Toronto Local Pastor's Meeting

After the worship time ended, I went to meet Ron and Sigrid at the staircase to accompany them to the local pastor's meeting. I was still jerking mildly and could not seem to stop. The local pastor's meeting was pretty good. They had different pastors reporting briefly on trips they'd taken. Then, Ron (the one I was trying to forgive) was invited up. He turned out to be the main speaker. He started by teaching a song "from California" that I happened to already know. We had some worship and then there was a time of prophesy. Several of the pastors prophesied and it was very powerful. Sigrid gave a prophesy that started with a couple of verses from John 3 that the Lord had made me memorize a few days before. That prophesy really got my attention because it had those verses I'd just memorized and it really spoke to me. It seemed to encourage us that God would send His power on us and sovereignly glorify His name. It was also about each of us being carefully chosen by the Lord and none of us being here by accident. I don't remember all of the details of the prophesy any more, but it really birthed a spark of faith in me, and a greater sense of the Lord's purpose in my life.

Ron (from Delaware) taught for a while and then invited anyone who felt that their ministry was in transition to come up for prayer. That was pretty much everyone in the whole room. I was a little hesitant to let Ron pray for me, but felt that God was orchestrating something in our both being in Toronto on the same day, so I figured it was safe. Ron was praying for an outpouring of different gifts on various people. As I stood and waited, the Lord impressed on me a vision I'd had 22 years prior where Jesus had told me that I would do signs and wonders and heal people in His name.

The Lord was all over one of the pastors standing in the row in front of me. He ended up going down before Ron worked his way over to pray for him and ended up landing with his left shoulder on my foot. My first impression was to move out of his way, but I was frozen to that spot and a very strong wave of intercession came over me. I found myself praying intently for that pastor. Then the Lord spoke to me and told me that this was a prophetic picture -- the pastor was covering me (literally at that point) and I was supporting him (again literally as he rested on my foot and also in the spirit as I interceeded for him). God said that this is the relationship He has between pastors and intercessors -- that the intercessors support and hold up the pastor and the pastor covers them with his authority. It is sort of a Holy Spirit co-dependency. That is how the body of Christ is meant to be -- each bearing the other in love and each dependent on the other.

Then I became aware of Ron praying for the person next to me. He was blessing and calling forth the gift of prophesy in that person. They went down and Ron came to me next. I sort of expected to feel tension or apprehension, but remained totally full of the Lord's joy and peace instead. Ron put his hand an my forehead and prayed "Increased healing for Teresa." The next thing I knew, the Lord's power was surging through me and I went down. For a while, I was not aware of anything except the Lord's presence and power on me. The gradually I became aware that the pastor was still on my foot. I don't know why, but I felt a real bond with him. God was doing something wonderful in both of our lives and for a brief time God seemed to be putting the two of us together. It was like there was a bond in the spirit. I prayed again briefly for him.

Then I became lost in the Lord's presence again. It was very nice being with Him. I could feel faith pouring in -- faith to speak healing over a group of homosexuals and to see them healed of AIDS -- faith to command cancer to fall off. I just knew that it would not be long before God would start doing these large scare miraculous healings. I was reminded of the verse in John where the leper came to Jesus and said, "If you want to, you can heal me." Jesus' response was to be moved with compassion and He said that He wanted to heal him. I could feel the Lord's compassion towards the sick and was assured that He not only wanted to heal them, but would accomplish it. I felt like He was inviting me to come and be a part of it. Would I like to come and heal people with Him? Yes Lord, I would!

Then the Lord said something really interesting to me. "Teresa, when Ron prayed for you, he was not asking Me to give you the gift of healing. He was asking me to heal you because he thinks you need an emotional healing. But my intent is to give you the gift of healing..."

They made some type of announcement about the ministry time starting downstairs and asked those who were able to go downstairs. (The pastors from this meeting are the prayer team for the ministry time for the pastors/leaders meeting downstairs.) I had no intention of being on the prayer team and just stayed down under the Lord's anointing. I was still mildly aware of the pastor laying on my foot. The Lord was still all over him very powerfully.

Then I was strongly reminded of Elisha who had asked for twice Elijah's anointing and had in fact received it. I decided to be greedy and asked God for twice Elisha's anointing -- I wanted to proclaim His word and work signs and wonders to back up God's word. I wanted to multiply resources and to heal the sick and raise the dead. I wanted to glorify God with every ounce of my being. The the Lord spoke to me again and said that I was not asking for enough. He said that the types of things I was asking for should be normative for ALL believers. I had not even reached the point that was meant to be normal for all believers yet. But He was willing to take me even beyond that if I was willing to go with Him. He said that my vision is much too small, but that He'd increase it to what it should be if I'd let Him. Boy, that sure changes your prospective -- to be afraid that you're asking for way too much only to be informed that you're not nearly asking for enough.

After a while, I felt the anointing wane and felt like I should go downstairs, where they were doing ministry. Almost as in confirmation, the pastor moved off of my foot. So I got up, and went downstairs. I did not even bother to go to my seat. I just walked right up to the alter and got in the end of a prayer line. As it happened, the lines were along the sides of the stage, wrapping slightly along the front. So I ended up standing in front of the stage, just a little to the left of center. I closed my eyes and raised my hands to worship.