Background

Sharing His Love is based on what we received from the Lord, in order to understand the awesomeness of our Lord, we would like to share the background of  what “Sharing His Love” meant to us and how it came about.

The Bible is the Word of God and every Word that is proclaimed is to the Glory of God and the establishment of His Kingdom. Before I got saved, the time when I knew about God and His Son, but I did not know Him, I received the below mentioned Word from my mother who have been praying for me. The Word she received for me was what the Lord revealed to a friend who prayed with her.

Isaiah 45:1-7 ​

¹ Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
and to loose the belts of kings,
to open doors before him
that gates may not be closed:
² “I will go before you
and level the exalted places,
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
and cut through the bars of iron,
³ I will give you the treasures of darkness
and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the LORD,
the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
⁴ For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I name you, though you do not know me.
⁵ I am the LORD, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
⁶ that people may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
⁷ I form light and create darkness;
I make well-being and create calamity;
I am the LORD, who does all these things.

Based on my “then” current situation I took verse 3 for myself, thinking that the treasure that the Lord will give me is worldly treasures. The Lord, however had a different plan. At that stage I stayed on a mission base, for accommodation purpose only. There was, “conveniently”, a mission conference, whom I reluctantly join from a distance, standing on the outside in front of the door. One of the attendance came to me saying that God instructed him to pull me out of this hole, he said he want to manifest it by pulling me physically, with a tongue in the cheek I agreed to this seemingly stupidity. As I was still smoking at that stage I put my cigarette on the retaining wall of the flower bed, and instructed him to pull, he just made a small pulling gesture on my arms pulling me one step closer to him. As I suspected nothing happened and I took my cigarette and continued smoking, standing at the door looking and listening.

At that stage I did not know that the Bible say in 1 Corinthians 1:27 “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty”. The “foolish act” of pulling me out of the hole had a deep Spiritual effect, not miraculously but over time it came into fulfillment.

The first effect of the mentioned “foolish act” was that I started thinking about using a blanket with a bible verse on it, to tell people about the love of God and in so doing “Sharing His Love”. This was strange as I did not even attent church or read the Bible.  

Without going into the detail, the Lord used the mentioned to draw me closer to Him. I wanted to know more, my mother gave me a New Living Translation Bible, that I started to read. As I started reading the Bible, a new world was opened for me, a world where God’s Love for a lost world where revealed. The more I read the Bible the more joy I experienced. With this in mind, when Dini, who run the mission base asked me to surrender my life unto the Lord so that He can complete the work He started in me. I wanted to surrender, but my response was, how. Her answer “A simple prayer of acknowledging your need to be saved in the name of Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God”.

After I prayed she said that I can ask the Lord for any two things I want from Him. I asked the desire of my heart at that moment, true love and purpose for my live.

At that stage, verse 3 became clear, the treasure in darkness is people that still need to experience the Love of God through His son Jesus Christ, and the means the Lord showed me is through the gift of a blanket, explaining His gift in love for us.

Then a year after being baptized verse 4 became true for me, as the Lord called me to Israel, saying that I should go to share His love with the people through serving.

Through it all the Lord revealed the true meaning of “Sharing His Love”. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. We have been blessed with the Love of God through His Son Jesus Christ, who said that salvation is from the Jews. So how can we live in the Love of Christ without sharing the love we received, we share in love what we received, out of thankfulness.

Sharing the love we received in Christ Jesus is a privilege, but like the 2 fish and the 5 loave there is never enough until you give what you have in the Hands of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, He will multiply as you give in love and in trusting Him.

The vision of Sharing His Love

The blanket as a gift, demonstrate in a understandable and tangible way the love of God through the gift of His Son Jesus Christ. We encourage all who have been blessed with the Love of Christ to participate in “Sharing His Love” through prayer.

The below mentioned song inspired me as it spoke to my heart and what the Lord revealed through “Sharing His Love”.

How we Share the gift of His love through the blanket.

We would visit churches in rural areas or just visit homes and then during the visit present one blanket as a gift to those present. However not giving it to a specific person we just placed it on the floor or a chair nearby, asking those present if they did not want it. Hinting that it was available since nobody took it. We would continue to explain that we had already given it, but that it was their responsibility to take it. Only then after understanding someone would realise the concept of the gift. This person usually then takes the gift and only hereafter we would continue in explaining the gift.

We would then explain to all the people present, just as the gift of the blanket was available to all of them and only the one who took it, received it, God gave Jesus as a gift to the whole world. Ephesians 2:1-9 “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Explaining that the gift God gave us through His Son Jesus Christ, who paid the price for our sins when HE died on the cross 2000 years ago, must be received in faith just as you would receive a gift like the blanket, you must take it. ONLY ONCE YOU HAVE TAKEN IT, it belongs to you.

Demonstrating the gift of Salvation through the Blood of the Lamb we would then wrap the person who received the blanket, with it. Asking the other people to explain what they see and they would only see the blanket. This then becomes a powerful symbol of the GIFT of God COVERING US by the Blood of the Lamb. So that when God looks down on us He sees those who received the gift OF JESUS He gave us in His love.

Then we would ask them what do God see when He looks down from Heaven ON YOU, can He see you clothed in the gift that He freely gave us in love. YOU then can become part of His household and He can see you covered and protected by the Blood of His Son whom He Loves.

There is only one way to be reconciled with God and that is through the gift God gave us in love, His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Once we do receive the gift, we however need to look after it in order for it to be of value to us. Using the blanket as the example, we explain the blanket (gift) only have a value as long as we look after it. If you forget it outside, it will not be available when you need it, meaning that once we received the gift in faith, we must live our life in the knowledge that we no longer walk alone, we walk covered and protected with the Blood of the Lamb, the gift of God. Jesus said in John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

In considering what Jesus told His disciples in John 13:10 “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, we also need to repent if we sinned in accordance to God Word. For if we do not repent, it would be like a blanket that gets dirty, and needs to be washed or else you will be ashamed to clothe yourself in it and you are no longer covered by it. If we accept God’s gift in His Son Jesus Christ we must remember that sin will stain the covering and it will no longer be effective until we repent of our sins before the Father in Jesus name.

The blanket is just a tangible reminder of God’s eternal gift in His Son Jesus Christ. We however trust in God to allow that message to bear fruit to the glory of His Name and Kingdom, as Jesus said, in John 17:17 “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”

Since the gospel is the gift we received, the message can differ in accordance to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We once had an opportunity to work with a pastor in Ingwavuma who wanted to plant a new church. We asked him to identify 20 homes we could visit in the area, but we specifically asked that these homes should not be of people who belong to a church, since the purpose of church planting is to win souls for the Kingdom and not to draw old members from others churches. The idea was that at each house we would present the blanket as a gift and in so doing explaining the gospel of salvation to the members of the household, inviting to receive the gift from God in love. At every house we visited, some members surrendered their lives to Jesus, and then asked to follow us to the next house in order to hear the messages. By God grace and through the power of the Holy Spirit each house had a different messages, but an appropriate message for that household. After 2 days of home visits, there was enough people to start a church.

The blanket, is just a method that God showed us, obedience to the Holy Spirit in utilizing this method is however where the power is. God said that we must just tell the truth and He will change the hearts of people. We must never accredit the method, it is a gift from God.