Thoughts From Teresa

As you know, I have been working out at the gym a lot since God spoke to me and told me to get in shape last Jan. I average about two hours a day there, about five to six days a week, or 10 to 12 hours per week. The gym has become very much a part of my life, so God expects it to become a part of His life as well. You see, God wants to move into the areas where we have a scope of influence and work in them to transform them for His glory.

You might say, "Yea, but a gym is not a very spiritual place. It belongs to the fitness world, not to the Church." Yes, that is the way it is right now, but God wants to change that. God never set up a distinction between Church and secular. He wants to be Lord of it ALL. If you look at the early days of the Bible, you will see that God expected to be deeply involved in all areas of day-to-day life. Just look at the Jewish laws, which He gave through Moses, and you will see that they touch every area of our existence. What happened is that over time, the Church advocated several areas, saying "This is not an area that we want to influence any more. We are not interested in this area."

At that point, those abandoned areas became neutral territory. It wasn't being influenced by the Lord any more and it wasn't being influenced by the devil yet. It was free territory and was "up for grabs" so to speak. The devil is a freeloader. He wants to build his kingdom any way he can, and he will take whatever territory he can get and claim it and transform it and make it his. When the Church gives a territory up, then there is no one with the power or authority to protect it from the devil, because only Jesus and the Church have greater power/authority the Satan. The devil has a lot more power than unassisted mankind (unregenerate humanity), but he does not have nearly as much power as God or His Church (e.g., us). So when the Church stops claiming an area, the devil usually moves in and takes it over.

Over the years, the Church has been advocating more and more areas to the devil... the music industry, the entertainment industry, financial systems, politics, our education systems, etc. And God has gotten tired of that. He wants these areas back. He wants His people to move in to a territory and claim it for His kingdom. God want to redeem the things that have been corrupted by the devil and He wants to transform them and bring His glory back into them. He wants to do this in every area of our existence.. He wants businesses run by godly standards, He wants the entertainment and music industries turned around to promote His values, etc.

And because I go to the gym on a regular basis, God wants to bring His glory to my gym as well. So I have begun to pray into that as I work out. When I am doing the weights, I need to concentrate on the weights so that I don't accidentally injure myself. But when I am resting between sets, I can pray and invite the Lord's presence into the gym. But when I am doing cardio (e.g., the treadmill, the elliptical, the stair climber, etc), then I don't have to concentrate on that piece of equipment. I can use the time I am working out on the cardio equipment to worship, to pray and to invite the Lord's presence to my gym. I can begin to ask Him to touch hearts, to transform the lives of those who are working out around me. I can pray for the staff and ask God to work in their lives. The bottom line is that when I go to the gym, God wants me to bring Him with me and to invite His glory into that area of my life.

And He wants that from each of us. Many of you don't work out at a gym, but you are employed and you go daily to work or you are in school. Begin to invite the Lord to work or to school with you. Ask Him to begin to glorify His name in that place, since you have a right of access to it. Ask Him to start to transform it, to bring His Spirit there, to further the kingdom of God in that place. He wants to move in with you and take those things over for His kingdom, to bring His glory and His presence back to them, to reclaim them for the kingdom and to transform them so that they can be used for His purposes. And that is something that God would like us to be praying into as we go about our daily business.

I would like to share a little bit about how God has been coming to the gym with me and some things He did there last week, to give you an example of what it can look like. Part of what He does is to lead me to pray and invite His presence, and part of what He does is to positively effect other people for His kingdom in that place. As you read this, please remember that God wants to do similar things in your life, He wants to touch and effect the areas where you spend large portions of your time on a regular basis. So as you read these testimonies, begin asking God what He wants to do through your life and how you might work with Him in that process.

Let's start with last Wednesday, and how God prompted me to pray. I was working out on the treadmill, about 10 minutes into my 80 minute workout. The way the gym is set up, you can see the entrance where people enter and exit the gym out of the right hand side corner of your eye as you work out. For the most part, you just ignore them because you are busy doing your own exercise. But this one lady came in an I could not help noticing her. She was short and had short blond hair. I did not really get a good look at her face because I just noticed her out of my peripheral vision and to crane my neck way around to look at her... By then she was behind me and I could only see her back. But I thought to myself, "There is something really familiar about her, I think I know her." Then it hit me who that lady reminded me of: Heidi Baker.

I thought to myself, "No, that could not possibly be Heidi because she is probably preaching/ministering in some other part of the world. But what if it was her? What would God do in this gym if someone with Heidi's anointing walked in?" Then God told me that I have the same Holy Spirit in me that Heidi carries, so she doesn't need to be physically present here to pray the same things I would pray if she had in fact walked into the gym. God can move through any of His children and bring Hs glory into their sphere of influence.

