Preached by Apostle Aje Pelser on the last day of the year 2017, Harvester Reformational Church, Cape Town

Abraham at Bethel


Genesis 12:8 And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

Genesis 13:3 And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,

Jacob at Bethel


Genesis 28:19 And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.

Genesis 31:13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now arise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family.’ ”

Genesis 35:1-3 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”
 And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.
 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.”

Genesis 35:7-15 And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.
 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called Allon Bachuth.
Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him.
 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel.
 Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.
 The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.”So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it.
 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.

Jacob’s Rewards for Revisiting of the House of God
On his return to Bethel Jacob was on another level of existence.

Before / After

Jacob’s name means:

H3290
BDB Definition: Jacob = “heel holder” or “supplanter”

God Almighty revealed to Jacob now Israel

By Apostle Aje Pelser

Considerations of the Vine and His Branches

Jesus was speaking to his disciples at a critical moment in his life and ministry. He was setting the stage for the next successive harvests of fruit from the lives of his disciples. In leadership, there is a moment when you describe how to succeed to those who have been faithful and loyal through thick and thin. This is the moment of truth when the inner core values of the vine are being revealed to the branches who have allowed themselves to be cleansed and pruned by the vinedresser, and who have accepted the words of the Vine and His commandments. Jesus now reveals Himself to them as the One and Only true vine in contradistinction to anyone else. And He also reveals the Vinedresser – the tiller of the soil as the one translation puts it.

There are 3 Hebrew words describing a vine:

Here are some considerations of the Vine that will build a leadership team around Jesus the Vine revealing much fruit.

Identify the True Vine

Vinedresser Access

The Father is the Vinedresser. But you need to receive the father and how He prunes and cleanses you. It is evident in the lives of people who bear fruit – they have allowed the vinedresser the necessary access into their thinking and behavior. There is a discipline and willingness to yield to God. A fear and reverence of God and His high Way.

I have witnessed pruning in the Citrus region of the Western Cape, and a large portion of the tree is pruned for the following year otherwise the branches will break under the weight of new fruit. It is for your safety and quality of fruit that the vinedresser prunes you – if you see correction as coaching to improve what you are doing for God you will welcome it. Don’t see correction as rejection. Thank the Lord that God is using people to prune things in your life and that they are obedient and loving enough to tell you how to improve! If this is done in the spirit of gentleness, with the understanding that we all need to constantly improve what we are doing, then it is more bearable.

Jesus was speaking to his disciples. Disciples are disciplined ones. Men who left all to follow Jesus. Those who decided to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him, the true Vine.

Wuest’s translation has: “My Father is the tiller of the soil”. The soil speaks of our hearts.

Words of the Vine Cleanse

1. Confidence must have a permanent source

Confidence must have a permanent source if it is always going to be available. Self confidence soon runs out, but there is a source of confidence that will never run dry. Gideon found that source and defeated the Medianites with 300 selected men; Joshua discovered it and caused the walls of Jericho to crumble! Saul of Tarsus found it and escaped death and incarceration; Peter tapped into it and made the cripples walk!In the face of great odds these men realised they could tap into that eternal source of confidence and overcome their opponents. There is an unlimited source of confidence available to all who will believe in Jesus Christ!The question is: can one always be confident? The answer is: Yes!

Most people gain confidence from achievement, wealth, position or the favour of man. You can gauge their source of confidence by what they say:‘Success breeds success!’ or ‘Only associate with positive people!’ or ‘I am a winner!’ or ‘I am a positive faith person!’ or ‘Don’t spend time with losers!’ these slogans give them away.Most people lack confidence because they have not achieved much in life and are not wealthy, do not have an important position and do not know influential people.Most people resort to self-motivational seminars to boost their confidence. They listen to egoistical salesmen that hype them up with slogans and sales pitches such as ‘you cannot afford not to buy my books and CD’s!’ and hear how that course will ‘transform your life and make you super successful!’Pyramid sales companies as well as many church growth schemes based on pyramid systems, use multi-level selling techniques to boost their sales and promote their products. Ignorant people are deceived and told that they will be just as rich as the guy at the top of the pyramid within 6 months and drive the same smart car, but what they are not told is that the pyramid widens out at the bottom and soon the bottom falls out and people are hurt and lose their investment.In difficult financial times people cannot find loans at banks so they resort to loan sharks that demand high interest or they log on to multi-level selling schemes. They end up losing all they have.Get rich quick schemes always have a catch. Sometimes Christians run these companies and tell ill-informed believers: ‘first pray about getting involved in this scheme. If the Lord tells you to get involved then get involved, but if the Lord does not tell you, do not get involved.’ It sounds so spiritual, but of course the people who are desperate will ‘hear’ the Lord telling them to get involved. People are drawn by the seeming confidence of the presenter of the course or the director of the scheme and because they lack confidence they latch onto the confidence of the one they follow. People who promote these deceptive products and courses normally tell everyone how they take their families to Disneyland and other expensive holidays and they are very outspoken about their financial success. But when the plug is pulled on these schemes the confidence level drops to betrayal and many people are hurt and often end up bankrupt.

I Timothy 6:9, 10 – ‘But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.’

I Timothy 1:19 – ‘Having faith and a good conscience which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck.’ They shipwreck their faith!

2. You can only put your trust in one thing at a timeI have warned people everywhere not to place their confidence in money or in people, but in the Living God. (I Tim 6:17-19)

You cannot trust money and God at the same time. You cannot trust people and God at the same time. You can onl

The Lord gave me this word from Isaiah 45:

“Thus says the LORD to His anointed, To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held— To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut:’I will go before you And make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel. For Jacob My servant’s sake, And Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other;”

I believe it is for now and will benefit the Body of Christ through this move of God’s Spirit in us.

God’s anointed people have the following benefits:

We are His anointed. We have an anointing from the Holy One and we do not heed false teachers and winds of doctrine, but the anointing within teaches us concerning all men’s doctrine: John wrote his epistle to the believers to remind them of what they had been taught through apostolic doctrine from the beginning of their faith journey, that is why the Foundation of our faith is so important. When we build our house on the rock of revelation of Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the revelation of who we are in Him and Christ within us the hope of glory, then we will not be shaken by storms. 1 John 2:18 – 27 “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.  But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”

Study the life and actions of the Persian King Cyrus further as well to see how he fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecy and moved a nation back into God’s plan, restoring worship, providing resources for the rebuilding of the temple. Apostolic decrees came from Cyrus based on prophetic intent. Ezra 1; Jeremiah 29:10.

God holds our right hand – and this means strength. He undergirds our strength in life and ministry. What are your strengths?

God’s house is a house of prayer for all nations. Jesus fought for this and paid the price for all nations to enter into Spirit and truth Worship, the kind of worship that God desires.

H7286 râdad (raw-dad’) A primitive root; to tread in pieces, that is, (figuratively) to conquer, or (specifically) to overlay: – spend, spread, subdue.

When we enter areas, God will disarm principalities and powers. We will penetrate the spiritual realm in places for the sake of the people there, those who have chosen to and will choose to call on the name of the Lord and be saved. They c