Listening to the Higher Powers, Living a Purposeful Life

It is my unapologetic view that the life we live is a spiritual war fair that requires a great deal of vigilance, intellect and Wisdom. In all of this, I find that there are times when God speaks to us through life experience, which can be translated to signs of the Universe, the question therefore is "are we listening". 

I want to share what seems to me to be a very Powerful testimony, I call it "A tale of Two Angels". As I digest and ponder on this experience I realise that a message has been sent, but do I get it, do I understand what the message is and am I ready to respond and do what i'm instructed to do.

I'm a member and leader of an Anglican church, in my personal Life i'm an entrepreneur and travel a lot, this means my time to be at the Church and perform my duties is very limited, but on one particular day I found time and decided to work from the Church, coincidentally an old lady came in, being pushed in a wheelchair by her helper, this old woman had not been to Church in more that 5 years, in her explanation she was on her way home from her regular Clinic check-up and on this day she asked her helper to take her to Church because she was Thirsty (both Spiritually and Physically in my view). 

Upon her arrival I was working from the front desk of the administration block, in her not so audible speech, she indicated to me that she was hungry and Thirsty, I then decided to make her Soft Porridge (Umdogo in her Language, isiZulu). While waiting for the porridge I decided to call other members of the Church that were in the office, this happened to be members of the Spiritual Team whom together we joined in a prayer for the Old citizen, upon prayer her soft porridge was ready and I dished up and fed her, one could almost see the change in her appearance upon receiving this prayer, eating, and drinking the water that she had also asked for. happiness was written all over her face as she made her way back home. A few days later I learned that this old lady had died, not in disbelief but with a content feeling I accepted these sad news as if I knew that she was going to leave earth.

The question I ask is "what was the message she brought to us", she received what to be symbolised the "Body and Blood of Christ" in the porridge and water that we provided to her, the fact that we prayed prior giving her food and water signaled how we were unconsciously preparing her final holy communion on earth, what more of a sign would I be looking for to realise that God was at play, God was speaking in a very powerful way. 

On the same day, miraculously a woman in her 40s also found her way to the Church, came through the same office door where I was working, indicating that she is a long lost member of our Church, she said she has not set foot in our Church in more than 16 Years, what was most interesting is that she was also passing by the Church, but on that day she believed that God had directed her to enter the Church premises and speak to anyone she came across. She proceeded to tell her story with tears all over her face, at this moment I suggested that she pray and speak to God about whatever was troubling her before she shares her life story with me, proceeding to explain the joy and peace she was feeling upon praying in the Church which she last visited 16 or so years ago. Astonishingly she indicated that she will come back to worship with us but never returned. Once again, what more do i want as a sign that God was at play, present and communicating his message through two Angels that would soon disappear after delivering the messages they were sent to deliver.

I'm convinced that God was speaking to me in a big way, the question is "was I listening", did I hear him telling me to avail myself and his Church to his people, saying his Ministry is in dire need of my effort to work for him. A foot soldier of his I have long declared that I will be, are these therefore the messages he is sending as guidance in his Ministry.

Do you hear him speak to you, are you ready and willing to answer to his call, take a minute, stop everything and listen to what he is saying to you through this story. I believe these are signs that he is there, are you always looking out for signs when he speaks and are you at all times ready to respond.

I am convinced that these two Women are signs that God came by to remind all of us that we are called to his Ministry on earth and are called to have our ears on the ground and listen to his messages, both of these women mysteriously found courage and strength to come into his house of prayer to seek Spiritual fulfillment before they could both disappear (Think about it, these were Angels, messengers of God who came to deliver a message and disappeared).

Listen to the message that God sends to you as an individual through the special Visits of these two messengers of God, I believe there are more Angels out there, coming to you to deliver God's messages but because we are focused on earthly things, we are unable to hear him, this was a strong message sent to you as his child, placed in his Ministry. 

DK Phejane

 #MeditationsOfTheHeart

Soweto attacks on foreign shops: criminality or Xenophobia

For the #MEC for Safety in Gauteng to say with such absolute certainty and conviction that the outbreak of #Violence and #looting of #Foreignshops in #Soweto is not xenophobic but Criminal is but a smoke screen on its own, the reality is that "For having to have allowed this influx of Foreigners into the country to open shops was a failure by #Government".

Government needs to acknowledge first that it has failed to come up with an effective small business support programme (never mind a programme to encourage Entrepreneurship), I’m saying this because the majority of these foreign shops are established where a Black business/shop failed/closed down, this tells you that if so many Black owned Spaza shops in the Townships are closing down, something is wrong and in my view it boils down to Government failure.

When the Government of the new dispensation took over, the focus was on encouraging fake entrepreneurship through programmes such as #ASGISA, a misdirected programme which in fact lead to the death of small black owned businesses like Spaza shops, how on earth does a developmental programme's aims and goals become "to eliminating the second economy", that's outrageous.

Then as we thought we were moving swiftly towards growth and development, the Apartheid of business was introduced in the name of #BEE, then later BBBEE. Indeed these became very instrumental in achieving AsgiSA goals of eliminating the so called second economy, in fact they helped kill Black Small Businesses in the Townships and introduced fake Entrepreneurs, and existing small businesses such as Spaza Shops and Supermarkets were neglected further. More focus was given to the so called SMME sector, which is a sector that has always been misinterpreted as a sector that excludes informal businesses such as street vending and spaza shops. What all this then produces was a bigger monster which was to be the downfall of many black South Africans in their quest to become entrepreneurs, the misperception among our people that business is about Tenders, Big money, Big cars and fun, fun, fun and more fun, little did the system tell them that Tenders shall be given to those who are connected, BEE means nothing if you do not have the knowhow of the business you are in, preferential procurement means nothing if you have not complied with the basic necessities of formally registering a business and other compliance policies such as that of SARS.

In a nutshell I am trying to say, the situation was bound to get to this as more and more young South Africans become more and more desperate, languishing in Townships across the country not knowing what to do next, there is an element of criminality which is nothing new as crime in our country becomes more and more complicated by day, criminals are finding new ways of committing crimes and smoke screens such as xenophobic attacks are part of those efforts, however Xenophobia is a great reality in this case, who wouldn’t be jealous of a foreigner coming into a poverty stricken environment and striking it rich overnight, black people know very well that the Spaza business is a simple one that does not require much apart from a small start-up capital, once that is the case it then becomes the responsibility of government to provide support to these entrepreneurs through training programmes that will ensure the sustainability of the businesses.

One question remains in my mind though and that is “Chinese Malls/Shopping Centres are growing at a similarly rapid rate in South Africa, how long will it take before we see the same kind of attacks against them”?   

 #MeditationsOfTheHeart