Sword Ministries, South Africa

14/04/2026

What is the place of deliverance?
Deliverance is one of the three pillars of the Great Commission Jesus gave in Mark 16 and Matthew 28 before His ascension:
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." [Mar 16:15-18]
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." [Mat 28:18-20]
What are the “all things” Jesus commanded them? For the three and a half years He was with them, He taught them to teach/preach, cast out demons and heal the sick. [Mat 10-1-4; Mar 6:7-13; Luk 9:1; 10:1-17] His instructions have not changed.
Jesus Himself taught, cast out demons and healed the sick in fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy [61] He set the captives free, opened prison doors of those who were bound. Who are the captives and those who are in prison? Those in bo***ge to the devil through ignorance, demons, sickness and disease and emotional and mental afflictions, The Holy Spirit tells us explicitly that Jesus “healed all who were oppressed of the devil.” [Act 10:38] Oppression takes many forms: sickness, demonisation, bo***ge, mental and emotional problems that affect our spiritual growth and relationship with the Lord.
Jesus referred to deliverance as “the children’s bread.” [Matt 15:26; Mar 7:27] Bread is a completely normal part of everyday meals, it is not fancy, exotic or mystical. If it is safe for children, then it is safe for everyone.
Why deliverance?
It is important to understand that the main aim of deliverance is to remove every obstacle in our lives that hinders our relationship with the Lord and our spiritual growth. It enforces Christ’s victory over satan and all his demons. It establishes His authority over all demons and diseases. [Luk 9:1] It brings freedom into every area of our lives.
It is not a specialised ministry that stands on its own, reserved only for the elite, for the few chosen or “spiritually superior”. It is a normal part of everyday ministry and of the full counsel of God, together with preaching, teaching and healing the sick. It is available to and expected of every single born-again child of God.
What prevents people from casting out demons? Ignorance, superstition and fear. Believers must know that they have “all authority in heaven and on earth” in Christ’s Name. They have Christ’s Word, His Blood, His Name and the power of the Holy Spirit to do the works He did – deliverance is part of the works. All those practising deliverance do so with the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit, not with their own efforts, with shouting, with theatrics or their own experience and knowledge. It is entirely a ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is “demonstration of the Spirit and power.”[1Co 2:4]

