Rev Dr Edgar Mayer;
For more sermons and other writings
check the following homepage: www.livinggracetoowoomba.org
From
Waritsian
This morning
I want to do something different. Three weeks ago we came back from our mission
trip to
The first
one will come out of the story of what happened. [Abbreviate (radically) and retell the following testimonies
and reports.]
Geoff Waugh: Flashpoints Of Revival,
Shippensburg: Destiny Image 1998, p94-98: Johan van Bruggen, a missionary at
the Lutheran Evangelist Training Centre, Kambaidam near Kainantu in the Eastern
Highlands of Papua New Guinea, wrote in his circulars:
Tuesday afternoon,
He had just started with the first one:
Words of Wisdom when suddenly I was surrounded by Divine Presence. When it
started I wanted to run away, scared stiff! But back came the words: Dont hold
back, do not fear! So I stayed and said, Come Holy Spirit, fill me
completely. Now I know what it is to be drunk in the Spirit. I couldnt stand
on my feet. I slumped on the bed, hands raised, trembling all over, tingling
all over. I felt something moving up my gullet and I just said, Out, out, and
I literally threw up. Dont worry, I didnt make a mess. I just got rid of the
spirit of fear and doubt! And oh, I felt absolutely fantastic. I cried and
laughed and I must have been quite a sight! It rained hard and that rain was a
solid muffler! Nobody knew. I came around again because there was the noise of
the video set with a blank screen. The programme was finished and I did not
know how. I have had earlier fillings of the Holy Spirit but nothing like this
time with that sense of being overwhelmed.
Then came Thursday 4 August (1988), a
miserable day weather wise, although we had great joy during our studies.
Evening devotions not all students came, actually a rather small group. I too
needed some inner encouragement to go as it was more comfortable near the fire.
We sang a few quiet worship songs. Samson, a fellow who by accident became one
of our students last year, well, this Samson was leading the devotions. We had
sung the last song and were waiting for him to start. Starting he did, but in
an unusual way. He cried, trembled all over! ... Then it spread. When I looked
up again I saw the head prefect flat on the floor under his desk. I was praying
in tongues off and on. It became quite noisy. Students were shouting! Should I
stop it? Don't hold back! It went on and on, with students praying and laughing
and crying not quite following our planned programme! We finally stood around
the table, about twelve of us, holding hands. Some were absolutely like drunk,
staggering and laughing! I heard a few students starting off in tongues and I
praised the Lord. The rain had stopped, not so the noise. So more and more
people came in and watched!
Not much sleeping that night! They
talked and talked! And that was not the end. Of course the school has changed
completely. Lessons were always great, I thought, but have become greater
still. Full of joy most of the time, but also with a tremendous burden. A
burden to witness ...
What were the highlights of 1988? No
doubt the actual outpouring of the Holy Spirit must come first. It happened on
August 4 when the Spirit fell on a group of students and staff, with
individuals receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit on several occasions later
on in the year. The school has never been the same again. As direct results we
noticed a desire for holiness, a hunger for God's Word which was insatiable
right up till the end of the school year, and also a tremendous urge to go out
and witness. Whenever they had a chance many of our students were in the
villages with studies and to lead Sunday services. Prayer life deepened, and
during worship services we really felt ourselves to be on holy ground
The fact is that our school is not just
another church institution. As one of the students remarked recently, the real
head teacher at Kambaidam is the Holy Spirit. Well, he certainly did a good
job! Our 35 new students were again fascinated by the new life they discovered
among the second year students. The Word of God did the rest. During the month
of March real repentance took place. One week before Easter the Holy Spirit
moved mightily among the students and staff. There was a lot of crying during
that week. Each night the students met in small prayer groups. The aim was to
get them prepared to go out to seven small Easter camps that were planned for
the Gazup area our area here around the school. Well, God's Spirit really prepared
them well! I have never seen and heard so much crying. Many students had listed
all their sins. I must confess that some of these lists really shook me. There
was witchcraft, magic, adultery, stealing, drunkenness. It once again showed me
how deep and far the world has invaded the church today. There was tremendous
relief as students were assured of forgiveness and were filled with the Holy
Spirit.
