Mark 16:17-18

Stepping into the Promises of God … praying for M, a young autistic boy, because God is Good!

Categories As you go, autism, Christian, God is good, God's love, healing, Identity, Love, Mark 16:17-18, Power of the testimony, prayer, Prophecy, Stopping for the one4 Comments on Stepping into the Promises of God … praying for M, a young autistic boy, because God is Good!

You may recall a recent post in which I told a number of stories about stepping into our prophetic destiny … about intentionally co-labouring with God to see the prophetic word released and grow in our lives … well  I had such an opportunity yesterday …

I was out with my children and I decided to stop and buy some meat from a local butcher.  I got a great car park and walked in, past a young teenager boy who was sitting on the shop step with a yellow Labrador pup on a lead.  I smiled and pointed the dog out to my children and as I did a woman opened the door to the store and kindly apologised and told the boy to move across …

I smiled at her saying we were admiring the pup and the three of us walked into the butcher.  As I stood next to the woman she turned to me and said that the young man was her son … he was autistic, and he had got the pup as a companion dog …

I smiled and asked a few questions and as she paid for her purchase I offered to pray for her son, explaining that I was a Christian (she said she was too) and that I had received a prophetic word that I would see the autism healed … she immediately said she had prayed much, but that she would love for me to pray, and so together we walked out onto the street, I knelt down before her son, placed my hand on his shoulder and prayed and as I did I “reminded” God of His word to me that I would see autism healed …

There was no thunder bolt … there was no “hallelujah” chorus … that I could hear in any case … but I rested in the knowledge that God wanted him whole and also there was a prophetic word from a reliable prophet who had declared over me that I would see autism healed … well … here was an autistic boy, and boy oh boy, was I going to pray for him! … if his mum let me of course.

Now, he is not the first autistic child that I have prayed for … I have prayed for two or three others, all prior to the word of promise from God, but, now I had a promise from God that I would see autism healed.  As I had stood in the store, prior to offering to pray, I noted the coincidence of timing (which the mum also commented on) and my mind had immediately gone to the daughter of a beautiful friend that has a gorgeous, autistic little girl.  She has been the recipient of miracle after miracle, but who was still autistic … I thought of her healing, I thought of this boys healing … and thought … I’m going to step into this regardless, until I see it happen!

I turned after praying for him, and prayed for the mum.  She thanked me, asked if I shopped often in the area (which I did sometimes) and as we chatted I shared a story of another autistic boy I had prayed for at a nearby shopping centre, a year ago that had started to get physically aggressive, but had become very peaceful after prayer … As we parted we wished one another a Merry Christmas!

This is a little story … a short story … I do not know the end … but I tell it to provoke a reaction …

What words have been declared over your life that are lying dormant, waiting for you to pull them out, pull them down from Heaven and step into?

There are words of promise already spoken about us in the Bible … promises for those of us who believe …Jesus promises us that

“these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” (Mark 16:17-18)

And then there are the personal words, whether they are rhema (living) words from the Bible for you, or prophetic words spoken over you by another, or whether they be words spoken directly to you by God in your quiet time with Him …

Whatever words they may be they will be great, grand and marvellous … because we are His children and he loves to call out our purpose and our identity … the “who we will  be”, for how He sees us now, is who we will become … if we so choose to step into it with Him …

So, what words do you have?

I encourage you, as we enter a time of reflection around Christmas and New Year, to dust off your words, choose to believe them and step up into God, and out into the community, into your future …

It will be glorious … it will be grand … it may not happen over night, but it will happen if we do not give up… and it will be so very worth it for …

God is Good!

