Do you have a hunger for reality?
In a world filled with Fake news, Fake history, fictional heroes, Hollywood make belief, Fake pandemics and fake medicines, false doctrines, false preachers, false prophets, false theologies, fake religions, false friends, fake relationships and false brethren, we are desperate for the Real and the True. “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6.
Hunger for Reality
By Dr. Peter Hammond Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Isaiah 55:6 Do you have a hunger for reality? In a world filled with Fake news, Fake history, fictional heroes, Hollywood make belief, Fake pandemics and fake medicines, false doctrines, false preachers, false prophets, false theologies, fake religions, false friends, fake relationships and false brethren, we are desperate for the Real and the True. “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6. We are deceived, Jesus is the Truth, we are lost, Jesus is the Way, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Jesus is the Life. No one comes unto the father except through Him. (John 14:6). “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” John 8:32. In a world of Deep Fakes we need deep Faith and deep Reality. Instead of splashing in the shallows, we need to dive into the deep end. Reject the shallow and superficial. Don't just skim the Scriptures, Study the Scriptures. The Word of God is the solid rock foundation for ultimate success in life and for eternity (Psalm 18:31). An Encounter with Reality On the 3rd of April in 1977 I had an encounter with Reality. I wandered into a cinema and heard the Gospel powerfully presented. Despite being raised in a secular family, I experienced the reality of God and could never again question His existence. Nor could I doubt His call on my life. God is real. Jesus is alive today. He hears our prayers. He answers prayer. He transforms lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to give us life and Life in all its abundance (John 10:10). He invites those who hunger and thirst for reality to come unto him and he will make rivers of living water to flow from our innermost beings (John 7:37-39). By the grace of God, I was regenerated, born again. Before that night I was spiritually deaf, spiritually blind and spiritually dead. Even though we had begun each school day in Bulawayo, Rhodesia with Scripture reading, prayer and hymn singing, before that night when I was converted to Christ, not a spiritual thought, or Spiritual concept had crossed my mind. But after my conversation, the same hymns that I had sung multiple times before over the years suddenly came Alive, I was no longer singing words on a page, but spiritual Truths that I was now experiencing. In the words of the hymn: “And the Voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses. and He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own; and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.” The Presence, Provision and Protection of God It was the beginning of an incredible adventure of discipleship, a spiritual pilgrimage where I experienced and encountered the awesome presence of God, the gracious provision of God, the powerful protection of God, and the incredible Providence of God. I experienced the joy and peace that passes all understanding, even in communist captivity, in prison and in chains. Even when under fire, under mortar and rocket fire, under artillery barrages and aerial bombardment, I experienced the protection of God. With hot shrapnel flying all around me, I experienced the reality of God's Presence and Protection. He was my Shield and defender. My Rock and my Fortress (Psalm 18). Under Fire behind Enemy Lines Even behind enemy lines, surrounded by communist forces, or Islamic Jihadists, the presence and protection of our Lord Jesus Christ was real. By God's grace, I have completed over 140 missions behind enemy lines, including ministering throughout the Nuba mountains of Sudan, an island of Christianity in a sea of Islam, a people under siege, in one of the most dangerous war zones, in one of the most remote and inaccessible parts of earth. Walking throughout the scorched earth devastated area under relentless aerial bombardment and devastating artillery and rocket fire, God enabled me to smuggle many tonnes of Bibles, Christian School textbooks, food and medicines to remote areas and to destitute persecuted Christians. “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3 To know God and to make Him known For over 44 years of serving the Lord in missions throughout Africa, in 38 countries, and in eight wars, I have experienced the truth that: the will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you. Family friend, Romanian Lutheran pastor, Richard Wurmbrand, who was incarcerated for over 14 years under the communist tyranny and who later wrote Tortured for Christ, mentioned that he was once asked which Scriptures enabled him to endure the many years of excruciating torture in communist concentration camps and prison cells in Romania. Pastor Wurmbrand's response was: