Urgent call to unite in one place, at one time

Pressing need for repentance

[notice]In the last of a series of articles paving the way to the Sacred Assembly at the FNB Stadium, Soweto on November 19, Alf James speaks to farmer-evangelist Angus Buchan who initiated the event in response to a calling from God. He also explores the central theme of the Sacred Assembly — a call to repentance to usher in healing and revival in our land.[/notice]

An indication of the importance of repentance in our relationship with the Lord is that our Saviour, Jesus Christ, began His ministry with a call to repent Matthew 4:17 and in the last book of the bible, Revelation, His message to the seven churches was, yet again, repent!

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Another measure of the significance of Jesus’ insistent message of repentance is that when He made the call in Revelation, He had already washed us from our sins in His own blood, made us kings and priests to His God and Father — Rev 1.

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He had acknowledged that we cannot bear those who are evil and have persevered and have patience, and have laboured for My name’s sake and have not become weary — Rev 2.

Nonetheless, Jesus urgently called on us to repent!

He repeated this again and again in Revelation, despite His appreciation of our works, faith and tribulations.

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Jesus’s call to repent is a summons to press on, that we may lay hold of that for which Chris Jesus has also laid hold of us, to press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus — Philippians 3:12-14; to consecrate ourselves into a more-perfect relationship with the Lord; to be holy to our Lord, for He is holy.

He promises that he who overcomes will be rewarded – I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God — Rev 2:7.

So let us not take Angus Buchan’s call to the Sacred Assembly, for the purpose of repenting on behalf of our nation lightly, or merely as a call to yet another Christian gathering!

A mandate to meet together at one time
Uncle Angus says God has given believers in South Africa “a commandment, a mandate, to gather together in one place, at one time” – not to have separate meetings, but to separate ourselves as a Sacred Assembly — as children of God from disparate church congregations in towns and cities all over South Africa uniting as members of the body of Christ humbly before the Lord “to repent, so that Jesus can heal South Africa”.

“God told me clearly through His Word in Joel 2:15-16, Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and the nursing babes which clearly tells me His people should gather in one place, says the man of God with faith like potatoes.

“It is all very well people saying: ‘I don’t have to go to Soweto, I can meet in my local church on Sunday morning the 20th’, but that is not what God said. He wants us to come together as His people — black, white, coloured and Indian in one place at one time on the 19th November at FNB Stadium.

“We have to obey God, by assembling as one body and humbling ourselves before the Lord. He is talking specifically to Christians. This is not a normal evangelistic outreach meeting, but a special Christian mandate and we need to be there.

“We are called by the Lord to a Sacred Assembly where He is going to meet us as we humble ourselves before Him and repent. He will forgive us, because He is good and merciful; and then the Lord will be zealous for His land (South Africa), He will pity His people and the Lord will answer and say to His people, Behold, I will send you grain, new wine and oil and you will be satisfied with them, and I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations — Joel 2:18.

“We need to make a stand, to draw a line in the sand and say to the devil, ‘this far and no further’; and we need to do this together that is why it is called a Sacred Assembly,” urges Uncle Angus.

“People are coming from the US, UK, Northern Ireland . . . they are coming for one day, they are coming to see what God is going to do,” he adds.

Time to search our hearts
This is an urgent call from the heart of our Holy Father to His children in our nation to repentance. We are called to search our hearts for anything that resembles self-reliance instead of reliance on the Lord God Almighty. We are urged to change our minds from being self-determined to Christ-determined, from being independent to wholly dependent on God, being totally submitted and surrendered to Him.

We are called to turn back from our own ways to God’s ways, from worldliness to holiness . . . now is the time for the body of Christ in South Africa to repent on behalf of the nation! “We have to repent if we expect to move forward in our relationship with God. We must repent, because He is holy and He cannot look upon sin,” advises the farmer-evangelist.

“Our repentance becomes a lifestyle of holiness that is the end product of obedience. When we are an obedient people we become a holy people and when we are a holy people then we will have fellowship with God.
“Remember, Jesus said you cannot have two masters, he who is not with Me is against Me, he who does not gather with me scatters abroad — Matt 12:30.

“God is looking for holy men and women in these last days when it looks like the world is going mad. We have to step aside and be separate from the world.

