HAROLD MAWELA

 ## The Unrivalled Reign: Christ’s Supremacy in a Fractured South Africa   The relentless *crackle* of load-shedding plunges my Pretoria home into darkness again. My daughter’s voice trembles: *"Tata, will the lights return?"* In this tangible blackout, I grasp a cosmic truth: **South Africa’s chaos bows to a Sovereign who governs galaxies.**   ### I. The Baobab and the Borrowed Roots: A Cultural Crossroads   > *"For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell"* (Colossians 1:19) .   Last month, Gĩkũyũ elders visited our Akasia community, urging men to offer *mbũri cia kiama* (goats to elders) to "reclaim African identity" . "Celebrate your roots!" they insisted. Yet Paul’s thunder in Colossians arrests me: cultural continuity must *never* eclipse Christ’s cosmic completeness.   **Logical Precision:**   1. **Premise 1**: Any ritual demanding allegiance rivaling Christ’s atonement obscures the Gospel (Colossians ...

 ## The Unshakeable Compass: Divine Wisdom in a Land of Shifting Sands   **Akasia Dawn**   The morning sun paints the Magaliesberg in hues of burnt orange, yet my kitchen remains shadowed. *Load-shedding again.* I fumble for candles, my mind racing: *Will the water pump work? Did I save that document? How will Adanna’s online exams proceed?* Human understanding, in this moment, feels like a sputtering generator—overburdened, underpowered. It’s here, amid the smell of melting wax and uncertainty, that Proverbs 3:5–6 pierces the gloom: *"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; lean not on your own understanding."*   ### The Illusion of Human Control   We South Africans know the seduction of self-reliance. We’ve rebuilt after floods, protested failing services, and navigated potholes deeper than mining shafts. Yet 2024’s unity government—that fragile mosaic of ideologies—reveals our limits . Politicians promise "new dawns," yet 287 schools still ...

 ## The Unbreaking Reed: Why Faith Bends But Never Breaks in South Africa’s Gale My friends, gather close. The Pretoria wind whistles a familiar tune tonight, whipping dust down our Akasia streets. Just yesterday, perched on my rooftop chasing a signal *past* load-shedding’s shadow (ah, Eskom’s fickle flicker!), I watched a young marula tree. That fierce Highveld gust bent it near double – branches pleading towards the earth. Yet, come dawn? There it stood. Straight. Resilient. Greener, it seemed. Not a twig broken. **Rigidity breaks; flexibility thrives.** That tree preached a sermon louder than my Sunday best. We know this wind, don’t we? It’s not just meteorological. It’s the gale of change roaring through our beloved, beleaguered Mzansi. Coalition governments shift like Kalahari dunes. The Rand dances a dizzying jig. Streets simmer with frustration, while screens scream global chaos. We long for stability, a solid rock unmoved. Yet, Isaiah whispers God’s disruptive promise: *“S...

 ## The Tongue’s Fire: Between Prophetic Authority and Charismatic Charlatans in the African Landscape ### I. Akasia Dawn: A Personal Prologue   The morning mist still clings to the thorn trees outside my Akasia window as I sip rooibos tea, the radio murmuring familiar headlines: another “prophet” arrested for fraud, a township pastor promising miracle debt-cancellations if followers sow “faith seeds” into his Mercedes fund, a politician quoting Deuteronomy to justify corruption. My heart tightens. *This*, brothers and sisters, is where our battle rages—not merely in the realm of ideas, but in the very *integrity of the spoken word*. When Scripture declares, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21), it unveils a cosmic principle hijacked by hucksters and redeemed by saints. Today, we journey into the fire and fallout of prophetic declarations in a land thirsty for authenticity. ### II. Defining the Terrain: Prophecy vs. Performance   **A....

 ## The Obedience Key: Unlocking Africa’s Anointing in the Midst of Storms The command came on a rain-lashed Pretoria morning. I stood at my window in Akasia, watching the deluge turn streets into rivers—a too-familiar metaphor for our nation’s storms. My phone buzzed: a ministry colleague urged me to speak at a gathering in Nineveh… well, *Alexandra Township*, a place where my comfortable theology felt as out of place as a snowman on Church Square. My spirit recoiled. *"Too complex, Harold. Too risky. Let someone younger, bolder, go."* Then it echoed—Samuel’s ancient roar cutting through 3,000 years of human evasion: **“To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22).** Not *slightly* better. Not *contextually* better. *Fundamentally, eternally better.*   ### I. The Skeleton Key of Sovereignty   Obedience isn’t groveling submission to a celestial tyrant. It’s the skeleton key crafted for the locks binding our blessings. Picture a miner deep in Rustenberg’s p...

