On 26th February 1963 I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal saviour. I did this in the full knowledge of what I was doing and never had any doubts that by doing so, I had become a child of my Heavenly Father (John 1:12,13).

Then came my teenage years with their accompaniment of wrestling matches involving the “flesh” and sins which seemed to weigh me down. On the one side I could say with conviction that I was a born-again believer, yet the fruits of victorious Christian living were absolutely nowhere in evidence. My student years culminated in my being ordained as a Minister of the Gospel. I tried to cover the emptiness of my innermost struggles with a religious façade through 13 years of Ministry before my Heavenly Father called everything to a halt. He took me into a desert experience that would not even allow me to minister while he performed a deep, spiritual surgical work upon me.

By His Grace He revealed the unrighteousness in my life, and that He would not tolerate this in the lives of His children. During that time of crisis in my life, I came to hear His voice for the first time. From that experience I began to discover His “Father’s heart” and came to the realization of how serious He was with me. It was during this time that the fullness of the revelation of the wondrous Cross was imparted to me.

It was around this time that I began to experience the fullness of my Heavenly Father’s love when He brought across my path several people who were to impact my life significantly, the most notable amongst these being Dr. Charles Solomon. My meeting with Charles was, without doubt, a divine appointment. Through his exposition of the Cross and the principles of the Exchanged Life teaching, I came to a full understanding for the first time in my life! To me it was a massive spiritual revelation which brought an entirely new understanding and led me just to stand in front of the Cross in wonderment of the magnitude of the revelation I was freshly receiving.

For the very first time I gained the fullness of understanding what really happened when Jesus hung upon that Cross. I also received the full insight of what happened to me when I too, entered into co-crucifixion with the Lord Jesus Christ upon that same Cross.

For the first time I understood that Jesus had taken my “old Man” upon Himself (Rom 6:6; 1 Pet 2:24), had borne my sins in his body and that my “old man” was dead; absolutely totally dead, having been crucified with Him. The fullness of the realization came to me that the moment I had accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour a divine exchange had taken place inside of me. I had exchanged my old sinful nature (which had been crucified together with Him) for His Godly nature which had became my new nature and had come to live within me as my Spirit was quickened anew.

I realized that what Jesus did on the Cross was a “finished work” which had dealt in totality with my old sin nature to the extent of breaking the power of sin over my life, and dealing with everything that had come forth out of that old sin nature. In Christ I had been restored to dominion and I was able immediately to apply the finished work of the Cross to the sinful, fleshly areas of my life with the full realization that they could no longer exercise dominion over me.

I was no longer “in Adam” but instead, “in Christ” and that Christ’s biography had become my biography, and that Christ’s “past” had become my “past.” I thus have an exchanged nature, and exchanged past, an exchanged bloodline and an exchanged position and status before my Father God. My righteousness is in Christ Jesus and this stands unassailably before God (2 Cor. 5:21). My whole “past”, my historical background, my life’s story has disappeared from God’s sight and now He sees me only “in Christ” and Christ’s past is now also my past.

I now experience that the Holy Spirit is at work in my soul area in the renewal of my mind so that I may contemplate who I am “in Christ” and appreciate the reality that God is my Father, and that by my new birth I am now related to him in Sonship. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20). His life is the only spiritual life I have, and I allow Christ to live His life through me while the Holy Spirit works it out and applies it. The Christ-centred life based upon the completed work of Jesus on the Cross has made a dynamic and radical difference to my life.

Christ is my Deliverer, my Lord, my life. Now I no longer work for the Lord but with Him. He joins me into His program; I find my rest in Him. I am like a branch grafted into His vine (John 15:1-8). He has given me a message which I can preach with confidence as it sets the captives free.

Counselling has assumed a whole new dimension in my life. I am no longer the counsellor, but the Holy Spirit is. I simply deliver this precious message to people and the Holy Spirit, being the Counsellor, sets them free by direct revelation.

I am at a loss for words to thank the Holy Spirit for enfolding me into this ministry, and entrusting me with this precious teaching. Soli Deo Gloria. (Gal 6:14).

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p.s. My Heavenly Father has allowed the anointing which He had placed upon His humble servant, Dr. Solomon, to bless me with a spiritual revelation which has impacted so radically upon the ministry my Father has called me to. I express herewith my eternal gratitude for this.

Piet DuToit serves with Grace Fellowship International in South Africa. E-mail: piet@lusanti.co.za

This testimony is an excerpt of an ebook titled The Changing (Exchanging) Heart of Africa. It is online at https://gracenotebook.com/galatians-220-perspective-e-books/ Minor editing – JBW

For clarification on the biblical terminology of “old nature”, “old man”, etc., please see https://gracenotebook.com/does-the-believer-have-two-natures/.

Honorable Mention

CROSSWALK 220 is a profound 123-page discipleship course. The 13 lessons guide a small group to discover vital New Testament discipleship with a grace perspective. From Source of Light Ministries (distributers of multilanguage Bible lessons for children and adults) http://www.sourcelight.org/tools-for-ministry/bible-courses/ (course catalog, page 23).