Apostle André Pelser
2001-07-20
1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is
born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the
world, even our faith.
Musicians talk of perfect pitch:
it is a note of perfection. The nearer their instrument is tuned to that note
the greater the perfection of their performance. A Grand piano used in the
great concert theatres of the world has to be finely tuned to what they call
concert pitch. It is a note to which all the other instruments in a symphony
orchestra will be tuned to before the grand concert begins.
Piano tuners use a pitchfork to
tune the strings of a piano; guitarists use another flute-like device and
drummers have their own techniques to tighten the vellum of their snare drums
and tom-toms. Singers warm up their vocal chords until they are sure they can
hit top “a” without any difficulty. The cacophony of sounds before the
conductor steps to the podium to direct the orchestra seems a meaningless,
confusing waste of time and energy, but without that seeming chaos the entire
concert will be out of tune!
God’s greatest heroes of faith
in the Bible and in the History of the Church knew this perfect note. David
heard it and wrote some of the greatest psalms we are still singing today after
thousands of years! That is a hit parade to aim for! Psalm 23 has been on the
hit parade for ten thousands of weeks! There is no copyright on his song
either. You can write your own music for it! The Lord is my Shepherd I shall
not want! A little unkown shepherd boy, unknown and alone, sang his heart out
to his Creator while watching the sheep and the eternal recording studios
captured the words and preserved it forever! When God hears it you have
obviously hit the right note in heaven! Your frequency vibrated in the courts
of heaven and the heavenly agency took perfect note of you! It does not matter
where you are and where you live, when you touch the heart of God He will most
definitely respond!
People around the world are
still singing the psalms of David! He knew how to reach the ear of God with his
songs. He hit that note in the Spirit that a musician dreams of! He did not aim
for fame and fortune, he did not think twice to use heathen tunes to adapt them
for the hearing of God with godly words. He often used Philistine songs and
re-arranged them with godly inspiration to be preserved forever. The heathen
musician is forgotten but David’s song is remembered!
Tell me David how did you find
that perfect note?
Mary, the mother of Jesus knew
that note! She sang a song of joy because she was expecting to give birth to
the Saviour of the world and she expressed it in a tune! My soul will magnify
the Lord my God and my spirit rejoices in the God of my salvation! For He has
seen the lowly estate of his handmaiden and He has chosen me from among all the
women to give birth to His Son, Jesus Christ!
The Holy Spirit came upon her
and impregnated her with a godly seed! She heard a note of perfect victory in
the midst of all the hardship she was facing. In the midst of all the poverty
and violence during her life she was able to discover a note of victorious
living.
That is the key: there is a note
of conscious victory in the heart of a believer that brings deliverance and
healing, encouragement and strength to all who hear that note!
You have to fight through dark
depression and overshadowing doubts to get to that note! You have to trust God
to overcome all the sinful and selfish desires in your soul in order to touch
that note of conscious victory! You have to break through the forces of
persecution, the feelings of rejection, the cloud of misunderstanding and the
dejection of the apparent lack of results in the ministry in order to reach
that note in the spirit!
While you are believing God for
abundant provision and all you can see around you is lack of finances and lack
of support you have to bear up under the strain of over powering giants of debt
and slavery to the world’s financial systems in order to survive. You have to
keep on sowing your financial seeds of tithing and offerings in spite of the
lack of great harvests of financial blessing until you hit that note of
constant dominion as far as prosperity is concerned!
The Lord is my shepherd and I
shall not lack has to become your song in the night of your deepest need. When
your faith fails you have to get up and believe again and again until there is
a break through in your spirit! You must keep on believing until you know
beyond a shadow of doubt that God will give this Goliath of financial strain
into your hand with one single blow! He will do this for you so that the world
may know there is a God who provides for his children in ways this world has
not devised!
You have to fight your way
through the lack of respect and the lack of recognition from your family and
your friends and colleagues, like Joseph had to face his brothers and the lies
of Egypt before God finally
honoured him and made him ruler of Egypt!
You have to fight your way
through all the constant hardships and setbacks you have to face day by day,
through the arguments and misunderstandings at home, in your marriage until you
alone can stand before God and hit that note in your prayer closet that touches
heaven!
You have to bear up under all
the pressure and tension of living in a country like South Africa where there seems to
be more problems than answers. You have to struggle to find a note of conscious
victory that says: “No matter how bad things become, God is abundantly able to
provide for me and my family right here where we live!” God is not dependent on
the systems or the currencies of the world to bless his children!
It is time for a new surge of
strength in your faith! It is time for a new injection of hope into your soul!
Today God wants to give you a glimpse of the limitless possibilities that await
you in this life and the blessings to come in the life hereafter!
Last Sunday we sang in worship:
‘Don’t limit God!’ and we repented in song for limiting God in our thinking!
When God asked the prophet
Jeremiah if he thought that God could do something that seemed impossible, the
young prophet cried out: “Ah, Lord God, you have made the heavens and the
earth! Nothing shall be impossible to you!”
