her and teaching her even how to dress. There are people who are completely confused, who, when they cannot walk this way of faith any longer, they make accusations saying there are so many rules and laws in this place. Nobody made these laws for Nosipho, she heard God’s voice speaking to her and teaching her. I believe Nosipho met the same Lord Jesus whom I also met and who taught me how to dress. Nobody had to tell me because the Lord taught me. I do not wear tight fitting pants because the Lord taught me how to dress modestly and decently.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10
During this conference we have been focusing on the life of Joseph, a young man who had all the opportunities to be involved in the world but instead decided to serve God.
Joseph’s brothers failed to grasp the secrets of God. There will also be young people at this conference who will see and have God’s mysteries revealed to them but there are those who will miss everything and it will pass them by. The sin of Joseph that his brothers criticised him for was that he shared what God had shown him. They failed to grasp that God had visited their family and granted them a special gift through their brother and that through their brother they would be rescued but they did not accept it. Instead of thanking God, they became bitter. On the contrary, although his brothers sold him and he was taken him into exile, he did not become resentful. He accepted it from God’s hand.
In today’s text John shares with us what the Lord revealed to him. He says The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
Young people, allow me to tell you about the life of the thief who works amongst us. The Lord has been merciful to us that we can be here but at the same time, the thief does not rejoice and he moves amongst us to rob us of the opportunities we are given. The thief uses every opportunity he can get hold of. When a thief comes, he does not come openly but he enters slyly, in disguise and he cannot be recognised. When Satan comes to you as a believer, he does not come with his horns, tail and fork, no, he will come as an angel of light so that you can accept him. When he comes to you, young girl, he may come in the form of a handsome boy who will tell you that he has never met a girl as wonderful as you but he is the thief who comes to steal and rob. When the devil comes to you, young girl, he does not introduce himself as Mr Devil, no, he will come with what you desire, he knows what you want but he is the thief who comes to rob, steal and destroy. He will come to you with words that tickle your ears and are smooth and flattering. If you listen to those words, you listen to Satan. He will set a table before you covered with all types of delicacies. Woe to you! Unless Jesus reveals to you the dangers, you will eat the delicacies and poison yourself. He will come to you and recite love poems with the most wonderful vocabulary. If you listen to it and eat of it, you will eat your death. He will come to you, praise and speak well of you but there is only one thing he wants from you and once he has it, he will look down on you, despise and trample you into the mud. He will tell you how beautiful you are and you will get so swept up by that that you will even forget your own parents and treat them disrespectfully. That thief will come to you very slyly with dark glasses, smooth and sophisticated smoking a cigarette but he is a thief who is coming to steal and kill. Today you are in bondage but when it started that person was well-dressed and handsome – the devil used that form.
Young men, because the thief has come to you, you are no longer aware of what you are doing. You wear your pants halfway down your buttocks and think you are smart because you display the type of underwear you are wearing. You cannot dress decently, you cannot look decent. You do not realise that you have been deceived and the thief has robbed you of what you have.
When things go wrong, girls, you will be advised by someone to see so-and-so at a particular clinic to do an abortion and solve ‘the problem’. You are called ‘Miss’ because you have no babies but you have made use of pills and other solutions – you are not pure, you are no longer a ‘Miss’. The voices of those unborn babies who have been killed are crying out to God from wherever they are – in a pit toilet – for you to say what you have done. You will have to give an account before God one day. You young men are not excluded. The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. The Lord, the Good Shepherd, has come that you may have life to the full but we reject Him. He has come to free us from our chains. He kept Joseph when he was tempted by Potiphar’s wife. He gave Joseph victory in that situation.
The strategy Satan uses when he comes to you as a believer is that he robs you of your discernment about what is sin. It all becomes the same to you and then you become involved in that sin. The devil has robbed you.
