Oh my goodness! This was probably the BEST service ever! I can't even figure out where to begin.... OK, so just the highlights, as there are so many things to report....PHEW! It first started with a phone call that poor Jose' was sick, and would not be coming to play the worship music. So we prayed for Jose' on our way to church and also prayed for him later together as a church body.
When we got there, there were already so many people waiting! So a few of our regulars came over to the van to help us unload all the stuff and to set up the table and get ready to serve breakfast. Last week in our small group, the six of us talked about how after church service is over and we are in the process of cleaning up, we get an onslaught of about 10 -20 people who come by to finish off the rest of the breakfast food and drinks. We decided that we didn't want to miss an opportunity to minister to these folks. So our plan this week was to make sure that each one of us grabbed one person at the end and asked them what we could pray for them about. It's interesting now, looking back, at how we were blind sighted this week. It won't happen again, that's for sure, we are onto Satan's ploy....
As we were unloading the casserole dishes and getting ready, about 25 people came out of no where and got in line to eat. So we served them breakfast and they cleaned out one of the coolers! And it was so cool! But we fully expected these folks to stay for church and thought we had plenty of time to minster to them after the busy-ness settled, but they just really came through like a bunch of hungry caterpillars and munched their way through the park and left after throwing their trash away! LOL!
But that's ok...cause you know what? We loved on them and fed them real good....and next week when they come back....and they will.....we will get 'em.....reel 'em in like little fishies! Can't wait! So anyway, my gosh, we served like 65 people today! Then we turned on the CD player and started playing some music. The next thing ya know, we are up there singing "Shackles" (take the shackles off my feet so I can dance...I just want to praise Him, I just want to praise Him) and dancing and praising and doing the electric slide! Alright now, try to steady yourself if you have a 'religious spirit' cause it only gets better!
So we are all up there dancing and gettin' our praise on, and the people are totally gettin' into it, praising God and worshiping. It was awesome!! Like a big ol' JESUS block party! Whooo-hooo! Yeah, you can dance at A Church Without Walls. So Steve gets up and does the morning announcements...which he totally rocks at....and breaks out into a mini Bible lesson and just totally had everyone really into it. He started talking about how the devil has been attacking all of us so heavily this week, and how we need to do some warfare against him, and get in the Word, and a few other things that I can't remember, but it was really good.....he is after all....a rock star. ;)
Then he introduces his wife Samantha to come up and pray for us......and she totally charges hell with a super soaker! Whoa! I'm tellin' ya, that sistah's got some "preach" in her! She talked about how she lost her job and how she wasn't going to let Satan have the victory and she was....I'm tellin' ya....ON FIRE.....right then and there...you could just SEE God all over her! It was way cool! She was jumpin' up and down and gettin' excited and that was gettin' us all excited, and the atmosphere was just being ripped open with her prayers for God to come through and take over! Whooo- hoooo!!!
Then Frank started to preach....he preached on intimacy with God.... And he commented that he wasn't even sure what he was going to preach on until the last minute....because he had something else, but God changed his message and told him to preach something else, but didnt' give him the something else until right up til just about time to start.....and he obeyed the Holy Spirit.....but the cool thing was since we didn't have a sound system this morning, we had to all pull in closer so everyone could hear....so while he was preaching on being intimate with God.....God was also pulling our church congregation ('bout 35ish of us this morning) together in a more 'intimate' setting....WAY COOL!!
So he starts off saying that whenever we hear something about being "intimate," we might immediately start thinking a "booty call." So he says God doesn't want a booty call, He doesn't want a one night stand....He wants the long term relationship, the closeness and affection that comes from really getting to know us, and not from us just getting from God what we want when we want it, He desires a more deeper intimacy from us.
Well, as you can imagine, everyone was rolling on the floor laughing at how Frank was talkin' about it.....at their level of understanding. He did an outstanding job. He really brought in some of the characteristics of God and Who He is. Then he did a sinners prayer and I saw one man repeating it. He was sitting close enough to me that I could hear his words. How cool is that? One more for the Kingdom!!!
Oh and at one point in the sermon, he had everyone stand up and repeat something and stomp on the ground as if we were trampling the serpent under our feet...it was a powerful tool to activate their faith...and we all got excited over using our weapons of warfare (the Word). Way cool! And several people came up again this week to give testimonies of the life transforming POWER of God....what changes have been made in their lives since they have been seeking Him. Several people came up and testified that God had given them JOBS! How cool is that?!?! Even "L" got a good paying job this week painting trim! God's effecting change down there! Whooo-hooo!!!
