Bertram Friend’s Testimony of Overcoming Negativity We'd take the hook off the door and come in, Mr Friend, he loved to come and have tea with Jenny, anyway, one day he comes in, Jenny, Jenny's making the tea, and he sat there in the lounge, and there I was sitting, and he looked at me, and I saw his eyes filled with tears, so I stopped speaking, and he stood up, so I stood up, and he walked close to me, listen carefully, my boy, to what I'm going to tell you now, all my life I have been mocked, laughed at, ostracised, picked on, in schooling, I got so self -abhorrent, so self -destructive, I was scared to get out of bed in the mornings, I hated life, from a boy, look at me, people laugh at me, can't change me, and then God saved me, wonderfully, changed a lot in my heart, and then he led me to be a missionary, in our mission, as a young person, it was a great privilege, and I loved to preach, but on the other hand, I was scared, because as I preached, people sat there just laughing, and I soon got scared to stand in a pulpit, knowing as I looked up, they're going to start laughing, I began to get so angry, so disillusioned, so self -abhorrent, as a young preacher, and one night God spoke to me, my boy, you might not believe this, because I know that people who go mental talk about hearing voices, but God spoke to me, Keith, in a staggering and unusual way, that shook me, I lay in my bed, I shook me, that I stood trembling, and the Lord said to me, Bertram, the devil is going to destroy you totally, and your ministry, unless you discipline yourself, as the greatest discipline of your life, from this day onward, to reject negativeness, negative words, negative thoughts, and to offer the sacrifice of praise, no matter what comes from you, to praise, in spite of those things, unless you do that, I was so staggered, at the vividness of what was happening to me, that I just fell on my knees, and in obedience, and fear to be obedient, I began to praise, praise, give thanks, so I thought, what can I thank God for, so I started racking my brain, thank you Lord, that I'm saved, somehow of the billions, who are not saved, who are going to be in hell for eternity, I have been saved, that I'm not going to hell, I've been saved from hell and judgment, for eternity, through Jesus, you reached me, thank you Lord, thank you for health, where millions, millions are suffering right now, across the world, in hospitals, multitudes, screaming in agony, across Africa, without any medication, in the clinics, that aren't even given medications, thank you, I'm not suffering, thank you, I can see, where millions cannot, across the world, born blind, they've never ever seen the face of their mother, they've never seen the beauty of a tree, of the sky, I can see, I'm not blind, thank you, I can hear, where millions have never ever heard a bird, they've never heard a singing, they've never heard a voice, just dead silence, from birth to death, there's lip reading, they don't even know their own voice, dead, thank you, I can hear, I'm not born deaf, and millions are, thank you, I'm not starving, where millions are, and across Africa, their little babies are blown up, not through too much food, but because they have no food, their little skeleton bodies, but when they start blowing up, that means they're going to die, there's no food, their mothers and fathers look at them, in the drought, and the terrible places that there are across the world, Rwanda, all these places where they starve, their children starve, to death, and help from outside goes to the corrupt, not to help the people it was meant for, thank you, I have food, thank you, I have a roof over my head, where millions don't, Calcutta alone, one square over a million people, they've never ever slept under a roof in their life, there they sit with these little cardboard plastic things, from birth until death, that's all they had to cover them, and their millions in one square, in the rain, in the heat, thank you, I have a roof over my head, where millions don't, thank you God, I have a vehicle, where millions have never ever in their life sat in the vehicle, across Africa, they walk from childhood to school miles, to work miles, old men walking miles and miles home, they've never ever had a vehicle, thank you, I have a vehicle, thank you Lord, he says brother, after about 10 minutes something happened that shook me, my heart flooded with joy and peace, that I'd never known, even though I saved, a peace that passes all understanding flooded me as I gave thanks, the offer, the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, it so shook me, it so affected me, this discipline, that from that day I didn't get out of bed, Keith, because I used to get out of bed in reverse gear, when I should have gotten to first gear, I was in reverse, mentally, before I get out of bed, Keith, to this