Believing sons and daughters in the family of God have incredible power living within them! [See, for example, Ephesians 1:18-20, Galatians 2:20, and 1 John 4:4]. The Lion of Judah (Jesus Christ) lives in you and is your Champion who encourages you and fiercely defends you. Not only is he the Lamb of God, but he is also the Lion who fights for you.

There is intention on the part of Abba to have you demonstrate this power when necessary, not only individually but also in concert with other believers. A particularly inspiring example of this occurred during one of my visits to central Kenya several years ago and the raw power of united believers acting “as one” was unleashed in an amazing victory over the kingdom of darkness.  

I was conducting a series of late-afternoon “Freedom Festivals” (aka open-air “crusade” meetings) in a rural village area of central Kenya. These events drew crowds of Kenyans from the surrounding area who were hungry to learn about God and/or needed to experience the miraculous healing power of God’s love in tangible ways because they were desperate to be made whole.  

The organizers had done a very good job of preparing for these meetings and the crowds numbered in the thousands each night. But a curious thing was happening during the first few evenings that puzzled me, namely that most of the crowd departed even as I was introduced on the platform to preach the Gospel and bring healing to the sick. Because of experience with many Freedom Festivals in the past in various regions of East Africa, I was used to having to typically wait for quite some time before the choirs were done performing as they led worship and I often had only a few minutes left before dark to minister to the crowds.  

But in this particular location the crowds were rapidly “thinning out” even well before dark each night and I was frustrated, to say the least, because of the lack of opportunity to see Abba bless them with his love and mercy. So, when the pattern became clear, I asked the main organizer what was going on: “What was the reason so many people were leaving the Festival grounds ‘early?’”

He replied with the news that the people were afraid of traveling home in the dark because of violent activity in the region that had been perpetrated not far from our field only a week before. A satanic group called the Mungiki had slaughtered many people in a massacre and over 50 who had survived but had been seriously wounded were still in the local hospital. 

Fear had gripped the entire region!

So, the next late afternoon I asked to be introduced earlier, well before dark, so that I could help the crowd of people get delivered from this spirit of fear that had permeated the community. The strategy the Holy Spirit gave me was truly creative and resulted in one of the most amazing displays of collective power I have seen!

As soon as I was given the microphone I quickly taught (reminded?) the crowd concerning how a male lion (Simba) roars when the lionesses are “on the hunt” for food. Instead of directing the sound of his roar up into the air, he instead roars close to the ground. The sound waves travel much further and faster in the surface layer of ground than in the air. When an animal in the distance “feels” the roar it cannot easily determine the direction from which the roar is coming. This leads to a paralysis of fear because it does not know which way to flee. Then it is easier prey for the hunting lionesses and dinner is soon served to Simba.

[I must admit that I felt a bit awkward as an Mzungu (white person) “teaching” the Kenyans about Simba! Many of them probably already knew this fact about lions.]

After this primer on the lion’s fearsome roar, I reminded the believers on the field that they have the Lion of Judah (Jesus) living in them. Then I instructed them to jointly (on the count of three) let the Lion of Judah roar through their throats, so that together they would produce a very loud roar that would “terrify” the spirit of fear in the region and that demonic spirit would henceforth be paralyzed and ineffective.

The collective sound of several thousand believers releasing the “roar of the Lion of Judah” from within them for about 45 seconds was unforgettable! When we finished the giant “roar,” one old man leaped into the air, whirling with joy at the new freedom he could sense immediately. The entire crowd also began rejoicing wildly because they could feel their freedom from the spirit of fear, and almost all of them continued praising God and celebrating on the field well into the darkness of the evening as evidence of their freedom from fear.  

While many people were being healed during ministry into the evening, I felt the Lord instructing me to declare that he was changing the name of the village to “Kijiji cha Amani” which is Swahili for “Village of Peace.” The large crowd rejoiced even more!  

I learned later that soon after this regional deliverance the villagers constructed a bridge across the river that separated them from their nearby kinsmen and peace was reigning in the region, with no more activity by the Mungiki. The violence was halted by God himself as part of the dramatic transformation of the village and the surrounding region.

It may delight you to know that when I asked the organizer in private later in that amazing evening of freedom what the original name of the village was before the Lord changed it, he gladly informed me that in the local dialect the former name of the village meant “Roar of the Lion.” 

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