I had an interesting experience at church this morning. I drove into the church parking lot and accidentally knocked some stuff on the floor just as I was ready to get out of the car. So I bent over to retrieve the stuff. As I did so, another car pulled next to me in a rather unusual way. Instead of parking in the spot, he was half in the spot and half in the lane, so that his trunk was parallel with my driver's door. It was a very beaten up white and silver sports car. A very straggly man got out as I sat back up. He was short and thin and probably in his late 50s. He was unshaven and looked like he had not brushed his hair in weeks. He went to his trunk, pulled out some tools and started purposefully towards my door. When he got to the door, he saw me in the car, did an abrupt about face and got in his car and drove off.

I was astonished by this and sort of sat there pondering it. Clearly the man had meant to break into my car, probably to steal my stereo. I was debating whether I should tell the pastor, tell the Church member who is also a police man, or what. I stayed there for a bit. About 5 minutes later, the man came back!

He drove slowly past my car, his driver's window down. I jumped out of late my car and asked him if he was lost and needed help or what. I am not sure why I asked that as opposed to saying something like 'go away you can't rob my car.'

He said that he had just stopped in the church parking lot to get something out of his car. Then he asked me if my car was for sale and wanted to know info about it, such as the year and whether or not I was the original owner. I told him the car was not for sale and that this was a church parking lot and service was going on. So if he was not here for church, it would be better if he not come in the lot while the service was on. In other words, I was politely telling him to leave. He said that he'd lived in the area and had been using this church parking lot for 30 years. "In fact," he said, "I have more of a right to it than you do." Then he drove off as rapidly as he could.

I felt impressed to get his license plate number, so I read it as he drove off and immediately wrote it down. I went into the church, amazed at the timing of this incident, that he should happened to try to break in to the car while I was still there. I found Mark, who is a police officer in Alameda. Mark came out and took a look at where the car was, saw that the man was no longer there. Mark told me to move my car to the back of the lot. I did. On the way back in, I ran into the pastor and told him what happened. I shared that I was concerned that he might be there to rip off stereos etc from cars in the church lot. The pastor prayed briefly for God's protection over all of the cars in the lot, then we went back in to Church. The ushers were asked to, from time to time during the service, come out and check the parking lot.

When the service started, it was hard to concentrate on worshipping the Lord. I found myself silently praying that God would watch over my car and keep it from being stolen or burglarized. I had some doubts in my spirit that God would really take care of my car. After all, He has allowed some much more difficult things to happen to other believers. Why would He feel obligated to protect my car? The first song had passed, and I really had not entered into worship. I was resisting the urge to run out to the parking lot and check on my car.

"Teresa," the Lord said. "It really comes down to this question -- do you trust me to take care of you or do you want to take care of yourself?"

I groaned inwardly. I knew that the Lord had been on my case for a while about trusting Him. He had shown me some areas in my heart where I did not trust Him. I knew all the nice Christian ways of phrasing things, but what I had in essence been communicating to the Lord was, "God I am not sure You are trustworthy." When God had showed me how my struggles in trusting Him came across to Him, it made me feel bad. I had determined not to hurt His feelings again by questioning His faithfulness, His integrity. Yet here I was in one of those situations that was hard to trust. It was like a surprise midterm had just been sprung on me.

"Teresa," the Lord said, "can you let go of worrying about your car and worship Me?"

"I can try," was my response. It truly was a struggle at first, because I kept thinking of reasons why God was not obligated to protect my car, and of how He had not actually promised to do so. But as I began to put my focus on Him, His spirit began to brood over me. Soon I could feel the sweetness of His presence surrounding me. My hands were tingling and it felt like oil or honey was being poured over me. The air seemed fresher, lighter and so full of life. I recognized those as manifestations of His presence. I was overcome by a sense of His nearness. I don't remember consciously kneeling down, but after a while I noticed that I was on the ground and that my arms were shaking lightly under His anointing. I was so overcome by His nearness that I could not sing.. I just wanted more of Him. Everything else paled by comparison. I had a short vision where I was floating in a sea of His love. I could feel the water around me, but I was able to breath easily. I could feel the buoyancy of my arms in the water, they felt like they were floating. I knew it was a vision and I knew it was for me, not for the corporate body. God was meeting me personally, allowing me to basque in His presence and be overwhelmed by His nearness. It was a wonderful experience and I felt His love for me in such a tangible way.