When David faced the lion that
threatened to kill his sheep he cried out: nothing shall be impossible in the
Name of the Lord! When the bear came to devour his flock he lifted up his
slingshot and aimed, crying: “Nothing is impossible to my God!” He slew the
lion and the bear with his bare hands! Finally when he faced the giant Goliath
he told old king Saul who had no faith in God whatsoever: “The Lord our God
that helped me to kill the lion and the bear for the sake of the flock will
give this uncircumcised Philistine in my hands. I will slay him and give his
carcass to the birds of the air so that all the world may know there is a God!”
When Mary could not understand
how a virgin could conceive the Holy Spirit told her: “Nothing is impossible to
God! The Holy Spirit shall come upon you and you shall conceive and bear a son.
You must call his name Jesus, for He shall deliver his people from their sins!”
Mary bowed and said, ‘Let it be with me according to the Word of the Lord!’
Jesus showed us how to live
limitless in a limited world. He kept on saying that nothing is impossible to
those who believe! Your faith made you whole! Your faith made you whole! Your
faith made you whole! He kept on repeating this divine principle over and over
again and hoped that someone somewhere would hear what He was trying to tell
the people!
Paul explained that the just
live by faith! He explained that the glory outweighs all the suffering we have
to endure for the sake of the Gospel. He understood suffering and knew he had
to fulfil a certain portion of the suffering in the body of Christ. He did not
ignore the fact or withdraw from it. He put his body on the line and took all
the blows the enemy could give and rose up victoriously every time! He knew
that note of conscious victory in his soul!
2 Corinthians 6:4-10 But in all things approving ourselves as the
ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, 5 In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults,
in labours, in watchings, in fastings; 6
By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by
love unfeigned, 7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of
righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 8 By honour and dishonour, by
evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; 9 As unknown, and yet
well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; 10 As
sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having
nothing, and yet possessing all things.
2 Corinthians 11:23-28 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a
fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons
more frequent, in deaths oft. 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty
stripes save one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I
suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In
journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine
own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in
the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 In
weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in
fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28 Beside those things that are without,
that which cometh upon me daily, the
care of all the churches.
How did he do it? How did he
persevere? How is it humanly possible to go through so many trials and
tribulations and yet have a conscious note of victory in his soul every time he
speaks, every time he writes to other believers?
2 Corinthians 4:7-18 But we have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 8 We
are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in
despair; 9 Persecuted, but not forsaken;
cast down, but not destroyed; 10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of
the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death
worketh in us, but life in you. 13 We
having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and
therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; 14 Knowing that
he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall
present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant
grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. 16
For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward
man is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a
moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 18
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not
seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not
seen are eternal.
We have this treasure in earthen
vessels: the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead: a spirit of faith!
It is not longer an effort to try to believe God every time! You reach the place
where you believe God and believe God and God comes through for you every time,
he delivers you from all your troubles, somehow He makes a way where there is
no way, just when it looks like you are going under He takes you over! Just
before the enemy traps you in temptation He makes a way of escape that you may
be able to bear it! Just before it seems that you have no more strength to
carry on He sends a word of encouragement through someone you have not heard of
for years! He has made up His mind that He will get you into victory no matter
how long it takes! You are His child and His children always win in the end!
There is not a battle that He cannot fight! He knows the wiles and tricks of
old Satan and He came to destroy His works! He will destroy the work of the
enemy in you and plant in your soul an unconquerable spirit of faith and
victory that will help you wade through all the waves of doubt the devil sends
to wash over the shores of your soul! He will give you an anchor of hope to
hold you firm in all the storms of life lashing against your mind and your
emotions!
That conscious note of victory
is the spirit of faith Paul speaks of! It is a note only a true believer can
hear!
At the moment you might be
hearing the cacophony of sounds of all the other believer’s instruments being
tuned. It might not sound very tuneful. It may sound chaotic and confusing! But
when the divine conductor steps to the podium and taps with his baton there
comes a silence… a silence of expectancy…the symphony concert is about to
begin! Out of the chaos comes creation! Out of noise come the most heavenly
tunes!
David put it this way: “God
reveals dark sayings to me upon the harp!”
Job understood it in this way:
“My Creator who gives songs in the night!”
Habakkuk proclaimed it like
this: Habakkuk 3:17-19 Although the fig
tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the
olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut
off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: 18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy
in the God of my salvation. 19 The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my
feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To
the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
Zephaniah 3:12-20 I will also leave in the midst of thee an
afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD. 13 The
remnant of Israel
shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be
found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make
them afraid. 14 Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout,
O Israel; be glad and
rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
15 The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the
king of Israel,
even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. 16 In
that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not
thine hands be slack. 17 The LORD thy
God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee
with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. 18 I will gather them that are sorrowful for
the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. 19 Behold, at that time I will undo all that
afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven
out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put
to shame. 20 At that time will I bring
you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a
praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before
your eyes, saith the LORD.
1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the
victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.