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Book 1 – The Line – Foreword

This book is completely out of the ordinary. It is the life’s work of a man, who, as a child, had a vision of God and His glory. Needless to say, his experiences were not understood by those around him because of the then ‘popular human perceptions’ toward anything supernatural. Consequently he was ‘shut down’ by his superiors from verbalizing his experience with God. However, the vision never faded; in fact it grew over time.

This is not a long drawn out autobiography but rather tells of a practical, down to earth,

Bionically based lifestyle lived out by a family which has proven that they can lead without bowing to the social pressures and norms of society.

You will find this story intriguing, fast-moving, spell binding, but you cannot read it quickly with full understanding, as there is simply too much information.

You will want to keep this book with you always and use it as a tool to show the ‘Gospel of the Kingdom of God’ to anybody you meet, by simply explaining the many pictures provided by the artist/sculptor.

For the first time we Christians will have pictures of the Spirit world that prove our faith, and confirm that deep ‘knowing’ that comes to you when you give your life to Jesus. You can now share it with all your loved ones, and those you could never reach before.

You will, along with all who have visited “The Shoe”, echo their findings that these revelations can only be from God. No person could ever know these things unless they had been given by God.

After so many years of waiting we can finally say, God has used Ron van Zyl and his family in an exceptional way to create a visualization of, what can only be referred to as Unique.

Introduction

The Artist’s Story

When I was a boy of about 5 years old my mother told me a Bible story. The one about Samuel who as a boy heard the voice of God. My mother said that I could also give my life to Jesus and He would talk with me. I went on my knees and after giving my life to the Lord, I saw this “High Place”. It was gold in color and Jesus was there. It was full of joy, song, happiness and peace. It is a place where you can have anything you need. Being only five years old, I thought everybody knew about that place and so I talked about it freely all the time. My Mother finally cornered me and asked me: “What are you talking about?” I told her ‘it’s the picture I saw when I gave my life to Jesus, its here, inside my mind’!

She was very upset and told me never to do that again because it was meditation and eastern of origin, that it was from the devil and so on. My Mother had come out of a strict religious background with little or no understanding of the “Spirit Realm”, thus, any such ‘mystical’ experiences were, in her opinion, from Satan, not God.

But still I measured everybody I met in life against what I had seen as a child. When she took me to the church, nothing that I saw or heard there looked remotely like what I had seen that night. Heaven is full of joy, song, happiness and peace, not so religion!

Not finding anything of substance in the everyday lives of ordinary people around me, in the town of my birth, Cape Town, South Africa. I set out to find my own space, settling in the Eastern Transvaal, now called Limpopo. Here I lived the solitary life of an artist. It being a farming community, I was ignored as an eccentric.

At the age of 24 I decided to give my life and talents to the Lord Jesus. I joined my brother who had a mission station in the Eastern Transvaal (Limpopo) and together we built a Bible Sculpture Garden as a tourist attraction.

It is logical, that an artist, who remains in the presence of the Holy Spirit, will be able to reveal through drawings, paintings and sculptures, what the ‘Spirit Realm looks like’. But it was only in 1974, 19 years after my childhood vision of ‘The Heavenly Realms’ and with Holy Spirit instruction and guidance, that I was allowed, by God, to ‘expose the spirit world’ through my art.

My first attempt was a 15 meter high rock face sculpture, completed at the age of twenty six and named “The Hell”. My brother Paul helped me build a scaffold and I started at the top working downwards behind a screen for privacy as the tourists would keep me out of my work. Because of the screen I could never stand back and look at the work. I was not able to examine it from a distance for uniformity or balance.

While I was away on a weekend trip my brother broke the scaffold down saying that at the speed I was going I would never finish. By so doing he forced completion of the work. On returning I was amazed to see that all the work was in perspective, the figures at the top were seven foot six inches (2,3 metres) tall and at the bottom five foot six inches (1,7 metres). That happened by itself and I began to recognize the Lord’s hand in my work.

This rock face is where I got rid of the frustration of not finding that heavenly place I had seen as a boy. It had taken two years to complete, as I was studying anatomy at the same time. It also put me on the path to reading scripture to find out what hell is. Out of these studies came intriguing subjects to paint and sculpt. Most people are familiar with bible stories and my art proved to be a great way to connect with tourists.

