A friend emailed me this testimony on Monday 4th April 2011. She has just started on this journey of stepping out and it takes courage … she has decided to literally give this “up and out” thing a go … and she is changing lives and as she does she is changing the world!
She writes:
About three or four weeks ago someone had given me a picture that he felt God was showing for me. It was a picture of shoes with the word “peace” on them. Not knowing exactly what that meant, I stored it away in the back of my mind, but the events of this day seem pertinent to that picture…
I had an incredible opportunity the other day to pray for my hairdresser. Her business closed down about a year ago but she kept some of her clients … she comes to our house to do our hair.
While she was cutting my hair this time she began sharing about the incredible mess some of her family relationships are in at the moment. We talked about that for a while and then went on to other general topics. As I was cleaning up from the hair cut I said to her: “Just as you were sharing some of those things earlier about what’s going on for you at home, I felt that God wanted me to offer to pray for you.” I quickly added “you can have whatever response you want, but I just felt to ask”. I was anticipating that she would feel really awkward about it, but she teared up and said that she would be open to almost anything at the moment. My Mum was also having her hair cut so we decided to pray after Mum’s hair cut.
While Mum was having her haircut I was Skyping with a friend overseas. While I Skyped I offered to pray for her Grandma who has gone into a nursing home and has been quite angry with the nursing staff. I prayed what I felt to pray – for a release of God’s peace in her nursing home room.
Mum’s haircut was finished, and she invited our hairdresser to stay for lunch. She was quite chatty and even after we’d finished eating she wasn’t rushing off to leave. During a pause in the conversation I asked if she still wanted me to pray … I had given her so many opportunities to back out!
[Author’s note: they want God so much more than we think or know!]
She said “yes” so I put my hand on her shoulder and specifically prayed for peace in her heart and in her relationships, and that she would be very aware of God’s presence as she went back to her home. I didn’t feel anything, just a strong sense to pray for peace. As I finished she looked up and said “I feel really relaxed now!”, and went on to say that whenever she comes to our home it doesn’t feel like work for her to cut our hair, that she feels peace when she comes here, and she looks forward to these times.
As soon as she left I did a little dance.
Go God! He’s so amazing.
I’m excited to see what will happen in my hairdresser’s journey.
We are often given something for us, because God loves us … My friend was given peace, and she decided, whether consciously or not, to give it away …she walks in it (the shoes) and so she can give it away too, it’s her choice!
I believe we need to look for these opportunities to share what we have, and what we have will grow. As we use our talents according to our ability (and anyone can pray for another!) what we have will increase (see Matt 25:14-30). As we share and give it away our storehouse fills and fills and so we give again … and so it fills again … to overflowing … and we will become so blessed we “will not have room enough for it” (Mal 3:10)*.
Give away what you have, whether it be peace, joy, hope, love … pray for someone and give away what you want in faith and watch the tiny little seed grow into something great … the world is so frantic and the pace so rapid, that for us to just stop and give away the Kingdom of Heaven, as my friend did, will give that one person a taste of something more, and that more will change atmospheres, will change lives, will change eternal destinies for …
God is Good!
*Note: I appreciate this scripture is generally used regarding tithing … however I think that it could perhaps apply to all we do … maybe we could give back to Him a tithe of all He has given us … joy, hope, mercy, love, peace … etc … perhaps give away in faith knowing that it is in there somewhere, we just need to give what we have and it will grow … just a thought …