We have the power to bless as we go … blessing businesses and pursuing the prophetic word in a place of rest …

Categories As you go, blessing, Christian, God is good, God's love, healing, Identity, John 14:12, Mark 16:17-18, Matthew 3:2, Obedience, open destinies, praise report, prayer, Prophecy, Stopping for the one8 Comments on We have the power to bless as we go … blessing businesses and pursuing the prophetic word in a place of rest …

Words have power.  What we speak has power.  With our words, backed up by God’s Spirit we impact destinies, we impact nations … when we align ourselves with the purposes and intentions of God and release those purposes onto earth through our words – words of love, edification and encouragement.  If we will just speak out what we hear Him saying for people, businesses, countries, organisations we will move mountains …

Prophetic words spoken over our lives are perplexing and challenging at the best of times.  As a new Christian I did not understand nor realise that there was a co-labouring with God in not only believing a prophetic word, but in taking action to see it come true in my life … we do it together … not through striving, but from a place of rest in Him …

I have posted stories where I have felt led to pray for a business owner or a business. See this link here  for as an example that comes to mind.

I have prayed for business owners as and when prompted, declaring favour over them and their business, but not often have I had feed back from those businesses … it is often “as I go” and so I often do not go back …

Well, recently I had the privilege of being prophesied over.  The prophecy included that I had an anointing to bless businesses … I immediately thought of a friends business that I was going to bless locally, we had been talking about it for some time, but with this word of promise from God I thought “right, I need to do this for my friend and for her business … God has made a declaration over my life through this word … it is time to walk in this with intentionality …”

And so, a few days before we were due to go away for holidays I went around to my friend place of business and prayed and blessed it …

We then went away on holidays. 

While away we visited a restaurant where I had prayed for the owner and had blessed her business 2 years prior.  The prayer had been in response to a prompting from God and I had stepped out feeling nervous, but determined.  The owner was Jewish and I released and declared the blessing of Abraham over her and her business.  I suggested she research her inheritance – she was greatly touched at the time.  On this follow-up visit she said she did remember me, and that the business was doing extremely well.

I was later told by a man who drove us to the airport (whose business I also blessed) that the restaurant had been doing well … it was always busy even though other places had closed and even though it was located in a tourist holiday town that had been struggling significantly with the recent economic conditions …

With this testimony and with the prophetic word declared over my life, I have been asking other people how business has been where I have prayed in the past.

About one year ago I prayed for another business, a clothing store, at a local seaside town.  We were back in the store about a month ago and I asked the owner how business was … she too said things had been good since I had prayed … she felt it had made a difference – isn’t God Good!

Well, there is an intentionality now, and although I feel awkward at times, when I get a hint of a desire to bless a business I step out, knowing that I have Heaven behind me … it is like I did it before the prophetic word on His prompting, and now God has encouraged me further, with the prophetic word, that He was backing me up …

Is it that if we will listen to Him and what He is wanting to do that we can in turn release blessing and favour over people, businesses, countries … and then perhaps as we step out faithfully He will acknowledge that and affirm us in the most unexpected way, confirming that he is backing up our words with all of Heavens resources …?

Prophetic words are not only for the future … they are indeed for the now …

It is time for the Body of Christ to pick up the words of God … believe them and release them.

God releases His intention through the prophetic.  Yes, there is timing and grace and preparation, but there are also words, I hazard a guess, that have been released over us all that we can co-labour with, that we can pick up and walk into …

The Bible is full of prophetic declarations of who we all are called to be …

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. (Jesus speaking in John 14:12 NIV 1984)

“And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” (Jesus speaking in Mark 16:17-18 NIV 1984)

What are we going to believe?  The prophetic word declared by Jesus about all believers … or something else?

Are you co-labouring with an intentionality to grow the promises in your life; or, are you waiting for the great anointing to just happen? 

I encourage you … step into it “for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matt 3:2 NASB 1985) … and what is more … IT”S FUN!

Water the seed of the prophetic words spoken over your life, spoken to us all in the Bible and let them grow … grow them with purpose and intentionality and you too will discover that …

God is Good.