I was lost in His presence. Even though I knew I was in a room full of fellow believers who loved and worshipped the Lord, it felt as if it were only Him and me. Nothing else mattered, He filled my senses. The offering came and went and I did not notice it was being taken. The pastor began to speak. I was still kneeling on the ground in front of my seat when I began to notice that Rodney was talking, that he was teaching. For a few minutes I was aware of the Lord surrounding me and simultaneously aware of Rodney's teaching. At first the teaching did not interested me, I wanted more of His presence. But then the words of the teaching began to make their way into my consciousness until I was aware of what he was saying. I realized that everyone else was in their seat and I was still kneeling in front of mine, on the ground just in front of the first row of chairs. I slipped quietly into my chair. I am not sure how long I was down there... it may have been only a minute or two into his teaching, or it may have been much longer.

Once I sat up, I was pretty much myself again. After a while, I began to think about my car. I had to resist the urge to get up and go check on it. Instead I consciously choose to trust God and remain in my seat. After a few minutes, the teaching had my full attention and I was interested in what my pastor had to say. The car was mostly forgotten. I had brought an extra large cup of coffee with me and I worked on that as he taught. By the end of the teaching, the coffee had worked it's way through my system and I urgently needed to visit the "lady's room." We typically have a prayer time after the sermon, then some more worship and ministry time. When the prayer began, I quietly slipped out of my seat and headed towards the lady's room. After taking care of business, I was about to slip back into my seat.

"Teresa," the Lord whispered, "Go look at your car and you will see that I have taken good care of it." So I slipped out the back and walked around the corner where my car was. It was completely undisturbed and in perfect condition. "See," the Lord said, "I am trustworthy and I am faithful and I took care of you."

When I got back inside, worship had just began. This time it was much easier to enter into worship. The Lord's presence surrounded me again. It was not quite as intense as it had been earlier, but it was still a wonderful experience. During the worship time, the Lord spoke several very personal things to me. I noticed that my body was doing some very light physical manifestations. At first I felt a bit concerned.. because I did not want to have "renewal manifestations" in a Southern Baptist service. But the Lord's presence seemed to swallow up my concerns and I became unaware of anything but His presence. God continued to meet me in wonderful ways.

I felt so much like I wanted to have someone pray for me, but I did not want to move from where I was to go seek out prayer, because the Lord's presence was so strong that it literally felt tangible. So I asked Jesus if He would please pray for me.. after all, the Bible says He sits on the right hand of God, interceding for us. To my surprise, the Holy Spirit offered to pray for me. He said that the prayer would be more of an authority declaration prayer than a petition prayer. Then He spoke this over me.. "That you be able to Hear and See what the Father is doing and do it with Him in His power and Authority. That you would be lead by the Holy Spirit, yielded and in submission to Him, under the Lordship of Jesus and honoring Him in all you do. That you go forth in His power and anointing."

I remember thinking to myself, what a lovely prayer. Then the Holy Spirit said to me. "Guess What, Teresa. The advantage of God praying for you is that He can answer His own prayers. I will do this for you in your life as you yield to Me."

The Lord began to speak some details to me about my personal call and destiny on my life, as well as some near future plans. These are sort of private, so I am not going to share them with you. But the important point is that when we look to God and press into Him, the distractions melt away and His presence becomes tangibly real. God can meet us individually in the mist of Corporate worship just as powerfully as He can meet us in our own personal prayer closets. God loves to draw near to His children and pour His presence on them. The enemy wants to bring distractions to keep us from entering into worship, to keep us from entering into God's presence. But as we press past these distractions, we will find that He is faithful and He is trustworthy and He is all powerful and He has good plans for us.