Pastor Cathy invited us a few weeks ago to bring to remembrance the good things we have seen God do in the past, and this story immediately came to my mind. This is a blog post I wrote when I was a missionary in Malawi. Thanks for letting me share it with you.

"The Best Day of My Life"

Originally published January 22, 2015

A day filled with laughter, the Holy Spirit, and repeated utterances of, “God loves me so much!”

It all started a couple weeks ago when I was at church with my good friend Alpha. Naturally, being the only mzungu (white person) there, I stood out like a tomato in a pile of onions. The pastor came up to greet me after the service, and I thanked him for the wonderful message he had just preached. He spoke about receiving God’s promises with faith, claiming them as truth for our lives without any doubt. We chatted for a bit and then he asked me, “So, how do you operate in the Kingdom? What is your gifting?” His message that morning had already convicted me of being shy to claim one of the promises God has given me for my life. About a year ago, the Lord spoke to me and said, “You, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High.” I had been slow to claim this for my life up to that point. But immediately, as the pastor asked me what my gifting was, I boldly declared, “I am a prophet.” His entire face lit up with excitement. He said. “Oh! You are a prophetess? One week I will give you my pulpit. When can you come and preach?” So we agreed that two weeks from that Sunday (which would be January 18th) I would come to preach at his church.

If you have spent much time with me in the past, you might have observed what appears to be a big issue in my life. I am an extreme procrastinator. So thirteen days went by, and finally, on Saturday night at about 8pm I sat down to write the sermon. I prayed, “God, what do your children need to hear tomorrow?” I heard two phrases, “If you don’t feed the fire, it will die,” and “I’ll set you as a seal upon my heart, as a seal upon my arm.” The first related to an experience Liz and I had attempting to cook popcorn the other night, and the second was a line from a song I love to sing (and also a verse in Song of Solomon, chapter 8). Then I saw a picture in my mind.

I saw many big, strong, fat cows. Across from them was a body of water. But between the cattle and the water stood a fence. The fence was built out of sticks, one of those fences that looks like the cow could trample right over it. But the cows don’t know that, they just see it as something keeping them from the water, and they can’t find a way through. And as I looked at this picture I heard God say,

“Don’t keep my children back from the Living Water.”

And then the sermon started flowing. I heard a sentence in my mind and wrote it on the paper. Then I heard another sentence and wrote it down. And another, and another, and another. The entire sermon flowed this way, with the Lord speaking it to me word for word and me transcribing it. I was amazed. I have never experienced the Lord speaking to me in that capacity before. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.

But we haven’t even gotten to the best day of my life yet.

I went to bed extremely satisfied and woke up the next morning, tired as usual, but excited to watch the Lord move in our church service. We got to church at about 9am and were some of the first ones there, even though intercession was scheduled to begin at 8. (Don’t worry, friends, this is normal for Africa.)

When the time came for the offering, I really felt led to give all of the Kwacha that I had with me. Now let me add that this was literally my last 46 Kwacha (about 10 cents.) For real. This is all that I had out of the bank, and the money that I have in the bank is not even enough to withdraw. I felt for the first time like the widow in the end of Mark 12 who gave the last two coins that she had as her offering. I said, “God! I know that You are asking me to give You this. I know it. So I am trusting You. I surrender all that I have left to You, Lord. Please. I am trusting You to provide for me.”

(Note: I am not telling you this so that you can say, “Oh look at Kristina, she’s so good.” Not at all. I am not looking for your recognition, but I am about to show you the Lord’s faithfulness!)

By about 11:15 it was my turn to preach.

I got up to the pulpit and the whole church sang one more worship song and dove into prayer, asking that the Holy Spirit would just speak to us, and touch our hearts. I began by sharing with them the picture the Lord had given me, and explaining what it meant.

The cows in the picture represented the Lord’s children. They were strong, well fed, and equipped to crash right through the fence so that they could drink from the body of water. The fence symbolizes anything that was separating God’s children from having perfect relationship with Him, the Living Water. God said, “Don’t keep my children back from the Living Water.” He doesn’t want there to be ANYTHING separating us from Him.

You could tell that these cows had spent time eating what was good.

Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what I good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live.

Isaiah 55:1-3

To eat what is good means to take in the Word of God. Let it be your daily bread, let it sustain you, enjoy it, for it tastes good! God’s Word, both His written and spoken Word, and Jesus, the Word made flesh, are what satisfy our hungry hearts. They are what make us strong.

As I heard the Lord say, “Don’t keep my children back from the Living Water,” I got fired up inside. I said, “Yeah! Get them to the Living Water!” But the cows just stood there, not knowing what to do. And I know that there were members of the congregation sitting there that morning who had been staring at that Living Water from a long time, but there was something standing in their way. And I’d like to propose that there are some of you reading this today, who have been staring at that Living Water for a long time, but there is something standing in YOUR way.

