I am currently away at a beautiful sea-side town in Victoria, Australia (yes I am blessed!) and went wandering through some local shops with a friend yesterday.  We wandered into a local home wares store and as I passed by the counter I noticed what a beautiful looking girl was behind the counter.  I greeted her but she did not look up  … I tried again, as I purchased some soap as a gift, and she glanced at me briefly, … and, as I stood, I felt that I needed to offer to pray.

There were a few people waiting to be served, so I stood watching, knowing I was not to leave until I had prayed and so I suggested to my friend that she go on ahead and I would catch up …

I went back to the counter and, laughing, explained I was a Christian and asked if I could pray for her.  She said yes, engaging me much more directly, I asked her name, I told her mine and invited the Holy Spirit to come and glanced around the shop.  As I did so I felt God indicate that there was something about a contract or lease that was going on and so I asked her about it …

Se looked at me in astonishment and said “yes” asking me how I knew and I responded that He (God – and motioned upwards with my head as I laughed) told me … and so I prayed for favour … favour for the business, favour for the family business structure behind the business (and I asked for the name of the family business), favour for the family, favour regarding the contractual negotiations, favour regarding the lease hold, and lastly favour for her … a double portion …

As I prayed for this beautiful girl I sensed God indicate that she had deeply buried dreams in her heart, and it was time for them to be brought to the surface, and so, I prayed for this girl …I called forth her dreams and declared her destiny open in the name of Jesus, open doors to her future and favour … more favour …

I left after briefly telling a few testimonies of other businesses that had been prayed for in the area and in North Queensland, and how they had been blessed by God since … I said to her to watch for the favour to flow, I thanked her for allowing me to pray and left with her smiling and looking at me square in the eyes …

We later walked through another shop, one of my favourites in the area.  It had a lovely atmosphere and as I wandered and chatted to the owner, I noticed a wooden crucifix over the desk where the owner sat. I instantly asked “are you a Christian?” and she responded with a smile and a “why yes I am, are you?” I answered in the affirmative and said the shop had such a lovely feel to it and asked if I could pray for her.  She responded “absolutely, yes” and so I took her hands in mine and prayed blessing and favour on her business.  As I did I sensed that times had not been tough and said so I said what I felt I was hearing … she agreed … I then said “in fact times have been good” and she agreed again and so I prayed greater blessing, for more favour, for an abundance of favour, blessing prosperity, declaring that since our God was abundant let there be an abundance in her life … a greater prosperity in all things good.

She looked at me and said “I felt that!”

So, I asked “what did you feel?”

She replied, “I felt that go right up my arms” and she thanked me…

As we chatted some more in light of a place or thing having a lovely atmosphere I told her the story of the beanie knitted with love – how we had bought a beanie a while ago down the street and it felt like it had been knitted with love … and how it so turned out it had been … knitted with love by a lovely Christian woman who wept as I prayed for her … as she felt God’s love flood her body …

I said she could read about it on a blog … and she excitedly said “do you blog?” I said “yes” and gave her the details …

As she wrote them down I told her how God’s Presence had come so strongly in the second-hand book shop that I had not wanted to move and the Christian woman I had prayed for had wept as I declared God’s favour and blessing on the sale of her beloved business and leasehold …

I said I never found out what happened to the end if the story …

She told me she knew the end of the story …

She said that the woman had sold her business and lease hold, instead of just walking away from it … the story had turned out well, for the woman in question was living near her other little second-hand book shop, in a nearby town and was living a very happy life indeed …

I was delighted … I felt so blessed … I had got to pray for a beautiful woman of God, and she in turn was able to share how a prayer story (one that had intimidated me) had turned out and how God’s goodness had yet again shone through a supposedly desperate and hopeless situation …

I left full of joy, having given this woman the blog details with her excitedly (or so it seemed to me) planning to read more stories of God’s goodness because she knows, as well as I know, that…

God is good!