Holy Spirit House

27/04/2022

14/10/2021

By faith!

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Hebrews 11:1-3 (NKJV)

The opening statement from the classic faith chapter, (Hebrews 11). As Christians, we should recognise that faith is a vital, everyday, non- negotiable part of our lives; we are called by God to be people of faith. By using faith, the elders, those who lived before us, obtained a great testimony or life story, and, by daily choosing to walk this faith walk with God, so shall we.

Remember that it is faith that pleases God! (Hebrews 11:6) Faith is simple, it’s making the choice to believe and trust God and to believe that He is both willing and able to fulfil the promises He has made concerning your life. God is not a liar! He has given us so many great and precious promises because He has every intention of honouring them. As with Abraham, we need to make the choice to engage daily with God and His promises. How? By faith; simply believing that He who promises is faithful.

The Word says that by faith we can understand the mystery of creation and how the world was formed – and, let’s face it, to actually understand creation you have to make the choice to believe that it was formed according to how God says it was.

Simply believe He is telling you the truth. Faith is needed not only to understand our origins but also to understand the other, seemingly impossible situations in your life. In those seemingly impossible situations, you need to apply the exact same rule which is to hear what God says about it and then choose to believe, even when there is no visible evidence. Faith is the substance and the very evidence of the things God promises.

Begin to release your faith again today and hunt out the promises in God’s Word that are fitting for the situation you are in and, even without adequate physical evidence, make the decision to believe the promise of God. Make His promise all the evidence you need. You were saved by faith, to live by faith and it is faith that puts the ‘zing’ into Christianity. It delivers your walk with God from being a lifeless ceremony to being a fun-packed, ever- unfolding adventure where you look forward to the next day and the next mountain you are destined to conquer. How? BY FAITH!

28/07/2021

Don’t be a victim of benefit fraud!

Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with loving
kindness and tender mercies, Psalm 103:1-4 (NKJV)

Don’t let the con-man of your salvation, Satan, rip you off from receiving the benefits that are rightly yours in Christ. How does he do that? Through the daily use of an ever-effective and favourite tool he has called ignorance.

Don’t fall for it, rather daily discover and know for certain what God has qualified you to be entitled to. Ignorance is not bliss, it is a thief in the life of people who are entitled to so very much. Remember the benefits from yesterday? He forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.

Let’s look at a couple more.

Benefit three: He redeems your life from destruction!
To redeem is to ‘re-purchase or buy back’. A good example of this would be someone returning to a pawn shop to pay for and be reunited with an item that they had left while borrowing cash in a time of need. When you redeem something, you bring back to
yourself, by legal means, something that once belonged to you that you may have had to sell, had lost or even had stolen.

Remember, in the beginning, in Genesis, we were made by God to belong to God and were destined to be friends of God and not slaves. The story of Genesis then reveals that we were stolen from God through the foolishness of Adam. Humanity was sold out
to another owner. We legally, because of Adam’s sin and disobedience, became the property of the father of sin, Satan. The good news of the Gospel is that we have now been purchased back! The price for the redemption of humanity was set and it was the precious blood and life of God’s only beloved Son.

What a hugely costly price! God loved us so much that He paid the price for our redemption and brought us back to Himself, redeeming our lives from destruction.

Redemption is a benefit that you can’t afford to forget about and that is why the Bible instructs us, “let the redeemed of the Lord say so”. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy, Psalm 107:2 (NKJV)
Wow, what a great benefit! He both originally made you and then bought you back to Himself. Think about that. That makes you ‘twice His’ so don’t be defrauded by any lesser gospel.
Ps Vilakazi

10/06/2021

He is real easy to find again

When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Luke 2:45-49 (NIV)

I want to now talk about what to do if you do wake up one day and ask yourself, “Where is He in all of this?” The answer is simple: do what Mary and Joseph would have done and track back your steps to when you knew He was close with you last. That is what we do when we lose anything else, isn’t it? When you realise you have mislaid your wallet or purse you think back over the journey of your day till you remember when it was last with you. Do the same here.

It works. Here are two keys to re-finding Jesus that we learn from Luke 2. The NIV version says Jesus responded, “I had to be in my Father’s House.” Your pursuit of Jesus will always take you to the Father’s house, church, not away from it. Don’t buy into lies that say you just need some time out from church because that is how you lose Him further.