 ## The Flickering Filament: Divine Presence in a Load-Shed Soul Friend, let me tell you about yesterday. There I was, navigating the familiar battlefield of the N1 North during peak hour, Pretoria’s concrete veins throbbing with frustrated metal. The sun, a weary orange disc, bled into the smog. My dashboard clock blinked – 5:37 PM. And then, *phut*. Not just the traffic lights ahead, but my *own* spirit dimmed. Eskom’s cruel scheduler had struck again. Load-shedding. Stage 6. Darkness, literal and metaphorical, began its encroach. The aircon died, the radio silenced, and the carefully constructed illusion of control in my air-conditioned bubble evaporated. Just another Tuesday in Mzansi, *ne*? But in that sudden, powerless stillness, crammed between impatient taxis and growling bakkies, the Lord whispered a truth sharper than any hooter: *"Apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).* **Ah, "nothing."** Let’s define our terms clearly, brothers and sisters. It do...

 ## The Forge of Faith: Escaping the Bloodless Gospel’s Embrace **Akasia, Pretoria — July 2025**   The winter air bites sharp as a *mamba*’s tooth here in Akasia. I sip rooibos tea on my porch, watching the *veld* shimmer gold under a brittle sun. On my phone, headlines scream: *“59 White South Africans Granted US Refugee Status!”* . Elsewhere, a viral clip shows a prophet in sequinned robes demanding a congregant’s salary “for angelic investment.” My chest tightens. *This*, friends, is the fruit of a **bloodless gospel**—a faith anaemic, diluted, divorced from the Cross’s terrible furnace. It whispers, *“Just believe,”* ignoring Christ’s roar: *“If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me!”* (Luke 9:23).   ### I. The Lukewarm Swamp: Where Truth Drowns   *“So, because you are lukewarm... I will spit you out of My mouth.”* (Revelation 3:16).   **Picture this:** Laodicea’s aqueducts, stagnant with...

## The Forge of the Unseen: Why Your Wilderness is God’s Workshop   *(First-Person Reflection from Akasia)*   The drought here in Akasia cracks the earth like a parched prayer. My garden—once vibrant—now whispers brown and brittle. Last week, as I hauled greywater to save a struggling lemon tree, I recalled the words of an elder: *“Ubumanzi bomoya bunikwa ngumoya”* (The dew of the Spirit is given by the Spirit). We ache for rain, but God aches for roots that dig deeper. **Preparation is not passivity. It is the sweat of obedience in a season of scarcity.**   ### I. The Rhythm of Readiness: Divine Drills in Daily Disruption   Scripture thunders: *“The horse is made ready for battle, but victory rests with the Lord”* (Proverbs 21:31). Yet South Africans know disruption like a familiar neighbour. Loadshedding plunges us into darkness. Potholes fracture our commutes. Unemployment gnaws at hope—32.9% nationally, 45.1% among youth . We groan, *“LORD, wh...

 ## The Basin Revolution: Where True Greatness Kneels   *(A Reflection on Mark 10:44 from the Soil of Mzansi)*   **Akasia, Pretoria**—Last Tuesday, I stood in a snaking queue at the Soshanguve mall. Pensioners clutched empty water containers. A toddler wailed as his mother counted rands for maize meal. On my phone, a notification flashed: *"Emperors Palace unveils R200 million VIP gaming suite with gold-leaf ceilings"* . Two South Africas. One grasping for crowns, the other begging for crumbs. And in this tension, Jesus whispers: *"Whoever wants to be first must be slave of all"* (Mark 10:44).   ### I. The Lie We’ve Laundered: Servanthood as Surrender   We’ve been poisoned by Pharaoh’s playbook. From colonial *baases* to post-democracy tenderpreneurs, our land confuses *dominance* with *greatness*. We praise presidents who ride in blue-light brigades, pastors demanding private jets, and CEOs hoarding millions while farmworkers sleep in tin sh...

