NOTE: sorry, this is only a partial account of the trip. I had intended to write up the whole trip, but became busy and never did have time to finish the writeup. God did so many incredible things I never got to describe in this writeup, such as very powerful corporate spiritual warfare (and corresponding breakthrough) on easter Sunday, Opening the door for Steve, Heather, Donna and Myself to walk through the National Parliment building and pray over it, opportunity to meet and pray with one of the nation's more powerful politicians, do some identificational repentence ministry and see a powerful breakthrough, have a ministry time with many local pastors and see God show up and get them all drunk in the spirit, etc etc etc...It is hard to describe in words all of the awesome things God did in South Africa, but I will try. If I had to use one word to sum up this trip, it would be "Spiritual Warfare". The good news is that we serve a very powerful God and His side wins.. and God won many times on this trip. But it would be untruthful to say that there were not some tough battles.. that is the nature of warfare. Overall it was a glorious experience and the entire team (Steve and Heather Lincoln, Donna Cox and myself) were all awed by the powerful things God did. It was like living the book of Acts .. God came in power and as He came, good things happened. But as God moved, the enemy also tried to interfer.
Getting Started:
The warfare started at the very beginning of the trip. Donna was to fly from Ohio to San Francisco on saturday.. she was to speak at Teresa's church on Sunday morning and to minister to a fellowship in Castro Valley that evening. Friday night Donna went out to dinner, and she had some potatoe chowder.. and then got food poisoning. It was quite severe and she was up all night throwing up... ouch!! and with a terrible headache as well. There was an emergency call to her doctor and it took several hours for them to figure out what was wrong with her and get the right medication to her. She ended up being too sick to make the flight on Saturday morning. She spent Saturday in bed, quite sick. Gary, Donna's husband, wanted to call me, but could not find my phone number, so he sent an email... which I almost did not see because I was cleaning house all day, and was not online to check my email.
As the afternoon progressed, I started to get sick myself.. a very bad headache. At the time, I did not realize it was spiritual warfare. About 2 hours before I was to leave for the airport, I felt prompted to get online and read my mail. When I saw the email from Gary, I thought it might be a prank at first.. someone immitating Donna's email address (we had a hostile prankster on the list a while back who did things like that). So I tried to call her home, but all I got was their answering machine.
This was almost a time of pannic for me.. I had arranged for Donna to speak at two meetings, and she was not going to be there... and I figured that the folks would be mad at me. I was not sure what to do.. yes, I could minister in her place, but that verse "a prophet is not without honor, except in his home city" really is true in my case.. my friends who "grew up" with me think of me as one of the gang, not as a minister. I called my senior pastor, sort of expecting that he would ask me to preach in Donna's place, but he said he'd take the service instead. I was a tad disappointed about that, but it turned out to be a good thing, as I was too sick to come down to San Jose (a 45 minute drive) for service.. at first I thought it was odd that I got sick out of the blue for no reason, but after I heard about Donna, I realized that it was spiritual warfare.. so I began to do war and to mobalize the intercessors to pray.. and by sunday afternoon both myself and Donna were fully recovered.
Anyhow, I am getting ahead of myself. Back to Saturday afternoon... I called the leaders of the Castro Valley group.. we used to go to the same rewewal meetings for a few years. I mentioned that Donna would not be there and asked if they'd prefer to cancel the meeting or to have me go ahead and minister in her stead. Susan's reponse was much less than encouraging.. she did not think I was qualified to minister, but felt we could go ahead and have the meeting and just all minister to each other (renewal style). Now, confidence is the area I struggle with (or perhaps I should say it is the area I used to struggle with before this trip).
I felt hurt that Susan saw me as not qualified to minister, but then she had not been around me much the past year and a half. She really had not seen me minister much, other than leading some of the renewal meetings at the San Francisco Vineyard a few years before. I tried to be polite and to figure out together how to best make the Sunday evening meeting successful. While we were talking, the Lord suddenly came on me and gave me a word for Susan and her husband. This was a pretty significant word, complete with alot of details and addressing areas they'd recently been seeking God about. The Lord's presense/anointing showed up very tangibly on the phone.. and by the end of the ministry time I was no longer shaken.. God had shown up and I was confident He would show up on the trip. Susan ended the conversation with, "My Teresa, you've changed... you've grown so much!"
As it turns out, Susan and Russ telephoned people to let them know that Donna would not be there but that we would still be meeting, and that Teresa would be ministering. (I guess God has a way of working all situations to His glory.. I was full of confidence in Him now and knew that He would show up with whatever anointing I needed.. that His agenda to minister to and bless these people would be accomplished even if Donna could to be there.) My spirit soared and I spent a bit of time worshipping.
Then I got a phone call.. it was Gary, Donna's husband, returning my call. He had good news for me.. the doctor had finally perscribed some medicine and it was working wonderfully. Donna had stopped throwing up, was resting peaceably and was going to fly out the next morning to try to be here for the Sunday evening meeting.
It turned out that her flight was scheduled to arrive at 6:20 and it was an hour drive (with normal traffic patterns) from the airport to where the meeting was.. so we would not be able to arrive at the meeting until about 7:30 ..and it was supposed to start at 4:00 PM with a potluck! So I asked the intercessors to pray that her flight would be early, that her luggage would be the first off the plane and that there'd be no traffic on the San Mateo bridge... and all of this happened. The flight arrived at 6:00 PM and we waited less than 5 minutes for her luggage. There was no traffic getting out of the airport (which is unheard of.. and believe me I have a lot of experience picking people up at the San Francisco airport).. and no traffic on the bridge. We arrived at the meeting about 6:30.. I still can't figure out how we got there that fast!!
Anyhow, God had worked things out on Russ and Susan's end as well... folks showed up at 5:00 PM instead of 4:00 and the potluck and fellowship were just ending when Donna and I arrived. We even had time to eat quickly before it was time to minister. As it turned out, only 17 people came.. we originally expected about 30. But the Lord released a very deep level of ministry. Donna and I both prophecied over each person and we would sometimes build on each other's words. Very powerful and deep things were happening.. some had bondages broken off of them, some had gifts and anointing imparted into them. Two women had brought their husbands..and in both cases the husbands "knew" God wanted them there but were clueless as to why. One of those husbands turned out to be a prophet.. someone that God was releasing the gift of prophecy in. Donna and I allowed him to minister to each person with us. He had moved in the prophetic before, but never at this level, so he was really amazed and blessed. God lit a fire under him that evening.... and I expect he will be doing a lot more prophetic ministry in the future. The other husband came from a very traditional church where the gifts of the spirit are not used much. He had never really been exposed to the prophetic before. God touched him in a wonderful way.. encouraging him and calling forth his own giftings and clarifying the call of God on his life. He had been feeling very "leary" about this prophetic stuff, but was incredibly blessed and deeply ministered to. God ministered to Russ and Susan's family...their teenage daughter came to the meeting. I don't think I can find the words to describe what God did, but the impact was so tangible that everyone the room could feel it! Opposition of the enemy against this family was broken off, some deep heart stuff took place and an increased level of gifting and anointing was imparted into each of them. God's power and sweet presense tangibly filled the room as they recieved ministry.. and those simply "watching" were also deeply ministered to.
