WEB TV
PREACHING THE
UNCOMPROMISED
WORD OF GOD
Since 1975
WE ARE NOT
ASHAMED OF
THE GOSPEL
I Corinthians 1:18 NKJV
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
SOLD OUT
FOR THE WORD
OF GOD
HISTORY
AS TOLD BY
PROPHET KOBUS VAN RENSBURG
1975
I had the first vision of this building, not the previous one, but this one. A building that looks like a hanger with a round roof, and I wrote it down and started to look for buildings. In Potchefstroom there was an old cinema that looked about the same as this, very small and also just closed down. But it was in the wrong side of town and a developing place for other cultures so they didn't want to give us the space to hold services in.
Then I looked at the fresh produce market in Klerksdorp but that was a little too big for me then, since I only got saved, but still they didn't want me to have services there.
But only years later did we build this building, in 2007, that you are seeing now.
1980
So in 1980 we went to America and I remember sitting with Dr. Lester Sumrall and he started prophesying over me. He had a photograph of where we had our little tent down in the South Coast, and he said: Oh this great tent! Great tent, I thought laughingly, even though we only had 18 people at the time coming to the services. But Lester Sumrall was going on about the 1000's of people coming to Jesus in this tent, in this ministry.
He even spoke of me, even though he couldn't pronounce my name (Kobus) nor my surname (van Rensburg) and just called me rainbow. And he spoke, saying, our brother here has this awesome ministry reaching the nations of South Africa and how 1000's of people are coming to Jesus and they are healed by the dozens.
Now remember, this was on Live Television! He stood there with this picture of us and the tent and I wondered to myself, Wow, how am I going to tell this brother that the maximum amount of people we had in this tent for a service was 18 and the greatest amount of healings we had was something like 2 in a single night... But he went on and I thought that this could be an awesome prophecy, and just left it there.
After we had left his church we visited another great man of God by the name of T.L Osborn
I remember I sat down with him and he said to me the following: "Brother, your name will be a household word in Africa. There will not be a house in Africa that does not know your name." What a thought to have, that your name will be known across Africa and in fact, the world.
But I already had that vision, because what people did not know is that I had pictures on my Bible School table of T.L Osborn and the mass crusades he had up in India, Manilla and Africa.
And I used to lay my hands on these pictures and confess that one day the multitudes of people will come to our church and I would preach to millions of people, and to thousands at a time. Our Bible School Professor didn't make much of it at the time. He would say that I should forget about things like that as those times are over and we should focus to get 100 people in the church. If we can do that then that would be a success.
But I say no! I'm going to have a big church and preach to thousands at a time and to millions all over the world, and I remember just before we left Dr Sumrall I stood outside his TV studio next to this big wall that had written on it: 'Have faith in God'
And as I stood there I laid my hands on those words and said: I am going back to South Africa and I'm going to have a TV station. I'm going to broadcast all over the world!
This was all in 1980, so you are going to see what vision is.
Then we went to a man by the name of Corrie Joubert, originally a South African. He was a scientist and worked in Cape Town with the University. He was the guy who invented the I&J frozen product line, who figured out how to freeze the fish and put it on the shelves without it going bad and expiring (and you can find these products all over the world.)
But he was a preacher back then in America. His children was still small and they were in a Christian School. And every morning during our week long stay with them, we took the kids to school. He would stop outside the school grounds, take the two boys' hands and said: Say after me. "I am more than a conqueror through Christ who loves me" And they would repeat after their father. Then he would say: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" And they would repeat after him.
Say "the Lord is my Shepherd" and they say "the Lord is my Shepherd" "Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life"
I thought by myself, I'm going to do that! I'm going to have a Christian School and the children are going to confess the Word of God every day.
So all this was in 1980. You have to understand what vision is and how long do you run with the vision, before you get diverted and you soon get division. You find yourself distracted instead of attracted, and problems and situations become bigger than the vision that you carry.
Back in South Africa
Upon our return to South Africa, we left the current place where we were and we became missionaries in Vendaland. We pitched our tent, and oh how we preached and God did great things. One morning we baptized over 600 people, and this was only after 1 week of crusade. At the time I was 28 Years old. And we went on baptizing these 600 people on the Sunday morning and how excited we were. Man, we were taking the world for Jesus Christ.
1982 - The Four Dreams
And then I had these dreams. Four dreams in one month, all exactly the same dreams, and I told it to everybody around me.
I dreamt about this Drive In site, outside a small city, close to a big city.
