India: Day Ten

Once again the Spirit of God showed Himself strong as we ministered! I misunderstood the plan for today when I was told the night before. I thought we were going out in the remote areas again to visit the poor and pray for them. As we were driving through Vellore it became apparent in the conversation that we were going instead to a prayer meeting, and I was to bring a word.

I quickly prayed, “Lord, I have not prepared anything. Give me a word!” Well, as we walked into the small church, there were about 40 women praying. The only men were the pastor, Ramesh and my pastor-host-driver. The Lord immediately gave me a word.

I spoke to the women out of Zephaniah chapter 3, focusing on verse 17 where it says, “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

I sensed that these women, some of whom were former Hindus and the others were still Hindus, needed to know that they were loved and to feel that they were loved. So I shared the Love of God the Father with them. I was obvious in their eyes and their countenances that they were receiving the Father’s love as I spoke.

I prayed for them as a group, and then prayed for most of them individually. In the process, I led several of the Hindu women to Christ. The Love of the Father drew them to Himself! It was a beautiful and wonderful time!

One older woman said that she had lost her husband one month ago, and was very sad and starting to grow weak, wanting to give up on life. After I prayed for her, I embraced her (remember, hugging is not big in the Indian culture). As I did, she hugged me back and allowed me to hold her for several minutes. I know that the Lord was ministering to her broken heart and pouring out His love in her.

I spent the afternoon with a Sri Lankan pastor, and was able to encourage him as he encouraged me with what God was doing in his country. Then that evening, we were back at the church where I spoke on Monday.

We had a glorious time of praise and the Lord was anointing His Word as I spoke from Psalm 115 (see verse 1 below). Great boldness rose up from the people as we ministered at the end of the service. We also saw two people have their sight restored as they were prayed for.

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to Your Name be the glory, because of Your love and faithfulness.”