Strangely, there was not even one person who would say what they thought of it, and I began to think that it offended people, until one day my Father came to look at it and he said: “It is alright”. He was a very hard man and if he said that something was alright, that is exactly what it was. That’s the closest I got to receive any compliment, but again I recognized the Lord’s hand in it – warning me – if I wanted to work for Him the glory would always belong to Him – and Him alone! Our Merciful and Gracious Lord was protecting me from pride.

My son Aldo – Standing at the bottom. The Doomed 20km North of Ohrigstad just off the R36 Mainroad, on the way to the Echo Caves.

Two years later, in 1978, I married Yvonne and built a house for us. Along with my wife, we ‘created’ everything we needed with our own hands, together we learnt to live by faith. From the mountains we took rock to build our home and wood from which to carve. By means of very hard work and faith in our Creator, God Almighty, we were led through grueling deserts of life by the Holy Spirit. We discovered that you can have anything you need, supplied by your Father – Almighty God.

The end result is that we as a family, Yvonne and I and our two children, Michell and Aldo, have become a tower of strength to those around us in a world that has run out of answers. Through the explanations and living testimonies contained is this book you too will see how you can get anything you need, Yes, anything you need, supplied by your Father – Almighty God – it is His Desire for you.

This is the ‘Heart of God’, summed up in the words “ .. Father of mercies,³⁶²⁸ and the God of all comfort;³⁸⁷⁴ … “ – 2 Cor 1:3 (KJV) (Strong’s Numbers).

Check it out for yourself. The words ‘mercy and comfort’, sometimes translated only as ‘merciful’, as in ‘merciful Father’ or ‘merciful God’, carry with them the heart of God, which include, interalia, the following:

‘Pity – God pities us in our circumstances’,

‘Compassion – God has co-passion together with us in our circumstances’, and

‘Desire – God desires to give us all good things’.

Isn’t it time that we captured the ‘Heart of our Father’, who is after all God Almighty, and hence enter into ‘Life’ living in ‘His Desire’ for us?

You will quickly find out the general mistakes we Christians make. You will no longer search for your blessings in the church, but will become a blessing to the church.

The only demands on you, is a disciplined dedication to know and understand the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart.

This book is meant to take you there, step by step. We will take you through a series of sculptures, paintings, drawings, stories, and practical application to where we will watch you walking ‘high and free’ – giving God alone the praise.

We are not religious! We have a relationship! Religion is Not Freedom!

When they call us religious it is not a complement. The Sadducee and Pharisees were religious and their religion was hated by Jesus. He called them scorpions and vipers.

We have a relationship with Jesus Christ; His Spirit teaches everything we need to know.

This is our prayer for you also.

Please enjoy this book as a revelation of the ‘greater things’ available for each and every one of us in Christ Jesus.

Ron van Zyl

get this book now!

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About the Line

The Line – How it came about

The knowledge of the Line came to us the hard way. Craving to know more about God, I was praying outside at three in the morning. It was then that I had a vision of a cave where people would sit down in rooms where soft

lights would fall on them and the frown of each person would disappear and a crown would take its place. Once people have gone through the cave they would even look different. I think the muscles they use to think with relaxes, for their faces change. Some say because the cave is under ground it seems like a baptism into the Word as you descend and ascend on your way out. When I saw this vision I told the Lord that I would like to be involved with such a thing that can make a difference and bring truth to people.

However my life became hard since that day. We were poor people Yvonne and I, we had no money and no property at that time. We build our own house on a piece of land a farmer gave us but it was not our property. At least my sculptures were selling and I have a hard working selfless wife. Together we bought our property by faith, brought up our children in the same way. I build every building with stone from the mountain on the property and carved wooden sculptures continually for an income and my wife made hamburgers as we built our guesthouse.

When everything was completed the Lord said that I should build the cave. I thought that it was unfair for I believed that we deserved a two year holiday. But there was no holiday and no money to build the cave with. We just started digging under ground and build the cave during a period of three and half years. Without money, only hard work and faith. I was so tired

while I was doing those sculptures underground that it seemed that I was dying on my feet. I carved those things that were imprinted in my mind during that night of the vision.

