...to tell someone to "buzz off" when you're lost in the presence of God, and people keep coming up to you and wanting to pray for you, or constantly have a "personal prophecy" for you?
I'm all for the use of prophetic gifts - don't get me wrong - but isn't discernment one of them? If someone is truly moving in their spiritual gifts, don't ya think they'd be able to discern when someone wants to just be left alone with Jesus?
Case in point: Yesterday (after Kids' Church was over and all the kids were with their parents ), the "grownup" service had erupted into sort of an impromptu worship/altar time and was still going strong. I was thinking, cool - I'm so there! I am always up for getting into God's presence. So I joined them. YP ended up on her face before God, just happy to bask in His presence. I was at the altar next to her. When this lady comes up, smooshes her way in between us (we weren't praying together; just happened to be side by side), bumps me, thus distracting MY time with the Lord, and then proceeds to tell YP that she has a "word from the Lord for her."
She dragged her out to a "private" area, and told her that the spirit had said that she (YP - apparently no one else on the pastoral staff, but I digress...) was in the midst of a spiritual battle.
Well, duh. Anyone could have told her that.
And YP said to me later, "And she thought that I could fight my spiritual battle better by being pulled away from the presence of God and listening to her?"
This is a fairly common occurence, it seems, especially among pastors and pastors' wives. The hyper-spiritual seem to zero in on them and then they feel all important because they've delivered a message to the man or woman of God.
I joked that if she came up to me, I would say, "Well, the spirit is telling me to tell you to go away and leave me alone!"
But seriously: Have any of you experienced this? Can one gracefully tell someone to go away, or are we pretty much stuck with it, and if we want any opportunity to hear from God, do we have to shave our heads, change our names and go incognito to another town where no one knows us, or knows that we are a pastor?!?!?
P.S. I'm not talking about people needing someone to pray for them or with them - I, along with the rest of our staff, are ALWAYS happy to do that. I'm talking about people who see one of the pastors or pastors' spouses standing and worshiping and assuming that it's a free-for-all, where everyone gets to zero in on the pastors!!
This has happened to me occasionally but not really in our current church. The person would be stopped by the ushers, quite honestly. We have excellent ushers who would not allow anyone to approach us during a service unless we were praying for people at the altar ourselves or in a healing line or something like that. When we are worshipping we are generally on the platform and if anyone makes a move in that direction if they were not stopped first by the ushers, then one of our staff members, Aaron, who is our director of operations on staff - gets them before their foot even hits the front step. This past Sunday morning a man who is a real attention getter (tries to take up all our time - basically hog us so that no one can talk to us) ran up to the front as my dh dismissed the service and wanted to catch him before he even came down off the platform. Aaron stopped him and walked him off to the side while my husband went to the exit to shake hands with as many people as possible. Aaron let him know he needed to wait and let the pastor greet as many people as he could. If not for his intervention, my dh would have been stuck with that man the whole time while everyone else walked out the door. It's not that we don't care about people - but we can't care about one person so much that the rest of the congregation suffers.
About worship - generally my precious time with the Lord is outside the context of the service. When I'm there, it's really not for me. I have my mind on what God wants to do in that service, who's there that really needs a touch from Him - what direction He is taking things in next. I cannot use that as my personal fill up time, or I would be starving. My time with the Lord is private and most of the time it's in the context of worshipping to Hillsong CD's, although i do play the keyboard and worship I prefer most times to just sit back and soak it in when i'm alone.
If someone repeatedly did this to me (what you describe) I would alert a few people in the church such as an usher or other leader who could stop the person before they get to you and let them know that they should wait and talk to you after the service. Or, perhaps your pastor could teach on an appropriate time to approach a pastoral staff member? Example: I stay after church and talk to people all the day long. But before service I really have to guard myself. I stay in the back until it's time for service to start. If I don't, I'm "mobbed" as I call it. One time I went out in the sanctuary to get a kleenex and "boom" I was mobbed and people just talk my ear off and need this and that, and want to tell me this and that, and then all of sudden church is starting, the musicians are playing and I'm like..."uh, I have to go, we're doing this thing called CHURCH here..." and people are clueless to that sometimes. I stay in the back and if I need anything I ask somebody else to get it for me and they all understand because they see exactly what happens if they don't! We laugh about it...i say, "please, I don't wanna get mobbed...could you get me a drink?" It's crazy. I have even talked about it before to the ladies and told them, please be sensitive to my time as I'm preparing to start the service. Most people understand - some are clueless.