It is good to know the shepherd's psalm, but it is far more important to know The Shepherd.” Bible memorization is a great help when you are locked up in a dungeon without any access to the Scriptures, but a dynamic personal relationship with the Lord is vital. Book of Acts Christianity From the very beginning I was dissatisfied with the superficial and shallow, which seemed to predominate in the average churches and youth groups. I was determined to find Book of Acts Christianity: the real thing! In January 1987 I received an invitation to minister at the KwaSizabantu Mission station in KwaZulu. There amongst the hills of Zululand, I met The extraordinary missionary pioneer, Rev Erlo Stegen and was eyewitness to a genuine Revival. KwaSizabantu Mission is the real thing: Book of Acts Christianity. Conversions to Christ. Even witch doctors, satanists, gangsters and terrorists converted. Restitution. Fire services. Lives transformed by the grace and power of God. Bodies healed. Dramatic answers to prayer. Genuine and authentic Christian witness even in the worst of circumstances. This reality has been a phenomenal inspiration and example of excellence not only for me but for multitudes of others from around the world. The Miraculous Provision of God Where God guides, He provides. When the Lord first guided me to launch this mission to persecuted Christians across the border, I had no resources to purchase the many Bibles needed, or the film evangelism equipment to reach the multitudes of unreached people in Marxist Mozambique. However as pioneer missionary Hudson Taylor declared: “God's work done God's way will never lack God's supply.” From my first faith mission across the border, I experienced the reality of God answering prayer and providing all of our needs, in some of the most surprising and unpredictable ways. Anyone who has joined us on these behind enemy lines Bible smuggling operations into restricted access countries would see the reality of God, in how He protected us from all danger, provided all our needs, healed us from all diseases and providentially worked all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Even out of some traumatic experiences, in the Killing Fields of Mozambique, and during the Holocaust in Rwanda, even when I have been in prison and under intense interrogation, God has brought good things out of some horrible situations. He can be trusted in all circumstances. The Power of God in Answer to Prayer When I first started praying for Mozambique in 1981, it was firmly closed to the Gospel. Operation World informed us that less than 4% of the population were Christians. Many of my friends and family thought I was Reckless and foolish to try to enter Marxist Mozambique on my motorbike, laden with a thousand Gospels and Bibles and the "Jesus" film. Yet God opened the doors time and time again and we managed to deliver tonnes of Bibles and relief aid and show Christian films throughout that war-torn country. Today Mozambique is wide open to the Gospel and 34% of the population are Protestant, Evangelical, or Independent Christians. Those who Declare War on God Lose In 1986 as Samora Machel's brutal persecution of Christians in Mozambique intensified, we published the "Mozambique Report" (since published as in the Killing Fields of Mozambique) and launched a campaign of prayer for the suffering Christians there. Although there seemed to be no hope - we continued to trust God to intervene and stop the bloodbath. Suddenly, in October 1986, the dictator's Soviet Tupelov aircraft crashed into the Lebombo Mountains of Eastern Transvaal, during a storm. A month earlier, Machel had publicly cursed Christ and challenged God to prove His existence by striking him dead. When, after 60 seconds nothing had happened, Machel declared that "God is dead! But I am alive!" Now the persecutor was dead and God was clearly alive. Although much suffering continued, Mozambique officially renounced Marxism and allowed some measure of freedom to many churches - especially in the cities. And missionaries at last managed to evangelise in Mozambique again. The atheistic persecutors of the Church had to acknowledge defeat. As the persecution of Christians in Angola escalated under the Marxist dictator, Agestino Neto, we prayed for God to intervene. Shortly after Neto declared that: "Within 20 years there will not be a Bible or Christian left in Angola. I will have eradicated Christianity!" Neto died in mysterious circumstances on an operating table in Moscow. His successor, Dos Santos, showed a marked lack of enthusiasm in continuing Neto's wave of church burning. Today Angola is open to the Gospel, and our mission alone has delivered many thousands of Bibles into that country. God Opens Prison doors and Sets the Captives Free! In 1987, I was arrested and imprisoned in Lusaka central prison, yet by God's grace and in answer to prayer, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher intervened to demand from the Zambian dictator Kenneth Kaunda, that he release the missionaries being imprisoned without