Acts 2: 38 – 41
38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” 40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptised; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
This was an open crusade that Peter preached for three thousand souls to give their lives to Christ. This chapter (Acts 2) became my favourite chapter during the planning of the crusade. I kept reading it over and over, building my faith that it would be repeated at the Crusade we were organising.
I prayed at length into the crusade and I christened the crusade “Oyibi For Christ – The Jesus Experience”. By the month of September, 2021 everything (sound, stage, lights, posters) was sorted out for the crusade and I was the main preacher for the event. The attacks through dreams had not ceased but I was not so worried because the Bible says “No weapon fashioned against us will not prosper”. Then the attacks now advanced to the physical realm; I suddenly began to fall ill – I would suddenly become weak, and I knew where it was coming from. After intense prayer, I would get better then after a few days it would come back and there was no scientific/medical explanation for it. It continued for about a month.
We added fasting to the prayers and the people around me began to have dreams about the crusade and they would tell me about their dreams. It is important to surround yourself with Spirit led people. Daniel was able to retrieve the dream King Nebuchadnezzar lost because he prayed with his prayer caucus Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in Daniel Chapter 2. It is important to always have Spirit led people around you. People had dreams about the success of the crusade and also about attacks against the crusade.
We organised a prayer retreat at Anagkazo in Mampong a few days before the crusade and during our prayers someone picked up a word of knowledge about us praying against rains on that day. Once we prayed another person also bore witness to the fact that they had gotten an impression of rain disrupting the crusade. God is a speaking God and He will constantly reveal to His children who seek Him. Before the arrest of Paul, a prophet named Agabus prophesied about what was going to befall him. Acts 21: 10 – 11 read, “And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. When he had come to us, he took Paul’s belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ” The prophet foretold everything that was going to happen to Paul. It is important we do not despise prophets and the prophetic; they make known to us the mind of God and expose the evil plans of the devil. Once God told us to be careful of the rains we took it up seriously and prayed.
One important thing to note is that we designed specific tracts for new converts and put a plan in place for people who would give their lives to Jesus at the crusade. It is important you always bear this in mind when organising an evangelism drive, otherwise the people will go back to sin if there is no shepherd in place to lead them after they are born again. There must be a follow-up plan. We assigned two people to be in charge of taking phone numbers of people who would give their lives to Jesus Christ and people they spotted in the audience who they discerned would need spiritual mentorship or guidance.
A few days before the crusade, I got a spirit led impression during my prayer time that I should not be the main preacher at the crusade and I was led to inform my Senior Pastor, Apostle Joseph Kwadwo Yeboah. I told him that I believed he would have to be the preacher at the crusade. In the Kingdom it is important to note that the will/plan of God must always supersede your plans. The Bible says in Proverbs 14:12 that “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death”. Apostle Joe, as we call him, agreed to preach and I continued with the plans as though I was the one who was to be the main preacher. I was not disappointed that God did not allow me to preach. Many people would withdraw from things when they are not at the centre of it. The Kingdom is not about who mounts the pulpit, but who does the will of God. The will of God must prevail.
The day finally came; the 21st of October, 2021 and by 6:12 am I received a whatsapp from a brother in the Lord. He had a dream about light/electricity issues. God revealed to Him what was going to happen. See below the whatsapp chat. I knew personally that it was not going to be an easy day. By 9:00 am the weather in Accra changed dramatically, and the rain fell hard! It fell so hard till about 12:30pm. It looked like that was the end so we got to the crusade grounds and we set up. Once setup began, the rain started again and continued for another 3 hours. It was almost 4pm and the rain was still falling. I became a bit discouraged and considered cancelling the crusade but I believed strongly that once God had sent me for this one day crusade it would hold.
As you know in Ghana, once the rain is falling heavily automatically the lights will go off so lights went out in the whole of Oyibi.
The rain continued till about 7pm. We had to bring in generators and canopies and began the crusade. We decided to go out and do evangelism one more time that night to get people to attend. The program commenced with powerful worship and praise, followed by power preaching and an altar call led by Apostle Joseph Kwadwo Yeboah. There was also a brief prophetic ministration by myself. In total, 7 people gave their lives to Christ. Many people did not make it as expected, because of the rain, but God’s presence was mighty at the crusade.
Here are a few lessons I learnt from organising the crusade.
- Crusades must be organised by the leadings of God – Romans 8:14
- The place of money in propagating the gospel. We need to support the kingdom with our financial resources.
- Get a very consistent prayer caucus to engage in spiritual warfare for the souls.
- Jesus Christ should be the centre of the crusade and not man.
- A plan must be put in place to follow up on souls.
- Importance of a spirit led/prayerful planning team.
- The importance of dreams and prophetic words in attempting great things for God – they guide you.
- Giving up is not an option.
- The devil employs fear to deter believers – do not cower.
I strongly believe my ministry changed after organising the Oyibi for Christ Crusade, and I had dreams to confirm this.
God bless you for reading. I have uploaded below an excerpt from the crusade in 2021. I want to use this opportunity to thank all the brethren of Word Faith Chapel, Apostle Joseph Kwadwo Yeboah and the station masters at the Oyibi trotro station, without whom we could not have executed the mandate.
If you enjoyed this article, share it with your family and friends. Also, go out and attempt something great for God.
