I ran into Linda in the hotel lobby as I was leaving for the meeting. I had met her earlier in the day, she is a Christian psychologist who I'd met earlier today. Linda said her friends had gone early to run some errands and asked me if I could give her a ride. I was happy to do so. As soon as we arrived, she went her separate way to look for her friends.
I arrived a little before 5:00 PM, and I was very shocked to see that there were already people lining up to get in. There were two separate lines, one for pastors and international guests, and the other one was for everyone else--and there were already a few dozen people in both lines.
The booth that gave out the pastor's wrist bands was not open yet, so I got in the pastor's line, hoping it would open before they let the line in. I began chatting with others in line.
About ten minutes later, a lady wearing a Fresh Fire Ministry badge came out and loudly announced that they were short of volunteers to serve as ushers. She said that it was only a 1/2 hour orientation meeting and about 15 to 20 minutes of work in the meeting. I began thinking to myself, "I really ought to help out and trust God to take care of my ankle." I figured that if I served, I' probably receive a greater impartation than if I just received. I walked over to her. As I was arriving she said, "As an added incentive--we let those who serve as ushers come in early and get their seats for the night's meeting."
Despite the amazing offer (the ability to get a great seat near the front), she still did not get very many volunteers. I would have volunteered even if they don't give that benefit, and I could not understand why more people weren't taking volunteering.
The first thing that she did was to lead us in to the "volunteer seating area," which happened to be the left side of center as you are facing the platform. To my amazement, about half of the front row in that section was empty. I was near the front of the group because I'd been one of the first to volunteer. I had two friends flying in from Texas to join me tonight, so I wanted to save three seats. But there was a bit of a rush for the front row, and I could barely get my stuff on two adjacent seats before they were all taken. After we got seat selection, we followed her to the orientation meeting. They did a nice clear job of explaining what they wanted us to do, and the task was very easy. We were given "volunteer" stickers and assigned a section to usher when it came time to pass out materials to take the offering. The orientation took less than half an hour, and then I was able to go get my pastor's wrist band.
I was concerned that I'd only been able to get two seats together. I decided to move my seats to where I could get three together. There were still three seats together in the center of the center section, about four or five rows back. I happened to bring a lot of stuff with me--my umbrella, my bible, my notebook and pen, my water bottle and my sweater. So I actually have enough stuff to save the three seats without giving up my first two. I could not see any reason to save the two seats on the front row since I planned to sit with my friends. I was about to take my stuff off of them when I heard the Lord say, "Don't." So I ended up saving two more seats than I needed, but I also ended up feeling a tad guilty about it.
One of my big goals had been to serve on the ministry team. Someone had told me about that they let pastors do that before I came. When I heard that, it felt like the Holy Spirit had quickened it to me, and I knew I was supposed to do it. I asked a few people how that works, and then said to just listen for the announcement. So when they finally made the announcement, I bee-lined for that area.
They had a twenty minute orientation/training session and then gave us assignments and badges. My assignment was to pray on the left side of the platform and to help interview people who came up with testimonies. We were also instructed to follow any directions that Todd gave the ministry team from the stage. The released us at 6:00 PM, just as they were opening the doors to let the crowds in. They told us to come back at 6:30 for orientation.
Fresh Fire Ministries had it down to a pretty sophisticated system. When Todd called for testimonies, people would line up on both sides of the stage. The ministry team members would move down the line, briefly interviewing people about their testimonies. If it was a verifiable testimony, we'd pull them to the front of the line, to a person who would interview them a tad more and make a little sticky pad note with the gist of the testimony, and the people with those sticky pads were allowed up on the stage. Once we'd pulled the people out of line who had testimonies of completed healings, we'd go back to those who were still in line and pray for them for healing. I must say that I was really impressed with how well they had organized this, and yet there still was still a lot of room for following the Holy Spirit's leading as we ministered.
I was so excited that I could hardly wait for the service to begin. I don't think I'd felt that excited about anything since I was a teenager.
I did have one logistical thing I needed to do--I needed to connect with my friends and show them were our seats were. I tried calling Becky's cell phone, but she did not answer. I assumed that their flight got delayed, and they were still on the plane and could not use their cell. So I left a message for them to call me as soon as possible. I told them that the meeting started at 7:00 PM and I was going to release the seats at 7:15 if I did not her back from them by them. I decided to go back to my two front-row seats while I waited for ministry team impartation prayer to start.
The other people sitting in the volunteer section were all friendly and we struck up conversations. I was talking to the lady sitting behind me when she had an unexpected surprise. Her pastor and his wife came by to greet her. She did not know that they were going to be in Lakeland and she was very excited to see them. I guess they did not know that ministers were let in 1/2 hour earlier than everyone else to get seats, and by the time they arrived, there was nothing left that was at all close to the front half of the room. They were sharing their frustration about that.
It occurred to me that I could give them the two seats I had in front of their friend and they could all be together. I offered to do that, but they said that they were a group of three. So I told them that I might have three seats in the center section if my friends did not show up. I asked them to check back with me at 7:15 and said that I'd give the seats to them if I did not hear from my friends by them. [This is jumping ahead a little, but it turns out that my friend's had to cancel their trip because of a family emergency. So when 7:15 rolled around, they were delighted to take possession of the three seats.] I thought it was sort of neat how that all worked out.
