A Spiritual Discovery – Day 4

Good Morning Zimbabwe

This morning I had the great pleasure of meeting Sandi’s wonderful husband Wayne. Wayne had been out of town working on a hydro electric dam in a different part of the country. He came back Thursday afternoon, and was present at the service last night when I was anointed by the Holy Spirit. It was nice catching up with him and Sandi and getting to see how the spirit is moving in both of them. They truly are a wonderful couple with a wonderful family.

The Power Is On

This morning’s first session was by Pastor Taz and it was about power. Not about the power you get from an electric socket, but the power you get from the word of God. Yesterday Pastor Bonnie, in the morning, had gone over the covering of authority under God and the church, and Pastor Taz was tying into this directly.

As an individual we are covered by the spirit of God, but that is it. So any attacks that we come under we are only covered by the spirit of God. If our spirit is week, if we give into the flesh, then we were more open to falling. However as we go under the authority of more layers we have more protection. So, if we are part of a family, we are under the authority of that family. That family is then under the authority of a small group, or cell group in a church. The small group is under the authority of the church pastor, and then that church pastor is under the authority of the mission, or church. See, when we cover ourselves and submit to this authority, we are empowered to do great things.

The spirit you serve is the spirit that has power over you.

Happy Birthday Pastor Tom – Sort Of

Along with being the year of multiplication, this is also the year that Pastor Tom celebrates 30 years in ministry in the nation of Zimbabwe. So, tonight was all about celebrating those 30 years. The one thing that truly impacted me about tonight, and really about the entire week as I reflect on this, is the honor that is given to Pastor Tom and Pastor Bonnie, and to all of the pastors.

At first I thought it was just being polite, but I see now that there is a structure at work here, a government that needs to be respected and honored. Whenever Pastor Bonnie or Pastor Tom would enter a room, everyone in the room would stand until they either said sit down or they sat down themselves. When either of them would come on stage, someone would bring their Bibles to the altar.

And so it was tonight, when the pastors were on stage to pay tribute to Pastor Tom, they all kneeled before him. Even when his children came out to pay tribute to him, they knelt in respect and honor. See, Pastor Tom is a true apostle of God, and as such he deserves the honor and respect of everyone.

This is something that has been lost in America. We do not know how to honor the pastors that teach us, we do not know how to respect each other, and we do not know how to pay respect to those that deserve it. Our children, for the most part, are not taught to respect their elders. They are not taught to open doors for ladies, to pull out chairs for ladies, to say yes sir, no sir, yes ma’am, and no ma’am. They are not taught to be respectful when talking to people in authority or their elders. America needs to find this teaching again and begin to correct where we have gone wrong.

The Meeting That Changes The Game

Like I said yesterday, I knew that God had an appointment for me, that He was going to meet me here in Harare this week, and that He did. Well, as a result of that meeting with God, I now have a meeting with Dr. Chima, Drs. Erb, and Pastor Innocent from the church. You see, they want to re-do the church website, but there is more to it than just a website re-design. They want to look at IT and communications in general, and how we can improve them to reach more people with the Kingdom message.

Remember what I said about last night, how God hit me upside the head and told me I was holding back? Well, holding back on my time and talents was one of the things I was doing. Pastor Tom teaches that we are to have dominion wherever we are, that where we work and live is our domain and we are to have dominion over that. Well, one of my domains is Information Technology, so I guess I’ve got my calling.

A Spiritual Discovery – Day 3

Sleepless in Harare

It wasn’t a very restful night last night. Whether it was the jet lag, the excitement from the night before, or the Holy Spirit working on me, I was up several times tonight. The worst part of it, I was semi confused about the time. I checked my cell phone several times to see what time it was, only to worry that I was looking at the time in Dallas. I guess I was worried about not waking up on time or something. Needless to say, it caused some serious confusion and didn’t help me get a good night sleep.

Breakfast at Sandi’s

I did finally wake up at 5:30 am, rolled out of bed and did my daily Bible reading. 5 chapters down and some prayer, what better way to start the day. A quick soak in the shower and it was time to go inquire about breakfast.

Sandi had run the girls to school, so I waited on her. When she arrived back at the house, she had Taurai cook up some eggs for me, and Sandi and I sat down to breakfast.

Sandi and her husband Wayne have lived interesting lives. Sandi grew up in Uganda and moved to Zim when she was younger. Her and Wayne have lived in Zimbabwe thru the farm invasions, and witnessed some horrific things. They’ve put up with food shortages, fuel shortages, and still put up with a national infrastructure that still sees regular power outages and telephone outages. They’ve adjusted their lives to this and deal with it. The water system is virtually non-existent, so they have to store water in a large tank on the property and pump it to the house. This means that when the power goes out, they loose their cold water.

Americans have it easy. We complain if the power is out for more than 30 minutes, we worry about losing all of our food in the refrigerator if the power goes out. Yet here is a nation of people that have to deal with regular outages that can last up to, and probably exceeding, 15 hours at a time. Americans need to wake up and realize we are a pampered and spoiled society, a secular society that has abandoned God at the core and a society that needs to wake up.

Slumlord – No Millionaire

The itinerary for my morning was changed. Normally my drivers would pick me up at 8:30 am and we’d be off to the centre. Today, however, since I missed my trip thru Mbare yesterday, they were picking me up at 8 am. Apparently someone at Celebration really wanted me to see the slums of Mbare.