And outside this Drive In site, on the main road, stood a blue and white tent. Even the colors was just like I dreamt it. I also saw this building that could seat around 1000 people on this Drive In site. Then I saw a big tent standing outside this building that could seat around 3000 people.
Next I saw a big place that could fill up around 5000 to 6000 people. A big building!
So this is how I saw it in the dreams.
First the small building, then the tent, followed by the big building.
All four dreams was exactly the same within the same month.
But then I saw in the dream that the first building was only half way built. It had a roof on, little bit of walls but that was about it. And I saw where the poles stood for the speakers that they used for the Drive In, and trees were growing out of the holes
And I saw in the tent a very famous ministry of those days, around 1980-82, there was a man that really had revival on the West Rand. He had a big tent with around 5000 people in it and people was streaming to this tent. And I saw him sitting in the tent, and he was wearing a black pinstriped suit. And he sat in the tent (our small blue and white tent), which had 840 chairs in it. Remember, this is all in my dream. So as I walked into the tent and I saw him calling me, making the gesture with his finger, and as I went to him he said to me: "You know what Kobus, God wanted to do great things with me in this nation, but He is going to do it with you." And he repeated it a second time.
So the dream continued, and I saw in the big building that the stage was half built, but there was a lot of confusion and this man was on the front of the stage. He was preaching and preaching, but it seems like the people didn't want to listen anymore. The people were sitting all over on the Drive In site, eating chips and popcorn, messing around and drinking their soda's, all the while this preacher is trying to preach to the people but not getting anywhere with them. So it seems there was a lot of confusion going on.
And then in the dream I saw a curtain coming down, right in front of the preacher. The curtain was hanging to the ground and the preacher was no longer there. Suddenly there was a stirring amongst the people on the tarmac of the old Drive In, they started getting irritated and frustrated. And all of a sudden the curtain was lifted up and I was on the stage, and as I preached, the people started coming in. It was as if all the chips and cold drinks had disappeared and people started to fill up the building, but this building was a different building. It was a building with a round stage. This is where the dream stopped, and I dreamt this exact dream over and over.
1985 - Full Gospel Church
In 1985 my wife (Annalise) and I were the pastors of the Full Gospel Church in Klerskdorp, and we had this blue and white tent that was lying in our garage. I've always wanted to pitch this tent and really wanted to do something for God. So I decided to pitch this tent, and I went all over but couldn't find any ground available in Klerksdorp to do it.
So I went to all the farmers around the area, since the municipality didn't want to give me permission to pitch the tent, and asked the farmers if I could pitch a tent on their farm. One farmer said to me that he has permission but only on one specific piece of ground that is near an entrance next to the highway. It's right across from Stilfontein and it's at the entrance to a Drive In site. My response: Let me pray about that.
The following night at one of our prayer meetings, a man dressed in his army uniform came in. I was standing by the door, like any other good pastor, greeting all the people. And as this man walked into the door he said to me, "God says, 8 kilometers east." Sounds strange but I thanked him and said "I take it".
After him came 2 other guys, Derick Steyn and Chris Griesel. These 2 guys came in a bit late and they were talking outside, and asked me when am I leaving. I wasn't quite sure what they meant, but they wanted to see me after the prayer meeting in the church hall.
After the meeting a couple of us sat together and these 2 guys said that they prayed together and felt that I should leave this church and start my own ministry. I knew what they were saying was something that was on my heart, and before I could really respond they said: "When are we leaving?" implying that they definitely weren't staying behind.
The following day, I drove to this venue that the farmer gave me, and lo and behold, it was exactly 8km east from where the Full Gospel Church was in Klerskdorp. When we arrived on the grounds, where we now pitched our blue and white tent, we walked around praying and as I looked up I realized that we were at the entrance to a Drive In site. Just like I dreamt it a few years ago. A tent, outside a small city, next to a big city. So that means our ministry is going to be where the Drive In theatre is currently.
We immediately started praying over this Drive In. Every day I would walk on the property of the Drive In. I would prophesy, lay my hands on anything I could find. I prophesied that we are going to build a house there and we're going to build the biggest church in the North West Province and people are going to come from all over the world.
Why? Because the prophecies must now come in fulfillment. So there will be a Christian School and a Television Station. And so I kept on Prophesying for years.
1987 - Ster-Kinekor Closes Drive In Theatre
After two years of prophesying the dreams and visions, somebody came to us one day and asked if we have seen the Klerksdorp Record. There was a small add about Ster-Kinekor closing down in Stilfontein.