Well, as we went up front and were praying for people who wanted a more closer walk with God, those who wanted to press in for deeper intimacy, when I was done praying with someone, Samantha, Pam, and I were standing up there with the CD player playing How Great Is Our God....and spontaneously I called for all the ladies in church to come up. We stood in a circle and held hands, all together singing that song...worshiping God. It was so sweet and tender and loving and all together awesome! I can't even describe it. Something happened today in the spiritual realm, something supernatural, that broke through a barrier and brought the women together in unity and in celebration for Who God is and Who our Saviour is....and for a good duration we stood there singing and praising and praying.
Then I prayed, then Sam prayed, then Pam prayed, then I prayed some more. When I looked up, Samantha was going around the circle laying hands on each lady, praying for each one individually. It was so amazingly awesome to see her so out there for ministry when she had gotten so beat up this week! Yay God!!!!
Then I was telling the ladies that when we hold a little baby, the baby will snuggle in close to us to express his love to us the only way he knows how. And when a puppy comes up and licks your face, she does it because that's how puppies show love, and it's expressed differently than a human shows love. And because God is a Spirit, we show our love for Him differently too.
The Bible tells us to lift up Holy Hands to Him in praise. So we lift them up as an expression of love and adoration for Him. And guess what? They all lifted up their hands and started to worship Him with hands held high! It was totally cool. And I talked a little bit about offering sacrifices of praise, even though we had a bad week, like when we had our bank account cleaned out by a thief, our circumstances do not need to affect how much we praise God.
And then I told them that if it does, if it's hard to worship, then we offer it in sacrifice. The ladies were really enjoying God's Presence, and I encouraged them to lift their voices and audibly praise Him...and they DID! Whooo Hooo! It's all for YOU Jesus!!! Oh my gosh, we stayed down there forever today, praising, dancing, praying, singing, praying, praying, praying! Then we got ready to go and were packing up, and we were still all high on the Holy Ghost!
Frank was telling me about one of the regulars who has been coming, one who wants A Church Without Walls t-shirt....which we totally need to get some more of......can not wait!.......and Frank prayed for him and then he hugged him, then they both about fell over because the power of the Presence of God was so heavy and strong right there when they were praying. It was awesome!!
This same man, C, is so pumped about our church that he went to a public place where you can use a computer and print out stuff, and made flyers that he has posted all over the city inviting them to church!
And then another fella, Willie, came up and spoke to Frank about his week. We bought Willie a really NICE duffel bag to keep his stuff in, and it got stolen. All of his clothes, his Bible which was heavily highlighted, and his notes. Frank had been giving him his sermon notes and encouraging Willie to go to the Marina and preach. So even though he was bummed that he had all of his possessions taken (we gave him another Bible, btw, but it's kind of a girly cover, but he needs a large print, so he said he was happy with it), he said that he had gone down to the Marina and was sitting there on a bench. I guess he was trying to muster up enough courage to get up and preach. Well, a girl came over and sat near him and he could see she was crying. Frank had given him some scripture verse last week and said, "Willie, this verse is for you" .....he can't remember what verse he gave him, but whatever it was, Willie said that God used that for him to minister to that girl.
She was upset and crying and had come down there to jump off the bridge, so Willie was able to minister to her about her suicidal thoughts and got her into the hospital! Whoo-hooo! Awesome!!
Remember "Y"? Well she came today, she was sick last week, and had a residual cold going on. She was pumped about starting her new job, and A Church Without Walls was able to get her a couple pairs of black pants so she could have her outfit for Red Lobster. Yay God!!!
And this was interesting....one of our members who we visited her dad last week for the heart transplant, came this morning crying that he wasn't doing well. She is friends with "L", and he hugged her and said, "Don't worry, He's got it." Ok....so how cool is that? "L" giving comforting words about HIM?! Yep...God is moving!
Later on we got in a prayer circle before we left with the few folks that were lingering, and guess what? Just guess? Yes! "L" got in the prayer circle with us! At first I didn't think he was going to, but the man next to him reached over to grab his hand, and "L" did NOT want to hold his hand - told him he didn't know where that man's hand had been so he did NOT want to touch him, so Pam ran over there and grabbed his hand and said, "Here, hold mine, Mine are clean." Then Sam runs over and grabs the other hand, and there he was, in the prayer circle...he even shut his eyes! LOL!
