Yesterday…. Look, I’m going to be honest. I was in a bad mood, my wife was walking on eggshells, I was hoping Bread on the Water would get rained out…
On the drive there, I forced myself, out loud, in front of my wife and kids to apologize for my attitude, and break agreements with the enemy, then do the normal prayer, in which we ask that we can be empty of our selves, we commit our time and effort to the Lord and to doing Kingdom work, and we ask God to set up “divine appointments”, where the right people will come by at the right time, we will discern and hear the Spirit, speak His word, have the courage to act on any action that the Spirit prompts, we ask for the presence of the Holy Spirit and angels, we bind spirits of confusion, distortion, distraction, violence, judgement… and ask for the ability to make people feel the love of the Father.
Now I was ready.
While carrying the last box of bread and the Jesus sign from the car, I came upon three college-age people who were eating the free cookies they just picked up from our giving bench. They were actually asking each other “what’s up with the free bread”?
I began what turned out to be a 10 minute conversation by explaining that the bread is just a gimmick to be able to speak to people about Jesus, who is the Bread of Life, and is also free. I asked them if they were already believers, and only one (the youngest female) said that she gave her heart to Jesus as a child (I told her I thought that counted!)
I gave them “The Gospel According to Chris”, which is my 90-second presentation of the Gospel. The two non believers (in a budding romance), said “We were just talking about this stuff today!” The whole conversation was light, easy, and friendly with lots of smiles, handshakes and thanks. I did ask if they were ready to give their life to Christ, and they didn’t take me up on the offer, but the seed was planted, the previous seeds were watered, and an invitation from the Father was extended, and I hadn’t even put on my OC Visor!
There were several divine appointments for me yesterday (way more than usual), but toward the end, there was a family with two adult children. The dad was taller than me and not the kind of guy you’d approach with a tough question (unless you’re a large foreboding guy like me, or driven by the Holy Spirit, which I am both!).
Members of our group had been having a great discussion with them, and I felt a MAJOR pull from the Spirit to pray for his back. It was obvious that he had issues, it didn’t take a word of knowledge, but the feeling was so strong that when I disobeyed the urge, I confessed it to James, and then ran off after them. Half a block later, they stopped, and I said, “I got this weird feeling like God wants me to pray for the pain in your back”.
They guy didn’t really want to accept prayer at first. Normally I don’t push the issue, because I am big on people feeling loved and respected. I had seen another guy with a cane have all the pain in his newly replaced hip leave his body an hour earlier, so I had the faith for it.
This (tall dad-guy) told me that his injuries were from a helicopter accident, and he was used to it by now. I told him that I was just obeying the voice of God and he said “go ahead and pray for me.” I took his hand and began to pray. His wife immediately ran over, called the kids over and they literally clutched to our arms as we prayed in Jesus’ name for her husband and his healing.
I have no idea if the man got healed. Believe it or not, that was not the issue. The issue was a believing family where the father was the stoic critic, likely a respected hero, who really needed to be reminded that THE Father loves him.
It makes me wonder if the earlier healing was a setup. Passing that test gave me the courage to obey the “hook” that would allow the Father to reach the heart of a crusty beloved son of God.
Mission accomplished. Just another day “down by the river”.