On my husband’s birthday my son and I decided to pop into his work and have a coffee with him.

We found a table at a local coffee shop.  It was a café that we had been to many times before, and I had always felt comfortable there, but this time, as I sat down I felt uneasy.

I sat and as I waited for our orders to be taken I could smell a strong nauseating smell, a smell that was overpowering and made me want to leave … it was the same smell as someone who I know quite well that suffers from a mental illness … I pondered the smell and looked at the girl next to me and wondered whether she too was struggling with some form of mental illness.

We placed our order, and the two girls at the table next to us left to go upstairs.

There was still a “cloud” or a “heaviness” in the atmosphere … and I looked at the two girls serving, usually joyful … and thought that the girl making coffees looked “grey” … she lacked colour … and the other one swore angrily as she hit her head … a four lettered expletive came out of her mouth in front of my son and I flinched …

I felt grouchy and thought why did I bother and I went upstairs to the bathroom, having a chat to God on the way …

I sensed that He was showing me something, but I did not particularly want to offer to pray … to be quite honest, I just wanted to leave.

We finished up and my husband paid, leaving the shop to adjust my son’s car seat as I waited for my son to finish his snack.

As I did, the girls started to chat to me … and I thought “what the heck” and so I said “I want to pray for you both” …

They said “oh no, you have already paid” …

To which I responded “No … I want to pray for you both … can I pray a blessing for you both?”

They both agreed and so I leant over the counter and took the coffee makers hand and I stretched out and took the other girls hand … they told me their names and I began to pray …

For the coffee maker I prayed favour, I released colour and joy and hope, and I declared her destiny open … she visibly changed colour … her complexion suddenly filling with colour …

I then turned to the other girl and looked at her and I said to her that I felt things had been tough, but that the past was the past but that it was a new day … that the door on the past was closed and I declared her future open … I declared in “new beginnings” …

They both gasped … presumably because it was accurate … and I think that they realised that God had been released in their midst …

The second girl looked at me and said “wait, please wait …will you please do that for the girl upstairs?”

I said “sure but I have to check on my son” …

M had run out of the shop and on checking he was ok and seeing his was with my husband I shouted out what I was doing and disappeared back into the coffee shop …

I went upstairs and the second girl quickly explained in a very excited manner what I had done, how I had said stuff about her past, and that the door to the past was shut … and she said you have to get her to pray for you …

The girl looked at me and agreed.

I asked her name … noting that the strong smell around her had gone and I recognised that the smell had been a sign, a “word of knowledge” which had come in the form of smell, and I knew then, for sure, that I had been set up by God to release freedom upon this girl…

I asked if I could place my hand on her and I prayed … I said to her gently that I sensed she had been sad … very sad and she agreed.

I then said that I sensed that it had gotten so bad that it was now “clinical” … and she agreed … and so I prayed freedom, I told the depression to leave, and I released the joy of the Lord over her … I released peace and then I sensed or rather I “saw” in my mind’s eye an arrow shooting through the darkness and I felt that she had a great gift that had been turned against her and that it had gone bad for her … she needed God to show her how to walk into her gifts and in doing so she would be freed.

I explained that I felt she had a great gift, a gift of insight, that she knew things about people clearly and that she would be precise in her discernment, but that it had been misunderstood, and it had caused her to spiral down into depression … I said it was “time” … time for her to sit in her Daddy’s lap, in God’s lap and be loved and to, from that place, explore what her gift was …

All the while through she nodded in agreement …

I finished praying what I felt led to pray and I gently kissed her on the head, releasing the blessing of the Father upon her, and I told her that it was time for joy, great joy, that I saw her happy, joyfully skipping, dancing running down the street and that that was who she was created to be.

I gave her my number and told her the suburb where I lived … it was not far from her place … and I mentioned to her that we held our nights where she could safely come and sit in the lap of her Father God and learn what her true identity was … a much beloved daughter of the Most High God …

She said she would come … but that this next time she would be inSydney…

I left her, wishing her well … her smiling gently with hope on her horizon that she was not destined for the hopelessness she had been plagued with …

I went downstairs and said thanks to the two girls … saying what an amazing girl the girl upstairs was …

And the two girls stood and stared … the one behind the counter smiling broadly and the other saying earnestly …

“what can we give you … let us give you something … can we give you money … are you in ministry … we must give you something to say thankyou ..”

I looked at her and kissed her on the cheek and just said … “no you cannot give me anything, I am not in full-time ministry, just believe that God loves you and that will be payment enough”

She objected saying “but it was amazing … I felt it … “ and the girl behind the counter was saying “I never felt anything like that … the heat that came on me…”

I smiled and said “you felt the Holy Spirit …”  I said to them both “this is normal Christianity … you too can have a life like this if you believe … this is what Christianity looks and feels like … I am a normal Christian with a powerful God that loves you “ and I told them about our nights and left wishing them well.

I realised that the emotions I was feeling when I first walked in were not my own …the smell was not that girl’s smell … the heaviness was not my own … but it was all an invitation from God to pray for three girls needing a Father’s blessing, needing an encounter with a loving God … they needed to know they were loved …

I am glad I stopped, and had not run … I had nearly missed it …

The entire encounter was so rewarding … leaving them embraced in the afterglow of having been loved and held and kissed by a loving God …

I was in awe of the fact that God would use me … me so to impact them so powerfully and I was reminded that I must just step out … He does the rest …

I cannot concoct the power … I cannot heal the depression … I cannot change destinies … I cannot fix even a head ache … not without Panadol …

But, I can stop, I can offer to pray … I can release heaven and reveal His goodness … I can then step out of the way and let God do the rest … the rest is His job, and He does His job so very well, the rest is marvellous because …

God is Good!