Jesus is still all about His Father’s house and we should be also. When we are, it’s certainly harder to lose sight of Him. Love the Father’s house! In the NKJV translation it says that Jesus responded, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” If you want to feel close with Jesus again then make sure that your life is about the Father’s business too and, when you do, you will turn around and find Him next to you again because that is what He is always about – His Father’s business! Be where He is and be involved in what He is involved in.

Remember what He said in Matthew 16:18, He would “build His Church”. The Church is the only thing He committed to build on the earth and He is still in the centre of its development today. Let’s build it with Him because when we do, it’s amazing how close He can feel. Why? Because we are about the Father’s business with Him.

Brethren’s Challenge:
If you feel far from Jesus or like you have lost Him or the intimacy you once knew with Him, be like Joseph and Mary. Stop. Get Him back. Then carry on.

20/05/2021

Bask in the bigness of God
Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. Acts 9:40 (NIV)

This was a very serious situation where Peter had been brought by some people to raise a woman named Tabitha from the dead. This was ‘need a miracle’ territory! Notice what he did before he dealt with or even faced the largeness of the problem – he prayed! Then he turned and dealt with the miracle-needing situation.

Before he looked at the seemingly impossible mountain, he spent time ‘basking in the bigness’ of his God, the God who says that all things are possible to those who believe. This empowered him with all the confidence he needed to turn around, look at the situation full on and do what was seemingly impossible.

Hey, Mzalwane, when you find yourself in a time of challenge or a moment when you are needing a miracle here is some good advice someone once gave me: the very first thing you need to do is take time to bask in the bigness of God. This will enable you, as it did Peter, to correct your perception concerning how big the problems and situations really are and also remind you how big your God is in the very midst of that moment of challenge. When you take time to bask in the bigness of God, everything else is then reduced to its true, beatable size.

The reality is that when you are needing or desiring a miracle you have the choice to bask in the bigness of one of two things: either the bigness of the problem or in the God who is bigger than any problem – your choice. You have to choose one or the other as you cannot bask in the bigness of both. Bask, as Peter did, in the bigness of your God!
Ps Vilakazi

14/04/2021

Hear God speaking through everyday life.

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.” Jeremiah 18:1-6 (NIV)

Good morning, Brethren. I love this account of God sending Jeremiah somewhere very practical, and that had to do with everyday life, to teach him something of great significance. Because Jeremiah had open ears to God, whenever and wherever, he was able to hear God speak to him from more than just religious scrolls: through everyday life things too.

In this account, we see that God wanted to communicate something very important to the prophet and He could have used a lot of words, and maybe a bit of thunder and lightning, but chose to speak through something that was very normal and common to daily life: a potter at work, making and re-making pots. Sometimes we are all guilty of boxing God into our well-formatted prayer lives when the truth is that God is not speaking to us for half an hour a day but throughout the day.

The issue is not: is God speaking, Brethren, but rather: are we listening? Have we got ears to hear like Jeremiah when God wants to say or communicate something to us using something from everyday life, like a potter at work? God is ever-speaking, so let our hearts be ever-listening. Think about Jesus in the Gospels where we see that He too communicated the deepest of things to His followers using everyday things to make His point, things such as vines, mountains, sheep and farmers to name a few. He used these everyday things to communicate divine truth to them. Yes, we must also bear in mind that everything we hear must line up with the truth of the Word of God but the reality is that God wants to speak to you today, outside of your well-formatted devotional time slots, and will use everyday things to help you understand deep revelation if you have ears to hear.

Be listening today for the ever-speaking God to say something to you. Maybe, as with Jeremiah, it will be through something very simple and ‘everyday’. by Pastor N Vilakazi

10/04/2021

Join us tomorrow.

31/03/2021

Storm management

Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. Matthew 7:24-25 (NKJV) If you are alive, then you will experience difficult storms in life.

None of these storms need ruin or crush you but it is important to understand how to manage them. One way of managing storms is to first find out where they are coming from or what is causing them, then you can know precisely how to deal with them effectively.

let’s look at some storms that we can all face at one time or another. The Storms of Life Storms of life. These are the ones that are nothing to do with spiritual attack or the devil’s schemes and so on but rather just those things that come to both the righteous and the unrighteous simply because of being alive; they are the storms of life.

