Simply Love

"[H]ow do you work on your spirit? Well, I ask, beg, and get desperate - I will not do anything until God fills me with His love. That's what happened to me nine years ago when I found out that it's worthless to preach the Gospel, simply worthless, without the love of God.

So here I was at a conference in the Punjab with hundreds and hundreds of women sitting there, and I was doing what Christ told me, "Shampa, you will speak nothing."

"But Lord, it's a conference; they've all come to hear me. How do I go about this, Lord? I mean, it's going to be really, really silly if I say I have nothing to share."

So Christ said, "No, no, no. You are going to have them make a line and then tell them that all you are going to do is hug them."

I said, "Oh, well that's easy; that's a good one." You just hug people; it's so wonderful. As I stood there and hugged hundreds and hundreds of ladies, one after the other, they would fall on the ground and weep their guts out and start sharing things. They shared about their abuse at home; they shared about the trauma they go through. And as I'm hearing it, I couldn't handle it. I thought I was going to go crazy, and I knew that I didn't have what it took. I knew that; I knew I was not prepared for that kind of sorrow and trauma that they were going through.

So by the time they were done with the hugging, it was two in the morning, and I looked at the translator, the pastor's wife, and said, "I have to go to my room. I'm feeling really sick," which I was. I was feeling so sick in my heart. And I said, "Would you kindly continue," and she said yes. So I ran to my room, locked the door, and screamed at God, "You have to do something inside of me. I don't have what it takes! Did you hear them tonight? Did you hear their stories? I can't handle it," I said, "I'm limited. I do not know how to hear them and keep sane in my head. I feel like I'm going crazy."

And I told God, "You've got to do something inside of me, there's a lack. I don't have something and I don't know what it is. I don't know what I'm lacking, but I know I don't have it. So whatever it is, You have to give it to me; and if You don't give it to me, I'm going to stay in this room. I'm not going out. I'm not going to sleep; I'm just going to keep standing here screaming at You."

It was like getting God in a headlock. Try it sometime. It works; it's great. So I continued to scream at God, "Look! Those ladies are crying out to You. They're not crying out to me, because they know I don't have the answer. I know You love them, so give it to me, whatever it is." All of a sudden the wall became a huge screen, and in this screen was a tiny heart. And then this big hand came with a big, big jug. Inside the jug was a pinkish color liquid.

And then the voice of the Lord came, "Shampa, watch what I do." Wow, this is incredible, I thought. Then the jug started pouring the liquid into the tiny heart, and the heart got bigger and bigger and bigger. Even though more of this liquid was being poured in, the little heart did not burst. It simply made room. "This is incredible. It's like a balloon, isn't it?" I asked.

He said, "No, it's not, Shampa, it's not a balloon...it's your heart."

I said, "Oh, and what is it You're pouring?"

"It's My love - that's enough. If you never preach one more time," God said, "if you never ever share one more time, or if you never see the blind eyes open one more time, and you never see the dead being raised, and you never do any deliverances ever again - but if you have My love in your heart, Shampa, that is enough. That's all I care about, for My people to beg Me for My love and nothing else. You would do enough. That's all you need."

I fell on my face. I didn't know when I fell asleep or what time it was, but I got up in the morning, ran downstairs, and I have been going downstairs ever since. God keeps me from getting overwhelmed. He said, "You just keep begging Me, Shampa, and I'll keep filling you up, and you will be able to handle it every single time. You will never feel like you're losing it."

I said, "All right, I trust You, Lord." So He has been giving us children. Lots and lots of kids are at risk in India. About 300 girls every month are being sold to temples, Hindu temples. In one tiny district alone, 300 young girls are being exploited as temple prostitutes or sacrificed before the goddess. Children as young as 4 years of age are being horribly abused.

What can rescue them if not God's great love; anything less will not be able to keep them. Yeah, you can rescue them, and that's fine. Then what? Will they be better off? We have to have His love in order to make a difference; otherwise, don't rescue them. They can only have a better life if the love of God is involved, otherwise there is no better life."

- Shampa Rice, "Simply Love"