Water Lilies & The Frog

Four months ago, my mom and I moved to Jeffrey’s Bay.

But before we made the big move from Bloemfontein, we came to Jbay for a weekend to scan and survey this land of Canaan. We looked at houses for rent, made queries about wi-fi networks, tried out the local restaurants.

The first thing I noticed about Jeffrey’s Bay?

It wasn’t the ocean, nor the beach.

It wasn’t Nina’s, Tasty Table, or Vismantjie.

It was the atmosphere: electric, bursting and alive.

‘It feels like I’m back in Redding, California,’ I told my mom. ‘It feels like Bethel.’

I was astounded; out of all the towns and cities in this country we could’ve chosen, the Lord chose Jeffrey’s Bay in the Eastern Cape for us.

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Everywhere I go, I meet new people. But it’s not just people, it’s godly connections. For example, every single time I go to First Light Coffee Bar, I bump into people I haven’t seen for years. People from a lifetime ago, from Worcester, Johannesburg, and yes, even Bloemfontein.

I also meet up with beautiful people I only met recently. Our conversations are purposeful and full of clues that only Holy Spirit can leave. It is filled with visions and prophecies. It confirms time and time again that us being established in Jeffrey’s Bay is not a coincidence.

Yes, Jeffrey’s Bay is a small town of roughly 40,000 people. Yes, inevitably, we will eventually bump into people that we know everywhere we go.

But I have come to notice that everyone here is speaking the same language, the same keywords.

Restoration.

Creativity.

Prophecy.

Sons & Daughters.

Revival.

Birthing Pains.

Acceleration.

Identity.

The spiritual journeys people took before they came here, as well as the journey they are now on, is very similar. Almost everyone came from somewhere else and ended up here. The sentences are all the same summary: ‘The Lord told me to move to Jeffrey’s Bay, and here I am.’

This statement is identical to our story, as well. We identify so much with these people’s backstories. In the first week of January this year, my mom woke up from a deep sleep and just felt the Lord telling her that it is time for a new season. The first step in our new season was to move to Jeffrey’s Bay.

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I attended a Bethel conference about two weeks ago in Port Elizabeth. Hayley Braun has been with Bethel Church for many years, but she grew up in Port Elizabeth and her father is an elder at Walmer Methodist Church. She – along with a team of three BSSM students – came to minister to us. The Thursday evening before the weekend mini-conference, the church hosted a BSSM Alumni Gathering at Table 23 Café & Lounge.

Hayley prophesied over us, and I took notes and recorded the session. I believe that this word is for all of us in the Eastern Cape.

There have been numerous words over Port Elizabeth and Jeffrey’s Bay, that it will be like a wave of revival that will sweep across the nation of South Africa. We are the key to this, we are the ones being positioned to claim South Africa for Jesus. We are the sons and daughters, and the earth is waiting for us to be revealed. Let’s stand up, and claim our country for the Great Awakening.

If you are prophetic, hungry for the presence of Holy Spirit, and want encounters with Jesus and the Lord, then this word is for you.

Take these words for yourself; meditate upon it, and declare it over your life. Let us not be asleep when the Great Awakening starts, let us start the party! What if the answer to this nation lies within you…?

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Hayley Braun Prophecy
BSSM Alumni Gathering – Port Elizabeth
Thursday 24 July 2021

I see a picture of lilypads. This is a season for you guys of floating at the top. There’s an ease to being in the river. Washed by his love, by his blood. It’s a season of just floating at the top.

God, I just pray for a deposit. I see an infusion. Like He is infusing and changing your flavour. When you infuse water, it changes the flavour. God, I pray for an infusion of Your Spirit, and I pray for these forerunners.

Some of you might have felt lonely or isolated. The Lord is saying: ‘You’re not alone, you’re just running ahead.’ Lord I pray for people to join them, I pray for an infusion of boldness and courage.

I see JOY.

It’s not boldness and courage with determination; it’s not like you’ve got to run through a wall with your head. Some of you feel like you’ve been doing that in this last season. You’ve been hitting a brick wall with your head and you’ve been willing to do it.

I see boldness and courage coming with great JOY. You’re gonna laugh your way through this one. There’s gonna be an ease, and I see that there’s gonna be lilypads. They just float on the top.

Some of you have been running underwater. And you’ve been doing it with all your might. And you’ve been pushing through, you’ve been running and taking stride.

You’re gonna float to the top now and the current is about to take you. You’re gonna be carried into this pool full of lilypads and you’re gonna find yourself surrounded by the ones made for the top, that revelation to come up here. You’re gonna find yourself surrounded by people who were built to be up here. You’re gonna find that you’re not alone. You’re gonna find people in your church whom you always knew were wild but God’s gonna touch them. It’s like, ‘I always thought there was something in there but now I see it.’ You’re gonna see God move on people around you in such a way that you’re gonna find people to run with.

I saw the Lord like a little frog skipping among the lilypads.

I saw as you guys rise because you’ve done the hard work underground. I feel almost a permission and that it’s gonna feel like cheating. You’re gonna let go of some of the weights of your responsibility, feeling a responsibility to push. Or to drive. And you’re gonna let go, you’re just gonna go BLOEP to the top. And then you’re gonna start floating.

You’re gonna feel the Lord skipping on you. Jumping from lilypad to lilypad. It’s like the move of this Spirit in your environment. Like you haven’t felt before. It’s gonna be very fun and very exciting. It’s gonna be like, ‘I never thought this would happen. I always hoped and always knew it could. I never thought that it’s actually gonna happen.’

Lord, thank you for the ease. We thank you for the grace to rise to the top. We thank you for the permission and commission to go BLOEP to the top. We thank you for their beautiful hearts, we pray for beautiful encounters not to appease our desires but to please Your desires. We pray for Your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Not what we want, not what we prefer. But your will be done, and we say yes to being part of it.

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Here are two songs that I believe go with what I wrote here in this essay. The first song is by Crowder and it’s called ‘Crushing Snakes.’ It’s an anime story and I love how it conveys a story of Jesus overcoming darkness, but that we as sons and daughters play a key role in this battle.

The second song is by Bekah Shae. She is a Native American and I love how passionate and powerful she is. It is time for us to awaken and arise!

 

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