Divine Appointments: Spiritual persecution, testimony

on such a big task.
What value addition would the book bring in one’s Christian walk? How long did it take him to come up with the 218-page volume?
And more critically, what challenges did Mabasa face? Is it easy to translate foreign language works when it looks like most Christians are drifting away from their mother tongues?
I highlight Mabasa’s testimony made when we discussed the book and its translation. Mabasa highlighted what most Christians in ministry face – spiritual persecution and the importance of faith, and the need to put on God’s full armor as indicated in Ephesians 6:10-18.
Mabasa said, “During the time that the Lord appointed me to translate the book ‘Heaven is so Real’, I was greatly persecuted by Satan in many ways. The whole aim behind the persecutions was for me not to do the work of the Lord, and for me to stop translating the book.”
Mabasa said Satan intimidated him by saying, “You will never finish translating this book. Look, how big in volume it is.”
However, prayer formed the bedrock of overcoming the spiritual attacks, but he still had challenges? “And, because I was praying for God’s guidance in translating the book, Satan attacked my prayer life by making me feel physically lazy to pray. He even put in my mind very horrid thoughts during that time. I would see and think about sinful things to the extent that I at one time stopped translating the book because I deemed myself unworthy to be a messenger of God with such sinful thoughts.”
“When I thought it was time for me to resume after getting a feeling that the Devil had finally decided to leave me alone, I was shocked to realise that the persecution also resumed”, he added.
Mabasa gives a cautious optimism, “Satan cannot be chased away easily, and he will try to get you by any means necessary. He is like a fly on an open wound. I realised that the only weapon I could use was to up my prayers even though I felt tired and lazy to pray most of the time. I prayed and made an oath to God”.
The Lord calls the devil a deceiver, and Mabasa realised that: “At that point, Satan started giving me lots of good ideas for my novel just to divert me.”
He was grateful that the Lord told him “how important and special his book was. He told me that there are people who are dying who could have been saved if they had read this book. This renewed my strength. I wanted to be obedient and not deny other people the Good News.”
At some point he contacted the author Choo Thomas but she did not respond to his e-mail messages.
He felt that this gave the devil ammunition to attack him. “The devil said, ‘This translation is a complete waste of time. Even if you finish translating it, nobody is going to read it. You must stop translating because Choo Thomas is not writing back because she found someone who is already finishing the translation.'”
However, the Spirit of the Lord enlightened him on a number of issues, chief among them being that the devil is not so clever since he also contradicts himself.
Continuing to trust in the Lord, he got his breakthrough: “Eventually Choo wrote back and helped me pray and fight the devil. She actually was not surprised by the attacks because she also went through great tribulation for the Kingdom. She gave me prayer lines to declare and these were really powerful.”
“When Satan saw that his strategies were not working, he then started making me analyse Choo’s book. The devil would say, ‘This is madness and fiction. Choo never experienced all the things she is writing about.’
“The devil can laugh and condemn in a very painful way. When his condemnation of Choo’s experiences didn’t move me, he then started making me worry about my family that I had left in Zimbabwe saying what if they were in trouble.
He concluded, “But, because I kept asking God to help me to be a faithful instrument in His hands, I never struggled with the translation itself, everything just flowed effortlessly. Yes, God is able ‘to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us’ (Ephesians 3:20)”.
About the book
In “Heaven is so Real” Choo Thomas tells a remarkable story of her encounters with the Lord Jesus Christ, where she visited heaven many times and saw hell twice. It is more than just a book – it is Christ’s loving message to a generation that has largely forgotten, misunderstood or is indifferent about Him. It has touched many hearts and souls worldwide and challenges people to live a life of obedience and purity. Choo Thomas is a Korean American who received Jesus as Lord and savior in 1992. Apart from Mabasa’s Shona translation, “Heaven is so Real” is currently being translated and reprinted in over 60 countries, with most translations done by pastors whose lives have been transformed after reading it.
Forthcoming Events
Note to readers: Forthcoming events are central to Divine Appointments. They enable fellowship across assemblies. Apart from knowing what is going on, it enables visitors and new comers to an area to know where to fellowship. This is a vehicle for sharing the good news. Freely we were given, and freely we should also give so that more and more souls come to know and have a relationship with the Lord Jesus.
Event: Zimbabwe Faith Ethics and Philosophy Association – Christian Opinion Leaders Forum
Date: February 17
Time: 10:30am-12:30pm
Venue: Zimbabwe Medical Association, 172 Baines Avenue
Theme: Kingdom of God Values and Nation-building
Speaker(s): Apostle Alexander Chisango; Rev Dr Levee Kadenge
Hosts: Drs Noah Pashapa and Constantine Murefu
Contact details: 0772194760/0779564299/0773301267; [email protected]
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Event: Public Seminar – Hatfield Worship Centre
Date: February 25
Time: 1:30-5pm
Venue: Hatfield Worship Centre, Cnr Elgin/Kilwinning Rds, Hatfield
Theme: How to Love your Husband
Host/Speaker: Rev C Chidimuro
Contact details: 0773 296 818/0772 674 850; [email protected]
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Event: Holiness Revival Ministries International – Worship Service
Date: February 12
Time: 7am-10am
Venue: Harare Raylton Sports Club
Theme: “For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life”. (1 Thess 4:7)
Hosts: Apostle B and Pastor Zulu
Contact details: 0772496963/0772496966; [email protected]
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Event: The Higher Life Conference – Christ Embassy
Date: March 16-18
Time: 5pm
Venue: Cape Town Stadium, South Africa
Host/Speaker: Pastor Chris Oyakhilome
Contact details: www.higherlifecapetown.com
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Event: Easter Conference – Mabasa Ezviratidzo Apostolic Church
Date: April 22-29
Venue: Goneso, Wedza
Speaker: Bishop Colin Mutasa
Contact details: 0772958814/0733230868/055-68280