Today I went to work and lamented about missing my time with the Lord. For the last few years I have had ample time to read the Bible, study scripture and bask in wonderful praise and worship music at any time of the day for as long as I desired, but at the end of May, I took a position helping my husband to run a restaurant. This new assignment has consumed many, many hours of my professional and personal time. I am in the will of God, but being out in the “world” again has been an adjustment. I have not had the two to three hours I am used to having daily with Holy Spirit and for weeks now this has caused some frustration in me. Imagine going from the liberty of continual fellowship with God to one brief little prayer in the car on the way to the job? Its nuts and at times downright irritating to me to have no time for fellowship with God, but I know I am in His will right now, so I do what I can when I can and talk to Him about my next opportunity to have more time with Him.
Today at work I told my husband that I really wished I could be blessed like other’s who get to spend so much time just being with Jesus. He gently corrected me and said, “You are really blessed. We’re here doing this”, referring to our God-ordained assignment to occupy a sphere of influence for the Lord through this restaurant. I agreed with him but added, “…but I want to be in ministry. I want my own church.”
My husband of all people knows that what we’re doing in the restaurant is ministry—marketplace ministry—but I have really been missing those amazing moments with God where He just shows up in my daily life to blast me with His love and power. Being in public places where moments for real ministry are rare is so restricting to me and there’s this little issue with God’s timing that gets under my skin sometimes—His timing is not my timing and sometimes we have to do what God tells us to do even if it means working with some restrictions.
Well because God is so good, He decided to show up and show off for me today, on the job, in the restaurant and to the benefit of those who were there with me to witness the love of God moving on a guest and his wife who came in to eat.
Without going into detail, Holy Spirit prompted me to pray for a man dining in the restaurant and when I finished praying for this man and his wife I also prayed for the father who had just been admitted to hospice today. The couple thanked me for the prayer and the man told me about his travels as a missionary to Russia years ago and his career as a Methodist minister. I walked the man and his wife to the door and returned to the restaurant when I saw tears flowing from one of the member’s of my staff. She said, “I have never seen anything like that and I have no idea what that was all about but I felt it.” She was crying under the presence of the Lord. God was touching her heart and she was full of emotion. Her response was lovely and I marveled at how the Lord used that prayer time to move upon the people He has given to me and my husband to help run the restaurant. It was ministry for many tonight and it was blessed.
As I thought about the special moment that occurred with the power of Jesus today on the job I heard Holy Spirit say, “Reveal Heaven” and I did. Isn’t that what the Church is supposed to do—reveal Heaven?
I thank God for that special moment and I thank God for my husband’s kind rebuke and I thank God for the opportunity to reveal Heaven through me today. It was church, in the purest sense of the word and I was there to share it. God is so very, very good.
May the Lord Jesus Christ be glorified forever and ever, Amen.