Time to get serious about peace, business of Kingdom — Chief Justice

Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng says it’s time to stop playing Christianity and to get serious about Kingdom business in order to bring about peace and shared prosperity in South Africa.

In an interview after the launch of the Judiciary Annual Review on Friday, he called on South Africans to follow the lead of the late Nelson Mandela and champion the cause of bringing black and white people together irrespective of any challenges that confronted them.

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To whites he said: You are an integral part of South Africa. Come to terms with the reality that a lot of injustice was done against black people and it benefited our white compatriots.

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“See it as your responsibility to make whatever contribution seems necessary to foster, or to contribute towards, national unity and reconciliation. Whatever opportunity you see of bringing into the fold the previously excluded, seize it, use it so that we can together build a united, reconciled, peaceful nation that shares in the prosperity of the nation.”

He said black people needed to consider how tribalism could be hindering reconciliation.

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Speaking to everyone he said there was much that unites all South Africans and it was time to stop focusing on issues that divide people.

Don’t listen to divisive voices
“Don’t listen to divisive voices, the violent voices out there, whether they come from black people or white people.

“Decide for yourself to pursue the path of peace, unity, and reconciliation, because when we embrace that path, then we are sooner, rather than later, going to find ourselves realising that there is actually so much more available for all of us. We don’t have to hoard whatever is available to one racial group.”

Mogoeng, who at the 14th Albert Luthuli lecture the next day called on SA to address the land issue but without dividing the nation, said that the nation would be changed if believers began to pursue peace radically.

“Once a few of us begin to identify the need to pursue the path of peace, unity, and reconciliation, others within our spheres of influence will come to the party and before you know it there will be a critical mass of the people of South Africa wanting unity and reconciliation.”

Solutions for every problem
Turning the focus onto God, Mogoeng said we must stop seeking solutions from worldly consultants and get much closer to God who knows about everything that is taking place and is eager to release solutions that He has for every problem that we face.

He said he believed there are many “Joseph’s” in South Africa, Africa, and the world with “economic master plans or blueprints [from God] that have not yet been released to the Body of Christ and to the nations in which they function or operate”.

“I think we must pray hard with the Body of Christ for the Joesphs to be identified — and also for the Davids and the Esthers and Mordecais — so that instead of corruption, poor governance or maladministration, we can have a justice and righteousness and fairness and equity-driven government — and functionaries in our government system,” he said.

“This God — it took him only six days to create all creation, so turning the economy around is a small thing,” said Mogoeng.

Strengthen our faith
“We just have to strengthen our faith and believe in the God who can reverse the irreversible, a God who can cause a man who has been dead for four days and whose body is stinking, to come back alive as if he never died.

“The One who caused the dry bones to come together and manifest as a mighty army is still the same God that we are praying (to) and worshipping.

“So we need to be more serious about God. Let’s not play Christianity. Let us not be more accusing than intercessory. Let us talk less, but pray more.

“In that way the Kingdom of God that is on the verge of being ushered into this nation  — because it must first come here before the rest of Africa — will then be ushered in,” he said.

Prophetic words
He said we should “key into” prophetic words over the nation, such as those at and around the recent It’s Time day of prayer for the nation in Pretoria.

He recalled a prophetic word shared from It’s Time following a vision of evil rulers and principalities being evicted from the nation while a British trumpeter played Amazing Grace.

“Angels of God are waiting on the periphery of South Africa — waiting for us to usher in the government of God,” he said.

It would take earnest and intense prayer for God to unleash His government into the nation. He wants us to partner with Him in accomplishing what he has always purposed for SA and then Africa.

It is time for South African Christians to put the pursuit of the business of the Kingdom of God above chasing after their own materialistic agendas, he said.

Listen to interview audio of Chief Justice Mogoeng speaking on peace, unity and race relations