Name Zacharias Fomum Died March 14, 2009 | Role Writer | |
 | ||
Books Knowing And Serving God (Volume Two) | ||
Zacharias Tanee Fomum (June 20, 1945 – March 14, 2009) was a Cameroonian, scientist, pastor and a prolific teacher and writer. He had written more than 100 scientific publications in international journals and over 100 books on Christian discipleship, growth, and maturity, with special emphasis on prayer and fasting, which he believed to be the most vital needs, tools and weapons of the church today.
Contents
Life and Ministry
Professor Zacharias Tanee Fomum was born in the flesh on 20 June 1945 and became born again on 13 June 1956. On 1 October 1966, He consecrated his life to the Lord Jesus and to His service, and was filled with the Holy Spirit on 24 October 1970. He was taken to be with the Lord on 14 March 2009.
Pr Fomum was admitted to a first class in the Bachelor of Science degree, graduating as a prize winning student from Fourah Bay College in the University of Sierra Leone in October 1969. At the age of 28, he was awarded a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry by the University of Makerere, Kampala in Uganda. In October 2005, he was awarded a Doctor of Science (D.Sc) by the University of Durham, Great Britain. This higher doctorate was in recognition of his distinct contributions to scientific knowledge through research. As a Professor of Organic Chemistry in the University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon, Professor Fomum supervised or co-supervised more than 100 Master’s Degree and Doctoral Degree theses and co-authored over 160 scientific articles in leading international journals. He considered Jesus Christ the Lord of Science (“For by Him all things were created...” – Colossians 1:16), and scientific research an act of obedience to God’s command to “subdue the earth” (Genesis 1:28). He therefore made the Lord Jesus the Director of his research laboratory while he took the place of deputy director, and attributed his outstanding success as a scientist to Jesus’ revelational leadership.
In more than 40 years of Christian ministry, Pr Fomum travelled extensively, preaching the Gospel, planting churches and training spiritual leaders. He made more than:
By the time of his going to be with the Lord in 2009, he had preached in over 1000 localities in Cameroon, sent over 200 national missionaries into many localities in Cameroon and planted over 1300 churches in the various administrative provinces of Cameroon. At his base in Yaounde, he planted and built a mega-church with his co-workers which grew to a steady membership of about 12,000. Pr Fomum was the founding team-leader of Christian Missionary Fellowship International (CMFI); an evangelism, soul-winning, disciple making, Church-planting and missionary-sending movement with more than 200 international missionaries and thousands of churches in 65 nations spread across Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania. In the course of their ministry, Pr Fomum and his team witnessed more than 10,000 recorded healing miracles performed by God in answer to prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. These miracles include instant healings of headaches, cancers, HIV/AIDS, blindness, deafness, dumbness, paralysis, madness, and new teeth and organs received. Pr Fomum read the entire Bible more than 60 times, read more than 1350 books on the Christian faith and authored over 150 books to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 5 million copies of these books are in circulation in 12 languages as well as 16 million gospel tracts in 17 languages.
Pr Fomum was a man who sought God. He spent between 15 minutes and six hours daily alone with God in what he called Daily Dynamic Encounters with God (DDEWG). During these DDEWG he read God’s Word, meditated on it, listened to God’s voice, heard God speak to him, recorded what God was saying to him and prayed it through. He thus had over 18,000 DDEWG. He also had over 60 periods of withdrawing to seek God alone for periods that ranged from 3 to 21 days (which he termed Retreats for Spiritual Progress). The time he spent seeking God slowly transformed him into a man who hungered, thirsted and panted after God. His unceasing heart cry was: “Oh, that I would have more of God!”
Pr Fomum was a man of prayer and a leading teacher on prayer in many churches and conferences around the world. He considered prayer to be the most important work that can be done for God and for man. He was a man of faith who believed that God answers prayer. He kept a record of his prayer requests and had over 50, 000 recorded answers to prayer in his prayer books. He carried out over 100 Prayer Walks of between five and forty-seven kilometres in towns and cities around the world. He and his team carried out over 57 Prayer Crusades (periods of forty days and nights during which at least eight hours are invested into prayer each day). They also carried out over 80 Prayer Sieges (times of near non-stop praying that ranges from 24 hours to 120 hours). He authored the Prayer Power Series, a 13-volume set of books on various aspects of prayer; Supplication, Fasting, Intercession and Spiritual Warfare. He started prayer chains, prayer rooms, prayer houses, national and continental prayer movements in Cameroon and other nations. He worked with leaders of local churches in India to disciple and train more than 2 million believers.
Pr Fomum also considered fasting as one of the weapons of Christian Spiritual Warfare. He carried out over 250 fasts ranging from three days to forty days, drinking only water or water supplemented with soluble vitamins. Called by the Lord to a distinct ministry of intercession, he pioneered fasting and prayer movements and led in battles against principalities and powers obstructing the progress of the Gospel and God’s global purposes. He was enabled to carry out 3 supra – long fasts of between 52 and 70 days in his final years.
Pr Fomum chose a lifestyle of simplicity and “self- imposed poverty” in order to invest more funds into the critical work of evangelism, soulwinning, church-planting and the building up of believers. Knowing the importance of money and its role in the battle to reach those without Christ with the glorious Gospel, he and his wife grew to investing 92.5% of their earned income from all sources (salaries, allowances, royalties and cash gifts) into the Gospel. They invested with the hope that, as they grew in the knowledge and the love of the Lord, and the perishing souls of people, they would one day invest 99% of their income into the Gospel.
He was married to Prisca Zei Fomum and they had seven children who are all involved in the work of the Gospel, some serving as missionaries. Prisca is a national and international minister, specializing in the winning and discipling of children to Jesus Christ. She also communicates and imparts the vision of ministry to children with a view to raising and building up ministers to them.
