The Challenge

Sunday, August 9th, 2020

The Lord is saying we are living in a time where those who know their God will be strong and do exploits.
Arleen Westerhof

TRANSCRIPTION

My name is Arleen Westerhof and I am the leader of the Netherlands Prophetic Council and welcome to God Today.  I just want to share with you, today, some of the things the Lord has been challenging me on.  Lately, in my own times with Him, He has been talking to me about, “Arleen, do you really believe that I am who you say I am, Arleen?”  Now, I am the head of the National Prophetic Council in the Netherlands, but I am also a pastor.  And so that’s a question that is kind of in your face for me. Do I really believe that He is able to do what He says He is?

 

These days, I can say “yes” to that.  Why?  I have known the Lord for a while, way back, a number of years ago, He called me to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.  I grew up in Toronto in a very sheltered area.  He called me to a city that was known, back then, as a Sodom and Gomorrah of the earth.  Why?  When I arrived there He spoke audibly.  That was the first time I heard God’s audible voice.  He said, “You’re home.”  And then He said, “My light belongs in dark places.”  Then He did something even more astounding.  He promised me that He would change the city and that I would live to see that.

 

I married a dutchman and my husband and I pastor in the city.  But in the last number of years, God has led us to do certain prophetic acts in prayer.  And these days, I realize that there are prayers that when you pray them, they are heard in the councils of the Lord.  For eight years we stood on the streets of the red-light district, surrounding the red-light district with large red flags with nothing on them.  But praying the blood of Jesus out over the red-light district. Those flags symbolized His blood that was able to cleanse even this area from all of the sin that was going on there.

 

In the eight years that we did that, we had no idea what God would do.  We started doing that, not because we are crazy, but because we are obedient and we said, “God, we are available.  And we are willing to risk our reputations since that is what you ask us to do.”  And He did.  But these days, I realize every time we stood there on the streets, on the Fridays, for the 8 years, it was like taking an arrow and hitting it on the ground and saying, “Lord, you will overcome in this area, that spirit of prostitution.”  By the time we were finished, 8 years later, prostitution had dropped 38% in the red-light district. That is a measurable change.  It has taught me that God is truly able to do anything that He says.  

 

These days, Amsterdam’s reputation is changing.  It is no longer the Sodom and Gomorrah of the world.  Interestingly enough, God also promised when we started standing there with the red flags around the red-light district, He said, “When the red-light district ends and falls,” He said, “Then Amsterdam and the Netherlands and all of Europe will fall for me.  This past Fall, the mayor of Amsterdam, together with people that live in the red-light district, have started to talk about the end of the red-light district.  What is so massive in all of this?  The red-light district has been around for 700 years. Do I really believe that God is who He says He is?  Yes, I do.  And I hope that this has encouraged you.  Because the Lord is saying we are living in a time where those who know their God will be strong and do exploits.

 

Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for each one watching.  That you would just give them a vision of what you want to do through them, no matter how ridiculous.  And Father, that you would make your people strong to do exploits.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.