Ask Teresa

Dear Teresa

I was wondering if you were ever considering bringing back the "Thoughts from Teresa" posts even on an as-led basis? I found what you shared in these posts interesting, inspired, and useful, so I wanted to ask you about it.

- Just Asking

Dear Just Asking

It is funny that you should mention this, because I was just thinking about it less than 24 hours before receiving your email. My current teaching series was about to end and even though I had another series in the works, it was not coming together well. I sent six tapes out to different transcribers to transcribe, so I could edit it into a teaching series. But two months later, only one of the transcribers had returned the file to me. I meant to write them to see why I did not have the transcripts, but each time I sit down to try and follow up with the other transcribers, some emergency comes up and takes my time and I never get around to it. I was incredibly busy at that time, having just returned from a missions trip and then a conference, so I was in catch-up mode and way behind in all aspects. Even though getting the next teaching series ready for the prayer-school was on my "to do" list, it kept falling through the cracks as I dealt several other high priority items.

One morning I woke up and realized that the series was about to end in a few weeks, and I had nothing in place for the next teaching and no time to write a new series from scratch myself. So I began to pray one of my most famous prayers, "Dear God.... Help!!!!" That was followed quickly by "Dear, God what should I do for the next prayer-school teaching series?"

Before I finished getting that prayer out of my mouth, I was reminded of the "Thoughts From Teresa" series that was written weekly, describing what was going on and what the Lord was showing me each week. It seemed like an easy solution because I would only have to prepare a teaching a week instead of writing ten or so teachings in advance of the first one ever going out. It would be sort of like writing a weekly column for an intercessor's newsletter. That sounded a whole not more manageable to me than trying to write an entire teaching series in a very short amount of time.

Then the next morning when I got up to check my email, I found your question about resurrecting "Thoughts From Teresa." At first I took it as a confirmation from God to write another weekly series and call it something like "More Thoughts From Teresa."

I was more or less the right track, but the Lord actually had something a little bit different in mind. Have you noticed that we often assume we know what God is going to do based on what He did the last time we were in that situation? And a lot of the time, we assumed wrong, and He has something else planned?

It is kind of like what happened to Moses. The first time they needed water, God told him to strike the rock with his staff, and water gushed out of it. So the next time the people were murmuring and complaining because there was no water, Moses assumed that God would want to do the same thing again. When God told him to go over a particular rock, Moses was sure he was in for a repeat of last time, because the circumstances were the same and God seemed to be giving him a confirmation about the "rock." Only it wasn't the same thing, no matter how similar it looked. This time God did not want Moses to strike the rock, He wanted him to speak to it and command water to come out of it.

The circumstances were the same, but God's plan of action was slightly different. The same thing is going on with the prayer-school. Once again I find myself in need of a teaching series with nothing already prepared. Once again I am to step out in faith and trust Him each week to give me what He wants shared on the list. But this time it is a bit different.

Instead of striking the rock (e.g., writing a weekly column on whatever topic God speaks to me about) I am to so something different. I still need to trust Him each week for direction, but instead of a weekly column, He wants me to answer various people's questions. It is sort of a "Dear Abby" or "Ask Ann Landers" type of thing, except that it will deal with questions about prayer, intercession, spiritual gifts hearing God's voice, growing in intimacy with Him, etc.

The questions will be presented in an anonymous way, not using the author's real name, so that the person asking them is not embarrassed and won't feel "put on the spot."

I get a lot of questions each week and I am trusting God to show me which ones He would like me to share on this series. Some of the questions will be specific to prayer and intercession, and others will be general things to do with our walk with God and with learning to grow in Him and how to move in His gifting and anointing. I hope you will find this question and answer series helpful.