Divisions in the Church — Gerhard Du Toit

The Word of God and the Discernment of the Heart

For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

This message has been brought to you by Manna Christian Fellowship, Ellensburg, WA, area code 509 -925 -1167.

I want to say thank you for allowing me to come and spend this morning with you in a time last night with the brothers, it's a blessing just to pray together and to share with one another, and we carry the families here upon our own hearts, we pray for you and we thank you for praying for us.

Prayer, Revival, and Waiting Upon God

Just six times the Apostle Paul said in his epistles, Brethren, pray for us, and I've learned through the years that if I pray for someone, I will never be able to say something bad about that person, never, because if there is something wrong in his life, then I say it to God, and God always shuts my mouth to say it to anyone else, and that's often when we are in conferences, people come to me and they say at the door, oh will you please pray for me, and you know, we so easily can say, yes I pray, and I don't do that, if someone comes and says will you pray for me, I take your hand, and I say I pray for you now, sometimes it's embarrassing to them, because I pray for them right there in front of everyone, and I don't know what's embarrassing about that to me, it's nothing, and they say afterwards why did you do that, I say I pray for you now, so that God can have a free right in the future to burden me whenever he wants me to pray for you, and so we need to pray for one another, and for me it's such a wonderful privilege and a blessing to be able to come in here maybe once or twice a year, and to spend a weekend just seeking the Lord, I said last night to the brothers, it would be wonderful if maybe at some point they could come to our campground on a Monday night, and we spend three days in prayer, just waiting upon God, and seeking the face of God, and waiting upon him, and God has been stirring my heart afresh on the great subject of revival, you know, what is it for us to live in a spirit of revival in our relationships with him, and I want to speak to you about that this morning, and then in our second session, I would love to know what God is doing in the families, I would love to know what God is doing in the hearts of the fathers, the husbands, and in our families, and I think at some point if you will allow me to ask you to ask the fathers to get up and share what God is doing in their hearts, and what God is doing in their families, so that we can pray for one another.

Observation affects intercession, you know Isaiah 40 when the Bible says, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint, and we know that when Jesus spoke about prayer in the four Gospels, he gave us eight principles in his teachings on what prayer is all about, and those eight principles are all based upon eight words in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament that is dealing with this concept of waiting upon God, and we always need to be in a state of waiting upon God, that's why David said in the Old Testament, the Bible says David sat before the Lord, but when the prophets said they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, I said to my wife this last week, I need at least 45 minutes every morning, just really to become quiet, before I know where I'm going in my quiet times before God, and if you have problems in your Christian life today, it's because you don't have a proper quiet time, you can have a quiet time, but it's very quiet, there's nothing going on, but if you have problems, and let me share with you something, because I spend 90 -95 of my time with people in so-called full-time ministry, I don't believe in this thing of full-time ministry, if you want to become a Christian, you're in full-time ministry, there's nothing that you can hide, there's no secret departments, there's no dark corners, it's full-time ministry, because full-time ministry is full-time living for God, but I spend 90 -95 of my time with people who are in so-called full-time ministry, and I can tell you that 90 -100 of the times when we have to deal with sin in their lives, sin, whatever it is, if it's the sin of criticism, or if it's the sin of gossiping, or if it's the sin of slandering, or if it's immorality, or pornography, or lust, or any of those kind of things, 95 -100 of the time, you know where I trace it to?

To their quiet times, they haven't met with God. My brother and sister, I want to say to you this morning, and I've said this to my wife so many times, in fact, I think she's so tired of hearing this, but I say it to her so that I hear it myself.

I want to meet with God every day, every day. In this room where I stayed last night, I didn't know, realize what was taking place that there's a room right next to me, and there was an elderly man and his wife, and so when I came, they opened the door, and I just said hi to them and began to talk to them a little bit.

And I said, why are you in this town? Oh, he said, I'm preaching in a church tomorrow. And I said, oh, that's interesting, there's so many rooms, and here we are next to each other. And I said, which church?

And he said, some Pentecostal church. And I said, well, we'll forgive him for that, you know, we can still stay next to each other in the same room. But we began to have a time of fellowship there. And so he began to ask me questions, and I just began to talk to him about my relationship with God.

And I want to ask you this morning, are you meeting with God every day? I'm not asking if you're meeting with yourself. I'm not asking if you're meeting with struggles. I'm not asking if you're meeting with criticism.

I'm asking you, are you meeting with God every day? You see, you can't have an agenda if you meet with God. You can't have one, because God is the agenda. And in the unfolding of the will of God, the beauty of the unfolding of God's will, you discover that He's supreme in every aspect of our lives.

