The power of prayer over witchcraft REVIVAL
FOLLOWS SHOWDOWN WITH WITCHCRAFT A
most dramatic story of the conversion of an extremely wicked city is the
story of Kiambu, Kenya in East Africa. This city, about 10 miles from
the capital of Nairobi, had very high crime rate, murders, rapes, a high
rate of fatal auto accidents, violence, witchcraft, poverty, alcoholism,
and many other social ills. Public disorder was the rule and loud rock
music blared from loud speakers in front of bar rooms throughout the
night. It was also
the murder capital of Kenya, with some eight killings a month. Most people were afraid to go out at night. There were a few churches in Kiambu, but none of them had an attendance of over 100, and hardly any of the people were committed Christians.
God spoke to Pastor Thomas Muthee, a Kenyan native, that he wanted him
to start a church in Kiambu, which at the time had a population of about
65,000. Muthee plainly heard the voice of God say these words: "I
want you to plant a church in Kiambu." Pastor Muthee was an
evangelist who had done some post-graduate work in Scotland in 1988. His
wife was a teacher. When God spoke to them, they decided first to spend
some time praying and seeking why Kiambu was such a spiritually oppresses area. They spent six months
in prayer and fasting, seeking God's guidance. They did not go into
Kiambu at any time during that six months. They were seeking to know
what was the dominate spirit over Kiambu. The
first thing that Muthee found out was that the city was dominated by a
woman that everyone called Mama Jane. Mama Jane pretended to be a
Christian, and operated an office in the downtown area which she called
the Emmanuel Clinic, but her business was pure witchcraft! Right outside
of her clinic, there was an intersection [a dusty road] that had
frequent fatal automobile
accidents -- but hardly any of them left any blood stains! No one was
able to explain why so many people were killed at that intersection, or
why there was hardly ever any spilled blood. Her customers were the
leading politicians and businessmen of Kiambu. Pastor
Muthee said, "When we began to recognize who - or what - Mama Jane
really was, my wife Margaret and I set ourselves to pray. Our aim was to
break the power of witchcraft over the town -- a power that was
preventing people from turning to the Lord. It was a struggle that
involved much groaning in our spirits. In time, however, we felt the
burden lift. The dark cloud we had seen covering the town drifted away,
and we felt supernatural
joy inside. We knew things were going to change. "In
February 1989 we decided it was time to start the church. My first
meeting was held on a large dirt area near the petrol station. Since I
am quite short and I didn't have a pulpit, I borrowed a tire from the
petrol station [to stand on]. As I preached the gospel that evening,
eight people turned to the Lord. One of these was a long-barren woman
whose womb was miraculously opened by the spirit of God. [The following
year she showed me her baby.] On the second day of the crusade, fourteen
people turned to the Lord. "After
this the church just took off. Throughout the next year, healings and
conversions were a regular occurrence. Since the municipal hall [we were
meeting in] would allow us to meet only twice a week, we decided to move
our church into a basement of a nearby grocery story. Because of the
darkness and the round-the-clock intercessory prayer there, people began
to refer to this place as `the prayer cave.' "Not
surprisingly, Mama Jane was deeply distressed over what was taking place.
In fact, she began to come around our worship center on Saturday nights
to perform her witchcraft rituals. On Sunday mornings we would find
ashes spread around with pieces of special cloth, animal horns and cock
feathers. "She
let it be known to the city officials that she could not help them with
her fortune telling as much as she used to because this new church
seemed to be `cutting her lines of communication.' As a result the city
authorities, as well as other pastors, attacked the ministry of the
church. Now, Pastor Muthee had almost everybody against him: The city
officials, the business leaders, and even many of the pastors in the
city turned against him -- as well as Mama Jane! "Our
services became very oppressed. People would try to sing, but they just
couldn't." Praying 24 hours a day, Thomas Muthee and his members
did what they could to counteract the demonic attacks. But the power of
evil invaded the church to the point that they could hardly pray. One
day it got so bad they started a worship song and were never able to
finish it! They went outside and found the remains of fresh sacrifices
and rituals left behind by Momma Jane. "Finally
we decided we had had enough. The whole congregation raised their hands
towards the Emmanuel Clinic. We asked God to either save this woman or
remove her from Kiambu. Muthee
went before the Lord, crying in agony. Was his work going to fail? Was
Kiambu truly a graveyard of pastors? Would his spiritual tombstone be
added to the others? By this time, Muthee was thoroughly convinced that
the demonic powers entrusted to Momma Jane had been the very forces that
had driven pastor after pastor out of Kiambu. "God," he prayed,
"Do not let me be the next to go. Show me the way forward!" God
