I was sitting on the platform next to the VIP lady who had come late. She had caused a disruption when she arrived, then she used exaggerated gestures to communicate her desire to stop the meeting and do the ceremony to honor VIPs right away. Now, she was standing up in front of her chair, talking into the microphone.
I felt upset by how she usurped the meeting and how they just let her do it. I was also feeling upset because they'd stopped me mid-sermon, which I felt was rude. But mostly I felt upset because God had told me about His displeasure regarding the way the meeting was going. The other VIP, the last lady they honored, got up and left the meeting shortly after the lady took the microphone and began speaking. She just picked up her blanket and flowers and walked off of the platform. The pastor's wife came to meet her and helped her carry her stuff out of the auditorium. Sharath remained seated, so I remained seated next to him.
No one translated what the lady said, so I soon became bored. I decided to use the time to debrief with God. I wanted to double-check my hearing about when He told me He was upset. I knew that since I was somewhat offended by the way they interrupted my sermon, and it was possible that my offense was imitating God's voice to me. I wanted to make sure that what I'd heard was really God. I asked Him how He felt about the meeting.
In response He allowed me to sense His anger. It always shakes me when I sense His anger. So I asked Him if He was mad at me or if He was displeased with me for letting them take control away from Him. He said that I was not given a choice in the matter, so He held me blameless. However, He said that my personal offense was inappropriate -- I should not be offended that they took the meeting away from me, I should be offended that they took it away from Him. He reminded me that I was His representative and this was His meeting, not mine. You might say He put me in my place. And He was right. So, I found myself repenting for being self-focused instead of focusing on Him and His agenda.
God helped me to get my attitude in check very quickly. Then He told me that after the lady is done, they will ask me to give a short synopsis of what I wanted to teach. He reminded me that I was not to preach any more at this meeting because He had lifted His anointing from it. He was still unhappy that they'd taken control of the meeting away from Him in the middle of the meeting.
God went on to tell me how He had really planned to meet them and to empower them in the area of forgiveness. He desired to draw them into greater depths of intimacy with Him and He was prepared to pour out His spirit powerfully on them during the ministry time. That is why He had spent so much time that morning preparing me to be able to bring this message. That is why He had me work through my own issues with W__ until I truly felt the love and compassion of Christ for him and was able to forgive him from the bottom of my heart. If God had been left in control of this meeting, He would have released His presence and anointing like I had seen Him do several times in Razole. I felt sad for the people and what they missed.
I had to go to the bathroom really bad. The lady had already been speaking for half an hour and showed no indication of being ready to stop. So I finally left the platform and Michelle (who was assigned to take care of me) immediately came up to me and asked me what I wanted. I told her of my need and she took me to the restroom. It was a more involved process than I expected. Instead of taking me to the Indian style restrooms, she took me to the Pastor's home to ask where the American style bathroom was. The pastor's wife gave her a key to the American guesthouse (Located on the third floor of this three story church building.) That whole process took close to half an hour.
Some of the children had followed me out of the meeting. I mostly ignored them on my way to the toilet but they hung around and accompanied me down the three flights of stairs. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, I was not eager to go back into the meeting and climb back up on the platform and listen to the Indian lady some more. The kids were crowding around me, so I played the tickle game with them. They loved the game and caught on quickly. I would get in a little tickle and they would dart out of reach. Then they would tease me by presenting their tummies to me but staying just out of my reach. I played with them for five minutes or so before going back to the main auditorium.
The VIP lady finished talking about the time I got back. She had gone for an hour, which was longer than I'd been allowed to preach in the afternoon session. She stepped off the platform as I was walking in the door. She walked up to me, shook my hand and asked me if I could speak at her church on Friday (e.g. in two days). I said I was sorry, that was not possible, as I would be leaving for Vijayawada early Friday morning.
Sharath came to me and asked me to come up on the stage and preach a little, maybe ten minutes or so to give a brief feel of the six points for developing intimacy with God. I said that I could not do that because God instructed me not to preach any more at that session. He did not believe me and asked me another couple of times. I was not willing to risk making God mad at me by disobeying Him, so I refused each time.
Then Sharath asked me if I would at least come up to the platform and give a closing prayer. I threw up a quick "Is this ok with you God?" prayer and did not get a "yes" or a "no". Since I did not hear explicitly from God on this and had to make an immediate decision, I decided it would be ok because it was praying, not preaching.
I gave a short closing prayer asking God to meet the people and to manifest Himself to them. When that was over, I tried to leave the platform, but one of the children ran up to play the tickle game with me some more. Instead of trying to tickle the child, I made a "may I pray for you?" gesture. The child nodded and came and stood right in front of me and nodded her head. I prayed a short blessing prayer over her because I had a sense that God wanted to meet and bless her.
I was not expecting to pray for anyone else, but I found myself mobbed by people. It seems that everyone at the meeting wanted me to pray for them. God told me to go ahead and pray for them. He said that they recognized the anointing and were drawn to it. So I complied.
I could not sense all that much anointing as I prayed. Only a small percentage of the people who came for healing went away healed. I was tired and I just wanted to "go home" back to the pastor's house and rest. But this compassion rose up in me for the people, so I spent well over an hour praying for each person who wanted prayer.
When I finally finished, I discovered that they'd been serving tea to the attendees on the patio outside of the auditorium. They had already put away the paper cups. But when I mentioned that I wanted a cup of tea, they hunted up the paper cups and got me one. The tea was so good.
It was already dark when I left the building, but this facility had outdoor lighting. There was a half-hour delay as we waited for a taxi to arrive and then loaded it up with some of the stuff they'd brought to serve lunch and tea at this facility. As I waited, God told me to hunt up Sharath and explain to him that God does not like to have control taken away from him during a meeting. I complied. God gave me a very gracious and non-attacking way to explain this. I also told Sharath that if they take control away from me again during a meeting, then I am done speaking at that meeting. Don't expect me to come back to the microphone at all for any reason, not even to give a closing prayer.
Sharath said that he thought he understood, and the reason I said that was because ministers get into a flow when they are preaching and we must not break that flow or it is too hard for them to continue. I said that was not the reason. I said that flow and being able to break flow and come back to it was an individual thing with ministers -- some can break flow to do something else (providing God so directs) and then get back under His flow to continue the sermon. The problem was not about breaking flow, it was about taking control away from God after we gave it to Him. I spent a bit more time developing why God doesn't like that. It was like a light dawned and Sharath "got it", he understood.
Then Sharath explained that he had been in a very difficult position because Indian culture mandates that he, as a leader of the meetings, be sensitive to the wishes of the honored guests, and the lady had been giving him all sorts of signals to cut the sermon short and start the ceremony to honor her. At the time, he did not know what else to do. But after our discussion, he realized that it is more important to do what God wants to do than what important people want.
Yes! He really did get it. This was the area God had been testing him in earlier and he had not understood the principle of pleasing God over pleasing man at that time. But now he understood.
In fact, he was so excited about what he had learned that he spent the whole half-hour taxi ride back to the pastor's house explaining it to the other passengers. We had crammed a whole bunch of us in the taxi .. the pastor's wife and two of his adult daughters and a couple of children and myself. The pastor rode back on a scooter because there was not room for him in the car. Sharath was so excited at having learned this principle that he explained it to everyone in the taxi. I must say this about Sharath, when God quickens something to him, even something that was mildly corrective in nature, he becomes excited about it and desires to share what he has learned with everyone important to him. It was kind of a blessing watching Sharath process this. Maybe the afternoon had not been a "waste" after all -- God had managed to bring His glory into it by teaching Sharath an important principle.
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