by André Kruger
20 years ago, I became a believer. Since then, not a day went by that I didn’t fully believe that God was all-powerful, able to do anything. However, around 4 years ago, my wife and I were confronted with the realisation that although we believed in the power of God, we never experienced His power in our personal time of crisis.
It began 7 years ago when my wife, Sonika, began to battle with terrible insomnia. She would get into bed at around 9pm and often still be awake at 3am. I distinctly remember those long fearful nights, waking up to find her on the floor in the bathroom, weeping profusely, unable to sleep. Night after night we cried out to Jesus, trusting that the Lord would heal her, set her free, but nothing changed. We had exhausted all of our options, both natural and spiritual. This continued on-and-off for about 3 years. Bad nights became the rule, good nights the exception.
At times I was worried that Sonika would lose her mind. Burdened by the lack of sleep, depression slowly settled on her soul. The situation stole our joy and robbed us of our peace. We felt as if we were being held captive, with no hope of escape. My heart was breaking for my wife.
I was confronted with the reality that although I believed Jesus to be powerful, I didn’t actually know His power. I had been in full-time ministry for more than 10 years at that time and had to acknowledge that I was missing something significant somewhere.
The Lord used this whole ordeal to birth in us a deep thirst for more of Him and to truly experience the fullness of His power, for the sake of Sonika and many other people in our congregation, who were living defeated lives. The Lord began to teach us about physical healing and although I had only ever seen 2 people physically healed in my first 10 years of ministry, we stepped out in faith and over the last 3 years, have seen many people physically healed. Jesus healed Sonika and unlocked a whole new paradigm for us from the Scriptures.
The Lord began to speak to me about His church and about the fivefold ministry. I realised that the healing grace we were experiencing was only a small component of one of the fivefold ministry anointings, or rivers of grace, that flow from Heaven. What we were experiencing had nothing to do with being any more special than anyone else, but rather it was our deep and desperate thirst for a breakthrough that led us to a deeper measure of God’s empowerment. This same grace is available to every believer.
Out of this experience, I have written a devotional book entitled Increasing Heaven’s Flow in 40 Days, as a tool to help believers renew their minds according to Scripture and to reposition themselves in the midst of these fivefold ministry Flows, so that they can experience the same and more of what we’ve been experiencing. In the book I share specific truths that will help each of us become more evangelistic, empowered by Heaven to lead others to Christ, more pastoral, to see our relationships flourish and more prophetic, that we may know a greater measure of God’s presence in worship and prayer.
Ephesians 4 reveals that the fivefold ministry gifts will cause the Body of Christ to come to “the fullness of Christ”. This is my heart’s desire. This is my life’s mission. I love the Bride of Christ, His Church, and I hope that this book will help prepare the Bride, that we would look more like Jesus.
For more info on Increasing Heaven’s Flow in 40 Days, visit www.heavensflow.org