Twenty-Five Deaf People Healed: God Judges Success Differently

Sermon outline

God provides for those who trust Him rather than people, moves where His Spirit is allowed to lead, and measures success by His call, not by crowds, money or colour.

1. If you look unto Jesus, you will get your healing

   People were carried into the church on mats, beds and mattresses and walked out healed. A man in the last stages of HIV and AIDS was prayed for on the stage and came back three months later completely healed, and a nursing sister with lupus fell under the power of God and got up healed, and her whole family began attending church. At the crusades in town, Phoenix, Umlazi, Newcastle and Swaziland, people walked out of wheelchairs and the blind and deaf were healed.

   Illustration: A City Hall sermon on the bronze serpent Moses lifted on a pole: whoever looked at it was healed.

   “And I say, if you look unto Jesus, you will get your healing.”

   • Numbers 21:8-9

2. A dream, a bookshop and a 100,000 rand deposit

   The small, century-old church, seating about 100 beside a graveyard and the railway line, was no place to expand, so he looked for a bigger building. After a dream, he went to a bookshop and met a man who gave him the owner's details for the building in North Coast Road; the owner demanded a 100,000 rand deposit by Friday. He and Pastor Zubeda agreed to sell their paid-off home, and at a Friday dinner a Christian businessman gave him a cheque for the full 100,000 rand; after going to about eight banks, the bond was approved.

   Illustration: The owner leaned back in his plush office and said he did not trust pastors. The former policeman stood, leaned on the desk and told him to retract it.

   “Don't take a paintbrush and brush all pastors.”

3. Lean not on the arm of flesh

   The derelict building took years of renovation, with the family and staff living in it, and within nine years it was paid off. Then they found a derelict cinema; a businessman promised to pay it off within 12 months, but trusting people proved a mistake. While he was in Swaziland the selling church's board was divided, and he asked Pastor Wesley Augustus to tell them the Lord needed the building; they agreed that afternoon.

   Illustration: They celebrated Pastor Adrian's birthday on a pile of rubble in the building they were renovating.

   “Trust. Put your trust in God.”

   • Jeremiah 17:5

4. You've got to be led by the Spirit

   Preaching in Swaziland for his friend Pastor Justice Dlamini, the Lord told him to pray for the sick first. He asked if there were deaf people present, and a group of 25 was seated to one side; one by one, all 25 were healed, including the chairperson of the national deaf society. Services must not simply run to a programme and a time limit; the Holy Spirit must be free to move.

   Illustration: He could not see the deaf group from where he stood, because the church was built in the round.

   “And really, at the end of the day, if the Holy Spirit is not present in the service, does not touch people, does not minister to people, then it's no better than a motivational talk.”

5. Don't judge success by numbers and money

   Many now call a church successful only if it has a large crowd and a lot of money. Jesus had twelve disciples and ministered to ones and twos, and the New Testament churches met in homes. He is not against mega churches and has that vision for Pastor Wesley, but crowd size does not prove God's approval.

   Illustration: Hell is overpopulated, yet no one would call it successful.

   “But I am saying, what I am saying, is that we must not judge success by numbers and money.”

   • Matthew 14:13-21

6. Racism's got to die in the church

   The church must pray for nations and governments, but he believes the church is not seeing breakthrough because it is still divided by colour, and colonialism and apartheid have not fully left it. Believers are one royal priesthood in Christ, yet churches in South Africa and America remain largely segregated and people refuse to learn from preachers of another race. He shares that all his books were handwritten and are used by preachers overseas, yet sold poorly, which he puts down to prejudice, while insisting he is not speaking from bitterness.

   Illustration: In America a woman asked whether he had a message for America; he told her he had a message for the whole world.

   “Racism's got to die. Division's got to die in the church and we are responsible to kill it and to eradicate it out of the church simply by walking in love, teaching in love, embracing other cultures, embracing other nations.”

   • 1 Peter 2:9
   • Galatians 3:28
   • 1 Corinthians 11:29
   • Mark 16:15
   • John 8:59

7. Your rank is determined by God

   Rank in the church is now judged by size and money, but God gives high rank to unknown pastors of small churches, and heaven will surprise us. At a conference in Kitwe, Zambia, he called out and prophesied over a poorly dressed man, who turned out to be a pastor from the DRC who had raised seven people from the dead. God does not judge as man judges, as Samuel learned when he anointed David, the youngest son.

   Illustration: The DRC pastor told him how rebel soldiers brought a comrade two days dead from AK-47 wounds and threatened his family; he prayed, saw a light from heaven, commanded the man to rise, and the soldier coughed, his wounds closed, and he asked for food.

   “No one knows him. But heaven knows him and God knows him.”

   • 1 Samuel 16:7
   • 1 Samuel 16:11-13