2015 is shaping up to be an interesting year. I have consulted with various Christian leaders in South Africa recently and there appears to be consensus that God will be shaking things up this year.
There is a growing despondency with the direction the nation has taken. Most people I speak to agree that South Africa is stagnating because of a lack of visionary leadership in many areas of society.
- Advertisement -
The Christian Church appears to be overly pre-occupied with the business of church, and as a result, is neglecting its prophetic mandate to proclaim God’s Word in the life of the nation.
Even the secular media have recognised the warnings. Reports about the deterioration in race relations abound in the media as opportunistic politicians use issues of race for political expediency.
Widespread corruption threatens to derail the gains made over the past two decades. Parastatals like Eskom, SAA, SABC and others are all suffering serious financial and operational dysfunctions.
- Advertisement -
The economy appears fragile while critical sectors like education and health are on life support.
Vital social institutions like marriage and the family are disintegrating at a disturbing rate with devastating consequences for children. Fatherlessness has become a national catastrophe in SA.
A special plan
Yet, amid all these negative reports, many Christians believe that God still has a special plan and destiny for South Africa and that the anticipated shaking will uncover His plan for this great nation.
The Christian Church is central to God’s plan for South Africa and I believe that’s where the shaking will start. If God is going to transform this nation for His glory, He is going to do it through His Church.
Many believers are praying that God will shake the political sphere of this nation. But an honest evaluation reveals the moral state of our nation is a reflection of the spiritual state of the Church.
1 Peter 4:17 says, “For it is time for judgement to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the Gospel of God…” South Africa will only experience revival as a result of the outworking of revival in the Body of Christ.
The time has come for serious and honest introspection in the Church of Jesus Christ. The question we must answer is this, “is God’s mandate for South Africa still our mandate?” Or have we lost our way?
God has a great destiny for South Africa! But before that destiny can become a reality, the Church must first believe it, visualise it, and commit all its time and resources to bringing it to pass.
Standing
Errol Naidoo
The comment I made in my church last week at the end of a week of prayer and fasting is that people need to prepare themselves as God was going to seriously challenge their spiritual ‘comfort zone’ and would be asking of them that which they would never have anticipated. I am not South African but God specifically showed me that I was to return to live here in 2002 after 6 months working in Pollsmoor prison. I too am very aware through a variety of God incidences that something is going to start to change this year and the church will be at the root of it. One of the challenges is that the churches need to understand their need to work together for God’s purposes in the community and put aside their functioning as mini-empires (to use a phrase) on their own. They need to come to a real understanding of what it means in reality and action ‘We are all one in Christ’.