A cry from the heart of God

As soon as she began to speak, some of us were crying, without really knowing why, as if the Holy Spirit was the One crying in us and through us. She told us about her marriage at an early age. When this broke up, although she had everything she needed, she went into prostitution.

The speaker, Aunty Pat (Patricia), was a special guest at our Thursday meeting last week, 8th June 2006. We were about 80 people attending. We started with an excellent praise session and the Lord was speaking to us repeatedly, through the gift of prophecy, about love.

Aunty Pat was in prostitution for some years until the Lord lifted her out of it. A certain pastor helped her to give her life over to Jesus and delivered her of evil spirits and he and his wife looked after her until she was strong enough to stand on her own feet.

She told us how the Lord sent her back to the brothels. She was most unwilling to go. The Lord, however, was insistent since He wanted to help other girls, women and boys as He had helped her. It took her two weeks of prayer before she could obey.

Aunty Pat revealed to us what it is like to be a prostitute. The money they earn is often not enough to pay their rent or to supply their needs. Their ages range from young girls of 11 or 12 years to women of 50 years. Some of the young girls are pregnant. Their living conditions are squalid. About 75% of them are HIV positive. When they die, there is often no money even to buy a coffin and the municipality gives them a pauper’s burial.

Aunty Pat has started a group or organization called ‘The Cave of Adlem’, (see 1 Samuel 22: 1-2). Any who wish can escape from a life of prostitution to this refuge. Right now ‘The Cave of Adlem’ is catering for about 700 people. They have recently acquired a farm to use as a rehabilitation centre. They are concerned, not just to look after these girls, but to train them so they can support themselves.

The rehabilitation centre is geared to people who decide to turn their lives over to Jesus. It has a room set aside as a chapel in which there is daily prayer.

This talk was quite a challenge to us all. We are still sharing about it and waiting for the Lord’s guidance on how to respond.

Prostitution is a social problem needing help on the material level, on the psychological level, and on the spiritual level. Of course, we can offer them the Life in the Spirit Seminar, especially if we can find a large enough room for this in the Kopje area of Harare. We could give Seminars at different times and on different days for those who choose to come. However, they also need money, blankets, groceries, medical assistance, and clothing.

The crying, which came spontaneously, was as if Father God was expressing through us his care and concern for his suffering children. It was also like a word of knowledge, indicating that these women and girls are hurting so much on the inside and in need of inner healing.

Yes, we must be ready to offer material help. A Seminar, however, would in fact allow God to help them on the inside where they really need it most of all.

REPORT: A visit to Kadhani, Mhondoro

It was 3:00 a.m. and there was a consistent knocking at the door. Mrs Pelagia Masuku got out of bed and found three women waiting outside. It is unusual in African society for women to move around at night. However, these three had done so, taking advantage of the moonlight, and they were asking to see the people who had come from Harare with special teachings. They said they were sorry to come at this time but they had been unable to come in the afternoon and could she please give them what she had given the others during the day.

When they had heard from other people how the teachings and ministry had blessed them, they had been unable to sleep and had decided to come straightaway, even though it was night. However, Mrs Masuku, who had only managed to be in bed by about 1:00 a.m., insisted that they lie down and sleep and promised she would speak to them in the early morning. When she gave them a blanket to cover themselves they eventually agreed.

Mrs Pelagia Masuku, together with Mrs Charity Muronzi and Constantine Gomo had come to Kadhani, Mhondoro for the weekend of 19th to 21st May 2006, at the invitation of Mrs Mafa, who at one time was a neighbour of Mrs Masuku in Mbare, Harare. Mrs Mafa is a Methodist and the whole area there is mainly Methodist, with some Catholics and others.

This was a new area for BLCC ministry and it took a long time for people to assemble. Even then, only about fifteen people attended because the Methodist church had already organized another meeting. Besides Methodists, there were some from Johanne Mazowe Madzibaba and Mughodhi Apostolic churches. These are non Christian or semi Christian groups. Four Catholic men were on their way to attend but someone intercepted them and dissuaded them and they turned back.

Since the team were there for the first time, they were finding their way ahead. They did not give a full Seminar but took teachings from the Seminar, The Three Hearts, and Forgiveness, as they felt the Spirit was leading them. And how these teachings were needed, especially forgiveness!

To cut the story short, many people were blessed, especially in the areas of deeper commitment to Jesus and forgiveness of one another. When the team prayed for them for receiving Jesus into their hearts, after Mrs Masuku gave them the Three Hearts teaching, many found the Lord had healed them of this and that without anyone praying specifically for healing.

