Revival follows after showdown with witchcraft in Kenya

A Kenyan pastor threw down a challenge to a witch who was wielding a strong evil influence on his city, and when the battle was finally won with the killing of a huge python, his new church plant grew rapidly and now boasts five per cent of the city's population.

But the Mt Carmel style showdown -- and subsequent revival -- had been prepared by powerful intercessory prayer. C Peter Wagner tells the full story.

Prayer can be powerful in bringing down satanic strongholds and promoting revival. That was the experience of Pastor Thomas Muthee of Kenya, for whom prayer had played such a vital role that his church is called 'The Prayer Cave'.

Thomas Muthee would be commonly identified as a megachurch pastor. The Prayer Cave Church is growing rapidly and, at the time of writing, was approaching 4,000 members, or five per cent of Kiambu's population of 80,000. Almost all the members are new converts because very few residents of Kiambu were Christians when Thomas arrived. But how did it grow so vigorously and come to have such a measurable influence on the whole city?

Without hesitation, Thomas Muthee would say that it happened through powerful prayer. Thomas and his wife had returned to Kenya from a time in Scotland in the late 1980s when he was ministering as an itinerant evangelist and his wife was school-teaching. While in prayer one day in 1988, he heard the Lord say to him, "I want you to plant a church in Kiambu."

Kiambu? Only a few miles from the beautiful capital city of Nairobi, Kiambu had gained a national reputation for having the worst crime, violence, drunkenness, immorality, thievery and human degradation. Public disorder was the rule and loud rock music was blaring from speakers in front of bar rooms throughout the night. It was also the murder capital of Kenya, with some eight killings a month.

A cloud of mystery also hung over the city. Everyone there knew that in a certain place many, often inexplicable, car accidents regularly occurred. It was considered a good month when as few as three road traffic fatalities were reported.

Kiambu would have been Muthee's last choice as a likely site for a church plant because the city had also gained the reputation as a preacher's graveyard. Pastor after pastor tried to plant a church there and soon left defeated and discouraged. And pentecostal/charismatic churches, which were growing vigorously in other parts of Kenya, could not seem to grow there either.

The assignment was clear. But how to implement it? God gave Thomas a strategy few church planters have used, but in this case it was probably the one way a city as engulfed by spiritual darkness as Kiambu could be penetrated to any significant degree by the gospel.

God's plan for Thomas and his wife was for them to pray and fast for six months, which they faithfully did. Thomas did not so much as visit Kiambu, only ten miles from his home, during that period. They practised a variety of fasts during those months, sometimes fasting a meal or two, sometimes for extended periods, drinking juice or water only, as well as some absolute fasts when they consumed no food or drink.

Thomas described this season of waiting on the Lord as pro-active spiritual warfare. He said: "If we are going to win the battle for Kiambu, we must win it in the air. The ground troops must not invade the territory of the enemy without first achieving victory in the invisible world. I would not want to step my foot into Kiambu until the spiritual forces of darkness over the city have lost their grip. Over this extended time of prayer and fasting, I wanted to know exactly what was keeping Kiambu so politically, socially, economically and spiritually oppressed."

God answered through a vision in which Thomas clearly saw the principality over Kiambu, and its name was 'Witchcraft'. He also saw many other demons around Witchcraft and under its command. From that point onward, the prayers of Thomas and his wife were much more specifically targeted, and they sensed in the Spirit that considerable damage was being done in the invisible world to the dark angels that had enjoyed such a free reign over Kiambu for generations.

At the end of the six months, Thomas felt peace in his heart and mind. He saw in the Spirit that the spiritual atmosphere over Kiambu had been sufficiently cleared through powerful prayer and that the forces of darkness were losing their stranglehold on the city and were now in disarray. It was time for the ground forces to move into enemy territory.

But these forces consisted of only two people -- Thomas and his wife. Yet when they moved there they discovered that the way had been so well prepared that they were the first Christian ministers allowed to use the Kiambu municipal hall to preach the gospel.

Their strategy was to win people through public evangelistic meetings. So, drawing on his extensive experience as an evangelist, Thomas began the meetings in January 1989. He preached the word and saw eight people saved the first night!

The evangelistic harvest continued and the new church met in the municipal hall for more than a year. However, they only had use of the building on Sundays and on Wednesday nights. Thomas's vision was that his church facility should be used for prayer around the clock daily. He well knew that "what is gained by prayer must be maintained by prayer!" He was convinced that if the church was to continue to grow and ultimately have an influence on the whole city, prayer had to be the most prominent ongoing component of his philosophy of ministry.

Soon they were able to move out of the hall, but only into the basement of another building. It might have been rather dark and dingy, but from the day they moved in the 24-hour prayer has never stopped! Going into the basement felt something like going into a cave, so people began referring to it as The Prayer Cave, and the name stuck.