day, I don't dare, because of me, I don't even dare put my leg out of the bed, Keith, in the morning, until I've spent at least 10 minutes saying thank you, thank you, then I dare to get up, because then I'm ready and filled with peace and joy, and then he said these words to me, now Keith, my boy, this morning in a very unusual and uncanny way, that you will not be able to comprehend, the Lord spoke to me, Keith, about you, that I was to come here, and to tell you these words, that God told me, the devil's going to destroy you, Keith Daniel, and your ministry, unless the greatest discipline of your life, my boy, from this day till the day you die, to offer the sacrifice of praise, Jenny, Uncle Bertram's not waiting for tea, I have to go now, sorry, I will come again tomorrow, God willing, I stood there trembling, but that day I started, I needed to, I found a staggering thing, in closing, I was asked to go to a very exclusive mall, we have some of the most beautiful malls in the entire world in South Africa, we are not third world, trust me, there's some of the wealthiest properties in our entire world, in my country, oh, it's a strange country, you go a few miles from the most incredible wealth, they say 20 of the most wealthy homes on earth are in Cape Town alone, you cannot believe the palaces men can build in our country, you'll drive a few miles, thousands of shacks and poverty, our country is so, the class differences, in this Brooklyn mall, in the capital of our country, very wealthy area, affluent, I would meet with many preachers, Christians over the years in this restaurant, they had a grand piano, you know, and they used to play hymns, sometimes classical music, second rate to hymns, by the way, although they're beautiful, but it wasn't rock and roll, oh, when you go to a restaurant, you don't look at the menu, you say, wait, let me just listen to the music to see if I'll survive, and if it's decent, you can go, and otherwise, you can't even swallow your food, the music's so devilish today, they seem to think it has to be loud, so that no decent human being in their right mind could survive, they only want riffraff there, it seems, oh, nonetheless, this place has this beautiful piano, and I so enjoyed it, over the years, meeting up with all these godly in this lovely atmosphere, in this magnificent mall in Brooklyn, in Pretoria, but I made a mistake, you see, the first time I was taken there, they showed me how to get around this way, and that way, and this way, and that way, and I have a mind that somehow remembers, you know, I can even think back to when I was a little boy and go through a situation, I can even remember the room, I remember exactly what's in it, so I try and push that out of my mind, but see, I remember, I remember how they took me to this place, before they find parking, which has all these parking blocks, areas, and to get into the mall, which is in the center, and I would go down this road, down this road, down this road, down this road, into the mall, parking, one of the, and then I would walk right through the whole mall, right up and down to the next section of the mall, until I came to this restaurant, there I met all the people, it was quite a procedure, years went by of doing this, when one day, some incredible mistake, I thought, well, let me walk in this old entrance, right here at the beginning, when I walked from the old house, the sunny side, and I walked, and walked up and down, and I, let me go in this entrance, boom, there was a restaurant, I thought, all these years, I've gone there, and there, and there, and there, and there, and up, and down, and through, I could have walked through this door, right into the restaurant, oh, I was a bit undone, I really took a while to recover, I said, goodness me, we make mistakes, but you know, there's a staggering verse in the Bible, you all know it, in Psalm 95, verse 2, let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful, you see, you enter into, with thanksgiving in your heart, how does that verse go, you enter into his courts with praise, you come right into the presence of God, instead of going on, and on, and on, in your quiet time daily, you want to go straight to God, to the consciousness that you're in the holiest of holies, within seconds, within minutes, you just come with praise, you enter right into the presence of God, you don't need an hour of reading, daily readings, you know, before you begin to consciously feel you're close to God, you're right there in the holiest of holies, commuting with him, you just come with praise, you enter right into the presence of God, some of us take years to find out, years before we do that discipline, someone once said something to me that's remarkable, if you don't do what God tells you to do, immediately, if you don't start immediately, you know what that means, Keith?