And I've said this to my wives last week, these times alone with God, you know, brother and sister, we only have one Bible. We only have one Old Testament and one New Testament. And if you and I have learned the secret of devouring this book, just devouring this book.

And I, this morning in my own quiet time, I, when I felt myself get going and writing out this scriptures, memorizing them, let them break my heart, just plow you up every day, you know, plow your heart up, plow your mind up, plow your emotions up.

Just let the Word of God plow and plow. And I got to the place where I said to God, I don't want to come to any service today. I just want to spend the day with you. I trust that you have times like that in your relationship with God.

The Sent Life and Spiritual Brokenness

The quiet times. So you say, Brother Gerard, why do I have to do this? You know why you need to do that? Because you have a spiritual constitution. Remember what Jesus said in the Gospel of John? He said, As my Father has sent me, so sent are you.

As my Father has sent me, so sent are you. And I said, As my Father has sent me, so sent are you. So how did the Father send him? The Father sent him and he said, My meat, my drink is to do the will of him that sent me.

What did he say? He said, Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God. God broke my heart a few months ago on the subject of brokenness. You know, this thing of brokenness, we think we understand it and then the Lord comes and just takes a little lift of the pot and just gives us a little glimpse in.

And we don't know a thing of brokenness. Not a thing. And early one morning about three o 'clock I found myself being awakened and God began to speak to me about brokenness. And I thought, well, okay, I just go through all those passages again, Old Testament, Scriptures, New Testament ones, and it was just that God, the Holy Spirit said, No, no, no, this is going to be different.

And I said to the Lord, What is it? And God took me in my quiet time to the moment that Jesus came out of Gethsemane, up to the moment that he died on the cross. Up to the moment that he said, Thessalonicae, in the Greek text.

It's done. It's finished. And God said to me, Let me show you brokenness. Here's the sinless Son of God who could have called twelve legions of angels, 75 ,000. In the Old Testament, one angel came and 185 ,000 Assyrians woke up dead.

Jesus said, I could have called twelve legions of angels to come. And he didn't. And that's brokenness. Because what happened, what he said was, All I'm going to do here is the will of my Father. And prior to that he prayed.

And he said, Father, three times he prayed. Let this cup pass away from me. Not as I will, but as thy will. And brokenness is choosing whatever God has in store for you. So that's what he did. And I began to walk from Gethsemane to Caiaphas, Pontus Pilate, the Jews, Herod, everyone.

Then to the cross, and to the moment that he died. And I saw brokenness in a way that I've never seen it before. And there was a moment in that morning that I, in my own heart, said to God, Stop. Because if I need to see one bit more, I don't know if I ever in my life would recover.

And if you have ever asked yourself, or if you have ever asked God, say, God, would you bring me to the place where I become a partaker of the sufferings of Christ? We're not talking about physical sufferings here, or emotional, mental.

No, no, we're not talking about that stuff. The spiritual sufferings of Christ. He left the throne of glory. He became man. He identified himself as man. He became the scapegoat. And brother and sister, he took it all upon himself.

Now why did he do that? So that if there was only one soul on this planet earth, only one soul, God still would have sent his son to die just for that one person. That's what love is about. So I wonder this morning if I could ask you, do you meet with God every morning?

Do you meet with God every morning? It's the most important aspect of the Christian life. Intimacy with God. You know what? You read the life stories of people and you say to yourself, what was it about them?

You read the life story of Andrew Murray, you say what was it about him? You know what was it about Andrew Murray? Wasn't his prayer life wonderful as it was? His commitment to scripture, the greatness of his preaching, all the books that he wrote.

You know what was the secret of Andrew Murray's prayer life? It was the secret place, alone with God. And I think that's why Jesus when he said, he said when you pray, he said enter into your closet and pray to your father who is in secret.

And your father who sees in secret shall reward you openly. The closet. What is this closet? It's a secret den. That's the meaning of the word in the Greek New Testament. A secret den. So you say what does it mean to me as a father and as a husband?

My brother, it means that before you look into the face of your wife or your children every day, you need to look into the face of God. That's the heart of leadership in the family. I cannot dare looking into the face of my family if my family have not seen me looking into the face of God.

That's discipline. So Brother Gerard what does that mean? That means that you need to be up at least two hours before them. You're the leader of the house. And if you set the example, and I dare to think and I fear to think and I stagger to think what would happen if my family, just my wife and one daughter, would come into my study in the morning and not sense the presence of God.