The ministry time lasted over 4 hours. When it was completed, then the group gathered around Donna and I and prayed for us and our upcoming trip to South Africa. It was a powerful meeting and we did not leave until well after 11:30 PM.
Monday was a day of rest for Donna and myself. We slept in, then sat and talked over coffee until mid-afternoon. We decided to go into the city to ride the cable cars.. Donna had never riden in a cable car. Well, we got distracted visiting some shops.. where we got matching valour black jackets with "San Francisco" on them. We had so much fun just being tourists and relaxing together.. then we went to the grocery store to get fresh fruit and salid ingredients for our dinner.. and sat talked/fellowshipped into the evening.. Suddenly I realized I had not packed for South Africa.. and the plane left the next day. So we went upstairs and Donna talked to me while I packed.. I got packed in record time.. it took only 1 and a half hours (thank you Lord for the help!).. and I had everything I needed and it all fit into my suitcase! Wow!
The Flight Out: (Tuesday, March 30)
We did not have seat assignments and wanted to sit together. So we decided to go early to the airport and check in our luggage and get our seat assignments. Then we would go home and come back again in the afternoon for our flight. So we loaded the luggage into the car and left about 7:00 AM for SF Airport, arriving about 8:00 AM. To our surprise, the ticket counter did not open until 9:00 AM, so we decided to go look around the duty-free store..after all, we wanted to bring some presents for our hosts and for Steve and Heather Lincoln. Well, they make you show your boarding pass or ticket to enter the duty free store.. and as I gave the lady our tickets.. we discovered an alarming fact.... Donna's ticket was missing!!
At first, Donna had a brief moment of pannic. I will never forget the tone of voice in which she said "My ticket is missing!!!" I had never heard her pannic before. But within about 2 or 3 minutes she had regained her composure and said "God is in control.. it will all work out ok." Then she was filled with a peace and did not worry about it any more.
None the less, we decided to look for the tickets. We retraced our steps, we looked around the ticket counter... Then we went and got in line (we were the first ones) waiting for the ticket counter to open.. it turns out that it opened at 9:30 AM instead of 9:00 AM, so we had a very long wait. Donna opened her suitcase (right on the floor of the ticket counter line) and searched for them.. all to no avail. The tickets simply were not to be found. I began to think in practical details: how much would it cost us to get a replacement ticket. Could we check both of our bags on my ticket so we would not have to struggle with the luggage a second time, etc. The ticket counter still had not opened.
Meanwhile two women got in line behind us. They were a divine appointment.. I was distracted with practical arrangements and did not realize it, but Donna did not miss a beat. The one lady asked Donna where she was going.. she said to South Africa.. the lady asked why.. Donna said to speak and minister at a prophetic conference. Then the lady asked Donna if she knew Jill Austin.. apparently she had been listening to a tape.. and that was her first exposure to the prophetic. Donna (and the Lord) decided to give the woman another exposure and she began to minister propheticly to the woman right there in the airport. God showed up.. He always does, and touched her deeply. After a bit, I joined in and also ministered propheticly to her. Among other things, God imparted some giftings into her.. she had been a Christian and had been praying and crying out to Him for these.. but she went to a church that did not move in the gifts of the spirit. So God arranged for us to meet her at the airport and to minister to her. God answered the woman's prayers and we were blessed to be allowed to participate with Him in it.
Just seconds after we finished ministering to her, the ticket counter opened. The agent was extremely helpful and got us excellent seats together and also checked both bags under my ticket. She explained that it would be a $70.00 fee to recut Donna's ticket.. not the end of the world, but not cheap. We decided to go back to my house and look for it there... and were told to go to this special line when we came back to bypass the 1.5 hour checkin line for the flight.
We got back to my house. I wanted to leave my wedding ring safely at home and wear this less expensive wedding ban that Ed bought me for ski trips and other travel. I had looked for it the night before but had been unable to find it. So I prayed and asked God to show me where the ring and the ticket were. In response, God showed me a picture of my jewellery box.. and saw a piece of jewellery in it. That piece of jewellary lifted up and there was another piece under it. That piece lifted up, and the travel wedding band was under it.
I went to my jewellery box and opened it. Sure enough, the piece of jewellery from my "vision" was there.. and under it was the second piece of jewellery I'd seen in the vision. I lifted it up and sure enough, there was the wedding ban. I shot up one of those "wow! thanks Lord!!" prayers, and then put my real wedding ring carefully away and put on the travel wedding ban. "Now Lord," I prayed, "could you please show me where the Donna's tickets are so we don't have to pay an extra $70.00??"
Silence.. nothing.
Sigh.. the Jewish in me rose up and I began telling God how expensive the trip had been already and how I knew He knew all things including where the ticket was, so I asked Him to show me.. nothing. Sigh. I decided to be a "good steward" and to search systematicly for the ticket.. I looked all of the places it could be. Nothing. Donna told me not to worry about it, that God would take care of it. I had no option but to follow her advice, as I'd already exhausted places to search.
About 2:30 PM our ride to the airport showed up... and we were off. We arrived at the airport the line was incredibly long.. but it did not matter because we were to get in this other short line to go buy Donna's replacement ticket and to pick up my boarding pass (that they were holding for me). The line moved slowed.. and I began to get fidgity.. standing in lines is NOT my favority passtime. I turned to make a comment to Donna, and realized she was very sick.. She practicly looked green and she could hardly stand up. I asked her what was the matter.. and she said it was spiritual warfare. She was very nausiated and her head hurt. It was out of the blue and for no natural reason. I stood there silently praying for her. Suddenly I saw a vision.. it is hard to describe, but this mantle of authority was placed over Donna as she stood there, barely able to stand up. I was amazed at the level of authority she carried. I knew I was seeing in the spirit and I asked God about it.. and He assured me that what I was seeing was her mantle of authority. I stood there for a few minutes chewing on it. Up until that time, I had seen myself and Donna as relatively equal in gifting/authority. But the level of authority that the Lord was showing me on her was staggaring. Wow.
After a bit, I turned to Donna and said, "The Lord just showed me the mantle of authority you carry.. wow. You certainly carry a lot of authority."
Donna began to laugh. I asked her what was so funny. She said it was my timing in when I "saw" this.. while she was at her weakest in the midst of a spiritual attack.. barely able to stand up and about to throw up. I laughed too.. sometimes the Lord does have a sense of humor. But that mantle of authority I saw really made a big impression on me.
The slow line finally moved and it was our turn.. we told the lady that Donna's ticket was missing and we needed to pay to have a new one cut. She said, "I think I have her ticket.. what is her name." So Donna said her name and the woman said, "Yep, that's it" and handed Donna her ticket.
Then she said that the ticket had been found laying on the counter.. that we must have left it there when we checked in this morning. Of course, Donna and I knew that was not what happened.. we had looked all over for her ticket. The counter had been very busy all day, but no one had seen who had turned in this ticket.. Donna and I exchanged glances and silently asked each other "An angel??"
