Since
“Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint”
(Proverbs 29:18 ESV), I want to mention this morning a
“Transformations” video that testify to the transformation of
four cities where restraint was cast of in spades. They are readily
available on Youtube. Common to them all is the terrible “lack of
restraint” in their pre-transformation plight. This include a city
dominated by a violent drug cartel (Cali in Columbia), the others
include occult, witchcraft, rampant drug and alcohol abuse, violence
and ignorance (Kiamba Kenya, Hemet California and Alamolonga
Guatemala). The transformations were not just in the church, but
also in the community at large. For brevity I will mention only
Alamolonga a town of some 19,000 people. Before transformation the
town had 36 bars and four jails, at the time of the documentary,
there were only three bars, and no jails! On the journey, and as
part of it, the town saw miraculous healings. One healing was of a
woman dying of gangrene in her entire body, from a botched
operation.
What
was at first amazing to me, is the change in the land. Wikipedia
speaks of Alamolonga as the "Vegetable Basket of the
Americas." The video documents that before transformation four
trucks per month left with produce. After transformation it was forty
per week, and the vegetables are of “Biblical proportions” In a
second video Transformations II, we hear that the berries and the
caribou started to come back after the revival in Pond Inlet. But
should we be surprised, the Lord did promise to heal the land (2
Chronicles 7:14)? A more recent story of
Bethel in Redding California is interesting. Pew research had
revealed that typically when the church in a city becomes successful,
the rest of the city tends to deteriorate. I am guessing that there
is less salt and light in the community. Bethel set out to change
that, and among other things took over the Civic centre that was
causing a drain on the city's financial resources. They turned it
into a profitable proposition. In addition, the current mayor of the
city was persuaded to run for mayor after a prophetic word, and one
of the things she managed to prevent was the building of a casino
with its accompanying problems. Following the “Carr fire” in
2018, Bethel raised and gave a thousand dollars to every home owner
who had lost their home in the fire.
So
then what were some of the ingredients that are common to all of
this? These, again according to the documentary, include prayer and
fasting, unity of the church, research into the particular problems
of the city (spiritual mapping), and the tackling by intercessors,
of the corresponding territorial principalities. A number of
questions remain. Can this happen in my city? Well, “the testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10 ) so yes
transformation of one city prophecies it can happen anywhere. Is all
this sustainable? It's not easy to find out exactly what is happening
now in these places (I tried). What I do know, is that the “Jesus
movement,” though extremely influential (Goggle it), nevertheless
produced fewer long term disciples in my city, and I suspect that
that was largely because the church was not ready, and there was
very little discipleship, let discipleship of the holistic variety.
Father,
that You for showing us what is possible. Please raise up leader of
the caliber of those in these cities, and Lord, teach us to pray like
they did, in Jesus Name Amen
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