We spent a little more time hanging around and fellowshippin' with the street people until we finally decided to go. We were going to go to the hospital and see M's dad again. So we were making plans and getting things straightened out for what we were going to do the rest of the afternoon.
While we are packing up, Peterson tells me that we need to get "L" some shoes. I look at his feet and yes, he definitely needs new shoes. His one shoe looks like he had a "blow out." It was awful. So we decide to take him to Walmart and get him some new shoes. He is so humble about it, he says he doesn't want to put us out, and he thinks we have better things to do, blah, blah, blah...and finally we snatch him and take him to Walmart.
We decided to drive across the river and go to the one in North Augusta, but because it's Sunday, we can't buy anything til 1 p.m. because South Carolina has a blue law. It's about 11:30 at this point. So we go to the Deans Bridge Walmart. And the whole time I'm like thinking, Wow...are we really going somewhere with "L"? I mean that same dude who was so hard to get to know, and now we are totally in his social circle? Whoa!
So we get to Walmart and go to the shoe section, pick him up a package of socks, and Peterson is helping him with the shoes. We let him get whatever he wants, and all he wants is a plain black pair of sneakers. Peterson helps him pick out some nice ones, good quality nice shoes, and he's down there kneeling on the floor, untying "L"s laces on his old tattered shoes, and fitting him for new shoes....it was a TOTAL Christ-like moment. It really reminded me of Jesus, Who knelt down to wash the disciples feet.
The love Peterson had for "L", the servant-hood he had, wow, I'm just in tears thinking about it. So we get in line to pay and stand in the express lane for stinkin' ever. Finally we get out of the store and into the van. Peterson helps "L" get his new shoes on, again, another Christ-like picture. I was just in awe.
Then "L" starts bouncing around in the shoes, taking a few steps this way and that, and is marveling at how comfortable his shoes are. He is on cloud nine about those shoes! So we leave Walmart and look for a place to take "L" to lunch. There's a Pizza Hut right there, but they weren't serving the buffet and we didn't want to have to wait for an order so we decide to head to McDs. Then suddenly Frank says he wants to go get Krystals.
So we are driving across the street to Krystals and while we are waiting at the red-light, he asks Frank if he can ask him a question. Now let me back up to last weekend. We went to the lake with the Petersons and had a great time. But at one point when we were getting ready to leave, we all headed up from the water to the picnic area to pack up. Daniel and Adam (both 6 years old) and Caleb were all straggling behind us, but suddenly we hear the Peterson's older daughters screaming for Adam. Somehow, both littler boys ended up back down by the shore in an instant, and Adam went back into the lake and was swimming for the ocean... My goodness, he was way out there in the deep. Peterson took off down the hill and jumped in and got him safely to shore. It was a real "bay watch" drama. Praise YOU God that it wasn't a bad turn out.
So "L" says, "What do you believe about premonitions?" At this point Frank and I are both thinking, um, is he talking about New Age junk or the supernatural stuff God gives ya? So Frank probes a little bit before he answers and "L" shares with us that when we had told him about Adam at the lake, that several days before he had dreampt that that happened. So I told him that I often will have prophetic dreams like that too, and sometimes God gives us them as warnings or just for things to pray about, then he said, "oh yeah, that's what I meant, prophetic dreams, not premonitions, premonitions is New Age, I meant prophetic." Which totally got me excited because he is really exploring God more openly now...how cool is that?
So he and Frank had a meaty conversation about that sort of thing. So we pull into Krystals, get out and he is still bouncin' around and talking about how good his shoes feel. We walk in and immediately my eye is drawn to a girl sitting off in the corner. She is strung out on probably crack or meth. I have never seen anyone strung out and on a high like that before so it was pretty wild to see. And God told me He had set us up for Divine Appointment. As soon as He whispered that to me, Frank leans over to me from behind my ear and says, "Divine Appointment?" So God was up to something, wasn't He?
So we order and I'm watching this girl and I have NO idea what I'm supposed to do now. I have only had experiences with drunk people, and one or two stoned on pot, but this was big stuff. So I told God that this was way beyond my capability. He told me that was ok because it was right up His alley. :) As long as He's driving, I'll go along for the ride.