I fear to think what would happen if they come down from upstairs to the downstairs of the house and into my library and the downstairs of our house is not saturated with the presence of God. Secret den.

Alone with God. And I said to myself early this morning, I would love to spend time with every one of these brothers and let them ask me the same questions. I would love to sit down with Roger and with Michael and with Jason and Doug and every single one.

Alone for an hour or two and say let's talk about our relationships with God. Brother Jamie and Brother Daniel. Let's talk about our relationships with God. What's going on there? Are we true to God in our minds?

Are we true to God in our hearts? Are we true to one another as brothers? Are we true to one another? So what is it? It's the closet. You say why do you say that? Do you know why I'm saying this to you this morning?

Every time when I have the privilege of coming into this little fellowship, I sense a deeper sense of God. Do you know what is happening when that begins to happen? The enemy of our souls will kick and try his utter, utter, uttermost best.

Guarding Fellowship From Gossip and Division

I said last night to the brethren that we are the policy in our conference ground of no gossiping, no slandering. I want you to take this upon your heart this morning. If anyone in this fellowship comes to you or if anyone in the fellowship, and I've said this in one of the other fellowships some time ago.

If anyone in this fellowship has come to you in the past and said to you something about someone else in the fellowship, you have the responsibility, because this is going to rob you of your relationship with God.

You have the responsibility to go to that brother and say you talk to me about that person. That was wrong. That was wrong. You and I need to go and see that person. Why do you say that? Because the Bible speaks about sowing discord amongst brethren.

And we are the policy in our conference ground that if any of our staff members, any of my staff members is disgruntled or grumble or dissatisfied about something, the policy is that if it's me, they come straight to me and they say, Brother Gerard, you said something at the lunch table and it really troubled me.

I want to talk to you about it. They don't go to someone else and say, you know Brother Gerard said that thing there at the lunch table. Do you think that was right? Do you think this? And then they began to talk about it.

Do you know what it does? It creates an atmosphere. It creates an atmosphere of dissension. We don't do that. We don't allow that. We don't allow that. So you say, what do you do? If I do something, if I say something wrong, if we were part of this fellowship, maybe you would say, well maybe I don't want you to be part of this fellowship.

You know, that's fine. But if we were part of this fellowship and you would have come to me and traversed me, it's not going to work. Because I would just take you and say, okay, let's go. We're going to spend time with this person.

We're going to pray this thing through. Now let me tell you something this morning. And I said this in one of the fellowships some time ago. Because this sort of fellowship is very dear and near to my heart.

And I know God wants to bless you. If you have been caused of any criticism or slander or gossiping in any way, and I'm speaking to myself, if you have been caused of any of those kind of things, you're going to need to put it right.

You're going to need to put it right. And if you're going to continue to do this, you shouldn't be part of a fellowship like this. Why do you say that? Christ loved the church and he gave himself for it.

Why did he do that? The Bible says, so that he might sanctify it by the washing of the Word. Sanctify it by the washing of the Word. And I'm asking you this morning, I said, brother, and I'm not saying it just here in Ellensburg.

I'm saying this in every place where I go. You know why I'm saying this to you? Because we find this everywhere, everywhere, in many of our fellowships. And I'm saying this to you this morning as a brother, that we need to live in the presence of God with pure heart.

So where do I get it all sorted out? What's the secret of it? It's the closet, the secret den. Robert Murray McChain used to say, how can the Holy Spirit in me, how can the Holy Spirit in me, criticize the Holy Spirit in you?

How can he do that? The closet, the secret den. Do you know what it means? It's a storehouse. You know, the Spirit of God is relevant to my heart and my life. The Word of God is always fresh. The Word of God is always fresh.

And when we come to this storehouse of God, we drink, and we drink. We've got these two docks at our conference ground, and they love water. Golden Retrievers, and Golden Retrievers love water. And last year, a lady came and she said, I want to take the docks, and I want to bath the docks for you, and spend hours washing these docks and everything.

Oh, they were just like new, you know. If there would ever be animals in heaven, they were ready to go, and I was ready to kick them in, you know. But they were just like brand new, and rusty. The brother, the male, he's a beautiful dog, about 90 pounds, and just beautiful.

And he came back from this place where this lady has washed him, and he was just perfect, humanly speaking. And because he's a retriever, he came running onto the conference ground, and we have ponds with fountains, and little fish in there, and it's full of algae, and sometimes dirty and rusty.

When he came out of the truck, he just, we're looking, oh, isn't he beautiful? And he just ran. And as he was running, I knew what was going to happen. He jumped the fence, and he just plunged him down in the old dirty pond.

