At the Cell Symposium, Jim Lassiter talked about the many years he has traveled as an interpreter for Dion Robert, pastor of the 185,000 member cell church in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. (View his presentation here).
He shared that when he first started to travel with Dion, the detective-turned-pastor would frequently comment when they visited an American church, "This is not normal!" Jim could not understand what he meant until he finally realized Dion was seeing what he could not see - the dismal "downstairs" lifestyle American Christians live, contrasted to the "upstairs" Kingdom of God lifestyle experienced by the members of the Abidjan congregation.
A Chinese proverb says, "Never ask a goldfish what water is like." We swim around in the consumerism goldfish bowl of American church life. For us it is "normal." On one occasion, Dion walked through the multimillion dollar sanctuary of a Megachurch in Texas and said, "Child of Satan!" Such opulence for use a couple of hours a week offended his spirit.
He shared that when he first started to travel with Dion, the detective-turned-pastor would frequently comment when they visited an American church, "This is not normal!" Jim could not understand what he meant until he finally realized Dion was seeing what he could not see - the dismal "downstairs" lifestyle American Christians live, contrasted to the "upstairs" Kingdom of God lifestyle experienced by the members of the Abidjan congregation.
A Chinese proverb says, "Never ask a goldfish what water is like." We swim around in the consumerism goldfish bowl of American church life. For us it is "normal." On one occasion, Dion walked through the multimillion dollar sanctuary of a Megachurch in Texas and said, "Child of Satan!" Such opulence for use a couple of hours a week offended his spirit.
We have come to accept our lifestyles as "normal" when we are far from it. We are subnormal. (Watchman Nee focused on this in The Normal Christian Life.)
I am convinced from my own experiences in ministering around the world, that when American Christiana are lifted out of their fishbowl, they must make radical changes in how they will live.
I will never forget the time I was preparing to preach for Dion to 40,000 people in a soccer stadium. He leaned over and said, "Would you like to see the demon possessed who are here?" I said, "How can I do that?" He went to the microphone and asked all the cell members present to come down from the stands and "dance before the Lord." With a shout of joy, thousands poured onto the field and formed a serpentine line 50 people across. As they wound around the field, they would point a hand toward heaven and sing in French, "Jesus is Higher!", followed by pointing to the ground singing, "Satan is under!" The stands, nearly empty, contained scores of demon possessed people. In their culture, a virgin will go to a witch doctor to get a demon assigned to help her get pregnant and then that baby is taught to worship that demon.
To my amazement, people all over the stands began to fall writhing and screaming to the ground. The demons could not stand the power of Christ being exalted. From behind the stands, teams of 5-6 would come to pick up one person and make a human stretcher to carry them in their pain back to the tents prepared for deliverance.
Dion knows what pastors in America for the most part do not know: that the power of Satan is real and he has his captives imprisoned in every culture. In our culture we treat addiction by offering counseling instead of dealing with the demonic forces that inspire this habit. What is spiritual we treat as emotional.
I am convinced from my own experiences in ministering around the world, that when American Christiana are lifted out of their fishbowl, they must make radical changes in how they will live.
I will never forget the time I was preparing to preach for Dion to 40,000 people in a soccer stadium. He leaned over and said, "Would you like to see the demon possessed who are here?" I said, "How can I do that?" He went to the microphone and asked all the cell members present to come down from the stands and "dance before the Lord." With a shout of joy, thousands poured onto the field and formed a serpentine line 50 people across. As they wound around the field, they would point a hand toward heaven and sing in French, "Jesus is Higher!", followed by pointing to the ground singing, "Satan is under!" The stands, nearly empty, contained scores of demon possessed people. In their culture, a virgin will go to a witch doctor to get a demon assigned to help her get pregnant and then that baby is taught to worship that demon.
To my amazement, people all over the stands began to fall writhing and screaming to the ground. The demons could not stand the power of Christ being exalted. From behind the stands, teams of 5-6 would come to pick up one person and make a human stretcher to carry them in their pain back to the tents prepared for deliverance.
Dion knows what pastors in America for the most part do not know: that the power of Satan is real and he has his captives imprisoned in every culture. In our culture we treat addiction by offering counseling instead of dealing with the demonic forces that inspire this habit. What is spiritual we treat as emotional.
I promise you that if you need spiritual surgery from consumer religion that must be extracted from your lifestyle, this trip is more valuable by twenty times the cost of the plane ticket.
I am not making a red cent on putting this trip together. I abhor having a second source of supply. I will pay my way like everyone else. When we get there, Dion's church will provide transportation, hotels, two meals a day-free. You see, consumerism is not in their or my vocabulary!
I would urge you to consider this once-in-a-lifetime venture into a slum of the world, the Ivory Coast of Africa. They don't have tourism there - no game parks, etc. Just poverty. And the power of Christ, manifested in profound ways that will transform you and make you want to be "normal," no matter what the cost!
Hope we get enough to go to make the trip worthwhile.
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