We have been almost left speechless by
what God is doing now through our students. We realize that we have been led on
are now on the threshold of revival
(van Bruggen 1989).
David, a young student in his early
twenties from the
One Saturday night he was invited to
lead the village devotions at Ragizaria. Johan van Bruggen told the story in
his circulars:
Since most of the Ragizaria people are
deeply involved in witchcraft practices, David made an urgent appeal for
repentance. Two men responded and came forward. David put his hands on them and
wanted to pray, when suddenly these two men fell to the ground. They were both
praising the Lord. Everybody was surprised and did not know what to think of
this. David himself had been slain in the Spirit at Kambaidam in August 1988, but
this was the first time that this had happened to others through him. The next
morning during the Sunday service scores of people were slain in the Spirit.
Said David, People entered the church building and immediately they were
seized by Gods power. They were drunk in the Spirit and many could not keep
standing. The floor was covered with bodies. It did not only happen to
Lutherans, but also to members of a Seventh Day Adventist congregation (former
Lutherans) that were attracted by the noise and commotion.
David reported that there was a sense of
tremendous joy in the church and people were praising the Lord. Well, the
service lasted for hours and hours. Finally David said, And now the people are
hungry for Gods Word and not only in my village, but also in Waritzian, a
nearby village. And they want the students to come with Bible studies. Can we
go next weekend?
We all felt that some students together
with Pastor Bubo should go
Pastor Bubo told me, Acts 2 happened all over
again! For three days all the people were drunk in the Spirit. God used the
students and Bubo in a mighty way. On Saturday night the Holy Spirit was poured
down on the hundreds of people that had assembled there. From then on until the
moment the school car arrived on Monday
This area had been a stronghold of evil
practices. Many people received various spiritual gifts including unusual
abilities such as speaking English in tongues and being able to read the Bible.
People met for prayer, worship and study every day and at night. These daily
meetings continued to be held for over two years (van Bruggen 1989).
The following is from a conversation
with Yandine Moses (Edgar & Yandine, at Waritsian, February 2010) who in
May 1989 was one of the students that visited Waritsian from the Lutheran
Evangelist Training Centre, Kambaidam. He was from Warisian himself and after
three months in
[Other eye-witnesses shared the
following: The light of Gods presence shone for a month (day and night)
(One
day everyone could see it and then for a month only those from other villages
and a distance saw the light at the height of the clouds.)
After one week
people get people from neighbouring villages => about 30,000 came
It was
as if God drew a line => when you moved across it, then you fell under the
power of God
Numerous people received the gift of tongues (later, sometimes
after years) => dont practice the gift much any more
When people fell
under the power of God, many fell into the fire but no one was burned
You
felt like you could give away thousands of kina but wouldnt care
Fear of God
came => some people terrified to come
When it happened some were away
=> rebel church => after Healing The Land process => rebel church
member had banana plant which bore empty fruit
]
History of Revival At the Sunday morning service just before the team
left Waritsian, Pastor Walo Ani asked that the people share their testimony of
the ways in which God has come to their community over the years. Judas
William shared that in 1988 he and three or four young men attended the Lae
Lutheran Youth meetings and their hearts became hungry for God. When they
returned to the village the leaders allowed them to share what had happened in
the camp, allowing the fire to begin in the heart. (This was a testing of the waters and no one
complained about what was shared.)
Yasakin Andrew went on to say that the ones who had been to the
camp shared the word of the Lord to the
people. The Word that challenged them was Revelation 3.19 - As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten. Therefore be zealous and
repent. Bugan Pali explained that on
Buni said that as the glory of the Lord came upon them, a
deep inner peace was felt by all and their prayers were powerful. They began to say Allelujah for the first
time in their lives, especially for the young people, as strong Lutherans, that
they were shouting Allelujah! and falling down. There were many
manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy and tongues.
