Patty and I had just crawled into bed on stormy cold South Africa night and there was a knock on our door-usually not a good sign. Thobeka, one of our team workers at the Retreat Center, frantically said you need to call the municipality, the sewer is backing up and back of the retreat center is flooding.

After a useless plea for help on the phone we made it down to asses the matter-which was worse than I thought-as the rain continued to pound and water from the gutter was backing up.  A knee deep lake had already formed and water was pouring into one of the buildings.  As the rains and winds continued, it felt like we were trying to put our fingers in a dyke that was ready to collapse.

Deep into the night 10 of us on campus kept trying to overcome the flood with our buckets,  a shop vac, and whatever else we could think of to resist the surging water.  We all were looking up to the heavens praying that the rain would stop so we could make some head way. All of us were wet, shivering, and feeling defeated by the elements, when Thobeka, our on campus  engineer, handed us each a broom and told us to start to push the water.  With buckets and brooms we started to create a river from the low spot into a drainage area.  As we worked in unison we redirected the water and the water level began to drop lower than the building.  By 1:30 AM the rain had ceased and flooding had stopped.

As we feverishly worked together I recalled aa Bible verse I learned as a boy from Isaiah 59:19:

“When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.”

I thought about how hopeless it all seemed until we worked as a team pushing the water to  create a river and divert it towards the parking lot. The flood was a great “team building exercise” for all of us on campus.  No one person on their own could have fought off the flood, however together in a united rhythm we made a plan.

Spiritually  that is how we fight off the enemy of our souls, the one who seeks to swallow up God’s children into his demonic flood (see Rev. 12:15ff.).  Our “standard” is Jesus Christ who by His blood brought us into the Father’s family and united us together by His Holy Spirit so that in Christ we can overcome the enemy.

Lately, here in South Africa, and all over the world it seems like the enemy has opened up the flood gates and is unleashing spiritual destruction.  But as I was reminded the other night knee deep in diluted sewage, there is  power in unity.  Think for a moment if the church that Jesus built through His blood and by His Holy Spirit would work together as one to fight the flood. What if we stopped fighting each other and started focusing on the face of Jesus and shining forth His image as one to a lost and dying world?

Wonder if we stopped building our kingdoms and worked together to build His Kingdom bearing fruit from the vine of Christ’s “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,” (Gal. 5:22)? Wonder if His children would jump in the sewage of a sinful falling world and work as one to live into the grace of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ?

What an hour for God’s church to come alive and live as an untied family to overcome the spiritual flood seeking to consume us. We have a Mighty Standard, Jesus, to rally around who claims, “nothing is impossible for those who believe!”

 

 

By way of a miracle Patty and I were able to get back to the US for a few weeks. It has been a whirlwind of a time trying to pack in a wedding, family visits, some ministry appointments and a little biking.

One of the gifts was to spend time with our fathers.  As we repack our suitcases to head back to Africa I reflected on the importance of father’s in our lives. We go back to a South Africa where roughly 15 % of all children are orphans and 62% of children under 18 live without their father. The effects of fatherlessness has been devastating on every aspect of the society.

On Father’s Day I spent some time thanking and praising God for my grandfathers, fathers, and spiritual fathers who have deeply influenced my life.  Without the presence of fathers and spiritual fathers in our lives we are rudderless ships tossed every which way by life’s storms.

Ever since the beginning of creation there has been an all out assault against the Father child relationship. Adam and Eve’s Father was God. Daily they communed with Him walking in His pure love and security. But as we recall they chose to listen to the father of lies, Satan, who deceived them into believing they did not need God as a Father  and that they could manage just fine on their own. Look at the devastating results of trying to live with out The Father.

The Father overcame the fall and its damning effects by giving us His only Son to restore us back to the Father child relationship. He has also filled His followers with the Holy Spirit so that we rest in the great assurance that we have been adopted back into His family and can know our Father intimately (Romans 8:14-15).

Certainly our world is in desperate need for men who are filled with the Spirit of the Father to be spiritual fathers to orphan sons and daughters. That orphan spirit that started at the fall in the garden with our first parents has crushed countless souls with the spirit of abandonment and rejection. Just visit a prison, a gang infested city, a drug rehab center and listen to the stories.

I praise God for grandfathers, my dads, coaches, teachers, and pastors who were agents of the Heavenly Father speaking truth into my soul that shouted louder than the lies of the enemy. I wonder if the majority of the chaos our world is experiencing is due to the absence of spiritual fathers who can point us to Jesus the very image of God the Father (Hebrews 1:3).

7 years ago on a Father’s Day in Lesotho Africa as Oceans Ministries was just starting I was asked to preach in a local church. I shared with them the vision of Oceans: to make the love of the Father known to spiritual and physical orphans around the world. After living the past year in Africa, as well as seeing how Covid exposed deeper heart issues all over our world, I’m even more convinced of the vision.

Our world needs the Father and our world needs fathers and spiritual fathers who will reflect His love to lonely and abandoned children, teens and adults. Each of us needs that voice in our life. If you don’t have one ask God to bring you into relationship with someone who can be the Father’s love and voice to you.  Or maybe He is calling you to be a spiritual father to a son or daughter He is bringing to you. Join us as we pray into the prophecy of Malachi 4:5:

“Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the LORD arrives. His preaching will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.  Otherwise I will come and strike the land with a curse.”