For the first couple of years, however, the spiritual counter-attack was fierce. Thomas soon discovered that the person whom the principality over the city, Witchcraft, was using the most was a notorious sorcerer named Momma Jane. She did her witchcraft and fortune-telling in a place she had perversely named Emmanuel Clinic. She was considered by many as the most powerful person in the city, and both politicians and business people frequented the clinic to have their fortunes told and receive Momma Jane's blessing. It also happened to be located near an open market and precisely at that part of the city where the mysterious fatal traffic accidents had been occurring month after month!

Every Saturday night Momma Jane went to Muthee's church site, performed magic and cast her spells and curses. She let it be known to the city officials that she could not help them with her fortune telling as much as she used to because this new church seemed to be "cutting her lines of communication". As a result the city authorities, as well as other pastors, attacked the ministry of the church.

Praying 24 hours a day, Thomas Muthee and his members did what they could to counteract the demonic attacks. But the power of evil invaded the church to the point that they could hardly pray. One day it got so bad they started a worship song and were never able to finish it! They went outside and found the remains of fresh sacrifices and rituals left behind by Momma Jane.

Thomas went before the Lord, crying in agony. Was his work going to fail? Was Kiambu truly a graveyard of pastors? Would his spiritual tombstone be added to the others? By this time, Muthee was thoroughly convinced that the demonic powers entrusted to Momma Jane had been the very forces that had driven pastor after pastor out of Kiambu. "God," he prayed, "Do not let me be the next to go -- show me the way forward!"

God answered in a still, small voice by simply suggesting: "My son, I want you to get intercessors on the job." He also gave Thomas the names of those selected!

Muthee assigned each intercessor to fast and pray for a whole day so that someone was always fasting and praying.

The initial results seemed to be positive but the intercessors began suffering serious attacks. On their designated fasting days, sickness and other things debilitated them and prevented their prayers from being as powerful as they might have been.

Thomas asked the Lord to reveal what should be done, and God took him to the biblical story of Jonathan, who went to war having an armour-bearer at his side.

Thomas called together his intercessors, who by then had grown to a team of nine, and told them that each person designated to fast on a particular day would be covered by two armour-bearers. One would be the person who had fasted and prayed the day before, and the other would be the one who was scheduled to fast and pray the following day. They would form a protective hedge of prayer around the one on duty.

It worked! The spiritual harassment suddenly stopped. An increasing number of Momma Jane's clients were now becoming Christians and publicly burning the charms and fetishes she had sold them. The way was now open for Muthee to issue a public ultimatum: "Momma Jane either gets saved and serves the Lord or she leaves town! There is no longer room in Kiambu for both of us!" In plain terms, Thomas Muthee challenged Momma Jane to a power encounter, much as Elijah challenged the priests of Baal.

By now word had spread to the city officials that Momma Jane did not seem to have the power she once had. Her clients were embarrassing her by openly burning fetishes and renouncing curses. Some began pointing out that it could be no coincidence that her clinic was right next to the area where the serious accidents were occurring. The whole process was brought to a climax when three young children were killed in one of the mysterious accidents. The people of the city were furious. They suspected it was Momma Jane's black magic that was causing the accidents. They wanted to stone her!

The police were called in and they entered her house to investigate. In one room they were startled to find one of the largest pythons they had ever seen. They immediately shot the snake and killed it. And that promptly ended the spiritual battle! Momma Jane was taken for questioning and later released. But she quickly and wisely opted to leave town for good. Instead of a preacher's graveyard, Kiambu had miraculously been transformed into a witch's graveyard!

Things began to change fast and dramatically. The city's unbelievers also recognised the cause-and-effect relationship between the power encounter and the subsequent changes in the community.

Economically, Kiambu is now prosperous. The crime and violence associated with the city in the national media has now virtually disappeared. Some of the most notorious criminals of the city are now saved and are members of The Prayer Cave.

Alcoholism too is notably diminished -- the intercessors went on prayer-walks around the bar rooms -- and the loud music is a thing of the past. One of the most prominent high-volume discos is now a church! A small valley near the city had been notorious as a den of bootleggers, producing and selling native beer on the black market. The intercessors targeted it for prayer-walking. The still is now closed and The Prayer Cave has purchased the land to build its new church facility!

What about the mysterious car crashes? As you might have guessed, no such accidents have occurred since the day on which the symbolic python was destroyed and Witchcraft was defeated!

Finally, the kingdom of God is coming to Kiambu. No more hostility is present among Christian pastors. Repentance and reconciliation is the order of the day. Churches of all denominations across the city are now growing rapidly, as they have in other parts of Kenya. Pastors regularly eat together and pray together. At the time of writing, they are making plans for the first joint evangelistic city-wide crusade that Kiambu has ever known.

But the central cause of these awesome changes was powerful prayer.

Adapted from 'Praying with Power' by C Peter Wagner (Regal Books). C Peter Wagner is co-founder of the World Prayer Centre in Colorado Springs and serves as co-ordinator of the United Prayer Track of the AD 2000 and Beyond Movement. A professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, he is author of numerous books including the 'Prayer Warrior' series.

Source: Global Revival News

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