I had caught this intestinal flu that made me really sick and I was barely functional for about three weeks. The doctor gave me some medicine that helped a bit, but life was mostly being barely able to function, and I spent most of my time laying on the living room sofa watching television. As a result, I did not feel very spiritual or close to the Lord.

I started to feel a bit more like myself on Saturday, so I had a really good prayer time that evening. God met me in some very tangible ways and I felt so close to Him. When I woke up Sunday morning, I was really looking forward to church. I hadn't been able to go the Sunday before because I had been too sick. I told the Lord that I only had one item on My agenda for church this morning: I just wanted to get lost in worship and to encounter Him.

God sort of laughed at me and said, "Teresa, I have a different agenda for you. Instead of going to receive during worship, I am going to put you to work ministering to others." I could not figure out what He meant, because we don't usually have ministry during worship. Each person sort of blocks everyone else out and connects privately with the Lord as they worship.

I started feeling sick just before it was time to leave for service, and I though about staying home. Then I decided to go to church so I could get healing prayer. I was already a bit late, but I hopped in the car. While I was driving to Church, the Lord spoke to me and said, "You won't be healed getting prayer, but in ministering healing to others."

I was not sure if that was really God's voice or just my own imagination. I arrived at the service about ten minutes late. They had two youth up front who were about to leave for a missions trip. Various members of the congregation were going up and praying for them as the rest of us worshipped. So I went up front and prayed prophetically for them. I figured that must be what God meant about ministering during worship. But I was wrong.

I just got back to my seat and started to worship when our pastor made an announcement. He said, "We have had a word of knowledge that God is present to heal the sick. So if any of you are sick.. no matter how big or no matter how little, why don't you come up and our ministry team will pray for you." (Bu the way, that is something we almost never do during the worship part of our service.)

I immediately thought, "Oh, I should go up and get prayer because I have been so sick." Then the Lord said, "Teresa, don't you remember what I told you on the way to church." I thought back on it. He had said that I would be healed by ministering healing to others, not by being prayed for.

"Ok, Lord." So I went up to pray. A lot of people came up for prayer. I was probably sicker than most of them. There were not very many people praying for the ones who came up, so I just starting praying for people and prayed until everyone there had received prayer. Only about 1/3 of the people I prayed for had a noticeable improvement or complete healing. I remembered thinking to myself, "This doesn't feel like a strong anointing form healing, it feels like a very weak one." As it turned out, by the time I finished praying for everyone, they were half way through the last song. I hardly got to do any worship at all.

At the end of worship, Rodney (the pastor) got up and asked how many of you who went up for healing prayer got healed? Almost everyone who I prayed for raised their hands. I guess God must have continued healing them after I stopped praying for them, as they worshipped. That makes sense, because it is about Him healing in a way where He gets all the glory.

Church certainly was not a typical service that day. We usually do our ministry at the end of service, not during the middle of corporate worship. I really did not get to worship very much, and yet I felt as close to the Lord as I do after a period of extended worship.

The morning went just the way God said it would--and so did the other thing God said. He had told me that I would be healed by ministering healing to others, and that is exactly what happened. My symptoms seemed to almost completely disappear overnight and I was able to function pretty close to normal.

God doesn't always do things the way I expect Him to, but He always does good things!