How Much God is Too Much God?

My mind started to race as I chewed over the comment.

So many things have come into my mind that it is almost impossible to list them here but the most important one is:-

What will happen when we get to Heaven one day - Will there be a bit too much God there for us?

A solid bridge of faith

"Faith isn't faith until it is all that you have left to hold onto"

Faith is the core ingredient in our life that carries us safely through the troubles of life.  When troubled times come you need to know that your faith is sufficient to carry you through safely.

The levels of faith in people varies with some having little faith and others have great faith. The people of little faith are often washed away as soon as a problem arises, while those that have built a solid foundation in the word will stand forever no matter what problems may come their way.

The story of building faith

A young boy, Tom, was faced by a problem in his life.  His parents lived close to a large river but on the wrong side of the river. Everything he wanted in life was on the other side. Tom started to devise a way to cross the river.

Unfortunately the river was deep and even though Tom tried to wade across he would barely be a couple of feet into the river and the water would already be too high for him. In fear of drowning Tom had to return to safe land.

Soon Tom learnt how to swim and found that he could easily get across to the other side but only in the months of the year that the river was still.  As soon as the rains came and the river started to flow Tom knew that he could not risk the swim for fear of being swept away in the current.

Tom, being a creative young lad, soon came up with a bright idea.   When the river was still he swam across again but this time he was dragging a rope behind him. Tom secured the rope on either side of the river and decided that he could hold onto the rope and use the rope to stop him from being washed away when the river flowed fast.

While Tom's plan worked while the river was flowing slightly it was not long before he realised that as soon as the river started to flow a bit faster that he would not have the strength to hold onto the rope and he would be washed away.

Bright idea. If I could build a raft I could stand on the raft and use the rope to pull myself along and cross the river. That way I will also be able to carry things across the river with me and I will be dry when I get to the other side.

Tom's raft worked well but soon the river started to flow fast and just one storm was all that it took to wash the raft away forever.

There has to be a better way.

Tom was not the type to be easily beaten. He was determined to find a way to cross the river safely. Soon Tom had a wooden bridge constructed. He extended supporting poles into the river bed and even though it was a little rickety Tom could walk over the bridge safely even when the water was flowing fast.

One night a storm struck and the river raged. The next morning Tom was devastated to see that his work of art, the wooden bridge, had been washed away. The current had been too strong and had washed the wooden supports away causing the bridge to collapse.

The Final Solution

Tom went out and ordered bricks and cement. he started to build a bridge that could withstand any storm and any raging water. The foundation was solid cement set upon rocks.

The bridge was never washed away again and no matter what the storms brought on Tom could always cross the river without fear of being swept away.

The Bridge of faith in your life. 

Faith is the bridge that we have to cross the raging rivers of life. How strong is your faith? Will you be able to safely cross the river when the storm is raging or will your raft of faith be washed away in the storm?

Are you still trying to wade the river or perhaps you are at the raft stage or even the wooden bridge?

Faith is not given to you, it is not earned but rather it is something that you have to build personally.

Cement your faith into the rock of Jesus Christ and build a solid bridge that will carry you safely through even the strongest of storms.

When faith is all that you have left to hold onto you need to be assured that the faith is strong enough to be able to keep you safe.

Take  a little time to reflect back on the emotions you experienced the past couple of days!

Did you feel anxious, or out of control, perhaps a lttle despondent or even depressed. Did you maybe feel like you were getting nowhere or were negative about something around you. Perhaps you felt not pretty enough or even that you were overweight. Maybe you were even scared or fearful.

If you felt even just one of these feelings from a very shortened list of emotions, then the chances are that the devil has been working on your mind a little. These are all feelings that stem from the pits of hell and not from the word of God.

Taking control of yourself.

The most important thing that you need to come to grips with is the function of the devil. His sole purpose is to rob, steal and destroy that which God has prepared for you. If he can steal your joy or rob you of the promises of God, then he has succeeded in his mission.

Your sole purpose in life is to live the life that God has planned for you and to take up the power and authority that is yours in the name of Jesus. Jesus has already overcome satan and has given that same victory over to you, if you would only receive it.

