I came early to help vacuum and straighten chairs. There were about 8 or 10 others in the room doing the same thing. I saved a pair of seats on the aisle on the second row. But just in case that row got roped off as "reserved seating," I also saved two seats on the aisle about six rows farther back. My intention was to give up which ever pair of seats I did not need as soon as I knew which rows they would mark as "reserved."
I worked on chairs for about an hour and then (because I had my volunteer sticker on from the previous day) I was invited to help at the door. There are two doors from the product room to the auditorium. One is the main entrance and the other is the volunteer entrance. The night before, non-volunteers had flooded in that volunteer entrance before they were allowed in the room, and took all the front seats that are usually given to the pastors and internationals (who are allowed in 1/2 hour before everyone else). So they decided to put a person on the door to only let the volunteers in, and I was that person. I was quickly given the basic info of the types of questions most people would ask, such as what line to get in, where internationals signed in, where the pastors got their wrist badges, what time doors open, etc. I was stationed at the door from 4:00 until 5:40 when they came and got me because they needed more people on the ministry team.
It was a lot of fun to talk to answer people's questions and talk to everyone. However, I saw something I wished I could do, but was not able to do because of my current "door responsibility." I would love to have been free to go up to various people in line and pray for them as they waited (since I had my prayer team badge on from the night before). I thought about how much more pleasant it would be for the people standing in line if they were getting healed or drunk in the spirit or otherwise met by God. If the Lord sends me back there again and the volunteer situation is the same, then I will probably do that at least one evening--come early to bless the people standing in line to get into the meeting.
I was kept busy between "door duty" and ministry team training. When that was over, I tried to go back to my seat to remove my stuff from the second location, since they'd not roped off the first one. But I never made it as far as my seat. I had the "Volunteer" badge on, and and it seemed like almost everyone in the building had a question or comment for me. Also, some people saw my "Ministry Team" badge and asked me to pray for them. Even though it was only a five-minute walk from where the training ended to the seats I wanted to release, I never got that far before someone else would ask me for something.
Before I knew it, it was 6:30 and time for ministry team impartation prayer. Somehow the team had grown huge, and there was a very long line of people waiting to receive impartation. I was smack dab in the middle of the line. I tried to focus on God while waiting for my turn, but my mind switched to analytical mode for some reason. I thought about how light God's presence/touch had felt in the three previous times I received impartation prayer. Other's had manifested strongly and appeared to feel a strong touch of God. I thought to myself, "I wonder if it took?" (e.g., had I received impartation even though I felt nothing?) I remember telling the Lord, "Well, Lord, if it didn't take, this is Your last chance on this trip. Please do impart increased healing and revival into me."
It took a while for the man who was praying to reach me. As he was praying for the person next to me, the Lord whispered in my ear, "Teresa, you are going to go ballistic this time."
I wasn't sure if it was God's voice or my own thoughts, so I told myself, "I hope that was God's voice. But just in case it wasn't, I am not going to manifest unless God is REALLY touching me strongly, and I can't help it."
Right then the guy praying for us grabbed the palms of my hands and began to pray for impartation. He let out this really loud "ohhhhh" from his gut. When he did, it was like the power of God came on me and electrocuted me. I heard myself scream. I felt my head snapping rapidly from side to side. My who body was shaking and my feet were making a motion like I was running in place. It felt like there was an earthquake going on around me, and I lost my sense of up/down and had no idea if I was standing upright or laying down or what. I was aware of the intern still holding the palms of my hands in his, and I felt this huge surge of power going through my body. In my spirit, I had this sense of God's amusement, as if God were really enjoying touching me in a powerful way.
At some point I went down and the catcher was very good to keep me from landing heavily or hitting my head. I was momentarily impressed at how he did such a good job of taking care of me while my body was manifesting so strongly. Then I became more aware of God's glory, and I was "lost" in His presence for a bit. His power continued to surge through my body. At times, I was aware of my body and what it was doing, and at other times I was only aware of His nearness. At one point I noticed that my feet were kicking the floor really fast and my hands were making rapid chopping gestures. The intensity of the Lord's presence on me seemed to increase and I became aware of nothing other than His power surging through me. Part of me felt like my body could not survive this, but another part of me knew that God was good and that He had no intention of killing me.
After a bit, the intensity seemed to slow down a bit and come over me in waves. At one point, I was able to open my eyes and look around, and I noticed that there were still 2 or 3 people getting prayed for. Then I was lost in the Lord again. Sometimes it was His wonderful peace/love/presence. Other times it was this very intense sense of His power on me.
I don't know how long that intensity lasted, but when I next opened my eyes, most of the people on the ministry team and left the area. There were only two people left, both men, and they appeared to be checking on me. I decided that I should "get up," but God was not done with me. I could move my arms and legs, but my shoulders, back and hips appeared to be "glued" to the floor.