trial and abused by his security forces. Shortly after that the socialist dictator was overthrown by the movement for multi-party democracy and a new president was elected who called the nation to repentance and prayer and committed Zambia to becoming a Christian country. In 1989 I and an American Medical team ministering amongst the destitute tribes devastated by communist forces in northern Mozambique were arrested and imprisoned. My wife Lenora mobilized an international campaign of prayer and pressure which succeeded in persuading the Frelimo regime in Mozambique to release us after a harrowing week of abuse at the hands of their secret police. The Seven-year Jericho Prayer March Shortly after I returned from my two years National Service in the South African Infantry and had returned to Hospital Christian Fellowship, Brother Andrew (of God’s Smuggler fame) visited Hospital Christian Fellowship headquarters in Kempton Park. At the Devotions, he reported back on the success of Project Pearl smuggling a million Bibles into Red China. And he challenged us to join with Christians behind the Iron Curtain in a Seven-year Jericho Prayer March! This was not something being initiated in the West. It had already begun with the prayer meetings in Leipzig, East Germany, behind the Iron Curtain. We were challenged to a seven year prayer focus on bringing down the Iron Curtain, collapsing the Soviet Empire and opening up Eastern Europe and Russia to missionary work! This began in 1982. To me, at the time, this sounded more than a bridge too far. I had seen the Iron Curtain. There was no doubt in my mind, at that time, that the Iron Curtain was an immovable fact of 20th Century history and it would be up until Jesus returned. The Fall of the Iron Curtain As Winston Churchill had declared in a landmark speech at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, 5 March 1946: “An Iron Curtain has descended across the continent.” From Stettin in the North to Trieste in the South, barbed wire and barricades, walls and machine gun towers were erected, sealing off the captive nations occupied by the Soviet Union from their neighbours in the West. The Iron Curtain divided a continent and trapped hundreds of millions of people under communism. Even Poland, for whose freedom Great Britain had ostensibly entered the war, became little more than a satellite of the Soviet Empire ruled by men chosen by Moscow. Its population was now imprisoned behind a mass of barbed wire, watchtowers and minefields, a physical iron curtain. Secret Police To spy on its captive populations, Like Big Brother in George Orwell’s novel 1984, the Soviet empire set up secret police. In the Soviet Union it was the KGB, in Bulgaria it was the DS, in Czechoslovakia the StB, in Hungary the AVB, in Poland the SB, in Romania the Securitate and in East Germany it was the STASI (the Ministry of State Security). The STASI maintained a huge network of 90,000 secret police and 175,000 paid informants. They kept files on 4,000,000 East Germans, a quarter of the population. The Korean War and other Hot parts of the Cold War There were numerous hot fronts in the Cold War, including a full-scale military war in Korea where two million died in the three-year conflict. The Cold War almost went nuclear during the Cuban missile crisis, October 1962. The vicious conflicts in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, Rhodesia, Mozambique, Angola and South West Africa were other hot parts of the Cold War. Protests in Berlin After the death of Joseph Stalin (5 March 1953), over 100,000 East Berlin workers protested against the Soviet occupation. Two Soviet armoured divisions were sent into East Berlin to crush the protest in June 1953. Over 100 civilians were killed and 25,000 protesters arrested. Uprising in Hungary In July 1956, a full-scale uprising in Hungary shook the Soviet Empire. Mass demonstrations demanded the withdrawal of Soviet troops and in Budapest, a massive statue of Stalin was toppled. Soviet troops poured into Hungary and over 20,000 Hungarians were killed in the repression. Tens of-thousands more were arrested and imprisoned. 250,000 Hungarians fled to the West. The Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall was concrete proof of the failure of “scientific socialism.” To prevent Germans in the Soviet zone from fleeing to the Western zone in Berlin, a 165 km wall was constructed to seal off West Berlin’s island of freedom from Soviet occupied communist East Germany. The Berlin Wall included 302 concrete observation posts/machine gun towers and 123 km of electric fencing. Death Strip A further death strip stretching 1,393 km along the border between communist East Germany and free West Germany was constructed with: 724 observation posts/machine gun towers, 1,161 km of electric fencing, 54, 000 self-firing devices and 190 km of mine fields. Kill Zone Thousands died trying to flee across the Iron Curtain. The Iron Lady had this to say about the Berlin Wall: “The Berlin Wall stands as concrete proof that when people have a choice, they choose to be free. Freedom has its problems, but we’ve never needed to build walls to keep our people in!” Voting With their Feet Yet from the founding of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1949, more than 4,500,000 (over one quarter of the population) voted with their feet by fleeing to West Germany. 