Julita Lambrechts who inspired Gateway News readers earlier this year with her ‘Jesus Take the Wheel’ series of articles on her God adventures in SA and Namibia, has just completed an autobiography on the long and eventful road she has travelled with the Lord. The book’s foreward, penned by Louis Brittz, sets the scene eloquently
“You know you are crazy, right?”
I don’t mince words, and this is what I said to Julita at our first encounter. She had flown to Pretoria with her team to try and convince me to become part of an audacious venture. She had – in faith – booked a five-star convention centre, a philharmonic orchestra, a massive tech and camera crew and a bunch of major label artists and musicians. She had the vision to present a very classy Christmas worship event which would be broadcast around the world to proclaim the glory of God. We would even wear those weird suits with the tails in the back! It would cost a truck load of money, and whether anybody attended it or not, she would go ahead, because she believed God had commissioned her to do it. As she sold me this story, she was playing with her wild blonde curls all the time and giggling.
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Giggling.
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So yeah, I reckoned she was a little nuts. As artist, producer, director and label guy I’d met many people before with big “God-given” dreams, and seen how their delusions of grandeur bankrupted them, cost them their reputations and sometimes their faith in God. I’d walked that road myself a little. As Julita talked, I realised she couldn’t care less about being bankrupt or losing her reputation, and her faith in God was unshakeable. I signed up for the crazy ride, swapped my jeans for a tailcoat, got my “hair done” for the first time in… ever, and performed with a philharmonic orchestra for the first time in my life. The event was attended by more than 5 000 people, Julita’s company, NueLight, made budget, and it was broadcast in more than 200 countries. I learned that Julita Lambrechts wasn’t one of the crackpots.
She was the real deal.
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Over the ensuing years we worked together on many events and ministry projects and my respect for this godly woman kept growing. I’d never met anyone who was more passionate about Christian artists, worship and the glory of God. She wasn’t in it for the money or the fame, and she would do anything that the Lord told her to do. I saw her elevate hundreds of artists and musicians into the profile God had for them, at great personal cost. She is a servant-leader: She never desired to be on stage – she wanted to be a stage that others could walk on. I was one of them. I loved working with her for her boundless energy, vision and reckless faith. To shake up the spiritual landscape in South Africa, people with a crazy faith in the God of miracles were sorely needed. Julita fitted that bill perfectly. I heard her giggle a lot thought the years as she laid out what the Lord had given her to do. I was with her in many meetings where, as a team, we realised that God wanted us to do something massive and expensive (millions!) and we had nothing, and Julita would just giggle and say, “You guys don’t understand – God can do anything!” I often wondered where her unshakeable faith in God came from. Did she just receive it as a gift? Was she born that way?
Now I know.
In this book, Julita journals through every season of her life where God taught her His character. Her faith didn’t fall from a tree. God birthed it in her and grew it slowly over time. It is fascinating to read how He taught her lesson after lesson, preparing her for a deeper relationship with Him, greater significance and a bountiful harvest. The Lord had His hand on Julita and asked difficult things from her. This book shows us what happens when an ordinary person says a radical “yes” to God when He asks for everything. It reads like stories in the Old Testament and sometimes you will think, Surely God doesn’t speak like that anymore. Surely, He doesn’t do those things anymore. Then remember that at the end of those stories, Julita writes that God did many more things, but if she told us, we wouldn’t believe it. I can hear her giggling as she realised that she had better not write the really crazy things God did on her adventures, as her readers couldn’t handle it. Whatever you find unbelievable, trust me, the whole truth is even more bizarre!
If you need your faith stretched or even rekindled, read this book. If you find it hard to believe that God could love you or use you, read it. It isn’t as much Julita’s autobiography as it is a biography of the burning love of God for people whom no one else would notice, proven over and over in incredible ways – in this day and age! Even more shocking than her amazing encounters with God is that very few people know and experience Him in this way. Julita’s My Life Song is an invitation for you to say “yes” to this life. Everyone would want this life, but reading this book will show you that it takes saying “yes” to God even when He calls you to the rough road. To acknowledge that hard things can be right and easy things can be wrong. That God uses the bad times as much as the good times and can make evil work for our good. That embarrassment and failure in the eyes of the world can be a big part of it. That immediate and total obedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit is difficult, but an absolute prerequisite. If you join Julita on this road, you will proclaim with her:
If you can understand that anything is possible with God, you will become very bold in Him. The thing that I did right in my life is adhering to the Scripture that says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” I did this and am still doing this. There is nothing more than this. Relationship, intimacy, getting to know Him more and more… and then the things of this world just become less important, but yet, it seems the less you care about the things of this world, the more it falls into place. He is the answer. He is our inheritance. In Him is everything! (My Life Song, Page 143)
I loved reading this book. My faith was strengthened for sure. It made me want to know God way better than I do. I learnt about being a faith walker and a coddiwompler, and that life with God can be an incredible adventure that we can all say “yes!” to. I love Julita’s English. It’s her third language (as an Afrikaner her second language is rugby, meat and wine, ha-ha). She wrote straight from the heart as if she was just visiting with us. If you get toward the end of the book, you will understand why it was a significant and anointed action for her. So, pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup and dig into Julita’s life song. You won’t be sorry.
Yes, I think I am addicted. I love my adventures with God. They are always challenging and take a lot of courage. I also always say that there is no courage without fear. I am always a little afraid of what lies ahead, but then I take courage, for I know the Lion of Judah is at my side and whom shall I fear then?
All you need to do when God sends you, is say yes and take that first step. (My Life Song, Page 152)
Louis Brittz, Artist, Songwriter, Producer, Creative Director, Worship Pastor
My Life Song will be available from November 12 and can be ordered online from Audience Of One Media
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