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| Leaders at the hotel dinner break |
With everything that happened on Sunday, I was totally unprepared for the wonders that awaited me on Monday.
To begin with: It was the first day of the Believers’ School of Ministry Spiritual Warfare Conference. Pastors and others had come from villages up in the hills and mountain areas, some on bikes, others on the backs of trucks with piles of people or junk or animals – or all three mixed together. Amazingly, these members had only to pay the equivalent of 75 cents for their week of schooling, and that was for cost of the copy of the materials. Food and housing were up for them to arrange, most of which was provided by the church families, none of whom had much either. Without that extremely low cost, very few of them could have come. They came once a month for five days of classes and had to set aside shillings during those weeks at home to afford the materials. The sacrifices these people made were incredible -- and I expect it's much the same today.
I was the teacher for the day and the main topic was Spiritual Mapping which I had been doing for several years; while there, I taught the basics. Tim wanted me to give examples and practical guidelines. I spoke from 11:00 to 1:30 and we broke for lunch. At 2:45 I began again and went until 4:30.
In the morning, they didn’t ask questions. But after lunch, I was asked some good ones about what they should look for in their villages. [They must have talked to each other during lunch-time together while hanging out in the church yard.] With their questions, we talked a lot about dedicating houses and property to idols and how to break those oaths. This was very real to these people, because nearly every structure had been dedicated with the sacrifice of a chicken. They hadn’t necessarily accepted as a special event, but for generations it was simply done. Now, while growing in the Lord, they had become uncomfortable with this, truly realizing it was ungodly. Tim and I and others were able to encourage them to turn away from that generational pattern.
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| Pastors, Watchers, Thinkers, Sharers |
Another aspect that was discussed at length was what they could expect when the curses are broken off the land and the principalities are exposed. The example of Almolonga, Guatemala, fit into that question and was happily described to encourage them. A few more questions were asked about their area of witchcraft and deliverance, but I let the leading pastors handle that. However, overall, I really had a ball.
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| Tim took these two photos from the back of the church and, obviously, pushed the button as I seemed to be choking myself when describing something about spiritual warfare. Who knows what I was thinking, saying, when the photo was taken? I don't. But still laugh when I see the "teacher" picture of me. What a hoot! |
I DID tell them, several times, that spiritual mapping is not something to do without authority or cover. I encouraged these pastors to support and bless their “underground” studiers and provide intercessory support for them. I also told them all that very few of them are called to be "mappers", because an army needs very few spies, but a wise general in a battle relies on his intelligence reports, and, spiritually, that is what mappers may provide. Somewhere in here we talked about how to determine the character of the tribal idolatry/principality, and not to be satisfied with just a general all-inclusive rebuke. I used my visual of shotgun prayer vs. laser prayer. I don’t know just how that got interpreted, but they seemed to understand. We also discussed corporate repentance, forgiveness, and remitting sins. Quite a lot, actually.
When we finished I was an exhilarated wet rag, if that’s possible. Around 5, after ending, closing with a worship song or two, I went back to the hotel for a l..o..n..g nap.
And spent the evening resting and looking over the balcony at the skies ... and feeling BLESSED!!