The devil is prowling 24/7 trying to destroy you and everytime that you experienced one of the emotions discussed above is an indication that he succeeded in his purpose.

How to overcome.

Spend time in the word so that you know what is rightfully yours. If you do not what God has promised to you, how can you ever receive it.

Use the power that you have received through the name of Jesus. Unless you use the weapons given to you, how can you defeat the enemy. If the weapons were not necessary for you to succeed then Jesus would never have bothered giving them to you.

Take control of your mind and renew your mind to Godly thinking. There is simply so much power in the renewing of your mind that you can not even begin to comprehend it. There is amongst other things, a christian weight loss program based around this scripture and which has helped thousands to lose massive amounts of weight without dieting, without exercise and without diet supplements - just the power of Gods word.

You can overcome depression, sickness, disease and any other problem simply by changing the way that you think, or rather by casting out the thought patterns that satan has placed in your mind, and replacing them with godly thinking.

Romans 12:2 " and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may  prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

My personal translation:- " Do not allow the world to control and shape you, but change your thinking to God's thinking and you will take on a new shape (Figure, Appearance). Test God in this so that you can see how good and perfect His plan is for you."

It is important that this is one of only two scriptures in the bible that God says that you can test (prove) Him.

Renew your mind to a new you with Gods word.

The Blessings of Children

Today I was blessed as I started to explore some faces on facebook. No it was not just any faces but rather faces from some of the youth from years ago that attended our local church.

In particular, I took a look at some of the youth that grew up at the same time as my daughter and who were on fire for God and some of those who were considered to be rebels.

To my surprise, the local group of friends, are all still in touch with each other through facebook, and although they have been scattered around South Africa and even the world, all are still on fire for the Lord, even those who were rebels!

Godly parents bring up Godly children who will succeed in all that they do. It may often be the case that the child will stray from the Word for a short time and may get caught up in some worldly activities, but they soon return to the place that they know and find comfort in - The Love of Jesus.

I remember a study that took place years ago where they studied the genealogy of two families, one a Godly man and another that was an atheist. The Godly man was followed by a host of successful children and grandchildren who all had good standing in the world - Doctors, professors and pastors - while the Atheist was followed by a row of Drunkards, bankruptcies, crime etc.

Parents, the best gift that you can ever pass on to your children is the gift of Jesus.  Show them the love of Jesus in your life and bring them up in the ways of the Lord, and they will in return bring to you such joy and happiness, especially on a day in years time, when you meet them at the pearly gates and they are accepted to live in heaven with you.

Remember  that the only thing that you can ever take to heaven with you is those people around you. Giving your children the opportunity to experience eternity in Heaven with you one day is the best thing that you can ever do for them.

What will make this move of God so different from previous moves of God is that unlike the previous moves like the Toronto Blessing, no man wil be able to take credit. God will move swiftly and powerfully through the churches so that just like God Himself, God will be the beginning of this movement to which there will be no end.

The power of God

As I slept last night, in the middle of the night I was bitten by a mosquito and woke up due to the itchiness in my hand where I was bitten. I got out of bed and waited for the itchiness to go so that I would not disturb my sleeping wife with my scratching.  I found it strange that I was bitten by a mosquito at this time of the year as we are already in winter and it was bitterly cold - not exactly mosquito time.

Anyway, as I returned to bed, I started to see the visions that God was placing in front of me. I saw as His power started to sweep through the churches, a power that people were virtually unable to stand in, miracles and signs and wonders were flowing like never before, and the people were returning to God in their masses.

The power of God that swept the entire earth could not be contained. It was a reenactment of the book of Acts, except a million times stronger and more powerful. 

As I sat at my computer this morning, God started to challenge me again, asking whether I was going to post about what He had shown me. In faithfulness to Him I have posted what He wanted me to post.

May the full power of the move of God come upon your life and my life, and sweep through and change the entire earth and it's inhabitants.

God Bless.

