The Work of Ministry and the Holy Spirit — Gerhard Du Toit

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I want to say this morning what a wonderful privilege it has been to be able to spend these days with you and fellowships. What a challenge and what a great stirring in my own heart and inadequate life to be able to be allowed just to come and be part.

I was sitting there this morning as we were worshipping and singing and I said to myself, Oh, how I just would wish someone else would be preaching this morning so that I can just take in a service like this.

And I want to thank you today. I want to tell you that God has given unto us a precious burden to pray for the fellowships. It's just been amazing to me to see what God has been doing. I've had the privilege of being here, I think it was six or seven years ago and then been allowed to go to some of the different fellowships and to share and to pray with the brothers and to seek the face of God.

And it's just wonderful. I don't want you to misunderstand me and I don't want you to ever think that we've got it together. And I don't want you ever to develop an attitude of arrogance to think that, you know, there's something about us.

Because if God in one moment will withdraw his presence from us, we will disintegrate. But I want to say to you this morning, I really believe in my heart. I really believe in my heart. I really believe in my heart that if there is places where God can pour out his spirit and revival in the days to come, it's upon the fellowships here and at charity and all over the country where they meet.

What a wonderful testimony it will be if one day we receive a call and said and found out that the spirit of God has broken through in revival in Manitoba. The spirit of God has broken through in revival in South Dakota or in Tennessee or right here or at charity.

And how we would long to see that. Brother and sister, 20 minutes of an outpouring of the spirit of God will do more for us than all the years of the things that we've tried. And I really have a longing in my heart, and I've often said this to my wife and my daughter, if the spirit of God breaks through in one of the fellowships in revival, I don't care in which country of the world I will be, I would just ask and say, can I just come and sit in the midst of what God is doing?

I've had the privilege to be in revival twice in my life. And brother and sister, if you've once in your life been in revival, you will never ever be the same. It spoils you for life. You have one longing, and that's to see it again.

What will it cost us? It will cost us absolutely everything. And so that's the longing of our hearts. So thank you for allowing me to be part here. I'm so sorry this morning I don't have a beard. I was trying to convince brother Mose to give me his this morning, and he wouldn't do that.

And then I said to him, you know, maybe there's one of these ones that you just stick on for the morning, and he said, well, that's not Christian either, so just bear with me and forgive me, but I do have my suspenders, so don't criticize me.

The Holy Spirit as Comforter, Teacher, and Guide

I want you to turn with me this morning, if you will, in your Bible. We're going to read from John 14 to John chapter 16. Just a couple of verses out of every passage. John chapter 14 through to John chapter 16.

John chapter 14, a few verses, then John chapter 15, a few verses, and then John chapter 16. John chapter 14, verse number 16. The Lord Jesus said, Then verse number 26. He shall teach me all things and bring all things to your remembrance.

He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

And if you turn over to chapter 15, verse number 26. The Bible says, Chapter 16, verse number 7. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and He see me no more. Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but he cannot bear them now.

Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come.

He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. Our Father, as we just now for another moment in the beauty of what the presence of God has been about, and this week as we have gathered together and as we have been exposed to some amazing, blessed teachings that has been coming unto us from the Word of God.

Lord, I must confess this morning that in the few days that I have had the privilege of being allowed to come and humble myself under the mighty hand of God amongst these, my brothers and sisters. Father, I must confess that it has become some of the most precious days in my own inadequate walk with God, probably within the last number of years.

And I want to thank you this morning for that which God is doing. We want to thank you for all the brokenness that has been coming upon our hearts in our lives. We want to thank thee this morning, our Father, for the way that the Spirit of God has been working in the hearts of the brothers.

We want to thank you for every single one that has met with God in a very precious way. And Father, this Sunday morning we want to climb underneath the burden of God, not just for these two fellowships here and the charity, but we want to climb underneath the burden of God for the almost 50 fellowships all over the country.