answered in a soft, quite voice by simply suggesting: "My son, I
want you to get intercessors on the job." He also gave Thomas the
names of those selected! Muthee assigned each intercessor to fast and
pray for a whole day so that someone was always fasting and praying. The
initial results seemed to be positive but the intercessors began Thomas
called together his intercessors, who by then had grown to a team of
nine, and told them that each person designated to fast on a particular
day would be covered by two armour-bearers. One would be the person who
had fasted and prayed the day before, and the other would be the one who
was scheduled to fast and pray the following day. They would form a
protective hedge of prayer around the one on duty. It
worked! The spiritual harassment suddenly stopped. An increasing number
of Momma Jane's clients were now becoming Christians and publicly
burning the charms and fetishes she had sold them. The way was now open
for Muthee to issue a public ultimatum: "Momma Jane either gets
saved and serves the Lord, or she leaves town! There is no longer room
in Kiambu for both of us!" In
plain terms, Thomas Muthee challenged Momma Jane to a power encounter,
much as Elijah challenged the priests of Baal. By
now word had spread to the city officials that Momma Jane did not seem
to have the power she once had. Her clients were embarrassing her by
openly burning fetishes and renouncing curses. Some began pointing out
that it could be no coincidence that her clinic was right next to the
area where the serious accidents were occurring. " Pastor
Muthee continued, "Do you know what happened? A few days later,
three children were killed outside her clinic. The people were furious
because they suspected that Mama Jane's witchcraft was linked to the
accident. Some were clamoring that she be stoned. When the police were
called in to quell the uprising, they found one of the largest pythons
they had ever seen in one of the clinic rooms. Startled, the officers
drew their weapons and shot
it. That promptly ended the spiritual battle. Mama Jane was questioned
by the police, releases, and moved to another town. Interesting, the
same `bloodless accidents began happening there. [This was about 1992.]
"We have not had a single accident since. In fact, since that woman
moved out of Kiambu, the entire atmosphere has changed. Whereas people
used to be afraid
to go out at night, now we enjoy one of the lowest crime rates in Kenya. Rape
and murder are virtually unheard of anymore. The economy has also
started to grow. If you look at the town now, you will see new buildings
coming up everywhere. Now that Kiambu has a good name, people from
Nairobi are flocking to get houses here. The population is up to 80,000. "More
importantly, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of
conversions. Between ten and 25 people have been turning to the Lord in
our church every Sunday." -- end of quote by Pastor Muthee -- The local people called the church 'The Prayer Cave' when they were in the basement of the grocery store. Today, it still goes by that name, but it is what we would call a megachurch. The Prayer Cave Church is growing rapidly and, at the time of this writing, it was approaching 4,000 members, or five per cent of Kiambu's population of 80,000. Almost all the members are new converts because very few residents of Kiambu were Christians when Pastor Thomas arrived. But how did it grow so vigorously and come to have such a measurable influence on the whole city?
Muthee's vision was that his church facility should be used for prayer
around the clock daily. He well knew that "what is gained by prayer
must be maintained by prayer!" He was convinced that if the church
was to continue to grow and ultimately have an influence on the whole
city, prayer had to be the most prominent ongoing component of his
ministry. Instead
of a preacher's graveyard, Kiambu had miraculously been transformed into
a witch's graveyard! Things
began to change fast and dramatically. The city's unbelievers also
recognized the cause-and-effect relationship between the power encounter
and the subsequent changes in the community. Economically,
Kiambu is now prosperous. The crime and violence associated with the
city in the national news media have now virtually disappeared. Some
of the most notorious criminals of the city are now reformed and are
members of The Prayer Cave. Alcoholism
too is notably diminished -- the intercessors went on
prayer-walks around the bar rooms -- and the loud music is a thing of
the past. One of the most prominent high-volume discos is now a church!
A small valley near the city had been notorious as a den of bootleggers,
producing and selling native beer on the black market. The intercessors
targeted it for prayer-walking. The still is now closed and The Prayer
Cave has purchased the land to build its new church facility! Finally,
the kingdom of God is coming to Kiambu. No more hostility is present
among Christian pastors. Repentance and reconciliation is the order of
the day. Churches of all denominations across the city are now growing
rapidly, as they are doing in other parts of Kenya. Pastors regularly
eat together and pray together. At the time of writing, they are making
plans for the first joint evangelistic city-wide crusade that Kiambu has ever
known. |