"We have to have sonship first to have brotherhood"

Last week's Sentinel included part one of an interview with Rev. Ronald Haynes of the Word of Life Fellowship Church, Alton, Illinois. Rev. Mr. Haynes spoke of Christian healing, his ministry to inner-city youths, and the role of prayer in keeping one's life aligned with God's will.

The following segment concludes this two-part interview which Rev. Mr. Haynes so graciously granted to the Sentinel. We appreciate his willingness to join the many clergymen whose experiences and Christian insights have enriched the pages of the Sentinel since its founding nearly a century ago.

You returned recently from a trip to Nigeria. Can you share with us any of the things that you learned from that experience? A friend from Atlanta, Georgia, invited me and an evangelist friend of mine from Los Angeles, California, to go to Nigeria. This was at the invitation of a pastor in Lagos who wanted some American ministers, and particularly African-American ministers, to come and teach about rising above poverty through Biblical principles. He has close to eight thousand church members.

I went there with the idea that I was going to really teach these African people some truth. But I found myself repenting every day because they taught me more than I taught them. I received more than I gave. God had another agenda planned for me personally.

When I first arrived at the airport in Lagos, I had culture shock. And then I calmed down and realized I was home. I'm of African descent. And I began to enjoy the trip. The people are very hospitable, loving, warm. They're very honest, very hard-working from sunup to sundown.

Do you feel that your trip to Nigeria has influenced the way you conduct your ministry? Most definitely. I believe that it was part of God's agenda for me to go.

I was born in '52. I saw racism. We were ashamed of our culture; we were ashamed of our nationality. That shows how society can brainwash you to make you think something is bad when it's not.

I knew who I was spiritually in Christ, but I have to live in this world. Through Jesus Christ first, and then through my experience in Africa, I began to realize I wouldn't want to be anybody else but who I am. And no one should want to be anybody but who he is or she is. I can respect you and you can respect me. I can't love my neighbor as myself if I don't love myself.

There's an old African proverb, that when there's no enemy within, the enemy outside can't hurt you. And I think a lot of our ancestors in Africa knew that. Because even though they were beaten, enslaved, separated from families, they yet were strong, they yet lived through it, and God was with them. And because of that I have freedom today in a real sense of the word. My children will have even more.

Our ministry is getting me in the inner city where we are running across a lot of young black males that are having problems with their identity, having problems with who they are.

Some believe that Christianity would take away your nationality or your culture, that it's a European thing. But Jesus said in Matthew, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel of the kingdom to every nation as a witness," and the word that's translated nation comes from the Greek word ethnos, which means ethnicity or ethnic. So, "Go into every ethnic group and preach the gospel of the kingdom." Not the gospel of America or the gospel of Europe but the gospel of the kingdom, which stretches out to every nationality.

The gospel that we preach has to address the problems of that particular group. When I go to that group I must identify with those problems. Apostle Paul said, "I become all things to all men that I may save some."

So the church has got to understand the needs of all people. I don't preach a black gospel. I preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. But I keep my ethnicity with it. God is not interested in changing your culture but changing you from sin.

God loves all people. And so I'm able to attract young African-American males that can identify with what I'm saying. I'm using what I learned in Africa to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Could you share with us the experience your mother had in the last few years? OK. About four years ago she had a problem digesting food and was having pain. Even though there was prayer, she began to be concerned and went to the doctor. My mother had never been to a doctor other than having children.

They diagnosed her as having cancer. It was unbelievable to us; but we knew what to do. We knew to trust God's Word, believe that by Jesus' stripes we are healed, and that we had to fight the adversary of this physical ailment.

The doctors wanted to operate, and they persuaded my mother to have an operation. After that it got worse. They called me one night and said, "Get over to the hospital quick, so you can see your mother before she goes."

I went there, we prayed, she snapped back, and the doctor said, "Well, just stay close to home because it's going to happen any day."

But she began to get stronger and stronger. And the doctors were scratching their heads, wondering what was going on. But they still said she was going to die of this.

I went to the hospital one Saturday morning. My wife had spent the night with her, and my sisters-in-law had prayed with her. She hadn't been able to sleep for five days. And I looked at her and said, "Mom, I'm here." And she said, "Baby, Mama's tired of fighting." And at that moment I understood what the Scripture meant when it says, "Bear one another's burdens." And I said, "Mom, you don't have to fight anymore. I'm here to fight for you." And she looked at me as if to say, "Thank you." And she went off to sleep.

And we stood there, and we began to believe the Word of God about her healing, about her deliverance. The doctors came in later that day and said she was recovering—they didn't understand why—but they wanted to do another operation. My mother refused. And eventually she began to get stronger.

Then the doctors wanted to operate to repair something that they felt they hadn't done right. Finally after a month my mother agreed to let them do just that. They said that they might find traces of the disease. But they didn't find any. They said she would never gain weight, she would always be weak and susceptible to disease. My mother has gained weight. And she's been healed completely over four years now.

One doctor told her, "Mrs. Haynes, I'm not a Christian, but I'm just about persuaded that maybe Christian is what I should be." He had diagnosed her case, knew all the problems, and saw in a matter of time all that go away.

When she first went to the hospital, they also said she was a borderline diabetic and had high blood pressure. But in the process of the healing, the high blood pressure went away and also the diabetes. And she has no health problems at all.

And she goes around now and gives her testimony. And people are inspired and blessed by it.

What basis of hope do you see for brotherhood between races? Governmentally, I don't believe we will ever have it until "we all come in the unity of the faith"—not dogmas or religious beliefs, but that Christ is the Son of God, that he was born of God and we are born of God. The Scripture says, "In Christ there is no male or female, bond or free, Jew or Gentile." And when a person really gets to know God, racism, gender differences, cultural differences, don't matter because he is placed into the holy nation. And he'll begin to understand "whom God loves I cannot despise."

We have to have sonship first to have brotherhood. I have to be a son of God and relate to the other sons of God. And in being a son I do not choose my brothers or sisters. I have to accept them. And if you are God's child, it's not up to me to choose if I want you to be my brother or not. You're my brother because He made you that. I'm your brother because He made me that.

And I believe that brotherhood comes through that knowledge—not just saying, "Let's try to get together. I want to know you more." Rather, I need to know God more. Because I believe if I know Him, I'm going to love what He loves.

If the love of the Father's not in me, I'm not going to love anybody. Get to know God, and everything else will come. It'll come.