Many of them this morning just meeting maybe a few families, and they need to be an encouragement for one another, and sometimes they sense the loneliness of what it means to be out there in the wilderness of what this world is about.

But this morning we face the responsibility to climb underneath the burden of God, and Father, to be able to pray for our brothers and for our sisters. Lord, thou knowest today that I have come to the place, the last two days of this Men's Leadership Week, where I felt I could climb underneath a blanket somewhere in a cabin in the mountains and spend days and nights underneath the burden of God, systematically pray through, not just for every one of the fellowships, but for the brothers and the leaders and the husbands, and for the fathers and for the mothers, and for our families and for our young people, and Father, for our children.

But this day we want to pray as we humble ourselves before God. Our God and our Father, we want to pray this morning that this movement of God that has been born in a sense of revival, we ask today that you will prepare us for another great move of the Spirit of God.

We want to say to thee this morning, our God and Father, our only survival is not just in new fellowships, or you coming to places in wonderful ways, but God, our only survival is going to be when you will pour out your Spirit upon us again and again.

And this day we come to humble ourselves, and Father God, we want to pray this morning in Jesus' name, that somehow that this seed will begin to be sown in our hearts afresh. And Father that in the days to come that the burden for revival will begin to settle in our hearts in new and deep ways, and so that we will begin to pray, and that the hours would become like minutes in the presence of God.

And that in the days to come that there will come moments in our fellowships in different places where God will come and pour out His Spirit in revival. We want to say to thee this morning again, our God and our Father, we are not interested in fellowships and churches full of people, but we want to say to thee, our Father, we long to be in places that will be full of people, that will be full of God.

And Father we do not know this morning what it's going to take, and the days to come to be exposed underneath the greatness of the burden of God, and to ask you to bring us to the place where this burden of God will bring brokenness upon our lives, where brokenness will bring cleansing, where cleansing will bring in the dimension of the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of God is going to lead us into the spirit of prayer, and where the spirit of prayer will lead us into the will of God, and where the will of God will found itself being surrounded by the promises of God.

And Lord God, I do not know this morning, in the inadequacy of my own heart here in this continent of North America, what it's going to take for us to systematically pray through for an outpouring of the Spirit of God upon us.

Lord, I know today it's going to cost us so much more if it's not going to happen. This morning we want to cry to thee, thou who didst say to us in thy word, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, I will pour floods upon the dry ground.

Thou didst say in thy word, in the midst of the years, all that thou wouldst revive us against. Thou didst say to us in thy word, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting, and they were all full to the Holy Ghost.

And thou didst say unto us in thy word in the last days, say of God, I will pour out from my Spirit upon all flesh. Father, we are living in the last days. We want to be a sanctified people. We want to be a people that hates sin.

We want to be a people that will be saturated with God. We want to be a people that will be intoxicated, and drenched in the greatness of the glory of God, so that we can become a praying people. And Father, the burden of my own inadequate heart these days, is that we will not just have fellowships, that will be a mile wide and an inch deep, that we will not just have brothers who say I believe, and separation, that we will not just have families that will say we believe in family worship, but oh God that we would be able to live out exactly everything that you are saying unto us in your word.

And Lord, the burden of my own simple life, is that our fellowships will become houses of prayer. God, you need to begin it somewhere in this country. And I believe in my heart this Sunday morning, if there is a place where God will be able to pour out His Spirit, it's amongst these different groups, that you have called to be set apart unto you.

And so we thank you, and I want to thank you today, that Lord God I'm going back to Western Canada, with a burden upon my heart, and the days to come to pray, in a way that we've never prayed before, and to trust you to come.

And I just thank you for the great privilege, of being allowed to come amongst people like this, that so much reminds me of my own people in Africa. And yet we say to thee this morning, save us from arrogance, save us, our God, from attitudes of criticism, save us from an attitude of thinking that we are doing fine, save us from a relationship where we think we've got this thing together.