And I thought, you know, you're a dog. But you know, it's a great thing when we are clean, and there's no pollution. And sometimes we have a history, you know, if we've come through something in our past, and there has been a behavior pattern, it's so easy to succumb to temptation, because we know that temptation is not sin.

But what happens when temptation comes? Temptation comes through the mind. Now if the mind has been polluted, and the mind is not clean, that temptation comes, that arrow makes contact. And you can't be tempted to something that you don't know anything about.

But when it makes contact in the mind, you begin to think about it, and think about it, and think about it, and think about it. Let me share with you one of the disciplines of prayer. Because I've gone through, we've all gone through things through the years, and there was a time in my life when I went through something that I really struggled with, of someone that has done something to me.

And do you know what he did? He began to infiltrate into my prayer life, and he began to pollute my prayer life. And I get up in the morning, and the first thing I think about is this thing of what this man did to me, and I couldn't get away from this.

And I try to go now to my choir time, and there it's there again, and I try to read the scriptures, and there it's there again, and I wrestle and I wrestle. And I went for counseling. The man who became my spiritual father, a man with the name of J .B .B. Friend in South Africa.

And I said, Mr. Friend, I need help. I said, someone has done this thing to me, and I told him what it was. And I said, I'm struggling with these bad thoughts, and I'm struggling about these criticisms.

And I said, the moment when I wake up in the morning, and I get on my knees to have my choir time, this thing is there. And he shared with me a discipline in the Christian life. And he said to me, the only way that the secret then in this choir spot, the only way that you're going to get victory, is that when the Word of God comes, and you spend time in this Word, and what the Word of God is going to do is to set it aside, set it aside.

And he said, when the Word of God sets this aside, you're going to create a special room. It's like on the email, you create a file, and you put it in that file. And you see, he said, you put that hurt into that file, in that special room.

That doesn't mean you don't give attention to it. But in your mind, in your heart, you discipline yourself, that it does not interfere with your time in the Word, and in your time of prayer. But every morning you come, and you step into that room, where you've been hurt, or where there has been criticism, and you can't get the victory.

And you step into that room, and the moment when you step into that room, you close the door behind you. And in your prayer life, you are in that room. And there you are seeking God about it. And every morning, you come to the altar of God in that room, and you lay this thing on the altar, and you pray it, and you lay it on the altar of God.

And every morning, you say, God, give me a promise, that I can put between the altar and this door, so that this is on the altar for God. And when you pray about it, and you pray, and sometimes you can pray for a long time, but that room is every day there.

To share with you this, there's a room like that in my life. It's the room of the salvation of my brother. I've been praying for him for 28 years. Last year in Africa, three times I spoke to him about Christ.

Every time he was as hard as nails. A number of months ago, he phoned me, and he said, I want to talk to you. I said, about what? He said, my wife is dying of cancer. She's in the last days of her life.

God is dealing with my brother. And I go into this room, where I'm with God and him, and pray it through. And then walk out of that room, and the promises close the door. And you close that door. The discipline of prayer, until you've prayed it through.

You know what is beautiful? When the day comes when you and I have prayed this thing through, and God said, now it's safe to open the door, because all has been dealt with. Do you know what you do? You raise an Ibn Isa, and you say, he that you has a...

Prayer for Purity, Fellowship, and Spiritual Strength

And that's how we grow spiritually, in our relationships with God. Let's stand for prayer, and then return to the scriptures. Our Father, as we come to you this morning, we are so tremendously thankful, and we are so grateful for the great privilege of what the Word of God is all about.

We thank you today for the depth of your Word. We thank you this morning for the precious blood of Christ that we have been singing about. We thank you today for the redemption ground that we can stand on.

We thank you this morning that your Word is said to us, that Christ paid the price, so that we can have life and abundance of life. And Lord, I have found it such a privilege, once or twice a year, to come in amongst these families that have become so dear and near to my heart.

And yet God, I have become conscious, in the last number of months, that this little fellowship, that we are going to be under attack, because we want to live out and out for God. And Father, thy Word is said to us, that when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall rise up and stand against him.

You have said unto us, that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and the powers of darkness. You said unto us, that greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

Father, you said to your servant Joshua and to Moses, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. The battle does not belong to you, but the battle belongs to God. Father, we can't face the onslaughts of the evil one, if it's from within or from without.

But Father, we know this Sunday morning, that in the place of prayer, God will be able to help us, to systematically pray. And Lord, I pray for the salvation of the brothers this morning. These men have become very precious to me.

