Bishop Festo Kivengere founded African Team Ministries in 1984, and wrote columns for its Newsletters, and also for those of African Enterprise. With the permission of Keith Jesson, ATM's president, I present this column from November 1978 (Vol. XV, No. 11).
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“Many times we are difficult to bless. We suffer from strength: we are too strong to be blessed.
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“Education has polished us, church has polished us and we are slippery. When the Spirit of God begins to convict, we slip through His fingers with words about ‘good morality’ and ‘everything is beautiful.’ The trouble is that afterwards we get so beautifully miserable!
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“Jacob, in the Old Testament, from his youth so desired to be blessed that he stole the blessing twice. He would cheat to get it. He would swindle to get it. Yet he was far away from the blessing of God.
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“How did faith come to Jacob? One night an ‘Angel’ wrestled with him, struggling to make him weak enough to be blessed. It took the whole night. Finally, He touched the hollow of his thigh, the strong point, and He weakened Jacob. Jacob became rather ‘limpy’ and lost that strong thing in himself, Genesis 32:24-26.
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“Jacob grabbed the Angel. Helplessly he clung to Him, and the Angel said, ‘Look here, Jacob, you are too much for Me, I had better let go.
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“‘I will not let You go now, for I can hardly stand on my two feet! Unless you bless me, I am finished.’
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“That is faith. Faith is weakness, leaning completely and wholly on the strength of Another.
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“Many think faith is strong― strong belief, stronger determination, strong will, strong decision. Far from it. Faith is being weak enough to believe that God loves me sufficiently to do for me what I can never do for myself.
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“When I was a boy, I went to a boarding school, and beside this particular school there was a big river. Most of the boys knew how to swim, but I had never learned.
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“I watched them, short boys and tall boys, as they jumped in and played in the river. I thought, ‘Some of those kids are not even as tall as I am, and they are enjoying the water. They can keep their heads above water; why can’t I? I have hands like theirs and feet like theirs, why shouldn’t I do it?’ I took off my shirt and jumped into the water!
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“The river was deep and I don’t have to tell you what happened next. I went down like a stone. My arms were thrashing and my feet wouldn’t respond. I went down and came up and swallowed some more water.
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“Boys being boys, those on the shore were clapping and having a good time looking at this new fellow. They waited. They didn’t immediately jump in to help me. While I was struggling I was unsavable.
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“They watched until my strength dwindled. Then a boy jumped in and came swimming toward me. By the time he got to me I was utterly helpless to help myself. Now I was rescuable. He stretched out his hands, took me and swam with me to the shore.
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“Why was that like faith? I was leaning my entire weight, water and all, upon the one who could lift me. I couldn’t lift myself. In trying, I was only swallowing more water.
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“Yes, faith is difficult until you become so helpless that you give yourself over unreservedly into His better hands.”
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