SOME PRACTICAL POINTS THAT MAY HELP YOU WHEN MINISTERING TO A LINE OF WAITING PEOPLE.
1. Ask “What, Lord? What do You want to do?” Do this from your heart, not just in your mind. The Lord may want to minister on a particular theme (healing, the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, re-commitment).
2. When you know What, ask “Who, Lord?” Is there a person who appears the most affected in regard to what the Lord wants to do?
3. Start by praying for the most ‘open’ person, not the most ‘closed’–unless the Lord directs you otherwise. This may be God’s time for the cranky-looking old fellow who has been prayed for by every visiting evangelist before you! But if he isn’t ready, then you’ll wear yourself out praying for him. Worse, you’ll cause the level of faith in the meeting to drop, perhaps beyond retrieval.
4. Direct the power of God to that person. Focus your faith–don’t spread it. Be specific. Incidents in the gospels often begin with “A certain man…”
5, Withdraw your own energy (soul-power), so that purely spiritual dynamics can operate. This is the work of the Spirit of God; your own energy has nothing to do with it. (Avoid the ‘scalp massage’ technique used by some old Pentecostal preachers.} The Lord is the Healer: all you can give the person is fingerprints.
6. Allow your will to be a channel for God’s will–which works through it, not independently of it. (See “Where There’s A Will…”)
7. What you do physically, God will do spiritually, because your actions are His actions. That’s how the Spirit of God is with you in meeting the needs of the people in the line. Of course, it may happen the other way around: your body may have to go with the overruling power of the Holy Spirit, in which case you may find yourself running along the line!
8. The impact doesn’t end the act! It opens the person to God’s real purpose. If a person falls under the power of the Spirit of God, kneel and minister, praying for specific direction.
9. Don’t assume that the Spirit of God has finished: ‘hang around’ in the anointing for a while; there may be more. The Spirit of God is very ‘fluid’ in His ministry. He may direct your attention from the person you are praying for to other persons in the congregation who have the same problem. They need to come forward and to receive ministry at the same time. As a result, a theme may develop that might later be seen as the high point of the meeting.
10. Constantly direct the congregation’s attention to the risen, glorified Jesus, so that they honour Him for who He is, and not just for what He is doing. If the presence of the Lord lifts–stop everything, and involve everyone in glorifying the wonderful Son of the living God! (Especially those near the entrance.)
11. Don’t cross from the spirit to the soul by doing or saying something unwise. Peter went from receiving a revelation that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” to a “Pity yourself!”, a humanistic display of emotion that drew a stern rebuke from the Lord Jesus! (Matthew 16)
12. Get on your knees afterwards — as soon as possible! The meeting ends in personal worship, not public demonstration. Avoid after-meeting meals with visiting evangelists that tend to focus on ministering tips and techniques, and the anointing peculiar to the preacher, rather than on God’s grace and glory, and on the honour due Jesus, His beloved Son.
It’s unlikely that you will learn all these things in Bible College. I learned them over many years, on the island of Borneo, in the villages of the Philippines, in Dorset, England, in the rolling hills and valleys of North Wales, in the hedged towns of Cornwall, in the USA, in Papua New Guinea, and in countless meetings in my home country of Australia.
Note: If a sense of your own utter inability doesn’t grip you before the meeting; if the idea of crossing an invisible line that separates knowledge from revelation, and past experience from ‘being thrown in at the deep end’ during a new and unexpected move of the Spirit of God — and if none of these things scares the living daylights out of you — then you’re either not very smart or too smart for your own good!
I hope and pray that whatever you do will be for the glory of Almighty God — life’s too short for dangerous pride, careless talk, and foolish ambition.