I compare these storms to the one we read about in Matthew 7. In this account, there are two men who choose to build on very different foundations; notice that the same storm then hits both of them but only one building remained intact, the wise man’s, because he built on a solid, rock-like foundation – God.
The other man, who built upon quick and easy other alternatives, watched as the storm came and took with it everything he had built. What a horrible moment that would have been for him. Listen, in challenging times, where fear and uncertainty are daily dished out from every media outlet possible, don’t fear but rather have confidence.

These storms may blow and the waves may even hit the sides of our lives but, when we daily stand with Godly wisdom and principles with faith, we will prevail. Let me underline this again: life has storms – financial, relational, all manner of storms – they affect the saved and unsaved. The difference is that Jesus is in the midst of our storms, with us, and as we commit to daily stand by faith and wisdom we will not be moved or crushed

24/03/2021

What are you hiding in your heart?

I seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your commands. I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You. Psalm 119:10-11 (NIV)

The heart is a vitally important place in your life because it is in the heart that we all have the potential to both store and hide stuff. As with so many things, this can be a negative or positive reality, depending on what each person is choosing to store or hide within theirs.

The writer declares that he has hidden God’s Word in his heart. Let’s face it, there can be no better thing to both store and hide in your heart than the living word of God! What’s stored in your heart will eventually be heard on your lips and manifested in your life.

Your heart is like the cistern of a toilet: when your life gets ‘flushed’ by the hand of circumstance, what is in the heart always comes out – often shocking or blessing those who may be watching at that moment. Make sure that today you are storing God’s Word in your heart.

As it says in Colossians, “let the word of God dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). Then, whenever you need wisdom or truth you will have a ready supply deep within your life. Just remember, we all have the potential to store and hide other stuff, so be honest with yourself and make sure you are not. Hey, if you need to have a good spring clean of the wardrobe or pantry of the heart, go ahead and do it.

Let’s not make our heart store what does not do it good – things like bitterness, unforgiveness and envy can be easily hidden in the cloisters of your heart and remain unseen by others for years. But, believe me, those things and others like them are toxic and will do your heart no good at all. In fact, they will slowly rot your heart, affecting everything good that is sharing the storage area.

As the writer knew, when we hide His Word in our hearts, it will keep us from sinning too. Why? Because we always live out of what we have stored in it – desires, ambitions and dreams are all birthed from what we allow to remain and hide in our heart. Every sin that we can commit, small or large, starts as an undealt-with seed – like a thought in the mind that is then allowed to be stored and germinated in the heart. If you don’t want a tree of sin in your life, don’t let its seedling grow in your heart. Rather, pack that heart with the seeds of God’s Word and then go ahead and watch what grows.

08/03/2021

Don’t go losing Jesus

After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they travelled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Luke 2:43-46 (NIV)

Good morning, brethren. Imagine that? Mary and Joseph lost Jesus! Come on, that is a massive thing. It is not like losing your wallet or misplacing your car keys; this is Jesus, Son of God, the redeemer of humanity, entrusted to your parental care.

They lost Him and did not notice for a day, then took another three days to find Him again! Imagine how they must have felt when they turned around and He was no longer there!

My question is, “Have you ever lost Him?” I don’t mean your salvation; I am talking about the close relationship, the intimacy that you once had with God. Have you ever turned around in the midst of busyness and wondered, “Jesus, where are You in all this?” I know I have and, sometimes, I have ‘lost Him’ in the middle of the busyness of church business – how crazy is that?

Losing Him while working for Him? Remember that Mary and Joseph lost Jesus during a religious feast. They were attending something that was all about God and lost God in the middle of it. It happens! But I have always known what to do – like Mary and Joseph, you stop, think ,“When was He last close?” and go back to that point and regain Him before carrying on any further with your life journey.

We can lose a few things in life and it not make much difference; but make sure you don’t lose the main thing – Jesus. That intimate, daily walk with Him is the greatest thing that you have or could ever own! If you have misplaced Him, STOP and go back and get Him.Week Two Tuesday Don’t go losing Jesus (cont’d) After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed.

Ps Vilakazi