38,515 escaped from East to West Berlin by tunnels, by improvised air machines, or hot air balloons, hidden inside vehicles travelling from East to West Berlin. 2,768 East German soldiers and officers on duty (including a Colonel) escaped to the West. Invasion of Czechoslovakia Those who believed that communism could be reformed from within, were shaken by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, when Czech communist party chief, Alexander Dubcek, attempted to create “socialism with a human face.” As a result of economic reforms in Czechoslovakia, the other East European satellite states complained that their positions were being undermined by the reforms in Czechoslovakia. The Soviet response was: Leonid Brezhnev ordered a full-scale Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia to restore orthodox communism. The Prague Spring ended in August 1968 as half-a-million Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia and overwhelmed the courageous resistance of Czech patriots. Détente Deception The Soviet Empire reached its peak during the period of Détente, as they sponsored, trained and armed revolutionaries to seize power in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in 1975, Ethiopia in 1974, Guinea Bissau, Angola and Mozambique in 1975, Grenada and Nicaragua in 1979 and Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe in 1980. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 was a major wake up call to those in the West who still believed in Détente. The Seven-year Jericho Prayer March Dramatically Turned the Tide all of this was the prelude/background to appreciate the phenomenal impact of the seven-year Jericho prayer march mobilization initiative. Freedom on the Offensive As a result of this unprecedented Soviet advance, in the 1980s there began to build a backlash throughout the West, epitomised by staunch anti-communist US President, Ronald Reagan, British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, West German Chancellor, Helmut Kohl and South Africa’s President P.W. Botha. South Africa confronted and defeated the Soviets and their Cuban surrogates in Angola. The West went on the offensive, directly supporting the anti-communist Solidarity trade union movement in Poland, which soon organised nationwide strikes and protests against the Soviet occupation. The USA began to arm and support anti-communist resistance movements as far afield as in Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Angola. Ronald Reagan’s policies forced the Soviets back onto the defensive and strategically undermined their economy. Spectacular re-armament programmes and the space based Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) quickly left the Soviets far behind in the arms race and totally bankrupted the Soviet Union in their futile attempt to keep up with America. Defeating the Communists Brave anti-communist resistance fighters in Mozambique, Angola, Nicaragua and Afghanistan severely bled the Soviet forces, inflicting serious defeats upon them. The Rhodesian resistance throughout the 60s and 70s had set back the advance of communism in Southern Africa and the destruction of entire Cuban-mechanised divisions in Angola by South African conventional forces in the battles on the Lomba River in 1987 and 1988, convinced the Soviet Union that they would not even be able to win a conventional war against the West. Recognising Reality Russian soldiers began to refer to Afghanistan as their ‘Vietnam’. As Russian casualties mounted in that conflict, the ongoing political crisis in Poland and widespread resistance to communism throughout the Soviet empire helped convince the Soviet leaders that their bankrupt system was doomed. The Glasnost Gulag Even under Gorbachev’s much-acclaimed Glasnost, the Soviet Gulag imprisoned millions. When US President, Ronald Reagan, stood at the Berlin Wall and challenged: “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” the Soviet Union operated 1,976 concentration camps, 273 prisons, 85 psychiatric prisons and 41 death camps. In this Soviet Gulag, over 5,000,000 political and religious prisoners were still incarcerated. