A Most Needed Prayer for Today!

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“What will heaven be like the moment you arrive?” I asked that question this past Sunday at a church I was speaking at. Here are a few of the answers:

“Pure joy.” “I won’t want to go back.” “No home work.” “No demons.” “A big hug by Jesus that won’t let go.” “Joyful worship and celebration.” “ A radiant glowing city without sin.” “No more tears, no more sickness.” “Freedom.” “Pure light without any darkness.”

We summed it all up with one word, “LOVE!” Heaven is a world of pure love that goes beyond our wildest imagination.

I then asked them to describe hell. And most of their responses were the exact opposite of the list above. We summed it up in one word, “LOVELESS!” A world void of love which no one on earth has ever fully experienced. Even the worst sinner or the loneliest person on earth experiences the Father’s love through common means of grace such as creation.

My greatest need and I will be so bold and state that your greatest need today is Heaven’s Love . Our aching world striving to find healing for the emptiness in its soul through power, control, every form of sensual pleasure, and even striving religious activity will never be healed until Heaven’s Love is found.

For the church, the body of Christ to make its biggest impact in a lonely, loveless world we need to overflow with a supernatural love. The Apostle Paul knew this and right in the middle of his letter to the church in Ephesus he prays this most powerful prayer-for love to fill the children of the Father. I have felt called to pray this prayer over my heart, my family and His church every day in 2022. Perhaps the Spirit will lead you to join in praying this most needed prayer as well:

“So I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on the earth. And I pray that He would unveil within you the unlimited riches of His glory and favor until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power.

Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of your life.

Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences – the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far – reaching is His love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding – this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!

Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and to accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for His miraculous power constantly energizes you. 

Now we offer up to God all the glorious praise that rises from every church in every generation through Jesus Christ – and all that will yet be manifest through time and eternity. Amen! (Ephesian 3:14-21 PT)

It’s All You!

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On New Year’s morning Patty and I were celebrating by drinking our last “Ebb & Flow” coffee roasted by our kids in the US, (sorry a little advertising ). As we savored the last drops we were discussing Deuteronomy 6-8, a section Patty had just read.

What a fitting text for the New Year. Moses was preparing a new generation to enter into the Promised Land. He reminded this group of wandering people of God’s past faithfulness. How Yahweh brought them out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt. How He had sustained them for 40 years in the most inhabitable desert with water from a Rock and food from Heaven. How He protected and led them with the Glory Cloud of His fiery presence.

Now He was leading them into a land full of abundance with cattle, crops, and constructed homes waiting for them which they did not build. All because He is a promise keeping God who loves them:

“The LORD did not set His heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! Rather, it was simply that the LORD loves you and was keeping the oath He had sworn to your ancestors,” (7:7-8).

As we discussed these passages I picked up my journal and wrote these words, “It’s all You!” Looking back on 2021 we can testify both in the valleys of pain and the mountains of joy that the unexplainable love of God carried us along. He is a faithful! He is a promise keeping God.

It’s all about the Father’s love to us in Jesus. He chose us as the least in the world and saved us from the slavery of our sin. He sustains us in the wilderness and through His Spirit leads us into His Kingdom promises as His beloved children.

I began to fill up my journal with praise and overwhelming gratitude. Looking back to all that He did for Oceans both in Africa and the US we have seen miracle after miracle of provision where the Father has moved on hearts of His children to give sacrificially from enormous hearts of love. We have had divine appointments and movements of the Holy Spirit in ministry that can only be the hand of God moving in His sons and daughters.

It is hard to put words to it-but the Father’s love humbles the heart in such a way words are inadequate all I can do is shake my head in awe. All glory goes to God alone it is all Him!

Moses wrote Deuteronomy to remind a new generation that it is all about His unexplainable sovereign love. We have no idea what 2022 holds but we can look up with a blessed hope trusting in His love and shout out in our spirits “It’ All You!”

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

(Vs. 3 of “Rock of Ages”)

*the meaning of foul is wicked or immoral

 

 

 

Kingdom Joy!

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How do you know Christ the King has come into our world? Christmas Day we were asked to give the message at the church that gathers at the Ocean View Care Center.  Although Patty and I missed family and friends back in the States, we couldn’t help both felt  it was one of the most joyful Christmas celebrations we can remember.

It was outside, windy, no choirs, no instruments (well except speakers connected to a cell phone) , but heavens joy descended on the gathering. As we were singing:

Joy to the World, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart prepare Him room
And Heaven and nature sing
And Heaven and nature sing
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

I thought about how we are literally at the southern western tip of Africa in a struggling and spiritually dark township and yet praising the name of Jesus 2000 years after His birth. This statement is the answer to the opening question. This is how I know Jesus came into the world with all the sin and brokenness. Jesus died for sinners. Jesus rose from the grave! And Jesus now rules the world as King.

You can’t stop the joy of His Kingdom! It flowed from His birth in a cave, to a cross, and now the glory of His crown continues to invade the darkest places with saving grace. No government or human agency, can rescue the lost and bring transformation to the most hopeless situation-EXCEPT the Spirit of King Jesus!

Earlier in the week, Mike Verkaik sent pictures of a Christmas party for the residents of the motel and the children acting out Luke 2 and again it brought great joy. As the Kingdom through loving actions every week has opened the door for the greatest good news ever told to come in the midst great spiritual darkness at a motel in Holland, Michigan.

Children acting out Luke 2

Let the pictures below encourage you to let the King who lives in you (Luke 17:21) break out with Kingdom Joy in 2022. We have a Good News message of “Great Joy” that our world needs right now.

“Good news of great joy to all the world”

Christmas Dinner for Wooden Shoe Residents

Dawn & Mike with children from Wooden Shoe at Haven Church lighting the candle of peace.