But we pray, pour out upon us the Spirit of humility, and pour out upon us the conviction, of the greatness of what the presence of God is all about. Now Father as we turn to thy word this morning, we want to say to thee this morning we love thy word.

Lord our words sometimes sound so empty, because we can't understand the depth of the love of God. And yet thy word said unto us here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us, and that He gave His Son as a propitiation for our sins.

We say again afresh today, our God, our understanding of the love of God, will be determined by our observation and revelation of the sufferings of Christ. So bless the word as we found it upon it, in Jesus name, Amen.

The Gospel of John as a Transforming Word

Many, many years ago in my own homeland of Africa, because we speak a different language in that country that I was brought up, many, many years ago God began to lay it upon my heart to try and memorize the gospel of John.

It took me probably about three years, not to memorize the gospel of John, but for the gospel of John to memorize me. You see, brother and sister, we know so much about the word of God so often, and we have such a knowledge of the word of God, but sometimes the word of God knows so little about us, and we are so foreign to the depth of the dealings of God's word in our lives.

But during those three years, God began to wash through my life through these 21 chapters, as they became real or part of my inadequate relationship with God. You remember the Bible is speaking to us about groups that followed Christ.

The apostle Paul in Corinthians spoke about 500 on one occasion. We read about the 120 on the day of Pentecost, when God brought out His spirit in revival. We read about the 70 that was sent out in Matthew chapter 10, or rather Luke chapter 10.

And then within the circle of the 70, do we discover the 12. And to remember those 12 were chosen by the Master, by the Lord Jesus, after a night of intercessory prayer. And within the circle of the 12, do we come across the 3.

Peter and James and John. And within that circle of the 3, we come across the apostle John. The one that was moved of God to give unto us the gospel of John, the epistles of John, and also the book of Revelation.

I just started about a week ago to memorize the book of Revelation, and this morning I was in my quiet time in the first 5 verses of chapter 2. And I want to tell you something today. I don't know how I'm going to get to chapter 21, because there are truths that are coming and washing through the inadequacy of my relationship with God.

That morning after morning they are just tearing my life apart, as God is just washing and speaking to my own life. And John was that beloved disciple. The disciple whom Jesus loved. The disciple that was at the foot of the cross.

When the Savior looked down and turned to him and looked at his mother and said to his mother, this is going to be your son, and turned to him and said, this is going to be your mother. I love people that love God.

I love people that want to live close to God. And I don't know about you this morning, but when I find someone that have a deep passion and a deep longing for God, that sometimes I just attach myself to those people like a leech, and I want to be in their presence, and I want them to mentor me, and I want to drink from them, and I want to find out what God has been doing in their hearts and in the relationships of God.

So what happens in the gospel of John? My brother and my sister, there are two possible ways for us to look at this marvelous gospel. There is the possibility this Sunday morning in our morning service that you and I as a Christian will be able to look upon this gospel and see within the gospel of John what we would refer to as Jesus becoming our mutist, the mental tabernacle.

You say, Brother Gerard, why do you say that? I say that because in John chapter 1 the Bible is saying to us, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory also of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

I love that little word, dwelt, in the New Testament, because in the Greek New Testament it's a marvelous little concept. It's the word for tabernacle. The word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us.

In fact, it's the same word that we come across in the book of Revelation when the apostle John again made a statement and he said, the tabernacle of God was amongst his people. If you and I will study the Old Testament tabernacle, you will discover in coming to the gospel of John, because the Old Testament is revealed for us, and the New Testament, and the New Testament lies hidden within the Old Testament, you will discover that Christ in the New Testament, as he becomes our New Testament tabernacle, that everything that the Old Testament tabernacle is speaking to us about, found itself somehow, in one way or another, fulfilled within Christ, our New Testament tabernacle.

We do not have time this morning to explore that. But there is another way for us to look at the gospel of John. And that's by looking upon this gospel, and see within this gospel the different ministries that the Son of God had.

