Dear Partner,
What a joy to greet you from the soil of Africa. Jesus is alive and that is the foundation of our lives. I love you dearly and invite you to join us for another year in touching the lives of people. I am in South Africa, and we started 2012 on a high. I am ministering a powerhouse of potential world shakers in the form of an advanced training school for pastors. We expect over 700 pastors for an evening of empowering. I am also interviewing 20 plus pastors for expanding their churches and the planting of several new churches. We are visiting two orphanages and are also looking into a new model of how to help orphans by putting them into normal households.
A PROSPEROUS 2012
Our prayers are for 2012 to be a very unique year to you and your family. He is your source, and I pray that even in the midst of challenging times ahead, God will still be your source and comfort. The world is going through troubling times, but God is our solid foundation. I pray over you daily and know that He is our only answer. You and I began this year by His Grace, and that same Grace will be the completion of the year for you and your family.
MORE NUGGETS OF REVELATION FROM JOHN CHAPTER ONE
Unanswered prayers are not an unfamiliar term to all of us. In Luke 1, we find Zacharias a righteous man. He and his wife were older people, and in verse 13, the angel announced to them that their prayer was answered. This was a prayer that both of them forgot about, and they gave up on God to answer this prayer. Remember, this answered prayer had to happen in the natural God given cycle God ordained for any woman to have a child. This is a powerful thought. God answered the couple’s prayer by sending the answer when the season for such a miracle had passed. Once we realize what happened, one can almost explode with excitement for only God can do such a thing. God has the ability to answer a prayer even when the natural condition is against it. Our landscape of circumstances can never withhold God from answering our prayers.
Do you have forgotten prayer requests? Have you made peace with your circumstances and become familiar with the thought that your prayer was not heard by God. Maybe the enemy told you that you do not qualify. God answered their prayer at a time they probably forgot they have ever prayed that prayer. Nothing is ever to late, to big or impossible for God. Remember, this boy will carry the name of John, and John was the one to announce Jesus. The reason for your one outstanding prayer is because God has a greater miracle in the making. A delay by God in answering your prayer has something to do with a greater miracle in the making.
The muzzled tongue
We are still in Luke chapter one. We find Zacharias having a hard time to believe that God can give him a son when the season is gone. Verse 18 says, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years”.
The birth of John was so key to God that we find a major intervention in verse 20. This verse says, “But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”
There is definitely power in the tongue. God answering the prayer of Zacharias was something to big for Zacharias to understand. In order for John to be birthed, God had to muzzle the tongue of this righteous man. Yes, even righteous people can stop God’s best from happening. God does not like when we disagree on something He announced will happen. God saw John in the future and decided to move man out of the way in order to make sure His desires were fulfilled.
The realities of our lives make sense to us as long as nothing extraordinary happen. When the angel announced they will have a son, it was an extraordinary message that did not fit the landscape of their age. In their mind, their age was against the birthing of another child. Yes, they could possibly remember the prayer, but the age of their bodies made the thought of a son impossible. Many of us will deal with realities that no man can wish away in 2012. Many will have major challenges, but 2012 could be the year when God will deliver miracle sons that will stun us to be mute as we will view His Glory in demonstration.
LET US DECREE TOGETHER IN 2012
The year 2012 will be the year in which God will deliver miracles in spite of how negative our life may be. I pray that by the end of 2012, many of our dear partners will have to admit that God did something in 2012 you never thought could ever happen again. I decree over your life today:
- This year will bring forth miracles that will stun you to the point of muteness.
- God will do things beyond your understanding.
- God will deliver things of which your neighbors will have to admit it is a blessing from God.
- God will reinstall lost seasons and answer prayers you forgot you ever prayed.
- God will do the impossible in spite of your weak faith.
Two pregnancies linked for a divine purpose
Your life is linked to the most incredible thing you can ever imagine. It was never about John but about Jesus. The thing God plans to do by answering your prayer is to link your miracle to a greater miracle. Yes, your life can be the stepping stone God will use to accomplish the greater. The pregnancy of Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias, came in their latter years. The next pregnancy, the one of Mary, came from divine intervention as Mary never new a man as you will find in Luke 1:34. Yes, this was all about the birth of Jesus. In verse 36, God told Mary that Elizabeth is also pregnant and it is as if God gives Mary this sign as a confirmation to her own pregnancy. Two women pregnant with two boys that will be prophetically linked for a greater purpose. This is so divine. In John Chapter one, it was John that announced Jesus by saying, “There is the Lamb of God”. John never feared to announce the arrival of Jesus. John was never afraid that his own reputation would be in danger. John was birthed by God to announce Jesus. Whatever God plans to do through you this year is to rejoice over, for your answer to prayer will bless you, and it will have something to do with that.
A kindred spirit – John leaped hearing Mary’s voice
In Luke 1:41, Mary entered the house of Elizabeth, and when Elizabeth heard that greeting, the child in her leaped. John, still an unborn child, already felt the link between Mary and Elizabeth. Yes, there was a link between the two boys even before they were born. When you see how significant their relationship was once grown up, you will understand that God was in control all the time.