Anyhow, we ended up with our boarding passes and an even better seat assignment.. the best coach tickets on the plane. God certainly took care of things. Our spirits were soaring. But Donna still felt weak and a bit sick. We decided to go to the lady's room and then to sit down somewhere and have a soda to settle Donna's stomach.
God freqently speaks to me when I am on the toilet. Well, He did it again. In fact, what He had to say to me startled me so much I nearly fell in!!
You have to understand this background, or what I am about to share won't make sense. Missions and ministry trips are very important to me. I first began traveling on them in March of 1996, when I went with Randy Clark's team to Moscow. I went out as a team member a few more times.. to India and back to Moscow and then on to Kazakhstan. I had been sent out a few times as the main speaker or primary minister. This type of ministry was very important to me, as was this particualr trip...extremely important.. something I view as the core of my main ministry calling.
Now, as I was sitting on the toilet, God said to me, "Teresa, I have shown you Donna's authority. Now I want you to put yourself under it for this trip."
I was not sure I liked what I was hearing but I was sure it was His voice. One thing about me.. I am obedient to the Lord. So I told Him I would do so and that I trusted Him to work this out for His glory. In a way it was hard, because this trip was so important to me and now I was giving control of it over to someone else. But in a way it was not hard because I knew I had heard from God and I knew that He knew what He was doing.
We went to a little refreshment stand.. and got Donna her soda. I had an ice cream cone. We found a little table to sit down at and then I told her what the Lord had said to me on the toilet. Donna was not even surprised... she said that God had already told her that He was going to do that. She shared some of what He'd been telling her about this trip and we discussed a bit about how it would work for her to be the team leader.... and came to an easy and comfortable agreement. So it turned out that obeying what God said to was fairly painless after all.
It came time to board the plane and we were finally off.. beginning an 11 hour flight from San Francisco to London. I could relate all sorts of little stories of neat things the Lord did on the flight, but I am not going to do so. Let's just say that His signature was all over it. This was an overnight flight, and we had fully intended to sleep on it.. but there was so much anointing there and God was doing so much that we were unable to sleep. Donna and I talked alot, and God also spoke to me alot. It was an incredible flight out.
When we arrived in London we went through customs and then Paul Gaskin met us. As we were in the custom's line, the Lord told me to get our return seat assignment.. because we we need it. The agent at San Francisco had been unable to do seats for the return flight..just for the flight out.
So, Donna watched our carry-on luggage while I stood in line (the call them "queues" over there). We got to the front only to find we were in the wrong place, and had to go somewehere else. I was embarassed to go through yet another line and take more time, but I felt a strong prompting of the Lord to do so. This time the agent was able to get us a seat assignment from Capetown to London, but could not get seats for us from London to San Francisco. Oh well.. I did not understand, but I had done all I could and the Lord said we could go to the meeting now.
Ministry in the UK (Wed, March 31, 1999):
Paul Gaskin had arranged for us to use a meeting roon from Kings Conference center in Slough. We went straight from the airport to this location. Several people .. maybe 17 or so .. had come to meet Donna and I. We started by just visiting and talking with folks. Someone was kind enough to give me a sandwhich as I'd not eaten since a very early breakfast on the plane. It was a lot of fun to get to meet everyone.
Then we had a meeting, where we started by sharing.. we just went around a circle and shared our names and a little about what God was doing in our lives. It took a bit longer than we expected, so I had to drasticly cut back what I'd planned to share so we'd have some ministry time.
There were a few people who had to leave early, so we ministered to them first. Both Donna and I had a word for everyone there. All of the ministry was significant, but I don't want to share all of the details. Let me give you a few of the highlights and also one "low light".
There were a group of three individuals from one church. The pastor's name was Ian and I am afraid I've forgotten the two women's names. All three of them were a delight.. they are so hungry for God and He had so much for each of them. Their church had recently broken out in renewal and they had also become interested in the propehtic. They had run the "prophetic training 101" course in their church and the results were astonishing.. so they began to take a second group through it.. and also began a training course for their intercessors.. and God has really been releasing the prophetic in their church. It was a delight to minister to this group of three. I don't want to share specific details of what happened as they might be a bit private. But the Lord did a great deal of impartation into each of these three and a calling forth of anointings. God has significant and strategic plans for Ian, and I am sure you will hear about him sometime in the future. I believe his church will grow drasticly. They will be used in renewal and also play a key role in joining other churches together in unity. Ian is rather "easy to receive" to begin with, so he was a great deal of fun to minister to. The power of God fell as we were ministering to him, and he ended up a heap on the floor, shaking under God's power. God imparted some incredible things into him. I expect we will be hearing reports from them of marvelous things God is doing in their church and in their city.
We minstered to each person there. In most cases, the Lord seemed to either do a deep thing or a powerful thing in them as they received ministry. There was one individual there who was not at all receptive. I will leave out his name so as not to embarass him, but apparently he had issues with me before the meeting even began, as shared in follow-on emails he has since sent to me. When Donna ministered to him, he seemed nervous but he appeared to recive her ministry. But when I was ministering to him, he cut me off and told me that he would not receive the word I had for him... he felt it was a bad word. I have never had that happen before, so I was a bit surprised and not sure how to handle it. I decided to simply stop ministering to him and not debate it at all with him. Donna suggested we both pray for him but from the expression he gave me, I suspected he would not want me laying hands on him and praying. So I declined, and suggested that Donna just go ahead and pray for him.
After Donna finished praying, we moved immediately to minister to the next person, which was Mimi. I did not realize it when we started to minister to her, but Mimi is a close personal friend of Steve and Heather. When I began to seek the Lord for a word for her, He showed me His delight on her.. that she is a woman who is truely content and full of His joy and peace. It was almost as if God was boasting about her.. that He was so very pleased with her. It was a great deal of fun to minister to her, and it took my mind off of the uncomfortable incident that had just happened. I think I got as blessed ministering to Mimi as she was in being ministered to. She was simply a delight. Donna was also quite blessed in ministering to her.
We had an unexpected surprise... Sue, the woman who runs the conference center (and who allowed us to use the room for free) came in and sat down across the room to watch the ministry. God pointed her out to me and gave me a a significant word for her. We had just finished ministering to one individual. Donna and I exchanged glances, and I motioned with my eyes towards this woman. Donna smiled and nodded. I knew she was hearing something similar to what I'd heard for Sue. We both ministered to her, taking turns and going back and forth. It was much like God would use one of us to start a sentence and use the other of us to complete it. Sue was another delightful woman, who had a real heart and hunger for God. She had been crying out to God for the healings, the signs and wonders.. wanting to do the same things that Jesus did. And this is what Donna and I got to minister to her.. telling her what she'd been praying and how God had heard her prayers and His answer is "Yes". We also had the pleasure of imparting and activating giftings in her. God increased Sue's authority and He blessed her tremendously. Sue kept saying how she did not expect this.. she innociently came to work (she runs the conference center) that day.. and had no idea that God was going to so touch and bless her.. but God had awesome plans for her. God is so neat! And it is so much fun to minister with Him like this.