I was so excited to see what the Lord would do at this meeting, and the excitement within me kept growing as we got closer to start time. I felt this sense of joyful anticipation and I could not stop grinning from ear to ear. Several people walked up to me and told me that I was "positively glowing." The favor of the Lord seemed to rest on me, and I really enjoyed talking to the people there.
Then it was 6:30 and time to go for ministry team prayer. Several people were already lined up for prayer, and I got in the end of the line. The leader was saying something, but the room was noisy and he was far away and I could not hear what he was saying. Then he began praying down the line. I expected that the impartation would be explosive, especially since several people earlier in the line were manifesting strongly when he prayed for them. But when he got to me, I barely felt anything at all. There was a faint gentle sense of the Lord's nearness, but that was it. I went down, but I could have stayed standing because the anointing did not feel that strong.
I was a bit disappointed that God had not touched me more powerfully, but I reminded myself that you did not have to feel anything for an impartation to take.
When I went back to my seat after the prayer, but I could not get back to it because all sorts of people had crowded up front for worship. I joined the "worship mob." Normally I don't like crowds, but for some reason, this crowd wasn't bothering me. In fact, the worship was a bit different than I am used to experiencing.
Normally in worship, I block out everyone else and connect with God. But this was more of a "group thing"--I enjoyed a wonderful connection to God, but in addition, I also felt very connected to the people around me. I was keenly aware of them, and of how the Lord was moving on them. There seemed to be a joy thing going, transferring between each of us as our eyes met and we smiled at each other. The camera on the mechanical arm floating just over our heads was a little distracting, but I did my best to block it out and focus on God.
They had a guest worship leader named Catherine Mullines, and she was incredible. She was very people-orientated, making eye contact, discerning where people were at in worship and then collecting them to go deeper. She literally took us with her into the Heavenlies in worship.
For the first hour, most of the songs were celebration. While I worshiped and celebrated, I was also making a connection with the people around me, especially with a girl named Anu, who was of Indian decent. Her father was from India, but they currently lived in the states and her parents were pastors. We found ourselves embracing each other and smiling at each other quite a bit. We also both prayed briefly for each other ("more Lord" types of prayers) during the worship.
I don't know how it happened, but the crowd kept shifting around a little bit during the worship. Before long, and without intending to do so, we were dead-center of stage, but so far in the back that our legs were practically touching the chairs. Another lady had worked between Anu and myself. There was this one song where everyone was jumping up and down. Anu grabbed the lady's hand and the lady grabbed me with her other hand. Anu and that lady were jumping up and down, and I sort of felt obligated to do likewise. I was a bit worried about my ankle, but it did not start to hurt. This worship was so much fun. Even thought I was keenly aware of the other people and could feel the love of Christ shining through them, I was even more aware of God's love and pleasure on me.
Then a bit later, I ended up about two rows of people into the crowd, instead of being on the outside edge. I don't know how that happened, I wasn't consciously trying to move and I did not notice it happen.
Then the worship changed from celebration to deep worship. I felt like I just had to kneel before the Lord, but there wasn't a spot big enough to do that. So, I prayed silently, "Lord, I want to bow before You, but there is not room to do so physically, so I am bowing before You in my heart." Right after I prayed that, things shifted around again and suddenly there was a spot big enough for me to kneel in. I was reminded of Psalm 37:4, where God gives us the desires of our heart. I had desired a place to kneel and He gave me one. So I knelt down and worshiped.
As I was in the process of kneeling down, the Lord pointed out a lady to me. He told me that she had cancer and that He was going to heal her tonight. I thought about getting up and moving over to pray for her, but I really wanted to worship at that moment. So I asked the Lord to put us together a bit later in the service so I could pray for her. Then I went ahead and knelt down in the spot the Lord had made for me.
At this point, I became less aware of the people around me and much more aware of God and His glory. I wasn't in a vision at that moment, but the worship felt very similar to what I'd experienced when I'd been caught up to Heaven to worship before God's throne in a vision.
God started speaking to me personally as I worshiped, and He reminded me of the things He'd promised me in the shower-vision that afternoon. He also reminded me of the engagement ring He'd put on my finger and at that moment, I could both see and feel it. The Lord's presence was so real and so tangible during the worship that it almost felt like I was in Heaven.
The worship went for a solid hour and a half, and when it was over, none of us wanted it to end. One of the Fresh Fire staff got up to do announcements, but someone started a "Jesus" chant. We were all clapping our hands and calling out the name of Jesus over and over again. That lasted at least ten minutes.
Then it was time to go to our seats. I was actually very close to mine, since it was in the front row. I leaned over and asked Anu if she had a seat, and she said, "Not yet." So I invited her to sit with me in one of the two I'd saved on the front row. It was amazing--at one point I had 5 seats (because I was expecting my friends to come to the meeting), and not a single one of them went unused. It almost seemed like the Lord had choreographed that.
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