In the opening words of the gospel of John, when the Bible is saying to us, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God, you will discover that the Bible is speaking to us about, what to a degree we may refer to as, the predestined ministry of Christ.

The Christ of the Old Testament. And my brother and my sister, I wonder this Sunday morning, if you would allow me to suggest to you that, it will not be possible for us to come to grips with the Christ of the New Testament, and the greatness of its depth, unless we have come to grips with the Christ of the Old Testament.

And when you discover him in the Old Testament, beautiful, we look upon what we would refer to as, the Christophanies of Christ in Old Testament Scripture. The one that wrestled with Jacob of old, that somehow crippled him for life, that turned to him and said to him, what is your name?

And he said, my name means deception. My name is Jacob, I have been a deceiver. And somehow he crippled him, that he will never in his life ever be the same. And he said, your name is going to become Jacob.

It means Prince of God. The one that stood in Joshua chapter 5, as the Lord and the King of hosts. And Joshua as they enter into the promised land. And I want to say to you this morning that the inheritance, that God has in mind for you and for me as a Christian, is that we will not live a defeated Christian life.

But that God is saying to the people of Israel in the Old Testament, He said, I brought them out of Egypt, so that I would be able to bring them into the promised land. The writer to the Hebrews is coming unto us and he said, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

He said, those that have entered into His rest, entered from their own works as He is from His. But as they entered into the promised land, there was a man that was standing and Joshua came to him and he said to him, Art thou for us or art thou against us?

And he responded and he said, I am the captain, the Lord of hosts. He said, I have now come. The one that found himself in the fire with the friends of Daniel, one as the Son of Man, the one that revealed himself in the prophecy of Isaiah, when the prophet in Isaiah chapter 6 said, the year when King Isaiah died, he said, I also saw the Lord and He was high and lifted up and His grains filled the temple.

And you remember how the prophet, who five times in the first five chapters, cried out those woes against the people, because he never discovered the condition of his heart. But then he came to the place where he said, the King Isaiah died.

The carpet was pulled from underneath him, brother and sister. And he said, I also saw the Lord. Who did he see? The apostle John in the New Testament said, he saw the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder this morning if I may ask you, because my brother and my sister, the potential and the possibilities of our fellowships in the years and the days to come, right here in this beautiful building, across here in Charity Christian Fellowship, and all those maybe 48 other fellowships all over this land, is going to be determined by our understanding of the vision of God.

Separation Unto God and the Vision of Christ

And I wonder this Sunday morning if I can ask you, have you lost the vision of God? You see, it was the beauty of the Christ of the Old Testament. It was the consuming fire. It was the seraphims that cried in the Hebrew text, Qodesh, Qodesh, Qodesh is the Lord God Almighty, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.

One of the great burdens and the concern upon my heart for this movement of God amongst that which God has been doing, not just here or in charity or in the other fellowships, my brother and my sister, is simply this, that we will come to the place where we stand on the foundations and the fundamentals of Scripture, and we stand on the reality of being separated unto God.

But somehow we do not know the reality of being separated from this world. But somehow we do not know the reality of being separated unto God. And I want to say to you this morning, because I have seen it happen, I have been amongst people in this world who are so strong on the concepts of separation that each and every one of us stands for.

But we have lost the understanding of our separation unto God. And my brother and my sister, you know what are the consequences? We come to the place where pride begins to crawl in. We come to the place where we lack or where we lost the reality of accountability.

We come to the place where we stand upon the greatness of the doctrines of Scripture. But the doctrines of Scripture has not been penetrated. Every aspect of our walks with God. You say, Brother Gerard, why do you say that?

I find myself in many independent movements. You know what has happened? Some of them have become so independent that they are independent of God. And brother and sister, forgive me for saying this, I tell you, my heart is so broken, I felt last night if I could just come to the church and found a little room in this massive beautiful building and sit underneath a blanket and don't even come to this morning service.