The Professor owed all that he was and all that God had done through him, to the unmerited favour and blessing of God and to his worldwide army of friends and co-workers. He considered himself nothing without them and the blessing of God; and would have amounted to nothing but for them. All praise and glory to Jesus Christ!
Christian Author
Zacharias Tanee Fomum can be rightly classified as one of the most sublime saints that ever walked this earth. To refer to him as the spiritual leader of our generation would be no exaggeration at all. His literary works are profound in originality, simplicity, relevance, practicality, depth, expanse, and penetration. Advanced as he was in academics as well as in the walk with God, his books were very simple, easy to understand and would leave the reader in no doubt as to what to do.
Dr Lester Sumrall wrote this about him in his foreword to the book, The Art of Intercession:
Dr Zacharias T. Fomum is a minister of the Word, and a scientist. He combines the teaching of organic chemistry at the University of Yaounde, Cameroon, West Africa, with the spiritual ministry of teaching the Word in many countries. He searches out the facts and then presents them in a teachable format. In expanded outline form, Dr Fomum presents the Biblical teaching about who an intercessor is, what intercession is, how an intercessor intercedes in his book titled, The Art of Intercession… The challenge is disturbing as the reader realizes how short of the mark is even the most spiritual of Christians. Dr.Fomum practices what he teaches, as do some churches in Cameroon. Who of us prays several hours a day? Who of us fasts and prays in spiritual warfare from 21–40 days at a time, several times per year? This book is MUST reading for the serious Christian.
About Fomum, Lester Sumrall also writes:
Dr Fomum has written many books to date. From his personal journey with the Lord, he speaks as one who daily experiences what he writes. Concerning fasting, he says: ‘At the height of a long fast…between the twenty-fifth and fortieth day, all the things of this world become absolutely meaningless…my looks, qualifications, job, money, clothes, property, the presence of human beings…accomplishments…On the other hand, God was near and thoughts of heaven possessed me. I was anxious to walk in perfect holiness.’ Many have written concerning fasting. Few have experienced extended fasts several times per year of from forty-eight hours per week and from twenty-one to forty-days’ duration with such results as Dr.Fomum and believers in some of the churches in Cameroon. ‘each fasts according to his strength,’ each fasts drinking water only. The reader of The Ministry of Fasting is caught up in the reality of fasting unto the Lord on behalf of men leading tragic lives and nations facing tragic consequences of their sins or against the forces of evil in the world. As light is shed on the biblical teachings of The Ministry of Fasting, one is challenged with the evidence of the need to make an acceptable fast unto the Lord. Along with Bible characters, the church fathers from Savanarola, Martin Luther, Knox, Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, and modern church leaders, both living and dead, are cited as exemplary among those who valued fasting unto victory in Christ. Dr.Fomum explores the aspects of fasting, interference of spirits, and the different reasons to fast: for deliverance, ministering unto the Lord, and mourning…He helps one with preparations for fasting, how to intercede while fasting, how to break a fast, and how to maintain the results of a fast. This book is written, as the others of his books, in a teachable, expanded outline format. The earnest intercessor and serious spiritual warrior will want to read this book.
"- Dr Lester Sumrall in the foreword to The Ministry of Fasting."
The one passion of ZT Fomum as a Christian minister, leader and author is to raise people who love the Lord Jesus supremely, know him experientially, walk with him intimately and serve Him with overflowing joy. The writings and teachings of this author are rooted on sound biblical doctrine and backed by a life that demonstrates what he taught. Through his books and ministry, multitudes have been brought to know Jesus personally and thousands of churches planted in Cameroon, Africa, Europe, the Americas, India and Oceania. Millions of saints have also been impacted and revived through his ministry. He authored over 150 books to advance the Gospel of Christ. Eighty-five of these books have been published in four million copies and in 12 languages such as English, French, Arabic, Thamil, Telegu, Portuguese, Polish, Urdu, Malayalam, Bambara, Korean and German.In addition, 16 million of his revival and evangelistic tracts are in circulation in 17 languages such as English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Hausa, Luganda, Swahili, Bambara, German, Malgache, Sotho (Zimbabwe), Polish, Urdu, Luo (Kenya), Kannada (India).
The books are characterized by a strong evangelistic/revival emphasis, as they flowed from the heart of a man who was burdened to see the lost saved and the saints revived and aflame with love for the Lord. The synopsis of one of his books written below aptly communicates this:
This book, The Way of Christian Service, by Zacharias TaneeFomum, is the overflow of a heart burdened to see the marks of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every aspect of Christian service. It is the heart cry of a man who is desperate to see a new kind of minister on the horizon of Christian service – men and women who know God intimately, who fellowship with Him daily, and who commune with Him unceasingly. It is the cry of a man who believes that the Holy Spirit is the Director of God’s Spiritual Service Programme and that he alone has the sovereign right to appoint people and determine the sphere, timing and limits of their service. The author sees absolute surrender and total consecration of a life and all as fundamental prerequisites to the service of the Lord who gave His all. He considers that to withhold anything from the lord and try to serve Him is self-deception
– from “The Way of Christian Service” by ZT Fomum.Some of the titles written by ZT Fomum which have been published and are in circulation listed in our catalogue. Some of his books have been translated into other languages including French, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. He sought out facts and presented them in a teachable format. Professor Fomum practiced what he taught as do churches associated with Christian Missionary Fellowship International.
ZT Fomum eBooks
You will find a growing number of his books (in English, French, German, etc.) as eBooks on all major eBook retailers and/or distribution platforms and libraries, including
Z.T. Fomum writings
Popular quotations
(10:57, 15 September 2014 (UTC)