Adu shared that for him the power of the Holy Spirit seemed to settle over
the guava tree. As he lay on the ground
he saw heaven open and the ladder with angels ascending and descending, as in
the story of Jacob. Manasseh shared that when the Holy Spirit fell there
were also demonic manifestations during that time.
One lady said that with the Holy Spirit filling them, they
tried to guide the community. The team
visited houses, burned witchcraft
items. As they did so they could hear
noises and screaming coming from the houses. This was something they had never experienced before
the power of both Holy Spirit and Satan. Lauren Silas said that the
visitation brought many changes to Waritsian.
Before, there was much witchcraft, sorcery and magic and worship of the
produce from the gardens. Now they knew
they had a God who controlled the gardens.
After the burnings Waritsian changed. All those in witchcraft were
released and were strong in praise and worship. The Holy Spirit brought the
Word through preaching and the interpretation of tongues and lives were
changed. When people came into the village they could sense the presence of the
Lord. Persecution and opposition also came mainly through their denomination.
Sampson said the news went out all over the
People sacrificially gave money for the young
people to go on missions although there was no real follow-up of them. Conferences were held in the village to
strengthen faith. One woman said that as she spoke in tongues her brother was
enabled by the Holy Spirit to interpret. Daimu Isaiah said that the
interpreting was in Pidgin and Tok peles so there was no misunderstanding of
the Word from God.
At one time a drama was being played out
of Peter and John at the Gate
Beautiful. They used a lame man to enact
asking them for alms and to the delight of everyone he was actually healed!
Ronnies account of his experience of the Revival was that
he was at the river one night and a great light came down on him and enveloped
him. He felt his feet pinned supernaturally so that he did not fall over. Then
his feet was lifted up from the ground.
Every direction he turned to, the power radiated out causing people in that
direction to fall down. Yanding was with him and he too experienced the initial
outpouring. Many of the village people began to speak in tongues and to use
other gifts of the Spirit
The key to
the outpouring at Waritsian on Friday 5 May was repentance. It began with the
Lutheran pastor Johan van Bruggen at the Lutheran Evangelist Training Centre at
Kambaidam. When watching a video on receiving gifts from the Spirit, he was at
first unmoved but then after being
surrounded by the presence of God and overcoming the fear of this experience he stayed and said: Come Holy
Spirit, fill me completely. His
repentance involved freedom from a spirit of fear and doubt. Then, he cried and
laughed.
Later,
another twelve students and staff were touched (
When the
team from Kambaidam came to Waritsian, they again focused on repentance for four days of preaching. Then on Friday, 5 May 1989 God
responded to their repentance with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit which came
with amazing fullness of God according to all of the Bible promises
forgiveness, power, love and joy, signs and wonders, healings and repentance was the key.
For a few
years (according to Yandine Moses
about seven years) the community enjoyed
the presence of God but then slowly there was a drifting away from God. Sin and self-reliance crept into the
life of the village. Opposition and pressure from the Lutheran church
headquarters and others did not help. Over time the outpouring of the Spirit
became not much more than a precious memory. Even the man that I
interviewed who had been part of the original student group from Kambaidam
seventeen years old at the time he moved in amazing Spirit power for about
four years so much so that he looked down on the preachers that needed to
walk around and pray hard for the anointing but even he after five years of glory (1994) entered into an improper marriage
arrangement and therefore (maybe not able to face his community) stopped his allegiance to God for fifteen
long years. Only last year he found his way back to church and worship when
another man burned down his permanent house and he saw his Bible and other
Christian books go up in flames. Then, he knew that it was time to repent
again. Thus, the
However, in
August 2009 God began to open up again the favours that he had bestowed on the
community. Pastor Walo Ani and a prayer team of over two hundred people from
the Central Province, Goroka and Toowoomba led the community through a Healing
The Land process which is a program based on many Bible passages but especially
2 Chronicles 7:11-16: When
Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had
succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord
and in his own palace, the Lord appeared to him at night and said: I have
heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for
sacrifices. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command
locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who
are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and
turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive
their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears
attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated
this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will
always be there. This Bible passage
and others are again about repentance and the whole Healing The Land
Process is known as The
Revival Of Repentance.[1]
The following is from a report by Deryck
& Nancy Thomas Toowoomba 2009: Members of the Healing the Land team from
After the teaching on Roots and
Foundations, many renounced the sins of passing on to the younger generation
magic practices and artifacts. Others
had backslidden and failed to train the younger generation in the righteous
ways of their forefathers. There was
great grief over the bondages, sickness, death, destruction of gardens, and
loss of fish and birds caused by all their sin.