For years the church has been involved in helping and feeding those that are starving, but the church has been slow to address the other side of the scale - those that are tipping the scales right over.

America is the world leader in obesity with figures of some 33% of people being classified as obese, Mexico follows closely and then the UK follows behind them. The term obesity refers to those who are grossly overweight and excludes the amount of people who are just a little overweight.

Fat is unhealthy

Our bodies are the Temple of God and we are called to look after our bodies and keep them in shape. Being overweight causes a taxing on your system and can lead to a whole host of sicknesses including heart disease, diabetes and even cancer.

Maybe you have tried to lose weight before but have always been unsuccessful in your efforts, finding that instead of losing weight and the weight remaining lost, the weight always seems to find you again and brings some of its friends back with them, causing you to get even bigger.

As a result of the Yo-Yo weight loss that you have experienced through the years when you tried to control your weight, you have now resigned yourself to the fact that you are a big person and that you can not really do anything about it.

Have you ever tried losing weight with Christian weight Loss!

Weight loss God's Way.

Attempting to lose weight without God's help is really just as ineffective as trying to do anything without God's help.

When you bring the word into your weight loss efforts, God takes control of your weight and suddenly weight loss becomes easy and soon you will find that the weight starts to disappear without you even really making an effort to lose weight. Even better than this is the fact that once you lose the weight it never returns!

Lose weight permanently

Weight Loss God's Way is the most incredible christian weight loss program ever. In fact it is in my eyes, the most incredible weight loss program that has ever been produced.

Not only will Weight Loss God's Way get you losing weight effortlessly and permanently, but the program will also reach deep into your personal life and your relationship with God, strengthening and deepening your relationship and causing you to become a far stronger christian, while increasing your self esteem as well.

Once you start to read the material provided in this course by Dr Frank Smoot, you will find that many of your weight loss problems and even your self esteem problems, simply start to disappear. You become a more confident person, stronger in God and of course, as soon as the weight starts to disappear, you start to learn how to love yourself again.

Change your life forever and become a stronger and more healthy and confident person by with Weight loss God's Way. 

The course is a digital download that has a very small cost of around $39-95 once off, and is available to you immediately upon payment. That $39-95 will change your life forever - It changed my families life.

Who Is Jesus To You?

Who Are You In Christ?

Are you walking in the victory that you deserve to walk in or is there something wrong in that you never seem to be able to achieve the spiritual high that you should be in.

One of the key reasons why you fail to reach the full blessings in your life is simply that you have been programmed to believe that you do not deserve them and so you have never sought them out or believed that you could ever attain them.

"What you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth will come to pass."

In most cases, people who are not able to succeed in their christian walk or who are unable to achieve the peace and walk in the love of Jesus, simply believe that they do not have a right to it or that they are not worthy of the love of Jesus in their lives. They are defeated and fail to comprehend that Jesus did it all for them.

Entering into a New Life in Jesus.

When you first give your life to Jesus, you become a new creation in Christ. All things are washed away by the blood of Jesus and you become a totally new person. As far as Jesus and God go, you did not exist before that day because you have just been made a totally new creation. It is only you and your friends and family that know that you even existed before the day that you gave your life to Jesus. At this exact point in time, nothing sets you apart or prevents you from being the greatest man/woman of God that ever existed.

If you became a new creation, then why do you still allow matters from the past to affect your life today? You are a new creation. What happened to you before has no right to affect what you are today. Your past has no right to determine your future.

However, from the very day that you hand your life over to God you start to determine your own future.

"But I thought Jesus was now in control and I did not need to do anything."

Jesus is in control and has already completed all the background work for you, but you need to now take what He has given to you and to start to use it. Jesus has given you all authority in His name. He has given you the keys to heaven and earth, but if you never take the keys and use them, then you can never expect to unlock the rewards in life that are yours through Christ Jesus.

A priest was one day called to go and pray with a old man who was busy dying. The old man was particularly poor and had led a miserable life of poverty. While the priest was in the small room where the old man lived, he noticed a single piece of paper on the wall. He asked the old man what it was. "Oh, it is a beautiful piece of paper that someone gave me once. I was not sure what to do with it so I stuck it up on the wall".

