John 16:7-8:
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement.”
Shabbat Shalom to the saints. The topic for this sermon is: THE HOLY SPIRIT YESHUA REFERRED TO CAME DOWN UPON SHEMBE.
1.John 16:7-8:
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”
2.Though ‘Shembe’ is now a surname, but ‘Shembe’ is the name of Prophet Isaiah which was proclaimed by his grandfather, Nhliziyo.
3.Therefore, in the context of this sermon, when I mention Shembe, I am referring to Prophet Isaiah Shembe (peace be upon him).
4.There is a serious debate around who, according to John 16, the Holy Spirit is.
5.The whole debate among churches is not necessarily about what Yeshua said, but it is about what respective churches have taught them.
6.But here I will not focus on what each person’s church has taught them about the Holy Spirit, but I will engage with Yeshua’s words that he personally uttered.
7.In the above quotation Yeshua referred to one person, a person who also transcends the material into the Spiritual form, saying that for this person to descend upon the earth, he must first return to heaven.
8.Yeshua said: “ It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.”
9.Secondly, Yeshua says, this person will clarify Yahuah’s faith system. Yeshua says: “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”
10.It is essential that when one reads scriptures they should not interpret them in accordance with the doctrines of their respective churches, but they should imbibe them according to what they understand when reading them!
11.Regard yourself as an impious person and then ask yourself what, according to your understanding, the scripture concerned really says!
12.While I was a magistrate in the Lebombo Region I met a man from the Hlophe clan. This gentleman told me an amazing story which I suggest all those who sincerely like piety listen to it very attentively.
13.Mr Hlophe was from the Kingdom of Eswatini, in eDzingeni area under the Hhohho Region. He was born in 1918.
14.He said when he was 12 years old, in 1930, while he was out looking after the cattle in a pasture, a person descended from the firmament. This person was carrying two young lads on his shoulders.
15.Then this person addressed him, saying: “Boy, you will refer to us as heavenly Fathers. That is how you will know us.”
16.He then pointed to a Nazarene Mission school, saying: “You will attend lessons at that school; I will stay behind and tend to the cattle on your behalf.”
17.Indeed, Hlophe left the cattle with that heavenly Father and attend the school to which he had been sent.
18.That heavenly Father would occasionally arrive and instruct Hlophe to go to school, after which he would remain behind and tend his family’s cattle.
19.One day, says Hlophe, he saw a nun arriving at his family homestead and said she had come to ask the family to allow him to stay at the mission quarters so that he could get time to attend school because they had realized that he liked schooling.
20.His family allowed him to go, and he then left for the mission from where he attended school.
21.At the mission he attended school every morning and then tended the mission calves in the afternoon, finally becoming a member of the church.
22.But when he was about to be baptized, the same person arrived and said: “No, you will not be baptized here because it is me who sent you here, for I want you to become my priest.”
23.Hlophe was then not baptized into the Catholic church though he had been attending church without explaining anything.
24.Hlophe said this person disappeared after a while until he grew up to maturity and got married.
25.But one night, when he was already married, this man arrived again while was still awake.
26.He left with Hlophe in order to show him where he would build him a homestead. Hlophe said that when he left with this man they were flying!
27.They finally reached the site at which Hlophe had to build him a homestead.
28.Hlophe related the story of this enigmatic man to his family, the man who said he should build him a homestead. He then went to a headman in order to ask for permission to build on that site; the headman granted the permission.
29.This man disappeared again and Hlophe left for South Africa in order to work at Piet Retief.
30.Whilst in Piet Retief, this heavenly Father arrived again at night and ordered him to return to the Kingdom of Eswatini because he would be visited by a king in that land. He was supposed to wake up every morning and sweep the whole courtyard whilst waiting for a king.
31.Hlophe said that no king could pay him a visit because he was a common man and he had no money for transport back to the Kingdom of Eswatini. Hlophe assumed that the king who would visit him was King Sobhuza.
32.Then that man touched him with force on his back and said: “I am touching you this way so that you may not forget what I have told you.”
33.He felt the pain where he had touched him, as if he had been burned with a hot iron; a scar, which I saw, remained where he had been touched.
34.While Hlophe was still walking, an old woman appeared and gave him 5 shillings. He was taken aback as to how he, being a young man, could be given some money by an old woman.
35.He quickly figured out that the money had come from the enigmatic Father.
36.Hlophe then went home in the Kingdom of Eswatini and narrated the story of being returned by the heavenly Father. Then, he would sweep the courtyard every morning as per the instruction.
37.Hlophe said one evening, while it was still dusky and drizzling, he saw a shadowy figure of a man outside his homestead. When he came closer, he realized that it was a person.
38.He asked that person who he was and what he was up to at that nocturnal hour.
39.That man said his young lad, with whom he had arrived, had gone into the homestead so that he could ask for a lodging place. But they had not seen that young lad.
40.In the morning, Hlophe went to him so that he could ask who he was and where he had come from before dusk. He then ordered his family to make tea for that man.
41.While the water was still boiling, it was discovered that tea leaves were not available. While they were confused, that man simply grabbed something in the air and gave them a packet of sealed Five Roses tea leaves and said: “These are the tea leaves, Mr Hlophe.”