So I began to pray into that, asking God to bring His tangible presence into this gym, that it might become a place of His glory. I asked Him to meet people, to touch them, to set them free from the bondages of the devil that plague them. I asked God to move in and take over this gym with His glory, cause people to be saved and cause them to be healed and cause them to fall passionately in love with Him. I asked Him to let revival break out in my gym.

And because I was still not sure whether or not that person who walked in was Heidi, I kept twisting around on the treadmill trying to spot her in the gym and look at her face. But I could not see her. So I prayed that God would allow me to run into her before she left the gym so I could see whether or not it was Heidi. As I prayed that, I was reminded of the verse from Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." I knew He was going to answer that prayer, so I stopped looking for her.

But I continued to pray and intercede as I worked out. And my workout went so fast that I was still in intense prayer and unaware of how time had passed when the machine turned itself off at the end of the workout. God's presence seemed so real and so tangible that the time just flew by.

When I got of the treadmill, I deiced to just go to the locker room and skip my abdominal exercises and stretching. Guess who I passed on one of the weight equipment right on the aisle as I walked to the locker room? Yep, it was the lady who I had seen walking in. I got a good look at her face, she was not Heidi. So I thanked the Lord for letting me see her close up. Then I asked God to transform the gym in the same way He would if He had sent her to my gym.

The next day, Thursday, should have been a weight equipment and strength building day. But God whispered to me that He wanted me to work out on the treadmill instead. So I did. About 10 minutes into my workout, my trainer walked up and said hello. (If I had been working out on the weights, he probably would not have come over, because the weights take a lot more concentration than the cardio equipment does, so they don't usually talk to you when you work out on the weights.) I had been witnessing to him a bit and he wanted to talk about God. So we started talking about God and have a very powerful conversation. He had experimented with praying and asking God for help in a given situation, and God had actually answered his prayer. So he was excited and wanted to talk about God. We talked for about 20 minutes.

Then a lady trainer walked by and he called her over, saying she was another Christian and he wanted to introduce me to her. As it turns out she was between clients and had some free time. So the three of us talked about God for another 30 minutes.

At one point my trainer said that he was not quite ready to give his heart to God because he knew that there were some things God would want him to give up if he did that, and he wasn't quite ready to give those up yet. So I suggested that he pray a prayer like this, "God, would You please reveal Yourself to me and show me what You are really like? And please also show me what you want your relationship with me to be like." He thought that was a wonderful prayer and went and got some paper and pencil to write it down. He came back and had me dictate the prayer to him as he wrote. He said he was going to start praying that. So I know it is just a matter of time until God brings him into the kingdom.

Thursday seemed incredible because an unbeliever came up to me while I worked out and asking me about God. And also it was neat to meet one a Christian trainer at the gym. It turns out that she is very on fire for the Lord. Her brother (also a trainer at the gym) is also very on fire for God. I had not met him ... our schedules just did not seem to jive. So I silently prayed and asked God to work it out for me to meet him sometime soon.

God did not take long to answer that prayer. I did not plan to work out on Sunday, but in the late afternoon, I felt prompted to workout. I figured that was because God wanted me to get extra exercise in on the weekend because I would not be able to work out while I was speaking at the conference in Kentucky during the later half of the week. But God had a double agenda. He had also arranged a divine appointment for me to meet that trainer I had asked Him to let me meet.

I started doing my strength building instead of cardio. But after I had done two pieces of equipment, God spoke to me that I should work out on cardio instead. So I obediently went to my favorite treadmill, the one by the entrance. It couldn't have been ten minutes later when this man walked up and introduced himself. He was the Christian trainer that I had prayed to meet. It was his day off, but he came to the gym to work out.

My trainer had hold him I was a "healer" so he wanted to meet me. We talked for about 40 minutes and inspired each other in the Lord. He has a strong evangelism gifting and witnesses to his clients and has led some of them to the Lord. He really has a heart to pray for the sick and see them healed, and from time to time God allows him to pray for people and see healings. He asked me to pray for him after I finished my workout. He went off to do his workout. I spent the remainder of my treadmill workout praying again similar to how I prayed on Wednesday with I thought Heidi might have walked into the gym.

It is clear that God is setting something up in this gym. There is another man they told me about, who is a minister who works out there regularly. I will probably meet him next week. In addition, there are two strong Christian trainers here and God has sent me there as well. It really does look like He is actively in the process of taking over this gym for His glory. I can hardly wait to see what He does next!

Are you feeling inspired about how God can move into an area of a person's life that seems mundane and begin to work His glory there?

If not, then get inspired, because God wants to do the same sort of thing in your life. So it is time to start prayerfully reviewing your own life and asking God what area of it He wants to move into with His glory. God is calling to you be a carrier of His presence into those areas of the secular world that He wants to touch and transform. Begin inviting Him into them with you and you will be amazed at the things God can do!