11/03/2026

Learning His ways
“He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.” [Psa 103:7]
We have often heard this verse quoted, generally out of context, as a type of indication that God is very selective about whom He chooses to reveal Himself to, often implying that we don’t fit into the “Moses category.” Most frequently, this quotation is followed by another, often spoken with religious tones and folded hands, “...how unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out!” [Rom 11:33] and of course, the famous verses in Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” [55:8,9]
What is conveyed is that God the Father is mysterious, out of reach, distant, far beyond us – not really to be trusted, because we never know what He is going to do or why He is doing it. So, rather to be kept at a respectable distance so that we don’t make a misstep somewhere and somehow fall foul of Him – because , you never know.
To begin with, the verses are all taken out of context. A simple reading of Psalm 103 details the “ways” of the Lord! He forgives iniquities, He heals, He redeems lives from destruction, He crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies, He satisfies our mouths with good things, Hi executes justice and judgement for the oppressed, He is slow to anger and full of mercy and His mercy is for all eternity.
Those are among the ways He showed to Moses – that were expressed in His acts: leading them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, providing manna, meat and water, healing their diseases, defeating their heathen enemies. Did the children of Israel realise those “acts” were demonstrations of Who He is, of His ways? No. They saw only the miracles, the food, the water, the victory.
The verse in Romans quote abovel, according to Francois du Toit, who wrote the “Mirror Study Bible,” has been incorrectly translated. He explains that the Greek words for “unsearchable” and “past finding out” are derived from prepositions indicating “upwards” and “source”, and the root of “finding out” is the word “footprint”. He therefore suggests the following: “The understanding of his judgements can be sourced only in a conversation that originates from above, also his ways are only accessible in the footprints of his thoughts.”
Which brings us to the following, which is very very clear in all the above texts anyway: that the human, carnal mind cannot search out God or understand how He operates. And no, we can’t, but what does the Holy Spirit say, “We have the mind of Christ.” [1Co 2:18]
In fact, Paul explains it so clearly in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 2: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” [vs 9] Note, the heart of MAN cannot see or hear or grasp what God has prepared, BUT :” God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. [vs 10-12]
The following point about the so-called “inscrutability” of God’s ways and the impossibility of knowing them also needs to be made.
Throughout the Old Testament (note, this is BEFORE the Holy Spirit was given) God laments that the children of Israel have constantly departed from His ways and walked in their own ways, to their own destruction. He constantly beseeches them to return to His ways and walk in them. If He had not revealed His ways to them, this would be extremely unfair and unjust – how could He expect people to “walk in His ways” if they are “past finding out”? In fact, over 20 times in the Old Testament, He begs them to “walk in His ways”.
And repeatedly, particularly in the Psalms and prophets, the people are called to “learn of His ways.” For instance “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” [Isa 2:3; Mic 4:2]
So apart from what we learn of His ways in Psalm 103, what else does the Word tell us of the ways of God?
“He is the Rock, His work is perfect, for all his ways are judgement, a God of truth nd without iniquity, just and right is He.” [Deut 32:4]
“The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works.” [Ps145:17]
“His ways are ways of pleasantness and all His paths are peace.” [Pro 3:17: this is speaking of Wisdom, and of course, Christ has been made wisdom to us! 1Cor 1:24, 30]
All His ways are right: [Hos 14:9] everlasting [Hab 3:6] true [Rev 15:3]
His ways guarantee long life. [Deut 5:33;1Ki 3:14; Act 2:28]] They promise holiness, [Deut28:9] increase and blessing [Deut 30:16] , prosperity [1Ki 2:3], security, safety and protection [1Ki 11:38; Jer 12:16] wealth and honour [2Chr 17;5,6] victory over enemies [2Cr 27:5,6] deliverance and reward [Ps 18] blessing [Psa 128:1] righteousness [Psa 145:17] judgement [Dan 4:37] position [Zec 3:7]
Throughout the Old Testament and particularly in the Psalms, His people ask the Lord to teach them His ways and the Lord Himself instructs Moses and the priests to teach the people His ways. So the very concept that His ways are inscrutable, unsearchable and beyond finding out is clearly totally wrong. Yet this is so often taught in church. Walking in His ways brings innumerable blessings and promises into our lives. All the Lord requires of us is that we ask Him to teach us, to reveal these things to us by His Holy Spirit who has been given to us as the Teacher.
It is not enough just to know His acts, His works. He desires for us to know His ways, and we learn those through a close and personal relationship with Him.

06/11/2025

It's hard to believe we have been married for 34 years! Today we celebrate the Lord's constant presence in our lives, His grace, His love, His hand in everything we do and wherever we go. We bless Him for the wonderful people He has brought into our lives and we are ever grateful for the people that He changes as He works with and through us to establish His kingdom in their lives. We are excited for what the future holds and for the constant adventure of growing in the knowledge of Him.

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06/11/2024

November 6 2024. Hendrina and I were married 33 years ago today - and what a ride it has been! We moved from Sandton, Gauteng 10+ years ago to come to the Cape, we believed, on the urging of the Holy Spirit. We arrived in Strand, never having planned it that way. The Lord helped us to purchase a beautiful home, having promised that it would be better than that which we had left. We had no contacts among believers here, yet the Lord immediately started building up that lack, introducing us to many friends and acquaintances here.

Whereas in Sandton we had many business contacts, (more especially, Hendrina), in Cape Town we had none. The Holy Spirit assured us that He had plans of which we were unaware and today, 10 years on, we now have, more importantly, beautiful personal contacts, both locally and as far afield as Slovenia and Germany in Europe, Perth in Australia and Bali in Indonesia.

To our many, many friends and associates, we say a huge Thank You! You have all been a great blessing. Thank you for your enduring support and friendship, we appreciate you all for being part of our journey and for your part in the ministry that the Lord Jesus has called us to.

05/10/2022

We will be holding a workshop on Blood Covenant on 22 October in Kommetjie. We feel it is absolutely crucial for the Body of Christ to know the Covenant that Christ made for us and warmly invite all interested parties to contact us for more information.