To say the area was poor and in bad disrepair is an understatement. The area is what is called a high density area. It apparently started out as housing dormitories for the migrant male workers that would come in from the outer areas of the country to work in the industrial factories nearby. What happened is that the workers began to bring their girlfriends and wives into the dormitories, some living 7 or more people to a single room.

The buildings were designed with no bathroom in the room, instead there was a centrally located communal bathroom on each floor. The waste system was never designed for this many people, and so now the waste has overflowed the pipes, most of the pipes are rotted out, and the human waste is flowing freely down the outside walls. The outside walls where the bathrooms are, are dark black with mold and human waste. Truly appalling living conditions.

The streets are lined with puddles that are contaminated with human waste. The lots and yards around the buildings are littered with trash. But even more disturbing are the hundreds of children that are running around these lots, in the mud, barefoot. It is simply heart breaking to see this.

The bright spot about Mbare is that several famous people have pulled themselves out of these conditions. Authors, singers, business people, and so on. Just like those that have pulled themselves out of areas like Harlem and Chicago’s towers, these people have seen more in themselves, have believed in a dream and have gone and made it real. Kingdom living is building those dreams and following them. Without a vision, you’ll go nowhere.

Grow a Tree the Right Way

If you want a tree to be stable, and to last many years, then you need to make sure the root system is very deep and stable. The same is true about people in the church, about the apostles and evangelists of the church. The 1st sign of an apostle, as explained by Dr. Chima, is one that grows his/her roots deep.

Growing in the word, getting strength from God’s word daily, helps the apostle, and the man of God, to grow deep roots and to remain fruitful. When we are fruitful we multiply. The word of the year for Celebration Church is Multiplication. This is the year to multiply the Kingdom.

As with any tree, we must be pruned by the word of God on occasion to keep us fruitful. Whenever we obey the word of God, we are pruned. Pruning helps us to grow wide and strong. However whenever we do not obey the word of God, when we are not in fellowship with God, when we are not in right thinking, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, we are cut out.

A Night To Remember

Praise and Worship tonight were off the hook! What a wonderful way to start the evening session, with some amazing worship. You could feel the Holy Spirit flowing thru the room like a rushing wind. The songs we sung, the energy level, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit made for a heavenly time.

Pastor Tom gave an amazingly inspired word from God tonight. He spoke on Ecclesiastes 9:11, specifically on time and chance. Pastor Tom shared with us how time and chance are moving towards us, not away from us. What an insight! Most of us view time as slipping away from us, as if we were floating down a river.

Since time is moving towards us, that means that opportunities are moving toward us as well. However, we need to be careful not to fixate on one opportunity, but keep our eyes and minds open to all opportunities that are floating our way. By praying in the spirit, and asking for God’s help, we can see all opportunities that are floating towards us. We have to learn to not let our circumstances rule us.

We conceive whatever it is we perceive. If we perceive prosperity, we will conceive it. Our opportunities for prosperity come from God, not from man, and so we need to continually be in the spirit with God. This revelation, this word, was simply amazing. Pastor Tom hit the nail on the head and helped put some things into perspective for me with this message.

God and His 2 x 4

I serve an amazing God. I came to Zimbabwe knowing that I had a divine appointment with God, but not knowing fully when that appointment would happen, or what would come out of it. Well, I think that I had one of my appointments tonight. God has a way of getting my attention by hitting me with a spiritual 2 x 4.

It came after Pastor Tom’s message while we were having more worship. The spirit had truly entered the sanctuary, and it could be felt by everyone. We were all singing, dancing, jumping up and down, swinging our jackets around, waving flags, just having a great time worshipping God. You could see that God was working on lots of people, and that’s when he began to break my heart and tear me down.

The scriptures tell us that God molds us like clay, and that when He isn’t happy with us he will break us down and start over. Well, He didn’t necessarily start completely over, but he sure did break off a piece and start over with that. God illuminated in my heart how I had not be giving Him my all, I have been holding back something from him. This was so impactful for me that it brought me to tears, to weeping for God. I needed to repent of this, to ask for His forgiveness, and to agree to give Him everything. I have to learn to hold nothing back, to give Him not only my money, but my time and my talents. Wow, that was difficult.

Holy Spirit Descend on Me

But what was amazing about that, what was just a true Hand of God moment was when He answered one of my prayers from before the trip. See, I wanted to learn how to pray in the spirit. I wanted to be anointed with that gift. Well, as soon as I had confessed my sin of holding back, I was anointed with the gift of tongues. It was an amazing experience!

When I looked back up to the stage, Pastor Bonnie was down on her knees pointing directly at me and telling me to come to the stage. I had to crawl over 5 or 10 people that were on their knees on the floor praying and worshiping to get there, but I finally did. And when I did, Pastor Bonnie was telling me to do it, to pray in the spirit. She knew what my prayer was. She knew what God had revealed to me just moments before, and she knew that God had anointed me with that gift. Out of the mouth of a prophet!

So I kneeled there, in front of the stage, and prayed in the spirit for what felt like hours. It wasn’t, but it was an amazing experience. One that I will not soon forget. I can feel the Holy Spirit anointing on my life.