The Sunday Mail
Shekkainah Glory Ministries in partnership and Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (Harare Province) will hold the “Mystery Revealed: Mirror Word Grace Conference” from November 6 to 7, under the theme: “Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27)”. The hosts are Bishop Shelton and Mrs Rudo Mudyaro. Francois du Toit from South Africa – author of “The Mirror Bible” – will be the keynote speaker. We asked du Toit a few questions. Read on.
Q: This is the second time you will be coming to Zimbabwe as keynote speaker at the Mirror Grace Conference. What has made you come back?
A: It is with great excitement and expectation that my wife Lydia and I will be coming to the Dutch Reformed Church Hall in Harare for the Mirror Grace Conference. We have visited your country many times in the past and feel so privileged and blessed to be associated with the wonderful people of Zimbabwe.
Your rich natural resources in mineral wealth and exquisite beauty in nature are eclipsed by the wealth that every person carries within them!
Q: What is the Mirror Grace message about and why is it important?
A: The Mirror message is a simple but most powerful and relevant revelation! For centuries, the Christian world has been trapped in a typical “window-shopping” mindset – we studied Scripture that way and structured our church programmes accordingly! We would carefully search out and underline the wonderful promises of God and claim them out loud in our prayers and songs with much sincerity, without realising that we are actually looking into the mirror of God’s redeemed image and likeness within us!
Jesus did not come as an example for us but of us! Just like the beautiful swan in the “Ugly Duckling” story, we have forgotten what manner of people we are by God’s original design! We have embraced an inferior identity that we have inherited through the futile ways of our fathers!
We are not defined by our history, culture, language and geographic or ethnic groupings! The days of knowing one another and ourselves according to the flesh, are over!
Sadly, the Christian community has become the most divided community in society! But what joy to announce the grandest “gooddes’t” news of all time! It is not what we believe that matters! Our faith does not define God! God’s faith defines us!
In fact, Paul says in Ephesians 4 that there is only one faith! Jesus is exactly what God believes! And the great news is that Jesus is what God believes about you!
Q: I understand these meetings are international. How has the message been of grace received?
A: Over the years, we have travelled extensively – thank God for the Internet and the social media! In July 2007, I began to post my book, “God Believes in You”, sentence by sentence in daily thoughts on Facebook.
That was also the year I began the “Mirror Paraphrase Translation”. We were overwhelmed with the response as people began to invite us to share at their fellowships and churches.
We have travelled to Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Uganda, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique and Botswana, and South Africa.
In Europe we have done our Mirror Schools in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Holland, England, Scotland and Wales. We have also been to Pakistan and Jamaica. Then all across America over the past five years, and last year we launched the Spanish Mirror Bible in Colombia and Mexico.
Q: What are your expectations from the forthcoming conference?
A: There is nothing that I value more than the tangible encounter of the presence of God. Nothing known to man equals the sensation and life changing impact of the love of God realised. Times of refreshing ignite faith.
We live in a world where so many things distract from that which is really important. We can so easily be caught up in the day to day routine of the many survival programmes.
Francois du Toit and his wife Lydia
What I love about the good news is that it is good and it is news! The best news is irrelevant if someone feels excluded! We are not talking good or even positive predictions, we are engaging in a message that announces what already happened.
The Gospel holds the ingredient to the most powerful influence that the consciousness of man could ever encounter. Nothing known to man presents a greater wealth of wisdom than the love of God realised. This great revelation is not only His love for us but also His love in us for others!
We value the environment of fellowship where everyone is equally included and equally esteemed. Faith fellowship ignites when we acknowledge every good thing that is in us in Christ! (Philemon 1:6)
In Christ all humanity is equally found! Sin in the first place is not about things you do or don’t do – sin is missing out on sonship.
Jesus Christ remains the most current, relevant and pivotal message of all time. He is the language of God. He is the Word that was from the beginning face to face with God, nothing in Him distracts from who God is; He holds all things together forever; the Father of mankind has us all wrapped up in Him.
The sum total of philosophical thought and contemplation could never match or replace Him. He is beyond the principle of the promise, and gives personality and person to every detail of the prophetic word. He is the very one in whom all things exist. He completes mankind’s every expectation.
Q: Final remarks
A: During our honeymoon in January 1979, in the Blyderiver Canyons in Mpumalanga, South Africa, Lydia and I met a nature conservation officer who told us of a fascinating incident when they released a black eagle a week prior to our visit; the eagle had been in the Pretoria Zoo for ten years.
She told us how excited they were when the bird finally arrived in its wooden crate. This was the day for this eagle to be freed and to return to the life of its design. But their excitement soon turned to frustration when, after opening the cage, the bird refused to fly!
Ten years of caged life seemed to have trapped its mind in an invisible enclosure! How could they get the eagle to realise that it was indeed free? No amount of prompting and prodding seemed to help. Then, after some hours the bird suddenly looked up, and in the distance they heard the call of another eagle; this was the moment of true freedom! Immediately the zoo-eagle took off in flight.
No flying lessons are required when truth is realised. This dramatic story left a deep impression on my mind. I knew that in the light of Paul’s revelation of the good news, we are left with one urgent priority, which is to announce to the nations with bold confidence the truth about their original identity and mirror-reflect the integrity of their redeemed innocence.
Email feedback at [email protected]
