Nomvuyo Xabela looks to the Bible and history for light on a prophetic prayer event held on Bloubergstrand, Cape Town on the Day of Reconciliation (Sunday December 16 2018), 180 years after Voortrekkers made a covenant with God before the Battle of Blood River. (See also Day of Covenant to Day of Reconciliation — united in Christ )
Sunday’s Day of Reconciliation prayer gathering on Bloubergstrand marked the end of a cycle and season of desolation (and disobedience) and the start of a new cycle of the Kingdom of the Most High God — an era of restoration, revival, reconciliation, release and healing.
Why is reconciliation important to us as disciples of Jesus? We find the answers in the Bible.
‘‘But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself [received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself] and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation [that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him].
It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but cancelling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor).
So we are Christ’s ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us. We [as Christ’s personal representatives] beg you for His sake to lay hold of the divine favor [now offered you] and be reconciled to God’ 2 Corinthians 5:18-20.
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According to the above, part of our mandate as followers of Jesus is clear — to pursue and seek to be reconciled to Our Maker, Our King, Lord and Saviour Jesus and to one another.
What is important about the number 18(0)?
From a biblical perspective, the number 18 is a template and a number for deliverance and victory.
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And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity — Luke 13:10-12.
Moreover, in Hebrew the number 18 means life.
I will certainly return to you, according to the time of LIFE, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a Son. — Gen. 18:10.
Life in Hebrew is Chai, which means living. The Hebrew letters that spell Chai, add up to 18, i.e. Het (8) + Yud (10) = 18 (Chai).
In addition to that a prophetic word was given to Clementia Pae: “My people will transition from 2017 to 2018 in victory. Today, the 18th I am revealing to you what I am going to do in 2018. Isaac will, and must be born. I am bringing forth the fullness of Life to my people, true life, in abundance and eternal. Life through the blood of my Covenant with them.”
Choose death or life
Our beloved President Cyril Ramaphosa stated last Sunday that the Day of Reconciliation marks a victorious and joyous celebration for some but to others it’s a remembrance of a time of betrayal and resentment.
The truth is we need to come together. When Israel sinned God brought people into captivity as a form of judgment of their disobedience.
We sinned against God as the first people of the land and refused the Word of God and the Lord as in Deuteronomy 28:33-52, 64-68.
So the Lord the Lord Himself send a nation whom they have not known to eat the fruit of their land and the produce of their labor and be oppressed and crushed continually. — Deuteronomy 28:33
Joshua 9 speaks about the treaty with the Gibeonites who worked craftily and pretended to be ambassadors and asked Joshua to make a covenant with them ( Joshua 9:3-27). This shows the power of a covenant, as described in Galatians 3:15.
The result of broken covenants, such as in the case of Dingaan and Piet Retief in 1838, and Mokopane and Hermanus Potgieter in 1854, are found in 2 Samuel 21 when Saul broke the treaty made by the Gibeonites who deceived Joshua. There were consequences for the land of Israel as the land experienced famine (2 Samuel 21:1-14). The Lord restored the land after King David sought the Lord and atonement was made for the bloodthirsty house of Saul.
In Job 24:2 we learn that: Some removed landmarks, they seized flocks violently and feed on them. They drive the donkey of the fatherless, They take the widow ‘s ox as a pledge. They push the needy off the road, all the poor of the land are forced to hide.
It is recorded that You shall not remove your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess — Deuteronomy 19:14 (See also Proverbs 22:28).
Proverbs 23:10-11 reads: Do not remove the landmark nor enter the fields of the fatherless for their Redeemer is mighty, He will plead their case against you.
The Afrikaners need to repent, based on the word, and acknowledge that they have removed the ancient landmarks and invaded the land. The Ndebeles and Zulus are to repent for broken covenants or treaties. The Khoisan are to bring repentance on behalf of this nation as the first priests of the land and first nation, for disobeying the commandments of the Lord according to Exodus 20:3-5.
See video below of Ndebele queen Regina Kekana at Blouwbergstrand last Sunday, calling SA back to God and repenting on behalf of Zulu and Ndebele people for historic broken covenants that led to the shedding of blood.
As a result of idolatry upon the land a veil/dark covering was brought upon the land and as a result the Lord punished the land. It happened to Israel, in Genesis 15:13-16, that because of the iniquity of the Amorites, which was not complete, the descendants of Abraham were sent into captivity but in the fourth generation, the Lord said they would return.
2018 marks 366 years since April 6 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck arrived in the Cape which became the Cape Colony. But now it is the 4th generation and the iniquity is pardoned. (Isaiah 40:1-5)
The December 16 2018 gathering at Bloubergstrand took advantage of the Day of Reconciliation, as believers convened across denominations to repent, to acknowledge and identify with the sins of the past, in order to enter times of refreshing.
Only know, understand, and acknowledge your iniquity and guilt — that you have rebelled and transgressed against the Lord your God and have scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice, says the Lord. — Jeremiah 3:13
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord — Acts 3:19
As we recall the past, acknowledge the present and move forward in pursuit of peace, forgiveness and loving one another as Christ loved and forgave us, I believe the river of life (not Blood River) is now flowing and will continue to wash us, cleanse us and bring us together with authentic hearts from the Cape to Cairo to Jerusalem (and Middle East nations) and to the ends of the earth.
Yes, all that lives and weaves in them, when these rivers come, shall live; and it should have a lot of fish; and everything should be healthy and live where this stream comes from. — Ezekiel 47:9
Have a glorious 2019!
If my people who called by my name would humble themselves and pray seek my face and turn from their wicked ways ,God will hear from heaven.