NIRSA 2008 – a prophetic perspective

‘The Church has lost its voice and is powerless’ – Michael Cassidy, co-convener of NIRSA, 2008

The body of Christ has lost its connection with its Head. Thus the body cannot speak. The body can also not see and neither can it hear.

In some ways the church has taken the ‘new South Africa’, the constitution and the ‘government’ as its own head. It has in many ways felt too ashamed to declare the Lordship of Christ since it was clear that in many matters the church has indeed not been under the headship of Christ. In so doing the Lord has become ‘powerless’ and ‘silent’. It has also lost its own way by being double-minded about clearly defined biblical moral standards, and has thus become unstable in many ways.

‘The Church is praying like never before’ – Bennie Mostert, Graham Power at NIRSA 2008

The level of desperation in the nation has reached an all time high. But so has prayer! The different prayer initiatives have all confirmed that prayer has grown almost exponentially in the nation over the past 7 years. Yet, the Church and nation’s situation has steadily deteriorated. Why?

Christ is waiting to be crowned as the Head of His Church

God has ordained a drought in the land to cause the Church to hunger and thirst and thus seek Him. The Lord opened a new season for the church in 1994 and has been intensifying with a spiritual drought over the past 7 years. The level of seeking and desperation is now at a breaking point. The Lord is doing this so that we will press through to get to the real issue at hand – the re-establishment of Christ as the Head of all the church in South Africa. Without this re-dedication through a humble submission and surrender unto the Lord, we will not have Him as the Head and will therefore remain a body without direction, purpose and influence. Once Christ as Head is returned through our absolute surrender to Him, we as His body in South Africa will regain our speech, sight and hearing. We will regain our strength, sense of direction and purpose and the Lord would have us once again be His prophetic manifestation to a hurting and dying world.

Pressing on

I have no doubt that NIRSA was a pivotal point for the church in South Africa and indeed the whole of Africa. Yet, once we have secured our connectedness to the Lord through an absolute surrender to His will and ways, we must press on until we see the ‘rule’ of Christ complete its work in the church. All the initiatives regarding discipleship and a return to biblical standards are applauded. But we must also ensure that we go beyond seeing the ‘rule’ of Christ in our church-life and commit ourselves to seeing His rule touch all of life and all spheres of society. Africa needs to see the discipleship of nations, and this cannot happen with a discipleship solely focused upon church-life. It has to become a discipleship that transforms all of life and in particular the responsible use of time and talent as given by the Lord to each man and women. The church and all its members need to mature beyond being good members of a local body, to becoming servants given to the serving of their fellow countrymen, country and continent until we see the full effects of Christ’s life manifested in our everyday lives. By the ‘rule’ of Christ I do not imply institutionalized ‘rule’. To the contrary, I see this as self-governance under the direct control of the indwelling Christ – our only Hope of glory.

Stephan Vosloo asked:

Could it be significant that the NIRSA Consultation took place during the Feast of Unleavened Bread? If my calculations are correct then the Feast of First Fruits would have been on Wednesday (of the consultation). Could it be that the Consultation was intended to signify a removal of leaven from our midst by the leaders of the church? Could it be that Father intended them to experience something of the resurrection power of Jesus on the Wednesday?

I believe that this is indeed significant. There is little doubt in my mind that the Lord has indeed removed something significant from the church as represented at NIRSA. Instead of arrogance and a jockeying position (which was still evident some time ago), there was a very real sense of loss, humility and brokenness. I believe that humility and a commitment to obey the Lord were indeed offered at NIRSA and that pride has been broken. The time has come for the Lord to again raise up His body.