42.While they were still shocked by what the man had just done, they discovered that they also had run out of milk. Again, that man simply grabbed something in the air and gave them a sealed can of condensed milk and said: “This is the milk, Mr Hlophe.” When all this happened, the children who were making tea were still around.
43.The children came out running for their lives and called the whole family to come and witness that the person who was with their father was not a mortal human being.
44.The whole family hastened to the house in which Hlophe was seated, and the immortal being realized that they were dead scared of him.
45.At that very moment, the immortal man was transfigured. Shabby, torn clothes which he was wearing disappeared right in their sight and were suddenly replaced by shining garments. He looked like a handsome young man!
46.All people started stepping backward when they realized that the man was not mortal!
47.It became apparent that they could not even reach Hlophe who was already shivering in the presence of that man!
48.It then became clear that a monarch that Hlophe had been waiting for was that man. Even Hlophe figured out that that man was not a mortal being!
49.That man then rose, saying: “Hlophe, show me the whole of your courtyard for I am in a rush to leave, first for the south and then for the north.”
50.Hlophe showed him around in the yard, as if he was showing him his own courtyard.
51.When people looked at the man, they noticed that he was walking in the air, off the ground.
52.He bid them goodbye and left. When he was about 300 metres away from them, he simply disappeared into thin air.
53.This event was apparently forgotten for a while. In 1960, a certain Mbazini arrived at Hlophe’s homestead, selling baskets.
54.The following morning Mbazini conducted a morning prayer; Hlophe saw the hymnal of the Nazarites with the image of Shembe the Prophet.
55.When he saw the image of the Prophet, Hlophe was deeply shocked and asked Mbazini where he had found that man’s image because he assumed that he was not on earth!
56.Hlophe then told him everything that he knew about that heavenly Father.
57.Mbazini then told him that the man in the image had been the leader of the church of the Nazarites and that he passed on in 1935; then the church was being led by his son.
58.Hlophe said: “Take me to his son, I want to see him! If he is the one who arrived with him, I will know him and he, too, will know me because when the Father came to look after the cattle, he would come with him.”
59.In a certain month, Mbazini went down to Mziphathe home, with Hlophe, where there was a holy assemble on which Lord Galilee Shembe presided.
60.When Hlophe was at the gate of Mziphathe home, he heard a man shouting: “Hlophe from Eswatini is being summoned by the Lord!” Hlophe and Mbazini were just taken aback as to who would know the former from Eswatini. But Mbazini advised Hlophe to go!
61.He found Lord Galilee Shembe seated next to a person upon whose head he had laid a prayer or healing cloth.
62.When Lord Galilee Shembe saw Hlophe, he rose and stepped forward to meet him and asked: “HLOPHE, DID YOU GO TO LEARN IN A SCHOOL TO WHICH WE SENT YOU?” Hlophe replied: “Yes Sir, I did!”
63.Then Lord Galilee Shembe took the Bible which was on a table and ordered him to open the second chapter of the second Book of Kings, verses 8-10. He opened and read the verses which say:
64.“ And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.
65.And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
66.And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.” – King James Version
67.After Hlophe had finished reading this passage, Lord Galilee Shembe then said: “You are fortunate, Hlophe because you have seen the Elohim’s glory!”
68.He carefully wrapped the cloth with which he had been praying over a patient and gave it to Hlophe, saying: “As from now you are the Preacher of Ekuphakameni.
69.You will use this cloth when you pray for people in your land, Eswatini.” There and then, Hlophe was taken to a baptismal ritual.
70.A homestead which Hlophe had been ordered to establish was refurbished by Lord Galilee Shembe, the Mvelabusha Temple!
71.Hlophe died on 29 June 1998 when he was already a priest in this church as per the prediction of the heavenly Father!
72.Earlier on I said one should not listen to this narrative from the doctrinal perspective of their church. But view it from your personal perspective and revisit the Biblical passage I read in the beginning.
73.After listening to this story, what would you say the Shembe who met Hlophe was?
74.Yeshua, in John 16, said he would send a spiritual being. Was that person who met Hlophe just a mere mortal just like us or a spiritual being?
75.If that person was a spirit, was he an evil spirit, an ancestral spirit or a Holy Spirit?
76.Yeshua said the Holy Spirit would reprove the world of sin.
77.The same Shembe wo was seen by Rev. Hlophe was the one who proved that the gentiles are misleading the nation it is not sinful not to observe the Instructions of the Elohim!
78.Shembe says: “Fear Yahuah O generations upon generations and observe His Instructions which He wrote through His servant Moshe, so that your worship may be acceptable the Elohim of hosts.”
79.In this story Shembe showed us that he is a spirit, not an evil one or an ancestral one, but he is the Holy Spirit who was sent from Heaven to revive Yahuah’s Law!
80.All Shembe’s teachings are about worshipping Yahuah and observing His Instructions.
81.That is why we say Shembe the Prophet is the Holy Spirit!
May the Elohim bless the reading of His Word.
This sermon is available on YouTube channel: REV MPANZA NCG.