Sometimes,
your world gets rocked at an unexpected time and in an unlikely way.
I
was in a discount store one recent Tuesday looking to see if they had any
interesting art supplies available. Sketchpads and artist’s papers are
displayed in the same place as journals, and they also occasionally have devotions
and gift books in that location.
So,
I’m perusing the offerings when I come to a little devotional book entitled God’s
Got This by Heidi Baker. I recognized the name. When Jerry and I went to a
revival in Toronto twenty years ago, we heard about how she and her husband had
come there from Mozambique where they were cross cultural workers (we used to
call them missionaries) who ministered to street children.
I’ve sporadically read stories from her ministry and heard about her work there through the years, so I bought the book. Instead of reading a devotion a day, I read the whole thing in a few days. Then I bought another book by her. And another.
It turns out that after their visit to the revival, their ministry exploded in East Africa. Today according to her bio, they oversee a “university, Bible schools, medical clinics, church-based orphan care, well drilling, food aid, primary and secondary schools, farms, widow’s programs, and outreaches that include a network of thousands of churches and prayer houses.” I learned while reading the book that they feed about 30,000 people a day.
I
tell you folks, if there are people alive today who are more on the leading edge of what God is doing on the planet, I don’t know who they are. Miracles
are the norm in the ministry in Mozambique.
Reading
about what God is doing there makes me hungry for more of God.
But
Heidi makes it clear that what has happened has much to do with worship. She
writes, “more is accomplished by spending time in God’s presence than by doing
anything else” and, “all fruitfulness flows from intimacy.”
Her insights reminded me of what I’d just read in A.W. Tozer’s writings: “You can
discover more of the Holy Spirit in five minutes on your knees in adoring
worship than five years at a seminary.” His biographer penned, “He firmly
believed that his ministry had to flow from worship and that any work that does
not flow from worship is unacceptable to God.”
When we think of worship, we usually think of a church service, and that's wonderful, but this is also about private, in the closet, and sometimes face down on the floor worship.
What
I’m sharing with you here is just the beginning of a mountain of revelation
that God is pouring out in my own heart. It’s life altering, and I don’t know
where it will lead. But at this point in life, I’m up for wherever and whatever
that means. I see around me desperate situations in need of God’s touch and so
many who need miracles.
So,
if you’re seeing the same things I am, let’s get on our knees and spend that
time in private worship. Let’s develop an increasing intimacy with God.
Buy
one of Heidi’s books and read about the miracles yourself. It will increase
your hope.
So,
yes, my shopping trip that morning yielded an unexpected treasure—one that has shaken me up spiritually
more than anything has in about twenty years.
Not bad for $4.99.
“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess His name” (Hebrews 13:14).