And Lord, I love him with the love of God. And some of us are struggling with our quiet times. And some of us are maybe struggling with evil thoughts. And some of us are struggling with issues. And God, the only way we are going to be able to survive these onslaughts, is when we become men and women of prayer.

And men of purity. And men of passion. And men of power and unction. And this morning Father, it's the burden of my heart, that every single one of these brothers, will become such great men of honour.

And men of unction. And we ask that you will begin in our lives as brothers. Father, we want to draw a circle around ourselves today. And ask that you will pour out your spirit in this circle. And that you will do something very deep.

And Lord, if there are hidden agendas in our hearts, if we have secret plans, I pray this morning in Jesus' name, that whatever the judgment needs to do, that God will come and decisively deal with us in our relationships with you.

And Lord, I'm speaking about myself. If there is any wicked way, the Psalmist said, search my heart. Search me. And see and find if there is any wicked way. And so this morning we pray that you will keep the sanctity of our fellowship clean.

Lord, we really want to walk with God. And so we ask that it will be relevant in our lives as brothers. Those of us that are struggling with our quiet times. Some mentioned last night in their times of prayer.

Father, it broke my heart. This morning we climb underneath the burden of our brother's heart. And we ask that you will make these times vivid in the presence of God. A relationship with our wives. These precious ones that we brought into our lives.

Oh God, we pray that it will not be a relationship of criticism or a relationship of slander or gossip. But that you will give our wives the courage, as you've done with my own precious wife, to look me in the eyes and say, Daddy, that statement is not of God.

And I found myself becoming broken because of the one that you brought into my life. Face me up with issues that I need to know about. And I pray this morning that you will take our sisters and make them women of God.

We thank you for our children. Bless them we pray. Help us to protect them from anything that is evil. Learn us and teach us the principle of Job. That he sanctified his children on a consistent basis just in case the enemies somehow got in and tried to do something to them.

Now Father let us return to your word. Bless this word to our hearts. In Jesus name. Amen. I would like you to turn with me in your Bible, if you will, to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 verse 1. The Bible says, When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all of one accord in one place.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as though it were a rushing mighty wind. And it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them clovered tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

And they were all full to the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were utterly slain Jews, devout men, out of their houses. And they were all cast out of every nation under heaven.

Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and they were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans?

And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and the Medes, and the Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, and Egypt, and in the parts of Rome and Libya, about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews, and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God.

And they were all amazed, and they were in doubt, saying one to another, What mean of this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words, for these are not drunken as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, And it shall come to pass in the last day, sayeth God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out on those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire, and vaporous smoke.

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Now verse number 37,. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and they said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for the promise he sent to you and to all your children, and to all that are a part of even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

With many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourself from this untoward generation. Then they that were glad to receive his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, with the fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods and parts then to all men, and every man at need.

And they continued daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their meat of gladness, singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. The day of Pentecost, the day when the church was born, the day when the Spirit of God came, and those early disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit.

And when you look at the acts of the apostles, we know that the first seven chapters of the book of Acts is dealing with the establishment of the church. Then from chapter eight onwards to chapter twelve, the church was expanding into Judea and Samaria.

And from chapter thirteen to chapter twenty-eight, the church extended unto the uttermost parts of the world. Thirty-one years of history, and the then known world was evangelized for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pentecost, Revival, and the Visitation of God

Now Jesus turned to them in chapter one, and also at the end of the gospel of Luke, and he said to them, I want you to tarry in Jerusalem until you are induced with power from on high. And the word tarry is a wonderful word.

Christ looked upon him and he said to them, I want you to sit down. I've been in revival twice in my life, and this chapter is dealing with revival, when the church was revived. I've been in other movements of the Spirit of God, and people say, oh that was revival, and I say, no I don't think so.

It was drops of the visitation of God. We were in a move of God some time ago, in a very conservative church, for a week of prayer. And we started this Sunday morning and went on and spent the mornings in prayer, and spent the afternoons in prayer, and seeking God.

And the Wednesday morning at the men's breakfast meeting, the Spirit of God broke in amongst the brethren. And one of the elders in this fellowship got up that morning and he looked at the men who sat there, and there were I don't know, maybe 25 -30 men who were in this men's prayer breakfast meeting.

And he said, there was a time in my life when I had something against each and every one of you. And I just sat there and I thought, oh. And so I didn't know what was going to take place. And he came to them and he said to them, I want to ask you all this morning to forgive me.

And I want you to hold me accountable that this won't happen again. While he wanted to leave, and I got to him and I put my hand around his shoulder and I said, Steve, he was self-employed. I said, Steve, you're not going to go anywhere today.