On closer inspection, the priest was shocked to find that the piece of paper was a cheque that had been made out to the old man for the sum of $1 000 000-00. The old man was rich and yet he never knew it.

You are also rich in what Jesus has already done for you, but unless you are prepared to accept the fact that Jesus has given you all the power and authority to use in His name, and unless you start to actually stand out in faith and use the name of Jesus, you will never be able to walk in the full blessings that He has set aside for you.

Isn't it time that you took the cheque off the wall and started to cash it!

I remember a statement that was once issued from the pulpit in the charismatic church that I attended.

"We want to start some communities in the church. A support group for gays and lesbians. Sorry, let me change that. A support group for ex gays and ex lesbians. Practising gays are not welcome."

I still remember thinking, " How can you ever become a ex gay without Jesus, through the church, to help you."

So many churches that I know of reject the gays, lesbians and other sinners right out of their close and select little communities. "They are sinners you know, and they are going straight to the pits of hell. I want nothing to do with them."

Years ago, in the same church mentioned above, a guest preacher was invited to preach at a yearly conference. The preacher, whose name I will not mention,  was one of the most down to earth and incredible preachers that I have ever heard preaching.

He spoke on how his own spirit filled church was filled with gays, lesbians, and sinners of every class, and how every single person was welcomed into his church without criticism or judgement and each and every soul was loved regardless of what they were involved in.

Now is that not how you would picture Jesus to be. Jesus rejected the upright and "righteous" people of the time and chose instead to spend his time in the company of tax collectors and other sinners.

Needless to say, that preacher was almost run out of town and every word that he preached was rejected by the church. Where was Jesus.

If you are expected to be washed and cleansed of all sin before you enter a church, how will anyone ever get to enter a church and meet with Jesus. If you expect a gay person to repent and give up his ways before he can come into your church to meet the living Jesus, then chances are he will never get to meet Jesus and accept Jesus into his life.

Were you free from all sin in your life before you first entered into your church and met Jesus? No  - I did not think so.

Are you free from all sin in your life now - even though you have already been a christian for a long time? Again No!

Well if you are not free from sin, why do you expect a Gay or Lesbian or any other sinner to be free from their sin before they can enter your community? Is it perhaps that you consider that their sin is worse than your sin? As far as I am concerned  sin is sin and there is no variation between sins. There is no single sin that is better than another sin. Sin is sin and in order to cleanse yourself of sin you have to go before Jesus, repent and be washed clean by His Blood.

Jesus does the changing .

Jesus loves you enough to accept you as you are, but loves you too much to leave you as you are.

When you come to Jesus and give your life to Him, crying Jesus help me please, Jesus opens his arms out to you and embraces you. He accepts you as you are, forgives you and washes you clean with His Blood. Slowly but surely He begins the process of changing you, your life and your passions. It is not an overnight or instant process. It takes time. He is the potter and you are the clay. Slowly you are molded into what He wants you to be.

In the case of gays and lesbians who are often some of the most hurting people in the world and who need the loving embrace of Jesus more than most, why do we reject them further and cast them out, expecting them to remove the sin from their lives immediately whilst we readily accept the fact that Jesus is still working in our own lives and has not yet completed the task of removing all the sin in our own life.

Take the log out of your own eye before you remove the splinter from your neighbours eye.

Before you judge and reject someone according to their "sin" and cast them out of your select community, simply ask yourself what Jesus would do if that person was standing in front of Him. Would He cast them out, or would He open His arms to them and love them. Sure I know that you are not Jesus, but then can you really claim to be a follower of Christ if you do not accept His ways and teachings.

Open your hearts and love someone today. Show them how the love of Jesus shines through you and help them to change their life simply by being accepted by someone like you. Your accepting someone for who they are could be the biggest thing that ever happened in their life and could make the real difference that will alter their lives forever.

God Bless

May God's Blessing be upon you

Blessings and curses are old testament matters that have no real relevance in today's times - WRONG!  Blessings and curses have as much power over your life today as they did in the old testament times.