We saved Paul for last. Paul has been an excellent helper to me, adminning several of my lists and helping with much of the technical stuff. Last November, God told me that Paul was someone who He had appointed to help with GodSpeak, and that I could trust him. Paul had already been working for me and doing an excellent job, often donating many many hours per week. I began to give Paul more and more responsibility/authority, and he continued to do an excellent job. I had invited Paul on staff with GodSpeak and he had accepted... and he was taking on even more responsibility and is someone I trust and depend on heavily. So I was really looking forward to ministering to him. God allowed me to do something really neat, that I totally loved doing.. to impart into Paul all of the gifting and anointing that the Lord has given me. Of course, God's power showed up as this occurred. Afterwards, Donna also ministered to Paul.. you would not have thought it would have been possible for the power to increase, but it did as Donna ministered... God met and touched Paul in a wonderful way. Both Donna and I had so much fun ministering to him.
All too soon, it was time to leave for the airport again... but now without a parting gift from Heidi.. she brought us a package of shortbreak biskets (e.g., very rich and delicious cookies). We intended to eat them on the plane, but ended up saving them for one late night in South Africa instead. I cannot tell you what a blessing those cookies were that night!! It was sort of God's style for the whole trip.. we would provide us with something we were going to need and then when the time came, we would be incredibly blessed by it.
We got back to the airport at precisely the right time to board our flight. We expected that after being up all night and then having such a ministry time, we would be ready to sleep on the flight. But it did not work out that way. The anointing was still very strong on us from having ministered. So we were wide awake and excited about the Lord and what He was doing.
After dinner and the movie, everyone else on the plane went to sleep. But not Donna and I ... we talked and talked. After a while, our conversation drifted to a rather serious issue we'd had with each other in the past. We were able to talk it through in a mature and loving way, to resolve it so that there was absolutely nothing between us.. no leverage the enemy could use in either of our hearts against the other. It was neat how the Lord gave us a chance to talk this out and truely enter into a powerful unity with each other. God knit us together in a wonderful way... we did not get much sleep, but we were refreshed and awake as though we'd had a full night's sleep.
Thursday in Mitchel's Plain: (Apr 1, 1999)
We arrived at the airport about noonish and had to go through a rather lengthly line to clear customs. As we were coming out of the customs area, there was a mob of people waiting to greet people.. Donna and I looked around for a sign with our names, but did not find one. So we proceeded outside, thinking that perhaps Steve was waiting for us outside. There was an even larger mob outside.. apparently all the Muslims in the city had come to the airport to greet a contingent of Muslims arriving on the same flight we'd come on. Donna told me that she "knew" where Steve was in the airport and sent me back to look for him. She stayed with the luggage. I went precisely to the spot that Donna had indicated, and found myself standing in front of a man with a black T-shirt on. He was not at all what I pictured Steve as looking like, but I knew in my spirit that this had to be Steve. We made eye contact and smiled... and I said, "Are you Steve Lincoln."
The man nodded, grinning from ear to ear. "And I knew you and Donna in the spirit when you came out a few minutes ago." He said.
We got our luggage in the car and got dropped off at the place where we would be staying.. pastor Alfie Fabe's house. Steve and Heather were staying next door with Elizabeth and Jacob. They piled our luggage in the hall and told us to come into the sitting room and make ourselves comfortable. Steve had to go next door for a few minutes to get Heather.
The instant they came back in, there was a connection in the spirit between the four of us. It was incredible. The first thing I noticed about Heather was her red hair.. and then I heard the word "firestarter." Then God began to speak to me a whole bunch about her.. all encouraging stuff. I was not sure whether to share or not.. we spent the first few minutes just chatting and getting to know each other.. There was a divine grace on us, and we all "clicked" immediately.. we were instantly knit together in the spirit as a team. Donna excused herself to go to the lady's room. About then I shared with Heather what I'd been hearing from God about her. Donna came back in as I was finishing and built on the word I had just shared.
Everyone expected that we would get off the plane and go to bed (jetlag) and sleep the rest of the day.. but God's grace was on us. We'd had no sleep at all the past two days, and yet we were as fresh as if we'd just gotten up from a good night's sleep. This was our first exposure to God's supernatural substaining. Alfie and Lena got home about 1/2 hour after we'd arrived.
The first thing Lena said was that we looked just like the picture God had shown her when she'd asked Him about us... We had tea and a bit of introduction. The next thing we knew, Donna had launched into a prophecy to Alfie, which went on for quite some time.. very accurate and detailed, talking about his calling and giftings and some of the strategic things God was giving him to do. It was neat watching her minister to him. Then we were all talking and sharing. I got to share my vision for GodSpeak International, and also showed him the Prophetic Training 101 course material... He became very interested in this material and in setting up prophetic training sessions in several of the churchs he oversees. Alfie is called a "father" (apostle) and has 43 churches under him. He operates primarily by relationship with people, is filled with incredible love, maturity and wisdom. It is impossible not to like Alfie, he is an incredible man. He won Donna's and my heart immediately.. someone we liked and trusted and respected.
Soon it was dinner time. After dinner, it was time to go to the first session of the prophetic conference. Everyone (even Steve and Heather) were surprised that Donna and I wanted to go. They all expected we'd be dead tired with jetlag and just want to sleep. But God gave us a supernatural energy and we were very fresh.
The worship was wonderful.. I expected the music and songs to be totally different than what I was used to.. I was so surprised to find that I knew over half of the songs they did... from the Vineyard and from Integrity Hosannah Music. I wanted so badly to dance in the front of the church, but was checked in my spirit. So I worshipped in place.. I guess I ended up sort of dancing in place.. at least that is what I am told by several "observers." The second song the did was from Austrailia.. I had not heard it before. The chorus ended with the phrase "All things are possible", which was repeated very emphaticly four times. As we were singing it, God spoke to me. He said, "Teresa, they don't realize it, but the song they are singing is a prayer they are praying. And my answer is YES.. all things will be possible for them that believe in my name and they will find that they call do all things through me, for I will strengthen them...."
After worship ended, Steve got up to share various prophetic words that God had over Capetown and over South Africa as a nation. He shared a vision of revival breaking out in Capetown and spreading up through Africa to Kiro, and then hopping over to Israel. Steve preached and exhorted the people to prepare for and walk in their destiny. While he was speaking, the Lord gave me prophetic word.. starting with what He had spoken during that song.. about all things being possible. I jotted it down. After Steve finished preaching/sharing, he invited Donna and I up to minister with him. He had just asked those to stand who felt that there were things in their lives hindering them or holding them back from what God had for them. About 1/3 of the room stood. He prayed over them and the spirit came. They were still standing and Steve turned the microphone over to me. I ended up giving the word the Lord had given me without looking at my notes... it came out as a strong exhortation to faith and a promise from God that all things were indeed possible .. and that they would see His power even this week. In fact, that became the theme of the conference.. (and later the title of September's confernence.)