Constantine Gomo gave a very good teaching on forgiveness and in the ministry that followed, the Lord set many people free as they set others free by their forgiveness from the heart. One married couple were reconciled after 35 years with much joy and tears and with the Holy Spirit working strongly in both of them.

If this team had not gone on this weekend, those people would be in just the same condition as they were before. As it is, they are blessed and waiting for our next visit there. The truth is this ministry could spread like a forest fire across that whole area. We could send twenty teams to different villages around the area and we would find people in every place with great problems hidden deep within them, with no one to help them, needing only someone who can minister the grace and the love of God to them.

One of the Magosi (Methodist elders) demanded of Mrs Mafa, ‘Why did you come from Harare long ago and not share with us all this that you found there?’ However, we need to share things in the right way. What is more, people need to experience for themselves the touch of God in their hearts and lives before they can really believe in and receive the Good News of the kingdom of God.

We are looking forward to going there again. Someone there seems to have something of a gift of administration and is prepared to properly organise our next visit. This is a valuable gift and will allow us to give them a full Seminar.

F.I.R.E. blog: It's been happening!

"Tuesday, June 28, 2005 It's been happening!

June 18 - We had our second meeting, which included prayer and some time headed out to minister.

During the weeks preceeding the meeting, we felt that God was going to send us out, and that it would be a practicum of sorts for our group. Kind of like a field study.

We met, and started with prayer. The feeling was that we were supposed to go to a park and meet with someone, and then down to Canal Park.

The park we ended up at was Chester Bowl. There was someone there that some of the people in our group new, and it was clear that we were there for that person for sure. (names witheld to protect privacy) This person had been through a tough time in their life recently, with a marriage falling apart, and other issues. Members of our team were able to minister and share God's grace.

We walked the lake walk after that from Leif Ericson Park to Canal Park. Waiting on the Lord for His direction. We were there to pray, but didn't have a real open word for anyone. (reminds me of the days of Eli the priest and Samuel the young servant of the Lord)

People were down there to party, and we were not out doing 'street evangelism' as much as we were praying and waiting on the Holy Spirit.

So, that sums it up the monthly meeting for now.

There has also been a opening for Tuesday evening F.I.R.E. walks through our neighborhood in Duluth Heights. There have been some good contacts made, and it seems that is where the Lord is leading us at the moment.

If you would like to join in, meet at Living Stones - House of Refuge on Tuesdays at 7pm for prayer and praise. Maija will be leading this effort from there.

posted by Mike at 10:26 AM"

I have blogged this because it containes inspiration and could be a new form of ministry, or rather a pre-ministry, before visiting an area and praying for people at their point of need. LMH

Angels on Assignment

I recommend a book called, ANGELS ON ASSIGNMENT, by Charles and Frances Hunter as told by Roland Buck, and published by Hunter Books, 201 McClellan, Kingwood, Texas 77339.

It gives a wonderful picture of God, and God’s purposes, as delivered by angels to Pastor Roland Buck.

Chapter 2, especially, is well worth reading. The subject of family is an important one for many people and this chapter tells about the love God has for people and for their families. He is more interested in people than He is in procedure, and He formed the home before He made the church.

This chapter says that if any one member of a family is living for God, each individual member of that family is highly favoured, and God has assigned angels to bring these highly favoured ones to Him. The angels have orders not to listen to objections but to bring these persons quickly to a point of choice. People will, however, still be free but if any chose the wrong way, the angels will start the whole process over again.

Many people will have already read this book. If you have not yet read it, go for it. It could provide you with an open window into a fuller picture of spiritual reality.

You may need to approach this subject in the trusting spirit and faith of a little child and in this way enter into the kingdom of God, you and your family with you, by and by. One of the angels, this chapter tells us, said we can trust God even though we cannot understand how He can accomplish family relationships in heaven. I am sure we can trust him for many other things, too, connected with families.

Word of God

Philippians 2: 13 ‘…for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.’

Luke 12: 12 ‘For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.’

As the Spirit Leads

These verses speak to us about receiving guidance from God. This often comes with the gifts of wisdom and discernment. These are spiritual tools, which we need to grasp and use. This is a tricky subject and it is easy to deceive yourself. On the other hand, we do not need to run away from a tool that God gives us. God can and does speak to us; we need to learn to recognise and receive His communication.

Our hearts can sometimes be full of wanting this or wanting that, but it would be unwise to think that every desire within our heart is of the Holy Spirit, even if it is of long-standing. It needs an awake and alive spirit to distinguish what is of the Holy Spirit from what is just the desire of the heart.

