Reinhard Bonnke was born on 19 April 1940 in Königsberg, East Prussia, Germany. He was born again at the age of nine after his mother spoke with about a sin that he had committed. He left for missionary work to Africa at the age of 10 and says that he had the experience of Baptism in the Holy Spirit. He is the son of a pastor and ex-serviceman in the German Army.
Reinhard Bonnke studied at The Bible College of Wales in Swansea, where he was inspired by the director Samuel Rees Howells. In one meeting after Howells spoke of answered prayer, Bonnke prayed telling God that he wants to be a man of faith and that he wants to see God’s way of providing for needs.
After graduating from the Bible College of Wales returned to Germany and he pastored in Germany for seven years. Reinhard Bonnke led a series of meetings in Rendsburg. He began receiving speaking invitations from all around Germany and the rest of the world.
Reinhard Bonnke met Anni Suelze at a gospel music festival, and admired the grace with which she recovered from a wrongly pitched music performance at the expense of losing the competition. He offered to preach at the church she attended one Sunday and fell in love with her. They married in 1964 and have three children.
He began his ministry in Africa, with which he is principally identified, preaching in Lesotho in 1967. He has subsequently held evangelical meetings across the continent.
God called him in to a ministry in Africa and at that time he saw in a dream the a picture with the map of Africa in it spread with red then he heard the voice of God crying “Africa Shall Be Saved”.
This dream recurred four nights in a row and led him to adopt large scale evangelism, rather than the traditional small scale missionary approach. He rented a stadium in Gaborone, and preached with little cooperation from local churches. Beginning with only 100 people, the stadium meetings grew.
Reinhard Bonnke began his ministry holding tent meetings that accommodated large crowds. Christian Broadcasting Network published an account that in 1984 that he commissioned the construction of what was claimed to be the world’s largest mobile structure a tent capable of seating 34,000; the mobile structure was destroyed in a wind storm just before a major meeting and therefore the team decided to hold the event in the open air. It was recorded that the event was subsequently attended by over 100,000 people which is far greater than the 34,000 seating capacity the tents could contain. This shows that sometimes when we think we know what is best or good for us God has planned something far more greater.
His ministry has touched so many life’s, healed the sick, rescued many from destruction and many people gave their life’s to Christ, even the Muslim in large number that his ministry got a threatening personal letter from Osama bin Laden.
In 2012, Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke just as he heard the calling to Africa, also heard a new message from God: “America will be saved!”
Before he could think of leaving decades of missionary work in Africa, Reinhard Bonnke did something he had never done before: he prayed for a sign that would confirm his call to America. God answered his prayer in a very superb way.
A few days after his prayer for a sign from God to confirm his call to America, a woman brought her husband to the Nigerian church where Bonnke was preaching, in hopes that his partially embalmed body would be raised from the dead after three days in a coffin. Even though Bonnke was unaware of this and never even prayed for the man, this woman’s husband began to breathe again during the sermon. In front of thousands of witnesses, this man, who still couldn’t move because of rigor mortis, was raised back to life.
After his message, Bonnke was besieged by a crowd yelling “He’s breathing! He’s breathing!”
This incredible miracle, now detailed for the first time, is part of a movement of God, birthed in a small African church and stretching around the world to America! It is the beginning of a work of God that will confirm His word: “America will be saved!”
Reinhard Bonnke has also authored so many books like;
*Living a Life of Fire
*Taking action
*Evangelism by fire
*The Holy Spirit Baptism
*Hell Empty Heaven Full
*Holy Spirit Revelation & Revolution
And his new book Raised from the Dead.
He also has written so many quote like:
*The less Holy spirit we have, the more cake and coffee we need to keep the church going.
*when you do business with people you need money. When you do business with God you need faith. Faith is the currency of the kingdom of God.
*God always work with workers and move with movers, but He does not sit with sitters.
*It is a tragedy when the church saves money instead of saving souls. We MUST spend to save.
*God is not a duplicator, He is a Creator. You are an original!
*The gospel is like water; no man invented it, yet no man can live without it.
*The gospel is ‘GOOD NEWS’ not ‘GOOD HISTORY’, because when it’s preached, it happens
*Do not plan with what is in your pocket; plan with what is in God’s pocket.
*Christianity, boring? So is television…. if we don’t plug in.
*You must desire the fire and claim your flame!