This is my last full day in Uganda, and I was preaching at Pastor David’s this morning. As I was praying last night about what God wanted to say today, He had given me the message, or at least the passage that the message would be based on (Ezekiel 47 – the river of God), but also made it clear that there was another issue I needed to address. These people, as everywhere I have been in Africa, are fascinated by my age, and particularly that I am able to stand and preach for an hour. They are also, like the people at home, fascinated by the fact that I don’t use notes, and that I can quote the Scriptures rather than reading them from a printed Bible. I had to remind them about Jesus’ words that those who receive a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and those who receive a righteous man as a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward – in other words, we can only receive from the anointing that we recognize. I told them that this 73 year old woman does not have anything to give them, but the anointed apostle and prophet does, and to not look at the person but at the anointing.
That set the tone for the meeting, and I preached under a heavy anointing. Before the meeting I had worried whether I would be able to find enough to say about the Ezekiel passage to fill an hour, but the Holy Spirit took over and my only problem was not going too far over the hour.
At the end, as has now become my normal practice, I gave an altar call for salvation, but nobody responded so I moved on.
The Lord had told me to give a call for those who wanted to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
About 30 people came out, and some were very obviously touched by the Spirit as I prayed for them, but I had no way of knowing how many received the baptism, as those whom I could hear praying could have been doing so in tongues, or it could have been in their own language. I just trust the Holy Spirit that He will have His way in all their lives.
When I had finished praying for all those who came out, my interpreter whispered to me, “There are two boys who want to receive Jesus.” I invited them to come out to the front, and started to explain to them that I would say a prayer, and wanted them to repeat it after me. Before I could finish doing that, some more kids came out. Then some more. And still more. In all, thirteen of them lined up. I was concerned that maybe some didn’t understand, and had just come for prayer, so I asked, “Are all of you here to accept Jesus as your Saviour for the first time?” All responded yes. So I led them in a simplified version of the “Sinner’s Prayer” and welcomed thirteen young souls into the Kingdom of God.
I am in awe of God’s goodness. There have been some major challenges on this trip so far, particularly here in Uganda, but to see precious souls brought out of the Kingdom of Darkness and into the amazing life that Jesus has bought for us is infinitely worth all of them.
Just for interest, this is the street that runs near Pastor David’s church.
