Who Do You Think You Are?

By André Olivier

Have you ever stopped to wonder why you were born to the parents you had? Why you are in the country you swear allegiance too. How tradition, culture, values, and life itself impact on you. What about sickness, suffering and deathdeath of children, not just one or two children in your own family, but the entire family but not you? When is it your turn to die as a child? Who is responsible for these deaths?
What happens when you get to a point in your life one day when you must answer the question Who do you think you are? Does the answer to this question change at certain time lines in your life or does the answer remain the same?
What impact does special force training, combat even protection of the state president of a country have on your response to these questions? What happens one day when you have an encounter with the living Godthe God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? This book is an honest answer to these and many more questions that the author found during his journey in writing this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Africa
• Release date: Nov 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482804355

André Olivier

André Olivier was born in East London, South Africa, to two very diverse parents—his mother is from Scottish decent and his father is from French decent. Six children were born to his parents, the eldest, Maria, died at the age of six, two other siblings, Leonard and Charmaine, died at a very young age, three weeks apart. Later, the other two siblings, Anthony and Sharon, died. His father died when he was in primary school, and his mother had her breast removed due to cancer. Having been set free from anger toward God, the world, and a lot of people in between, this is his true life account about the loving saving power of Jesus Christ.

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Copyright © 2014 by André Olivier.

ISBN:          Softcover          978-1-4828-0436-2

                    eBook               978-1-4828-0435-5

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Who am I?

Chapter 2 Who do you think you are? Part one

Chapter 3 How tradition shapes us

Chapter 4 How culture shapes us

Chapter 5 How a certain time in history shapes us

Chapter 6 How trouble, sickness and death shape us

Chapter 7 How God sees us

Chapter 8 Who do you think you are Part two

To glorify God

The purpose of this book is to bring glory to God the Father, His soon-returning Son, Jesus Christ, the risen savior and our comforter, the Holy Spirit. With every fiber of my being I want to achieve this by;

black.jpg    What I say and how I speak

black.jpg    What I think

black.jpg    What I do

black.jpg    Corrective actions when these are not in line with the Word

By no means do I underestimate the complexity of this task, nor do I want to create the impression that I have achieved this. I believe that in my life this will be a lifelong journey. By the grace of God, I have found milestones on this journey that indicate the progress I have made. By the same token, these milestones have also indicated where on this journey of life I have taken wrong turns and made wrong decisions.

It is written: "Even everyone who is called by my Name, whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed, whom I have made".

Lord, I will glorify You and no stones will cry out to do this on my behalf – it is my God given task!

PROLOGUE

W here do I start to demonstrate to you, the reader, why this book and why this specific title has seen the light? The title itself can be construed as being in your face . Well, is it? Maybe you need to read the contents and decide for yourself if this is so or not.

I believe I was challenged with the question who do you think you are? some time ago by the Lord. The answer was quite shocking – I really did not know. My parents were diverse – my mother being of English descent and my father a rural Afrikaner farmer who could not speak a word of English. Being a policeman for 23 years in the apartheid era also certainly added its penny’s worth to form my identity.

Even when I look in the mirror I see myself as a person with blonde hair, black eyebrows and a red beard. I am right-handed but kick a ball better with my left foot. I speak, read and write English and Afrikaans equally well and from a mere discussion one would not be able to discern if I was English or Afrikaans by birth.

As I pondered upon this now-nagging question, I made a few notes. I shared these notes by means of a discussion with a small group of people, some of who’d met for the first time in the lovely and tranquil bushveldt of South Africa earlier in 2010.

The result was unbelievable as the people present were challenged with the question: who do you think you are? It was the work of our Comforter who gently confronted the people, some whom I have never met before, and some deep in their seventies, who just started to weep uncontrollably.

The reason was the same as the experience I had, that after a lifetime, they did not really know the answer. As I continued to share, the Holy Spirit used and anointed the words to bless and edify all of us in the realization that we were now starting to have the deep-set knowledge of who we were. The longest journey a human being can take is from his head (knowledge) to his heart (relationship)! This is where the circumcision takes place, the heart of stone being removed and replaced with a heart of flesh – sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

Very recently in November 2010 I was in Nairobi, Kenya. I was alone in my hotel room, being quiet before the Lord when I felt in my spirit that I was being prompted to write this book – something I have never even dreamt of doing in my 56 years of life on earth. Who do you think you are?

Being strengthened by what I believe was confirmation from the Lord, I shared this thought with my wife upon arrival back from Nairobi in Accra, Ghana, where we are currently residing. At the time of writing this prologue I have been back home for two working days.

I take on this mammoth task hesitantly, but with great joy and expectation, as I have seen and heard what the Spirit can do when we are obedient to His prompting and calling. In all honesty and sincerity may God the Father through His soon-returning and only Son, Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, have their way in and through the pages of this book…

CHAPTER 1

Who am I?

W hen one asks this leading question – who am I? – you will receive a different answer every time. The answer will most probably be dictated to by where you are in your life at that particular stage, both physically and spiritually.

One would need to think of the prodigal son as an example. I believe that if he was asked the question, who do you think you are before he asked for his inheritance from his father, his answer would have been considerably different if the same question was asked of him at a later stage when he found himself degraded to living in a pig sty.

When faced with the question who do you think you are? some months ago, and for the first time in my life, I really thought about it from a cultural, traditional, ethnic, linguistic and spiritual perspective. The answer was a sobering experience – I really did not know. I believe I was challenged with this question who do you think you are? some time ago by the Lord. My parents were diverse. My mother being of English/Scottish decent and my