After I finished my word, Donna took the microphone and shared for a few minutes about how God wanted to bless/anoint/prepare the pastors. She talked briefly on God's order and how He wanted to mobilize the pastors first and then mobalize the people. Then Donna had all the pastors come up to be prayed and prophecied over. As the ministry time started, the power of God increased.... Donna and Steve and I prayed over the pastors and prophecised over them... but to tell you the truth.. Donna and Steve both operated at a much higher level of the propehtic than I did and I almost felt like I was being left behind.. still, I did the best I knew to do and God honored it... The ministry time was rather incredible.. God did so much. The pastors were touched and changed.. some of them were simply ignited. Dreams and visions they'd had were propehticly confirmed, old plans were taken off the shelves and dusted off.. dorment gifts were awakened and new giftings and annointings were imparted. So much happened. It was hard to describe. But the effect after the ministry was over was very noticeable.. these pastors were excited and animated and talking together and fellowshipping with one another. Before service had started, they had been mostly just sitting there, not talking to each other. They all looked rather tired and weary. But after the ministry time, they were hugging each other and fellowshipping and there was a noticable increase in unity between them. And we saw that continue at all of the remaining meetings. In fact, there was one pastor who was very conservative and reserved. I can't remember his real name, so let's call him Tim. Tim was well known by many of the people there, and had quite a reputation for being reserved. But God touched Tim and he got excited and animated and was jumping up and down. Tim became very enthusiastic as he caught the vision of what God is doing. Everyone was watching Tim and saying.. "that can't be Tim! Look how excited he is." People began to call each other and say, "Did you hear about Tim?? He's changed.. God has set him on fire."
The meeting went much later than anyone expected. When it was over we went home and had tea and fellowshipped and debrieffed. The power of God and His anointing were still all over us.. it was hard to pull away from each other and go to bed.
At some point, Donna and I finally went up to the room we shared.. and we expected to drop into bed exhaused.... but God was still all over us. In fact, Donna was so anointed that when she gestured with her hands during regular converstation, the power of God would hit me and I would begin to crunch. We were debrieffing from the meeting... and sharing what we'd seen in the spirit, etc. As we talked about what the Lord was doing, the anointing would increase even more. About 2:00 AM, we had some of those cookies that Heidi had given us. We were about to go to bed when the Lord gave Donna a word for me.. and she ended up prophesying to me for another two hours. She did not just prophecy to me, she was imparting anointing into me.. or rather, God was. There was so much anointing in the room that I felt like I might explode. We were not tired and simply lost track of time. At some point we noticed it was after 4:00 AM and we were supposed to get up at 7:00 AM for the Good Friday morning session.
We were sharing a room with two beds in it.. we had been sitting on the bed I was to sleep on, talking. We decided to go to bed and try to get some sleep. So Donna stood up, intending to walk to her own bed and get some shuteye. But something unusual happened.. her feet were literally stuck to the floor. She tried to move them and could not. She leaned way to the left (she should have fallen over but she did not). Then she leaned way to the right...the she tried to move her feet again and still could not. Donna asked me if I knew what this was all about.. I suggested she ask God. Eventually one of her feet freed up and she began stomping it, but the other remained stuck to the ground. It would have been comical to watch, except that the presense of God was so tangible in our room that it was an awesome experience instead. After about 10 minutes, her other foot became unstuck.
Donna sat down on the edge of my bed and said, "I know what that was about .. God told me that He was planting my feet firmly in South Africa, that I would be back. Then when one foot freed up and the other stayed planted.. I was taking the ground with my free foot. God having me propheticly 'act out' that this place would be the base of operations, but that I would go all through Africa."
Her explanation sounded so "right" to me.. after we finally went to bed, I asked God why He did not plant my feet as well, as I knew Hew was also calling me to South Africa, in much the same manner as Donna. But I was asleep before He could answer me.
I only got 2.5 hours sleep, but I awoke refreshed and enviggorated. It was as if I'd had a full night's sleep.
Good Friday (April 2, 1999)
Good Friday is a bigger "religious" day in South Africa than easter sunday. The churches hold morning services and it is apparently the highest attendance day of the year. This day, our team was split in half. Donna and Steve ministered at the conference and Heather and I went to a local church, where I was to preach.
The church I ministered at was a bit more traditional than the one sponsoring the conference. The people had a lovely caring for one another, and were very good at loving one another. The "worship" was very sedate, but the people sincere. At one point, I felt led to get up and dance to one of their songs. After that something seemed to break and the worship picked up a bit. Then they had the annoucements and offering. After the announcements, they had a dance team come up and do a chorographed number, which was quite a blessing to watch.
When I got up to preach, the Lord stopped me in my tracks and had me give a corporate word first.. it was about how God was going to break financial oppression off of this body. (I was later given feedback that this was incredibly appropriate for this particular body). I taught on how to be set free and stay free, and on how Jesus' mission statement was to set captives free. It was a nice service, but not nearly as powerful as the conference had been. After the sermon was over, I began a ministry time.. Heather and I both prayed for those who came up. We had multiple calls and many people came up for prayer for each call. Most were slain in the spirit, and God appeared to be touching people. At one point a lady came to me for prayer.. she wanted to be prayed for but wanted to know if she had to "fall down" if she recieve prayer. I told her "Of course not!" and set her in a chair for prayer. God came on her anyhow, and she ended up falling out of the chair...oh well.
At one point, Heather felt led that we should bless the children. I asked her to lead that time.. she went up and took the microphone and shared a brief story of how God used this one child she knew. Then she invited the people to come up and bring their children. We prayed for them and God fell on the children. About half of them were slain in the spirit, and a few of them experienced the joy of the Lord. It was definately a good ministry time. At the very end, I called the dance team up and prayed for them. The Lord had me impart the same dance anointing on them that had been imparted to me by the Russian dance team when I was in Moscow... and God fell on some of the dancers with great power.
I would classify it as a good service, but now a powerhouse service.
Meanwhile, the conference was packed beyond capacity. Steve shared that morning, but I don't know what he shared on. After that, the Lord came on Donna. Normally she is not one to manifest, but she did quite a bit of manifesting and prophetic acting-out on this trip. Anyhow, the spirit fell on her and she ended up running around the church building... apparently she was propheticly acting out something. And then she and Steve called up families and asked them to take a stand as a family.. sort of calling the families into God's order.. for parents to take notice and care of their children and not to abuse them in any way, for husbands and wifes to love one another and support one another, for the children to love and honor their parents. Something powerful began to happen as this ministry went forth. Donna later reported that God was setting the families in order so that He could pour out His blessing and His annointing on them.
Donna also shared with Heather and I how Steve had pulled a demon out of a drunk who wandered into the meeting... A alcoholic (who was quite drunk at the time) wandered into the meeting and came up front for ministry, standing right in front of Steve Lincoln. Steve backed up for a second and looked (in the spirit) at this man.. seeing the demon on him... then he asked the man if he wanted to be free from this thing. The man got out a very drunken "yes." Steve grabbed the demon, that he was seeing in the spirit, and pulled it off the man.. and the man was instantly sober and coherent and in his right mind.. the change in the man was staggaring. He committed his life to the Lord.
At one point, Steve felt led to get on the drums and play. This sort of mobalized the people for warfare worship.. and as they worshipped the power of God was released in an incredible way... Donna and Steve were unable to find the words to describe the service to Heather and myself, about all they could say was "it was very powerful" and "I don't know how someone can describe it.." Well, a deep impact was made on many people's lives.. people began calling each other and reporting how God touched them at this meeting.