His hand on us is so significant that we should expect something to happen in our lives every day. Never underestimate the stirring of His Holy Spirit in you. God knows His own desires for you. He will never forget you or your prayers and still plan to bless you with the ultimate blessing, no matter what your circumstances are.
He will be called John
The custom was to give the son the name of the father. This custom did not last for God intervened. Let us allow God to intervene in our traditions and customs and allow God to call names as He sees fit. Zacharias was a good man and a good name, but God was in need of a John the Baptist. Allow your life to supply God with what He wants and not what our customs demand. In verse 60 of Luke chapter one, Elizabeth made it clear when she said, “he will be called John”.
He is John – On a Tablet
Zacharias is still mute in verse 63. They asked him what he had to say. They thought he would keep the tradition and name the boy after himself. He wrote on a tablet and said, ‘His name is John”. Now, Zacharias broke away from the custom and tradition of his day and made it clear this son will not carry his name but carry the name God ordained for this boy to have. This is so powerful.
The power of agreeing with God – Loosened Tongue
Luke 1:64. The moment Zacharias wrote on a tablet for he could not speak yet, agreeing with what God desired and called the boy John, his tongue was set loose. People praised the Lord and asked in verse 66 the question: “What kind of child will this be?. Amazing! Zacharias finally agreed with the name and his tongue was set loose. God considers our tongue such a powerful instrument that He will muzzle the tongue that does not agree with His plan.
Let us bring our tongue and our confessions in line with His divine plan, for God has a great plan in the making. Let us not force God to do business according to our customs, regulations or traditions. Learn to agree with what He has in store, for what He plans for our lives is so remarkable that we cannot imagine. He is an awesome God, and He is ready to give us fruit and blessings that will expose us to more incredible miracles we can ever imagine. Allow 2012 to be the year where you allow Him to orchestrate your life in order to introduce you to a new way of thinking in spite of your challenges.
Outside the season of opportunities, He operates. When all odds are against you, He works at His best. Bring your tongue under control, for He will do what you have never seen before. He is God, and He can do things when the season for that thing is over. He gave Sarah a child at the age of 90. Who can argue with God when He does these things? Abraham was 100 years old at that time. He did this no matter what man said.
Our lives are to His Honor, and He chooses in a sovereign way what He wants. When He orders it, no age can stop Him.
I decree again that 2012 will be the year when God will intervene in the landscape of people’s lives and He will do things that is unheard of. Put a hold on your tongue for you will have reason to disagree. This is the year our God wants to establish honor for Himself. It is the year where He will call things names and ordain people to positions of honor for he took control of the landscape of life. It is time for the John’s to be birthed, for it is the John type of people that will announce the greatness of God. Jesus is the one, and we need more modern day John’s that will honor Jesus for He alone deserve all honor.
Be an announcer of the greatness of God.
2012 MISSION
USA Local Churches
I believe God has something very powerful in place for many American churches. Make sure you come to meetings close to you. We plan to empower many and add fresh new teachings during all our meetings that will strengthen and empower the local church. Many new materials will be made available.
New Church Plants in Africa
We are interviewing 20 pastors and how we can help them to expand their churches. These specific churches are all to be found in rural areas and will be done through our tent plant program. In Nigeria, the Muslims burned many churches during the 2011 Christmas season. Let us expand the church and do it with haste before evil forces take over land where we should have invested first. They may burn our churches but they can never burn Christ in us. The reason the Muslims burn churches is because the planting of churches is a direct threat to the kingdom of darkness.
Empowering African Leaders
Empowering leaders and training them are crucial. I will be involved in training several times during the next year. I am now committed to help with the training of 700 plus leaders in South Africa. Your seed is making this happen.
Leaders in Africa, Russia, and Siberia
God just opened doors to help leaders in the above mentioned nations. This is major. Pray partners. Most people do not want to go to some of these places. When the cry for help comes, who will ignore that cry. I am in consultation with pastors from South Africa and one from Korea to see how I can assist them in reaching out to these nations. Only God and our partners will get me there. Your seed will now touch Russia and Siberia.
African Orphans
Needless to say how Jesus cares for children. I mentioned to you earlier in this letter about these children, and YES, these orphans are high on our agenda in 2012. Jesus is alive, and with breath in our lungs, we will go and go and go and go. In Isaiah 6:8, His word says: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for US?” Our answer to that is simple, “send me Lord”.
POWERFUL STATEMENTS
“Forgiveness is the fragrance the flower leaves on the heel of the one who crushed it.” David Jeremiah
We to often love things and use people, when we should be using things and loving people. Romans 12:10 NIV; Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
NUGGETS FOR MEN
I would rather fail in the cause that someday will triumph than triumph in a cause that someday will fail.
2 Cor: 2:14; Now thanks be unto God, which always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
Pray for our safe return. I look forward to see you in 2012. Come say hello in the meetings and remind me that you are a partner. I love you and know He takes care of you, your family and your dreams.
In Awe of Jesus!
Andre van Zyl
Good News to the Nations 