Uganda’s revival transformation

In the year 1980, more than 30% of Uganda’s population had AIDS; by 2008, it had dropped to 6.4%. More than 8 million AIDS patients were healed, and the real answer is: prayer.  Success in fighting AIDS is just a part of the jigsaw puzzle in the nation’s full transformation story.

The first wave of revival: There are six waves of transformation in Uganda, the first three waves started from people’s hunger and thirst for God, and the latter three waves are in response to the crisis. When the gospel spread to Uganda in 1775, there was a fierce spiritual warfare. The missionaries who brought the gospel were forced to leave in less than 10 years. Leaving a small number of African believers, feeling extremely weak, they decided to gather together every day, to pray and fast. With a small group of people as a unit, they established a vast network of prayers throughout the country. Believers understand that if they are determined to preach the gospel of Jesus, they must abandon their old lives, no matter what price they must pay, and they refused to worship idols nor practice polygamy. They did not expect the whole gospel movement to grow so rapidly, even beyond the time when the missionaries were around.

The second wave of revival: In the 1886 years, facing great persecution, the king arrested the church leaders, demand them to either deny Jesus, or die, and the first group of Christians were martyred for it. There was a group of young men working in the palace who, after they believed in Jesus, rejected all abominable rituals, and the king was so angry that he demanded that they deny Jesus, that even the son of the minister joined the martyrdom, 22 young men laid down their lives for Jesus in one day. Later, the missionaries came back, and they were very cautious in handling the situation, and the spirit of fear quenched the fire of zeal in the young people.

By the year 1893, the church had long since gone from the first wave of revival to the state of Luke warmness. At the end of the war, there was a son of a chief who retired after the war and found himself unable to obey Jesus Christ, our commander and Chief like the way he obeyed the captain of the army as a soldier, so he was seeking help from the pastor everywhere. Later, he and his younger brother, hid in their banana garden, seeking God earnestness, by grace, the spirit of intercession fell on them, they experienced a great breakthrough in their lives, they began to affect the lives of many young people around them, and began to labor in prayer like them, everyone experienced victory, and even the entire village began to change.

This wave of revival continues to spread, and the great power of the Holy Spirit swept through the countries of East Africa, causing people to confess and repent, surrender to the Holy Spirit and brought in the “great revival of East Africa”.

The third wave to the sixth wave of transformation: John Mulinde personally witnessed and engaged in the work of the latter four waves of God, within 40 years (1971~2011), although they made many mistakes, but God always brought them back to the effective and real starting point again.

The transformation of the third wave, took place during the reign of President Idi Amin (1971~1979). There were only 3% Muslims in Uganda at the time, but as soon as Amin came to power, he declared jihad, and declared Uganda to be a Muslim country, he first drove all Jews out, then began killing church leaders, and closed all churches within five years. After Amin’s ouster, Milton Obote came into power, called the Milton era, he was even more brutal than Amin, in imposing authoritarian terrorism. the rebel forces rose among the people, against the government, the intense fierce civil war continued for about five years. There is a proverb in Africa that says, “When two elephants fight, the worst victim is the lawn on the ground.” The people of Uganda are the lawns under the two elephants of totalitarianism and rebels! At first, the church did not publicly stand on their position, until the Civil war began to attack the church. It is the awakening of the Church that begin to pray, changed the country, not only pray for the outward change of the regime, but wage in battle for the fundamental change with substance. This prayer movement, is like raging fire, has burned the whole country, and after two years of deep prayer, God brought about a sweeping change in the entire Uganda, and God also begun to heal the land, restore the respect for life, and recover the economy, and the country gradually went back on track

In the year 1990, Ugandan pastors were invited by cabinet ministers to read a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) referring to Uganda as the country with the highest global AIDS epidemic. At that time, AIDS patients accounted for 34% of the total population, forecast by the year of 2000 years, 1/3 population of Uganda will die from AIDS, 1/3 will become AIDS patients, the last remaining 1/3 will be the old, the weak, the women and children. At that point, Uganda’s economy will bankrupt, and the political and social structure will collapse. God gave the small group of John Mulinde’s a prophetic word, which revolutionized their mode of thinking, God said, “You need to change the way you pray ... If you only pray for a solution to the crisis, then after the crisis is resolved, there will be other crises coming. Therefore, you need to start praying for your nation to coming into the purpose and destiny I have created your nation for. I will help your country through all the difficulties and crises … Then the people of the nations will come to Uganda and ask, “How do you overcome the AIDS?!” 

God began to teach the Ugandan church that the real enemy was the dark power of the spirit realm, and only by knowing who the enemy is, can one know how to pray, how to have breakthrough, and how to push away the vail that hung over the country. God is faithful, and He does what He says. But the transformation was a complex process, during the 90 days of fasting and praying that were held throughout the country, with participants eating only fruits and vegetables, and several waves of confession, and repentant, including inter-tribal reconciliation, and the President’s atonement to India.

