Maart 2016 - Blessed by the Lord!

*BLESSED BY THE LORD!*

	She stood weeping at the edge of the crowd, beyond my field of vision. Two hundred thousand gathered in Uhuru Park that day. I preached, and we saw thousands come to the Lord, with healings manifested among the people. She had soaked her pillow for countless days before I came to her city of Nairobi. LONGING FOR PURPOSE This is her story: From childhood, Teresia had longed to serve the Lord. Attending church had filled her imagination with wonderful desires to marry a minister. When she finally came of age she met a charming European missionary. With this man, everything fell into place in her mind. But her parents did not approve. To them, a racially mixed union was a recipe for disaster. But captivated by love, she believed God has provided the answer to her prayers in this wonderful Christian man. It was a decision that haunted her a dozen years later when her missionary hus-band turned against her. No amount of appealing to his Christian faith made any difference. He took cruel advantage of a male-dominated court system to divorce her, and leave her and their daughter with no support. As she stood weeping that hot steamy day, she blamed herself for choosing so badly in her desire for a ministry mate. She further blamed herself for not being able to make the marriage work in spite of her husband's problems. She had no place to go as her family would now reject her. They would tell her that she had only gotten what she deserved - the church was no better. The only refuge Teresia found was in God! CLINGING TO HOPE She clung to the hope that someday, somehow, somewhere God would arise and give her feet a solid place to stand again. That day she heard me preach the uncompromised Gospel. In her mind, she saw a man who believed this message and would stake his life on it. Tears of longing and hope spilled from her eyes. I laid hands on many people that day. Blind eyes opened, lame people began to walk, and people who were deaf could suddenly repeat my whispers word for word. THE POWER OF PRAYER Teresia saw that I possessed a living 'fire' that was beyond the cold religious embers of her own experience. She decided to settle for nothing less and she had faith like the woman who touched the fringe of Jesus' cloak. Somehow she knew that hands must be laid on her and she must be prayed for, and then she could step into the full blessing of God. Teresia left Uhuru Park that day without a chance for prayer. The crowds were pressing around the platform with so many needs, and God was directing me to the ones He was healing. I never even knew she was there. Eight years passed before our paths crossed again. Teresia spent those years making a new life. During those eight years Teresia also tracked my speaking schedule through the ministry magazine. She was always on the lookout for a city where I would be preaching to a smaller crowd. This would increase her chance of being prayed over. EXPERIENCING GOD'S TOUCH It happened in Oslo, Norway in the Spring of '96. She saved her money and bought a round trip ticket. Teresia was the first one through the doors of the Church. "There is something that you need from God," the woman at the door said, "and God spoke to me that He will give it to you." Teresia had come with one thing in mind: when I give a call at the altar for the sick, she would run forward for prayer. In her mind, she was sick - she felt sick with frustration and ineffectiveness in her ministry. I will never forget what happened next, nor will Teresia ever be able to remember, because she was ripped from beneath my hands by a mighty force that threw her metres through the air and landed her on her back near the front row of seats from which she had come. The force of this action was so strong that both her shoes flew from her feet. The miracles of God are always a sign and a wonder. We are left to shake our heads and say, "Praise God, praise God, praise God!" THE START OF A MINISTRY The story might end here. It has ended here for many. They receive a great visitation of God's Spirit, and then they do nothing to work it out in their life. But God had not anointed Teresia for nothing. Upon arrival back in Nairobi she called her girl-friends to a Friday prayer meeting at her house. Seventeen of them came. She preached with a power she had never known before. When she asked the sick to come forward, she did not offer a weak religious prayer. She did not ask for God to please heal someone if it was in His great divine Will to do so. No, she commanded the sick to be healed in Jesus' Name! A VESSEL OF HONOUR The next Friday there were 55 women at her house. The following Friday 105, and the next week 200 women showed up. By now some of the notable and documented healings from her ministry were being talked about around the city. They found a city auditorium that held 2 000, but 4 000 women arrived. At this point some pastors in the city began to denounce her and tell their people not to attend her meetings because she was a divorced woman. They did not listen. Instead, they heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They saw cancers healed, blind eyes and deaf ears opened! The weeping woman in Uhuru Park in 1988 had desperately prayed, "God, oh please God!" Today, Teresia Wairimu is a very happy woman and her name is a household word in Africa. When I heard of her breakthrough I went to the Lord in prayer. "Why Lord," I asked, "did you choose a divorced woman for this great ministry? We have so many wonderful men in our Bible Schools, men who pursue You with all of their hearts. Why did you choose Teresia and not one of them?" His answer affected me deeply. He said, "I chose Teresia because I wanted to show the world that I could take a broken vessel and make a vessel of honour." CHOSEN BY GOD FOR GREAT THINGS How this humbled me! We are not chosen for our great qualities. We are flawed servants who must depend totally on Him. - This story is one of a series taken out of the book "Even Greater" by Reinhard Bonnke. He is the founder of Christ for All Nations Ministry. For more info or to buy the book or to support CFAN, please visit www.cfan.org.za or call 021 554 1892.