The Lord has a word for Zimbabwe. This is the word for the nation:

Weeping only endures for a night but joy comes in the morning.

Satan is very afraid of Zimbabwe, very afraid, so he has sent his troops, but the Lord says, I myself have sent my angels and I am going to reveal myself to a people that has not recognized me. And the Lord says, I am going to raise up an army of Intercessors that have had to go deep, deep, deep like the palm tree in times of drought. And this army of Intercessors have clung and stood to the word of the Lord, so therefore I will use them to heal Africa says God.

And I am going to release a mighty prayer army that will go forth from this land. And the Lord says I am going to stay this spirit of violence and I am going to begin to reverse things in this land. The Lord says, don't look at what you see now, but understand that I am going to make this a peace-making nation. And the Lord says, I the Prince of Peace am going to enthrone myself in miraculous ways there, says God. And this will be known as a country that is a peaceful country and restored.

The Lord gives me Joel. That God is going to restore the years that the cankerworm and the locust have eaten up. This will be a Joel nation and a Malachi nation and I am going to turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers.

There is a linking between Zimbabwe and South Africa, that will be miraculous for I am going to bring great healing between these nations says the Lord.

There are treasure of darkness that have waited till this hour in Africa to be released for the greatest harvest that continent has ever seen, and that the Africans will help protect and heal America, the Lord showed me that. And that which was despised, God is going to bring a humility into the heart of those in America to humble themselves to receive this word because it is in the healing of the nation that is going to come the receiving of the Africans.

The Lord is showing me that He is getting ready to build an east to the west road across Africa that will physically open up the heart of Africa. The Lord shows me that He is getting ready to reach the unreached and He is going to break open North Africa, break it open. I'm telling you God is going to break it open.

God is NOT answering our prayers in Zimbabwe

At last, some praying Christians have had the courage to admit that for all the praying that has been done for Zimbabwe, the empirical evidence reveals that the situation in the nation is getting worse and worse, not better and better. The economy is getting worse, the nation is getting more divided, the government more hostile, there is creeping islamisation, law and order is declining and lawlessness is increasing etc. basically, unless there is some mysterious objective that God has, we must admit that God is not answering our prayers for the nation. It would be strange if we were to claim God is answering prayer when all the empirical evidence points to the fact that He is NOT answering prayer. Scripture shows that Israel had a similar problem and it reveals the cause.

Isa 59: KJV Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

But exactly how does God work in nations to heal them? Why do some nations decline while others prosper? What are the ways of God with nations? If we can understand the ways of God with nations, not only our nation can be healed, perhaps others too. What are the keys to this healing or decline

Three Scriptural Roots of a Nation - Morality, community and spirituality

Sinai covenant is summarized in the Ten Commandments. Ex 20:1-7 concerned spirituality- their relationship with God. Moral laws are outlined from Lev 20:8-17. Laws maintaining community unity are given in the same section, yet it is clear that morality and community are intertwined. Theft, adultery, envy, lying, break down trust, and a breakdown of trust creates community tensions, which can break out into civil war. [Land issue, Zimbabwe] IF we consider Deut 28 we will see that the punishments outlined there are what is going on in our nation right now. Thus we are under God’s judgment.

When the Prophets spoke to the nation of Israel the areas they spoke on were SPIRITUALITY [idolatry, pseudo sacrifices, false religion, a religion that favored the upper and middle classes rather than the whole nation, including the especially the poor. They spoke on MORALITY [cheating scales, extending boundary lines, ostentatious wealth. They spoke on COMMUNITY [abusing the poor, not releasing the slaves, cruelty in military campaigns, not caring for the widows and powerless and orphans, etc etc].

African Animist Roots

In Africa, many believe that the health of nations has been undermined by un-Christian spirituality - ancestor worship, leading to xenophobia [other races/tribes are perceived to be outsiders and foreigners and are treated with hostility]. ‘The land belongs to us’ is rooted in African spirituality, tribal spirits rule the land, bless the land under the mediation of the chiefs. Commercial farmers are outside this system, so in the Chimurenga war, this saying was persuasive. The same saying is being used to take the land away from ‘them’, (the commercial farmer). The Christian perspective is that God owns all the land, as well as all the cattle, all the crops and all the people. In the Christian ethos, one God rules over all people, without discrimination. All are accountable to him, regardless of race, color, tribe or connections. Under tribal sprits there are insiders and outsiders, the blessed and the rejected. This false root has is the direct cause of community problems and has now diversified into economic problems.

