A multi-aged, multinational and multi-denominational army of women prayer warriors joined ranks last Saturday in a second Africa-wide vittual prayer connect hosted by Dr Fay Nqoloba, CEO of Warrior Woman of the Kingdom and Talitha Cumi Foundation this year.
Following on a general Africa prayer connect on January 30, this event was for women only and the theme was “A woman occupies a special place in God’s heart.”
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Sharing her perspective on the event, Dr Singeziwe Sibeko, a senior researcher at Stellenbosch University, writes: “The conference started at 13:30 sharp. It commenced with praise and worship led by a group from Faith Mission. This as guests were logging in and registering in the background. Registration took about 30 minutes.
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“At 13:56 the official program started. It started with a rendition from Veliswa singing Lizalis idinga lakho (translated “fulfil or realise your promise”). The first verse goes like this: “Lizalis’ idinga lakho (Fullfil/realise your promise), Thixo Nkosi yenyaniso! (Faithful/Truthful God), Zonk’ iintlanga, zonk’ izizwe, (All races, all nations,) Ma zizuze usindiso (must be saved)”. It was written by Rev Tiyo Soga and translated by Dr Ben Khumalo. Needless to say, this song was appropriate for the occasion as women from around the nations of the continent and beyond congregated.
This was followed by the opening devotion rendered by Apostle Naomi Sheneberger from Zambia and this set the tone for the rest of the meeting. The opening statement she made was that as women we are “giant slayers” but we are also “chain breakers”. She read from Psalm 73:25,26 — “25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” She also read from Luke 8:11 “… The seed is the word of God”. Lastly she spoke from Proverbs 31:16,17 “16 She sets her heart upon a nation and takes it as her own, carrying it within her. She labors there to plant the living vines.”17 She wraps herself in strength, might, and power in all her works.
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Changing timeline of nations
The next thing she said was that the Lord had said whatever we were going to be praying for in the meeting would change the timeline of the nations and especially the continent of Africa. She said God had said the spoken word from this meeting would be made manifest. She also said that we were going to collectively awaken dormant seeds. And there was currently war for the seed. Looking at 1 Samuel 17, David, with his five stones, had strength in his portion. Portion in Hebrew means smooth stones. Portion is inheritance. We will slay the giant though the seed (word) of our inheritance.
This item was befittingly followed by the blowing of shofars. Nowadays the shofar is a symbol for Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year). According to a writer I found online it means we must turn inward to fix ourselves so we can then burst out and contribute to the world. How suited is this definition in a meeting where as women we want to break out and contribute to the continent and the world beyond.
The next item was that of prayer to break down altars of darkness. This was led by forensic chartered accountant Nosisa Fubu. This was a profound item on the agenda. It was about dismantling, demolishing, uprooting, destroying, nullifying, silencing and reversing the altars of principalities and rulers of the kingdom of darkness over the continent of Africa that have been erected over time and replacing them with the altars of the Kingdom of Heaven. Along the same vein re-erecting and renewing the altars of God that have been quietened over time. As Nosisa would say in her devotion “we ask Lord and declare that your alters will instead speak as we as giant slayers take dominion and authority over the powers of darkness”.
Then we had a very important item rendered by Dr Colleen Snyman. She was tasked with releasing blessings over the participants. She has been married for 61 years and been in ministry for 55 years. She spoke from 1 Chronicles 12, Psalm 18:34 and Romans 12. Her emphasis was on the importance of keeping rank as women. She referred to men who went to join David at Ziklag, then at Hebron, to assist him to take the reigns as king over Israel. They all had different portions but they worked in unison with one purpose – to make David king. 1 Chronicles 12:38 — “All these were fighting men who volunteered to serve in the ranks. They came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel. All the rest of the Israelites were also of one mind to make David king.”
We as women have been given different portions and we must walk along them. Even if we are supporters – women make good supporters — there is nothing wrong with that as long as we keep rank. Psalm 18:34 — “He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”
Dr Snyman also made mention of Jael in the book of Judges chapter 4 — the woman who helped Barak kill Sisera. A man could not do it. But Jael was determined to see the plan of God realised by killing the commander of the Canaanite king who was oppressing them. She ended off with Romans 12, emphasisng the point that we have been given different portions as women.
A prophetic dance item given by 72-year-old Felicity Bessick was then followed by Nadia van Wyk, a prophetess from KwaZulu Natal who was a keynote speaker. She started off by emphasising the theme: “A woman occupies a special part in God’s heart”. A woman inhabits no lesser position than the male counterpart. I got the impression that Prophetess Nadia is one of those women who spend a lot of time sitting at God’s feet like Mary in the book of Luke chapter 10. She has an ear for the voice of the Lord and when she speaks the Holy Spirit manifests Himself. She gave a simple and straightforward message.
She had two points to make:
(i) Let us go deeper with the Lord. She read from Ezekiel 47: 1-9 where a man with a measuring line in his hand measures the level of water coming out from under the temple. It is said the level of water goes from being ankle deep all the way up until one can no longer stand but only swim. In a nutshell, the message was that we as women have to choose the level of depth we want to go to with The Lord. The level of depth is synonymous with the level of surrender.
(ii) “Come up higher”. There are two books in the Bible where we as man are invited to come up higher. The first one is in the book of Exodus chapter 24 where God calls Moses up Mount Sinai to receive the tablets of the Ten Commandments “1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, 2 but Moses alone is to approach the Lord; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him”.
She said when God calls us up higher it is because He wants to impart something to us. He wants to give us new revelation. We see this invitation again in the book of Revelation chapter 4 — “After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this”. “Coming up higher” is an invitation to see things from the spiritual point of view – nothing that is earthly possible. When God extends this invitation it is because He has a special point for you in the Spirit.
This session was followed by prayer by several panellists including women from various nations and different provinces within the nation of South Africa. They were of different denominations, occupying different offices of ministry and of different ages. Apostle Bulelwa Patho closed the meeting at 17h00 after saying “grace”. All in all it was a humbling experience to be a part of this meeting.
Commenting on the event, hostess Dr Fay Nqoloba said in God’s timing the 2021 Prayer Connect is one of God’s preordained movements. She said last Saturday “women giants were gathered together to confront and kill the Goliaths”.
She also spoke of a highly impactful testimony during the prayer event by Gretta Makhwenkwe the president of the South African Methodist Women’s Manyano on what it was like to face death through the Goliath of Covid-19. “ Only prayer took me out of that dungeon,” Makkwenkwe said, reports Dr Fay.
