Sorry it’s taken so long to get to this! Didn’t mean to leave you hanging! The week was spiritually, emotionally and even physically draining for me (physically because I got a bacterial infection 2 days into it and had to hold on for that ride as well).
If you are wondering what I’m talking about…go HERE and read this post first. Then come back and join us.
As we prepared for the final night on Haiti, and the final night of our crusade in the dark stronghold of Satan known as Delmas 33—the remaining team of Southbrook pastors and Mighty Men gathered once more on the roof of our temporary home. The first thing we did was to thank God for His groundbreaking work through His Holy Spirit in Satan’s temporary turf and the softening of hearts among the churched who were growing more and more bold in their pursuit of the lost. We asked God to bless the efforts of all those who had promised to go out into the streets just like the “Woman at the Well” we read about in John 4.
HAITI CRUSADE VIDEO Watch this then continue reading below…
You see on the previous night I had preached a longer sermon about the Samaritan woman and ended with the challenge to go back to their towns, as she did, and empty them out for Jesus. I told them it didn’t matter whether they had great influence or little, whether they were rich or poor, whether they were pastors or laypeople—all they needed to do was trust God for the harvest.
Also, we (the team from Southbrook) agreed to lay our human expectations aside and be willing to accept whatever God gave us that night at the crusade. The truth is, we often have our own views of how things should go — but God’s ways are higher than our ways. As you may already know by now (in reading my previous post) God’s Spirit was on the move early and powerfully! We arrived almost 2 hours before the event was to take place. One hour before the event started there were already more people present than the entire previous night. By the time we began they hadn’t stopped coming in but estimates ranged from a low of 2000 to as many as 3,500 (My best guess is that there were around 3000). The energy was electric — more so than any event I’ve ever experienced—Christian or secular! At times the decibel level was in the 110 to 120 range! How do I know? Turns out there’s an “App for that,” and if there’s an “app for that,” our student pastor, Billy Almaguer will have it! He did, and he measured the levels throughout the evening.
This night was full of surprises. Any Christian event in a third world country where you hare the Gospel is going to go quite differently than anything you’ve ever experienced in America. For one, Satan is a lot more out in the open in the third world. In Haiti it is not uncommon to hear about demon possession, voodoo ceremonies, witchcraft, cultish activity and a whole lot more dark, ungodly practices. In America, on the other hand, I believe Satan’s most powerful ploy is simply to fly under the radar. The more people make fun of him and think of him as the little guy in the red suit with horns, carrying a pitchfork—the better (for him). And apathy is Satan’s number one weapon in the United States of America. I also believe that a lot of the quirks and sicknesses, phobias and psychosomatic things we see in the US, as well as people who claim to be insane at the time of the crimes they commit—could very well be demonically influenced situations. But that’s another highly controversial post for another time. In Haiti, Satan’s not beating around the bush at all. He comes right out with it. In fact, our last team to Haiti (the group that went in October) has a story they’ll share at some point (probably during our impact series next year) about a very frightening demonically possessed girl. I’ll tell you one thing only…Satan lost and God won!
I know, I know some of you are thinking, “oh here we go. Here comes the hokey sensationalism so often connected to Christianity.” Whether you believe in demonic activity for today or not doesn’t affect in the least whether Satan moves today or not—In fact, he’d much prefer you don’t believe. Much like the sun probably doesn’t care much whether you think it will rise and set each day or that all the planets orbit around it. Your disbelief in the sun doesn’t affect its activity. It might keep you from wearing sunscreen on a 100°, roasting hot day at the beach, but it’s not likely to keep you from getting burned from head to toe. The long and short of it is, Pastor Rene told us to expect a lot more spiritual darkness at an event where the gospel is preached. He turned out to be right.
As the worship grew into the night—louder and more intense, and voices and instruments rose to God, so did eerie screams that seemed to come out of nowhere. Many in our group turned to whisper to each other about it asking what in the world it was before we got Haitian translators to tell us what it was. I’ll never forget the casual attitude of pastor Rene when the first bloodcurdling scream rose into the night. “What on earth was that?!” Someone asked? “Oh that?” Rene casually replied as he walked past, “That a demon possessed person, no pwoblem (not a misspell. That’s how he says it. He and all other Haitians also call me, Pastor Wobb). We just rebuke in the name of Jesus!” That’s a direct quote. Only Rene!