Church leaders repented to youth leaders
for past tensions and asked God to restore new leadership to minister in
unity. Parents repented to their
children for past hurts and scores of young people asked Jesus to come into
their lives. Church leaders also apologized
to one another and husbands apologized to their wives for their harsh
attitudes, asking and receiving forgiveness and (disregarding cultural
inhibitions) expressing their love for each other!
About 90 young men were anointed and
dedicated for spiritual warfare over the boundaries of their land from which
they returned, rejoicing as warriors who had put Satan to flight with their
prayer spears! The Prayer Team of over
200 visited every house, encouraging repentance and speaking blessing over the
homes. Court papers from land disputes
were destroyed in the bonfire, as were violent DVDs showing violence and even
cards played by an 11 year old boy who repented of his addiction! There was great rejoicing, dancing and
feasting in the whole community as they celebrated Jesus release in their
lives.
After the Process the community could
not return to their normal duties for a week as they continued to
celebrate! The boys and youth
particularly have continued to fast and pray to seek more of Gods presence. All the mango trees flowered and the people
are expecting a big harvest shortly.
They are now reaching out to four surrounding villages where they will
assist in the HTL Process in February 2010.
Pastors from Toowoomba and a Lutheran team will visit to teach the Word
of God to help maintain the revival.
If we want
to share in any of the blessings of Waritsian or anything from God we need to share in the same foundations of repentance. Jesus himself
summed up how the whole world would be reached by God. He said to his disciples
Luke 24:47:
repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in
my [original: his] name to all nations, beginning in
[Abbreviate (radically) and retell in
your own words.]
Healing the Land, August 2009. Judas
William testified that although he had been filled with the Spirit and was
a Worship Leader he left the church and fell away from God. Then in 2009 the
Healing the Land team came. He did not
go to any meetings and did not listen to any sermons but when the House to
House Visitation team came to his home, they brought the Word that the Lord
wanted to bless him, his family and his village. He committed his life again to Jesus and the
power of God came on him again. Since
then God has blessed him by giving him the means to put his son in Year 11 in
High School. Now all he wants to do is preach
and worship in church!
Sim Yonyagi said he was thankful for what God had done for him
and his land through HTL. When the leaders dedicated the oil to anoint the
land, he put some on a banana tree in his new garden. This particular banana tree grew really
quickly and bore fruit while the others did not. He also put oil on the taro
and it is now growing really well. Vivien Gami said that before
Christmas her son went up the mango tree to get mangoes and fell. He was so badly injured they thought he would
die. But they anointed him with oil and
he was healed instantly.
When HTL happened others anointed their
land and saw taro grow within one to two months to the size normally harvested
in 6 months. One man was able to anoint one banana palm which grew 10 bunches
very quickly. He was able to transplant the palm to his new garden.
After HTL another man, David, was sick
because his father had planted a witchcraft item on his place. He was prayed
for but the spirits possessed him. He
got his family together and explained about the anointing oil and they took it
to the place of sanguma, (witches). They
prayed for protection, anointed the place, dug up the artifact and put it in
the fire, believing the man would be healed. In the past he could not look after
his garden but now he can. David said,
This oil shows Jesus is alive and delivered me from demons!