So we sit down to eat across the table from crack-girl and "L" is sitting with his back facing her. Because she is totally tripping out, she is doing some odd things. One of them is laughing hysterically and jerking uncontrollably. She twitches every now and then, and scratches herself here and there very often. And talks to herself in a low mumble, often staring into space, getting wide-eyed as if she was hallucinating, then laughing uncontrollably.
Then "L" keeps looking back at her because at first he is taking her laughter personally. Then she speaks to him and asks him how old he is. He says 74. (Still not sure if I believe that). So she says she is 28. He gets growly and grumpy and says real snotty like "Well thank you for sharing that bit of information with me, but I really don't care." Then he rolls his eyes and says she must be on something.
So we eat, and while I'm watching her and waiting for direction from Holy Spirit, "L" gets so mad he turns around and says, "What's so funny woman?" She says, something mumbly and says she is laughing at him in a good way. Well, "L" doesn't agree and he growls back that he doesn't appreciate her laughing behind his back like that.
So we talk a little about how she is on something and "L" has seen this type of thing before so he says probably meth or crack. And because "L" is being so growly and snarly I tell God that I don't think this is a good time to give us a Divine Appointment with a crack-addict while we have "L" here. And you know what else? I have been waiting to get me a drugged out prostitute for weeks....ya know...I want to see the Power of God move on someone in a desperate situation, but I'm seeing this as really bad timing.
Did you know that God knows more than we do? I mean, what we think is bad timing, He's got completely under control!
So "L" says he is going to go outside and smoke a cigarette....and no ye of religious spirit, we don't point out every verse to him about defiling the temple. We just love him where he's at. Just like Jesus loves me where I am at. And loves you where you are at. It's a total LOVE REVOLUTION!
As he's walkin' out, he turns to the strung out chick and says, "You need to get yourself cleaned up." Then walks out. Well, that was the best he could do, ya know.
So Frank and I go over and talk to her. I had already tried to strike up conversation with her when I refilled my drink, which went ok until I started to offer to help her. Then she said I was breathing on her food. What-E-ver. I told her that we would help her if she wanted and to just let us know. She did tell me her name was Tina before she got agitated with me.
Well, Frank starts to talk to her and she is just wasted. She is not even a personality in there...just a shell of a person with nothing inside to grab hold of. He makes a little head way with her, but when she looks over at me she gets upset again and says I'm breathing on her food (she had none at this point.) So I back off because I see that I am being a hindrance. Don't worry, my feelings were not hurt. :)
Well Frank offers to pray for her and she doesn't want it, and she is so hard to understand, and so incredibly plastered that we decide to go ahead and leave.
We get out to the van, and "L" is coming up behind us. We turn around and there she is, too, following us, staggering. She asks "L" for a cigarette. He gives her one and she lights up then stands around us and doesn't make an attempt to leave. So Frank talks to her some more, I try to keep a distance because each time I approach, the demons in her get her upset. No problem. She does agree to let us pray for her though.
Meanwhile, "L" leans over to me and says, "Do you find it odd that we were going to go eat somewhere else, and then we find ourselves here at this very moment talking to this girl like this, like it was meant to be?" I said, "That's called a Divine Appointment, God sent us here specifically for this girl."
Now what got me was that "L" GOT it that this was a Divine Appointment. He said, "It's like this whole thing was orchestrated."
Are you gettin' glory bumps yet? I mean this is BIG! And I was so worried that having "L" here would be an issue, and the whole time God did this FOR "L's" benefit! He showed him something today! I don't know why, but He did. And "L" was totally gettin' it and totally WOWed by the whole thing. And to top it off, Tina was really drawn to L. She talked to him and looked him in the eyes a lot. He was there for a purpose.
So Frank is ministering to her, and every now and then L speaks something to her, and I can see compassion start to over take him. He starts saying things to me about how sad it is that she let herself get this way and got involved in this kind of lifestyle...
Then she says she would like us to pray for her jaw to be healed. I then realized that it was pretty swollen on one side, and she clenched her teeth and it just crackled. She said it was broken, she broke it a few months ago, but she didn't say how. If she did, we didn't understand what the heck she was talking about.
So we get out the anointing oil and she totally FLIPS out. She starts running away from us and telling us not to touch her with that anointing oil, then says a whole bunch of other things that don't make sense...about the oil is bad luck and disciples can't have anointing oil and she doesn't want that near her.
