Bhengu and Spiritual Happenings


This website is sponsored and produced by Jack Hartland of Nuparadigm	Bhengu and Spiritual Happenings
Foreword by MICHAEL CASSIDY Profile by Dr CUTHBERT CHIDOORI JOHN BOND by Peter Watt Prologue Some Personal Notes My First General Conference of the Assemblies of God H. C. Phillips 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 - Mylet Bhengu Bhengu’s “Isinthunzi” - Government and Politics – Some Faults, Virtues and the Burden of His Heart President Lucas Mangope of Bophuthatswana Early Days in Durban The Glad Tidings Assembly 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 John and Yvonne Stegman 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 Letting Go of the Reins 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)	What impressed me most when Nicholas Bhengu prayed for Anthony Attlee was the heart-rending sense of compassion as he prayed. I asked Bhengu whether he felt anything when he prayed for the sick. Actually, he spoke of that sense of compassion. He said that invariably when he felt like that, a healing occurred. I wonder whether it reflected a gift being activated in him.
	I have wondered about the getting of the healing ministry. Is it always preceded by some event such as Oral Roberts being healed of tuberculosis or Reinhardt Bonnke being left in the lurch when an evangelist failed to attend an advertised healing crusade in Lesotho so that Bonnke had to do the praying himself? I think not always but certainly sometimes. Bhengu told me of a dream he had (also in Lesotho) from which he dated his healing ministry. Up to that time he had prayed for the sick but with small results. In his dream, Bhengu, who was very fastidious about hygiene, found himself in a Basotho hut surrounded and pressed by people afflicted with loathsome diseases. He shrank from contact with them as they reached out towards him. Then in his dream he saw Jesus descend through the thatched roof of the hut. Jesus moved among the sufferers touching them and healing them . Then He ascended through the roof again. As He went, He turned to Bhengu and spoke. “You do the same” He said. From that time, great miracles began to attend Bhengu’s ministry Frank Houston of Australia is a man used in the supernatural. He dates his gifts from a time in New Zealand when a certain man, Ray Bloomfield, greatly used by God, a powerful Pentecostal preacher, decided to leave the region where Frank was working with him. He thrust the whole responsibility of the work onto Frank. In a rather drastic gesture, he laid hands on Frank. Frank says the spiritual impact was like a blow to the midriff. I am sure there is something in what people say about “impartation” if it is done in the Spirit. No doubt one enters a spiritual realm when involved in a healing ministry. One should not permit fanatical ideas about deliverance and spiritual warfare to deter one from acknowledging the reality of the supernatural realm, which has to be met in the power of the Holy Ghost. Nicholas Bhengu told me of an experience he had when he cast demons out of a woman “insangoma” or female witch-doctor. He became afflicted with an excruciating pain in the arm. It resisted all prayer. At length, a missionary called Vernon Pettinger ministered to him. In Bhengu’s own words, “Vernon Pettinger discerned the demonic nature of the attack. He rebuked the demon and the pain left on the instant.” He recounted another episode involving the demonic which occurred on the East Rand at one of his crusade meetings. The event took place in an African Township in Benoni or somewhere like that. The meeting had been widely publicised. The press was there ready with cameras and flash-bulbs to record every possible incident. The hall was thronged with eager spectators as well as supporting Christians. People crowded in the doorway and jammed the aisles. When Bhengu rose to speak, he found that immediately below the speaker’s rostrum a peasant couple from the country were seated on the floor almost up against the platform. With them they had their insane daughter of about 17, lying on a grass sleeping-mat. The girl was neglected and unwashed. She stank. Bhengu with his fastidious habits was repelled. The girl kept flailing her arms about feebly, uttering an inane cry at regular intervals. The rather elderly parents did nothing to quieten her. A blackness came upon Bhengu’s spirit. Revulsion took hold of him, mounting more and more to an anger. He felt no anointing in the preaching but went through the motions until his sermon was ended. Then he was scheduled to pray for the sick. The people were expectant. The press photographers were poised with their cameras ready. Nicholas Bhengu felt not a spark of faith. How was he to arrange the healing line? As it was, the first in line was this repulsive family, stinking and insane. He just felt he could not pray for the girl before the assembled paparazzi-like crowd of photographers for them to see nothing take place. He decided he would slip out of the door behind the platform and lay hands on the people as they filed out of the front door, emptying the hall of its crowd. Thus the girl would not be first in line, but last. No one would know whether she was healed or not. Bhengu felt certain she would not be healed. But when he tried the back entrance, the door was locked! Where was the caretaker with the key? Nowhere to be found! He had no right to lock the door anyway with a crowd like that in the hall! It was illegal! Find the caretaker! They looked. They waited. They sang. Bhengu sat immobile, face thunderous. At length there was nothing to be done. He had to pray for the girl. Whether she got healed or not, he just had to face it. As he went down from the platform, there was an expectant hush. The photographers were at the ready. Then the miracle happened. A paroxysm of Godly wrath came upon the man of God. At the top of his voice he shouted out. He cursed the demon in the girl. There was a wail and in the next instant she was on her feet normal, being clutched by her parents. The next morning the newspapers were full of photographs of her being carried shoulder-high from the meeting by members of the crowd. Pandemonium filled the hall. Of course Bhengu’s black mood was nothing but the effect of Satanic power emanating from the girl. As he prayed for her, the Spirit of God came upon him with that special kind of faith to destroy the work of the Devil. I don’t know whether Bhengu had to repent for his gloomy cogitations as he reflected on how best to avoid praying for the girl first in the line.