If I had to stand before a packed church on a Sunday morning and ask the congregation if they are blessed, I am sure that at least 99% or more would put up their hands and say that they are blessed.

If I again ask the same congregation if curses exist in todays times, I would estimate from past experience that the huge majority would deny that curses even exist anymore and the rest would say that they have no power in todays times.

However, many Christians do not even understand the word "Blessed" and when asked exactly what it means to be blessed, you are likely to be met with blank stares and very confused faces. If you use the simple standards, as set out in Deuteronomy 28, to determine if you are blessed or cursed, you will find that at least 90% or more of the congregation that said that they were blessed, suddenly finds that they may not be walking in as many blessings as they thought that they were, and that it is indeed possible that they may in fact have a curse or two hanging over their life that they were totally unaware of.

Blessings.

The word "Blessed" is best defined as "To be Envied."  If you are not envied by all around you, then the chances are that you are not walking in God's full blessings. Let me say right now that blessings have nothing to do with being rich. I know many rich people with whom I would never ever trade places with and whom I do not envy at all.

Riches have never brought happines into anyones life. Mostly, new riches starts to breed greed and the desire for even more riches. Money becomes an obsession in life instead of  it being a means to obtain what you need in life. Money in itself is not evil, but the love of money is the root of all evil. When your love for money overtakes your love of God, you are in the clutches of the devil.

 The first section of Deuteronomy 28 gives us clear instruction on how to walk in the blessings of God and what they are :-

" Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.

And these blessings will come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God."  Verses 3 to 14 continue to list the blessings. Take these verses, modify them to todays terms ( ie cattle increases refers to increases in your investments etc), and see if you have the full blessings of God in your life.

Although these are Old Testament scriptures, they stand true to today and unless you are walking in the commandments of God and in full and total obedience to Him, you can not receive the full blessings of God.

Curses.

There are many curses that exist in the Old Testament. These are curses that are directly from God and do not even involve satan or witchcraft or black magic.

Briefly, Malachi describes that you are cursed if you do not tithe. Zaccariah describes the curse that rests upon the liar and the thief. However, all of these sub - curses can be summarised by the main curse found in Deuteronomy 28:15

"But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:"  Verses 16 to 68 continue to describe the curses that can come upon you if you are disobedient to God's word.

When reading these verses it is important to understand that times have changed dramatically and so you do need to modernise the scriptures slightly to adjust for modern times. There were no bank accounts and investments in those days so where it talks about your increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks, in modern times it would refer to the performance of your investments, etc.

Jesus came and set us free from the curse.

I have had many argue with me that curses have no relevance in todays world because Jesus took all curses upon himself when He hung on the tree. Jesus also took all sickness upon himself as well and yet many christians are dying daily from sickness.

Curses still have the ability to affect you today as much as they affected the Old Testament people in the past. If you are disobedient to God and do not obey His commandments, then you nullify the works of Jesus and the curses are able to rest on your life and affect you. As much as Jesus loves you and wants you to walk in total freedom from curses, the curses will remain in your life until you identify the curse and the cause of the curse, repent and turn back to obedience to God.

Are there other curses that can affect us?

Sure - there are many powerful curses that can affect your life today. Possibly the most powerful is the word curse.  A word curse is a something that is spoken into your life usually by someone who is in position of authority over you. This can be a parent, a teacher etc, who says something like " You are stupid". You then accept these words as factual in your life and go through life being controlled by these words and believing that you are stupid.

Parents and teachers, as well as bosses, have to be extremely careful with their words that they speak over those whom they have authority over. Take care to confess only positive things over those whom you have authority over, knowing that your words can impact into their lives in a good way, or a negative way that can virtually make or ruin the rest of their life.

My brother was highly intelligent and very good with figures, but right the way through his life he was told that he was  stupid with his hands. As a result, even though he was fully capable and able to tackle odd jobs around the house, he always believed that his efforts were useless and that he was never able to do anything good with his hands.