So L says "What are you a disciple of?" She starts saying something about the apostles and Jesus Christ and that it's bad luck to have oil and something about ashes, and then there's this really long string of mixed up doctrine from just about every religion out there. So we wipe the oil off our hands, promise not to touch her, and she is just going nuts. And it's clear to me that the demons inside of her do not want us to touch her and pray for her, or especially anoint her with oil for healing. They are clearly the ones operating here.
So after a bit, she calms down and we start talking to her some more and she says we can't pray for her because "disciples" (I think she meant Christians) only stay in their churches and don't come out to pray with people like her and that we can't come near her to pray because "disciples" are supposed to leave the churches and go "into the world" and they don't and we can't touch her. Wow, what a demon!
Meanwhile both Frank and I are quietly rebuking the devil and telling him to get away from this girl and submit to our authority and be quiet...
So Frank explains to her that hello....we are not inside a church building, we DID come out here to get her, that God sent us to Krystals specifically to minister to HER because He wants to give her freedom from her drugs and other issues. Eventually she admits she's on crack, shows us her hands that are stained brown and says something about something being cheaper, but it stains her hands when she smokes it or whatever it is she said...hard to understand.
Then she says that she wants to be free. Starts twitching and scratchin' her belly and mentions something about her stomach. I look at her I think in all honesty that she might have been almost 4 months pregnant. The girl was skin and bones, very dirty, wearing nasty rags, but she did have what looked like a slight baby bump. But I can't really be sure. God please don't let it be so.
Now one really cool thing is that after she calmed down and was going to let us pray for her, L said to me, "You know that's demonic. She was running from you when you brought out that anointing oil because the demons inside of her don't want you to pray for her." Can you even see how cool this is....that this self professed devout heathen actually has within him a godly heritage from somewhere and is very aware of spiritual things? I think that this L had been a very devout follower of Christ at some point...out there doin' the stuff....and something happened that pulled him away, and God is wooing him back to Himself. And we get to watch it happen!
Well, Frank and I did pray for her, but she wanted us to keep our distance. So Frank prayed off a few spirits that we discerned and L said he was watching her face and her eyes were flitting here and there and she looked like she wasn't paying attention and he said that the demons were basically manifesting openly. After she cleared up a little in her thinking, Frank did talk to her about salvation. She said she accepted Jesus a long time ago as her Saviour. Well, who knows, ya know? Maybe she did, maybe that's why God was there trying to get her back on track with Him.
I'll tell ya what, this was a long battle with this girl. She was a little bit clearer after Frank prayed, but she was also starting to get really jittery. She had smoked a few cigarettes and L didn't have any more to give her and she really seemed to need another one. Frank and L talked to her for a bit longer and tried to find a way to help her get somewhere, but she said her "white daddy Randy" wouldn't come get her. L told me that was probably her pimp. Well, how else is she going to pay for that stuff, right?
Eventually we had to leave her after offering her a few other options for help, but she said she'd get a ride. She didn't even have any shoes on. Just socks. What a shame. What a waste of a life breathed into her by a wonderful God, and she was shackled to that addiction and not wanting to get more help. But you have to think, if God went through that much trouble to get the three of us there at that moment, that He does have His eyes on that girl, and He does intend to fully deliver her from that bondage.
Maybe she is saved, maybe she received Christ as a child, or a teen, or who knows, and Jesus is just trying to get her back into His fold to walk in fullness. Even if we don't ever see her again, I know, I KNOW, that God is going to do something in her life. I just KNOW it.
Well, when we took L back down town he told Frank that it was really neat that the whole day was orchestrated like that. Then he said, "First I came to church, then Peterson saw I needed shoes, then we were going to go to North Augusta, but couldn't, had to come all the way to Deans Bridge Road, then we were going to eat at the McDs in Walmart, but they didn't have seats, then Pizza Hut, then a different McDs and it just seems like we were supposed to be right there at that Krystals at that moment."
HOW COOL IS THAT?!??!
Then Frank was talking to him about the "as ye go" type stuff and more about God, and I'm tellin' ya, that man knows some serious stuff. I think God is about to explode in L's life at any moment! Isn't it just the coolest thing ever how God orchestrated this and how L saw it as such? I can't wait to see what God does with him next!
Ok, there's more that happened down-town after we dropped L off, but it's like 1:00 a.m. and I'm going to bed! It's been a LONG day!
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