Church Dust

This weekend my husband and I had the opportunity to join our clergy for a weekend clericus in Selma. Our beloved Bishop spent Friday night ministering to us individually while we gathered as a group for a time of adoration through music. Their church calls this service it's "Honeymooner's" service. Rightly so, as we always need to remember that our first love should be Christ.

Our Bishop felt that he should wash each of our feet and pray over us. So after a time I approached him for my foot washing. He started to laugh a little and said that it was so appropriate for me to come get my feet washed because he sensed spiritually that I had a lot of church dust. Church dust, the collection of hurts and disappointments experienced after walking through two church splits in two different churches. He felt that in order for me to really minister to our parishioners in our church now, I needed a good foot scrub. When he prayed over me it felt wonderful, really cleansing.

The music that was playing while my prayer session was going on was "His Banner Over Me Is Love". This was so significant to me because about 6 years ago I received a prophetic word over my life that told me I was like Mephibosheth in the Old Testament. Mephibosheth was Jonathan's son, who was crippled after being dropped as an infant. When David became king, Mephibosheth hide fearing that David would kill him because he was a living heir to Saul's kingdom. But rather than kill him, David honored Mephibosheth and invited him to the king's banquet table and told him that he would never have to be afraid. In the prophetic word that I received 6 years ago, the Lord told me that I would not be afraid to come and sit at the king's table. I would receive healing for some of my deepest crippling hurts.

As I came to sit for prayer last night, the verse that was being sung was, "He brought me to His banqueting table, His banner over me is love". I know that wasn't just coincidence, but God's ever weaving, ever present reminder that he is never far from me.