"What you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth shall come to pass." 

Is it possible to break free from a curse?

Absolutely. In order to break free from a curse, you do need to first identify the cause of the curse in your life. If your problems are as a result of a word that has been spoken over your life, you must begin to reject that word and cast it out.

"Lord, I do not accept that word that was spoken into my life. I cast it out of my life in the name of Jesus and it shall have no power over me or my family."

If you have been disobedient to the word of God :-

" Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. Forgive me for my transgressions. I turn away from them today and choose to follow your commandments carefully from this day forward. I break the curse that has resulted in my life in the name of Jesus."

Should you not know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, then simply say "God help me please".

Caitlin holding Dylan.

On the 11 th February 2010 at 11h11 and 11 seconds, a new baby is brought into the world. Welcome to Dylan Botha born at Saint Mary's hospital in Springs South Africa. Dylan is a healthy baby boy born with a weight of 2.680 kg.

What is different about this baby. Well simply put, this is another miracle baby.

My daughter, Candy, was already the mother of a fairly healthy girl of 4 years of age. Her child, Caitlin was a miracle in herself as gynaecologists could not understand how she could have possibly fallen pregnant due to extremely low hormone levels. However, she fell pregnant and Caitlin Botha was born on 21/01/2005.

Due to an anorexic history, my daughter Candy had major problems with her womanly functions and after the first child was born, she battled to try and fall pregnant. This continued for 4 years and the Gynaecologist basically wrote it off as being  impossible for her to fall pregnant again. However, with God all things are possible.

In late March 2009, Candy approached me about weight gain that was worrying her. She had gained a fair amount of weight and having previously been anorexic, this was a danger that could throw her back into full anorexia again. I suggested that she join a program called Weight Loss God's Way by Dr Frank Smoot, which is an online christian weight loss program that does not concentrate on diet, but concentrates on building self esteem and relationship with God, which then causes weight loss as a "Side Effect".

I knew when I recommended this program that it would build her self confidence and self image, and yes, she would lose some weight but would not be thrown back into her anorexic ways. Well Candice joined the program and within 2 weeks I had an ecstatic visit from Candice again.

"I have lost 5 kilo's already and I did not even diet," she remarked exitedly. I went through what she had done and so far all she had been doing was to read and study the material from the course. She had not tried to lose weight or followed any diet. In fact she had continued life as normal and had continued to eat exactly what she was eating before. And yet she lost 5 Kg's (11 pounds) in a mere 2 weeks.

I was excited for her and was greatful to Dr Frank's weight loss course for being a safe way for my daughter to lose weight without risking throwing her back into anorexic ways.

Approximately 2 weeks passed and I had another ecstatic visit from Candy.

"You will never guess what, " she said. " I am pregnant again."

Coincidence, no I do not think so. How does someone who the doctors placed permanently on the contraceptive pill due to hormone problems, and who the doctors stated could not fall pregnant  again, suddenly fall pregnant. I attribute it to a total miracle which started along with the change in thinking brought about through Dr Frank's Weight loss God's Way program.

Well the month's passed and as pregnant Candy progressed, it was almost impossible to tell that she was pregnant from her stomach. At full term she was smaller in size than a normal woman of under 4 months pregnant. Yet the Gynaecologist was totally happy with her weight and so there were no alarm bells.

On the 11/02/2010 Candy was schedeuled to deliver by Caesaerean. She was called into theatre at 10H00 but due to incorrect prepping, she had to wait and was eventually brought in again at 11h00. The time of  birth was recorded as being 11h11. The attending paediatrician later stated that she could not believe the timing and so when she say the 11 minutes past 11 she decided to watch the seconds and guess what, the baby came out at exactly 11 seconds after 11h11 on the 11th February.

The miracle baby, Dylan Botha, is extremely healthy and an amazing 2.680 kg's considering the size of mom in pregnancy. Mother is in perfect health and all went well.

I give God all the Glory for this beautiful miracle and thank Dr Frank for his incredible Weight loss God's Way program which was the catalyst that God used to create this miracle.