Thursday morning- Stephen Wamboka, Uganda Yearly Meeting

Stephen Wamboka, Uganda Yearly Meeting, addressed the Triennial during worship on Thursday 16th August as follows:

I will read from I Corinthians 14:1:

Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gifts of prophecy.

Good morning, Friends. Praise God. This morning I feel so delighted to stand before you to share with you the word of God. Before anything else takes off, I would like to invite all of you, and most especially African Friends, in joining me in singing the Kingala chorus (that is our native language mixed with English). So I invite all of you to stand up as we sing this song. The song says ‘sing praises to God’.

Thank you for joining me in singing this wonderful chorus. When I sing such a chorus it reminds me of the greatness of God. When I see people waving before God the way we have been doing, I feel the presence of God is around. Before I say anything, I would like to bring greetings from Uganda Yearly Meeting. When we were coming here, they say: ‘when you reach there in Dublin, convey our lovely greetings to them.’. How do you say about their greetings? In the evangelical church in which I pastor, Mutoto Church, they say: ‘when you reach there, call our greetings to them’. How do you say about it?

I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to FWCC World Office to see that I am here, and more especially for us Africans who did not think of coming here because of visa problems. I would like to express my thanks again to our Africa Section, the leaders who also made sure that the communication is appropriate to each and every person who has managed to come here. I would like to express my thanks again to the Irish Friends who have made us to be the way we are here; we are happy because they are really expressing their love to us, we have not found any problem with them! Again, I would like to express my thanks to the international Friends who actually managed to pull out something from their pockets to enable Africans to attend this conference and may God bless you.

Friends, I am standing here to talk about prophecy: 'finding the prophetic voice for our time'. The scripture has been read: ‘follow the way of love and preach your gifts, especially the gift of prophecy’. There is something that God put in my mind. I would like to tell you that when I received an invitation to come and speak here, it was not a mistake. I received an invitation to come and be the speaker in this Triennial in August from our Friend, Lee Taylor. I was very happy. This made me to think about how God communicates. Some time back in early 1988 when I was working in Kenya as one of the pastors in a church I happened to be in my house; I was praying and I began to meditate and all of a sudden I began sleeping. God communicated to me, he showed me people - that I am standing before people, an international community, each one of them bearing the flag of their own countries. And here as I stand, I say that when I received that letter, I recalled that dream. So I would like to say that maybe I am here on a prophetic mission. The theme says: ‘find the prophetic voice of God’, so when I received the invitation, I said: ‘maybe this is what God talked to me back in 1988’. Friends, I thought of this and how am I going to develop from this scripture that I have been given: I Corinthians, 14:1 – ‘follow the way of love, spread your gifts’? I looked at this and I saw that we were living in a world where there are many thing going on. We are aware, we are all aware, that the world we are living in has been impacted in so many ways. We have been impacted by the killer disease known as AIDS, by economies of the world, by communism, we have been impacted by religion and by politics and as a result of all this our lives will never be the same again. We are aware that things are different now, things have changed, but not in terms of God's will and His ways. Things have changed, but not in terms of God's commands or His desires. Things have changed, but not in terms of God's requirements and His regulations.

Now, looking at the biblical prophecy, this is a ministry that conveys the mind of God to the Church, sometimes through preaching which usually foretells God's plan. Its purpose is to edify, comfort and exhort God's people. Today God is bringing prophetic ministry to the attention of His people so that prophets and prophecy may be restored to their rightful place in the life of the Church. The prophetic movement is gaining momentum as thousands of Christians seek answers to their questions about how God speaks to us through prophetic ministry and how we should respond to the prophetic word.

The gift of prophecy is like a river flowing, down which may come floating words of knowledge, wisdom and understanding of the present and the future things of God. All New Testament ministers need to become able ministers in the Holy Spirit to prove that they truly manifest the kind of ministry God intends for them. In the light of this application of Paul's words, all Christian ministers should be prophetic ministers and all saints should manifest prophetic ministry. This is one reason Paul demanded the Christians to preach gifts; according to our scriptures (I Corinthians 14:1) a prophet is one who brings God's word to his people in a given circumstance. Such a person acts as a mouthpiece for God, bringing direction to his people. He only speaks what God has spoken to him. However, all that a prophet speaks must be checked with the written Word of God and must be in agreement with it. A prophet is one of the five-fold ministries in the Church according to Ephesians 4:11, and like the other four ministries, he is to equip the saints for the work of ministry and edify the whole body of Christ through his ministry. True prophets are not self‑serving. The first sign of a true prophet is that he will not use the gift selfishly, that is for personal gain. He will use this gift only on the direction of the Holy Spirit and the intention should be to serve others and not himself. He pours out into the lives of others that which God has endowed him with, according to Matthew 27:42. The prophet lives a sacrificial life. If you are a prophet you must be ready to live a sacrificial life. A true prophet is one who Paul, the Apostle, had in mind when he said:‘therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, I am strong’, according to Second Corinthians, 12:10.

