Africa-Press – Ethiopia. The glitzy event that was held in honor of Prophet Elvis Mbonye on the 1st of September was up to all it was hyped up to be. Guests from far and wide descended on the new Zoe Fellowship grounds off the Entebbe Express Highway in Kigo Lweza, dressed in their nines to make it a memorable occasion. For me the highlight was the speeches made by a select trio who shared the impressions on the man they had come to honor.
First, the Reverend Stephen M Bamutungire implored us to restrain ourselves even when his words compelled us to jump up and cheer each syllable strained out of his heart not his mouth. His voice ringing true, he told us to forget the stiffness of the Anglican homiletics and haematinic of the old and embrace the Word unzipped by prophetic by one who comes straight with a message from the Godhead. When he spoke, we didn’t want his accolades to cease. The queen’s language was not spared as he described the ambience and decor, the decorum and the reverence he had experienced, comparing it to the magnificent chambers of heaven.
When Professor Kayiwa-a man whose name cannot be separated from the birthing of the born-again Church in Uganda- spoke, his words were calculated and measured as an academician’s would be.
A professor always asks for Proof and in the Prophet, he had seen such proof. The chancellor asked the prophet to open up the Ministry as a Citadel of love; a bastion of love where other ministers could preach and reach all the Nations. He added his 40+ years of Ministry together with Zoe Fellowship; one with a vision bearer he described as possessing a fixity of purpose worthy of honor. Humbling this was.
When these men spoke, it reminded me of Acts 19 with the books of theology giving room for the manifestation of the Word in our time. It was at once humbling in its concession…the old embracing the new.
The Honorable Norbert Mao honored thus: Honor is about love, and the one who lives in love, lives in God; the one we are honoring lives in love and God lives in Him. His passionate speech was as colorful as a seasoned politician’s would be but it appealed to us for its honesty and sincerity. As one who knew about the Prophet -from a distance, he implored us to leave our smaller attachments for things supernatural: things shown to us by one plugged in to the Source up above.
He shared a personal encounter (because God is personal after all) in which the lawyer in him sought evidence, his verdict coming with an answered prayer after his first close interaction with the prophet. The wordsmith held us bound while weaving his words describing one he found filled with love and humility-the ‘nugulicious’ should give way he cried: the caricature in the media is far removed from the evidence we have been shown!
In the end it was about celebrating one who has shown time and time again that all honor belongs to God, and as the Prophet recently shared: “we should be careful that we don’t esteem ourselves above the One who sent us.” Men of God are only earthen vessels the Lord uses to show His glory and all glory goes back to Him (2 Corinthians 4:7 (KJV).
However, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.)
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