Several years later, with the church was now bursting at the seams, Elaine and Alan we’re going to leave that church in good hands and begin planting new churches in different areas of the city. It was the area where Catholics live. It wasn’t well known that many Catholics, violent gangs, and drunks came from this area, where more than a million people live. God said, go and start there!
With two new other people, we planted a church from scratch. Over the next few months, about 40 people from the most horrendous backgrounds were saved and added to the church. They were delivered from demons and began to change. It was not a sudden, overnight transformation, but God was beginning to work.
Each one of those 40 people was a miracle of deliverance and transformation, and that was enough to stir up serious demonic opposition against us. The demonic power ruling over that region came against us and we were attacked in every Way.
The Catholic Church came fiercely against us, warning people not to go near us and saying we were a dangerous sect. The civil authorities were stirred by one or two people, and they tried to get us thrown out of the country. Many of our new converts we’re targeted; As a result they backslide, and their numbers went down from about 40 to 8 people. Alan and Eileen we’re physically attacked by demons. One demon actually tried to choke the life out of out of Alan one night. they went through the same very bizarre experiences, but somehow the were given the grace to stick it out and not give up.
One Wednesday night, just Alan and Eileen were doggedly having a warring praise night. It didn’t at all fit my mood. All our circumstances said that we were being defeated, and Alan was not feeling too well physically. He was depressed and wanted wanted to quit. Nothing was attractive about this time; nothing was enjoyable. We were just held by a dogged commitment to obey God and do what he had given us to do.
Now nothing in are circumstances declared Jesus to be Lord, but the Woes said he is Lord, and our spirits knew that he was the triumphant victor at the cross. We found ourselves to sing and shout these truths against the wall of opposition we were facing, although it seemed a totally futile and stupid thing to do.
There were not hundreds of people doing this just two people Alan and Eileen. We are told several times in the Bible that two were enough. It is better to be 20. It is wonderful to be 200. Alan has said since those days he had a crowd in Kenya, Africa of about 8000 people all roaring together like lions against the demonic powers in their land. These things are exhilarating and powerful, but they are not absolutely necessary. Jesus says that two are enough.
At that time, we knew nothing about spiritual warfare. No one had any revelation on the subject. There were no books, no tapes, no conferences, because no one was doing anything like this, at least as far as we knew. But the Holy Spirit knows all about spiritual warfare, so we just did what he told us to do, and we were successful.
On that particular Wednesday night t, the two of us were having a determined shout and positively proclaiming the lordship of Christ to these demonic powers in our little meeting room in Mambia. During this time, something cracked in the spirit realm and I felt something happened. This was April 19th 72. I can even what date the day. it was the 19th. The next Sunday things began to happen. Some of the backs and people came back to the church, the atmosphere changed, and it was all very different.
A faithful witness
The short time, while Alan was 1000 miles away visiting our children in boarding school in South India, Eileen when into labor for the birth of our fourth child, David. She went into labor earlier than we expected, and Alan wasn’t even there. It seemed like a disaster, but it was the plan of God.
We had originally made plans to go to a nice hospital mission about 100 miles away around the time of Her delivery, have a few days rest with lovely Christian friends, and wait for our little baby to be born into this wonderful atmosphere of Christian love. We had to change our plans because no one was able to give us an accurate prediction of when our baby could be born. So, we booked Eileen into a nearby Catholic hospital instead, just to be on the safe side.
As Eileen lay there in labor, she began to witness to the nuns who were helping her. One of them add just read David Wilkerson’s book the cross and the switchblade and was hungry to experience the power of God. Eileen talked to them for hours. As a result, she put a seed into them. And they became hungry for God. This was just a small act of obedience. Eileen was being faithful in such a small thing. But who knows what God will do through one small act of obedience! Those words of hers triggered something in these God hungry nuns that was designed to change mambai.
A small seed becomes a great tree.
These nuns invited me to do some biblical studies to prepare them for the feast of Pentecost, which was about six weeks away. Other God hungry nuns came and joined the group. It was not a large crowd; There were about 10 to 15 of them. They were expecting the Holy Ghost to come according to the church calendar on the Thursday before whit Sunday, and he graciously applied. That Thursday the Spirit of God came and fell upon all who were present.
The majority or them we’re already lovers of Jesus, but that night the rest were truly born again; All of them were baptized in Holy Spirit, and God began a great movement. Four years later at least 100,000 people had been born again and filled with the Holy Spirit with a mighty display of God’s power. Great miracles took place, many people were healed, and many demons were cast out.
The Kingdom began to be manifested just as we had read in the Bible in the days of Peter and Paul. These new believers quickly began moving out as powerful witnesses across the city of mambia and then across the nation.
In those four years, many new churches were started. Today is I write 30 is alright, yeah 2008 over 30 years later, this powerful move still continues. Between 300o and 5000 thousand churches are now estimated to have sprung out of this movement mambai alone. Hundreds are being saved every month. Catholics are still responding, and now many Hindus and some Muslims also be in touch. Hundreds of mighty leaders have been raised up to go all over India in other countries of the world to preach the gospel of the Kingdom. It is impossible to measure qualitatively what has flowed out from those small beginnings. Only God knows, and only God needs to know.
I’m saying all of this because I want you to see that even if only a few people get a revelation of the Kingdom and are truly empowered with the Holy Spirit, it is enough for God to do a great work. I’m praying that God will start a fire in you and that you will see the Kingdom at least as clearly as I do. Then as a result you would be compelled to go out and work to see this glorious Kingdom established wherever he may send you. It is by revelation of the Spirit, but it is also founded on a solid base of scripture and requires sustained hard work.
God began to show me in a new way what some scriptures really said and meant I realized how much of my former teaching had to be undone in order to receive the new and more accurate truths that God was giving me. I want you to be open to hear what that God was giving me. I want you to be open to hear what the spirit of God is saying to you. You are going to repeatedly hear the message that you don’t need a huge crowd of people to change your city. If there are two of you, there is enough. Kingdom authority and power in the two of you, when it is properly released, to change the place where you live.
I’m not teaching you theory. I have seen two ministries accomplish this and what others are presently experiencing in a number of places around the world. Wherever Alan has gone since those days, he has always believed that our cities can be taken for the Lord Jesus Christ! Several of those cities are now being changed by the power of God through people who can see the Kingdom.
United States is slowly being influenced by these Kingdom people. I am not talking in for long hold and spiritual fact. It is already done in a forlorn hope but spiritual fact. It has already been done in the spirit; all God’s people need to know is how to bring it down into the natural realm.