“…we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.”
Romans 1:12
Tucked away in a small primary school compound in a backwater hamlet of Uganda, you will find a tiny little country church with a few wooden chairs and a singular light.
And if you visit the church late at night, dimly lit though it may be, you will probably hear the throaty voice of Pastor Sande reverberating throughout the sanctuary and out into the open air. His clapping hands sound like thunder as he praises God and rebukes evil spirits whose desire is to tear apart his congregation.
When I first met Pastor Sande, I told him that just as I had what he lacked, so also he had what I lacked, and so we could bless each other. My words came true. From Pastor Sande I learned that believers in Jesus Christ possess all the power of God when they speak on His behalf.
Early in the month, I had prayed that God would reveal His power and glory in such a way through our ministry that the devil would have to call reinforcements to our ministry site. It was a scary prayer with a scary answer. As the month progressed, we fellowshipped with a well-known exorcist and witnessed a woman shrieking uncontrollably at church as a demon appeared to be controlling her body like a ventriloquist. Then one morning, I awoke to find that my bracelet, on which 2 Corinthians 12:9 is written, had evidently been torn off my wrist. That bracelet is so tight that I can scarcely pull it off during the daytime, and I hardly flinch while I sleep! I could be delusional, but I have no natural explanation for how that bracelet came off my wrist. I do know, however, that at the time I had been meditating almost constantly on the truth of 2 Corinthians 12:9—that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.
The Sunday after Christmas, our team found itself in the eye of the spiritual storm. We had been going through difficult times, and the entire day I suffered under the weight of tremendous temptations and anxieties. We were under attack. So at night, we held a little healing service for our team. We prayed over Nick’s perpetually swollen ankle, and in the following days his swelling subsided! We prayed over Anna’s sore neck, and not only did was her pain subdued, but she experienced emotional healing as well!
But inside of me the spiritual battle still raged, and I could find no peace of mind. So I asked for prayer, too. As Nick, Brady, Marin, and Anna laid their hands on me, something quite unusual happened: I somehow discerned that there was a demon who had been harassing us for the past week. His name was “judgment,” the Holy Spirit seemed to say, and I needed to gather my courage and rebuke him. Huh? I had never really done that kind of thing in front of other people before. But I told the others of my burden and my lack of courage and requested further prayer. And as I was surrounded by a symphony of prayer, I noticed that several of the people around me were speaking directly into my situation; and at the same time, lava-like anger began to churn in my heart, so that I clenched my teeth and balled my fists. I was furious that this demon—whatever his name might be—had sought to tear our team apart.
So I supplied the weakness. And God supplied the strength. Out of my weakness and God’s power I spoke—and this time there was something different about my voice. I sounded like Pastor Sande. Gazing into the eyes of this invisible menace, I shouted, “You wicked spirit! I am full of the anger of the Lord of Hosts! I know your name, Judgment, and I see what you are trying to do!” (By this time I was pounding my fist on the table.) “And I command you to leave this team and never to come back again, in Jesus’ name!”
In that instant, something happened that I cannot quite explain and hope never to forget. The presence of the Spirit of God fell upon us. I later wrote in my journal: “A wave of peace and weightlessness and freedom swept over the atmosphere. It was as though I could just sense some evil emissary of hell shrieking and fleeing up and away, far away over the hills and into the dark night, for his staff had been broken. And one by one, or rather simultaneously, the others [on our team] began laughing giddily like little children, or like those who had just heard a preposterous joke. Joy [arrived], like a beam of light shot into a dark place…. Brady and Marin were lavishly praising God; and Nick began laughing hysterically, exclaiming, ‘Nice try, Satan! You thought you could take us down!’…I now knew the power of the voice God had given me, and the authority He had given me to accomplish His will.”
The rest of that night was awash in joy. The prayer and the laughter danced endlessly into the night—not unlike Pastor Sande’s own prayers—as all semblance of time was swallowed up in joy from another world. It was one of the most powerful evenings of my life. I had experienced the Holy Spirit as He manifests Himself in Africa.
In the Western world, many believers have scarcely any interactions with the enemy, much less confrontations with him. We believe Satan exists, but act and pray as though he doesn’t. Like the Corinthians, we have all speech and all knowledge and are lacking no gift or resource (1 Corinthians 1:5-6). But like a lion that has forgotten how to roar, we do not lay hold of that authority which is ours in Christ.
Come to this continent, and you will find that there is scarcely an hour of the day, scarcely a moment in the sleepiest hours of the evening, when the wind will not carry to your ears the sound of devout congregations worshiping or praying with all their might. The believers here are mighty in zeal, fervent in Spirit, serving the Lord (Romans 12:11). They pray with authority and confidence. Many of them, as far as I can tell, spend approximately 25 hours per week in worship and prayer. They have practically nothing, but thank God for practically everything.
It is true, indeed, that many African pastors and their congregations lack the technical skills of their Western counterparts. They stand in need of sound doctrinal teaching and discipleship, and we have what they lack.
But after meeting Pastor Sande, I cannot be the same person again. By the sheer force of example, he taught me how to pray with all my might. He taught me how to rebuke the evil one with all of God’s might. He gave me what money could not buy.
I think many believers in Uganda and Rwanda understand what Paul meant when he told the Corinthians, “the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (1 Corinthians 4:20).
We have a lot of talk. But they have power.
They have what we lack.
X
