This past Monday night I had the great privilege to travel 8 miles away from the orphanage to a farm for intentional outreach and teaching about Jesus and what it means and looks like to truly be a “disciple” of Jesus as an adopted son or daughter. We were only able to leave quite late that afternoon because of an important meeting at Eden, so we arrived at the farm around 5:45pm for the 6:30 gathering.
After arriving, we sat and enjoyed a cup of coffee and some lovely, sweet bananas with focusing prayer and seeking of Jesus before we started walking from one section of the farm to the other, where we would meet. We walked about 1 ½ miles to the next village for our meeting. The whole way there, we were praying and enjoying a gorgeous night sky, screaming the glory of our Father. The moon was full and you could see very clearly where you were walking and all our surroundings. There was tremendous peace and urgent desire, desire for every man, woman and child that we were about to meet with to truly knowJesus as the living, abiding Lord of Glory, not merely the story book figure who died for our sins, according to the record.
The substance, the reality of Jesus’ resurrection, the ongoing experience of His life and presence in the Word of God and fellowship with Holy Spirit is so vital. Our area, and indeed Zimbabwe as a whole, is “evangelized” in the sense of hearing the story and receiving some level of communication about Christ, but genuine faith is so very rare in the rural context. Most people add Jesus to the list of potentially beneficial and protective measures that may be accessed to obtain the outcomes that are desired in life. The traditional religion that dominated our area and the nation before Christ was introduced exhibits the self-centered, self-preserving tendencies of common, fallen humanity. Thus, when Jesus was or is presented as “personal benefit” so that “you can go to Heaven,” while these things are truly present in genuine salvation, the basal interpretation of the message is extremely similar to the motivations behind the practices of ATR (African Traditional Religion). We’ve been teaching about the self-less nature of love, of faith and of following Jesus. We’ve presented Jesus as immanent help, but that this life will notbe easy, fine or smooth if you follow Him. Amazingly, as we preach embracing the cross, crucifying the flesh by the Spirit, losing your life so that you might find it and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ, people are choosing to follow Jesus without the promise of ease and comfort…they actually want Him, even with the trouble!
So, we arrived at the second Village and gathered in a round cooking hut (these are the traditional meeting places in the culture). The hut was about 15 feet in diameter and had a bench on one side of the house, about halfway around. The walls are mud covered poles and grass with a dirt floor and some kind of polish to make it all look really nice. We gathered at about 7pm and began with about 18-20 people including women and children. One of the young disciples immediately took initiative and welcomed everyone, sharing an encouraging word from the Word that he had been reading and meditating on that day-this is very encouraging as a disipler, watching disciples mature and begin standing up to lead and bear fruit for Jesus publically and openly without prompting! He welcomed us to sing 4 songs and prepare our hearts for prayer, worship and study and the amazing evening really took off!
As we sang the second or third song, the presence of Jesus became very tangible in the hut and singing became worship for many of us. As His presence increased in our midst, one young woman who was leading worship stopped singing and put her hands on her head in obvious discomfort. A few seconds later, she fell down on the ground holder her head and writhing in pain. Baba Makunda and I walked over and prayed for her, asking Jesus to free her and rebuke the demonic spirit from her head. It left after a short prayer, she stood back up, shook her head looking a little shocked and began singing again. In the next song, she began shaking her head again, like you’re getting dizzy or confused. Then she again put her hands up to her ears and began slumping down in pain. This time the whole gathering of believers prayed for her and, after a short manifestation and growling, that demonic spirit left too. The Holy Spirit spoke clearly while praying for her the second time, illuminating some of the areas of jurisdiction these spirits had through sinful choices that this young woman had made. Little did we know that later, after the sermon, she was going to confess exactly what the Spirit had spoken to us, but we hadn’t shared with her that He had said.
After we prayed corporately and she was free, we felt Jesus wanted some more praise, so we worshiped for another three songs, preparing our hearts to hear from Him and to get our hearts ready to listen and obey. Holy Spirit put a clear leading on my heart to teach from Colossians 2, Ephesians 2 and a combination of Romans 6, Galatians 5 and Ephesians 5. The main thrust of the message was that we are actually seated with Christ, forgiven, freed from our sins, our debt paid, our punishment fulfilled and removed, that we are holy, blameless and above reproach to our Father. Along those lines, we focused on the reality that we often live up to whatever we believe to be true about ourselves: wicked, wretched sinners tend to live wicked, wretched and sinfully, while forgiven, repentant, redeemed, empowered disciples tend to live more along those lines. Then we discussed how we came from a culture that was led by a king and had a spirit at work within us, when we were dead in our sins and now, in Christ, we have a new King, a new Spirit and they give us a brand new, often completely different, culture to live by! Then, the Holy Spirit really ripped the meeting open.
