Pastors and Leaders Conference
Day Two
Our team faced a challenge on Day Two of our leaders conference because we all had to follow the passionate and fiery presentation that Dr. Sammy had delivered the previous day! That seemed a bit daunting!
Lynda spoke to the leaders at the start of the day, and I am glad that she did! Lynda wasn’t scheduled to cover that session of the conference, but I believe that God placed Lynda in Burundi at that time and in this session as an example to the ladies who served in leadership roles — or would serve as leaders in the future. I believe that it was good for all of the leaders in attendance at the conference to see a strong Christian woman standing in her authority as a rightful leader alongside the men, and addressing the leaders boldly, and without apology. She served as a true role model, demonstrating the validity and the value of having strong women in leadership positions within the churches.
As we began to address the causes and effects of trauma head-on, Bill laid out with clear explanations the principles of authority and how we can “give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27), granting him legal ground in our lives. I picked it up from there in a discussion of willful sin and disobedience.
To illustrate what Bill had described, I took a chair and used it to represent a “throne” in an area of our lives. I explained that if we willfully disobey God, we essentially push Jesus off of the throne in that area of our lives, and selfishly seat ourselves on that throne. Satan is happy to allow us to sit on that throne, because whether we sit on the throne ourselves, or give it over to Satan, the effect is the same. “Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft” (1 Samuel 15:23). Rebellion has the same effect as witchcraft because they both open us up to the influence of the devil, giving him legal access in our lives. So Satan is fine with sharing the thrones of our lives with us. Jesus, on the other hand, will not share the throne with anyone. In order to experience peace and harmony with God, and to enjoy the best of all that He has for us in life, we must turn over all the rights to the thrones of every area of our lives to Jesus unconditionally.
After this illustration, I paused to share a little about myself and about the ministry in which I am involved with the children in my church in America. I explained to them how we put Jesus in charge of the children’s prayer time. We put Him “on the throne” in that area, to lead us in prayer. The children have been taught to focus their attention on God, and to wait and listen for God’s voice during our prayer time. I explained that I have taught the children to be alert to hear God speaking to them through words, impressions or visions about prayer needs. If a child sees a picture or vision of an elbow, for instance, I will ask the children what they feel that might mean. They might respond by saying that there may be someone who has pain or a problem with their elbow that needs prayer. Then we will ask any of the children who have problems with their elbows to come up for prayer.
After giving this description of how the children put Jesus in control of our prayer time, I asked the leaders if it would be alright for us to do that now, in our conference. Many of the leaders immediately bowed their heads in prayer. I guided the group by telling them that we were going to focus on Jesus, turn over this time to Him, and wait for Him to speak.
As the leaders had their heads bowed in prayer, there was silence for several seconds as we waited. If the silence had gone on much longer, it could have become awkward. I responded to this by saying, “Do you know what is happening now? God is testing us to see if we will really wait on Him to speak.”
Finally I had a very clear vision of a pregnant woman. After waiting a moment more to receive clarity on the meaning of the vision, I announced that I felt God wanted us to pray for people who had problems giving birth to children. A few women came up for prayer. Then someone asked me if men could be included as well, if there were problems conceiving children. Someone else asked if we could include couples who’d had miscarriages. Of course, we included them, and we prayed for all of the women and men who responded.
Afterward, one of our translators seemed very excited by that prayer time, exclaiming “Wow! That was powerful! One of the women who came forward was a pastor! I believe that we will see that happen! We will see children as a result of this!”
It has only been a few months since our conference. I have not heard any reports yet of pregnancies or births as a result of our prayers, but I believe that God brought this to our attention because He wanted to do something special for the couples who have wanted children. I believe that there will be children as a result of those prayers.
The Power of Spoken Blessings
Just before our lunch break, Bill addressed the issue of how to deal with problems that can come down through the generational lines of families. This triggered a very powerful time when leaders took the stage as a group and began renouncing ungodly alliances from past generations, and declaring freedom from things that had worked through their family lines to hold them back and cause ongoing problems for their families and their nation.
In the afternoon sessions, Paul and I built on what had already been addressed, explaining how our own words, and the words of others, can cause problems for us; actually blocking us from achieving the fullness of our potential and causing negative consequences in our lives and the lives of our families, churches and nations. I spent some time describing how “death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). I described spoken blessings, giving examples of how we can change our environments and situations by speaking blessings into them. We can even see definite positive changes in family members, friends and colleagues when we verbally bless them; and they don’t have to be present when we speak these blessings!
“You have more power than the President of Burundi!” I declared, because of the power of a believer’s words to actually bring about positive changes in the world around them.
Pastor Paul finished the day’s sessions by leading us into a focus on forgiveness and victory over bitterness. This would set the stage for our final day when the focus shifted from problems and their causes, to forgiveness, justice and freedom!
