Jesus take the wheel: week 4 — Julita Kok

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Episode 4 in a weekly series in which music industry personality and Worship South Africa exco member Julita Kok reports back on a recent SA road trip in which she handed the steering wheel over to Jesus

Week 4

While traveling through South Africa, I once again realised that we serve a sovereign God. He is a holy God and absolutely the Creator of this earth and as such, He rules. I saw how, if He decided, He shuts the heavens to the rain and when He decides, He opens it up.  He moves as He pleases and He does what He knows is good.  I saw that He is a God that does not measure, but weighs.  The scale is always about good and bad.  Never about right and wrong.  Good can sometimes be wrong, and bad can sometimes be good.  He does not think like a man and does not make decisions as we do.  You can never outthink God.  He is simply an absolute amazing, sovereign, holy and righteous God. And thus we as humans find it difficult to understand His ways.

I was invited for lunch over one of my traveling weekends and I have not seen the lady who invited me, in many years.  So we were a little bit  like strangers. When I got to the house, it was her husband and  their teenagers, her mother in law, her mother and father and her sister and a cousin who were all there. A whole big family.  

Somewhere during the conversation, God tells me: “Tell them about the old man you ministered to in Namibia”.  Eish.  I have not thought about that incident in years and yet, here God reminded me of it.  And, of course it had nothing to do with the current conversation.  But I know when God speaks to me, so I start telling the story.

Probably 7 years ago I was on an outreach in a  little town in Namibia.  At the end, as good Christians do, an altar call was given and I ended up in front of an old man — probably late eighties.  Came forward for prayer for his diabetes. So when I ask if I can pray for him, he answers me that it would probably not help as this is his punishment for the things he has done. 

 Of course, my spiritual senses kick in and I ask him why he says that. And then his tragic story unfolds. In short, when he was 19 years old (remember now at the time of him telling me this, he was in his late 80s) he made a girl pregnant. It was a huge disgrace to his and her family and they were immediately separated and never saw each other again.  

The baby was given up for adoption and he never saw the baby or heard anything about the child ever again.Never saw the mother again either, and no one in his family ever spoke of the matter again. It was their secret.  

A few years later he meets a girl and asks her to marry him. They then go ask her father for permission to get married and on their way back from their visit, they have a car accident and the girl is killed. He survives only to believe God is punishing him for what he did to the young girl at 19.

 A Few years on again he meets a lady, marries her, has 3 little girls with her and before the eldest is five, the mother dies and he is left alone with the 3 little girls. Many accounts of illnesses and so-on follow and to him, they are all punishment for what he did in his youth.  

It simply broke my heart to think that a man goes through all of his life under that condemnation, thinking that God is punishing him and not understanding what Jesus did on the cross.  

It was one of the most beautiful moments in my life when I could sit down with him and explain why Jesus died and that it was for him to0.  All he needed to do was receive it. I could see understanding drop in his spirit and his eyes lit up with pure joy as he realises ……HE WAS FREE!!!! He was forgiven!! Jesus paid it all.  

It was a beautiful God moment. I never saw him again, but I will meet him again in times to come.

So, on this morning of my visit to my friend and her family, I tell this story which the Holy Spirit reminded me of and she looks at me and asks…..”Are you preaching to us now?” 

 “I do not know”, I saY.  “Am I?” And right there and then the Holy Spirit just blows me away again.  

If ever you are at a place of thinking that He does not know about you, immediately tell the devil “:Get behind me Satan!!!” for let me tell you…God knows your everything.  He cares.  He understands and he wants to connect with you and if He has to send someone to tell you a story from their experience, he will do exactly that.

So my friend looks at her husband and says: “tell her”!

First thing he says is: “I am so happy to finally be sharing this. I feel so free. Thank you Julita.”

  And then he tells his own story:  32 years ago, at the age of 19, he made a young girl pregnant.  It was an absolute disgrace to his mother and she forbade him from ever seeing the girl again and from ever speak of the “discgrace” again. 

So for 32 years nobody spoke of it. He never saw the girl again, knew the baby was given up for adoption, but did not even know if it was a boy or a girl. He and his mother never spoke of it. It was a secret to everybody.  

When he married his wife (my friend), he never told her as eitherl. Nobody knew except his mother (who was sitting in a chair opposite me).

He continues to tell me that on the day before (I was there on the Saturday, so on the Friday), he received a call from a lady claiming to be his daughter who said she wanted to meet him.  

He was blown away. She was 31 years old, stayed in the neighbouring town from them, had a little girl and would love to meet him.  

He immediately told his wife and their three teenage children and here they are, next day, sitting with me. And I tell them my story of the Namibian encounter.

So of course, I know God to be a God Who restores. I am so excited for this opportunity and I tell my friend….”How awesome that God has chosen you for a moment such as this. It is in your hands as the wife and mother of your family, to say yes or no.  

“But God has chosen you to bring reconciliation and love to everyone involved”.  

And the husband starts crying, the mother in law runs to the toilet with her eyes wet all over.  And she says: “I never thought of it like that. Oh my word!!! I am a grandmother!!” And just like that hearts get healed instantly.

The husband just cries and cries and says how good it feels to not have to carry the secret anymore and be able to share with his family. Can you imagine that burden? Aaah parents, I hope you hear with your spiritual ears. The mother in law (who gave the command to keep quiet) comes back from the toilet and just sits quietly, listening.

Long story short…..they arranged to see the daughter and her daughter the next day and on the Monday, I received a message and a picture. Heheheheheh, the three teenagers and the 31-year-old all look the same.  

And the little one. They were all so taken up with the fact that they are now uncles and aunts and instant grandmother and father. My friend also told me that her mother in law told all her friends that she is a great grandmother.  

“Oh God, how I love you!! How I just love You for loving people like this”.

I continued my journey from there, knowing that God restored so many people in one moment and I so hoped that my Namibian old man was right there next to God when all of this happened, showing him that his life story was not in vain and that it set free a whole family.  

What a mighty God we serve!!! The road called ahead and I was singing in my car… “I am free, free, free!! Jesus set me free. Once I was blind, but now I can see.  I am free, free, free!!!”