Detroit Gospel.com Sharing Detroit's Gospel Scene With The World...

By: Brenda Underwood

Dateline: August 23, 2005, Detroit, MI.

New Wave Conference at Great Faith Ministries

The city of Detroit posted large billboards announcing the New Wave Conference that was held at Great Faith Ministries, pastored by Bishop Wayne T. Jackson. Detroit Gospel.com had the privilege of attending many of the scheduled services and was blessed by them.

The church has been remodeled from its former venue, Shopper’s World, to a building that houses a marvelous sanctuary, bookstore, administrative office, and even a food court.

On Tuesday, August 23rd, the choir from Great Faith was joyous in their musical renditions being led in praise and worship by Pastor Beverly Jackson, the first lady and anointed woman of God for that house. The congregation was then blessed by Bishop George Bloomer, who took us to new levels in Jesus.

One of the points that Bishop Bloomer made clear to us came from an article he read in National Geographic that explained how a caterpillar moves through the world with ten legs on one side of its body, nine legs on the other side and a leg at its rear. The way the caterpillar gets going is it kicks itself with the leg in the back to get moving and with the mis-distribution of its legs, it goes up and down unevenly to get to its destination. When the caterpillar is tired of going through life like that, it goes to spin a cocoon not to go through the metamorphosis of becoming a butterfly, but to commit suicide. Bishop Bloomer explained that National Geographic went so far as to insert a camera into the cocoon to document the caterpillar going into a coma, waking up to find it was still alive, and going back into the coma.

On the second awakening, the caterpillar found it had developed long spindly legs where it once had nubs, wings the color of which was determined by the wind that blew on the cocoon (The Holy Ghost) and the sun (The Son of God), green fuzz exploding off of its body, and two fangs that are used to open the cocoon. After the butterfly emerges, the former caterpillar sees that it can fly over the things it once had to crawl through. What a Holy Ghost explosion that revelation brought forward!

On Wednesday night, the atmosphere was set by the First Lady of Greater Emmanuel Institutional COGIC, the incomparable Karen Clark Sheard, who started out with “Glorious” and then blessed us mightily with “It Ain’t Over Til God Says It’s Over”. Lord, the shout broke out. The worship continued as Bishop Liston Page, Jr. came forward to bless the people of God. The praises continued until the move of God was complete.

Bishop Page advised that you may have thousands of instructors in life and in this Christian walk, but you only have one Father. We look toward the Lord as our Heavenly Father and want to hear from God, but Bishop Page pointed out that we should hear the voice of God and it should sound familiar as we hear the man of God who we are under in our individual churches. The man of God speaks to the people as God speaks to him; that is the voice we should be used to.

Bishop Page also admonished us about running around from church to church, chasing after a “word”. He stated that some of us in the sanctuary have been members of ten churches in five years, and that’s not stable. He advised that we should be careful what we are allowing to come into our spirit and who we are allowing to lay hands on us. He stated, “You don’t know where some of these folks' hands have been…” Truly wise words to live by.

We were blessed Thursday night by the music ministry of the choir from Christian Community Fellowship (CCF). Then the choir from Great Faith blessed us again. The spirit was high and Pastor Jamal Bryant stepped to the podium. Pastor Bryant shared with the congregation that when the year 2000 came in, people were being asked what they thought was the greatest device created in the 20th century. He shared that the television, cars and other inventions were listed, but he said that the remote control didn’t get many votes as the greatest, but it was the greatest invention for lazy people. The fact that you didn’t have to get up to change the channel was a monumental investment for most. He then stated that in 2007, a remote will be developed that will be voice activated and you will not have to do anything but “speak a word”.

Pastor Bryant went on to explain that a centurion came to Jesus to ask that his servant be healed. Jesus was willing to go to the servant, but the centurion did not want Jesus to go to the house not knowing what would be going on when Jesus arrived. The centurion told Jesus, “If you just speak a word, I know my servant will be healed.” Pastor Bryant said there are blessings or situations that we don’t see being fixed until 2007, but if you just activate your remote control, you can speak a word and cause things to change in your life….and that word is JESUS!