Maybe it’s pride. Or maybe it’s doubt. Or maybe you can’t forgive yourself for something you have done in the past. Maybe you feel like God can’t forgive you either. Maybe you just feel condemned. Maybe logic is standing in your way. Or maybe false doctrine has blocked out the truth. Or maybe you just don’t feel ready to give your entire self in surrender to Him. Maybe you don’t think it’s worth it. Maybe you think the cost you would have to pay is greater than the reward you will receive.

But I am here today, as I was there on Sunday, to stand against every one of those lies! I stand against every single one of those lies and I say to you that this Living Water is the best thing you will ever drink. This relationship with a God who loves you more than you can ever understand is the best thing that will ever happen to you.

You don’t have to live your life thirsty anymore!

Come. Drink.

Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.

Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of living water springing up into eternal life.

John 4:14

I am here today to tell you that Jesus Christ, the God who created the universe, does not want any walls to separate you from Him.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:35, 38-39.

And maybe you’re sitting there, reading this today saying, “This message isn’t for me, I already believe in Jesus.”

That is wonderful! I am so happy for you for that! I am happy to have you as a brother or sister in Christ.

But I would encourage you to check yourself. We all are still able to grow closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. Check yourself. Make sure there haven’t been any walls put up keeping you from being closer and closer to our Savior and our Love.

I am here today to tell you that any wall or fence that is standing between you and our great God needs to come down. And I am here today to tell you that no matter how big, or strong, or stubborn, or scary these obstacles look, they are NOTHING compared to the power and the love of your God.

Let me let you in on a little secret: He is fighting for you. He is oh so willing to lead you crashing through that wall so you can submerge yourself in that Living Water.

It is time to break down those walls. He has strengthened you for the task, and together you can take that step towards true freedom in Him.

At the end of the sermon, the church joined me in praying and declaring that there would no longer be anything separating us from Christ Jesus. We broke down those walls with force, and I would encourage you to do the same.

The Pastor got up to summarize the message and add to it. It was amazing to watch the Spirit of the Lord flow from me to him to complete more of what He wanted to say. After speaking more on the message, the Pastor thanked me for this Word, which He said had clearly come from the Lord. He said to his congregation that he felt it was appropriate to bless me for bringing the Word of the Lord, and then proceeded to speak in Chichewa. I wasn’t quite sure what was happening, but soon members of the congregation started to get up and make their way to the pulpit, depositing Kwacha, and then sitting back down.

My jaw dropped. Surely this couldn’t be for me. African churches don’t take offerings for their mzungu guest speakers. It just doesn’t happen. But sure enough, after the service, the Pastor came up to me and said, “This is for you, thank you for your message. We are not paying you, but we feel that we must bless you, for the Word you have brought to us and the change it has begun in our lives and in our church. Zikomo Kwambiri (Thank you very much).”

I stood in awe of the Lord’s faithfulness, nearly in tears. Less than a few hours had passed since I had surrendered all of my money to the Lord, and here He was, providing for me in the most unexpected and humbling way. He truly loves me so much.

As we left church to head to a lodge so that my friend Liz could upload pictures from that morning, she said to me, “Nina, God told me earlier before church to give you X amount of Kwachas.” I just about fell over. The Lord is so good! We walked into the lodge laughing at the top of our lungs, unable to control our joy, and the lodge owner said to us, “You girls are too happy today!” We said, “No, God is just so good!”

We sat down to order lunch (something I haven’t been able to do for a long time) and had a delicious meal. As we were eating I heard the sound of someone playing guitar from outside the window. I looked out and saw one of our very good friends, Maurice! We went out to greet him and after awhile Liz asked if I could play his guitar. Friends, my guitar broke back in October, so worshiping with a guitar is something I have sorely missed. When he said yes, I was so excited! We worshiped for quite a while, just enjoying the Lord’s presence.

Then, Liz spotted someone she knew coming up the beach. It was a man she had met the week before named Praise. He sat down with us as I continued to play, and we soon found out that it was actually his guitar. After watching and listening to him demonstrate his mad guitar skills, he started talking to Lizzy about Jesus. She shared many verses with him and testified about how Jesus is the Prince of Peace. She asked him if he would like to experience that peace and he said, “I want that right now!” So we prayed that God would let his peace fall on Praise, and he said he felt that peace so strongly. So she asked him if he would like to have a relationship with Jesus and walk through life every day with him, and he said, “Yes. I want that right now!” And so Praise accepted Jesus into his heart, and we have a new brother!

We worshiped and fellowshipped and shared joy all afternoon with Praise and Maurice and the owner of the lodge, and when it was time to go Praise said I could even keep the guitar to use for a couple days until we met again. My face just about burst because my smile was so big, all the way home. Jesus truly loves me so well.

This was absolutely the best day of my life so far, filled with so much of the joy of the Lord. I feel so privileged that I got to be a part of the Holy Spirit touching so many lives that day. I am so thankful that there is nothing that can separate me from my God, or keep me from living everyday with just as much of Him. Jesus loves us so, so much.