Friends, when I talk of prophetic words and action, this is what I mean now. This is a decade of words and action for the nations of the world and the Church of Christ to walk into the destiny they have chosen to come into. Those who have chosen to live out Kingdom values will come into the fulfilment of God's end time purposes. All that God has prepared for them will fall into place and they will see the salvation of God's redemptive work on them. The Day of the Lord will be upon them. Those who have chosen to reject Kingdom values will come into the greatest trials, crisis and turmoil that men have ever seen. The onslaught of satanic forces will ruin their lives, families, ministries, businesses, health, relationships, and belongings. The days of evil will be upon them. Those who have chosen to do these things will be in that kind of life.

Those who act and choose to hear God's voice and walk in the present truth will move to the next level, they will shine in the dark places and have power to discern deception. They will not be caught in confusion. That was the oath of the founder of this church. His truth and his light shone all over the world and it brought some good impact on this earth. These are the times to hear from Him who speaks from above and not hear him who speaks in deception and lies through those who are not connected to God. That is what God is telling us: that we are not after division - but we are after peace and we are after love that comes from our hearts. These are times for us to act to tune our ears to hear the true shepherds and not listen to the voice of strangers. John, 10: 5-10 talks about Satan. The work of the thief is to steal, to kill and destroy. So when Satan comes in the church, when the mind of Satan enters somebody, that person comes to divide the church and to do evil things. Satan will come to instigate your life and your mind to do something which is contrary to what God wants from us. There are already many strangers within the institution of the church, expressing ‘successful ministry’ and gifting, but without God’s presence and favour.

Friends, when I talk about this, I mean that there are some people who may come with a good notion (especially in Africa, I don't know about other countries). They may come and say, let us join this group. Now, let us talk of terrorists in the world. If somebody comes with such a notion in a Church to bring a vision to begin to teach the young people that if they join such a group, they shall destroy the whole world, that is not the right notion for God - that is from the enemy. The work of the devil is to steal, kill and destroy. The work of the devil is to come into the Friends’ church to begin to divide the people so they should not be united and the Church will eventually die off. That is his notion and this is his principle and this is one of his objectives - to destroy the Church, to divide and rule. These are times to act and compare truth with Truth and compare truth with lives. How do you compare truth with the Truth? I am a Christian. How does your Christianity reflect in the world according to the Bible? Let me give you one example: one time in Uganda some time back we had a man who was a so-called prophet, he had a congregation and he told them that God has communicated to him that the world is going to end and he told them to go and gather their belongings, eat whatever they want, bring some in the church and share together, and then they confined themselves in one house. The man brought petrol oil, he put it on the house and he lit the fire. All the people died. That was intentional. Those are the people I am talking about. Compare the truth and understanding if this is the right spirit from God. If you tell me of the end of the world, is this the right spirit from God? Have you read the Bible - what does the Bible say? These are times for us to act and receive fresh words in the Truth. Does the Church believe in deceptions such as these? We believe Jesus Christ as the Son of God, but if we say I don't believe in the Bible, what does it mean? If I say I believe I am a Quaker and I don't believe in the Bible, what does it mean? Ask yourself.

These are the things that God wants to be addressed in our 21st century. Whom do you believe, whom do you believe? We will come and be manipulated by satanic activities, and be tossed about if we don't believe in Truth. You must believe in Truth, but if you don't believe in Truth, a sorcerer will come around and tell you when you practice (sorcery) you shall get money, and you will follow him. Somebody who is a thief will tell you if you become an intentional thief you are going to be rich, and you go with them. What is that? Believe the Bible, you will find the Truth.

These are times for us to act and receive fresh insight in Truth. The Bible tells us very well and very clearly to go in the whole world and preach the whole Truth; it tells us to go in the world to preach in the name of the Son, the Father and the Holy Spirit. Friends, first be realistic - if we shall continue to keep quiet and not go out and preach the word, do you think Quakers will continue to exist in this world? That is the question. If we continue to keep quiet, the Quaker Church will not be in existence. If you continue to be in that kind of life, we don't see a Church ahead. This was happening in East Africa and the elders of the Church sat down and thought of how this Church should be revived, because they saw all the young men had left the Church and they said: ‘what do we do?’ They sat because they have good buildings, but you find there are only two people. The Church has some good objectives for people, so what did they say? ‘Let us give freedom of worship, let us give freedom to the youth to express their gifts to the Church, to praise God.’ That's what they are doing right now as we speak; the Church has reached out. As I speak, in Uganda, we have the church in Northern Uganda. As I speak, in many parts of Kenya now where the Quaker Church had not penetrated, it is there. If they sit and said that ‘we are content with being quiet in the Church’, then the Quaker Church in Uganda would have gone away some years back, but now we see it is expanding rapidly because they are worshipping in the open air. They are following the trend of the old Quakers, praise be to God.

