Breaking Strongholds

June 19, 2014

4:14

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God is calling the people of Burkina Faso back to Himself. As the Holy Spirit spoke to members of the new congregation, they became determined to spread the gospel among their own people. Watch as workers and nationals share the story of broken strongholds and a powerful Savior.

Transcript

My father was into witchcraft and wanted me to do the same. It is a deep-rooted tradition in this area of Burkina Faso. But in my home, we found that the fetishes had lost their power. Before my father died, he told me, “Our fetishes are no longer powerful, and we cannot trust them. You need to find the true God.”

The Kenedougou region is basically a province in western Burkina. It’s a region full of unreached people groups. Our field director asked us if we would consider going to the Kenedougou region, and we began praying; and really it was about an 11-month prayer journey. And at the end of that 11-month prayer journey, God clearly said that I needed to read Isaiah 44:15. I remember opening my Bible and reading that passage of Scripture, as it talks about a lost people that bow down to false gods and pray to them and ask them to save them. And as soon as I read that passage of Scripture, it was clear in my heart that God wanted us to go.

What was really neat was at the same time there were Christian farmers who had moved into this region. They had little churches—if you will—meeting, and they wanted to do more. They wanted to grow. They wanted to be discipled. And so God had put Christians in the area who were calling us to come help them. We have found that God has seeded a couple believers or maybe a family in these villages; those are the people of peace in a village. So we start working with them. And we do evangelism. We pray over and over that God would reap a harvest in that village, and God has been faithful to do that.

We’ve seen people come out of Islam to follow Jesus. We’ve seen people who have been trapped in worshiping idols and fetishes leave those and come to follow Christ.

This region has been a stronghold for Satan for generations. But by the power of prayer, we have started to see openness. When we came to plant a church, we were given a piece of land that was called cursed. Villagers watched to see if we would die. Instead we saw that our God was able to protect us. We’ve seen God speak to people through dreams. We’ve seen Him healing the sick. God is calling these people back to Himself.

Hands down, the greatest miracle that I ever see—and I’m not just saying this because I’m a missionary or a pastor—is when I see a lost person come to Christ. To abandon all of that under tremendous amounts of pressure and persecution and give their lives to Christ—just every time I see it, I’m just going, “Wow, God, this is, this is incredible.”

When we went in there as a mission, we wanted to plant churches. But what has happened is that in these churches, they’ve been changed and transformed, and they see that they can’t hold this truth to themselves. So they have begun to evangelize their friends and go to other villages and plant churches. When we began working in the Kenedougou as a mission, there were just a couple groups of believers. Today, we have nearly 40 communities of believers worshiping the Lord every week.

And really, I tell people I’m living a missionary’s dream. I’ve been able to experience and witness things that I don’t understand why, but some other missionaries haven’t been able to. They’ve worked careers and not been able to see things, and sometimes I ask God, “Why me?” And I’m just so thankful.

I found the true God. His name is Jesus. His name is the name that I call. I trust in the Lord, and He gives me peace. There is no other name as powerful as Jesus. My salvation is in Him.

There is salvation in no one else! Under all heaven there is no other name for men to call upon to save them (Acts 4:12, TLB).

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