My life was a sea of tiredness. I went to bed tired and rose tired but the Lord provided. A man bought four sculptures with post dated checks, this was the finance for the project.

My wife had to bath me at night. I told my family that if it should be that I would die during the building of the cave, that they must fill it in with soil for then the cave could not be the Lord’s will.

Looking back I can see that my pride would have been in the way for I had no understanding of what the flesh was. While I was doing this work I was completely dependent on the Holy Spirit to guide me. He built the cave and put things in there that I did not know at the time.

By the time the Cave was finished the children were teenagers and began to take groups through the cave but it caused offence. We struggled though those tours where people were fighting with us about religion. It was war for six years while we were in the school of the Holy Spirit. We had to study all religions so we could find common ground, but to no avail. We could not find a way to help all people understand the Bible.

Eventually when we could not stand the fighting any longer we decided to sell the property and move away. In my vision I saw masses of people saying that the cave have helped them but there were only a few that loved the cave.

The children went their way and Yvonne and I bought a broken down house by the sea where we meant to build and live. The Shoe property just would not sell. We were willing to give it away but no one wanted it, all the doors closed.

During that time I did a painting in my quiet time over three months that we did not understand either. One night the Lord woke me up early in the morning and told me to put a ruler on the painting. He specifically said look for the two edged sword. When I put the ruler on the photograph I had of the painting, there was a line running straight through the painting, showing the cross beam of the cross divided between flesh and spirit.

For the first time we realized what it meant to be above and not beneath. The people that were above were blessed but those below were cursed. (Deut 28:13) And God would place His people above…

When I told the children, all were so amazed and we started to live the LINE. No longer looking down into the worldly fleshly things but looking up, living by the fruit of the Spirit. It changed our lives and brought other challenges that showed that we are all sinners dependent on the work of the cross. God loves it when a family strive together to be better people. We learnt to use the cross daily and lay our lives down or crucify the flesh; which can be a lot of fun when you do it together. However it is also a very hard thing to be circumcised in your heart. To face your dark side. The old preachers knew about the circumcision and called it the cutting. We thanked the Lord for the Line but did not feel like going back to the cave. The Lord told us to go back and do our work in the cave and promised that from that day only the meek hearted will be allowed to go on the tour. (Isaiah 61). As we started obeying the Lord He showed us that there was a Line inside each of the rooms of the cave. We had the cave for six years and did not know there was a Line.

It blessed us and it is a great blessing to our visitors. The Line has removed the burdens of carrying the problems of others. We simply show the Line and how it proves the cross as the place to lay down your life as Jesus taught. Since that day we have no more arguments in the cave. Even the Doctors and Professors cannot argue against the Line. The Line is a tool which God has given all people to discern between flesh and spirit.

Our books are called ‘The Line series‘ because of the supernatural way God has taught us about the heart or conscience through paintings and the cave. In this way we learnt that the horizontal cross beam of the cross causes a division between flesh and spirit. We learnt that all-though we were completely devoted to having time with God we used to start above this Line in the spirit in the morning, then as the day continued we would begin to live below the Line, in the flesh, as the storms and troubles of the day had its way with us. We learnt that below the Line is our will, intellect, feelings and emotions which came into our spirit above the Line and caused that we lost the blessing of God this way.

We see the cross all over the world but no one knows what it really means.

It was a long learning curve for us as the Holy Spirit used the Line to transform our minds out of the fleshly into the spiritual. Because of the Line we learnt that all people wake up below in the flesh. Just because we gave our lives to God, as Christians do, God did not remove the flesh and it’s sinful lust from us. No! In fact we have to learn to overcome the flesh in Christ. This is the work the Holy Spirit performs in our hearts as we learn to become a living sacrifice, Rom 12:1-2.

God has given us a Line to discern between spiritual and earthly things. This Line has disproved many doctrines of religions and statements that are still being made by well meaning teachers. It has also at the same time proven that some religions and understandings were correct. The Lord has given us a tool that can be used by all to understand the Bible and its many controversies.