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, author of The Gulag Archipelago, documented that between 1918 and 1953 (under Lenin and Stalin’s rule) over 50,000,000 Russians served long sentences in the Soviet concentration camps, with millions perishing. The Hypocrisy of Communism It was pointed out that while the communists claimed to have liberated Russia from the oppression of the Czars, there were 5000 times more official executions under communist rule in Russia as occurred under Czarist rule in the same time period. By comparison with Russia under Czarist rule where the highest figure of political prisoners was 183,949, the communists imprisoned seventy times as many people at any one time. Callous Disregard for Life Vladimir Lenin famously declared that it did not matter if three quarters of the population of Russia perished, as long as the remaining quarter were communist! Joseph Stalin observed: “The death of one person is a tragedy; whereas the death of a million is just a statistic!” Prayer and Protests As candlelit prayer vigils and protests spread from Leipzig, through Dresden, to all of East Germany, the Communist East German government was bankrupt and tottering. Gorbachev’s Soviet Union was also bankrupt and could no longer bail them out. So, Erich Honecker, the dictator of East Germany, turned to the West Germans (who in the past had always been willing to provide enough to keep East Germany going). This time, however, the West German Federal Government was not willing to bail them out. They demanded reforms. The Fall of the Wall While governments negotiated, the people in both East and West Berlin rose up to breach the wall and began to dismantle it physically. The leaders were overwhelmed by events. Days after the Berlin Wall collapsed, mass demonstrations broke out in Czechoslovakia. Vaclav Havel, long-time leader of the Resistance movement and prisoner of the communists, rose to power and dismantled communism in Czechoslovakia. The Christmas Revolution Street fighting erupted in Romania to overthrow the brutal communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Soon resistance spread to Bulgaria where the communists were overthrown in December 1989. In Hungary, the communist government was overthrown in October 1990. In Albania, the first free elections were held in March 1991. Yugoslavia split into different republics as each broke away from the communist control in Belgrade. Soon the Baltic Republics, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, were demanding and achieving their independence from the Soviet Union. The End of the Soviet Union In August 1991, a coup in the Soviet Union was frustrated in its attempt to return the country to hard-line communism. Boldly waving the white, blue and red Russian flag, Boris Yeltsin abolished the Soviet Union and pulled down the Soviet Flag. The Cold War had formally ended. Victory Over Communism “There is nothing they despise more than weakness. There is nothing they respect more than strength.” The Cold War was won by a combination of Christian courage by persecuted Christians who endured decades of brutality, steadfast resistance by brave anti-communist soldiers who fought the Soviets to a standstill, the bold strategy of Ronald Reagan, which dismantled the Evil Empire and persistent prayer and pressure from Christians. “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption…” 2 Peter 2:19 The Statue and the Stone Another dramatic illustration of the reality of God and the power of the Word of God is seen in Lubyanka Square, in Moscow, about 900m North East of Red Square, a huge statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Cheka, which later became the NKVD and then the KGB, was erected in 1958. This statue was directly in front of the Lubyanka, the notorious Headquarters of the KGB, wherein many Christians were interrogated, tortured and murdered. In 1991, the statue of Dzerzhinsky was torn down and removed and a simple stone from the Monastery on Solovetski Island, which had been the first prototype Concentration Camp of the Soviet Union, was placed in the square where the statue of Dzerzhinsky had once stood. The symbolism of the Victory of Christ over Communism is striking. The Lord Jesus Christ declared: “The Stone which the builders rejected has become the chief Cornerstone. Whoever falls on that Stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” Luke 20:17-18 (Matthew 21:44) The Prophecy of Daniel “But there is a God in Heaven Who reveals secrets… This great image, whose splendour was excellent, stood… a Stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces… And the Stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth… And in the days of these kings the God of Heaven will set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever.” Daniel 2:28-44 God gives the very Best to those who leave the Choice to Him. There is no doubt that God is real! He really answers prayer. He saves and heals. God transforms lives. God intervenes even in history and changes history in answer to prayer. What a Savior! We have a reason to live! We have a reason to sing and to celebrate! What a privilege to be a child of God! What a privilege to be His servant and His soldier! We have a great Message to share! We have a world to win! The day will come when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11). The Day will come when the earth shall be as full of the glory of the knowledge of the Lord as the seas are full of water now (Habakkuk 2:14). “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:17-21 For the fulfillment of the Great Commission
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