DELIVERANCE CHURCH UGANDA

By Laban Jumba

Deliverance Church started like the church in the book of Acts, alive, vibrant, and moving in the power of the Holy Spirit but then, kind of went quiet. This, Laban says, is all part of God’s design. At the team leaders’ retreat at Busega, on the 20th January 2007, God gave a prophetic word to take Deliverance Church into the next generation. Just like Israel left Egypt and they were ushered into 40 years of wilderness, Deliverance Church also left “Egypt” and were ushered into 40 years of some kind of wilderness. However, the church is not to look at the last 40 years of the wilderness in a negative way. It has been a period of training and preparation for what lies ahead. The Lord has not changed his mind concerning Deliverance church and the call he gave forty years ago. He spoke to Laban and the team from the book of Acts Chapter 13, the same word He had spoken to the church in Antioch when they had gathered together in prayer and fasting, which was the same word that was spoken to the team in 1980 when it was birthed:

"The Lord said separate me this team of men whom I the Lord have been training and preparing for the last forty years for the work I have for them. The Lord made it clear to me that during the last 40 years; He had matured us through His word. We endured hardship and have learnt from the mistakes of our youth. He said, “I see a team of men, who started as young students but are now international calibre men, bound in covenant relationship which the Lord has established for the last forty years. This has been tested through the temptations of money, sex and glory. The Lord has helped them to overcome. I see men like Joshua and Caleb, who have gone through the wilderness experience and still kept their foundation so strong, they still have their eyes fixed on the bulk of the Promised Land ahead. The land they got before the promised land belonged to the Gog of Bashan and Sihon the Amorite. They conquered some land. In fact, two of the tribes said there is some good grassland for our cattle. Let us stay here and not cross over. But Moses said no, we all cross. You cross with the brethren, help them conquer and then you can come back. A small portion of land is all they have got in 40 years.  And the Lord is telling us that these churches we have in Uganda, we look back with emotion, remembering how the Lord has carried us through the last 40 years. The Lord was telling us that the heartland of the land of promise is still the other side.  And the Lord is saying after 40 years of training, many have died in the wilderness. But we who have survived should posture ourselves and cross the Jordan into the real ministry that God originally intended us to do."