Because one of the greatest fears in my heart is that there will be a moment that you and I will come and say, you know, we really are not so bad. Listen, we are precious to God, but we are desperately needed.

The Christophanies of Christ and the Old Testament. Can I ask you this Sunday morning in this morning service, have you lost the vision of God? You know, it's a terrible thing when you and I can sit here in a Sunday morning like this and you say, Brother Gerard, there was a time in my life when I really knew the presence of God.

But I sit here this Sunday morning in this morning session and you and I need to say, you know, somehow I don't know the depth of that presence. There has been little things that has been crawling into my relationship with God.

My brother and my sister, why did we give out this little sheet on Friday night and those questions and those passages of Scripture? And as I let them search through my own heart again, we want, as Brother Moe said earlier on, we want to be a people sanctified and meet for the Master's use.

There are some of the men that are here this Sunday morning and somehow you have come to the leadership and you've been in the small groups as we have heard our brother from Manitoba and we have made commitments and our minds were moved by the Scriptures and our hearts have been stirred because of the reality of the unction of the Spirit of God.

But my brethren, can I challenge you this morning? Somehow your will needs to be on the altar for God. You need to go back to those fellowships and the things that God has been working in your heart. Those things need to become a reality.

So there is the greatness of the vision of God. You say, what was this public ministry all about? What do we also find? There was the predestined ministry of Christ and those opening verses of the Gospel of John.

Christ's Public Ministry Through Miracles and Personal Conversations

Now, brethren, just listen. There was the public ministry of Christ. Now, what was that? And I want to challenge you this morning. And I was thinking about it in my quiet memory this morning. What will happen about the fellowships all over the country if you and I will come to the place where all of us will memorize the Gospel of John?

You know what will happen to us? We will become a holy people. So there was this public ministry. You say, Brother Gerard, what did Christ do in the public? You know what He did in John's Gospel? From chapter 1 to chapter 12, He manifest Himself in wonderful ways.

He did it through miracles and He did it through personal conversations. He did approximately something like eight beautiful miracles in those chapters. And there are possible eight private conversations that He had.

You say, why did He do the miracles in those chapters? You know what's the word in the original language? I love that word. That word for miracle is a marvelous word. It is speaking to us about signposts towards spirituality.

You say, what does that mean? You see, He did a miracle. And my brother and sister, when the Lord Jesus Christ did a miracle, the reason why He did that miracle is because He is going to reveal and manifest the life of the Father.

And I wonder this Sunday morning if I can ask you in this service, are there times when God is coming to you in a miraculous way? You say, what are you speaking about? Are you talking about manifestations?

No, my brother and sister. I'm speaking about these moments when God comes to visit your life and my life. You say, brother Gerard, why do you say that? My brother and my sister, I'm saying that because you know what we stand for?

We believe in a spirit-filled life. We believe this morning that there is no power without purity. We believe in the efficacy of the blood of Christ. We believe in the possibility that God is able to cleanse us from all conscious sin.

But you know what? The fullness of the Spirit is never meant to become a goal. It's a gateway. Why are there leadership conferences like this? Why are there men coming? Why are there Bible schools? Why are there special services?

My brother and my sister, those things are there so that we, as the people of God, can be exposed to the light of His Word. That as we are exposed to the light of His Word, God, the Spirit of God, who witnesses to the Word and witnesses to the blood, He needs to come and meet us when His Word is coming to our hearts.

But you know the sad thing and the possibility in a morning like this, is that you and I can sit through session after session after session after session after session without meeting with God. So this morning I want to ask you, these last days, has He come?

And has He met with us? I will never be able not to remember the very first time when God broke into a gathering like this. It was in my own homeland of Africa. And I was part of an organization that had a strong stand on the holy life and a commitment to prayer and a strong conviction that souls need to be saved.