I would not allow someone to keep interrupting me during church as you describe, simply for the reason of -- I need to stay focused on ministering to the people. I do not dismiss the Holy Spirit's moving - on the contrary, but my focus is not some word that God wants to give me, but how he desires to move among the people that day.
About worship - generally my precious time with the Lord is outside the context of the service. When I'm there, it's really not for me. I have my mind on what God wants to do in that service, who's there that really needs a touch from Him - what direction He is taking things in next. I cannot use that as my personal fill up time, or I would be starving. My time with the Lord is private and most of the time it's in the context of worshipping to Hillsong CD's, although i do play the keyboard and worship I prefer most times to just sit back and soak it in when i'm alone.
I definitely agree with you there...those of us in the ministry cannot depend on regular church time to feed us spiritually, or we'd be in sorry shape!
In fact, during that same "end of the service" time that I talked about, I noticed that a lady in the church had approached my DH for prayer. We (our entire staff, but especially within each of our marriages!) have a policy that we watch each other's backs in those "one-on-one" cases, so I went over and prayed with them.
Praying for others doesn't bother me at all - in fact, it's a privilege!
But for some reason, there are those who feel that they are "extra" blessed or special if they get to pray for one of the pastors or their family member(s). As our YP says, "I'd rather have people in my life that I know pray for me every day than people who get caught up in the moment and decide they need to crowd me and pray for me, or give me my word for the day."
A friend of mine in high school (the pastor's son!) was approached one Sunday by an over-enthusiastic person who said that the Lord had told her to pray for him because one of his legs was longer than the other, and God wanted to heal him. He politely replied, "Thank you, ma'am, but one of my legs is not longer than the other." This woman insisted that God had told her this was the case and she would not listen to my friend when he told her that his legs were fine.
That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. YP's husband is getting really sick of this lady who always has "words" for his wife. I said, "Well, look on the bright side - at least she knows your name!" This lady, as I mentioned, zeroes in on people that she thinks are important, or "spiritual," and it hasn't really sunk in that I am also a pastor of the church (because I'm the children's pastor, she thinks that I'm one of YP's helpers!!).
YP's husband said, "I'll have a talk with her. I'll make sure she knows your name, remind her that you're also a pastor, and say that you're especially anointed. Then she'll have a word for YOU every week and we'll get to eat lunch sooner," then he looked at my DH, shrugged, and said, "Sorry."
Those type of super spirituals drive me crazy. Here's my two cents on it...
Don't give any energy to them. They are probably going to leave at some point anyway when they find out you are not enamored with them...when they find out you DO NOT believe they have the voice of God for you. I suggest the next time they tap you on the shoulder, just open your eyes a sec and say, "I'm seeking the Lord right now, please talk to me after service." Or........if that doesn't work, just go right on worshipping and ignore them.
If they are easily offended, then just have a copy of John Bevere's "Bait of Satan" to give to them. Ha! Ha! (only half kidding!)
Superspirituals drive me crazy. Joyce Meyer says all these women want to give a word to you here, give a word to you there, bind this, bind that, loose this, loose that, but at the same time none of them even have authority over the dishes in their sink! Ha! Ha! Joyce says it like it is.
), the "grownup" service had erupted into sort of an impromptu worship/altar time and was still going strong. I was thinking, cool - I'm so there! I am always up for getting into God's presence. So I joined them. YP ended up on her face before God, just happy to bask in His presence. I was at the altar next to her. When this lady comes up, smooshes her way in between us (we weren't praying together; just happened to be side by side), bumps me, thus distracting MY time with the Lord, and then proceeds to tell YP that she has a "word from the Lord for her."
Ha! Ha! (only half kidding!)
