Pink smoke. I could feel it everywhere. It was like a thick blanket that most other people didn’t seem to know was there. Especially tourists. It seemed to engulf them in the night when it was dark and they were unaware.
After spending a week in Thailand and falling in love with it, I asked the Lord to reveal its spiritual atmosphere to me.
He gave me a vision. All I saw was a smoke bomb hurtling through the air. It landed on a map of Thailand and a map of the United States.
A coral-colored smog covered each map in its entirety. The same strongholds hung over both places.
As I researched what pink smoke might symbolize in a variety of contexts, the Lord highlighted the words ‘lust’ and ‘fumigation’ to me.
Thailand is known for its prostitution bars so the lust part made perfect sense but… fumigation?
I couldn’t seem to figure out what the Lord meant by that, until I went into the bars myself.
When rooms are fumigated, it’s usually to remove any unwanted pests from it. In God’s eyes, that’s exactly what lust is and His heart is to eradicate it completely. Smoke it out.
Fumigation is never pleasant or convenient but it’s necessary to live a life of peace. Most importantly, it often happens over a long period of time.
God was sending us into the bars for 2 nights to start the fumigation process. He sent us in to make the atmosphere uncomfortable and to upset the balance in the spiritual realm by bringing in His Holy Spirit.
We were sent in to tip the scales and make God’s presence in that room heavier than everything else that had been allowed in.
So heavy that nothing else could exist there any longer.
Usually, I try to stick to children’s ministry and teaching English because that’s what I do best but God told me He wanted to use me in a new way this month. Specifically, during these 2 nights in the bars.
I had done bar ministry before but never in a place filled with devilish cackles and a cacophony of music played on several loudspeakers.
I had done it before but I had never been the one to do much speaking. I was more of the observer and intercessor.
On our second night, out at the bars, I sat down with my ministry group. When they went to play a game of pool, I sat on the sidelines.
That’s not my thing; I’m not called to that, I kept thinking as I sipped my glass bottle of Sprite.
There was one girl sitting back in the corner by herself. She looked no older than 17. My eyes locked on her. My heart was drawn to her instantly.
My feet all but walked themselves over to her apart from my will.
I tried to begin a conversation with her.
I quickly found out how extraordinarily limited her English was when she got up to ask the bartenders for translation almost every time I asked a question.
So, since my translation app wasn’t working, I tried a different approach. I did what I knew.
I pointed to things and taught her English words. She pointed to the same things and taught me Thai words.
It was awkward. But it was also kind of awesome.
She was smiling. That smile could mean a thousand things.
She showed no signs of joy when I first saw her but now she was all but laughing herself out of her chair.
I wondered how long it had been since she had done that. Weeks? Months? Years? God only knows. I wondered what she meant to say with her smile. Was it real joy? Was it a cry for help? A sign of gratitude?
We danced together and then God put it on my heart to sing a song over her. A children’s song.
It seemed ridiculous to me but I did.
Over all the chaotic cackles and nonsensical music. Amidst binge drinkers and scantily clad women. I sang, “Jesus loves you” motions and all.
I knew she couldn’t understand what I was saying. What I do know is that Jesus loves her, for the Bible tells me so. Everyone to Him belong. We are weak but He is strong.
There were so many things I didn’t know walking into that bar. The one thing I did know I declared in the only way I knew how.
She smiled at me and giggled a little bit. Somehow her joy emboldened me to ask if she wanted to play pool though I hardly knew how to play. It was what she knew and it was a way to keep everyone in that bar so that we could continue to cover it with the Lord’s presence, if only for an hour or two.
Of all the things I never thought I’d do just because God told me to…
I sang “Jesus loves you” in a bar and started a game I didn’t know how to play.
It didn’t accomplish anything profound that I could see but it all just felt right. It made no sense for it to feel right but it did because God.
Sometimes that’s the only explanation we need. Because God.
I challenge you to listen to the Lord’s voice. What is He telling you to do that you’ve never done before? What is He telling you to do that doesn’t seem to make any sense?
I challenge you to do it with no other explanation than because God.
You never know what your one seemingly insignificant action may spark for the Kingdom. A smile can mean a thousand things.