And the closest ever that I've come to something like this in North America is right here this morning. That's why I found it so difficult even to get up here and to try and share the Word of God with you.

And I was part of an organization like that. And you know, I would never forget, I would hear people speaking about the Spirit of God breaking through. The Spirit of God breaking through. And I was a young evangelist, just went out in the ministry, and I didn't understand these concepts.

And we were involved in a convention in the Western Cape of Southern Africa. And there were about 600 people who were very God-fearing conservative Christians who were separated from this world. And they were in this tent.

And at this campground, they were in tents and trailers. And the services was in a large tent. And Saturday night came, it was an Easter convention. And Saturday night came, and the leader of the camp made a statement, and he said, we are going to have a half-night of prayer, and we are going to ask God to break into this convention.

And I remember Mr. Skoll said, we can't go through meeting after meeting without meeting with God. He said we need to trust God to break into our hearts. As a young evangelist, I sat there, and after the Saturday night service, we had a half-night of prayer.

And the Christians, the people would come together, and we began to climb underneath the burden of God in prayer. We began to seek the face of God and wait within the presence of God. And I don't know what time it was, it could have been 12, 1 or 2 in the morning, when Mr. Skoll stood up.

He's a godly man. He stood up and he said, I really believe that God has helped us to pray through. Brother and sister, you know what is going to make this movement growing in the years to come? That's when we learn the secret of praying through.

And so he sent us to our tents. And I remember as a young evangelist, I was exposed to prayer. I love this thing of prayer. But this thing of just praying through, persevering through to God. And Sunday morning came, and I would never forget Sunday morning.

There was a missionary by the name of Henny Starrum speaking on Easter Sunday morning. And that Sunday morning when I came into the tent, brother and sister, the tent was threatened to the atmosphere of the presence of God.

And the services started just like this morning. We sang the same wonderful hymns. And it seemed there was a moment when this missionary got up to speak and he had a very little simple message about Christ and about Easter weekend and the crucifixion.

And I would never forget that Sunday morning. Maybe halfway through his message, suddenly the Spirit of God came. There was nothing strange about it. But you know what happened? The Spirit of God came.

It was a wave of brokenness and conviction that was sweeping over this tent. And I saw very old, conservative, precious, God-fearing people being saved for 30 or 40 or 50 years sitting there on this tent and the dust and the grass that was sitting on the floor of this tent.

And when God began to break through, my brother and my sister, one after the other, they began to bend in the dust before God. And I was standing at the door of the tent and was amazed by this wave of conviction, of sin, the revelation of coming short to the glory of God.

And I stood there at the tent and there was an old man in his seventies standing at the tent who knew these things. And he stood there and I stood there just weeping. And I would never forget this. He just looked at me and he put his hand on my shoulder and he shook me like this.

And I looked at him and he just said to me, young man, this is what happens when God comes. I want to say to you this morning, the day when we lose this thing, we are in trouble. Can I ask you as a father this Sunday morning, my brother, is God breaking into your life?

Can I share something today? The greatest fear in my inadequate Christian life is that there will come a time in my times of waiting in the presence of God, morning after morning, that there will come a day or there will come days in the inadequacy of my walk with God that the Spirit of God will not break into my life.

You sit here as a father. Is God breaking into your life? You say, brother Gerard, what do you mean by breaking in? You know how He's breaking into your life? He's breaking into your life through His Word.

You can't go from experience to truth. The dealings of God flows out of the speaking voice of God to your life. And so what happens? He wants to break in. And my brother and I said, can I say this to you this morning?

God breaks in in different ways. You and I said this morning, I think of these beautiful, precious young people. My young friends, can I say to you this morning, listen, it's going to cost you more to miss the Word of God than it's going to cost you to find it.

And there is this yearning. I mean, I'm staying with brother Denny and his family, and the day before yesterday, we had to drive here to the church, and I wasn't sure of directions. And there were two of the young ladies there, and they were coming to the service.