It was not much of a surprise to me because that is what we have been prophesying, we are going to build our ministry there.
So I picked up the phone and phoned Ster-Kinekor, and spoke to a man by the name of Mr. Dave de Villiers, who agreed to see us the following day. We sat down together and he told us the price of the Drive In, which was something that we weren't able to afford. But we made him an offer non the less that went something like this: We can pay it down over a certain amount of years, interest free, to which Mr. de Villiers quite understandably laughed at.
1988 - Birth of Lofdal Christian School
Our youngest son, Petrus, was still just a baby and our other 2 boys, Kobus and Johan, was 5 and 4. And I said that it's time for the vision, we must have a Christian school.
You know what we did, we started advertising in the newspapers that we are starting a Christian School. It was no fun. I personally enjoyed the process but there was a lot of persecution.
For a period of about 2 months we were the on the 8pm news with the headline
'Pastor refuses to close down unregistered school'
And there was I, on the photos, for everyone to see. And the people said that they will close down the school because it was not registered and also that we were not allowed to have a Christian school in this nation. (This was in the old South Africa) My response was simple, I said to them "well you can take me to prison but we are going to have this school."
We just kept on pushing through, with our first 12 students, and in 1989 the school was officially started.
So if you hear that this is just another school, you must know that it came because of a vision in 1980, was prophesied in 1980 and again in a dream in 1982.
Lofdal Christian School was born from visions and dreams. People came to this school and prophesied that this will be the greatest Christian School in the country, that we will have the most students and that we will lead Christian Education in this nation.
1989
The man who had the revivals on the West Rand was now out of ministry (the same man that I dreamt about talking to me in the tent). Things happened in his life, but I invited him to our services and said that It's time for him to get up. I'm going to invite him to preach in our church. Some people didn't think it was a good idea because the man wasn't living a good life (according to them). But I decided to do it anyways
I went to all neighboring churches and asked them if we could borrow some of their chairs, as we only had about 200 chairs in the tent at the time. So we borrowed chairs and packed them out in the tent, and without really thinking about it, and perhaps out of habit, counted the chairs as I went about dusting them off. I said to Annalise as I was finished, there are 840 chairs in the tent. Just like the dream I had 9 years ago.
One afternoon, as we were sitting in our house, a car arrived but nobody was knocking on the door. So I stood up and said that perhaps it's the preacher that arrived. Funny enough, no one was at the door and the car was empty. And as I walked into the tent, right in the back, sat a man with a black pinstriped suit.
Honestly speaking I was a bit scared purely of the fact that everything was happening in such detail to the dream I had so many years ago. As I sat down next to him, he placed his hand on my lap and said: "My brother, God wanted to do many great things with me, but He is going to do it with you. He had great plans for revival, but He is going to do it through you."
Also in 1989
With our School started we needed to build our first school classroom, and all the while planning to build it closer to the main highway where our tent was currently situated at, it just never felt like it was right as it was not how I saw it in the vision. But the day arrived that we were to go and pick up the steel structures that we had bought in Germiston. As the 2 gentleman went to fill up the truck with petrol for the trip ahead, a stayed behind to sort out a few things and afterwards they will pick me up.
Whilst they were out filling up the truck, I got a phone call. It was Mr. Dave de Villiers. They were busy moving offices and he came upon a letter that I wrote him concerning the purchase of the Drive In site. He said to me that the keys are in their offices in Klerksdorp and that the place is mine, and we can pay them as we had discussed with him the first time, 2 years ago. First three months, no payments needed, then all the contract costs will be covered by them and we can pay them the outstanding balance over a period of years, interest free.
Everything that was left on the property we sold for scrap metal. We broke down walls, cut all the steel structures and poles and we could build our school from the money we got.
1994
Fast forward a couple of years, revival broke out in Toronto, Canada and also in the Rodney Howard-Browne meetings, and it was all over the newspapers. I really wanted to go and see what was happening over there, and somebody came and gave us (myself and 3 other preachers) the money to buy plane tickets to go and experience the revival.
We got there, but to my surprise, it was much smaller than I had imagined it. They could seat about 120 people, even though there were only 50 people present. You know, people laughed in the Spirit, but so did they at our church. People fell under the power of the Spirit, but so do they at our church. And I though to myself, what am I doing here? We have so much more at our church. And God said this to me, that "it is favor. The favor of people and the favor of God. They have the favor at this time and if you want to have revival you need to pray for the favor of God. But I have given you the promise, now stick true to the vision."
