God actually let me sleep most of Saturday night. I woke early in the morning and had a really good worship time. He seemed to be meeting me so powerfully in my personal devotions. After worship, He began to speak to me about His plans for the day. He told me that they would be bringing me to four services that day.
"No, Lord," I corrected Him. "Sharath told me last night that we would only be doing three services instead of four."
"Who are you going to listen to, Me or Sharath? Do you think I am confused and don't know what I am talking about?"
I realized how stupid it was for me to try and correct Him and felt suitably rebuked. He proceeded to give me instructions on what to say at the first and last of the services, but did not give me any instructions for the middle two services. I committed the day to Him and again asked for Him to show me clearly what He was doing so that I could accurately serve and represent Him.
That morning at breakfast, Sharath told me that I would be taken to four services instead of three. Since time was very short, he wanted me to keep my comments to only 10 to 15 minutes (including interpretation) at each place and not to pray for people. That seemed a little odd to me. I asked if it would not be better to do just one or two services and allow me to really minister at them. He said that there were so many churches who wanted me to come visit that he needed to do it that way. It did not feel right to me and I did not have a witness in my spirit from God on this strategy. But that was what Sharath wanted, so I agreed to it.
The first church he had me speak at was the church that was on the bible college property. As we were on the platform, he again reminded me that I must keep it very short. This time he told me not to go more than 10 minutes, including interpretation, just to bring greetings and not to preach. I told him that God had given me a short message for this service and I'd like to bring it. He said, we don't have much time because we have to rush to other churches, so I must keep it very short.
So when I was introduced I gave a very short message from Matt 7:7-11 on asking expectantly from God and receiving from Him, because He has so much He wants to give. I explained the tense of the Greek verb was to begin and then keep on doing it. That it translated more like "Ask and keep on asking and never stop asking, and you will receive and keep on receiving and never stop receiving." I told them that God wanted us to ask Him for spiritual gifts like a little kid who really wanted something. The kid doesn't just ask once, they keep on asking and keep on pestering the parent for a long time until they get what they are asking for. They ask expecting to receive it. And God wants us to expect to receive good gifts from Him.
I kept the entire thing (initial greetings, preaching and interpretation) to just under 15 minutes. When I was done, he asked me to sit down and then Sharath proceeded to preach a 30-minute sermon. I was sort of upset about that. It was hard to keep a pleasant expression on my face, which I had to do since I was sitting on the platform and many of the people in the congregation were looking at me, waving at me, etc. If Sharath wanted to preach that service, he should have just told me that he was going to preach instead of telling me I was the speaker but we must keep it short because we had to go to other churches. Did he think I was so stupid that I would not notice he was preaching a 30-minute sermon after asking me to keep it very short and not really giving me time to share what God had spoken to me for that service that morning?
I found some ungodly attitudes rising up in me towards Sharath and I knew I could not allow that to happen, or I would not be able to minister effectively because God would hold me accountable for those attitudes. So I began to tell God about it, ask His forgiveness for having attitudes and ask Him to help me have good attitudes and to think/feel and act in a way that pleases Him. I know that our thoughts and motivations are just as important to Him as our behaviors. It was a bit of a struggle to get my thoughts and attitudes in submission to God as Sharath preached on and on after telling me to keep it short because we needed to hurry to the next church. But I had half an hour to work on my attitude and to give the day and the services to God and allow this to become His problem and not my problem.
Shortly before the service ended, the Lord told me, "Teresa, did it occur to you that today might be a test for Sharath to see how he will respond?" "Huh Lord?" I asked. I tried to get Him to explain His statement to me, but He would not say anything more to me on it.
When Sharath finished speaking, they did another song and I was ushered out of the church during that song. Shanti (his wife) and Shanti (his seven year old son who was very excited about God) both accompanied us to the other three churches. Sharath drove and I was in the front seat, And the two Shantis were in the back seat. Shanti,Jr. was excited and it was a bit of a noisy half-hour drive.
The second church we went to was Shravn's church. He is one of Sharath's bothers and I know Shravn and his wife fairly well. I was glad to hear that I would be going to his church. The last time I visited, he was pastoring a different church in a different village. We had done a three day outreach there, where we ended up having a power encounter with the priests of the local god, who was depicted as a statue of a snake with arms and legs. The third day of our crusade was on the same day as the big annual regional celebration in honor of this god, and the priests had tried to curse our meeting to rain it out -- so that only their god would be honored on that day. But God turned the tables on them. He had it rain out their festival and the only dry place was our meeting. So people came from the festival to our meeting to get dry and they ended up hearing about our God.
