The amount of love He had for Sarah’s little family taught me much about who He is. In 1985, I was working with a small church in the south when Sarah called me just before the church service was to start one Sunday.
“Grandma wants to go to church this morning real bad and no one will take us.”
Grandma had both legs amputated due to diabetes, but still weighed about 180 pounds and chewed snuff. She was not exactly dressed for church, wearing a nightgown and house coat. A mixture of snuff and saliva was drooling from the side of her mouth.
“We could not get her dressed, but she wants to go,” Sarah said so we loaded Grandma and her snuff can into my small sedan. In case you were wondering, snuff does not come out of car upholstery.
This was formerly a traditional southern church before the Holy Spirit decided to turn it upside down. People were not thrilled with me. They had seen the anointing and were not sure why someone so young in the Holy Spirit would carry it. At that time I was 28.
We had not thought this through; I realized as we looked at the 2 flights of stairs leading up to the front door of the church. There were doors on the side of the church which led directly into the sanctuary and that’s how we how we got her in. The next problem was fixed wooden pews. Again, we had not thought this through. We seated her in the first row and when the senior pastor stepped up to the podium he saw Grandma. Grandma was staring intently at him, snuff tucked in her cheek. She was seated in a place normally reserved for pastors in full view of the church. During the service I kept an eye on Grandma as she was swaying from side to side. Sarah and her children were in the pew in front of me.
This was to be an eventful service. Ministry time came. The Holy Spirit fell on Sarah and Sarah fell on the pew. I went to pray for Grandma. Grandma wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Her eyes were wide open and she exploded speaking in tongues. Her expression was one of pure shock. She did not expect this and I don’t think anyone else did either. This went on for 10 minutes. When she regained her normal language, she shouted, “I know what I said.’‘
I handed her the microphone and she gave a prophetic word about prayer.
Again the visual is important. The people were in their Sunday best clothes. They had come to see God move. They did not expect to see Him move through a poor woman in a nightgown, with a snuff trail around her mouth. The expression of shock on their faces could not be described as one of joy. Grandma and Sarah were happy. The reaction of most of the people in church that morning was not.
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