I’ve had to report on the deaths of many great men of God over the years—and each of their lives and deaths impacted me. When I got the call that Myles Munroe and his wife, Ruth, were killed in a private plane crash on their way back to Grand Bahama on Sunday night, it was as difficult to believe as when David Wilkerson was killed in a car accident on April 27, 2011.
After reporting on the tragedy, I could not sleep Sunday night. Since then, I have been thinking about a 90-minute phone call I had with Munroe some years ago during which he downloaded revelation about the kingdom of God that forever changed my life. The wisdom he offered about manifestations of the power of God, the need for spiritual fathers, teaching versus preaching, breaking down barriers between races and cultures, networking, apostles and prophets, how God is moving in music and the biggest challenges he saw in the body of Christ stayed with me and has helped shape my thinking.
Munroe on Miracles
I wanted to share with you some of the wisdom he offered me. When I asked him, for example, what it would take to see the return of greater miracles, signs and wonders at the hands of believers, he gave me two words: kingdom teaching.
“What we call signs and wonders and miracles are simply the evidence of the presence of another government—the kingdom. A kingdom is not a religion. It’s the influence of a government over a domain or a territory. It’s the impact of a king over a territory. That’s why it’s called a ‘king-dom’—a king’s domain,” he told me. “So miracles, signs and wonders are not for entertainment. Miracles are not supposed to be used as a point of attracting believers to big meetings. Miracles, signs and wonders are supposed to show that another government, another authority, another power, another kingdom is present. The more we preach the kingdom, I guarantee you the more we will see miracles taking place—I mean on a daily basis.”
Munroe on Racism
When I asked him about breaking down barriers between races and cultures in the body of Christ, he told me we have to reduce ourselves from every race to one race—the human race.
“As long as we consider race beyond human race there will be racism. We need to get a revelation of what it means to be human. Racism and bigotry is not only related to pigmentation of skin. It can also be related to differences of opinions or differences of methods. We can be a racist between denominations and belief systems. The source of racism is low self-esteem, low self-worth and a poor self-concept. Once you realize how valuable you are as a human and recognize that everybody else is also made in the same image as you are, then equality is an automatic result,” he told me.
“The greatest command in the law is the secret to destroying racism, and that is to love God with all your heart, your soul and your strength. Then love yourself, and love your neighbor to the same degree that you love yourself. Until you love yourself, racism will always be present. Racism is a sign of self-hatred. I don’t care if you speak in tongues. I don’t care how many miracles you work. If you have problems with people who are different from you, then you are still suffering from self-hatred. If you discover and really understand God and love what God is and who God is, then you’ll naturally love yourself because you are made in His image. It’s impossible for you to love God and hate your brother.”
Munroe on the Modern Church
And when I asked him what he saw as the biggest challenges facing the body of Christ today—and how we can address these issues—he told me the church is becoming impressed with itself and we seem to be preoccupied with promoting ourselves to ourselves.
“There seems to be such a clutch for self-promotion, self-labeling, self-advertisement and self-possession. That is very dangerous because the commission God gave the church is not to promote itself but to reach the world. Also, the world is being given a very distorted picture of the true message of the kingdom,” he told me.
“Right now religion is the number one problem in the world and we know that all the terrorism that we are experiencing and the fear is mostly motivated by religion. Jesus Christ did not bring a religion into the world. He bought a kingdom. The world doesn’t need another religion. It doesn’t need traditions and rituals. The world needs a practical application of principles and precepts that will impact their daily lives. Jesus said blessed are those who are poor spiritually for to them belong, not a religion, but the kingdom of heaven. Only the kingdom satisfies spiritual hunger—not religion.”
We certainly lost a general of the faith this week, a man of God who was respected by people from all walks of life and all streams of the body of Christ. I would encourage you to pick up his many books and teachings. They are among the purest I’ve ever heard. And please pray for the Munroes’ children, family and church. I can’t imagine the level of grief they are feeling over this tragedy, even though we rejoice that they are with Jesus in heaven. If you want more wisdom from Munroe right now, you can read more of what he taught me here.
Jennifer LeClaire is news editor of Charisma. She is also director of Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and author of several books, including The Making of a Prophet and Satan’s Deadly Trio: Defeating the Deceptions of Jezebel, Religion and Witchcraft. You can visit her website here. You can also join Jennifer on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.
