Pastor Zerubbabel Mengistu
This conference, this gathering has been called because there is some work in this place, establishing God’s Lordship on this continent.
Seen and Unseen
Hebrew 11:3 tells us that what is seen did not come from that which is visible. The unseen is more powerful than the seen. The seen is created. The unseen is creator.
The seen world is under the control of government leaders. The unseen world is governed not by politicians, but by the Church. In the seen world, we cast a vote. In the unseen world, we bind and loose with authority in the name of Jesus.
How limited our lives are if we only live according to what we can see!
Identity
Like the seen world, the unseen world has its own protocols. In the seen world, you are permitted to travel if you possess a visa. In the unseen world, our access point is our identity. That is why Satan l always attack identity.
Before Jesus launched His public ministry, Satan tempted Him in the area of identity. “If you really are the Son of God…” This is his MO. The greater the assignment, the greater the attack on identity. This is how we know that God has great plans for the African church. She is the embodiment of identity crisis.
The Christian faith is comprised of two legs: experience and history. In Africa, our experience leg is strong because our personal circumstances often have us crying out to God, and we see him move. (Jerimiah 33:3)
The other equally important leg is history because everything God does is connected to what He’s done in the past. This is where things get complicated for Africa.
Our History
The history of the Church in Africa is complicated. The growth of the church mirrored colonial expansion. This is why many consider Christianity the “white man’s religion.” Even for those of us who follow Christ in Africa, it is a painful blotch in our Christian story.
African and Black theologies have attempted to address these, but have been accused of straying from the Scriptures, and relying on western theological positions. I have found that the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church to be a better source, because she is historically faithful to the Scriptures, the patriotic foundations, and also indigenous to Africa.
Stepping into our Identity
When some people became mad at Jesus’s self-identity claims he responded, “the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees his father doing.” (John 5:19) We do according to who we are. More specifically, who we perceive ourselves to be.
Being a child of God only comes through faith in the Son, but identity is the card that Satan has been playing against us.
Now we are in a strategic place at a strategic time, and we know who we are! It’s time to start binding and loosening.