The Sweet Fragrance of Fruit - PERSONAL ARTICLE

The Sweet Fragrance of Fruit

A number of years ago the Lord drew me out of the ministry that He had called me into. I had been functioning in this ministry for the better part of twenty-five years and it had developed into a very unique, very dynamic and very Powerful ministry in the Holy Spirit, that resulted in the lives of thousands in South Africa and also in South America to be touched and forever changed. The ministry was earmarked by the tangible and overwhelming Presence of the Lord, in Living manifestation in our midst, the baptism of Fire, supernatural healing, miracles and deliverance, and a strong Word ministry as the Spirit would speak the Word in living utterance.

It took the better part of twenty years for the Lord to develop our ministry to the point where His Presence was so real that it could many times be seen with the naked eye in the form of a cloud or a mist that would cover the entire place where we were gathered. It also took many, many long hours, days, nights, months and years of living in consecration to the Holy Spirit, with more hours spent in His Presence in prayer than I can recount or remember. 

Prayer became the atmosphere I lived in, it became my spiritual oxygen, both for my own personal walk with the Lord as well as for my ministry. During these times of living secluded in the Presence of God and spending most of my life with Him, He revealed so much of Himself in me and to me. I learned to love and to cherish His Presence beyond anything else. He became my habitation.

My ministry revolved around one thing - Seeing people ignited and burning with God’s Fire! There was nothing I desired more than to want to see others discover God as I have come to know and experience Him. I wanted everyone possible to share in the reality of His Presence. To come to know all He wanted them to know Him as and more! 

Some called this ministry a “revival” ministry, and maybe it was a good word wherewith to describe it, but then again, the word had taken on so many different meanings, and so many were abusing the term, rather than using it. Every cheap imitation became a “revival”, signs, wonders and miracles became “revivals” and young men who barely had come to break into the depths of God’s Character, and who had scarcely being formed by His hand, were running around using the word “revival” in an attempt to secure a position of status and acclaim for themselves. So many talked about the "fire" and yet all it meant to them was external, signs, wonders and miracles, having a great time in the Presence of God, and sharing in some exciting supernatural experience! There was no deeper life, no deeper desire, no deeper commitment, no deeper sell out, no deeper love and a deeper surrender, so that it would not be about the experience of God's works, but all about God and Him being presently formed in those who would be filled with His Spirit-Fire! The Fire was an external experience for many, rather than the Flame of God consuming their very being and burning in their bones! Oh, I so longed to see people truly burn from within, radiantly glowing with His Glory, rather than merely basking in His Light!

All of these things jabbed into my heart because I knew that what I had experienced with God had been so much more valuable, so much more precious! He had opened the treasury of His heart and allowed me to gaze into it! I walked softly and I knew that those who truly had come to know my Lord, would follow Him in the same way.

At the peak of this time of ministry, the Lord called me aside. He told me that He was leading me into a new season in the Spirit. That a new time of ministry would come, wherein He would reveal Himself in a new revelation of His Glory.

The journey I have come to be a part of during the past few years has been nothing short of that! God has blessed me with the most incredible revelations, leading me to such a wonderful insight into His Person and His Being. But more than that has happened. I have had the privilege to share, by direct revelation of the Holy Spirit, the very things which God had invested into my own life and ministry in those years that He so Powerfully used me as His vessel. My dream of seeing others coming to truly Know Him in the revelation of His Spirit and Life, that He alone can give, and to see them change as I was changed, and consumed as I was consumed, to see others being used in the same manner as He has used me, running with the same Fire, and burning with the same zeal and passion, while being completely consumed by His Love, was finally beginning to come true!

What have we received that is ours? What has been given, that was not given to be given away? What have we received that is ours to bury and to keep hidden in obscurity, lest others may share in our wealth?

What would keep us from sowing the Seed, no matter how Precious, and no matter how much pain and tears it has cost us to obtain it? What good is Seed if it is never sown? How will it benefit us if we have no harvests to show from what we have received when we are no longer here?

“Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it stays by itself, but if it is sown, it produces a harvest” - Jesus

We were called to sow what we receive and to sow ourselves along with it!

For the past nine months, I have intensively been Sowing into the lives of people, by simply passing along what the Lord had shared and invested in me. As I did, He has been pouring Himself into men and women who were hungry to receive, and they caught Fire! He became more Real and Powerful in them and through them in ministry, than they ever knew Him to be, or thought possible.

The fruit is sweet, satisfying, pleasing, beautiful to behold, lovely to see, a sweet aroma to savor - I am seeing a dream unfold! I am seeing others running with His Fire, dedicated, committed and unstoppable for Jesus! The ministry of His Spirit in the measure of the Anointing I have come to experience in my own life is no longer exclusive to me, I am seeing it and hearing it everywhere, from North West to Cape Town, and others are being touched through the vessels God is now using and preparing for greater Glory! Praise God! The Batton is being passed, not to one, but to as many who have “ears to hear”, and eyes to see! He is raising an army of men and women burning, and on Fire with His Spirit, and I am finally having the joy of feasting on the fruit I have so longed from the Lord!

What will happen in the coming years? Only God knows. What do I expect and hope to happen? I hope that more and more young men and women will be directed our way, to be shown the Way of the Spirit, to be imparted with that which God wants to impart into them of Himself. I trust that those who have been directly touched through our ministry will run far and wide with His Fire, and ignite others whom we personally may never know and that they will be imparted with the same Fire from the Lord!

Finally, I hope to rejoin the race soon! I trust that the Lord will lead me back into the field of ministry He called me from, for a couple of years at least, and that it will be a far greater revelation of His Person and His Power than we ever known before. I trust that He will reveal Himself in ways we have never dreamed possible. He has spoken to me about 2019 being the year of my return to the field, I am patiently waiting to see it come to pass.

- Johann van der Hoven