The worship at this conference was really nice. It seemed to be more of a deep worship that seemed to usher in the Lord's presence. After worship ended, I was given the microphone. God teased me just as I was standing to take the microphone, so I realized He was in a playful mood. It sort of carried over into my introduction.
Before I did anything else, I prayed to invite the Lord's presence, to take authority over the room and kick out any demons and to turn control of the meeting over to the Lord. That is sort of a standard way that I start services. I had learned, the hard way, that if I don't turn control of the meeting over to God, it usually does not go all that well. I really prefer it when He is in control, because then He really anoints me as I preach. So I routinely give Him total control of any meeting that I minister at.
The first thing I did, after praying, was to obey God about the object lesson on giving a gift. I asked for a volunteer to come up and help me, and no one volunteered at first. Then the sponsoring pastor's wife came up. I thanked her for offering to help but told her that I really needed a volunteer who was not in leadership in the church. Then a very sweet and very shy 16-year old girl finally came up.
I thanked her for coming up to help me and asked her name. Then I remembered God's playful mood and decided to have a little bit of fun with her. I told her that the way she was going to help me was to preach the sermon for me. I handed her the microphone and made a gesture like I was about to go sit down. Her eyes got wide and her mouth fell open and she looked terrified.
I immediately took the microphone back from her and told her that I was just teasing. Then I went into the object lesson God gave me on receiving a gift from Him, and handed her the gift-wrapped cross. Her reaction could not have been better if I'd coached her. She stared at the present, wondering if it was really for her and if it was really ok for her to take it from my hands. So I talked briefly about how God has good gifts for us, but we have to take them when He offers them to us. She got the point and took the gift from my hand, holding it in front of her in both hands as though it were very precious.
Then I told the ladies that after we receive a gift from God, we have to decide whether we are going to lay it down on a shelf somewhere or if we are going to open it up and use it. I asked them what they thought God would want us to do with the presents. In Telegu they all started saying, "Open it! Open it!" So I asked the girl if she'd like to open the package? She said "yes" and opened it. It was a rhinestone cross. Her eyes got really wide and started to tear and she said something in Telegu. Sharath interpreted it for me, "I was just praying this morning for God to give me a cross necklace. And the one I pictured in my mind when I prayed looked just like this one!" (No wonder God had chosen her for the object lesson!)
Then I asked her if I could help her put it on, and she said "Yes." So I took the cross out of the box and put it on her neck and all the ladies applauded. The girl was crying, but she was also smiling from ear to ear. I thanked her and let her sit back down, which was cross-legged on the floor with the other ladies. The first thing she did was to take the cross and hold it up where she could look at it. She was clearly touched that God had answered her prayer. And it blessed me to watch the way God orchestrated this object lesson.
As she sat down, I began to tell everyone in the room that God wanted to give them the gift of faith that morning, just like I gave the cross necklace to our volunteer. But they had to receive the gift from God and put it on and begin to use it. From there I launched into the teaching on "growing in faith" that God had given me the outline for. As usual, He helped me preach it in the story teller fashion, where I told some bible stories of faith and acted them out as I told them. Indians seem to really respond to that style of preaching.
I talked about the Egyptian midwives (during the 400-year captivity) having faith because they refused to obey Pharaoh's command to kill the baby boys. But their faith was not perfect because they lied to Pharaoh when he called them to task for disobeying him and letting the baby boys live. We know God does not like lying because He explicitly commanded us not to do it in the 10 commandments. So I asked if God should punish the midwives for lying? If their faith was perfect they would have stood up to Pharaoh and told him that what he asked them to do was wrong. Their faith was not strong enough for that, especially since Pharaoh had a bad temper and had the ability to execute them. So they lied to him about why they did not obey his command. What did God do in response to this? Did He punish them for having imperfect faith and lying? Or did He reward them for stepping out in faith as far as they were able to at that time?
God choose to reward them for their faith. He understands that our faith is not perfect and He rewards us for stepping out in faith to the best of our ability -- even when it is not perfect. But He also causes our faith to grow and increase over time. The sermon went on to develop growing in faith in some detail.
Then I did some corporate ministry time where we received the gift of faith that God was giving us. The Lord fell on the people in noticeable ways ... some of them were crying, some were shaking, a few were smiling and laughing softly, some were lost in worship but it was obvious that the Holy Spirit was touching them and imparting into them.
I finished the first session at 1:30 PM. We were supposed to have a one hour lunch break. But there were so many people that came up for prayer after the service -- more than just the 50 or so who had been in the room while I taught. I don't know where they all came from.. but I prayed for people for well over an hour. Some wanted an impartation of faith. Some wanted a general blessing. Some wanted physical healing. God healed more than half of the ones who wanted healing. Sharath was too tired to translate for me while I prayed, so another man did that.
I had been praying for people for over an hour and we were past our scheduled start time for the next session. And new people were still coming to me for prayer. I finally cut them off and told them that I could not pray for anyone else because I had to eat lunch. At that point the man who had been interpreting asked me to pray for his wife, who had a serious health condition and could hardly stand. Since he had helped me pray for an hour, I went ahead and prayed for his wife.. and God healed her!
Then the sponsoring pastor's wife wanted prayer, so I had to pray for her,too. Then Michelle, his daughter, came to me and wanted prayer for the baptism for the Holy Spirit. That was a prayer I really wanted God to answer because I was quite fond of Michelle and it had touched my heart to watch her fast at that fancy breakfast buffet while the rest of us feasted. I knew she was desperately seeking God for this, so I knew I had to pray for her about it. I really wanted to see Him baptize her in the spirit right then and give her the gift of tongues that she so desperately wanted. So I prayed for her for some length of time.
But God did not answer that prayer. She did not get the gift of tongues. You could tell how disappointed she was just by looking at the expression on her face. I was disappointed, too -- I really wanted God to answer that prayer but we still had an afternoon meeting and one the next day. I hoped God would baptize her in the Holy Spirit sometime before I left Vizag.
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