Hi Everyone,

My apologies for not getting this newsletter out sooner.  Trying to get sorted after being away for 6 weeks was just a little too time consuming. But here I am again – refreshed and renewed and truly on fire for an awesome God!

I got back to a rather full program for September and October.  We have yet to see what November holds and then I go home to South Africa for December and a week or so of January.  My family are still finding it hard to come to terms with my brother’s death and this is why I feel the Lord is making a way for me to go home.

I feel very much like Jeremiah in the message I need to bring in this newsletter. I almost wanted to pray that the Lord would give it to someone else.  But I’ve been sitting looking at the pictures of the destruction in New Orleans and along the coast up to Mobile and my heart has been breaking.

The word that the Lord has been rolling round and round in me since before the conference in New Jersey (beginning July) is that He is doing a new thing.  He said to me at the conference “My people don’t believe that I am doing a new thing”.  This worried me but when I started to reflect on it I had to agree.  We have, as the church, got into such a rut, of doing things the same old way.  We sit in the same seats every Sunday.  We go through the same format. every Sunday.  We speak to the same people every Sunday. We hear the same prophetic warnings and encouragements and still do nothing about them! GOD IS DOING A NEW THING!

Do you know what that is for you?  It will mean different things to different people because we each have a different calling.  Our purpose is the same but we will all arrive at that purpose along different tracks.  We are all parts of one whole and each has a part to play, or there will be a gap – your size – in the whole picture of things, if you are not doing your part that is.

Isaiah (please pronounce it right!<grin>) says in Chapter 42:6-10a  “I the Lord have called You for a righteous purpose and in righteousness;  I will take you by the hand and will keep you; I WILL GIVE YOU FOR A COVENANT TO THE PEOPLE, FOR A LIGHT TO THE NATIONS, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness from the prison.  I AM the Lord; that is My Name! And my glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.  BEHOLD, the former things have come to pass, and NEW THINGS I now declare; BEFORE THEY SPRING FORTH I TELL YOU OF THEM. Sing to the Lord a NEW song, and His praise FROM the end of the earth!”

And yes I have emphasised certain words because they are key.  You need to ask the Lord what these scriptures mean to you and how they pertain to your specific calling. It is a definite prophetic word to the Body right now.

God showed me that His people do not have an expectation for the NEW.  There is so much the Lord is wanting to do, in and through us, but we have got so used to the same old, same old that we don’t want to make the effort to seek Him for the new thing.  (Yeah, yeah, broken record Sandi!!  I’ve said this so often that people have stopped listening to it!!)

At a pastor’s breakfast with Ed Silvoso this past Saturday I realised how much we have yet to explore in the Kingdom of God.  How much God is wanting to do through us still. Unfortunately we have got to the place in our walk that if it takes effort we don’t want it.  We want the “feel good” stuff, that which panders to our senses, our souls, our flesh.  Anything outside of that “can’t be God”!  Sorry to disillusion you!  Being a Christian is not a picnic and if you think it is then you might as well ask the Lord to take you home now, because if you don’t the shock of what is coming might just kill you anyway if you’re not prepared! The JOY of serving God in the midst of all what is coming is something awesome!

New Orleans and that whole gulf area were prophesied over in 1998. I remembered the word when I heard of the impending hurricane and went cold inside.  Then I was reminded of the challenge the Lord spoke to a church in Northern Ireland at a prayer meeting after 9/11.  He said “what are you doing with what you are hearing?”. New York had also had a warning of impending disaster.

God says He doesn’t do things (or allow them is what it means too) without warning His prophets first. Our problem is that when these prophetic words come we either forget them or thank God that it’s not going to affect us – especially if we live somewhere else.  I was reminded of Jonah and the warning he didn’t want to bring to Nineveh.  What will it take for us to be obedient and to take these prophetic warnings seriously.  Nineveh repented  and God spared them and Jonah got bent out of shape because God didn’t destroy them.  What are you doing with what you are hearing?

I remember a testimony which came out of the hurricane that hit Honduras back in ’98.  I don’t remember all the facts and if anyone knows the whole story I will gladly stand corrected.  But basically it went like this.  A small village on a hill – 70 - 80% of the population were born-again believers – were listening to the newscasters and hearing of the impending doom.  The believers got together and prayed.  They asked God to show them what to do – they couldn’t avoid the hurricane – it was inevitable that they would be hit.  Many villages slid off the mountains and people were buried in mudslides and floods.  God told them to pack only what they could carry and to wait for His timing.  The leaders told the whole village – unsaved included – what the Lord said and they all obeyed.  They then waited on the Lord.  A few days later the Lord told them to leave the village and to head for the nearest city.  They all left at the same time and when they got to the mountain opposite where they had lived – these people were on foot or bicycle (no 4x4s’), carrying only what they could – they heard a noise and looked back and saw their whole village slip off the mountain down into the valley.  They saw the valley open up and the village disappear into a chasm which then closed with an almighty bang and they all – unsaved and saved alike – saw a dragon leave.  Not one life was lost. They only got out with what they could carry but not one life was lost from that community.

There was an even more recent testimony of a church on an island in the Pacific during the Tsunami disaster.  The Church heard from the Lord of the impending disaster and they started praying for the protection of their island and their people.  They went to the civic leaders with what they had heard and the civic leaders acted on the warning but it didn’t stop there, the church still kept praying and believing God for their deliverance.  When the disaster happened they were completely protected but they were also prepared and were able to be of immediate help to those other islands around them which were devastated.  They didn’t have to scramble to find the supplies they needed – everything was already in place and the church building which the Moslem civic leaders had been wanting removed was used at a refugee centre.

WHAT ARE YOU HEARING FOR YOUR COMMUNITY FOR YOUR STATE FOR YOUR NATION?  What are you doing to help people avoid having to go through destruction?  What are you hearing God tell you to do concerning those who have gone through the recent destruction in the Gulf? What are you hearing – period?  Are you even bothering to listen?  Then, WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH WHAT YOU ARE HEARING?

I would encourage especially my American Brothers and Sisters in Christ to read Rick Joyner’s report on the Gulf situation.  It is a positive message and an encouraging one.  It will also give you an opportunity to be of help to those who have been affected.  Please don’t sit idle and watch everyone else being active.  You too have a part to play, however big or however small, you have a part.

This isn’t a message to beat you up.  This is a challenge to start seeking God for the NEW THING.  It isn’t always a NICE thing but nevertheless a NEW thing.  Start seeking God for ways to change the situations around you.  God will give you the strategies if you take the time to hear them.

DO SOMETHING WITH WHAT YOU ARE HEARING!  GOD IS DOING A NEW THING!

A special thanks to those of you who are supporting me financially.  I pray God's 100-fold return of not only His giftings but His blessings.

For those who are praying.  Bless you!!!!!!!!

I can't do this work without all of your support.  Please remember that when you give - in whatever form - you become a partner and shareholder in what God is doing here in Scotland and you will reap the rewards.



Much love to you all
Sandi

"Where there is no continuous prophetic revelation, My people dwell carelessly"
http://sandiniven.tripod.com/