In Philippians Paul says, both to will and to do. We need to learn from our own experience that what is of the Holy Spirit will bear fruit for the kingdom when we obey and put it into practice. If we think something is of the Spirit and we act on it, but then find nothing good comes of it, we will need to reflect again and learn to distinguish the Spirit from the flesh.

Last Sunday, I happened to be the one leading the prayer meeting and various leadership type people were not there because they were out on ministry and the meeting was not going too well. I did my best to listen to the Spirit and to seek discernment from one or two others and together we tried various things to lift up the meeting. In the end, we persevered with the praise and there was no time left to bring in the teaching, except to finish off with a short word of about five minutes.

I might have been right to set aside the normal programme or I might have missed the Lord’s leading. Afterwards you think, ‘if I had done this or that…’, but at least the meeting ended on a higher note with people more in the Spirit.

As we were leaving the hotel where we hold our meetings, we received a message from one of those coming back from ministry using a cell phone with a poor connection. We just got the words ‘accident at Macheke’ and ‘Marondera hospital’, and the phone cut out. We drove back home with our hearts beating a little faster, not knowing whether people were alive or dead or what had happened.

We were very relieved, when we got a better connection at home, to find that no one was badly hurt. The driver had dozed off and they had hit a concrete sign on the side of the road. The vehicle was badly damaged and needed to be towed home, but no one was seriously hurt. The vehicle, a pick-up truck with people in the back as well as in the cab, just stopped short of going down an embankment and rolling over and over. Perhaps this was what we were having a hard time over and persevering in prayer for that whole Sunday afternoon.

God has a purpose in everything, and it is good to follow the leading of the Spirit as best we can. God can work in us for His good pleasure and give us what we should say and do as He sees the need. Our programme is nothing to the Lord and can easily be set aside. God knows what his people really need. The tools we need to get in touch with the Lord’s will are the gifts of wisdom and discernment.

As the Spirit works more and more in the church of today, we need the gifts of the Spirit to grow in us as well. We need to ask for these gifts and use them and let them grow. Mature Christians in today’s church cannot just rely on others to tell them what God wants and does not want. Sure, they need to listen to the word of their leaders and elders, especially when their elders are mature men and women of God, but they also need to learn to use the Holy Spirit’s tools for themselves.

Paul did not tell the Philippians, God works in me; let me tell you what you must do. He told them, God works in you, as if to say, just as He does in me, so that you also may know the will of the Lord.

Word of God

2 Peter 2: 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.

CORRUPTION

Corruption does not belong to any one country but is a world-wide phenomenon. Some countries, however, are more while others are less corrupt.

It is impossible to take part in any way in any corrupt practise without at the same time corrupting other individuals and adding to the corruption of your whole country.

While it would be beneficial to have an anti-corruption plan for freeing a whole country from corruption, this is not the first consideration. Even without such a plan, we can still take the first step, which is to learn how to stand firm, free from corruption, among those who are still slaves of corruption.

A country, any country, will become less and less corrupt as the number of individuals in it, who are determined not to add their little bit to the corruption of their neighbour and to the corruption of their country, continues to grow.

A Report

Youth Camp April 2006

Over the Easter weekend, about 150 to 200 youth from different places in Zimbabwe attended the Youth Camp held at Seke Teachers Training College, in spite of the high cost of transport these days. This went really well and has really put the young people a step ahead. The presence of Mr Alex Mwale, from Gweru, with his gift for preaching, was very much appreciated at this camp. Mrs Veronica Katandavare, from Chinhoyi, also added value to the weekend, as did various other BLCC members. Although the speakers had no theme beforehand, the teachings all fitted together with the main theme turning out to be ‘The Plan of God in your Life’.

The presence and power of the Lord were present at this meeting. For example, on Saturday evening there was a power cut and the kitchen staff were unable to finish cooking supper. At about 9:00pm, while waiting for the power to come back on and supper to be ready, Mr Mwale gave just a short word leading them to reflect on the day’s teachings.

From that point on there was no teaching or preaching and no one sang even a single chorus. The presence of God was with them. All were waiting upon the Lord and praising and crying and falling under the power. After a time the leaders started praying for various people, both for inner healing and, for some, deliverance. Any further programme had to wait while the Holy Spirit ministered in this way. This went on until 2:00am when they eventually had supper, except for some who were unable to eat because they were still praying as the Spirit continued to work with them.

At a youth camp, various newer people attend and there was a lot of serious deliverance ministry. This makes you think, if we had not held the youth camp, these young people’s lives would be still under the influence of spirits. Zimbabwe really needs the gospel! How many more people are there, young and old, waiting for someone to free their lives from the dominion of the enemy?