For example I was reading the work of a person who was teaching that the Old Testament did not happen physically. He says it is stories that are supposed to teach us how spiritual things should happen inside the minds of people who wish to grow spiritually. Statements like these cause offence, yet no one knows how to give satisfactory answers to those who are truly searching for the truth.

Let me give you a taste of the kind of content you will find in our books.

By using the Line to rightly discern by and the Strongs dictionary we learnt that the Genesis creation was a physical event that portrays the spiritual growth of those who wish to grow spiritually. I am saying that everything that is physical is also spiritual. People are trees, wildernesses, gardens or mountains. People can be the Tabernacle of God or they can be the dwelling of all the hoards of hell. The Genesis creation acts is the story of the way we are created dark and deep. These words of Genesis 1 is translated out of the Hebrew text as wicked, sorrow and ignorant. I was dark and deep but then the Holy Spirit moved upon the face of my deep soul and called light into being. This is the day we give our lives to God. The word ‘light’ is translated as happiness and morning sun. Jesus is the son of the morning. This was our happy day, however after giving our hearts to Jesus then follow the wilderness as we are Led by the Spirit into the “dry land”, in the same way Jesus was led into the wilderness for testing. As we read Genesis 1 we see how we eventually begin to realize that we have the light but we also have the night in us. During the trials the Holy Spirit teaches us when we are in the light and what we look like when we are dark. When we eventually learn that we will never be able to keep our minds above in the light by ourselves we are like the prodigal son who comes home to his father and knows that he has to trust in the Lord his God with all his heart and not lean on his own understanding. Read our books the “The Short Sword” and “A Room with a view” complete with pictures and scriptures. In these books you will see that the physical garden with two types of fruit is a physical creation that shows that we are God’s garden where we can choose to eat the fruit of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit. Gal 5:19-22. In this way every physical event that happened in the Old Testament is those spiritual events that will take place inside each one of us who strive to have the heart to become the Kingdom of God. This transition for each man to exercise his own will and choose between light and darkness is of such importance to our Creator that all the generations of the Old Testament would show the way to the New Testament people who would become kings and priests of an indwelling Tabernacle of God in mankind. Remember that most of the main players in the Old Testament can be traced as the blood line of Jesus Christ.

I am convinced in my heart that the Bible is a spiritual book. Although it uses history to portray the spiritual growth of people, it does not prophesy world events. The spiritual growth of us, the New Testament people, is of such importance to the Holy Trinity that thousands of years of preparation have gone into this final great climax; “That a man shall become the dwelling of God!”

The arguments that there is no archaeological proof for Biblical events are untrue.

Many people have spent their lives proving the Bible as historically and archaeologically correct. They are not hard to find. My work however has been to prove that the Bible is spiritually correct.

Do not be misled, God had planned from the beginning of Genesis that a man born in the earth as being dark, sinful, prideful, wicked, ignorant and ruled by his fleshly lusts can become the dwelling of God. As those four thousand years of history came to a climax the Son of God is born in the earth without sin. By example he teaches humility,self-control and discipline. He teaches that we should follow Him and lay down our sinful carnal nature daily; die as He died to the flesh and rise in the Spirit, to live a life free from the flesh. Right here in the earth we can be heavenly minded and saved from the flesh daily, to live a life in Christ. Adam and Eve could not keep their garden by themselves, but because of Christ we can—in Christ. In this way we can now be the garden of God.

I have seen how people with blood pressure problems normalize as they understand that the Line teaches the conscience. The terrors of the conscience can cause excessive eating, drinking and smoking. These are only crutches as they try to stay sane while the conscience accuses. Most irrational behaviors come from the state of the conscience. I was not taught about the conscience by preachers. I was taught about grace, faith, forgiveness and God’s love. When God confronted me with the state of my conscience I learnt lessons that explained the confusion that religions have brought to the world. I realize now that the cave is not for people as much as it was for me. No one taught me that to crucify my problems was the only way to forgive and forget. When my body started to ache and shake the Doctor said that I worked too much. In fact it was the state of my conscience, and I had no idea how it worked or what God required from me. I grew up with preachers in the family who knew nothing about the conscience for I remember the pride, jealousy and bitterness that ruled their lives. They were good people who loved God and had great testimonies but they were just as confused as I was. As I studied the works of the old preachers like Watchman Nee, Jessi Penn Lewis, Henry Matthew, F.B. Meyer, Morison, Spurgeon and Martin Luther I was amazed to see that they had exactly the same understanding of the scriptures as what God has given us by the Line. It seemed to me that Luther must have walked through the cave to have the understanding that we have by means of the Line. It seemed as if I had grown up in a spiritual dark age, for the basics of the Line has been taught as long as people searched for God. They did not have a proven Line as we have but they understood that the heavens should be in the heart. They lived and walked in heavenly places looking down on the chaos below. This subject of the conscience is not popular as it means that you have to work on yourself.

