Pastor George Mwansa
It’s exactly a week today since Zambia went to the polls. All who live in Zambia now know that Mr. Hakainde Hichilema will soon be crowned as Zambia’s Seventh president having won the election in a landslide fashion by almost sixty percent of the votes cast. His closest rival, incumbent president, Edgar Lungu obtained just slightly over thirty-eight percent of the vote. If you care about numbers, Hichilema’s vote count translates to 2, 810, 777 while that of Lungu to 1, 814, 201. These votes were obtained from all but one of the 156 Constituencies in Zambia.
The total number of registered voters, according to the Electoral Commission of Zambia was 7, 023, 499. Although there were sixteen presidential candidates, in the end the knife-edge election turned out to be a two-horse race between Mr. Hakainde and Mr. Lungu. The third placed contestant, Harry Kalaba obtained a paltry 24, 879 way below even the invalid votes which numbered 124, 906. The majority of voters were young people in their twenties.
Zambia currently has a population of almost 19 million people. It’s quite clear from this statistic that there was a big number of eligible voters who may not have registered for whatever reasons. Of course others like my girls Rebekah and Rachel Luyando couldn’t vote because they are under age.
Elections are an important tenet in a democracy where the government is deemed to be of the people and for the people. It is the one time when people express their opinion of who they want their leaders to be. The next time such an event will happen is in 2026 if Jesus doesn’t come by that time.
This 2021 election is a reminder for me about the big one looming just ahead of us. That particular one will involve all the 195 nations of the world. Two leaders are in contest. One is a rebel leader named Lucifer who transformed himself into Satan, a ruthless prince of darkness. The other is Jesus Christ, Prince of peace who died to bring freedom to all who were held captive by Satan.
Satan’s manifesto has been presented very clearly. He, for example, doesn’t hide the fact that he is a liar, and a murderer. He doesn’t hide the fact that hate resides in his soul. He is very clear about the fact that he is a destroyer. Of course there are times when he hides his true identity in order to deceive people. But those who follow Prince Emmanuel know him for who he really is. He can’t hide his true colours. Like a lion, he is always out there looking to find someone to devour. Knowing that his time to the end is short, he is angry and wants to capture as many to his side as he can. He is aware of his final end in the Lake of fire but he doesn’t want to go there alone.
The Prince of peace’s manifesto is clearly written in a book called the Bible. He demonstrates His love for all people by coming down from heaven to live a selfless life in order to serve and save all humanity; all who would believe in Him. To secure the release of every human being, He takes upon Himself the guilt of all mankind and dies on a tree He Himself created. Through that death, every captive of Satan is offered pardon. The door to the prison house is swung open and all who wish to come out are free to do so. Unfortunately not many take His offer of freedom.
But the big day is soon to be upon the entire world. It will be the mother of all elections. Everyone will decide which leader they want. All ballot papers in that election are valid. No vote goes to waste. There is something beautiful about that election. We know the Winner of that election. In the election of last week between Mr. Lungu and Mr. Hakainde we didn’t know who the winner was until the votes were counted. In the global one ahead of us, King Emmanuel, the Lord of lords and King of kings is the Victor.
In the Zambian election of last week won by Mr. Hichilema we wait to see how Bally will fix it. In the global one ahead of us, Emmanuel, Jesus, has already fixed everything. Every house is ready for occupation by those who have put their vote on Emmanuel. Before He left for heaven, after that titanic battle at the cross, He made a promise to His followers to come back again: “I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3).
Everything in heaven where He is right now is fixed with the perfection of divine touch. The glorious City of God is adorned with mansions of splendor and streets of gold. There’s no congestion there. There is no load shedding there. There’s no tribalism and racism there. There’s no cadrerism there. There’s no pollution there. cancer, ebola and every disease you can think of don’t exist there.
There aren’t any heartaches and disappointments there. There’s no pain there. No death there in heaven.
Here, Bally Hakainde Hichilema doesn’t know the majority of those who voted for him. But the eternal One, the King of Kings and Lord of lords, knows every single one of His people. I can’t wait to see my Saviour and King, the One who died to secure my release. The BALLY, Jesus, who has fixed it all.