Another man testified that a teenager
with a skin disease covering his whole body came to stay with him during
HTL. They rubbed him all over with oil and
he is now completely healed. He came out
to the front to show everyone!
The Chairman of the Board of the school
said he did not attend the meetings in HTL but during the home visitations
believed God would heal his land. Since
the school started in 1968 they looked
for outside aid to help them and have seen the hand of God. During HTL they
anointed the place where they wanted new classrooms and now Ausaid has committed
K400,000 for double classrooms!
He believed whoever stepped into this community would feel the presence
of God and would be convicted of sin.
Ephraim, the Headman, said through the
HTL Process a lot of things were healed.
For him, his yams would not produce but now they were bigger and
better. He will be hosting a Sunday
School shortly and would bring a huge yam.
One lady said her son had fallen out of
a coconut palm and they thought he had been killed but there was not a single
bone broken.
Pastor Yawings mother testified that
she had very bad asthma and would have been dead a year ago but Yawing had
prayed for her and God healed her.
The Waritsian Councilor said that in his
leadership position he had had a regional meeting with the other Councilors and
had been told there would be no money in the budget for the Waritsian village
projects for another year. He had to
return to the community with the bad news but at Christmas, word was sent to
him to return to the Regional Council. They gave him K10,000 for the water
project. God had intervened! Walo encouraged them that they could believe
for the extra money needed to complete the piping of water to the houses and
that the newly formed Community Development Group could take the initiative in
this. They prayed that water could come soon so the women did not have to go to
the river especially at night, and to remember that nothing is impossible with
God. They also prayed for water to go through 4-5 km of pipes to the school so
children could continue this testimony.
New fish
ones only their ancestors knew the names for. Even fish from the sea have come up the
The mango trees had flowers on their
branches like cocoa and a very plentiful harvest. Pineapples were growing
plentifully.
Many sicknesses were gone. A tragic road
accident at the neighbouring village on the highway had killed 4 people from
Waritsian. This incident brought the people closer to God.
Most of the blessings asked for on the
In List at HTL have come to the village, especially tertiary education for
the young people where before there seemed to be a blockage in this area. Moses
said there had been many land disputes prior to HTL but most have been settled
now and there are no more court cases.
We repent to
share in the same blessings as Waritsian. This is basic and foundational.
However, there is another key to access what God has done at Waritsian in 1989
and then more recently. In the Bible reading from before 2 Chronicles 7 God has bound himself to a particular place. I read the relevant verses
again: When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord
the Lord
appeared to him at night and said: I have heard your prayer and have chosen
this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices
Now my eyes will be open and
my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and
consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my
heart will always be there. Throughout the Bible it seems that God designated special places which seem to function as
some kind of portals where communication and receiving from God happens more
easily and the temple in
God is not
limited to these places because
according to the Bible (as revealed at
worship in the temple!) Isaiah 6:3:
the whole earth is full of his
glory. (We know that we can worship him anywhere.) Furthermore, God does not allow himself to be manipulated. These portal
places are not under human control and there is no unconditional guarantee of
access. For instance, God rebuked any false worship of such places, saying in
the Bible Acts 7:46-50 I paraphrase:
You cannot contain me by
anything that you build with your own hands. Heaven is my throne and earth is
my footstool. Dont think that you get a human handle on me.
