Checkpoints of Spiritual Migration
By Apostle Aje Pelser, Preached at Harvester Reformational Church, Cape Town 2016
In Stephen the Martyr’s sermon from the book of Acts of the Apostles chapter 7, he reveals clear Checkpoints to migrate to new Spiritual Territories. When he was done Jesus was standing at the right hand of God, an ovation fit for martyrs of our faith. Stephen makes the final migration to our final destination and gives us a map with checkpoints to follow into glory.
Checkpoint 1: Leave your Family Traditions – adopt a New Family in Christ
Abraham.
Act 7:3 and said to him, ‘GET OUT OF YOUR COUNTRY AND FROM YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME TO A LAND THAT I WILL SHOW YOU.’
Jesus said it clearly:
Luk 8:19 Then His mother and brothers came to Him, and could not approach Him because of the crowd.
Luk 8:20 And it was told Him by some, who said, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You.”
Luk 8:21 But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”
Checkpoint 2: Receive Prophetic Insight and Apostolic Perspective
God showed Abraham what would take place hundreds of years before Israel even existed. If you move with God, he gives you prophetic insight and apostolic perspective to live it out.
Checkpoint 3: Enter the Covenant between God and His Son Jesus
Genesis 15Gen 15:17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.
Exo 19:18 Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
Joh 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Act 7:8 Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision
Checkpoint 4: Endure Persecution from the church fathers who don’t see God in this move
Act 7:9 “And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him
Checkpoint 5: Be a Joseph for Pharaoh and provide a Posterity for your Brothers
Act 7:10 and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Act 7:11 Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance.
Act 7:12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
When there is a famine in the world of spiritual food, Joseph has storehouses full of resources. God showed us that the church is a house of bread – all kninds of bread form every nation in the cupboards, in the draweers, on the tables on the shelves. We are exporting the word of God to all nations!
Checkpoint 6: Moses – Let God put it in your heart to visit your brethren – only then
Act 7:23 “Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
Checkpoint 7: Don’t expect your brothers to understand your mantle immediately.
Act 7:25 For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.
Checkpoint 8: Discern Appointment in Accusation
Act 7:35 “This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND A JUDGE?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush.
Checkpoint 9: Let your life point to Christ Jesus
Act 7:37 “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘THE LORD YOUR GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN. HIM YOU SHALL HEAR.’
Act 7:38 “This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us,
Act 7:39 whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,
Later Moses appeared with Elijah to speak to Jesus about his decease – his death that would redeem with world of its sins. Moses still points to Christ. The Jews still are blinded today who do not see that Truth in Moses’ Law.
Checkpoint 10: Realize God does not dwell in buildings but in a Body of Christ – the Church
Act 7:48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:
Eph 2:19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
Eph 2:20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
Eph 2:21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
Eph 2:22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Checkpoint 11: You start to shine.
Transfiguration happens when the heavens open for you and Jesus stands to receive you into glory.
Col 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Col 3:4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Checkpoint 12: Your Sauls become Pauls!
Those who persecuted you God can turn.
Act 7:58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