 ## The Unshakeable Currency: When Faith Confronts Africa’s Mountains   **Akasia, Pretoria.** This morning, I watched mist cling to the Magaliesberg like a prayer shawl. My neighbour, Mama Ndlovu, met me at the gate—her son’s mining job vanished in a corporate downsizing. "They say *recession*," she spat the English word like a pip. "But God says *provider*." She marched to her shack singing *"Nkosi yam, ungadeli!"* (My Lord, don’t abandon me!). In her defiance, I saw it: **faith is the only currency that cashes Heaven’s checks when earthly banks collapse.**   ### I. The Anatomy of Faith: More Than Wishful Thinking   Scripture defines faith as "*confidence in what we hope for, assurance about what we do not see*" (Hebrews 11:1). Yet in our townships, faith is often reduced to *"name it, claim it"* theatrics or fatalistic resignation. Let’s dismantle both deceptions:   **A. Biblical Faith vs. Cultural Counterfeits**   - **Faith ≠ Pos...

 ## The Unhurried Harvest: Why Patience is the Soil Where God Grows Greatness   *(A Reflection from Akasia, Pretoria)* Brothers and sisters, let me confess: I pace my gate as Eskom’s load-shedding plunges Akasia into darkness—*again*. My phone battery bleeds out while a municipal billing queue snakes down Solomon Mahlangu Drive. We know waiting in bones weary with delay. Yet Scripture thunders: *"Let patience have her perfect work"* (James 1:4) . Not a passive pause, but an active incubation—a divine agriculture where God grows nations in the unseen. ### I. The Cultivation of the Unseen: When God’s Clock Confounds Our Calendars   South Africa understands sowing without quick reaping. My grandfather buried maize seeds in drought-cracked Limpopo soil, praying over empty fields. Abraham did the same—*"having patiently endured, he obtained the promise"* (Hebrews 6:15) . Twenty-five years Abraham waited for Isaac! Yet that delay birthed nations. Modern prophets promi...

 ## The Unbreakable Pickaxe: Mining Eternal Wisdom in a Land of Fool's Gold   *(A Reflection from Akasia’s Dusty Streets)*   The July unrest still haunts us. I stood at the Mall of Africa, smelling acrid smoke as shattered glass rained like grotesque confetti. A young man, eyes hollow with hunger, clutched a stolen microwave. *"For my mother’s porridge,"* he rasped. In that moment, I didn’t see a looter—I saw Solomon’s ghost. A king who traded divine wisdom for Egyptian gold, until his kingdom splintered like our nation today . Scripture thunders: *"Wisdom is more precious than rubies"* (Proverbs 8:11) . Yet we’ve bartered her for the fool’s gold of political expediency, prosperity gospels, and TikTok theology.   ### I. The Weight of Wisdom: Solomon’s Lesson for Load-Shed Souls   Solomon’s request wasn’t pious ambition—it was desperation. *"I am but a little child,"* he confessed (1 Kings 3:7). In our context? Imagine a township mayor admitti...

 ## The Unbreakable Paradox: How Surrender Forges True Authority   *(A Reflection from Akasia)*   The morning sun paints the Magaliesberg in hues of burnt orange as I navigate the N1 highway’s symphony of minibus taxis and impatient SUVs. My knuckles whiten on the steering wheel—another day, another battle for control. *Control.* We South Africans understand this dance: scrambling for stability amid rolling blackouts, potholes deep enough to swallow hope, and political promises evaporating like morning mist over Hartbeespoort Dam. Yet, in this relentless grasp for dominion, Scripture whispers a scandalous truth: **"Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee" (James 4:7, AMP)** . True authority isn’t seized; it’s *received* through surrender.   ### I. The Illusion of Control & the African Soul   We wear independence like a badge of honor. "*Ubuntu*," we proclaim—"I am because we are"—yet our post-apartheid narrative champions indivi...

## The Forge of Faith: How Pressure Shapes Kingdom Warriors   *By Harold Mawela*   The predawn air bites my cheeks as I lace up my running shoes near Wonderpark Mall. Beyond my window, Akasia’s silhouette pulses with load-shedding darkness. My Bible lies open to James 1:3: "*...the testing of your faith produces perseverance*." This truth anchors me as I recall last month’s Wonderpark Road Race . At kilometer 30, my muscles screamed betrayal. Yet when I embraced the burn, something shifted—the agony became fuel. This is the paradox of pressure: **God uses what feels like destruction to forge unbreakable warriors.**   ### I. The Theology of the Anvil   **Divine pressure is never purposeless pain.** When Corlia, that third-grade teacher reeling from the minibus tragedy that killed 19 children, stood trembling before her grieving class, she asked the raw question: "*Is God wasting our pain?*" . Yet in her decision to teach Precept Bible studies, she ...