Reinhard Bonnke’s Even Greater: An inspiration to do greater things for God

Even Greater (full flame, Orlando, FL; 2004) is a book written by well-known evangelist Reinhard Bonnke. For the few that might not be conversant with this name, Bonnke was born in Germany in 1940, came to Christ at the age of nine and in 1967, he was called into ministry in a small town of Lesotho in South Africa. After God gave him a vision of a ‘blood-washed Africa’, the ministry of Christ for all Nations was born. More than 30 years later, the CfaN team has held crusades around the world, published 178 million books in 138 languages, and trained countless leaders.

Even Greater is a book of 12 chapters, based on real life events and testimonies. Its basic aim is to use these life-transforming stories to inspire readers to do greater things for God’s Kingdom.

Real life stories have a way of inspiring and sparking in people’s hearts the urge to reach their full potentials. This was the author’s intent in adopting this structure for his book. A good example is the story in chapter four: ‘Diamonds and disco Dancing,’ which is a testimony of how Bonnke, in following the Holy Spirit’s lead, inspired the transformation of a disco house into a church, as well as converting many young people’s hearts in a town called Kimberly to follow Christ. Preaching at a disco house is usual, but according to the author, “I could care less what anyone thought of me. I just knew I would preach in this disco. Nothing could deny the love of Jesus I felt.” With the permission and working of the Holy Spirit, he was granted access to preach at the disco the next day. At his next visitation to that same town, Bonnke’s said: “I stood again on that disco stage looking at those faces so different from the ones I had seen in the strobe lights a year ago. The lights were up full now. Even more, the light of the Lord’s favour was shinning on every face.”

There are inspirational quotes at the end of each chapter, a scheme employed to settle any conflict in understanding that may arise in the course of reading. The quotes are also moral lessons that can be derived from the stories. The story in chapter nine titled: ‘A Theology too small’ talks about faith in healing. According to the writer, although for a healing to take place, the faith of the ‘subject’ is needed, but in a few cases, like that of Bonnke in the city of Perth, Australia, his own faith is what was required to heal the woman suffering from brittle bone disease. “In a moment, the Holy Spirit spoke back to me, “today, it’s not her faith, it’s your faith. You are going to see a great miracle.” This idea was too big for my theology-in-a-nutshell. She didn’t have faith, but my faith was enough for her miracle? Through Mrs. McKelt, I learned to be careful about putting God in a theological box. But when I do, I know that I can be made free by listening to and obeying the voice of His Spirit.”

The inspirational quote at the end of this chapter was, therefore, written thus: The longer I live, the less I pretend to know about the mind of God. I do not know why some are healed when others are not. I only know that sometimes, it is a gift of someone else’s faith that can make a person whole.

The sole aim of the book, Even Greater is to transform the heart of people to God, as well as cause disbelief to disperse and trust to be kindled. It is a highly recommended read for both believers and unbelievers. The story style structure will keep the readers engrossed till the very end.