Mercy Reigns in the Journey of Faith

By Dani Mkhwananzi

Christianity is a journey; it is a journey most of us start when God finds us in our sinfulness and delivers us to our righteousness for his names sake (Psalm 23:3). It is a process that we have to be aware of, and we have to be aware of our responsibility at each stage in order to progress to the next stage of our journey. The scriptures tell us of the journey the children of Israel had from their place of slavery, Egypt, where God rescued them with his powerful arm and then journeyed with them in the wilderness to bring them to their Promised Land, Canaan, a land he had promised to their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
This journey that the Israelites had is quite similar to the journey that we Christians have; the only difference is that they did their journey physically and God was with them physically as well, while ours is a spiritual journey and he is in us as the Holy Spirit, guiding us. The canon has recorded their journeys story for us to learn from and do ours better (1 Corinthians 10:6). Ive noted through the scriptures that it was just through Gods mercy that they made it through to the Promised Land; even though most of them died in the wilderness, those who made it did so only because he was merciful to them. Ive realised that I have also survived thus far just by his grace. This is what this book is all abouthis mercy that has covered me thus far, the same mercy that carried the children of Israel on their journey from Egypt to Canaan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Aug 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524516345

Dani Mkhwananzi

In a very remote village of the rural areas of Zimbabwe in Southern Africa, the author was born into a polygamous family that was filled with much hatred and confusion. She never experienced love in her family, only strife and contention. Coupled with a few more problems, which included her name, the author grew up with no sense of self-worth. She did not feel loved or wanted, and that just created problem after problem until she could not find a reason to continue in this life. There is a proverb in her language that says rotten meat will always attract flies. No matter how much one covers it, flies will catch the smell and will swarm around it. This proverb means that once something happens to you, it becomes a recurring theme in your life no matter how much you try to hide it. Unfortunately for the author, this became the story of her life throughout her childhood until adulthood. It only got worse after marriage; at that point, the author completely lost her will to live and almost took her own life because if that was what life had to offer, then it was not worth living. It was at this point in her life that she met Jesus and her journey as a Christian began. She has personally experienced the grace of God, and she can’t keep it to herself but has to shout it from the mountaintops. Sidanisile is a divorced mother of three, a nurse by profession, and a recent graduate of Harvest Bible College after completing her BA in ministry. She is currently working on starting her ministry, where she aspires to tell the world about the goodness of the Lord.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 by Dani Mkhwananzi.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016913274

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5245-1635-2

               Softcover        978-1-5245-1633-8

               eBook             978-1-5245-1634-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

All scripture used in this book, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, WOMAN THOU ART LOOSED EDITION. New King James Version. Copyright 1998 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Rev. date: 08/11/2016

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1 Step Up, and Step Out!

Chapter 2 He Is a God of Order, and His Timing Is Always Perfect!

Chapter 3 Count on Him; His Assurance Is Never Wavering!

Chapter 4 The Separation Process Is Not Easy; Fix Your Eyes on Him, and He Will See You Through!

Chapter 5 It Is Not Attained by Imagination; It Takes Discipline to Unlock the Door to the Promised Land—Prayer!

Chapter 6 He Extends His Mercy Even to Your Enemies; It Is Not His Desire That Anyone Should Perish

Chapter 7 The Challenges Are Real, but He Fights for Us; Be Still and Know That He Is God!

Chapter 8 The Challenges Are Not the Same as the Ones beyond the Red Sea; Trust Him Anyway!

Chapter 9 His Grace Is All There Is for Us to Make It in This Journey!

Chapter 10 Be Real with Him; He Knows Your Innermost Parts, and He Even Knows the State of Your Heart!

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

—Titus 2:11–14

Acknowledgements

As this is my first work, it was not easy for me to get here. It took a lot of encouragement and prayers to get to this point. I need to thank a wide range of people, but it would be impossible to put all their names down here. But at the top of that list, I would like to thank my children, Shyleen, Sithembiso, and Melusi, who have been a source of my strength; they did not let me slip into the pity parties I threw for myself along the way. They have seen my tears, and they know my weaknesses, yet they believed in me. Thank you, guys; you really are gifts from God. If I were given a chance to choose who my children were, I would still choose you. I would also like to thank the following people.

• My family, the Mapendukas – our situation has made me realise that we need a Saviour. Whenever something happens among us, it drives me to my knees and brings me close to my Saviour; you have a role in my life.

• My mother – thank you, ‘ntombe’mhlophe’, for nurturing me this far.

• My sister, Sindiso Mapenduka, and her partner, Enock Murapa, who have been behind me every step of the way – I couldn’t have got this far without your prayers and encouragement.

• Bishop Oliver Mutizhe and the congregation of Mabasa Abapostoli who welcomed me into the Christian family and taught me to pray – they still go for days without food, interceding for me, and have not stopped encouraging me. Thank you, my spiritual father, and thank you, my brethren; may the Lord bless you!