We have to be different
“The thing that concerns me, today, is how close the Church is trying to live to the world in terms of dress codes, lifestyle, and making compromises, which we cannot do – we have to be different, we have to live up to God’s holy, divine standard and not down to the world’s compromised values.

“Immorality in our nation has hit an all-time high — there is no respect for human life, there is no respect for a lifestyle that is true to God’s commandments, there is no respect for old people, divorce has become commonplace and appropriate behaviour, young people do not respect the fact that they should remain virgins before marriage, so we need to turn aside from the world’s ways and be different.

“We have to maintain our saltiness to make an impact on this dying world. If we lose our savour we are no good, but to be thrown in the street and trampled on.”

Uncle Angus emphasises that the people responsible for the state of morality in our country are Christians, because we should set the bar for the world to follow. “We cannot blame the world for the state of immorality in our country, because they have nothing to look to — we, as believers, should be different; we should set the standard.

“The people in the world should know how God wants His people to live by what they observe in us in terms of forgiveness, love, and overcoming racism, hatred, divorce, fornication, corruption, and stealing, which are all prevalent in our country today, because Christians are not standing-up and being counted,” urges the spiritual father figure of hundreds of thousands South Africans. He says believers that attend the Sacred Assembly are going to strike a match that will start a forest fire of revival in South Africa.

“We want the government and everybody to know that believers in Christ have had enough; we are gathering together on behalf of the nation before God to repent and intercede. “When we return from the Sacred Assembly to our families, farms, businesses, schools, universities and communities, we will have pure hearts, because we will have confessed our sins (1John 1:9). Then, we will be in a position, like Moses was when God relented after being angry with the rebellious children of Israel, because Moses was in right standing with God and was able to persuade Him to change His mind.

Right standing with God
“Likewise, after the Sacred Assembly every one of us that leaves the meeting will be in right standing with God, therefore, we will be able to return to our homes and cry out to God to change South Africa. “Because of our right standing with God, He will work through us to change the nation, so the responsibility is with each Christian.

I am firmly believing that ‘God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? — Numbers 23:19.

“God will undertake on behalf of those of us who have repented, that is the bottom line,” says Uncle Angus.

His call to repentance is emphasised by Pastor Francis Frangipane in his book, When the Many Are One. “I know we picture Christ in His gentleness and compassion, and so we should. However, Jesus strongly rebuked the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum (vv. 21, 23).

And we shouldn’t stop there, for with tears in His eyes, He wept and cried out to Jerusalem — Luke 13:34. If the Lord expected cities to repent in the first century, He expects cities can come to repentance again today, even as the men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah,” says Frangipane.

“It was in this very context of reproving cities, however, that Jesus made a statement that unveiled the scope of God’s redemptive power. He said, For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes — Matt. 11:21.

“Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities known for their debauchery and sin. Yet Jesus said that His life, revealed in power, can bring even the vilest of cities to ‘sackcloth and ashes’.” Frangipane emphasises that Jesus says even the worst cities can repent and find God!

Revealing Christ’s life in power
His strategy to win our cities and nation is for the church to reveal Christ’s life in power. The revelation of Christ in us starts for us as individuals, but it multiplies when His life is revealed corporately in His body. Pastor Frangipane says despite our cities (and country) having embraced darkness, he believes all we need is a genuine move of God — real miracles and actual transformed lives — and multitudes in darkness will come to the light.

“The promise of Christ is that even Sodom could repent in the atmosphere and revelation of Christ’s love and power,” says Frangipane. The promise of Christ also applies to South Africa. Our nation can repent of darkness and come into the restorative light of His love and power, but it is up to us to have a determined desire to change our minds from our way to Jesus’ way, to repent, to yearn for the revival of our first love for the Lord, to overcome self and surrender to our Holy Father in complete submission.

Then the light of God will rise in us and shine through us who keep His commandments and the faith of Jesus . . . then the Holy Spirit will use us as instruments and channels of God’s Will being done in South Africa as it is in heaven . . . then His living waters of revival will flow through our thirsting land.

• The event is free, but tickets are available from Computicket on a first come first serve basis.Watch the promotional video below: