Yesterday was not a good day. I kept falling asleep in my morning prayer time, which is never a good sign. Fortunately our only meeting was in the afternoon, so I had the morning off – and slept through most of it. I still felt crook when we went for lunch, but I wasn’t concerned about ministering because I know that normally, no matter how sick I feel, the minute the anointing hits I am fine. That’s normally. But not this time. From the moment I stood up to go to the platform I felt like I was going to pass out. It’s the weirdest feeling to be preaching in power and anointing (and I was) whilst at the same time battling to stay upright.
When we got back to the house I asked the Holy Spirit, What was that all about? Why did the sickness not go when the anointing came, as it usually does? He made it clear that this was a direct spiritual attack, both on me and on the church here, and that there are people in the community here practicing witchcraft that do not want this church to prosper, and were particularly targeting this crusade. So, into spiritual warfare mode.
This morning I woke to find a huge blister on my left leg, in the middle of my shin, and a smaller on on my knee. Both stinging/burning/itching like crazy. I suspected a spider bite. I asked John and his wife if they knew what it might be, but they did not have any idea. Also asked Pastor Joseph and his wife, who have been visiting here for the last couple of days, but they didn’t know either. By the time this morning’s service was over, the main blister had doubled in size. John, Joseph and Joseph’s wife prayed for it and anointed it with oil, but by the time we had finished lunch it was still growing and throbbing, so we ended up going to the chemist and coming back with an antibiotic topical powder and three different antibiotic tablets. I normally don’t like taking antibiotics, but at the rate this thing was growing I thought it was important to hit it hard. I still have not idea what it actually was that bit me.
Apparently I had met Joseph and his wife four years ago at a conference at Bishop Edward Kunani’s church in Muhoroni, but I didn’t remember them. They were in this area for Bishop Edward’s funeral, and so came to visit for a day and ended up staying four days. Over breakfast Joseph commented that my toenails needed tidying, so after breakfast he proceeded to give me a full pedicure – nails trimmed and filed, callouses removed, and a final foot scrub. I felt both pampered and humbled. The pic shows Joseph and his wife (in matching blue) and John and his wife, John holding their baby Michelle Joy – and, of course, yours truly.
This morning was the regular Sunday service for the church here, starting with great worship. Have I mentioned in this blog before how much I love African worship? If I haven’t, I should have. When John stood up he asked the church to pray for me, then invited Joseph up. At first I thought Joseph was going to just bring a short introductory message, but, no, he was preaching a full sermon. Initially I was disappointed – I actually had a word for this morning – but then I thought that John had probably asked him to speak out of concern for me after last night, and much of what he said covered the area of my message, so I thought that’s fine. More worship after Joseph’s message, then I opened my eyes from worship just in time to see John coming down to take me up to the platform. So, this morning they had two messages. I don’t know if that’s normal in the church here, but mine was in large part a confirmation and extension of John’s so it worked well.
After the service, and after they had prayed for my leg, Joseph’s wife told us about a dream she had last night about spiritual attack. That, plus the fact that Joseph had suffered some kind of attack on Thursday night, confirmed to us what the Lord had shown me about spiritual attack on the church, so we all prayed again about it. I believe God has great purposes for this church. John is an amazing young man with a real heart for God and His people, and I believe the Lord is going to use him mightily in this area.