• All my friends who believed in me, including Debra Mberi, Ntokozo Moyo, Ntokozo Ncube, Rosemary Ndimande, Evelyn Bediako, Ruth Konomba, Thabani Ncube, and the rest of my family and friends – the list is long, and I say to those whose names are not here that their names are engraved in my heart, and I am forever grateful for having them in my life.

Chapter 1

Step Up, and Step Out!

Then Moses said to God, Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?

—Exodus 3:13

This was the cry of one man, Moses, when God confronted him in the midst of a burning bush and asked him to go back to Egypt and lead His children, the children of Israel, from the land of their slavery. The children of Israel had been in Egypt for 430 years. In their misery under the oppression of the taskmasters, they cried out to God. God heard their cries and remembered the promise He made to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 2:24). God had promised them that, although their descendants would be slaves in a foreign land, He would deliver them and bring them into the land He promised to give to them.

More often than not in life, people fail to live up to their calling, not because they don’t know what to do or they aren’t gifted enough to do what God calls them to do. As we are all aware, our God is a loving Father, and when He calls us for an assignment, He already has everything that we would need for the calling. All He requires from us is our availability and trust in Him. The biggest problem that causes most of us to fail or not live up to our calling is our difficulty in getting up and getting started. Even Moses faced this problem. It took more than two chapters of the Bible (Exodus 3–4) to get Moses to agree to do what God asked him to do. He even made God angry with him before he agreed to do what God called him to do (Exodus 4:14). Moses came up with every excuse imaginable just so he could escape the assignment God had for him.

When reading this passage, I noticed how hard Moses tried to convince God that He was talking to the wrong guy. Surely, God had got mixed up and mistakenly approached Moses with the message to go back to Egypt. This encouraged me not because Moses was refusing to be sent by God but because I then realised I was not the only one who had a problem with God’s calling in life. I was in a similar situation to that of Moses, even in sitting down and writing this book. It took me more than five years to start putting pen to paper and do what I knew God called me to do. I had a list of excuses as well, maybe a list longer than Moses had. As far as I was concerned, they were genuine excuses, but I doubt they were genuine in God’s perception.

I remember how long it took me to actually discipline myself to go to Bible college. I remember very well the day that I finally said, OK, God, I will go to Bible college. I had been told many times that I had a calling in life and that God was going to use me to encourage many to come to His kingdom. But year after year, I kept pushing that to the back of my mind, trying my best to forget it because it seemed impossible for me to do. Besides, who has not been told that they have a call from God in their lives?

It became a common song in my ears, and this thought would not leave me alone. It came up when I would rather not have thought about it. I often walked around a neighbourhood lake and had some quiet time there. I remember one Sunday morning when I was walking around it and meditating on Isaiah 40:12–26, about how big our God is. In that moment of meditating about the greatness of God, the Holy Spirit spoke to me in a tangible way that I could not deny. He gave me the specifics of my ministry in that moment, but all I could say was Get behind me, Satan. This is really you, Satan. I have just been meditating on this scripture that talks about the greatness of God, and now you are telling me that I can be a part of His plan.

I pushed that conversation as far away from me as I could. I convinced myself that God was not talking to me. Why would a God so big bother with me and what I did? After all, God knew that I was a single mother, trying my best to give my three children a decent life. I worked full-time, so when would I have time to read and do assignments? I just did not want to entertain those hallucinations, because clearly I was hallucinating. God knew my circumstances. He would never want to add insult to my injury.

So I convinced myself I would never again entertain those thoughts. I then finished my devotions, went home, and got ready for church, and off I went. But that conversation I had with the Holy Spirit would not leave my mind, so I said a small prayer as I entered the church that day. I prayed, God, if that was You I was talking to earlier this morning, please do not let me leave the church without confirming that it was really You and not the devil and that I was not hallucinating.

Soon enough, it was church as usual, and I quickly forgot about the events of that morning. I enjoyed the service. We had a guest speaker that day from another state, a powerful man of God. Before the service ended, there was an altar call. I cannot remember why I found myself in that queue, but there I was in the queue, waiting for prayer. When the visiting pastor came to me, the first words that he said to me were You spoke to God this morning, and you asked Him to confirm if it was really Him speaking to you. Yes! It was Him speaking to you, and yes, He wants you to do what He told you to do. And this pastor gave me the whole details of my calling, which I had heard so many times in the six years preceding that year, 2011.

At that point, all I could do was fall to my knees. I sobbed like a little girl. I thought, I’m doomed. Now I have no excuse. I have to do this at whatever cost it takes. I sobbed so uncontrollably that morning that you would have felt sorry for me, dear reader. I normally have no trouble shedding tears. I have so many tears to shed that even when I laugh, they just pour out of my eyes. When I’m angry, they do the same. But that morning was different. I could not control the tears. I was