Confirmation for My Interpreter... Awesome!

I took an unusual leave from ICCJ last Sunday and preached at another Church... CWS in Karawaci. A few days before the service, I received a message from Astrid Halin, a young women whom I had not met who said she would be my interpreter for the upcoming service. She asked me if I would E-mail her my sermon notes so that she could prepare. She further explained that this would be her first time to interpret from English to Indonesian.

I apologized but I did not yet know what my sermon was going to be and I explained that I might not know until the morning of the service... depending on when God speaks to me about what I would share. I usually know and have planned weeks or even months ahead but sometimes only a few days or hours before. As it turned out this time, I went to bed on Saturday night not knowing what the sermon would be the next day with my alarm clock set for 3am, as usual on Sunday mornings.

So you can imagine how Astrid was feeling... She was going to interpret for the first time with seemingly no way to prepare. And so she went to one of her spiritual mentors and asked for help. He told her to pray because the Lord would reveal it to her. Simple right?!? So she did.

Now you might think that God would give her a dream or send a prophet or something right? God can do that, but in my experience God often uses more "normal" ways that to the non-spiritually inclined person might think is coincidental. She went to the internet (yes, God uses the internet too). She came across a blog post on a social web-site which had been written by a young person who had attended a youth camp I had spoken for years ago. This young person had been touched by a sermon and had outlined it on the internet. Astrid read it and digested it.

At 6am on Sunday, I sent her an SMS with the scripture and she sent me back a smiley-face. I had woken up and the Lord had spoken to my heart to preach that same message. God had taken Astrid to the message on the internet and she was prepared!

Astrid is a great interpreter, mightily anointed and Spirit led too! Astrid, you have my endorsement for anyone who needs an interpreter!! We had a wonderful service! My interpreter knew the message I was going to speak before I did! Awesome God... Again!!!

My encouragement to you today is to see God's hand at work preparing you for everything ahead of time... He is always doing it whether you know it or not because the steps of righteous men and women are ordered by God. But there is an added blessing when we recognize it!