Prayer Meetings in Pemba (read at own risk)

So much happens in life that I rarely get a moment to reflect on all that God is doing. I guess this is why he says in the Old Testament to remember and actually they were to set up standing stones as a visual reminder to his works. We all could write about what God is doing, has done or will do (prophetic promises over our lives). There are many people we have had the opportunity to minister with and to during our time in Pemba. Here is but a few.

This is the stuff Emie and I live for. Between all the emails, airport pick-ups, town runs, broken toilets or answering all the questions, we try to have a prayer meeting with visitors. We actually trick them in coming over by serving Emie’s Famous Pemba Chocolate Cake and then we move into some prayer. After an hour of visiting, the Lord usually lays someone on our hearts and we ask if we can pray for them. Then the ball is rolling, very fast!
What has happened the last three times is that the Lord lays a man on my heart and starts speaking to me about where they are or what they are wrestling with (not sexual). As we pray I am able to teach on scriptural truths and renewing the mind. Two men have been under so many religious spirits that we were able to rip them off and see an immediate difference. As we were praying over one gentleman the Holy Spirit was giving Emie and I so much for him that he sat down in shock and said you (Emie specifically) read my mail. Everything we had shared with him was exactly what he had told a teammate the night before. He sat there with his face in his hands the rest of the evening, in awe of God.

One evening we had a High School Senior in the group. As we were praying for him the Lord began to show where he was going to go to college and how the Lord was going to use him. I could see that he would end up in a very prominent position of leadership (I believe it was student body president) and that his campus would be changed by his life.
I could see him walking around his campus and receiving high respect by his peers. So I asked him where he wanted to go. He stood there and sheepishly said, “Ssst”. He wouldn’t say it, I believe out of embarrassment. He never ended up saying where he wanted to go (in public) but with what he was about to say I could tell it was the same place the Lord laid on my heart.
Afterwards he came up to me and asked what school I had got, I said, “Stanford.” He about flipped over and said, “I have always wanted to go there. Wow, that’s where I want to go!” I can’t wait to see Stanford changed. The best part about it is they don’t even know it’s coming, but God does and a few “nobodies” who prayed one night in Africa.

“Lord when I get to Africa would you have some one tell me what you want me to do with my life? Also can you have them tell me without me saying a word to them?” These were the prayers of a young university student from Ireland who wanted to know the next step for his life. I shared with him (and the others) that I don’t believe a women should hold a pastoral position at a “church”, this is because I don’t believe a man should hold a pastoral position at a church either. Biblically speaking a pastor is not a position, it’s a gifting. So a farmer, teacher, engineer, carpenter, janitor, mother, salesman, CEO, cook, builder or anyone else could be a pastor. We have institutionalized the gifts of God and told everyone who has a pastoral gifting they must go to Bible College and find a “church” to hire them. If we would release those who are in a profession and have the pastoral gifting to pastor people, wow, the Body of Christ would be better equipped and quicker. I said, “Will you become a pastor because you got a building and put a sign on it making you an official pastor?”
“You’re a pastor, you have the gifting of God on your life to be a pastor. You need to Shepard people. Do it, go for it and you don’t need a “church” to be a pastor,” this is what I told the young Irishman. “But what do you want to do? You are a pastor but what do you want to do,” I kept asking him over and over and over but he would not tell me. Finally I said, “I see you as a Pediatrician! Do what your heart’s desire for the Lord is. You can be a Pediatrician and pastor people! They don’t conflict, they fit together beautifully!”

Later that night he filled in all the details. He thought he should be a pastor (because he knew he had a gifting in it but thought the “right” way to be a pastor is the traditional way). But really he wanted to be a Doctor who could pastor people. The religious conflict he was feeling left him desperate to have the Lord tell him through a stranger. Only the Holy Spirit and the use of prophetic gifts and words of knowledge could answer his prayer from Ireland by a guy in Africa. What a great God.

In the middle of a prayer meeting we had a beautiful time when a gentleman fell to his knees and confessed his stuff. It was awesome to see the body gather around him and speak truth, life and love. It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 14: 24, “But if all of you are prophesying, and unbelievers or people who don’t understand these things come into your meeting, they will be convicted of sin and they will be condemned by what you say. As they listen, their secret thoughts will be laid bare, and they will fall down on their knees and worship God, declaring, ‘God is really here among you.’” What a sad place we are in when we discredit or throw out the supernatural gifts because they have been abused. When this is done we quickly become weak and have to try harder to do “ministry.”

We had a former missionary come visit that longed to be on the mission field again. I loved watching the Holy Spirit pour into her and out of her for that matter. The Lord asked me to share this story with her.
I was in a conversation with an older gentleman one day, who wanted to be in ministry as a young man and even went to Bible College. He never went “into ministry as an occupation” and I asked him why. He said, “Because it doesn’t pay very much.” “Well, that all depends on when you want to get paid” I replied.
Diane was rich, very rich! She has an investment package that is bursting at the seams. It was very clear she would not run out of resources when she finally retired to Eternity. This is why it is so important to store treasures up in Heaven, because we will be there for a very long time and we want to have enough to last.

The Lord keeps giving us stuff for those who come to visit in Pemba and it is always a delight ministering with them. After every night of prayer Emie and I lie in bed laugh with crazy excitement at how much fun it is. We are in awe of how easy it is and we are never tired. The comment that we always come back to is, “Why would/did we ever do it differently?”

There are so many amazing, wonderful God stories. Like the time I told a girl she had a weight in her stomach and it made her want to throw up. I pulled it out in Jesus’ name and it left. Or the time I told a guy he had a weight on his shoulder and prayed it off. He later came and shared what the weight was and how the Holy Spirit was dead on.
The most fun we had was when I was praying for this guy and I noticed a young girl (college) sitting on the ground with her face in her hands. “She has the gift of prophecy, but she is trying too hard,” is what the Holy Spirit told me. I asked her to stand up and told her exactly what the Holy Spirit told me. All she needed was to be released and then it happened, the Holy Spirit was so strong on her we could barely stand up. The room was spinning so fast and we had to go with it or it was going to be a mess. So we went with it and boy was it awesome. As we were spinning, I kept telling her it was her fault!

Nights like these give Emie and I the courage to keep going when it gets really hard (and it does, just like anywhere). The best compliment we have ever received was from two different groups, “this trip was worth it even if it was only for you and Emie to pray for us. Thanks!”
No, thank you Lord, we all had a great time!

Until the next prayer meeting!
Blessings
Heath