He spoke to me about 7 young men sitting across the hut from me. He shared some very specific sins that these young men were living in and that they were obstinate and blatantly living in hypocrisy while claiming the name of Jesus as Lord. There was no harshness, no anger, no hardness to the words, just blunt, gentle truth. Then, Holy Spirit impressed upon me to share my story, my brokenness, the hypocrisy I lived in and how He has delivered me, set me free by His Word, filled me with His Spirit and taught me to live in a new culture and by His Spirit with Jesus as my King. After the teaching, we opened the door for everyone to confess publically and have the Church pray over each one according to the needed areas of repentance, asking Jesus to strengthen and fortify each believer to walk in the Spirit and deny the desires of the flesh and walk in abundant life.
To make an already long story shorter, 7 people (out of about 25) publically confessed to living hypocritical, sinful lives that denied the Word of God and grieved the Holy Spirit. Two women and five men were set free from demonic spirits and felt the incredible renewal of having all the weight of their sins lifted off of their shoulders as they confessed their sins, turned to Jesus and repented of the dead works that had been dominating their lives up to that point. Two young men received Jesus’ free gift of righteousness and repented that night, it was powerful. One young man manifested the strongest demon I ever remember encountering in 6 years of full-time ministry in Zimbabwe and 15 in Africa total. This young man confessed to unrepentant anger and the attempt to curse people verbally and traditionally. As we prayed for him, he fell to the ground, then immediately erupted in furious rage and physical attack, grabbing Baba Makunda and trying to spear him into the wall of the hut. Baba Makunda somehow absorbed the attack and lifted the young man up without any assistance until the other 7 men in the hut grabbed the young man to restrain him. What ensued was a 1 ½ hour battle with a raging demonic spirit in this young man. After about 45 minutes, the demon seemed to have quieted down and the young man was released from the clutches of the praying horde of men. I was standing in front of the young man and when he opened his eyes the demon wasn’t gone. I told it to “Get out of him in Jesus’ name,” and the demon snarled and lunged at me, hitting me like a rugby tackle just below my chest, in the rib cage. I caught him and felt the Holy Spirit come over me in mighty way. I met the blow and, on my tip-toes, pushed back, praying the whole time, wrestling the young man to the ground before the 7 men grabbed him again and restrained him for another 45 minutes, until he was able to cry out to Jesus himself, at which time Jesus completely freed him from the demonic spirit. In the course of the intervention Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and shared that this young man was the chosen successor to a witchdoctor, whom I believe to be his grandfather, and that the particular spirit his grandfather bears is that of the python or “shato.” This fit the strength and hissing symptoms that we were encountering as we prayed. As we walked home, Baba Makunda confirmed that he had heard the exact same thing from Holy Spirit about the demon in this young man too.
After that long battle (nearly 2 hours), we prayed for the believers, exalted the name of Jesus and bid them to walk in the Spirit, to immerse themselves in pray, study of God’s Word and to share the glory of Jesus’ Gospel and power as displayed among us that night. We then began the 20 minute trek back to the car so we could come home. Baba Makunda and I walked together, jubilant, overjoyed at the grace of God, that men such as us, so minor in the grand scheme of things, could be used and involved in His Kingdom coming to a remote village!
Hallelujah! Jesus is amazing! He’s worthy, believers! We experience communion with God and one another that night. When the battle raged on for the young man, we were amazed to find that the believers didn’t get tired, rather they got more passionate the longer we warred against the devil’s power over our brother. By the end, many were in tears of joy and we worshipped with great thankfulness and joy that we had seen victory for our brother. The worship and joy were incredible! Jesus is alive and powerfully working for His children!
What’s your Jesus like? Is He living and active? Does He still look like the pages of Scripture or is He quite different? I’m overjoyed to have been graciously awakened to the need for Jesus to be alive in my life, active as He was in Scripture and history. I believe Jesus is ready and willing to reveal the enduring reality of His person and revelation in the modern day in the exact same manner that He did in Scripture. Yesterday we went to another farm, one with far less openness, and found many bound up in ATR practices and fear, only to see them amazed that we were preaching a Jesus that was actually active and present in the world, not just in heaven someday. Jesus healed 3 headaches, one stomach ache (perhaps cancer-unsure) and one woman’s damaged arm that sounded like a torn rotator cuff. He DOES still heal, and usual does it when we’re pursuing the magnification of His name among the lost! Get with lost people, tell them about Jesus and pray for them. I believe, if you’ll do that, soon you’ll have stories to tell of His immanent, active power in Holy Spirit through you as well!
Be blessed in Jesus, Family of God! Please don’t be offended by anything I’ve written here. My only desire is to encourage you with real stories in real time that reveal the real Savior as alive today. Controversy isn’t my desire, but bring it if it must come! Feel free to ask questions if you have some!
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