Paul also in the bible says that he has been true to the heavenly vision, so stick to the vision.
So whilst over in that side of the world, I decided to see what other conferences were happening around America. Surely there must be Christian conferences all over since they have the Copelands, the Hagans and the Dollars. And as I paged through the Charisma Magazine there was only 1 meeting advertised, in the middle of Atlanta. So we decided to get ourselves a plane ticket and go there.
Atlanta, Georgia
It so happened that the evening meeting was the inauguration of their new church, and we were the only 4 white people in the meeting. Bare in mind that back in South Africa, Nelson Mandela was just elected as president and these folks was so excited to see white people from Africa. Obviously they asked what we were doing in their church, and just going with the excitement we said that since our country has it's first black president, it seems like a good idea to join a black church. These church folk decided to put us on the stage, seated amongst some elders. You can imagine it if I say we were sticking out like a sore thumb, being the only white people in the entire congregation, and on top of that being seated on the stage behind the preacher.
And the evening went on. They sang and preached, but man was it anointed. And here by 2am the preacher got up and said that the main preacher of the evening was about to preach (his surname was Hinn, but not Benny Hinn). This preacher had golden chains hanging all around his neck and his fingers was covered in golden rings.
He was preaching from Psalms 110, people shall be willing in the day of His power. And all of a sudden he stopped and said: "Ministry friend, the stage is set. The curtain has just dropped on the previous move of God, and the time has come for the curtain to be lifted on your ministry. Are you ready?"
This is a question for everyone, listening and reading this: It doesn't help that the curtain is raised and you are not where you are supposed to be. If you are supposed to be on the left hand side of the stage, wearing a brown wig and sitting on a chair, and you're walking around on the right side of the stage not wearing your wig and the curtain lifts, you will not be in position for what God wants to do with you.
God said that the stage is set, are you at your place because I'm about to lift the curtain. Are you ready to run with the vision that God has given?
1996
In 1996 a man came up to me saying that we can broadcast our services on SABC 1 at 9 in the morning. My immediate response was yes, but I remember that back in 1992, after we built the first building in 1991 on the Drive In Site, I pointed to the side of the building and said that there will be a door leading to a Van parked outside from which we will be broadcasting our services. And later on we will go through that door into our own TV station.
After our trip to America in '94 I said it again, that we will be broadcasting our services on our own TV station.
In August of 1996, SABC brought their OB Van and we had to bring the equipment into the building, so we broke down a portion of the wall leading out to the Van. This was the door that I had prophesied. So instead of just making a hole, let's build a door there, which to this very day (in 2022) we use as an entrance to the church building, walking through what used to be the Final Control Centre from where we broadcasted the Spirit Word Channel.
2000
It was time for us to start broadcasting from our own broadcasting station. So the Spirit Word Channel wasn't just an idea, or a good idea or another idea. It was a vision that was carried since 1984 and everything came to pass exactly how it was seen in a vision and prophesied, even the door that we enter was prophesied.
AMOS 3:3 - Can two people walk together unless they agree
Can the lion roar is there is no prey in the bush
Can a bird be trapped if there is no trap set for him
In other words
Can there be a school if nobody starts it
Can there be a broadcasting network if somebody didn't have a vision for it
Can there be a church running if somebody didn't prophesy it
Stay true to the vision
Everything here that was sketched out and built was because of dreams and visions, and I try to stay so true to the vision. In the visions, the first church' pulpit faced north, and so we built it that way. Then we had the big tent, but the pulpit faced east, and so also the big building's pulpit faced east.
And even when we were building the big building, which is the 2nd church on the Drive In, I thought to myself that it was so awesome having the pulpit face north, but in the dream said facing east, so we built it according to the dream.
What is it about east? It talks about a new day, the sun rising in the east. New things, new horizons, fresh visions, new things to be birthed.
There is a though that crosses my mind: Why is it that people don't seem to get what God is doing? Why is it that some people just don't know why we are here, and the answer is simple. They don't know the vision.
Where there is no vision, people perish.
Like Paul said to King Agrippa that he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision (Acts 26:19), so was I (Kobus) not disobedient to the heavenly visions.
In closing
It's time to share the vision. Speak the vision, prophesy it, meditate it, sleep it, dream it. How can two walk together unless they agree. Agree on what? The vision.