You may be a gifted young girl who sings beautifully. When you sing in church people say that it is like heaven coming down to earth but in the morning when you get dressed, you resist the one from Heaven when He tells you how to dress. That is from hell. Do you dress at home in the same manner as you are dressed for church? When you packed your bag at home, did your mother see what you had packed or when she left did you remove some items and replace them with others because you came to the conference to show off? I received a phone call from a young lady who wanted to attend the conference. She asked me whether she could wear her tights and half-sized shirts because she had no dresses. I asked her why she was asking me. She said that she wanted to know how to dress for church here. I said that she could wear what she usually wears. I did not know this girl. I had never met her or spoken to her before but yesterday she came and thanked me for my advice because she said that she did have skirts and dresses but the devil had influenced her and she had just wanted to come to be noticed. When I saw her, I did not think she was very young but old enough to be a mother of a home yet she wanted to come to the conference in order to be noticed! How many are there who have come to this conference because there is free transport, free food, hot water and you want to show off? If you come here with ulterior motives and not because you want to hear the things of God, it will not be long before the thief will destroy you completely.
Jesus has come so that we can have life and life to the full. Possibly because of the long distance of the road, you have been robbed of that which God has given you and the thief has stolen that which God gave you but that is what this conference is for – the owner can restore to you what was stolen. Mother, you may realise that Satan has destroyed your family and your life. This is your opportunity to come to Him and be restored. The thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus has come to cleanse us. After He has washed us, He gives us life to the full and when Jesus gives us life it will flow over into the lives of those around us, from a wife to her husband, from a mother to her family. Allow Him to give you that fullness of life.
The thief has come to destroy that life in you but allow Him to give you fullness of life. The thief has come to destroy but Jesus has come to give life. Where are those who will receive that life? If only we would run to Him, embrace Him and receive the life He wants to give. That life can work through us and heal the nations. The world is searching for a solution and we have the solution. How long have people gone to school and now the government wants to teach children CSE? Fullness of life will not be like this. If we have truly received that fullness of life, we would have the courage to stand up boldly. We would see that this life comes from the One who sacrificed Himself and gave Himself for us. The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy. For a long time Satan has brought things to us on a tray, like cell phones – there are possibly people right now chatting on their phones and looking at filthy images. Look how intelligent you are when it comes to evil things! If only you would use your gifts and talents to serve the Lord, how different our families and schools would be. If a teacher asks you to ‘solve for x’ you do not know how to but if you are asked ‘solve for WhatsApp’ you can do it immediately.
See how the Lord took Joseph who was despised and sold as a slave and used him because he had given himself over to God. God could raise him to the level of a king. God can do the same for you.
Young girl, you have listened to Satan, you have given him your life and he has destroyed you. I urge you this morning to give yourself to Jesus and see what He can do for you. You have allowed Satan in your life so much so that you have become despised and a curse in your family but if you give your life to Jesus, He can change you. Young man, you have given Satan room in your life. He has made you his plaything – you are like a soccer ball that is kicked around. Your life has been destroyed. Allow Jesus in your life, listen to Him, give your life to Him and see what He can do. Parents, Satan has brought destruction in your family. Your family members may sit around the table for meals but there is no harmony, each person is busy with their own things. Allow Him who has come to give life to the full, to work and see how He can restore your family. Young people who have been orphaned, whom Satan deceived into finding love somewhere else and you looked in the wrong place. This is not necessary. Learn from the one standing in front of you – I never knew my father but I never became Satan’s plaything. Learn from Him who can restore your life. I was offered many opportunities to be involved in the world and its sin but I did not listen. I considered the One who gave His life for me and gave me life to the full, and even though I was despised by others for not having a father and for the way he died, my children today have a father in a Christian family. I learnt from the mistakes of my father.
Why do you not want to embrace this which Christ has for you – life to the full?
Conclusion Michael Ngubane
Thank you. We can learn from the life of Joseph. There is still so much that the Lord has in store for us through living examples. No matter how wrong things have become and where there is (humanly speaking) no hope, there is hope in Christ. He can make everything new. He can restore us. Trust in Jesus Christ who says, I make all things new. I am the Alpha and the Omega. Revelations 21:5; 22:13