I've spent the weekend listening to Darren Wilson, creator of the Father of Lights movie (he's the guy in blue) and he told us a story about Ravi you've probably not heard. You might ask "Who is Ravi?" Ravi is a guy in India to whom God speaks audibly every day. Each morning about 4am God wakes Ravi up and tells him what He wants him to do that day. Pretty crazy! Needless to say amazing things happen.
One of the things Ravi does is minister to widows and orphans in India. Being a widow is especially tough in India because their culture holds that if your husband died, he died because you are cursed. You are thrown out of society, left to fend for yourself and become an untouchable. Pretty bad stuff.
In one city where he ministers to widows they have a camp on the outside of town where they live. Ravi thinks, it would be great to get some work going to raise the status of the women. He knows they can all sow, so he buys a bunch of material and has them sew cushions. They begin, things ramp up, they sell some cushions but by the second month things are beginning to stall. Sales are dropping off, some women move away and things simply grind to a halt.
Disappointed, Ravi talks to the Lord and says "What's up? I'm here trying to help these ladies and nothing's working?"
The Lord replies "Did you ask me what I want them to do?"
"Ummm, no."
"Are you ready to ask Me what to do?"
Sheepishly Ravi responds "Yes..."
"I want them to make incense."
Ravi exclaims "God, this is India, they don't burn incense to make houses smell nice like they do in America. They burn incense to worship idols, you know like demons..."
"I want them to make incense."
"Ok"
So Ravi works out how to make incense, gets all the materials and then God gives him one extra instruction. "I want the women to pray over the materials for 1/3 of the day and make the incense for the other 2/3 of the day." They set to praying, making and selling the incense as the Lord directed them to.
About two weeks go by and there's a knock on the door. They answer and it's people from the nearby village. They ask them what they want and they reply "We want to talk to the people who make this incense; odd things are happening."
"That's us, what's going on."
"We've noticed that every time we burn your incense our idols fall over or mysteriously get broken and our children are seeing angels and demons in our houses. We want you to bless us because you have something powerful!" Now the women have prestige and honor in the city. Whenever a child is born they bring the child to the women to bless because they know a powerful God is with them!
The Lord replies "Did you ask me what I want them to do?"
"Ummm, no."
"Are you ready to ask Me what to do?"
Sheepishly Ravi responds "Yes..."
"I want them to make incense."
Ravi exclaims "God, this is India, they don't burn incense to make houses smell nice like they do in America. They burn incense to worship idols, you know like demons..."
"I want them to make incense."
"Ok"
"That's us, what's going on."
"We've noticed that every time we burn your incense our idols fall over or mysteriously get broken and our children are seeing angels and demons in our houses. We want you to bless us because you have something powerful!" Now the women have prestige and honor in the city. Whenever a child is born they bring the child to the women to bless because they know a powerful God is with them!
