"There is a tendency for people only to want to read about the glory stories that come out of this revival that Jesus is leading, but there are gutsy stories too. Unless you have the wider perspective of life here then you will have a lopsided understanding of what God is doing.
Often, He teaches us through suffering about his glory-presence. Once we had a meeting where we were praying for four of our kids who were really sick. They had measles and malaria and in the end two of them died. It happened just before we were due to go away for our annual staff retreat. That year we had a visiting speaker who had come to minister to our 160 staff. Bear in mind that the children who had died were
our babies,
our precious
children. I was not all that impressed then when the speaker told us, 'You all just need to laugh more!' I thought ot myself, 'I don't think the Lord is laughing at the moment.' In fact I wanted to say, 'I think your head is a little tilted my friend.' But I had to make a choice. Was I going to get angry with this person and strangle them or was I going to bless them? I ended up blessing the person, of course, but it shook my world.
The very next Monday I found myself lying face down on a grass mat with the mother of one of the little girls who had died. I lay down with this woman and wept with her, holding her in my arms. It was then that God said to me,
'Heidi, it's about love. It's not always about victory.'
Our whole life cannot be about victory and glory--but it must be about love. Love is patient and kind and long-suffering. God's love is the kind of love that is extravagant, bottomless, ceaseless and endless. That's what you need when you are on the floor holding a grieving mother. We all need a download of hold love that so motivates us, it doesn't matter what anyone does to us--we just love them, regardless. If someone offends you, like I was offended, you love them. If someone spits in your face, you love them. If someone falsely arrests you, you loe them. When they put you in jail, you love them. When they beat you, you love them. We won over the garbage dump by love.
People hear out story and say, 'Wow! What a powerful missionary story!' Yes, we have thousands of churches; the blind see, the dear hear, the dumb speak, the crippled walk, the dead get up. All these things happen over and again. But, we also get beat up. Literally. Not with harsh words. We are literally beaten.
The first tie I walked into the garbage dump a guy named Vidal, who had a broken bottle in his hand, stuck it against my neck and said, 'I'm going to slit your throught. What are you doing here you idiot white woman? I'm going to kill you now." I said to him, 'Wait a minute, I'm so sorry. Just wait a second.' And then I told him about Jesus dancing on the dump and putting clothes of beautiful gold and silver and blue and purple on the people in the dump. I told him I was walking with Jesus and said, '
We put our hands upon your big bellies and they sink in. We put our hands upon your bullet wounds and they are healed. We put our hands upon your bleeding sores and they disappear and lice die.' I said to him, 'I want to tel you about a feat that is ready and prepared and God wants you to be there. Vidal, you are very beautiful and you are invited to the head table.'
After about half an hour of him grabbing me and threatening me, listening in between, he knelt in the garbage and began weeping. He said to me, 'Could you please bring this man Jesus here because I want to meet Him.' HE had never heard His name before. Vidal was the first person to receive Christ on the rubbish dump and now his entire village is saved. They were hungr, physically and spiritually, and we were offereing them free food, physically and spiritually. They were very hungry. Are you? Jesus wants to give you more of Himself.
He wants you to be immersed in His love so you can love others recklessly, completely, full of God's outrageous grace." --Heidi Baker in "The Hungry Always get Fed"