I think it was two of the mighty men who turned to each other and asked, How’s that no problem?” In response, Rene walked back over and said, “look over there.” he pointed. “There’s already a group taking care of it.” You could see that many of the Christian Haitians at the event gathered around two different individuals who were laying, twitching, tossing and writhing on the ground of the place as they were being prayed for and hands were being laid on them. Instances like this happened throughout the night. And as the time grew closer to present the gospel—that demonic presence in the air seemed to grow thicker. Everyone from the American team moved to the upper balcony and out of the crowd at the request of HT (the Haitian Terminator).
At last, all prayed up, and feeling remarkably at peace and ready to go, I approached the microphone and began the message that I’d prepared a month in advance and fully intended to preach that third night. Pastor Rene stood to my left ready to interpret. The only problem was, there was a check in my spirit. I thought, “Oh no God, You’re not going to be do this again are You?” Yes, God was going to do it again—by ‘again’ I’m referring to something he periodically seems to do in my life when He tells me to scrap the sermon and preach what he has instead. Virtually the entire message I prepared on the story of Nicodemus was laid aside for God’s take on the story of Nicodemus. Now don’t hear me wrong. I’m not saying that everything God had led me to prepare wasn’t from Him. I believe it was. I’m saying that the developments throughout the night needed for me to be sensitive to His leading as they ebbed and flowed and our prayers seemed to gain the upper hand or people coming in off the streets of Delmas 33 seemed to gain the upper hand. In the end I can’t be sure exactly why—but I was obedient and changed it. I also shortened the message. The previous night the message had gone nearly 50 minutes. Now, before you roll your eyes, and go, “that’s the pastor Rob we know and (hopefully) love”—remember that that’s 25 minutes of me preaching and 25 minutes of Rene interpreting — put that in your pipe and smoke it! The long and short of it on this night was that God wanted all the glory and He gets more when we get less! My total preaching time this final evening of the crusade was 13 minutes and 17 seconds according to one watch. The full message a little over 27 minutes!
Why Nicodemus? I chose Nicodemus and ended up staying with him because he was already religious. Many of the Haitians gathered for revival events are obviously already religious. Many of them know and love the Lord. But not all of them. Some of them are, as I already said, religious. Unfortunately some are just religious. So I wanted them to know that one of the most knowledgeable religious people in Jesus’ day still didn’t know God and wasn’t going to heaven. Being religious is not enough. That seemed to be the message that Haitians needed to hear at that time more than anything else. Whether your religion is Christianity whether your denomination is Baptist, Catholic, Charismatic, or anything in between—whether you are zealous with false religion like voodoo worship or any number of others—simply jumping up and down, singing at the top of your lungs, waiving your hands back and forth, and attending the services of whatever kind of religious group your associated with—doesn’t save you—it merely marks you as religious. Jesus didn’t come to bring religion—He came to bring a relationship.
At one point—about 15 minutes into it—when I was trying to explain what it means to be born again—every time I said ‘born again’ someone let fly one of those now infamous, hair-raising screams. Needless to say, that’s a potential show stopper. Three times I tried to continue with the message and three times the screamer mocked me. On the third interruption I stopped preaching and addressed the person far to the back (it was so dark I couldn’t tell exactly where they were in the crowd) in the way I felt God would have me handle it. I spoke to the demon declaring that they had no power or authority in this place and that by the blood of Jesus and in the name of Jesus they must leave, now!” Guess what happened?
Right.
No more interruptions. I will never forget that moment as long as I live!!!!
After 13 minutes worth of preaching—though I knew I still had a lot left to say—God said, “That’s a wrap. End this and pray with them.” So I did, saying one more time, “stop trying to reach God with religion, stop trying to get the attention and garner the love of a Savior who already loved you enough to die for you! He couldn’t possibly love you any more than He already does! And, for those of you here tonight who have never set foot in a church—the same goes for you—God loves you. It’s time for you to receive His grace and forgiveness. If you’re ready to come home to Jesus, then bow your heads, close your eyes and pray with me now.
After I lead them in a prayer to invite Jesus into their heart, I told them I wanted them to do something that might seem a bit dramatic. I said that if they denied this moment—denied Jesus before men, that He would also deny them before His Father in heaven. They needed to make their profession public. So I said, “When I count to three I want you to move out from where you are and come to the front.”
What happened next will also stay with me all my days. I’m sure the same goes for all of us from the states who witnessed God’s hand that night.
First one, then three and four, then wave after wave after wave. We were unable to count, Again, best guess is all I can give but I’d say between 150 and 250. God alone knows how many new brothers and sisters in Christ were adopted that night. But rest assured, there will be a strong Haitian contingency in the heavenly choir some day when we all gather before God’s throne and begin an eternity with the Lord and Savior who purchased our freedom on a cross two thousand years ago.
All praise to Jesus!
And you know what, gang? We are just getting started in Haiti. The best is yet to come!