After the services were over, we met back for lunch. After lunch, Alfie arranged for us to have a brief sightseeing tour.. driving around the cape (the bottom part of Africa). It is an incredibly lovely scenic tour.. even more beautiful than the San Francisco Bay.. and before this tour I did not think anything could be more lovely than that.
We had two cars.. Alfie and the driver were in the front seat and Lena and Donna and I sat in the back seat. The combination of just sitting and of the gentle rocking motion of the car began to get to Donna and myself. Neither of us had more than 2 hours sleep per night the past three nights. The tiredness began to catch up with us.. and we had to keep nudging each other as the other would start to drift off asleep. The sceenery was truely too beautiful to sleep through.
The driver told us about the local problems with baboons.. people used to picnic in this area, but the baboons had become such an nusence that they would come up to the picnicers and steal their food. Then they told us about how there was a law.. if a baboon climbed on your car, you were not allowed to drive back to the city.. instead you would have to sit there until the baboon climbed off if it's own accord... which could sometimes take hours and hours. It could not have been five minutes later when we passed a pickup truck with several adults crammed uncomfortably in the cab and looking miserable. There was a baboon sitting in the bed of their pickup, beating on the top of the truck with it's fist. Apparently the baboon had wandered on some picnicers and wanted to be fed.
A few minutes later, we came on a whole large community of baboons that were sitting by the side of the road.. sort of like at a zoo, only these were totally wild. The car slowed down so we could get a good look at them.. but did not stop. There were two baby baboons (so cute) playing together. There was a big ugly (male) baboon that rose up to its full height as if issuing a challenge to us and beat on it's chest, then turned around and stuck it's rear end at us.. Alfie told us that it is not normal for the baboons to be at the side of the road like that... It was just like the Lord to prepare an unexpected treat for us. Both Donna and I loved it and were thrilled to see the wild life so close.. at one point they were only about 2 feet (less than a meter) from our car.
Next we got to stop at some streetside "stands" were some people from north africa had made crafts and brough them to sell. Most of them were masks or statues of african dieties, and many of them were empowered. But there were also some nice souveneer items there as well, such as hand carved bowls and salad serving sets. Alphie ended up buying each of us a hand carved salad serving set (the large spoon and fork)... And the "animal" each of us got on our set was propheticly significant. I ended up with a giraff .. and I am one who God is calling to stick her neck out and take risks for Him... Donna ended up with a Zebra.. which was perfect because she sees everything in black and white (no compremise). And Steve/Heather ended up with a rhino.. signifying the strenght and tenancity the Lord has given them.
As we continued the drive after the shopping stop, the Lord began to talk to both Donna and myself about the scope/enormity of what He was doing in South Africa. We compared notes and were hearing the same thing. We were both blown away that we were allowed to play a part in this, to participate with Him in something this big.
After a while, we stopped so Lena and Alphie could do a quick errand. As they were out, we waited in the car.. and Steve came over to join us, sitting where Lena had been sitting. The three of us were togehter in the back seat. Steve began to mention to us that God had been speaking to him about the enormity of what He was doing here.. and Donna and I gave him a look that let him know God had been saying the same thing to us. We were all so blown away that God would allow us to participate with Him in this.. and we all caught the vision of what God is doing in South Africa.. we are talking major revival. It has started as a little seed, but it will grow so big that nothing will be able to contain it. And God's presense fell on us as we sat there in awe.. it is difficult to describe, but it was definately a holy moment. I remember saying, "I am not surprised that God is doing this, I am surprised that He is letting me participate with Him in it... I am surprised that He is 'letting me play.'" Steve and Donna both said that they felt precisely the same way. We must have spent about 20 minutes simply being blown away by the revelation of what God is doing in South Africa.
Alfie and Lena got back to the car and we went home for dinner. We were so greatful for this sightseeing trip.. we did not know it at the time, but it was to be the only sightseeing we would get to do, as ministry kept us busy solid the rest of the time.
We truly did not intend to do any ministry that night.. in fact we were planning to call it an early evening and go to bed. But dinner was late because we'd been sightseeing. So Alfie and Steve and Heather and Donna and I sat around and talked and fellowshipped and sort of built team and discussed team business. Donna described this as a "summit meeting of the eagles" and that was a good description for what happened. After dinner, we came back to the living room to chat some more. Several of Alfie's relatives had stopped over at their house. They had a very large living room, and we were sitting in two group.. Alfie with Donna and Steve and Heather and I were together as one group. And Lena was in the other group with all of their relatives. It was as though we were in two separate rooms... the two groups were not interacting with each other.
It was about 9:00 PM and I remember getting so tired. I told Donna that I was exhausted and need to go to bed soon. She said "I understand." Then she got up and went across the room and chatted briefly with the other group. She came back with a young woman in tow and sat her down on the sofa next to me.. Then she whispered in my ear that this woman was my divine appointment.. the reason I'd not yet gone to bed. I was very tired and looked at her blankly, as if asking "what am I supposed to do?" Donna patted my knee and said, 'Just love on her.'
Heather came and sat on the other side of her.. the woman's name was Beranise, and she was married and had a 4 year old daughter. Heather and I engaged in some small talk, but I really did not have a clue what the Lord wanted me to do. Then, at one point she shared that her husband was unsaved, and she shared some of the hardship and frustration of being an onfire christian married to an unbeliever. Suddenly I understood totally and knew exactly what to do. I shared about my own husband.. who I love dearly, but who simply does not understand when I try to share spirtual things with him. Then she shared how some of her relatives had condemned her for being "unevenly yolked" and how lonely she felt. We asked her if we could pray with/for her.. and the next thing I knew, Heather and I were doing ministry prayer. God did a deep thing in her, breaking off some past hurts and rejection and bringing his healing. At one point the Lord told me that He wanted to fill her with His joy, so I started praying along those lines.. and I found myself asking for His river of life from this throne to flow into her and fill her to overflowing and then to flow out of her belly as rivers of living water. Suddenly the joy of the Lord hit her and she began to laugh.. she had absolutley no idea why she was laughing, but she could not stop. I was reminded of that verse about God turning our mourning into rejoicing.. and then the laughter hit me. Pretty soon Beranise and I were making such a racket that everyone stopped what they were doing to check it out.
Beranise and I were having a wonderful time.. the tiredness totally left me and I was so full of the Lord's joy.. I could not stop laughing. I took Beranise's hand, and she started laughing even more. Then I told Beranise to take Heather's hand, and Heather also began to laugh. About then, Donna suggested we all take hands and the joy of the Lord flowed through us like a current... most of us started to laugh and rejoice. Some of Alfie's visiting relatives was a bit taken back by this and quickly excused themselves, but many stayed and God touched them. At one point Beranise moved across the room to pray for someone.. and she had almost stopped laughing. I moved over there to join her in praying for that person. But when I touched Beranise, the Lord it us both .. she began to fall down.. on top of me and knocking me down as well.. we both hit the floor (without a catcher) as a laughing mass. Beranise ended up laying on top of my left leg.. Lena wanted to move us so that Beranise was not on top of me. But I sensed a divine connection and told her not to.
