There are great men of faith who have since been forgotten. Most pentecostal and charismatic young people have not even heard about them. Lets start with Elias Letwaba. Who was Elias Letwaba? Elias Letwaba was born in 1870 to a man of God and of the Word who lived in Middleburg, Transvaal. He was a man prayer and people around him didnt go well with his regular prayers. His mother, got an angel visitation six months before Letwaba was born. She saw a man clothed in white standing before her. The angel said, You will have a healthy baby boy. He will be my messenger of my Gospel to many places. He will suffer much persecution and weariness, but I will protect him as I will always be with him. He will a means of blessing to thousands and an instrument I will use for planting many churches. Letwabas mother was spiritually strengthened by this angelic visit. Letwaba like all others in his family was well educated and was good in the Dutch lunguage. His family would open their home to visiting teachers and missionaries. Inspired by a visiting preacher, Letwaba at nineteen years old would go around the villages with his twelve-year old brother, Wilfred, preaching to whoever would listen. This led him to eventually hearing the voice of God through the scriptures. For example told him what he heard plain and clear; Matthew 8:16-17 And when evening hadcome, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, He Himself took our infirmities, and carried away our diseases. (NASB) He understood that God would heal people by him and he longed to see it happen. He then met a woman who had a fourteen years old crippled daughter. He prayed for the girl and left only to learn five years that she was healed from that moment on. By that time Letwaba a member of the Berlin Lutheran Mission where he didnt stay long because of carelessness of the church about sin. At the age of twenty years he joined the Bapedi Lutherans until he was thirty-nine years old. Still Matthew 8 v 16 - 17 seemed to mean nothing in this church and they seemed to follow taditions than the word of God. Letwaba began crying out to God for His power of salvation to be activated. This regular crying made him sick to near death but Jesus appeared to him and called him to an open confession of his sin so that he would be healed. He eventually left the Bepedi Lutherans. Letwaba now fellowshipped with the Zion Apostolic Church. Here the people had a living faith and he chose to bebaptized by them. Still Letwaba felt God had much for him and he went to one of the elders and explained how he had been fasting to seek the face of God and how missioneries have not seen eye to eye with him. Those days John G. Lake and Tom Hezmellhalch were preaching at the old Zulu Mission and the elder took him there with him. The meetings in Doorfontein that April 1908 were like a tonardo power that hit the city, hundreds were healed and thousands were saved. People would fall down to the ground electrified by John Lakes hand shake. That day John G. Lake invited Letwaba up onto the stage where he was preaching. This angered a lot of hardline white colonialists but Lake stood his ground and even kissed Letwaba. Lake brought Letwaba to his house where he shared his heart with him. Lake and Hezmellhalchn invited Letwaba to join them to Bloemfontein where there next port of call was. On 9 February 1909 Letwaba was filled with the Holy Spirit. Letwaba became part of the evengelistic team until much later. When Letwala returned home his father was immediately filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues. Letwala sooner than later began also his own ministry which led him to much persecution but the fire that was in his borns kept him going for Jesus sake. Lake and Hezmalhach would come to visit Letwaba here and there and share in the ministry together. Many were healed and saved in those campaigns. At one time when they had moved further north to Zoutpansberg, several members caught malaria and two died. Letwaba was broken-hearted as the men returned to the south but God called him to go back to the north Transvaal. Letwaba would walk hundreds of miles to visit remote villages and his ministry reach even the southern parts of Zimbabwe. His ministry specialized in preaching the gospel and healing the sick. At one time he prayed for a drought striken village and prophecied over it when the Holy Spirit came upon him and he declared, I decree to you people,by the Word of God, that by this time tomorrow you shall have the rain you need. Your fields and cattle shall be saved, and you will know that God lives to answer the prayers of them that believe in Him. Letwaba went into an all-night-in-prayer and by the morning rain fell as prophecied. The villagers readly accepted the miracle-working God of Letwaba. As an intercessor Letwaba often spent hours in prayer seeking God. At one point he was praying in a house that was being painted and the painters mocked him. Suddenly the power of God filled the house and it shook terribly hard that the painters could resume their work until he finished praying. Letwaba was appointed superintendent of The Apostolic Faith Mission, after they his leadership skills. He supervised the Native Churches of the Zoutpansberg, Waterberg, and Middleberg. Letwaba later opened the Patmos Bible School at Potgietersrus in 1924. All this he completed without debts. Students would graduate after three years of intensive studies. He fed students from his own home farm and allowance from the AFM. Letwaba was self-educated and was fluent in seven languages English, German, Dutch, Sutho, Tonga, Xosa and Zulu even as he oversaw thirty-seven churches. On Sundays he led services in six churches time totalling about 15 hours. Weekdays he would teach for six hours a day at the Bible school. At 65 years old, 1935 he retired from the bible college teaching post. He preached fervently in a mixed congregation that often had three interpreters. As said before his ministry had much healings and miracles that he saw about 10 thousand healings in his life. Letwala is said to be the one who received the mantle of Lakes healing ministry in South Africa. He died in 1959 at 89 years old. Empowering Faith Ministries empowering-faithministries.org/elias-letwaba.html John G. Lakes Description of Letwaba John G. Lake spoke of Letwaba in a sermon titled the Science of Healing, given in Chicago in 1920. One day I sat in Los Angeles talking to old father Seymour. I told him of an incident in the life of Elias Letwaba, one of our native preachers, who lived in the native country. I came to his home, and his wife said, “He is not home. A little baby is hurt, and he is over praying for it.” So we went over and got down on our knees and crawled into the native hut. I saw he was kneeling in a corner by the dying child. I said, “Letwaba, it is me. What is the matter with the child?” He told me that it had hurt its neck. I examined it and saw that the baby’s neck is broken, and I said to Letwaba, “Why, Letwaba, the baby’s neck is broken.” I did not have faith for a broken neck, but poor old Letwaba did not know the difference, and I saw he did not understand; but he discerned the spirit of doubt in my soul. I said to myself, “I am not going to interfere with his faith. He will just feel the doubt and all the old traditional things I ever learned, so I will go out” and I did. I went out and satin another hut and kept on praying. I went to bed at one o’clock at three o’clock Letwaba came in. Isaid, “Well, Letwaba how about the baby?” He looked at me lovingly and sweetly and said, “Why brother, the baby is all well.” Isaid, “The baby is well! Take me to the baby at once.” I went to the baby and took the little black thing on my arm, and I came out and prayed, “Lord, take every cursed thing out of my soul that keeps me from believing the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 12:45:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015