It’s rainy season in Lagos – its either cloudy or raining. It seems like a perfect setting for the spiritual landscape that lies before me on this trip. It is evident from the very start that we are here on a mission, not vacation, and there is a feeling like a somber cloud that lies over the whole setting. It is here, I believe, that Satan will dig his claws in to hold on to the spiritual grip he has gotten over these people and use that hold to keep revival from spreading across Africa. We are not here for fun; this is war.
We had a couple services in Lagos at the Shepherd’s House where both Cindy and I preached. Great services, filled with the excitement that only comes from the Throne of God. There were many broken hearts that committed themselves to a fresh new fire and to the opening of a new and greater vision to win the lost and prepare the way for a great revival. Everyone was excited and pleaded with us to come back to see the fruits that would be born from these services.
I always wonder when I leave these places. Was it enough? Will that feeling that they have right now stay with them? Will they catch the vision and build the fire? Every place I go, they say the same thing about me returning to see the fruit. They are so full of fire and inspiration that they cannot imagine going back to “church as usual”. But I always wonder.
I really should give people more credit. The stacks of emails I get testify to the hundreds of churches that have been planted, the thousands of souls that are getting saved, and the emergence of a second generation of evangelists and pastors that are out there spreading the fire. It is most definitely working, and working well. It’s not them that I should worry about – it’s me.
The workings of revival that we have seen these last ten years is so incredible to me that I guess I have trouble grasping the reality of what is really happening. Apparently, the people I preach to have no such problem. They get it. Just strike the match and they are off and running. Me, I’m the guy striking the match and I’m still wondering what is going on.
Maybe it’s supposed to be that way. I’ve given up trying to figure it all out. Just keep going. We have a job to do and don’t have time to fool around. We are here to break through the walls of superficial Christianity that Satan has built around the Church, and light a fire that will burn with the zeal of the Holy Ghost. Will we break through? Will these young warriors fan the flames that have been lit? Will they stand the ferocious spiritual warfare that will most assuredly begin to storm against them?
Yeah, I believe they will. There is a zeal and a desperation here driving them that I do not see anywhere else. They are determined to obtain victory. They just need someone to strike the match.
Maybe it is that serious dedication that I see reflected in these cloudy and rainy days. Surely it has to rain before the sunny days of harvest can ever come.
Is that thunder I hear in the distance? Ah, the sound of an abundance of rain.