About then, the power of God hit both Beranise and myself. A spirit of intercession came over us and we began crying out for our husbands and interceeding for them.. it was a very powerful prayer. I remember at one time that my arms were making chopping motions.. as if I were beating on an invisible wall in front of me. I was flat on my back and could not see Beranise, but was later told that she was making the same motions as the same time. Because of the connection in the spirit, I knew that she was interceeding for her husband as I was interceeding for mine.. and the power of God fell so strongly on both of us that I cannot tell you what happened... It was like electricity went through us.. I remember crying out.. rather loudly.. as the power hit me. And I could hear Beranise crying out at the same time. I was later told that for about 1/2 hour it was as though we were synchronized... we did the same motion at percisely the same time.. sometimes shaking, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying out, sometimes making chopping gestures with our arms. We were both aware that warfare was happening in the heavenlies for our husbands.. and we could feel the power of God as we prayed for our own husband and for each others.
The Holy Spirit began to fall on many in the room.. and things got pretty wild. I can't tell you all that happened.. various people were all ministering to each other. God was all over the room.. all sorts of odd things were happening as God's power hit us. Some laughed, some got slain in the spirit, some shook, etc. At one point Steve was walking past me and I reached out and touched his foot.. and he got temporarily glued to the floor, with the power of God hitting him. Alfie is another one who "never manifests" but God got him that night. It was an incredible time and lasted into the wee hours of the morning. At some point, Alfie asked me to pray for his sister, who had a heart or kidney problem, and she was healed. I was so drunk in the spirit that I was not even sure which infirmity I was praying about. It was a glorious time.. we had not planned a meeting, but God had.. and it turned out to be a great meeting.
Later that evening the rest of us sobered up a bit... except Beranise, who stayed very drunk. They were discussing how to get her home.. and about that time her 4 year old daughter came over and began hitting her mother, who was incopassitated on the sofa under the joy of the Lord. As she did that, I saw what looked like a demon on her, but I was still a bit wobbly from the early activity,so I was not positive I had heard correctly. About then the little girl moved over to the sofa near me and said in a quiet voice... "Mommy, I don't like the spirit on me. Please get rid of it."
I did a doubletake.. I could not imagine one that young talking quite like that. She had clearly and plainly complained of being demonized and asked for deliverance... and she was only four! After I got over my initial shock, I realized that no one else had heard her.. so I mentioned it to Donna, and sugggested we minister to the child. About then the child repeated what she had said and everyone heard her. Alfie held her and we laid hands on her and prayed, and the demon had to leave. There was a visible change in her countanence. About then Donna began to prophecy over the child.. that she would be a very powerful prophet and would see miracles and signs and wonders. This little girl had quite a calling on her life.
After the deliverance was completed, we were still faced with the logistical issues of getting Beranise home.. they finally found two volunteers, one to drive Bernaise and her car home, the other to follow in another vehicle to bring the first driver back home. Beranise was too drunk in the spirit at this point to know/care what plans were being made. They had to carry her out to the car.. and after the finally got her home, she could not stop laughing for several hours... The story we were told the next day was that she had to go the bathroom, but was still so stronly under the power that she had to hop in.. and she came out laughing and shaking. Apparently she kept her husband up for hours.. and he was not sure what to make of this as he'd never seen his wife like this before. This had an impact on him, as he became more receptive to talking to christians and listening to the gospel. Last I heard, he has not accepted the Lord yet, but has definately softened towards God. (An aside, my husband has not accepted the Lord yet, but I can see a noticable change in him about God as well.. he is definately more receptive to the gospel as well. I don't know what happened as God linked Beranise and myself together to pray for our husbands, but something definately happened and it is effecting our men in a positive way.) One last note on Beranise...after that experience on Friday night, she was a different person. She had been under a lot of sorrow and heaviness, but the Lord broke that off of her and she has been full of joy and excitement since then.
Ministering to Politicians, (Satudary, April 4, 1999):
Saturday morning we had to get up early to run an errand.. we wanted to change some money at a bank, and the banks that exchange foreign currency were not near where we were staying. So, Alfie and Lena decided to take us to a mall a bit of a distance way, which happened to have one of their favorite restruants in it.. Thus it became a "breakfast date" and we had to get up early.
Donna had been the one keeping both of our passports. I assumed she took them with her, but she did not realize that we neede them to exhange money.
We got to the bank and waited in line. As we were in line, I asked Donna if she had the passports.. she did not. Big opps! We were trying to figure out how we were going to explain our blooper to Alfie and Lena, who had driven miles out of their way to take us to a bank that exchanges currency. We decided to stay in line just in case they'd let us exchange it without the passports. As we were waiting, Donna said, "you know, Teresa, I don't think we are supposed to exchange money here.. I think God is going to provide some native money for us.." We finally got to the teller and told him we'd like to exchange US dollars for the local currency (Rand, I think). "Oh, I am sorry," he said, "We don't do foreign currency exchanges on Saturdays. Monday is a holiday, you will have to come back on Tuesday." Just out of curriosity, I asked if we needed our passports to exchange money and the teller replied, "Absolutely."
Donna and I exchanged glaces, grinning from ear to ear. God had given us a graceful out. We did not have to tell Alphie and Lena that we had forgotten our passports.. we were able to tell them the bank did not exchange money on Saturdays.. we threw up a quick "thank you"prayer to God for giving us such a comfy out. Then it was off to breakfast.. yummie!! We had a wonderful time of fellowship with Alfie and Lena and it was fun. Building relationship is VERY important in ministry.. it was definately a God-ordained time.
We got home just in time to change and be picked up for a barbequeue with some local politicians... We kinda giggled over that.. a ministry barbaqueue. These people were folks that Steve and Heather already had contact and relationship with.
It started pretty much like any other barbaqueue.. with people sitting around and talking, various munchies. And much like any other barbaqueue, the men eventually all ended up in the back yard with the grill, tending the meat while the woman all ended up in the living room talking.. and the kids were running around playing whereever they desired to. Everyone there were all part of the same political party and they all knew one another quite well. Steve and Heather all knew everyone there too. So Donna and I were sort of the 'odd man out'... the only two who did not know everyone. We chatted some, but mostly we observed.
As I was looking around the room, I saw a woman with an clearly sore back. She had a very gentle demeneur and also looked a tad nervous. There was a woman sitting next to her, but I was not paying attention to this woman. I was concentrating on the one with the sore back, asking God if He wanted me to pray for her for healing. While I was looking that direciton, I saw what looked like beams of light shoot out of the eyes of the woman next to her... I did a double take.. I had never seen anything like that before... it was like those light swords that they used in starwars, and it was so visible that at first I did not realize I was 'seeing in the spirit'. I asked God about it.. He said I was seeing prophetic discernment on her. I nudged Donna (sitting next to me) and asked her if she had just seen that. She had not... so I figured I must be seeing in the spirit. So I began to ask God more about this woman. He he had much to say to me about her.. all good. It turns out that God wanted to offer her an opportunity to be used powerfully in His kingdom plans.. all she had to do was to be willng and He would open doors for her. I was unable to do anything about it then, except to talk silently to God about this.. so I asked Him why He was showing it to me, and He said that He would give me an opportunity to talk to her privately. I later found out that she was the owner of the house that the barbaque was being held at. I figured that since she was the hostess and had this big "party" going on, she would be too busy to talk to me.. so I began to wonder if I had "heard wrong".