Moses – The most humble man on the face of the earth.

Teaching grace is by far more popular for that meant that no matter what you did with your conscience you would be forgiven. I did not realize that I was searing the conscience of those I offended. When I studied Luther;s commentary on Galatians I found the word ‘conscience’ at least once on every page of a five hundred and thirty page book. Luther slayed me when he mentioned in the foreword that the conscience should be the throne of the Christ Spirit. I have never heard this language outside of the cave. Yet the old preacher knew these things that somehow was lost along the way.

The moment God taught me about the sanctification of the heart by the Line, my body healed. Because of the Line we know how to get our prayers answered. Where to get healing and how to find out what is the will of God for our lives.

Through this revelation called The Line, we have learnt how to understand and explain the wonderful teachings of the Old and New Testaments in a practical way of how to overcome the flesh and live in the blessing. The physical flood for instance is a example of what happens in the hearts of all of mankind as lower emotions rule in us at will. We are flooded with various chemicals that produce imaginations in the heart. These chemical combinations produce the fruit of the flesh such as rage, depression, pride and so forth. However as the ark of Noah was saved from the flood to settle safely on the mountain so can we be saved daily into Christ. Once we understand the line every question you have ever had about the Bible will be understood.

We invite you to get hold of as many of our free offers and materials as you can and also to read our series The Line. You may click here to get hold of our books and DVDs. Watch our free videos on the VIDEO tab and subscribe to our monthly e-mail letters for more teachings or just read them here.

We want to share our Revelation with you and help you get the answers you need.

Lots of Love

Ron van Zyl

Welcome to The Shoe Ministries

Welcome to The Shoe Ministries. We are located at The Shoe, in South Africa, Limpopo, on the beautiful scenic route called the Panorama Route, home to the Blyde River Canyon and many other beautiful nature scenes.

Here on the R36 Main Route to Kruger Park, Artist Ron van Zyl has built a Shoe! This Shoe was once just a curio shop but today it is so much more…

OUR SHORT STORY

The Shoe is the face of our Ministry. It was built by Dr Ron van Zyl in 1990. Ron is an artist who has a unique gift to create inspired artworks based on Godly inspired dreams and visions. His artworks is the result of The Shoe Ministries. In a practical and easily understandable way, we can teach anyone how to live above the problems of everyday life.
Through using the divine revelation called ‘THE LINE’ we are now all able to divide between the power of self (Soul) and the power of God (Spirit) in our lives. With the use of Ron’s unique artistic tools we can teach everyone how to pray and be in contact with our Father in Heaven.

We offer all-inclusive seminars and Teaching Materials.

Visit our Official Website to learn more about us, our products and our place: www.theshoe.org

THE GOAL OF THIS SITE

We care about people. We care about who you are and who you want to be but more importantly we care about your emotional, spiritual and physical well-being. Our goal is to help every person to ‘prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers’. (1John1:3)

We believe that our physical lives is a representation of our mentality and the way that we think. Every person is capable of change, if they would only know how and where to begin.

We believe that we are in possession of truths that every person needs in order to live a holistic prosperous life. We wish to make our material available to everyone. Too few people know that God loves them and too few people really understand what Jesus Christ came to do for us. By using our materials you can be enlightened and encouraged. We aim to pick you up! We aim to help you live above the drag of your own feelings and most of all we aim to help you understand what it means to be SAVED!

We love you and we wish that you will find something that will help you. Join the discussion and leave a reply! We love to hear from you!

Yours truely

Michell Botha (The Daughter of Ron van Zyl)

The Shoe Ministries