In 1988, God divinely visited John and chose him as the leader of this wave of movement. It happened in April 1988, when he was a pastor of a small church, actively preaching the gospel and experiencing many miracles and wonders. But God personally visited him, exposed the lust of his life, the hatred, jealousy, manipulation and contention he had toward others and the Lord said to him, “If I come back today for My bride, you will have no part in it … You didn’t just accidentally fall into sin, it’s your life style … this is unacceptable, in the presence of My Father.」

John Mulinde received a vision from God. In the vision, he saw himself and coworkers fishing in lake Victoria, they casted the net by the lake, it seemed like they had caught a lot of fish, and began to pull the net ashore, but the net was too heavy, there were not enough helper, he asked the co-workers to go back to the ministry center to ask the rest of the co-workers to come and help. As the fellow worker left, he heard a voice say to him, “John, this job is too big for you, it is not your personal ministry, nor a sect or a church can do it, do all you can to call on those who are close or far away, the majority of the people, who are willing to help.” So, he called the fellow workers back and told them the account. After a while, many people began to come to the lake. Groups, large and small, bringing two things: one is flags with the sectarian and church names written on it, and each group brings a rope. When everyone got to the lake, they tied the ropes to the net and began to help. Although very heavy, but together, they finally pulled up the net. Unexpectedly, when the net surfaced, there was no fish inside, but a big stone, exactly the shape of the map of Uganda! Then a voice said to John Mulinde, “John, give me a net, and I will drag your country out of the evil water.” 」

God revealed to John: “Unless you begin to build a network of unified prayers across Uganda, you will not be able to conquer the dark power over your country.” God told him again, “I have many people scattered across different denominations, even in places you can’t imagine.” They are among the Lutherans, the Pentecostal, the Church of England, the Baptist Church, the Protestant sect, Catholicism, and many different ministries. Every independent ministry, denomination, Church has a unique anointing. God said, “When the church, the demonization, and ministries are one with each other, there will be great corporate anointing covering the people.” Under such a cover, you will have a great legal position against those in power over your country. 」

Today, there are more than 90% Christians in Uganda. Their economic growth is ranked   in the top three in Africa, with many Christians entering important decision-making positions such as government, justice, finance and education, and the state is undergoing a complete transformation in every field. God is also eager to do the same in the nations, and God also wants all nations to bear fruits for Him, and for all peoples to glorify Him, and for that reason He calls Uganda to become a missionary and midwife of all nations, helping the nations to enter God’s destiny for the nation.

Let me give you some practical tips. Please go home, pack up and put aside all the Bible reading plans. Let’s do it in a new way!

1.    Do not read one chapter, two chapters or three chapters a day. Read a lot of verses every day. It’s like you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, even a snack in between. Let us feed ourselves with the word of God. If possible, read ten chapters, 20 chapters a day.

2.    Read the Bible, not to study, but to read. Do not read bible reference book, the content of the reference bible is not scripture, but human interpretation, for now forget what you’ve learned from that. Only after you interpret the bible yourself, then you can compare your interpretations with that of others. If you really want to feed yourself in the words of God, just read the scriptures and read only the Bible. Amen?

3.    Don’t mix readings with the study. What do most people do? They began to read: “Oh! This Bible verse really touches me! I think God is talking to me. “Then they stopped reading, and focused on that passage, and began to study it.” Let’s just put it this way! During this time, let us put a great deal of God’s word in us, because the Bible does not conflict with itself, and the Bible itself will explain itself. So, the more you put God’s word in your heart, the more the scripture will explain itself.

4.    Keep your motivation for reading the Bible simple. There is only one motivation: Lord! I want to know You. that’s it. “I don’t want to know You, as this or that, I just want to know You! I want to know who You are? What You are? I want to know Your name and honor Your name.” every day I want to say: “God! I Come before You. Lord! You are such a God, because I have seen You in the scriptures.”

5.       Create a quality reading time. “I’m going to read the Bible for five minutes, because I need to meet someone later, and I’ll start with four chapter. “That can only be counted as extra time. You must plan for some time of the day, without interruption, to sit down and receive from reading the Bible, to read the Bible with focus, and to do so continuously. Just like when you read a novel, you don’t like to be disturbed by others, you like to read the story in its entirety. This Bible is the story of God, and this is the path of God. When you read the words of God, you are saying, “God! I want to know You, and I will follow Your path. “You have to create the continuity of the Bible reading, and if you have the quality in reading the Bible, after reading the Bible, you have to plan a period of time for meditation.” Don’t go working on something else, right after You read the bible, close the bible, or keep it open, and meditate on the word of God.