Then the food was ready. We all ate. After we ate, Heather busied herself doing the dishes.. and I decided to dry for her... to help her and chat a bit. We were having alot of fun together, talking and getting to know each other better. After a while, the hostess came up and said something to me. I don't remember what it was, but it opened the opportunity to have a discussion. I found myself sharing with her my testimony of how Randy Clark had always said "God can use little 'ole me" and how I decided to take God up and that ... I figured if ever there was a "little 'ole me", I certainly qualified.. so I told God I was available if He wanted to use me.. and I encouraged her that God wanted to use her as well.. was she willing? It actually turned into a bit of a ministry time and was very powerful. She felt encouraged and challenged at the same time. And I knew that this was a divine appointment that God had set up for me. We must have talked for about 20 minutes to half an hour.. and I could see her hunger and passion for God.. her desire to be used, but also this nagging within her spirit that God would not want to use her. I had the pleasure of reassuring her that God had put a call and a destiny on her life, and if she choose to, she could step into it. I really enjoyed talking to her about this.
A little after the eating was over, they had everyone come together for a ministry time. Some of the people decided to leave before ministry started, apparently some of them went to fundementalist churches and were leery of the gifts of the spirit. But most stayed for ministry.. and it was quite a ministry time.
Steve and Donna were sort of "leading" the ministry time, but Heather and I both participated a great deal as well. The first people we ministred to was a woman who had to leave shortly. She was the one with the hurt back that I'd noticed earlier. She was from a very conservative church, and was a bit nervous about receiving ministry. I wish I could say that she was healed as we prayed for her, but I don't think that was what was on the Lord's agenda for her. God ministered some deep healing stuff to her. I am not sure whether or not she was able to receive it. I sense the Lord's tender care for her. I also sensed that God would one day use her to do inner healing type of ministry on others. She had to leave immediately after we ministered to her, so I did not get a chance to talk to her and find out how she felt about the ministry.
The next ones to receive ministry were Steve and Louise. These two are personal friends of Steve and Heather, and Steve and Heather often stay at their house. They are both very onfire christians, and Steve currenly works on staff of one of the politicians and is running for national parlament this year.. Now, Louise had a big old cast on her right foot and a very outgoing personality.. you might say that she seemed to be the center of activity...I had not had a chance to talk to her earlier at the barbaqueue because she was so busy talking to everyone else. So, I did not really have much of an impression of her until the ministry time began. Donna and Steve sort of installed her husband in the office of Apostle and Louise in the office of prophet and blessed them as an apostolic/prophetic team. I was not really getting anything to minister at that moment, so I was just watching and blessing what God was doing. Then Donna asked me to pray for Louise.. so I put my hand on her shoulder to begin to pray. Suddenly God spoke to me and said, "Teresa, she is just like you. She is as hungry for Me as you are, and she has many of the same desires and passions that you have."
"Really Lord??"
"Yes," God said. "Just pray for her the things you desire for yourself and it will minister to her greatly." So I began to pray.. at first I was just following instructions, praying for her the things that I desired for myself.. and the Holy Spirit began to fall on her with such power. Then the Lord told me He was going to give her the gift of healing... that she would pray for the sick, and they would recover. So I spoke that over her.. I wondered what was running running through her mind, as she was sitting there with a cast on her leg.. but I prayed and spoke as God directed me. More and more kept coming.. God began to show me so much as I was ministering to her. She was shaking under his power, and I was feeling His presense/anointing all over me. By the time we were done praying, God had managed to bless both of us tremendiously.
We ministered to everyone else in the room.. at one point Donna even stopped ministering to the group to minister to Steve. He was incredibly blessed. Rigth after Steve was ministed to, he began to prophecy over Louie, one of the national politicians .. e.g. elected to national parlament. Now an odd thing happened... neither Donna nor I got anything to minister to Louie and his wife. This is highly unusual.. I can almost always get something if I press in and Donna can **always** get something. Then we had an unexpected blessing and saw why the Lord had not given a word to either Donna or myself. It was because the Lord gave it to Louise instead. Remember Louise.. she'd just been installed in the office of prophet. She had moved a bit in the prophetic before, but was not at all confident in it. She probably would not have ministered if Donna and I did, so God kept the two of us quiet so that Louise could give a word. It was a good word to. I absolutely LOVE how God does things like this! Louie and his wife were definately blessed by the word, but I believe that Louise was even more blessed in being allowed to give a word!! I think that is how God sort of "cemented" to her that He had really just installed her in the office of prophet. (This is an aside a few weeks after the incident, but I got an email from Steve (Louise's husband) and he says that she is starting to move strongly in the prophetic now.)
As a team, we ministered to each person there.. and God met each person in many wonderful ways. There was a lot of prphetic ministry, and also some impartation of giftings.
After the ministry time was over, the politicians wanted to talk more and get prophetic insight into some of the problems that they were facing and decisions they had to make. They focused most of their questions to Donna, and I ended up in a side discusison with Louise for a while, also on political stuff. It was sort of a difficult time for Donna and I, as we don't know much about politics and are not called to that particular area. The Lord gave me a general answer for them.. which was that since they were a relatively small political party at this time, they needed to wait on the Lord for discernment and choose their battles wisely.. not to fight on every issue, only on those that God told them to fight for. They need to have a party stand on each issue (that is a reality of being in politics), but they don't have to "go to battle" over each one. Rather they need to discern from God which battles He is choosing to fight at to put their energy into those. This made sense to Louis and Donna and I prayed for him for an impartation of increased wisdom/discernment to know what battles God wanted them to fight.
By now it had gotten quite late. Several of the politicians began drifting out. Donna and I were exhaused.. but a few of the policians still had questions for her. At one point Donna got a bloody nose... I am not sure what caused it, but she had to excuse herself to the restroom. She came back with tissues pressed over her nose. She sat down and the politicians began to ask her more questions. She tried to answer them, but was having a bit of trouble talking with her nosebleed. (These guys were really hunger to hear from God.) Mostly Donna was unable to answer their questions and would point them back to the basis.. keep in close intimacy with God, assure you are right with Him in your day to day walk and seek Him for wisdom for each political situation as they come up. She propheticly assured them that God would grant them the wisdom they needed when they asked Him for it.
We had some pizza .. someone made a run to the local pizza parlor, and we were to "go home" after we were done with the pizza. While we were eating pizza, Louis (the member of the National Parlament) invited the team to come to the parliment building and pray over it. He said that he would arrange to get us in and escort us around. We all agreed to do this.
In the car on the way "home" (e.g, back to Alfie's house), Steve explained just how significant the invitation was to pray over parliment. He said that this simply was not done and that it was an incredible opportunity.. that God had opened a real door for us. We prayed and thanked God, excited about the neat things He was doing.
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