We, the current Quakers, with Christ's mission must rise up as a prophetic voice from God to rescue those who are perishing and have lost hope in the world. This was the vision and the mission of George Fox, the founder of the Quaker movement in which we are all represented here today. That was his vision - to reach the unreached and to preach the Word. Other Quakers died because of the Truth; they spoke the Truth, people understood them and those who did not like the Truth killed them, but if they had kept quiet, nobody would have bothered with them. Do you hear what I am saying?

Now, this is a challenge to us, the current Quakers, to do the same - that we should hail the vision of the founder of this Church. We have concentrated on one thing - Friends are very good at contributing for the poor, contributing for the needy, where violence is at the forefront, but we have forgotten a very important thing - to bring many people into the family of Friends. George Fox spoke of what he received of Christ and acted by setting up the Kingdom of God in the hearts of men and women by preaching the word of Truth. In his testimony and ministry, he endeavoured to open Truth to the people's understanding and to base them upon Christ Jesus the Light of the World. He didn't keep silent and converted many to Quakerism - he spoke the Word. He preached, he went in many places, he preached and the people understood him and he changed the world because he was speaking, he was not silent.

As followers of Christ in this movement, we need to keep the legacy of our founder. We all need to examine our hearts by asking ourselves one simple question: are we still in the business of promoting the vision George Fox received from the Lord or have we deviated from the foundation? The Apostle Paul says:

for we are God’s fellow workers; you are God's field. You are God's building. According to the grace of God, which was given to me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ’. (I Corinthians 3:9-11)

This question still stands: how are we building on this foundation that George Fox laid by the grace of God? If George Fox was to turn around and come back to life, would he have congratulated us as true representatives of what he initiated or not? That is a question - it's a very challenging question, Friends, that each one of us should have to contemplate on. Let me repeat it - the question still stands: how are we building on this foundation that George Fox laid by the grace of God? If George Fox was to turn around and come back to life, would he have congratulated us, the representatives of what he initiated, or not?

As believers and followers of the Christian faith, we need a total transformation in our lives so that we can go to another level of faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. We, the Quakers of today, like our founder George Fox need to continue proclaiming the message of the Cross of Christ which lead to repentance of sin before God the Father. Just look at one of George Fox's letters that he sent to William Penn and analyse it. To the King, he said:

the principle of the Quakers is the Spirit of Christ who died for us and is risen for our justification and by the spirit of Christ we are led out of unrighteousness and ungodliness. It brings us to deny all plotting and contriving against the King or any man. And the Spirit of Christ brings us to deny all manner of ungodliness, as lying, theft, murder, adultery, fornication, and all uncleanliness, debauchery, malice, hatred, deceit, cozening, cheating, brings us to seek the peace and good of all men and to live peacefully; and it leads us from such evil works and actions as the Magistrate’s sword takes hold upon. Our desire and labour is that all who profess themselves Christians may walk in the Spirit of Christ, that they, through the Spirit may mortify the deeds of the flesh, and by the power of the Spirit cut down sin and evil in themselves.
(extracts from George Fox's letter to William Penn Journal of George Fox, ed. J. Nickells, p699)

George Fox spent much of his time in prayer and fasting and lived a solitary kind of life. I wonder whether the Quakers of today do the same. It is hard to find a Quaker sitting somewhere actually fasting without eating, just going somewhere in the forest or in the mountain and sitting there trying to meditate God's word - it is hard, we are used to eating! It is harder to pray - sometimes when we are in silent worship, some of us begin to snore! Sometimes when we are in the church, when somebody is preaching, some people are reading newspapers, some people are just thinking how they are going to check things on the internet, thinking of how they are going to look at the television set, thinking of what they are going to do, thinking of how they are going to create something. Now, what I am saying is this: he condemned the people who could speak of experience of Christ and God, but lived not in the life of Christ, people who could not lead the world after them. People who got the form of godliness, but denied the power of God, who inwardly ravened from the spirit, who persecuted those that operated in the power of God. He condemned these people. He regarded these people ‘to be the wells without water, the clouds without rain and the trees without fruit.’ Jude, 1:12. He saw that if you are a Christian and you are not preaching to another person to bring them to Christ, then that person is a cloud without water or a tree without fruits so you are not producing, instead you are just there. That is the way he described to them. After his message, some people examined themselves and some of those who found the character George Fox found in their lives repented and accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. When you accept to follow Jesus and approach him as your Saviour, you become His temple where He dwells. You should prove yourself to be the pillar and ground of Truth, part of a spiritual household of which Christ is the Head. Because He (Christ) is not the Head of a mixed multitude.

Friends, because of time, I would like to say that this is what God put on my heart to share with you; there are a lot of things that I would share with you if I had the opportunity, but because of time, let me say that is the message today and may God bless you.