Meeting Her Lord Again
Across the world, leaders are coming alive!
The first person to arrive at our recent five-month Building Builders program in East Asia was Sister A. We were startled at how lifeless she seemed. There was not much response to whatever we were saying or doing. We were concerned at how big a challenge it might be to build her.
The program began with strong focus on union with Christ, taking extended time to soak in His presence. Sister A became deeply engaged in these times. One day, as we were telling stories of how Jesus served each one of us as a servant leader, the overwhelming presence of Jesus came to us. We were all quiet, with deep emotion. Then, Sister A spontaneously and tearfully began to speak from her heart to Jesus, like talking to a friend who used to be so close and dear, then long lost, and re-found. She spoke of the pain and suffering of the past, with tears of gratefulness and profound joy! We learned then just how burned out she was – but this was also the day she came alive.
She faced intense emotional starvation and rejection during her early childhood, eventually developing a hard and strong personality just to survive. When she came to know Christ in her twenties, she immediately began to experience God in very dramatic ways: miraculous healings in her and through her, unusual hunger for the Word of God, long hours and seasons of fasting and prayer, and very close fellowship with the Holy Spirit. She lived in this state of God’s presence and anointing for seven years!
By then she had grown to be a well-recognized leader in the movement. Then a huge spiritual confusion came upon the church movement she was in, and she was hurled into a great spiritual darkness. For the next 15 years, she still faithfully served in the church, but mostly out of the spiritual stores of her early years. These gradually ran dry. She was a member of an extremely ministry-driven leadership team, so she never stopped to take care of herself. She lived and served like this year after year, until she reached the point of extreme burnout and physical illness for three years. After so many years of following God, she despaired.
Then she joined our five-month program.
Here, she met her Lord again! Not once or twice, but every day, in everything we did, learned, and talked about. She abides in Jesus every day now, in a much deeper way than even her early years as a believer. Her mind has been opened and renewed through life-giving biblical principles for life and ministry, through Christ-centered, holistic models, and through the example of our staff living out the words we say. She has been resurrected!
As it turns out, she is also a true leader with huge capacity, and a great strategic thinker with sharp spiritual perception. She has the capacity to be a general, not just a soldier.
She is greatly excited about our Healthy Church Model, and has totally embraced the vision of building healthy churches through building leaders. She has returned to her home church with renewed vision, passion, strategy, great clarity and capacity. We can’t wait to see what the Lord will do through her in the future!