One of the men tried to help me up, but he could not budge me. I told him, "I think God has glued me to the floor." The two guys prayed blessings over me and did all the sorts of "renewal meeting" prayers from the "old days." They "splashed blessings" at me, which is just a hand gesture in the air, but I could feel a spiritual impartation hitting me. One of them touched my feet hand hands and prayed things like "more Lord." I was hit was the joy of the Lord and broke out laughing and could not stop.
After a while they left me, but God did not. One of them said, "I will come back and check on you later to make sure you are ok." I said "Thank you." I thought to myself, how could I not be ok when God was all over me like this. I tired to get up again as they walked away, but I was still glued to the floor. So I invited the Lord to "come get me" again, and He did. This time He seemed more playful and loving than powerful, but it was a wonderful experience.
Then the worship started. I was in the "back part" of the tent. which was closed off from the main meeting. They "open up" the back part of the tent on the big attendance days (usually Fridays and Saturdays). Sundays have a smaller crowd, so they close off that part of the them.] I was mostly alone in the room, though there was a group of children playing not far from me. I could hear the worship music, but I could not see the stage because the canvas sheets were up separating the back section from the rest of the tent. But I was more in the Lord's presence than I'd been at any of the meetings, and it felt like I was in Heaven right before God's throne. I told the Lord that for this particular worship session, I had the "best seat in the house."
The Lord responded by reminding me of a time when He'd caught me up into a vision of Heaven, and I was before His throne while everyone was worshiping Him. In that vision, God had started interacting with me directly and personally in the midst off all that worship. I had been astonished at the time, because I thought He would have wanted to give His attention to receiving their worship. But God explained to me that He is a relational God and that He loves to interact personally with each person worshiping Him. From the perspective of the worshiper, it feels like you have God's undivided attention. But He is so big and so omniscient that He can give that type of attention to every single person worshiping Him. He once told me that the reason the angels enjoy worshiping Him so much is because they love to be in that place of intimate communication with God that occurs during their worship.
Then God began communicating with me in that manner. His presence was so wonderful and His love so overwhelming that it made me worship Him all the more--and He responded by allowing me to sense of His nearness. It was like this wonderful cycle of increasing intensity of worship.
In addition, God talked to me about various things. I told Him that I missed the visits to His throne in Heaven and I wished He would take me there again in another vision before I die. He asked me what it was that I missed in particular. That was a hard question for me, because it was all so wonderful. Obviously, His manifest presence and glory were the most important thing, and I was receiving that at the moment. But there were other things I liked as well, such as seeing countless angels and glorified saints bowing before Him in worship, the majesty of His throne, the heavenly fire flowers that I loved looking at. The Lord responded by showing me some of the fire flowers.
I asked Him if He's also show me the angels bowing before His throne. He said, "No, but I will show you the ones in this room." Then He told me to open my eyes. I did, and of course the first thing I saw was the ceiling, since I was laying on my back on the floor. Then He opened my eyes to see in the spirit, and I saw a huge number of angels hovering over the room and worshiping God along with us. I could not see their faces because they were facing forward towards the stage and I was behind most of them. But I could see their white glimmering robes, and I could see rainbows of translucent colors radiating off of them as they reflected the glory of the Lord. I felt delight that the Lord would show me this, and I looked at it for a while. But I found myself wanting Him more than I wanted to see His angels. So I closed my eyes and worshiped some more. I don't know how long that lasted, but it was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of half an hour.
At one point, one of the two men from the ministry team came back to check on me. He walked in circles around me, praying blessings over me. I could feel the love of God surrounding me and I had am amazing time. After a short while, he went back to his seat. I tried to get up, but found I was still glued to the floor.
The children who had been playing in the other corner of the room had worked their way over to where I was and they were playing recklessly. They where throwing sweaters up in front of the air conditioning vents (which let out a strong steam of air) to watch it blow across the room. The sweater landed on me and they nearly trampled me to retrieve it. They started really bothering me because they were sort of reckless, and also a bit on the irreverent side. They were also stepping on my hands and arms as they ran past me. I tried to get up again because the children were really bothering me by this point, but the Lord still would not let me up. He asked me to give Him one more song. I asked God if He'd please move the kids off me for that song, and He did. The fact that the children were playing while the adults worshiped did not seem to bother Him at all, so I decided not to let it bother me.
I had wonderful "last song." I worshipped Him along with the congregation, while being strongly in His presence. When it was over, the Lord said, "Ok, you can get up now." So I tried to sit up and discovered that my back was no longer glued to the floor. I sat there for a few minutes but the group of kids moved back to where I was and started trampling me again. So I stood up to move away from themn, and discovered I was a bit drunk in the spirit. I staggerred a bit as I tried to walk. I wandered away from where the unsupervised children were playing, and then stopped to worship the Lrod a bit longer. It was still good to worship, but nearly as amazing as when I was on the ground under the Lord's power.
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