After the baby naming ceremony was over, they took us to church. The building held about 200, with some folding chairs in the back and most people sitting on mats on the floor. There were also a whole bunch of folding chairs set up just outside the door, as though they expected to need an overflow room for larger crowds. The building was about 3/4 full.
Apparently we were quite late and they had been worshipping for some time. But no one seemed to mind the fact that we were late. They were all caught up in worship and totally enjoying themselves with the Lord. This was a very "alive" church, much more so than anything I'd seen in India up to this point. I really liked it there. They had Sharath and I sit in the front, as usual, behind a little folding table that served as the podium. They were still worshipping, doing one final song. It was a chorus with a peppy tune. Since I don't speak Telegu, I made up my own words in English and worshipped along. As I worshipped, I could feel God's presence coming on me.
Sometimes when I worship, it is almost like God takes me to another place and talks to me. That happened here. I forgot that I was sitting in the Indian service in the front of the room facing everyone. Instead, I was surrounded by the Lord's presence and breathing in His nearness. (I absolutely love it when He does that.) God did not keep me there long, just for a few minutes, and He gave me instructions for the service. He told me to prophesy to Pastor Joshua and to install him in the office of Apostle. God does not allow me to install someone in a five-fold office very often. I was particularly delighted that God wanted to do this for Pastor Joshua, as I really liked him and was totally impressed with his heart for God.
God also told me to preach the sermon he'd given me this morning on obedience -- even though it seemed like a hard sermon to me.
The worship song was ending and God seemed done with our conversation. So I pulled out of that special place with God and opened my eyes. The church building had filled up and there were all sorts of people sitting outside in the overflow chairs. When I was given the microphone, I started with a standard greeting.
I have this little routine I do with the Indian congregations asking them to be "Americans" for the day and to give me feedback when I ask them questions, by saying "yes" or "no" or by nodding or shaking their heads, etc. I had them practice it a few times on simple questions. They seem to love helping me out in this manner. It makes it so much easier for me to preach effectively when I am able to get feedback from them.
Then I called Pastor Joshua and his wife up for prophecy. His wife was not at the meeting.. she had too many relatives still at the house and was unable to get away. So just pastor Joshua came up. I knew that God was going to install him in the office of Apostle, but I did not know in advance what else God was planning to say to him. God began by telling him that He had found him faithful and a man of integrity, one who loved with the love of God. Then God began to speak to him about strategies to bring pastors together and to unite churches to work together, to raise up city-wide prayer meetings, etc. One of the men from the congregation had a little hand-held tape recorder, and he held it near me to record the prophecy. Even though Pastor Joshua speaks English, Sharath interpreted it into Telegu. The congregation broke into a huge applause when God had me set Joshua into the office of Apostle over this city. You could tell they loved him a lot and were very pleased with what God said to him.
After I finished prophesying, Pastor Joshua whispered to me that he and Sharath had been talking about that very thing -- bring the pastors of the various churches together in unity to advance the kingdom earlier that morning. It was a new "vision" God had recently given him and it was such a strong confirmation for him to hear me prophesy some of the details he and Sharath had discussed regarding that.
When it came time to preach, I did something I don't normally do. I told the people that I was an ordained Southern Baptist minister. I wondered why I had mentioned that, but it turns out the Holy Spirit had prompted me to do that for a very specific reason. I did not find out what it was until after the service was over.
The sermon went surprisingly well. I had expected that it would be difficult to keep people's attention because it was such a "hard" topic. I simply taught the first point, having various people in the congregation read the scripture passages. When it came to the second point about the three leadership people who God held accountable, I found myself acting out their stories. The third point allowed me to tell some stories, one of my own and portions of Heidi Baker's testimony. While I was talking, the Holy Spirit began moving on people's hearts. He was stirring a hunger and longing in them, preparing them to make a serious covenant to obey Him, to make Jesus truly Lord and boss of their lives. Some of them had done that previously, but it was new to many of them.
When I got to the part about making a covenant with God, I spent a lot of time explaining how serious this was and how you could not change your mind later on. I explained that God's part is to 1) show us clearly what he wants from us and 2) empower us to do it. Our part is to obey Him instantly once He makes His will clear to us. Then I asked how many people would like to enter into that type of arrangement with God. Pretty much every hand in the place went up. Indian's have been trained to be polite, and sometimes they raise their hands out of politeness. So I asked everyone to put their hands down and once again explained it. This time I put in scenarios of things God might ask them to do, such as leave their families to share the gospel in other places, violate some of the new laws against holding evangelical meetings in public places and end up in jail, etc.
