Personal Testimonies: God Reschedules My Plans

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-- © GodSpeak International 1999 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <ts@godspeak.org> --

God Reschedules My Plans

(Aug 10, 1999)

The prophetic-school offers online prophetic ministry two tuesday nights a month, where members of the prophetic school can receive (by appointment only) words from seasoned and mature prophets. I may or may not be considered a "seasoned and mature prophet", but since I am one of the leaders of the prophetic-school, I often enjoy coming to these PPS (Personal Prophecy Sessions) and ministering at them. I am also the one with the technical expertise that solves the technical problems when ever they arise.

However, I have this 12 week class on Tuesday nights, which will last another couple of monthes. So for the time being I am not able to go to the PPS and minister there.. I am to be in class instead.

Yesterday was a PPS session.. where three prophets were scheduled to minister to 10 people via IRC (an internet real time chat mechanism). I did not plan to attend the session because I had class. But about 1:00 PM I was STRONGLY prompted that I needed to "cut class" and be at the PPS that evening.

Often God leads me by these strong promptings.. He does not explain things to me; He just tells me what to do and does not tell me why. One of my favorite "games" with the Lord is a guessing game.. where I try to guess the reason behind the command (as I am cheerfuly obeying the command). I guessed that maybe something came up for one of the three prophets and that I would be needed to fill in for them. God just laughed at me and would not tell me if I was right or wrong.

I got home about 5:20 PM. The PPS was to start at 6:00 PM my time. I decided to go log on and see how things were going.. only to find that I could not connect to the irc server we use for our PPS. I prayed briefly and then tried again.. same problem. God reminded me of a sister PPS server, where folks could still get to the right channel. So I tried it, and it worked. I set up the channel and began sending out emails.. first to the three prophets and the MC for the session.. then to the 10 folks scheduled to receive ministry.. telling them of the alternate IRC server and giving them instructions on how to use it. This was only 1/2 hour before the session was to start. The MC, one of the prophets and about 5 of the people began to trickle in. I had been very busy trying to get things straightened out. It was now about 5 mintues before we were scheduled to start.

I decided to call the two missing prophets and see if they were having problems connecting to the irc server. First I tried calling Bret, but I kept getting his answering machine. I sorta figured.. oh that must be why God had me "cut class" to be here tonight.. something came up for Bret and I'll need to fill in for him.

Have you ever had God give you a Rasberry? Well, I got one, followed by a divine laugh.. and God said, "One of the reasons I needed you here tonight should be obvious to you.. you've been doing what I needed you to do for the last 45 minutes... making sure the techincal problem does not cancel the ministry session. There is another reason, I will show you later."

"Oh!" Duh.. yes, it should have been obvious. Of course someone need to get things set up to use the alternate irc server.

I tried telephoning the other missing prophet.. Joshua. He greeted me with "Hi Teresa. I have Bret on the other line.. he has been trying to help me figure out how to connect." I offered to talk him through it. He said "sounds good", put me on hold to say goodbye to Bret, and Bret came online a few minutes later... It took anouther 5 minutes to tell Joshual how to add this alternative server to mIRC and how to connect.

During that process, Joshua cracked a joke. The joke made me realize that I'd been so caught up in solving the technical problem (focused and intense) that I'd gotten a bit stressed and lost the joy of serving God. I mentioned that to Joshua, "Gee, I got so wrapped up in solving the problem, that I forgot I had a sense of humor."

We both laughed. Then we finished getting Joshua connected, and got off the phone. Then I threw up a quickie prayer asking God to please restore my joy... He did not waste any time answering that prayer.. I was instantly drunk in the spirit. The prophets were all in their private room.. trying to decide the order in which they would go to give words.. and right about then I piped up.. "I am drunk in the spirit and I might throw in a few words myself, as long as I am here." They all assured me that would be fine. In fact, the offered to just schedule me in and have all 4 of us minister to everyone, but I was afriad that would take too much time, so I did not feel I should minister to everyone.

All but one of the folks scheduled for ministry managed to make it there, despite last minute changes in server. The ministry time was great... all three prophets very anointed. I could feel God's tangible anointing on me.. and the other prophets all commented the same thing.. that they also had a sense of God's tangible presense and anointing on them. I prophecied to about 1/2 of the people.. as the spirit lead. Between prophesying, I solved about three other problems. It was a good and a productive night.

After it was over, the prophets (and MCs) go to a private channel to debrief.. which can be anything from discussing what happened during the ministry session to prophesying to one another to getting drunk in the spirit together to anything else God feels like doing. They are usually a lot of fun and God usually shows up at them in a tangible way. I like to show up at the debriefing sessions (my class is over by then) and see how the ministry time went. So I would have been at that even if I had not been there for the session.

Well, this evening's debriefing started with a bit of small talk. Then Joshua broke into a prophetic word... one targeting those who ministered that evening. It was a very encouraging word, promising increased joy and indicating that we would be allowed to move with God at greater levels of His power and anointing. YES!!! I love words like that.

Then the Lord whispered in my ear.. "see Teresa, that is why I had you come and minister tonight, so that you would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this word is for you too."

He was right.. if I had not ministered, I would have probably been debating as to whether or not the word applied to me.. but this way I had no doubt because I had been one of the ones ministering.

Then Jim broke into a follow-on word.. expanding on what the Lord had given through Joshua. I was in a receive mode.. having a blast. To my surprise, He gave the next follow on word to me.. wow.. God just kept building and building on His promises and encouragement to us. The jist of the words was that He rewards His faithful servants with more power and more anointing and more intimacy with Him. It was great! Then God wrapped it all up through Bret.. basically saying, "this is not a future tense promise ...it is for NOW."

We all received God's promise and I expect something powerful to happen today (Wednesday) in each of our lives or ministry... I am looking to God to work His power and His glory NOW .. and to be allowed to participate with Him.

And I am so greatful that He rescheduled my evening's plans so I could minister with the team and thus have the assurance that these words were for me too!

So, if you find God pre-empting your plans with His altenrative plans.. be excited .. He just might have a blessing up His sleeve for you.


-- © GodSpeak International 1999 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <ts@godspeak.org> --

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