10 Days of Revival in Nairobi
Friday, Day 7
I
should have known. I should have recognized the signs and realized what was
coming. This is old stuff for me, but I just wasn’t thinking along those lines
of experience – I just thought I was having a bad day.
The day started off okay. I met with an apostle from Nigeria in the hotel lobby
and I shared what the Lord had shown me for his country.
This is the 4th or 5th pastor who has contacted me
and offered to help take me throughout Nigeria to share my message with them.
Nigeria is next on the list.
The Lord showed me a cloud of thick darkness over Nigeria, especially northern
Nigeria. As I looked, I could see
little pinpricks of light shining out of the midst of that darkness, and could
hear these faint cries for help coming from them.
I have to go. I don’t know
what awaits me there, but I have to go.
Nigeria is next. I have no
idea where the money will come from, but I have to go.
I told this pastor what the Lord had shown me and it must have struck a chord
with him, because he offered to host me there while in the capital.
This is
the 4th pastor, one from each section of Nigeria, who has shown up
out of nowhere to help host me in Nigeria.
Ya think maybe it’s a sign?
As soon as I left him and headed into town, however, I almost got arrested and
sent to jail. I was on my way to the Bible Book Store to get some more Bibles,
and a cop saw me talking on the cell phone while driving.
I could see him running through traffic and I just knew that somehow he
was running after me. Oh, great.
If this guy resents white people, my goose is cooked.
Sure
enough, I’m in trouble. Apparently, not only is talking on a cell phone while
driving against the law, it is a serious offense. He gets in and tells me to
drive to the Police Station where I will be booked. It’s almost like asking you
to load the gun that is going to shoot you.
I figure that I had better tell everyone that I will be, uh, a bit
delayed, so I begin to reach for the cell phone to call them. Yeah, that’s all I
need to do, right? Pick up the
phone again, this time while driving the cop who is still yelling at me.
Thank God, I caught myself before I picked it up.
Hey, I never said I was the smartest guy in the class.
I’m not sure, but for some reason, the cop let me go.
But now I have to fight for a parking spot in the mid-day traffic
somewhere close enough to the store so I can carry 3 large boxes of Bibles to
the car. Going to jail might have
been easier. Getting the parking
spot in front of the bible store ranks right up there with parting the Red Sea,
but – and I can hardly believe it –a simple prayer of quiet desperation is
answered when someone backs out of a parking spot right in front of the store as
I pull up. I can’t believe it.
Yeah,
I know. You’re thinking, “So what?
What’s the big deal?” The big deal
is that in the whirlwind of stress and anxiety, God gave me a sign that He is
still on my side and listens to my prayers.
And right about then, I really needed to know that.
A faithful brother back in the U.S. has told Cindy that he will pay for 500
Bibles. It still chokes me up to
think about it. The value in human
souls is inestimable and can’t be measured in money.
You have to see the faces of these people to really understand how huge
this is in the eternal scope of things.
Somehow, he must know. If he
doesn’t, he will when he meets these souls face to face in Eternity.
It’s
time to head back for another Bible reading group and services, but I’m so tired
that I am barely able to stay awake.
I have to slow down this pace.
The level of intensity has been slowly draining me – both the preaching
and the driving through traffic – and I have not realized the toll it has been
taking. I know I’ve lost weight
because my pants are so loose, I can pull them off me.
I feel light and weak like I could float away, but there’s only a few
more days left to go. But everybody
wants me to come to them also and minister, and it is hard to refuse because I
will only be here for a limited time. But pretty soon, if I don’t get a break, I
am not going to be good to anyone.
I guess this is what happens when you get old.
Tonight
is our last open-air crusade. We
have won souls at every open-air meeting and at every place we have preached,
the only exception being the “lunch hour services”.
I haven’t counted how many have gotten saved, but its not the number that
is important to me – it’s the presence of the Lord to draw them to the altar.
I take it as a seal of approval that His Spirit is working in the midst
of us.
After ministering to all the new souls, it’s off to some tiny shack down on a
dark and muddy road in the middle of one of the slums.
There are 16 people here, a dirt floor, and a tin roof, but this is where
the Holy Ghost takes charge tonight.
Cinch
up your pants, take a deep breath, and stand up ready to give it whatever you’ve
got (if I’ve got anything left).
Out of somewhere comes a brand-new message, and I am preaching up a storm.
Gone is the fatigue and weakness.
The moment I stood up, the Spirit of God took over, and I left my flesh
somewhere far behind in the excitement of the Holy Ghost.
I come to the end of an intense message like pulling in the reins on galloping
horses and jumping off the saddle.
I stood there and all I said was, “Let’s pray”.
That’s all I said, and the Spirit came pouring down in buckets.
We started praying and couldn’t stop.
We were overwhelmed by the outpouring, swimming in it, lost in its power,
drenched in the glory of God.
Whenever I thought it would finally slow down and come to an end, it would pour
down all over again and knock you back, rolling over you with Holy Laughter.
After
a while, I figured that since I was the preacher, I should lay hands on each one
and pray over them. Sounds funny, I
know, but I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, and I figured that laying
hands on everybody sounded like a pretty good thing to do.
That started things up all over again.
People rose up; people fell down; some went down to crumble in prayer,
crushed on the floor by the power of the Holy Spirit of God; others fell
backwards, slain in the Spirit. I didn’t know what would happen next, so I went
back to the front of the church and sat down and just watched.
I felt like I was standing on the outside looking in.
The presence of God was so thick that it almost looked like a fog had
filled the room … and I’m not so sure that it didn’t.
As I sat there watching the Spirit of
God envelop this church, I had the distinct thought that this might be the match
that would light the dry grass of Africa.
I’ve been waiting all week for this.
I knew that this week was going to bring forth something very special,
not the ordinary revival services, but something much bigger.
At first I was afraid because you always want to believe that this is the
time when the supernatural will happen, but I don’t want to be proclaiming the
same old nonsense and be another “wannabe”.
If it is going to happen, it is going to happen, and if not, then it
won’t. But this time it did happen.
I can’t tell you what will come of this meeting.
Maybe it is just the first of many to follow.
Maybe it will start a fire that will catch, and maybe it will go out
before it spreads to other churches.
I don’t know what will happen, but I know that God has a plan, and this
meeting was part of that plan.
If nothing else happens while I am in Nairobi, this evening in this tiny little rundown church will be enough.
