Bishop Bismark at Africa Arise 2017

Bishop Tudor Bismark preached the closing service from James 1:17. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights..."

When God creates a thing, He puts it in a system. Everything left to itself will deteriorate. Any form of success is the result of intentional planning by a disciplined individual. Grace without discipline is destructive. 

Though converting to Christianity, Africa has still not been able to manage her affairs. We have misinterpreted the term "open heaven," to mean a good service. The truth is a good service is actually the result of an open heaven. An open heaven translates into a blessed and fruitful land- much like the kingdom of Israel under Solomon's reign. This is what Africa needs. 

There are many keys that need to be activated for this to happen. Scripture is full of keys. Opportunity keys, time keys, kingdom keys. There are keys of the kingdom. Knowledge keys, Davidic keys, keys to the bottomless pit. (The bottomless pit is not hell. It is a house without foundation). 

Additionally we've been endowed with gifts. In Scripture there are 8 mentioned, in 5 categories. There is the gift of salvation (Eph.2:8), of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; 8:19-20), gift of ministry (1Cor.7:7; 2Tim.1:6), wealth and health (Ecc. 5:18-19), leadership and power (Dan. 2:38; 1:20; 1Kings 4:30-31). 

Our text says that every good and perfect gift is from above. Perfect gifts are better than good gifts. It's the difference between water and wine, between two fish and five loaves and 12 twelve baskets left over. 

Africa is in need of these perfect gifts. The nation of Zimbabwe, where Bishop Bismark is from, is 70% Christian, yet has 90% unemployment. It tells us that something is wrong. A key needs to be activated. This captures for us the essence of Africa Arise. See you in 2018!