The youth were also encouraged to be serious in their prayer, and strengthened in their resolve to do God’s work in BLCC and to be steadfast in the church and not run away from it.

Congratulations to the youth and the youth leaders, especially Mr Innocent Zininga and Mr Cosmas Nyamasoka, for going ahead with this camp, in spite of the difficult and expensive times we live in. Altogether the camp cost over 300 million Zim dollars. But the youth are determined to have another one this year; they say they cannot wait until next year. They saw that the amount they had been asked to pay at this camp, $1.2 million each, which not all of them managed, was not enough to cover even the food they were eating, and they said they would prefer to pay more next time and also to provide basic foodstuffs. So the next youth camp is set for August and the contribution for each person will be $3.5 million – as best they can.

This youth camp has inspired us to consider making a fresh start this year with the BLCC Conference, never mind the high costs of running it and the high costs of transport for people to attend. We put this idea to those at the Leaders’ Training Weekend and everyone supported it. If it goes ahead, it will probably be at the end of September.

Two Testimonies

Both struck and healed

She came struggling out to be prayed for at the time of ministry in the Sunday Prayer meeting on Sunday 2nd April 2006, a girl or young lady, in her early twenties. She was suffering from being unable to use either right arm or right leg.

We all watched and prayed while someone ministered to her in different ways, ending up by getting her to put faith into action by moving her limbs and walking up and down. Bit by bit, she regained the use of her limbs until she was able to jump and dance in time to the singing of a chorus.

It was only afterwards, when we reflected on the testimony she gave us, that we realized she had come to the meeting perfectly well, but had had a mild stroke in the middle of it. We are really grateful that God also healed her in the same prayer meeting. We were also grateful that we did not realize what had happened until after she was healed.

Step ahead for UZ

At the same prayer meeting, Manners Sheshe testified how Mrs Blandina Marere had invited one or two people to give the essential parts of a Life in the Spirit Seminar to some University of Zimbabwe students at her house. He had gone along, just to give support to those who were giving it and to gain experience.

The UZ students were there, 25 of them, all ready and eager to hear something about the Holy Spirit, as Mrs Marere had promised them. However, no one had turned up for this ministry. There was just him and his younger brother Mike, who had no experience at all. Mrs Marere said she was unable to help with the teachings because, ‘I talk too much’, meaning that she goes on endlessly and looses direction. So essentially, he was on his own.

Mrs Marere said it must go ahead since the students were all there and were full of expectation of learning something about the Holy Spirit. So Manners went ahead – with a certain trepidation, but in faith, and the Lord was with him. So he was not on his own after all.

Manners has just obtained an Engineering Degree from Harare Polytech. This was an asset and it gave the students some confidence in him.

He started with the teaching on the love of God and Inner Healing. Mrs Marere told me the students were all taking it down like they were at a maths lecture. Yet, when it came to ministry, the Lord began working with them. Some of them were confused when they saw some people being slain in the Spirit, especially two Catholic students and some Seventh Day Adventists, two of whom disappeared when they saw this happening.

They were particularly touched, however, by the teaching on Deliverance. This teaching can lead to a much deeper level of repentance, especially in the area of traditional and occult practices.

When it came to the ministry of baptism in the Spirit, Manners started singing, ‘Just one more touch, Lord’, and the Lord was straightaway working with the students. It was a case of ‘touch and fall’, and they were falling down all over, baptised in the Spirit and praying in tongues. Mrs Marere mentions one young boy, about grade three, who happened also to be there, who was lying on the floor praying in tongues with tears flowing from his eyes.

Faith and courage walk hand in hand. If it had been you or I, we might have said, 'Nothing doing, we are going home'. Thank God for Manners Sheshe’s faith and courage on this occasion which brought the kingdom of heaven to this small group of future leaders in the country.

Word of God

John 3: 27 ‘A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.’ NKJV

Which is more important to you, the head or the heart?

If the gift we receive, for example the gift of wisdom, is coming down from heaven, it is a gift from God. How can we possibly receive something from God with our human intellect?

To use computer software terminology, the gift from God has to be first downloaded then installed. You might think it has to be downloaded through the intellect and then installed in the heart of a man.

But it is more likely the other way around. It is downloaded through the heart and installed in the intellect. We first receive from God intuitively through the operation of our spirit, then think about it, and so install it in our mind or soul.

