Volume 65 December 2026-January 2026 : Mokanoki

 

In this issue I want to use Batswana`s independence journey from the then Bechuanaland to the present day Botswana as point of reference. To me it is like this voyage of Batswana to freedom was similar to the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan.  Now here is the point: 

When some folks moved from Bechuanaland, they carried their old washboards with them.  When they arrived in Botswana, they carried the old washboards into the laundromat, put them in a Whirlpool or GE electric washing machines.  They do not even question the strange, new wash tubs with open lids and shiny dials. 

The electronic wonders stare them in the face but they have been so conditioned in slavery that they do not question what the new things are.  This is a good illustration of being delivered but not free.  Washing machines clean clothing at the touch of a button.  With them, scraped fingers and sore arms are things of the past.  However, when the past consumes your present, it makes no difference. 

The laundromat becomes just a new place to do what you did at the mogobe or noka the year before.  This is the kind of oppressive thinking that God wants delete from our minds. 

Of course it is tough to change – without mental transformation, the actions we take to “change” may only produce a new place where we continue with the old way of doing things. There are millions today who are tied to a stake or scrubbing in laundromats because the oppressive conditioning of their past is still controlling their present.  Many have been conditioned to say, “I can`t be holy; I am a worm, hoping for heaven.  I hope I make it, because I certainly can`t be righteous on earth.  What are we having for dinner in the prison cafeteria today?  I can`t be myself.  I can`t be delivered.

 I can`t be healed.  I can`t be liberated.  I can`t be free.”  They are so used to believing those lies that when God tells them they are free, they cannot believe it is true.  They sit in their prison cells, simply hearing the good news of freedom in the gospel, but they do not believe it.

Millions are bound by their past.  Though their chains have been removed, they are so bound by the lies of Bechuanaland`s conditioning that they never walk out into freedom to enjoy the fruits of their destiny.  The comfort of having others control their lifestyle in slavery is too appealing for many. 

So they hang around the stake, starving.  They do not exercise their minds, and they never learn what is outside of their comfortable prison doors.

The 21st century message of the Creator is this: Obedience demands responsibility to walk out of our prison doors.  We have wandered in the wilderness naming and claiming long enough.  Our free ride is over.  It is time to get to work!

As amazing as it sounds, the one thing God could not do with the Hebrew children  in the wilderness was to change their minds.  And He cannot change yours, either.  He will inspire you in your godly desires, but He will not change you.  The only one who can change you is you.  This is why the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Christian church at Rome, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

The word transformed used by Paul in this verse means “change.”  Nevertheless that has nothing to do with our spirits.  Spiritual transformation takes place when we are born again.  When we change kingdoms, our spirits are renewed.

He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves (Colossians 1:13).

All things were new when we moved in; the old had passed away.  However, once we arrived, our thinking remained the same.  It is the mind that must be renewed before we can walk out of oppression`s chains. Enough for now. Yours faithfully, Mokanoki.

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