I’ve now had some time to process the events of the weekend and wanted to share them with you.
After Pastor Adams and I left the museum on Saturday we went to the church where I preached an afternoon session on temptation, using the temptation of Jesus as the passage to teach from. During the afternoon session several came forward to make commitments of renewal and repentance. When I was done preaching, a local pastor from the mountains, Apostle Musa Kibet, stood and began to speak. He taught the congregation a Swahili song he had written that talks about the greatness of God, being greater than all other things.
As Musa was singing, the Lord impressed upon me two things that needed to happen in the evening. The first was that Musa needed to lead the congregation in that song and that he needed to lead out in worship. The second thing was that I needed to solicit the testimonies of the people as part of the worship. When this service was over the people were asking if we could just go straight through until the next service later in the evening; however, it was decided that we should break for dinner.
While we were at dinner the Lord prompted me that I needed to preach on the healing of Naaman. The Lord also directed me that I needed to get alone with Him in prayer. I informed my hosts, that as soon as possible I needed to return to the church and spend some time before the Lord, that I believed something great was going to happen.
After dinner we returned to the church. Pastor Adams, Pastor Wachira and his wife Esther joined me, each of us praying individually. I could hear Pastor Adams weeping and his prayers in English were just as clear as if he were a native English speaker. In his prayers I could hear him weeping.
As I was praying the Lord told me that He would reveal His healing presence in the service tonight. He told me to not be intimidated by any condition, but to trust that His hand would be at work. He also told me that the Esther had a word for me. When I inquired of Esther as to what the Lord had been speaking to her, she responded that He had shown her that His Spirit was falling upon the people and that miracles would occur during this service.
We then joined hands and consecrated ourselves as vessels in the Lord’s hands.
When I walked out to the platform, I observed the worship team on their knees with their faces to the floor, weeping as they were singing. I was overcome with an overpowering joy and began to weep, the only words coming from my mouth were “Thank You Jesus.”
The people were visibly moved by the presence of God. Some were prostrate, others had their hands raised, many were weeping.
Once the worship in music was finished, many came forward giving testimonies of God removing obstacles, so they could attend. Many talked of delivery from physical symptoms and others talked about the birthing of revival in their hearts. As I prepared to speak, Pastor Musa approached me and said: “You are to pray for the sick tonight, God is going to use the testimonies of healing from this service tonight, to fuel His the worship of His presence tomorrow.”
Before I spoke the Lord led me to pray for the removal of the spirit of stubbornness and the spirit of unbelief. Applause rang out as this prayer was prayed. I then proceeded to teach for the next hour on the healing of Naaman and the importance of his obedience in seeing the power of God in his life.
When it was over the Lord directed me to begin praying for the sick and those who needed deliverance. The Lord prompted me to have Pastor Musa, Pastor Wachira and Pastor Adams lay hands on the sick with me, as I prayed.
The second person I laid hands immediately fell when I said “In Jesus name…”
I have seen God do many amazing things, but have never had anyone become dead weight under my hands. In this first round of prayer, I prayed over some 40 people…this falling out occurred one other time as I prayed over the sick.
As I finished praying, Pastor Adams said that we needed to call everyone forward to pray for the fire of revival to take hold in each of their lives. As he called them forward, Pastor Musa began to lead worship in song. One woman screamed out and began to weep. Then each of the minister went through the crowd touching each person, asking for the fire of revival to come upon each one. As these prayers were prayed weeping was heard throughout the congregation and 2 or 3 others went to the floor.
As I finished praying all I could do was weep and cry out “Thank You Jesus.” It was now 11:30PM and many were crying out, could we continue on. We told them to go and testify, so that others would be present on Sunday morning.
When I got back to my room, I found myself weeping again. I could not even record my video journal, I was so shaken…I told the Lord, I don’t know what just happened there…but I have never felt You so strongly. Please let me continue to walk in the intensity of your presence.
Sunday morning as I came to the platform, there was a line of visitors standing in front of the church. Each one was stating that they had come, because they had heard of the miracles that had happened as the “man of God” had spoken.
Following a lengthy time of worship many came and gave testimonies of new commitments, new insights into God’s Word and testimonies of healing. One of these testimonies was from Pastor Wachira’s oldest son. Immediately when I had prayed for him, the holes in his diseased teeth had filled in.
As the testimonies were ending one of the elders placed a clock on the podium. I told Pastor Adams: “I hope that me, because I won’t be looking at it.” Pastor Wachira laughed as I told him, that I would quit speaking when God was finished.
I preached on the healing of the blind man, and Jesus revelation to him, that He was the Messiah. I reminded the congregation, that the purpose of God’s miracles is to remind us that He is fully capable of cleansing us from our sin and unrighteousness. The purpose of the miracle is to strengthen our faith and bear witness to the lost.
At the invitation another 6-8 people came forward for prayer and commitment.
During the afternoon I spoke with teenagers and church leaders. My time of teaching with the church leaders was so life impacting that Pastor Wachira made notes for each of his church leaders.
Yesterday morning and afternoon I met with approximately 30 church leaders. Pastor Adams again had me speak from the things I had taught the previous afternoon. I could see many pastors taking notes and I later learned that this was the first meeting of this kind attended by that many local pastors in Kitale. I spoke greatly to them about their need to co-labor with one another for the sake of God’s Kingdom. I took them through practical exercises of accountability, co-laboring and mentoring.
During my teaching on co-laboring, I shared my own victories and defeats and then I invited others to share. Pastor Musa spoke up and shared that his heart was torn. He was struggling with preaching and teaching, wondering if he was even truly called to be a minister. I asked others to speak into his life and the room was silent, when all of the sudden the Lord prompted me. I told Pastor Musa that I believed he was truly called of the Lord, but that he was not operating in the strength of his call. I went on to tell him, that I saw in him a passion for worship and a capability to bring groups of people to the throne of the Lord through song. I told him, that although he has a shepherd’s heart, the preaching ministry was not his call and was therefore causing him inner turmoil. I challenged him to groom a Timothy to take over the preaching duties. I then asked the group, since many knew him if I was speaking truth? Their heads nodded in agreement. Pastor Musa then cried out to a friend and mentor to speak what he and his wife had already told Musa. It was exactly what I had spoken.