Nicodemus was a cleric and an intellectual. He could see there was something special about Jesus but was having a hard time with Him. He was trying to crank it all through his superior intellect. He was trying to download from Jesus straight into his head.

It is sad to see intelligent, educated people trip up on things like the baptism in the Spirit, the gifts or charisms of the Spirit, and the charismatic renewal in general. Could it be they are living too much in their head and not enough in their heart? Simpler people on the other hand receive this good news and profit greatly from it and produce fruit in their lives for God’s kingdom.

Our Christian faith is primarily a thing of the spirit and is received by the spirit. All the gifts of God we receive, including gifts of prayer, are all spiritual matters before they are intellectual. We receive these things intuitively into the heart through the operation of our spirit.

Could this be what Jesus meant when He said that unless we become like little children, we should not enter the kingdom of God – which is a thing of the spirit.

Report: Gokwe

The Spirit blows where He wills in Gokwe

Mrs Anna Tsanga was a victim of the tsunami. This was not the tsunami that the whole world knows about, but the tsunami that Zimbabwe knows about. Here, ‘tsunami’ is a nickname given to the clean up exercise in which many people lost their homes and sources of income.

After struggling for a long time to find new accommodation, Mrs Tsanga eventually made a firm decision that she must return to her rural home in Gokwe, a remote area about 300 kilometres from Harare, rather than be a burden on her daughter and son-in-law. We did not want to lose her since she was a BLCC leader in Chitungwiza, a place just outside Harare, but eventually we had to accept that God had his own plans for her.

After some months she returned for a visit and gave a testimony at the Sunday prayer meeting that showed us that the Lord is ready to do something at Gokwe. We decided to send two people to support her and to get people ready for a Life in the Spirit Seminar. We call it ‘kugobora’, this means to dig out the tree stumps. You cannot plough virgin land until you have first got rid of the stumps, and you sometimes cannot give a Seminar until the ground of people’s hearts is prepared in some way.

So, last weekend we sent Mrs Sharai Chanetsa and Lazarus Kudiwa to Gokwe. Mrs Chanetsa works at Kingdom Bank as an item processor, and Lazarus is a young man that was working as a salesman but is now out of work. He spends most of his time visiting people with problems and meeting them with prayer at their point of need, either individuals or families or groups. Both of them have experience in the Lord’s work and together with Mrs Tsanga they made a formidable trio.

It soon became clear that Mrs Tsanga had been putting her leadership qualities to work in the parish there. Gokwe is a place where the people seem to know nothing of the Renewal God is bringing about in His church. When Mrs Tsanga prayed for sick persons in the parish and they saw they were healed, they thought she must be a Satanist. (That word gets bandied about too much these days.) They were happy to learn from the people from Harare that these things are happening these days, both in their church and in other churches.

They had no chance to visit people in their homes. Instead, a small group of 20 or 25 people assembled at the house of Mrs Tsanga, and they were hungry to learn all they could. The team taught them about Jesus and what He could do for them. They taught them about the Holy Spirit and about the Charismatic Renewal and about BLCC (The Blood of the Lamb Christian Community). We did not plan to give them a Seminar this time, but they brought in the teaching of the three hearts, which comes in Seminar One, to give them some homework while waiting for our next visit.

They also taught them to praise God all together in a word of praise and they responded wholeheartedly. The team were surprised and delighted to see the Spirit come upon them during this praise. Many of them were slain in the Spirit and a number of them were baptized in the Spirit and praying in tongues.

The Lord does not wait for us and our plans. He does not wait for our Seminars. When He sees people’s hearts are ready for it, He can and does pour out His Spirit upon them as they are. God’s love is going out to people these days and He wants to work in their lives with His divine power. It is as if God wants to bring as many people as possible to salvation, or deeper into His kingdom while there is still time.

The people in this group were from various churches and some of them were asking, ‘What about us? We see this is good. Are we allowed to come and pray in this way?’ Mrs Chanetsa replied, ‘You must stay where you are in your own churches. You can come and pray and make the Seminar when we come again. What you learn there, you can go back to your own churches and teach them about it. God’s church is the whole of Christianity and God wants all people to be saved and to receive the baptism in the Spirit.’ The people were pleased to hear this.

Something is growing at Gokwe and next time we go there we expect to see many people ready for a Seminar. It is clear that Mrs Anna Tsanga has been praying at Gokwe. All leadership in the kingdom of God starts there. Without prayer we will be only following our own plans. When we pray we give God a way in and allow Him to bring His own answers to the problems in people’s lives.

Apologies for all the religious jargon here. We hope to provide links to explanations of some of the words and phrases as soon as we can manage it.