Christmas Service Ocean View

Baptisms from Ocean View Church

“Our Beloved Father, dwelling in the heavenly realms, may the glory of Your Name be the center on which our lives turn. Manifest Your Kingdom realm, and cause Your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth just as in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heaven’s Supernatural Hug

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“We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance and we need 12 hugs a day for growth,” according to therapist and author, Virginia Satir.

Research states hugs release oxytocin, which has amazing benefits. Consider the following:

  1. Strengthens the immune system.
  2. Boosts your mood by releasing dopamine, serotonin and endorphins.
  3. Supports heart health by lowering blood pressure and stress.
  4. Increases empathy and even self-esteem.
  5. Promotes feelings of safety, trust, and belonging.

Today we are living in a season where hugs and physical touch have been discouraged and even forbidden. It is no wonder our world is feeling incredibly isolated, lonely and hopeless.

The Christmas message is timely as the world is in need of a hug. In fact, I would say at the heart of the Christmas message is Heaven bringing a supernatural hug to a desperate world.

Luke 2 and Matthew 2 give evidence that heaven declares some really good news! Good news proclaimed through the shouts of angels! Good news displayed by a brilliant star! This good news is that the world will be forever changed as a Savior, a King has been born and He will restore the lost to a right relationship with Father God.

Despised shepherds and wealthy wisemen receive supernatural encounters that bring them by faith to a baby who restores their soul to a loving God. I cannot say for sure if Mary let these guests hug the baby Jesus or not, but in their hearts they were forever embraced by the Gift of Grace. Their response of worship and overwhelming joy that flooded their souls as they were “hugged by the Father” through faith in the Son, truly indicates the magnitude and gratitude of the gift of Jesus, the promised Messiah, that they freely received.

30 years later Jesus shares a powerful parable of what this supernatural transforming hug looks like in the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. The son living in brokenness, isolation, and hopelessness because of his sin is jilted into reality of his loss and limps back home to his Father.

As his father sees the son staggering up the road as a wounded beggar notice his other worldly response:

“…great compassion swelled up in his heart for his son who was returning home. The father raced out to meet him, swept him up in his arms, hugged him dearly, and kissed him over and over with love,” (vs. 20, PT).

This is the heart of the Christmas message, a Father who runs to His lost children by sending Jesus into this sinful world. Yes, Jesus arrives with hope-a supernatural hug. His humble entrance began in a cave in Bethlehem and ended as a perfect sacrifice on a cross in Jerusalem where His arms embraced our long list of sins-forever burying them in a grave.

It is because of the cross, followed by the resurrection that we can join the angels in heaven shouting to the world:

“Glory to God in the highest realms of heaven! For there is peace and good hope given to the sons of men!” (Luke2:14).

As human touch and hugs are so vital for our physical and mental wellbeing how much more so is heavens supernatural hug from our Father.  As Covid has kept many away from a human hug, likewise sin has separated us from Heaven’s hug. Yet, what a time of the year to share the hope given to us in the gift of the Father through Jesus.

If you have not received Heaven’s hug I challenge you to come back to the Father through trust in Jesus as the prodigal did. Or maybe you are really struggling in this season and you need to be reminded by the Christmas story that your Father runs to hug you in Jesus His son.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Church That Jesus Builds

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Johann with graduate and Bernie the director

After the joyous graduation celebration it was only fitting to ask founder Johann Kikillus to share a few words. We thank the Oceans’ Family for their financial gifts in 2021. Johann and the Oceanview Care centre are examples of how Oceans Ministries is able to support and bless the surrounding communities in which we live. There is no doubt that the love of the Father is being made known by this shining beacon of light, yes this is the church, the Ekklesia. To God be the glory!

One morning in January 2015, I borrowed a mat and a chair and asked someone to read a story to a small group of kids living in the flats in OceanView. The kids sat outside a shop on a cold slab of concrete. After an hour we realized the kids were hungry so we made a plan to get them something to eat. It was only over the next few days that it was realized who these kids were. Most of them were sons and daughters of drug addicts, prostitutes, gangsters, and criminals. Many were neglected, often abused and very hungry. Back then there was no money or resources to address this problem, but yet we felt very strongly that God wanted us to reach out and the Oceanview preschool was birthed.

Fast forward to December 2021 and the recent ceremony of the seventh graduating class. This year sixty children finished the preschool programme and 39 younger children attended and will hopefully return next year to graduate. All were fed twice a day, received a very decent education, were given uniforms and school supplies and received counseling, therapy and whatever else was needed to prepare them for school. This was all done for free. The team of broken, yet dedicated, teachers and staff continues to grow and it is evident that God is bringing restoration.

Last week at the graduation a large number of people gathered, the crowd that came was made up of drug addicts, gangsters, prostitutes. These were the parents. Every year it has been the same.

A few years ago while planning the annual graduation the police came to my door voicing a concern that some of our parents were rival gangsters and they feared that all hell would break loose in the hall that night. Thankfully nothing happened.

Over the past seven years, this centre comprised of shipping containers, has been a church to over seven hundred families and most fall into the category of drug addicts, gangsters or prostitutes. It has been a very messy business and many tears have been cried. Sadly a number of parents have died or been murdered. But we have been there every step of the way. Despite initially having no money or resources, God has carried this church through. Over the past two years three similar programmes in equally challenging communities have started. We praise God for everything single thing that was provided as tithes and donations are not solicited.

The most amazing thing about this church is that no person can take any credit for anything. We get visitors from all over the world, and even the most hardened atheists have had to admit that God is behind it. This is the Ekklesia that the Bible speaks about. Be encouraged, and believe God can grow and sustain His church even in the most hardened and unexpected soil.