Past Community problems have been seen as colonialism and tribalism - the depth of tensions caused by these sinful attitudes will finally ultimately manifest itself as a lack of morality [corruption, abusive personal rule] and if left untended, both NEGLECT of the nation, INABILITY to address the difficulties and ultimately DESTRUCTIVE policies [Amin’s expulsion of Asians, Machel’s persecution of Portuguese causing immediate flight, Civil War in Angola, Congo etc]. Foreign aid is wasted or misused or not even used at all. Debt forgiveness will change nothing, ESAP is a failure - and all of this can be traced to the disease of sin in Africa’s moral, spiritual and community roots.

The Response of the Church to the crisis in Zimbabwe.

When a nation is unrighteously governed scripture does not ask for civil resistance, but a concerted outreach at grass roots level leading to conversion, discipleship and church planting. The end result of this is supposed to be a nation with a righteous people.

It is not possible for a righteous ruler to rule over a wicked people, and a wicked ruler finds it difficult to justify his evil actions with righteous people. To replace a wicked ruler with another unrighteous one is not sensible, it is the people who must be reformed, then out of the people will come the ruler. Then the saying that "people get the government they deserve" is correct. Hence when Banda was replaced by Mulusi, and nothing really changed. A Christian replaced Kaunda, and although there was an improvement, things did not dramatically improve. Zambians still have plenty of land, abundant rain, but have to import their food.

The church is the hope of nations. This has been proven time and time again as the church has preached to the masses, converted the masses, discipled the masses and started churches for the masses. These masses then have filled their nations, and moral reform, community reform, spiritual reforms have taken place. Those nations that underwent the reformation are very blessed. Those nations that allowed the further reformation of the evangelical revival are highly and deeply blessed.

Now coming to Africa, the missionaries did not plant a strong evangelical church. Instead it was a social gospel of healing [hospitals], and prosperity [education, then getting degrees and work]. It was political liberation. It was socialist transformation with a redistribution of wealth to the poor and the means of production getting into the hands of the workers via revolution.

But the roots of spirituality, morality and community were unattended to. The missionaries, in general, attended to the tree- policy, incomes, the vote, majority rule, and justice for the oppressed masses. They sympathized with tree level reforms. But in the roots of the nation, the fear and awe of God, repentance, salvation, deliverance from sin, the cross, holiness, Christ in you, etc etc was not preached to the grass roots

WHERE THE CHURCH SHOULD BE GOING

A. Admission of failure

First of all an admission that the church has strayed from God, has followed populist teachings, theories and practices, and that these have undermined the church. It must admit that it is sick and has not been the blessing to the nation that it should be.

B. Find the right direction, and the right activities for that direction.

Most Christians should NOT be involved in criticism of govt, but instead focus on roots renewal and reform via grass roots evangelism, discipleship and church planting. Some may be called to do this, they will suffer for it but they will have their reward. But the church must see that its role is grass roots work.

C. Failure in prayer

Prayer is not a weapon to maintain our past or present status. Nor is it a political tool! Prayers like ‘Lord have your will in the election are pointless, because God’s will is not in elections but in evangelism and reformation. Intelligent praying should be cantered on the intercessors themselves seeking Christ for holiness and intimacy with God. All the things they accuse govt for, they should first seek god to see if there is a vestige of these in themselves

God is almighty, and he is able to move mountains and change governments, but he is not. Why not? Because he is not answering prayer. Only a person who is willfully blind cannot see that the situation in the nation is getting worse and worse. Proper intercession will start when honesty and realism comes in. God has not answered prayer!

There is little complicated about intercession. Jesus showed us how when he prayed simple prayer to the father, yet people have made intercession an art, a difficult subject, one only for spiritual guru’s. This is simply untrue. All simple, faithful, godly, sincere people can not only pray, but move nations and move mountains.

D. Reach Out to the nation from a platform bathed in united prayer

VII. CONCLUSION

The central issue in Zimbabwe is that the church, the light and hope of the nation is insipid, it is weak, and it is hazy. The problem is a need for spiritual intimacy with God, moral reformation and community strengthening, starting in the church and then spreading to the unbelieving community via evangelism, discipleship and church planting. The prophets amongst have the calling to warn the nation of its sins and errors and weaknesses, and the church must allow them to do their task.

Scripture says that God is willing to answer prayer. It is not hard, complex or mystical. Merely to ask. but the first step is that we should forsake our middle class comforts and self orientated gospel, turn to the Lord and walk in Christ and not in our selves. We must seek first the kingdom and its righteousness, not our own self-satisfactions. We must adopt for our agenda’s the priorities of God, not that of the middle class. There is no expense that is too expensive to pay for the restoration of our rots, the roots of the church and the roots of the nation.

On our side is the overwhelming power of the Holy Spirit and encouragement of other revivals in history. We cannot accept our human standards, but the standards of God, and these are possible in the Holy Spirit, not in our own understanding or strength. It is Christ in us, the Hope of Glory, not man made culture or human ideals.

Steve Blomefield