On days when events that shape the course of our history take place, it always seems to be just an ordinary day like many others, with the sun rising and going down in the same direction.

It is always when we look back that we begin to appreciate the magnitude of the miracles that we did not fully perceive at the time they occurred. It is this benefit of hindsight that often causes us to give more credit to past leaders while not recognising the leaders of our generation.

On May 25 2020, Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng hosted the Africa Day virtual prayer gathering with leaders from across the continent, to pray for the healing and restoration of Africa. The leaders who addressed the meeting included men and women of great influence in the continent and the world, such as our own Angus Buchan, Pastor Enoch Adeboye from Nigeria, Bishop Tudor Bismark from Zimbabwe, Pastor Laban Jjumba from Uganda, Bishop Joshua Banda from Zambia and Apostle Emmanuel Kure from Nigeria.

All these leaders in their different messages had one message in common, a desperate desire to see Africa united, healed and restored, in line with the biblical prophecy of Africa in Isaiah 19.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a memory on my Facebook page of the article I wrote and was published in Gateway News on May 25 2018 entitled Prayer, Prophecy and Politics in SA Parliament, just after the Africa Day prayer gathering last week. The 2018 article was a brief report on a meeting that had taken place on May 18 2018 in parliament with Apostle Emmanuel Kure praying for the release of South Africa into her destiny.

I recalled how Apostle Kure pleaded with South Africans to rise above the pain of their past in order to walk into that which God had planned for the nation. He encouraged everyone to give thanks to God for all the processes that have taken place to give birth to South Africa as it is today — the good and the bad – with the understanding that God has a plan for the nation and would cause all things to work for good.

In his prayer for SA he said: “I dream of a united South Africa, where all the voices are collapsed into one South African voice,” and he called for unity in the nation, but challenged that it must begin with the Church.

Something I didn’t write about in that article that took place in the meeting was his prayer for Chief Justice Mogoeng. He singled out from all the leaders present, anointed and prayed for his release to the next level of his assignment in the nation. Whilst he held back from sharing details of his prophetic assignment, it was clear that God has given Mogoeng more leadership responsibilities in the nation.

In just two years, there has been a shift in line to the prayers that were prayed in Parliament. Chief Justice Mogoeng is leading the Hope, Healing and Restoration campaign and the Church in South Africa has come together in an unprecedented manner through this project.

On the April 27 2020 – South Africa’s Freedom Day, Mogoeng hosted a meeting with South African Christian leaders from across the nation and later called for National Prayer Gathering on 8th May 2020, to pray for Unity, Love, Hope Healing and Restoration of the nation. These meeting and prayers gave birth to the Africa Day Prayer, on May 25 2020.

This year at the May 25 gathering, Apostle Kure raised similar prayers for the release of the continent of Africa to her destiny together with all the other leaders who were present. He prayed for the release of the continent from every limitation that is resisting the plan of God and addressed the ‘spirit’ behind the name Africa to let God’s people go.

He encouraged everyone to pray that his period of lockdown be used to redefine priorities as the continent, in government and to use the period to begin to raise new shepherds who will not only fear God but also know how to lead. He prayed for the removal of every veil that has hindered the people of Africa from entering destiny said he believed that God will accomplish this in just one day, according to Zecharia 3:9.

He lamented the way in which people’s lives in the villages across the continent had not improved despite political freedom of over 50 years in many countries and prayed that God would raise up new shepherds who would take the continent forward, a serious-minded leadership that would not only fear God but also know how to lead.

He urged the leaders in the meeting to take responsibility for charting a new pathway for the continent’s future, reminding them that priests in biblical times were also responsible for giving direction on national affairs – and not to leave this in the hands of politicians any longer.

I knew that this memory being brought to my attention after such a powerful Africa Day prayer eventwas not a coincidence, but rather an encouragement that God hears and answers prayer. In just two years, we are seeing the fulfilment of those prophetic prayers made in the South African parliament for the release of South Africa’s destiny. At the time one would never have imagined how God would pull together the racially divided nation and Church but today, in a measure, the dream of a united South Africa is being realised.

The subject of Africa’s renaissance and unity has eluded many for generations. It remains a complex matter that requires not just political and economic theories but a divine intervention.

To many, Africa Day 2020 would have been just another Africa Day, but I believe that this was a meeting similar to that of May 2018 — a holy convocation that we will look back to as a defining moment in the history of the Church in the continent.

The meeting has brought a shift and injected hope into the hearts of many Africans who watched across the globe. One cannot but be hopeful and expectant that we will see the restoration of Africa in our lifetime.