Shravan had since planted another church in a different village and was pastoring it. His new church had grown pretty large, with over 200 members. Sharvan was in Chinnai with some American missionaries who just arrived, and the associate pastor was leading the service.
As we entered the building, the associate pastor was doing the closing prayer that would end the service. So instead of going directly to the front, we stayed in the back so as not to disrupt the prayer, which lasted for about 5 minutes. When it was done, Sharath whispered to me to only say a few words of greeting since service was over. He told me not to preach anything and not to pray for anyone. I guessed maybe that was why God had not given me anything for the second and third churches.
I was brought up front and greeted warmly by the church members. Sharath came to translate. I brought them greetings from America, from my church and from my family. Then I told them about my 71 hour trip out. (That would bore Americans, but the rural village Indians really love that sort of thing.) They were all smiling and nodding and living the trip with me. Then I told them how gracious and friendly and hospitable I had found the Indian people to be and how all that effort getting here was well worth it to meet the people. I threw in some other standard greeting stuff and then thanked them for having me come to visit their church. They all loved it. (Indians are very different from Americans in terms of what they like in a greeting.)
When I was done, Sharath tried to usher me quickly out, but a few of the children (the congregation was over 50% children) had clustered around me. So I shook one little boy's hand as I passed him. The next thing I knew every child in the place was clustered around me, wanting me to shake their hands and then giving me what the Indians use to say "Please pray for me." So I began to do quick blessings prayers on the children. Then the adults (mostly women, only a few men in the congregation that day) were also clustered around me and wanted prayer. Some were gesturing at certain parts of their body, which meant they needed healing there. So I ended up praying for close to 100 people. I prayed really quick prayers, like 30 seconds a person. But it still took a long time to pray for that many people. Sharath was really restless and in a hurry by the time I finished. He sort of politely bawled me out for taking the time to pray for all of those people. I had not done it on purpose, it just sort of happened. Still, I don't think God was mad at me for praying for them, I think He wanted to meet and bless them.
Just as we were leaving the building, Shravn's wife came to greet me. We gave each other a big hug and then she handed me a present, a lovely pink silk saree, which must have been very expensive. I thanked her for it. I wanted to spend more time with her, but Sharath sort of dragged me to the car and told me we had to hurry to the next service.
The next service had started later in the day, so it was still going when we arrived. This service was much smaller, about 30 people. Again, Sharath reminded me to only bring a few minutes of greeting and then we must leave. So I did the same greeting I used at the last place. Then Sharath got up there and spoke -- again. He went longer than I did. While he was speaking, they brought sodas for myself and the two Shantis. Seven year old Shanti gobbled his down in less than a minute and gave them back the bottle. (In India, you have to drink the soda right away and return the bottle, you can't take it with you.)
I don't like soda, it is too sweet for me. I drank about half of my soda and sat on the platform holding the bottle, waiting for Sharath to finish speaking. He just kept going on and on. I started to feel irritated again. He did not let me preach, but then he seemed to be preaching a sermon himself. As soon as I saw the attitude surfacing in me, I reminded myself that this was God's problem, not mine. I got my attitude under check very quickly this time. After a while, Sharath turned to me and told me I needed to finish my soda quickly so he could end the sermon. I am not quite sure I understand why I had to finish my soda before he could end, but I complied. I chug-a-lugged down the rest of the soda and gave back the empty bottle. Sharath went another 5 or 6 minutes, then he ended.
As we tried to leave, the people followed us out and began to grab my hands and put it on their foreheads (where we touch them to pray blessing prayers). I was not sure what to do. Sharath had forbibben me to spend time praying for people, but the people clearly expected/wanted prayer. It was already 1:30 PM and we still had one more church to visit. I asked God what to do and He told me to bless the people. So I began to pray for them. Fortunately, since they were such a small group, it only took 20 minutes to pray for each of them.
When we got back to the car, I asked Sharath why he preached for so long if he was in such a hurry to get to the next church. He said, "After you finished speaking, the pastor asked me to address the people. So what could I do? I had to speak to them or I would have disappointed them."
Just then the Lord spoke to me again and reminded me that today was some sort of test for Sharath. I did not understand the nature of the test, so I did not know if he was passing or failing God's test. I realized I really had to leave things in God's hands and let Him be totally in control. "Yes," God replied to my unspoken thought, "I really do prefer it that way. I like to be the one who is in control."
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