The following is the background information which mainly dwells on the saints revival movement of the 1990s which led to the spiritual transformation of many lives in Kabarnet ,Baringo County and beyond.
The Journey of Intimate Walk with Christ.
A number of faithful brethren in Christ led by Pastor Julius Chepsat in Kabarnet ,who were brought up in a legalistic traditional denomination were therefore thirsty for the Holy Spirit experience, continued to seek God earnestly through prayers of repentance ,intimate worship and fasting. This ignited the fire and flames of 1990’s Kabarnet Holy spirit movement which gave birth to the spiritual events that have had an impact in the church of Christ in Baringo and beyond.
During the revival movement God gathered brethren in His own design for His divine purpose to build them up together so that they can manifest His nature through ministering healing, deliverance and the true message of the kingdom.
It was not a man’s doing but it was the design of the Holy spirit Himself who made the saints only stewards of the revival and He has been always there to sustain His work.
The revival which took place was to restore the church into the apostolic and prophetic foundation, operating in the five fold ministry ‘to prepare and to equip the saints for the work of service so that the church of Christ may be brought to maturity ’Eph 4:11-16.
The brethren freshly filled with the Holy Spirit, began to experience Christ and act according to the Holy Spirit contrary to that of the ordinary religious organization . That was the time it was sensed the Lord saying “I don’t want your routine prayers and activities ,I want to walk with you intimately.” And that was so powerful and it changed the entire lives of the believers and the way to carry on with ministry completely. In this situation they found themselves unable to conform to the rigid conservative system of traditional churches, which were not conducive to the leading of the Holy Spirit but was merely governed by mere rules and regulations of men from church constitutions which were frequently quoted more than the Holy Bible. God spoke to the church in John 4:23 ’yet a time is coming and has now come when the worshipers will worship the Father in Truth and the Spirit.”
Brethren simply obeyed the voice of God and left various denominations by faith not knowing where they were going but in obedience to Christ they started a journey of faith in Him, which ultimately resulted in the beginning of new fellowship better known as Kabarnet worship center. Because people knew them as people who love to worship God and prayed a lot, but later registered as Christ Dominion Church. During the journey of intimate walk with Christ, the believers were misunderstood and misinterpreted and even referred to by many people and other Christians as devil worshippers. ’We were faithfully fulfilling our callings in Christ and we had to endure the pressure of opposition to forgive those who seriously offended us and to keep the attitude of Christ in us pure and Holy and we saw the devastating situations transformed by God’s personal interventions through His grace in Jesus name’ said Pastor Julius Chepsat.
The revival which began in Kabarnet and spread to many parts of Baringo and beyond like Nakuru, Keiyo, Eldoret ,Kitale,Nairobi etc. was great. It was not centred on personalities but on the saints compelled by the Holy Spirit. It was a unique revival ,spontaneous and greatly imparting. It was a saints movement which radically changed and transformed many lives by the grace of God. Rededication to the lord and repentance was witnessed as many came to the lord and got saved. There was remarkable physical healings and emotional restoration during church meetings. Many deeply fell in love with Christ and with one another as it was a real renewal. There was much hunger for the word , fellowship and prayer. Powerful transformation was experienced by the Pastors and other leaders from all denominations, who experienced fresh touch with the lord. Differences in denominational doctrines were not of any importance any more. The impact was so great that it has made key spiritual matters clear and fruitful and transformed lives of people up to today. Due to the Spirit experience there were long hours of prayer and intercessions, praise and worship, prophetic utterances ,signs ,wonders and miraculous healings.
Indeed, there was a radical departure from the traditional churches to true worship. The features of the traditional system was worship from lips through very simple programs and not from the heart. Moreover, leaders were not keen on listening to the Holy spirit for direction. It was an example of the old wine skins which could not hold the new wine (Mark 2:21,Mark 7:1-13,Mat 15:8-9) .The old wine was resistant to the new wine leading to very sharp conflicts and differences. There was less preaching of the word in churches that time but there was more concentration on physical activities like mainly raising funds to construct buildings instead of carrying evangelism to win souls.
God proved himself to be progressive and dynamic and was taking us always in a new direction and that He was not stagnant or static. An example is God moving from the Ark in the Old Testament to dwell in our hearts in the New Testament. God demonstrated that He is adventurous and not boring concentrating on just routine religious works in the church. The revival move led to some significant growth in church attendance. There was also development of division between the church elders and the revival team also known at the time as worship team. The church elders preferred the old way of running the church while the revival team felt many things should be changed in the church to contain the “new wine”.
As a result there was frequent friction between the elders of the church and those who had “tasted” the power of Holy Spirit.