Yet keeping in mind these words of caution there are indeed portals places which
provide easier access to heaven. When
God appeared to Abraham, he would on occasion build an altar and mark the spot as a regular worship site. Where God
appears once, he can appear again. Then, the places of ongoing worship and
seeking God (as with Solomon and building the temple in
At Waritsian
when God poured out his presence
there in 1989 one man saw a ladder
reaching into heaven and angels ascending and descending on it. This sounds
like a vision straight from the Bible and in the Bible the ladder indeed
functioned as a more permanent portal between heaven and earth. The Bible gives
us the following information Genesis 12:8: From there Abraham went on
toward the hills east of
After
Abraham had died, his grandson Jacob had to flee from his brother to his uncle and
this is what happened on the journey
Genesis 28:10-22: Jacob left
In another
tricky situation God would speak to Jacob again, saying Genesis 31:13: I am the God of Bethel
[making special reference to this place], where you anointed a pillar
When Jacob returned after a few
decades of absence, God directed him back to Bethel and instructed him to
build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from
your brother . (Genesis 35:1; cf. 35:6-7).
God revealed
to Jacob in a dream that
[Another more
permanent portal seems to be Mount Sinai where God appeared to the people of
Israel Exodus 19:18: Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord
descended on it in fire
Many centuries later an angel would give the
prophet Elijah supernatural food which enabled him to travel for forty days and
nights to have an encounter with God at the portal of Mount Sinai (1 Kings 19
the mountain of God).]
My sense is
that our mission team to Waritsian (PNG)
spent an entire week under one such
portal. They have experienced amazing things in this village and one of the
young man had seen the ladder that was connecting heaven and earth at this
place (with angels ascending and descending on it). We were there and we soaked up the atmosphere of God by faith (at
least in my case with eager expectation that we would receive and share in the
blessings of Waritsian).
On the last
day of our stay there the entire leadership of the village commissioned us with
the blessings of Waritsian. They prayed and then one by one they
shook our hands (maybe 20-30 of them). The
last elder a well respected older man (Titus) he hesitated and then paused in front of me. Holding my hand he said:
Your church will go from 200 to 2000 and then 4000. He spoke these words with authority under
an open heaven the portal in Waritsian. I received these words by faith because from the beginning God demonstrated that what he had poured out
at Waritsian was to go out from there into other places including Toowoomba.
The glory light of God had shone in 1989
calling people into the village from all over the
After this worship
service the mission team that was at the village would like to pray for you with the laying on of hands which seems to have been the common Bible practice of passing on the
Spirit of God from one person to another Acts 8:17: Then Peter and John
placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Acts 19:6:
When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them
(cf. Acts 10 the Spirit is received without the laying on of hands.) Receive by faith.
I want to
talk about one more key to tap into the portal of Waritsian. In addition to repentance and being at the location
of the portal there is the key of
testimony. When I asked at a meeting a few weeks ago whether those that were
there knew the importance and power of sharing the testimony of what God has
done, most of us did not know. Yes, this is a most important key to sustain
what God is doing even in our midst. [For
instance, it is so important that we watch how we speak about the miracle of
the gold sparkles. Do we give positive testimony about this or are we shutting
down the work of God by our silence because it maybe too controversial or has
become too familiar for us?]
The Bible
teaches Revelations 19:10:
the
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. In other words: The testimony of what Jesus has done and is
doing the simple restating of what happened is the spirit and power of
prophetic words which accomplish what they are saying. This is practical. Whenever we share a
testimony of Jesus has done when the words of the memory go out an atmosphere is created a power
field in the Spirit where the same
work of Jesus can happen again.
One time the disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except
for one loaf they had with them in the boat (Mark
One pastor Bill Johnson was
changed by this one Bible passage. Jesus expected his disciples to be impacted
by the past testimonies. Even when you dont have eyes to see or ears to hear
when you are caught in a situation with no faith and not much inspiration what you can always do, is to remember.
Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or
understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and
ears but fail to hear? And dont you remember? You can always remember and when you remember, the testimony of
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy which
means that after remembering the feeding of the five thousands with only five
loaves and the feeding of the four thousand with only seven loaves, you can
expect to feed all of the disciples with only one loaf of bread for lunch. The
same miraculous provision will happen again in the remembering the
testimony of past experiences.
