God arranged a divine appointment for me at breakfast today. I had gone to the omelet bar to order my omelet. As I waited for it, an Asian lady walked up to get hers. She turned to me and said, "Are you Teresa?" I said yes. It turns out she and her husband are here with Forerunner Ministries doing a large conference (about 900 people) at developing intimacy with God. About 700 of them were from mainland china. She was staying in the same hotel as I was but speaking somewhere else. She had a few hours off on Sunday afternoon and had come to part of one of my sessions. She really enjoyed it. She and her husband are currently pastors in Vancouver, but they are about to relocate to Fremont, which is only a half hour drive from my home. They are American born Asians, and they have a very powerful and effective ministry with Asians. It felt like we were cut off the same tree and have similar kingdom values and passions. They had run out of cards, but they asked me for my card. They were leaving to go do a week long conference in Taiwan.
It seemed neat to me that the Lord allowed us to spend a bit of time together, as He seems to be using both of our ministries to help prepare the church in Asia to usher in the great revival that is about to come.
The Chinese man who was taking care of them was named Tony. He knew me too and wanted to tell me his testimony. He had come to the meeting I lead at Pastor Daniel's church on Easter Sunday evening, and God had used me to really impart into him and into his son. He said that meeting was a turning point in his walk with God that sort of launched him into ministry. He works full time as a rather successful Christian businessman, but he also does a lot of prayer ministry. In the last 4 months, God has sent him on ministry trips to four different countries, including the USA and Canada. He has gotten tied into something called "prayer mountain" is active in both interceding and equipping others to intercede. That all broke forth in his life in the last 4.5 months since I prayed for him last April. Wow. God really set him on fire. He said that he'd been praying for an opportunity to share his testimony with me and was excited that the Lord had caused our paths to cross. I was really glad he'd shared his testimony with me.
That was a fun divine connection! But some of what God had for me that day was not so fun.
I may send out more details, but because of a typhoon in the area, the "sightseeing" plans with Pastor Daniel's church were rearranged to lunch and a massage, then a group dinner. Only the massage did not go a planned. Apparently this particular place used acupressure and considered themselves as some sort of medical treatment for problems that I am pretty sure I did not have. They decided that I was very sick and needed much therapy. (This was explained to me after it was over or I would not have agreed to do it. I thought I was getting a nice relaxing massage).
Every second of it was incredibly painful. I would ask the lady to please be more gentle, but she ignored my request and told me that she was already being gentle. It literally felt like I was being tortured. I was afraid to make her stop because it would greatly offend some people who I really cared about. This was pretty expensive and they thought they were doing something really nice for me. Only it did not feel nice to me at all!
I found myself praying for strength to get through this. I was also praying that God would make it end soon. There were tear coming out of my eyes because it hurt so much.
After it was over, I was incredibly sore. They had told me that the massage would relax me and make me feel wonderful. But it had just the opposite effect. My body hurt a lot in many places. My left thumb had been dislocated from the joint being forced out of place. I was able to pop it back in place, but it remained incredibly painful for several hours afterwards. If I just touched that area lightly with my other hand, pain would shoot up my arm.
The two ladies who took me there were telling me that it was normal to feel a bit sore after your first massage, but that I would sleep wonderfully and I would feel greet in the morning. The massage loosens your muscles and gets tension out of your body.
I hurt really bad in a lot of places. As the evening progressed, it seemed to get worse, not better. It felt like welt were raising on my body, but I could not check it out because I was in a group dinner. I tried to enjoy myself, but I was very physically uncomfortable. I had to do individual prophesy to a group of about a dozen people. It is a bit difficult for me to prophesy to people when I am in pain, because the pain interferes with my ability to hear God clearly. None the less, God helped me and I was able to give about 5 minute words to each person. God was ministering powerfully to some of the people there, but I wasn't at the place where I was able to enjoy it fully because I was in so much pain. SO I don't have an accurate perception of what all God did in the lives of those leaders.
I especially like the pastor of this group...he is a wonderful man. He has a full time secular job and also leads his church. He has a wonderful spirit and is very hungry for the things of God. He also presented me with an incredibly generous gift--a brand new Sony Vaio laptop computer with some really good software on it. It was such an incredible and thoughtful gift. I am sure the Lord put it on his heart for a good reason... in fact, the internet card on my cheap little IBM that I travel with gave out on Thursday, the day after I received this gift from Pastor Daniel. I know God is up to something here and I am touched/blessed by this extremely generous gift.
When I finally got back to the hotel room (about 9:30 PM), I found that burses, welts and red marks on my body in several places. I remembered thinking to myself, this must be what it feels like for the believers who are beaten for their faith. Even after the beating stops, the pain keeps going. I remember crying and praying and asking God to please make it (the pain) stop. It was not excruciating, but it was very uncomfortable and distracting. I took the strongest pain killer that I had brought with me and tried to go to sleep. I could not sleep because it hurt so bad. I tried to worship but the pain kept distracting me, and I had trouble getting into it. I haven't been able to sleep because of the pain and I feel sort of "miserable."
The Lord had spoken to me before I left California and told me that He was going to show me what it was like to suffer for Him. I had mental visions of maybe being thrown into a prison or not coming back form the trip. I hoped and prayed that was just my imagination. I knew God was sending me and I had to go no matter what He asked of me. As I tried to lay in bed and get comfortable enough to sleep, I realized that what I was feeling in my body might be God "showing me" what it is like to suffer for Him.
As I was struggling with the physical discomfort, I suddenly realized that this must be what it felt like for those who were beaten for the Lord. Well, what I felt in my body was probably the equivalent of a very mild beating. It probably felt a lot worse for the believers who had to suffer for the Lord because of their faith. You know what--the pain doesn't stop when the beating stops. Big welt like bruises form and they can be quite painful--and they keep hurting for a long time. Actually only a small per cent of my body has these bruises and welts. I shutter to think what it must be like for the believers who have their whole body covered in them.
The Bible talks about Paul and Silus worshipping and singing hymns in prison after they had been beaten for their testimony. I can't imagine how they did that. My pain physical discomfort is nothing compared to what they must have experienced. But the constant pain is a real distraction, and I just haven't been able to get into worship or experience His nearness. If I try to raise my arms to worship, pain shoots through my arm and shoulder, especially on my left side.
But even as I am typing this the swelling in the biggest bruise has gone down noticeably. I think God is taking mercy on me and is releasing some degree of healing to me. It is still very painful to the touch, but at least it is not throbbing right now.
I am discovering that I am a wimp.. I am not very good at suffering--and I really have no desire to become good at it. I want to avoid it as much as possible! I bet the average persecuted Christian feels the same way. They don't want to suffer and they want the pain to stop. And the pain that they feel in their bodies is probably many times worse than what I am feeling from my "massage gone wrong."
This rather unpleasant is giving me a new level of compassion and empathy for the persecuted church. Some of the people who I am going to minister to in the next few days have experienced much worse than I am feeling now.
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