Then I asked for another show of hands and most of the hands still went up. I was getting ready to explain it one more time, thinking they were just being polite. But God spoke to me and said that He had prepared their hearts and the decisions were real.
So I went ahead and led them into a repeat-after-me prayer to enter into an obedience covenant with God. When we finished that, I invited the people to cry out to God to empower them to be His witnesses, like He empowered the early church in Acts 2. This is where it got interesting. Some of the people had no problem crying out to God. They would sit or kneel with their hands raised and begin calling out to Him, feeling truly desperate for more of Him. Some of them came from more traditional backgrounds and were startled when people began crying out to God so earnestly. A few of them got up and left the meeting. Most just looked around, startled, and then bowed their heads and prayed silently.
The Holy Spirit began to come in and meet and fill people. There were manifestations of His presence and power on people all over the room. Some began to pray really loud in tongues (I was getting used to Telegu enough to realize that it was tongues and not praying out loud in their native language). Some were shaking under the power. Some were crying and some were slain in the spirit. The sense of the Lord's presence in the room seemed to grow immensely. It became tangible. Some people were kneeling and some were on their face. A general mayhem seemed to break out.. people crying out to God in their native language with everything that was in them. There was such earnestness, such hunger for God. Others were praying in tongues. It was noisy as His church called out to Him for MORE!
For a while I was using the microphone and sort of coaching them in how to pray -- "tell Him how much you love Him and how much you need Him," "Invite His presence," "Ask Him to fill you with His power to be His witness," etc. Sharath would translate. After a while, the Lord's presence was too strong, it was simply overwhelming. I could not continue and neither could Sharath. I knelt in His presence. Sharath muttered "praise God" over and over again (it is one of the few Telegu phrases I learned while I was there, so I understood what he was saying). The people had stopped listening to us and were simply responding to God's presence as He met each of them. The Holy Spirit had taken over the meeting again. It was wonderful.
This went on for some length of time. I have no idea how long it lasted, but it was wonderful. I was so caught up in God's presence that I did not think about the people for a long time. When I did open my eyes and looked at them, I saw many of the "hesitant" ones had entered in and God was meeting them powerfully and they were receiving from Him. I was delighted and then I closed my eyes again and put my attention and focus back on God, who was so tangible in the room at that moment.
After a while, the Lord spoke to me. "Teresa, just stay kneeling before Me and let the Indians have the rest of the service." That is precisely what I did. After a while Pastor Joshua picked up the microphone which I had set down, and he began to lead them in some type of corporate ministry prayer. It was a very powerful time for a long time. When the service was finally winding down, God told me to do an impartation prayer for the personal ministry time. I imparted an increased ability in each person to hear His voice and to move in His power and anointing. From time to time, I would be led to impart a particular spiritual gift into someone. I was very careful to only speak things God showed me to speak.
Eventually Michelle came to me for prayer. As I prayed for her, God led me to impart my prophetic mantel to her. (I don't do that very often, I only do it when God tells me to.) I was so delighted that God told me to do that for her. Up to that point, I had been a bit upset that God had not given her the gift of tongues, but now I saw He was giving her something much better. Even though Michelle spoke English, I don't think she understood what was going on. But I am sure the Lord will explain it to her later on when she begins to move in the prophetic.
After the service was over, we went back to Pastor Joshua's house for lunch. He told us that most of his relatives who came from out of town for the naming ceremony were Baptists. They had always been leery of his Pentecostal church. But first I told them that I was a Baptist minister and then I gave a very solid scriptural development of being empowered by God. Then I tied the empowerment to obeying Him and advancing God's kingdom and I never mentioned tongues. Many of his relatives were able to receive because it unfolded that way. That service was the first service where any of them had been touched by the Holy Spirit and many of them received the baptism, complete with tongues. Imagine that! Michelle never did get the gift of tongues, but most of her Baptist relatives did. God is smart and He has an amazing sense of humor.
[ Testimony Index Page ] [ Previous Article ] [ Next Article ]