This is also
at the heart of Holy Communion. One church leader writes in the Bible 1 Corinthians 11:23-25: For I received from the
Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was
betrayed, took break, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This
is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me. In the same way,
after supper he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my
blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.
When we remember Jesus in the meal of Holy
Communion when we share the testimony of Jesus broken body on the cross
in the breaking of the bread and his poured out blood in drinking the cup of
wine in the remembering the
testimony God releases again the power
of the cross. We receive the benefits of Jesus sacrifice.
The people
of Waritsian had one dramatic occurrence of the same principle the power of testimony. In November 1990, Johan van Bruggen wrote:
This is what happened about 2 months
ago. A new church building was going to be officially opened in a village in
the Kainantu area. Two of our last years graduates took part in the
celebrations by acting the story in Acts 3: Peter and John going to the temple
and healing the cripple. Their cripple was a real one - a young man, Mark, who
had his leg smashed in a car accident. The doctors had wanted to amputate it,
but he did not want to lose his useless leg. He used two crutches to move
around the village. He could not stand at all on that one leg. He was lying at
the door of the new church when our Peter and John (real names: Steven and Pao)
wanted to enter.
The Bible story was exactly followed: I
have got no money, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk! Well, they acted this out before hundreds of
people, among them the president of the Goroka Church District and many pastors
and elders. Peter (Steven) grabbed the cripple (Mark) by the hand and pulled
him up. And he walked! He threw his crutches away and loudly praised the Lord!
Isnt that something? What a faith!
Their testimony was given at a meeting
of elders when Kambaidam was discussed. Mark was a most happy fellow who stood
and walked firmly on his two legs. He also had been involved in criminal activities,
but in this meeting he unashamedly confessed his faith in the Lord Jesus.
Later I talked with them. Steven (Peter)
told me that the Lord had put this on his heart during a week long period of
praying. I had no doubt that the Lord was going to heal Mark, and I was so
excited when we finally got to play act! And Mark? He told me that when Steven
told him to get up he just felt the power of God descend upon him and at the
same time he had a tingling sensation in his crippled leg: I just felt the blood
rushing through my leg, bringing new life! Mark is now involved in
evangelistic outreach and his testimony has a great impact.
As the
testimony of the Bible was acted out, power was released. Whatever is contained
in the testimony when we share the
story the same creative power of the
testimony can be released again. [This is the experience of many churches.
For instance, healing testimonies give rise to the same healings.] This is simple and practical and powerful
and therefore this is one area where the devil is active in deceiving and
trying to shut down the witness the memory of what God has done in the past. At Waritsian maybe because of
the opposition and controversy until last year (incredibly!) anyone in the community under the age of
twenty-one had not even heard about the outpouring in 1989. The older ones
treasured the experience but did not share what happened and this without
their knowing was quenching the move
of the Spirit. We are to speak the testimony (if need be) keep telling
the story of one miracle or one conversion until we are blue in the face (until
another one occurs) because
according to the Bible the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy
(Revelations
I think that
we are ready now. This morning we want to access the open heaven over Waritsian
and exercising faith we are taking hold of three keys for
receiving the blessing. 1. We
share with the village community the foundation of repentance. 2. We have spent a week soaking up the atmosphere
of the portal to heaven the place where a ladder connects heaven and
earth with angels ascending and descending and now pass on what we have received in this location. 3. Over the last forty minutes we have spent
time preaching the testimony of the Waritsian revival and now trust that there
is power in the testimony. God can do the same here.
Are you
ready? We do this by faith. Repent, receive in prayer with the laying on of
hands what others have soaked up
at Waritsian and take hold of the
testimony. God, pour out your Spirit here. Amen.
[1] Vuniani Nakayaca & Walo Ani:
Healing The Land, Toowoomba: TC Books 2007, 2nd edition 2009. Walo
Ani: Healing The Land. A Manual For Trainers, Toowoomba: TC Books 2007, 2nd
edition 2009.