Several years ago, I was holding a Ministry of Helps seminar in a church in Midland, Michigan. The temperature was 40 degrees below zero, and the three major highways into that area all were closed because of snow.

Nevertheless, our services were continuing. Before one of the meetings, I began to have a "discussion" with the Lord over what He wanted me to teach that night—which I did not want to teach!

Have you ever argued with God when He asked you to do something? We would all make it easier on ourselves just to be obedient in the beginning, because of course, He knows what He is doing, and we do not.

A Predictable Outcome
But I was pacing back and forth in my motel room telling the Lord I did not want to teach on this subject (which He already knew)! The Lord had been after me for months to teach a certain thing, and in addition, my wife was urging me to obey the Lord.

Knowing the Lord was urging me, she would say, "Buddy, you've got to teach it," and I would answer, "Honey I really don't want to teach that sort of thing."

So there I was, alone in a motel room, snowed in, and once again arguing with God. As we tend to do, I thought if I explained it to God, He would surely begin to see my side of the situation—as if He did not know the situation already.

"People give me weird looks when I even mention it, Lord. They act strange, or they act as if I am strange. I just don't want to do it, Lord."

In my mind, I could hear my wife's voice again as I struggled with the Lord: "Buddy, you've got to do it."

Then the Lord said clearly, "I want you to do it tonight."

The subject He wanted me to teach was "the anointing for the ministry of helps."

My objection was that people want to hear about supernatural manifestations—signs, wonders, miracles, and special anointings—but, most of the time, they do not want to hear about doing the work of God in a serving capacity.

Another thing that bothered me was that people often came up to me and said, "Buddy, you really have an anointing for the ministry of helps. You really do!"

They acted as if I were the only one who had that anointing. I began to think that perhaps there was no anointing for the ministry of helps. Perhaps God had just felt He had to give me something extra to help me out.

Often, I had reasoned with the Lord, saying, "I just can't believe there is an 'anointing for the ministry of helps,' at least not for the whole Body of Christ. I don't want to teach it, Lord. I just don't want to do it."

That night, the Lord would tell me to teach on the anointing, and I would refuse. Just when it seemed neither of us would budge, something unusual happened. This event changed my entire outlook concerning my teaching on the ministry of helps.

An Event Worth Sharing
What I am going to share is the absolute truth. I feel the necessity to make that statement, just as Jesus used to say verily before some of the things He said. That word verily was a witness that what He was about to say was the absolute truth, not a parable.

Also, I can remember sitting in a congregation listening to a man of God tell about a supernatural experience and thinking, "Boy, has he got an imagination!"

So, in case you are tempted to think that about the following event, I want you to know that it really happened.

Suddenly, I felt myself being lifted up and taken out of that motel room. Physically, my body was still in the room, but my spirit being—the real me—was lifted up and taken somewhere else.

I began to feel as if I were floating in water. If you are a swimmer, do you remember how you automatically move your arms when you first get into the water? That is what I began to do, and then I began to swim. I felt very strange to be swimming and, yet, standing in a motel room at the same time. But there I was, in both places at once.

Then something else happened: I began to see myself at my home church operating in the ministry of helps, and it was like watching a movie. I saw all the joy, happiness, and strength that was in my life as I ministered—as an auditorium was built at my church.

My pastor had gone to Hawaii just before this time period I was seeing in the Lord's "movie."

As he left to board the plane, he had looked at me and said, "I want the church auditorium done in 10 days."

Several different kinds of construction engineers told me it could not be done. I figured they knew their jobs, and I had never handled a project that big before. But the pastor said he wanted it done in ten days, and that was my order—so it had to be done in 10 days.

The auditorium would seat 3,000 people and had a 35-foot-long, 16-foot-wide platform with seven steps leading up to it. That was only the main platform. There were to be two smaller platforms on either end of the main one. The pastor wanted all of the platform area carpeted in bright red.

The engineers said, "There is no way to get that much carpet in ten days, Buddy. A mill takes that long to make it, then it has to be finished and shipped and so forth." (Later, we learned the local carpet mill had shut down for lack of work, so when we called with our large order, they got it out in three days!)

However, as I watched Buddy Bell in the supernatural "movie," I heard several different people tell me that the job could not be done. I saw a living panorama as that 10 days played out in detail, and I can tell you, my mind was going absolutely wild as I watched.

Every now and then, I would hear myself reply to some of those objections, "Well, the pastor said he wants it done in 10 days, and it will be done in 10 days."

In the midst of this challenge with all of its tests and trials, I again saw the joy, happiness, and strength I had experienced during that construction project. We would work 16-18 hours at a stretch, go home and rest for two hours, and come right back to work.

I saw how refreshed I was after very little sleep, as if I had slept like a baby through an entire night.

Then suddenly, all of the joy and strength I had just been observing in the "movie" of myself was magnified a hundred times as I "swam" in that wonderful water.

"Oh, boy, this is nice," I said.

I was experiencing strength as I had never known it before. I felt as if I could push a wall in with my bare hands. There was joy within me such as I had never experienced. The happiness, joy, and strength of being in the ministry of helps filled me up supernaturally and surrounded me. I kept saying, "Boy, this is nice," over and over.

"Oh, Lord," I cried, "Where am I now?"

He said, "You are in the pool of the 'anointing for the ministry of helps' that has been lying dormant in heaven for thousands and thousands of years."

He lifted me gently out of the pool as quickly as He had put me in it and took me off in the distance for a "bird's-eye" view. And I saw a tremendous pool of water as clear as glass, with a very large crack in the bottom where the anointing was dripping out.

"Buddy," the Lord said, "there have been very few people who have gotten under those drips and stayed there. They became afraid and removed themselves from under the anointing."

Perhaps 99 percent of the Christians in any given church have experienced the anointing for the ministry of helps, but it frightened them, and they ran away.

Indeed, there is an anointing for any who participate in the ministry of helps!

Source: How to be Totally Effective Serving in the Ministry of Helps by Buddy Bell
Excerpt permission granted by Ministry of Helps International