Special Answers To Prayer – Part Two
Profile by Dr CUTHBERT CHIDOORI
My First General Conference of the Assemblies of God
The Congress on Mission and Evangelism held in Durban
W F P Burton and some Congo Missionaries
Nicholas
Bekinkosi Hepworth Bhengu
– His Youthful Dreams
– His Preaching
- Bhengu and Education
- Bhengu and Money
- Miraculous Experiences
- Spiritual Happenings
- The Sanctifying Spirit of God
– His Departure
Bhengu’s “Isinthunzi”
- Government and Politics
– Some Faults, Virtues and the Burden
of His Heart
President Lucas Mangope of Bophuthatswana
William
Frederick Mullan
The Fairview Assembly
Fred Mullan and the Gifts of the Spirit
A Miracle and a Vision
The Revival in Norwood
James E Mullan
Paul O Lange
William Branham in Durban
Oral Roberts in South Africa
Billy
Graham in Salisbury and Durban
The American Missionaries from Springfield, Missouri
C. Austin Chawner and the Portuguese Work
August Kast and the Mount Tabor Mission Station
Colin
La Foy and the Coloured Leadership
The Work in Zimbabwe
Mauritius and Reunion Island
Special
Answers to Prayer – 1
Special
Answers to Prayer – 2
A Beautiful Square with Good Vibes
Prayer and the Hippie Revival
The Young Turks
Tensions within the Group
The Split
of 1981 – Part One
The Split
of 1981 – Part Two
The Beginnings of the Faith Movement in South Africa
The Statement of September 1989
The Charismatic Renewal
The Start of the Pentecostal Revival World Wide and The Swedish Pentecostal Assemblies
Epilogue
APPENDIX 1 : How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit
APPENDIX 2 : The National Church by Nicholas Bhengu
APPENDIX 3 : Article from the Argus 5/02/1981
APPENDIX 4 : Pointers to the future of the Assemblies of God in the New South Africa (10/06/94)
In
the building up of any assembly, often the greatest hindrances
come from within the assembly. In one way or another there is
manifested a resistance against the authority of leadership.
So much is this true that one has to realise spiritual growth
cannot take place until the principle of submission is understood
and acknowledged. Many converts in an evangelistic sense go on
well enough for a while but ultimately fall by the way. These
we call backsliders. Whether such are truly saved or not only
the Day of Judgement will declare.
In my time I have seen many come out for salvation only to fall back again.
But I have observed that those who do fall back are often those who will
not submit to assembly life and membership. They choose their own way.
They seem unable to submit to the discipline of belonging to a structure.
They don’t necessarily
fall back into their previous ungodly life. They usually continue to
live a life on the periphery of the church. One finds them visiting various
meetings, having their own Bible classes, drifting from church to church
but really belonging nowhere and not getting far spiritually.
True Christian discipleship involves a submission to authority. Herein
lies the reason for so much difficulty experienced in building up a sound
Biblically-based assembly. It explains so much of what can be described
as some or other “Corinthian” situation in church life. This
syndrome is an abiding vexation to any faithful minister. It can manifest
in such an extreme way that it becomes a danger to the very life of the
assembly. Often it is real but so subtle it is well-nigh impossible to
deal with.
~
In about 1970 or thereabouts, a visiting speaker from the United Kingdom
ministered in the Harfield Road Assembly. He was J Nelson Parr, a doughty
old warrior for the Lord, one of the pioneers of the Assemblies of God
in Great Britain. He told us he was 84 years old, intending to live until
he was 100 or die in the attempt. He died in the attempt. But his life
and counsel lives on. I told him of a problem I had in the assembly. There
was a man who was not a member of the assembly but who often visited on
us his long prayers and false prophecies. He had a considerable influence
on certain members of the assembly. He infected them with false teaching,
undermined their loyalty to the oversight, and drew them into a coterie
around himself. Many esteemed him as being very pious. I did not know what
to do about his presence on the edge of our assembly.
Nelson Parr advised me not to handle the situation directly myself but
to pray that God would remove him. I did so.
At that time, one of the elders, Faans Klopper used to meet to pray in
my study every Saturday night at ten o’clock after any social engagements.
We used to pray until about twelve or one o’clock in the morning.
One night we prayed about this man.
Next morning I saw him come into the breaking of bread service and take
a seat. In the course of the meeting we had a lengthy time of prayer and
his presence with us was forgotten. But when the prayer was over I remembered
him. He was nowhere to be seen! I don’t know to this day why he left
the meeting, whether something he didn’t like was uttered in prayer
or what! But from that day he never again set foot in the assembly. By
prayer an adverse influence was completely removed and the body of Christ
was protected from a negative influence.
~
There was another such problem but this one was more poisonous. It centred
in one of the elders, a man who had been a minister in the Seventh Day
Adventist Church. Gradually I had become aware of his hostility and damaging
criticisms which were subtly disseminated wherever he had influence. Perhaps
he had a personal agenda. Perhaps he had an undue sense of ownership of
the assembly because he was an elder. Certainly on Sundays, entering the
meeting when the people were at worship, it was his custom to stand at
the door, arms akimbo, surveying the congregation with a visible attitude
of pride and proprietorship. Obviously his spirit was wrong, but I did
not know how to deal with it. A Baptist minister who knew him of old warned
me, “You’ve got Mr X in your congregation; be careful; you’ll
have trouble with him; he’s paranoid; he’s caused trouble in
every church he’s ever belonged to.” One could but live with
the problem and await developments. But the Lord knew how to handle it.
One evening Enid and I were invited to tea with a couple in the assembly,
Harry and Anne Midlane. After a pleasant evening of fellowship it was time
to go home, but before the party broke up someone said, “Let’s
have a little time of prayer before we leave”. And so we did. How
well I remember my experience in prayer that night!
As we prayed, I became burdened for my friend, Paul Lange, who I knew was
having a difficult time in the ministry in Johannesburg. I prayed for him,
feelingly. My burden deepened until I had to ease it by praying persistently
in tongues. At length the burden for Paul Lange lifted.
My praying for Paul Lange really has no direct significance in the narrative
of what transpired that night other than being a step in the process of
my own intercession leading me into the supernatural experience of praying
with divine energy. I mention it because that was how the happening in
prayer unfolded to a point where one was grappling in the spirit with unseen
forces.
As I prayed, I began to sob aloud. I buried my face into the armchair where
I was kneeling and sobbed and sobbed. When something like that occurs before
other people, one feels an awful fool. Yet I knew beyond any doubt that
I had experienced a happening in the Spirit. Though I then had no idea
what I was praying about, I now realise that the Spirit was interceding
through me for the problem involving the elder praying with a grieving,
transcending my intelligence. (Romans 8:26) That night, the Devil’s
power through that brother was broken in the Spirit. Within a week without
any action on my part he was totally unmasked in the eyes of the assembly
leaders. Within a fortnight he stormed out of an elders meeting, resigning
from the assembly. His going caused not the slightest ripple in the congregation.
Unknown to us, the people recognized him for what he was and were wondering
how the elders would handle him. I am afraid the elders were not wise enough
to handle him. Neither was I . God did it himself through a prayer in the
Spirit.
All this happened a little while before we were blessed in the Harfield
Road Assembly with what we called the “hippie revival”. Had
God not worked to remove that man, I think the work of the Spirit that
brought revival to Cape Town would have been hindered, perhaps totally
so. The Scripture speaks of certain men who have crept in unawares (Jude
4). Here was a case in point. It took a work of God to remove him.