The call from the Bloemfontein National Day of Repentance meeting, which about 1 500 people attended, was for the South African nation and the Body of Christ in the country to: come back to God’s ways in all our ways; overcome our differences; develop a unity of spirit; and encourage each other not to neglect the Holy Spirit in our daily walk.
“This event was not about declaring each one’s faults or mistakes from the past, but about acknowledging that we need God to heal our land,” says Pastor Elisee Yao, the chairman of the National Day of Repentance steering committee and the main speaker at the event.
People came from all around the country to attend the Bloemfontein meeting, which was held concurrently with meetings being staged in unity in Cape Town, Welkom, Johannesburg, Umtata, Riebeeckstad, Pretoria, and George.
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God’s agenda
All those at the meeting in Bloemfontein gathered as representatives of the nation to humble themselves before the Lord and intercede on behalf of South Africa to come in alignment with God’s agenda in a desire to bring the nation to healing, which can only happen after repenting.
Walking into the hall there was a palpable spirit of exhilaration and expectation as the National Day of Repentance gathering got under way with the blowing of shofars and waving of flags that mirrored sacred assemblies taking place all around the world on the same day, which were commemorating with trumpet blasts Rosh HaShanah (Head of the Year) when the Hebrew year of 5776 commenced and the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur began.
“I believe the meeting was just the beginning of what God wants to do in South Africa regarding repentance,” says Pastor Yao.
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Speaking during the meeting Pastor Yao said it was time for many church-going South Africans to step out of their religious ruts and to be guided by the Spirit of the Lord.
“Stop playing Church and come to the ways of the Lord, evil will only stop when the hearts of men are changed. South Africa, you need to turn to God. It is time for our redemption.
“May God bless South Africa,” declared Yao.
All over the hall people stood to their feet and clapped in agreement proclaiming Amen!
Similar sentiments were echoed by all speakers at the meeting – that the spirit of reconciliation and repentance would extend from Bloemfontein throughout South Africa as living waters through a parched land.
SA’s tribes represented
Everyone in the hall humbled themselves on their knees before the Lord in prayer, while on the stage people representing all the tribes of South Africa met as a prophetic act of repentance and humbling of the nation. Each representative prayed on behalf of the different peoples of the country for: repentance; reconciliation; unity; healing; restoration; love; mercy; forgiveness for our pride and arrogance; and understanding that all is about Jesus and delighting in Him.
Prayers were also offered for every sector of the country from government to education, business, families, health and medicine, the justice system, legislative system, the Church, and for revival.
The meeting ended with prayer for the people of South Africa to be receptive to receiving the Gospel, for the country to enter its prophetic destiny, and for the dedication of the nation to God.
Town to town
Pastor Yao says the next step is to take the movement for National Repentance from town to town and city to city of South Africa.
“We would like to start with one town and encourage the inhabitants and local government not to only repent, but to align themselves with a system of governance through Biblical ethics and values in order to dedicate the town back to God,” says Yao.
“We would like to mobilise the population to a change of minds and hearts, to live Godly lives, to stand against things like corruption and abortion, to turn away from our own ways and doings, and to choose to go back to the way that God requires us to be.
“To live in peace with one another, irrespective of colour, race, sex, nation or creed,” he adds.
Yao says national repentance starts with each individual South African having a change of mind and heart, and choosing to walk in God’s way instead of their own way.
Pastor Yao says the National Day of Repentance steering committee would be led by the Holy Spirit with regard to which town should be the start of the National Repentance process.
My heart sings with gladness because He is coming soon.
How can we blanket the country with this article – and the others from the other centres? We need to get these articles on to every computer in the country. It happens for the rubbish and filth out there, so why not for this. I’m going to talk to the journalist who wrote this. Gateway News reaches 25000 unique visitors every month – if every one of those visitors forwarded this article to every person in their address books, we’d achieve something amazing for the LORD. To GOD be the glory!
At last !!! May God hear our cries and forgive our transgressions and iniquities as a nation: once again w stand at crossroads
South Africa needs more of this united prayer and repentance, and Christians, who know God and His ways, have the key to turning the nation to flow in the divine Principles of Government as revealed in Jeremiah 9:23,24. God has delegated to each government at every level the responsibility to rule with Kindness, Justice and Righteousness in Humility. I have seen, and researched this, “KJR in H” model in non-Christian countries, and it works! Just as a heathen electrician can wire a house successfully because he knows God’s principles of electricity, so a heathen government can rule successfully when it governs in harmony with God’s KJR in H principles. This doesn’t mean they don’t need the Gospel, but it does mean that God’s Principles of Governance work in ANY context. Our repentance and prayers for the nation must align themselves with doing this – God’s will be done on earth as in heaven. While we work for good national governance, we must also evangelise so that people find Jesus Christ, the only way to eternal life with the Father. But don’t confuse these two spheres: Good Governance depends on God’s principles of good governance; good Christianity depends on God’s principles of salvation and holiness. So let’s mobilise repentance and prayer along the lines of God’s character, which manifests itself in KJR in H leadership, because “To Know God enables us to do His will on earth as it is in heaven”.
May all involved in this special Day and its follow-through be inspired accordingly!