And the meaning of her name was “purity”…praying for Katy in the car park

Categories Christian, God is good, Mark 16:17-18, Power of the testimony, prayer, Rev 12:11, Stopping for the one4 Comments on And the meaning of her name was “purity”…praying for Katy in the car park

Yesterday (Thursday 10th November 2011) I was heading home from kindy drop off and I remembered that I needed some basics of food.  I checked about stopping on the way home, since kindy time is usually my “date with God” time.  I queried God about stopping at one supermarket and got the very faintest impression of a car park behind a local fruit/vege/meat shop in the area, and it really was the faintest of impressions.

I hesitated but thought that I would drive there, double checking with Him that I should not stop at the large supermarket, which made more sense.  I drove to the area of the car park that I had the impression of and got the sense that there would be a really favourable car park for me to run in and out.  I drove slowly up the lane and thought … “there is the car park”, figuring it was a blessing for me …

I hopped out of the car, and briefly glanced back over my shoulder, and as I did I saw Katy (her name, as I found out later), a young girl in an oversized pram, all hunched in on herself, small, bent, screwed up in the face and hands and arms and legs all huddled and crunched together in a little mass …

There was no clear “yes go pray for her,” I just did.  “She could be healed!” I thought and so I stopped, turned around and walked up to the pram where the mother was loading the car with her shopping, her daughter huddled, a little mass of limbs, under a little light jacket, to protect her from the slight chill in the Spring wind.

I smiled at the mum quickly explaining that I was a Christian and I offered to pray.  The mum said “sure you can, others have, but you go for it” …

I quietly asked what had happened and was told that Katie had been a completely normal little girl at the age of two.  She said that she had taken Katy for her two-year old injections and after this time Katy had started to “fold in on herself” … she had stopped growing and withdrew internally, into herself so to speak.  I asked what the doctors had said about it and she responded saying that the medical profession had refused to listen to her, telling her that Katy’s condition was purely due to a “time bomb” in her … that she was missing an enzyme in her brain …

I listened, introduced myself and asked if I could lay my hand on Katy.  She said “sure”, and so I bent down to Katy’s level and introduced myself , placed my hand on her and invited the Holy Spirit to come.  I felt the Holy Spirit come and in the chill of the wind I released healing in the name of Jesus.  I prayed for healing and a rebalance of hormones and enzymes.  I said, whatever the cause, be healed in Jesus name.  I prayed for Katy to be made whole.  Her mother mentioned that Katy had started being very fearful a few years earlier and had withdrawn even more, and so I rebuked that spirit of fear and released peace.  I also released Katy into her destiny, “seeing“ her as she was destined to be, not the little huddled shell that she was, but the young, amazing, vibrant girl that she was meant to be … that she was destined to be …

The mother told me that she believed that there would be a miracle, that Katy would be healed one day.  She said that many people had said that Katy would be healed before her 15th birthday, and she told me that Katy would turn 15 in a few weeks time … she said how refreshing it was that I did not beg and plead with God for her healing, as other Christians had … she then said that she did not believe in God anymore … how could He let this happen?  I listened, without judgement, and gently suggested that God was not the author of this, that He did not “let” this happen, and that Christians, as people left in charge, we, us Christians, were responsible for praying  … she was not convinced, and I knew it was no time for a theological discussion.  Instead, I told her of a friend of mine who, only the day before, had told me the testimony of her son and how he had been healed of cerebral palsy.  It had not been an instant miracle, but a gradual healing … and I now note how important it is that we all share our stories for we overcome the enemy by the blood of the lamb and by the word of [our] testimony (Rev 12:11) …

I then asked God to do the same again for Katy … and prayed some more. 

When I sensed it was enough, I asked if I could give Katy a kiss.  The mum agreed and I kissed her on the cheek, quietly telling this young girl that she was beautiful … I turned and asked the mum if I could give her a hug, my heart went out to her and all she had been through … she hesitated and said “no” telling me if I had not asked and just done it she would have been ok …

The mum then suddenly said “we nearly called Katy, _____ “ and it was my exact name.  I looked at her astonished and said it was no coincidence, thinking to myself first of the deaf girl, with a close variation of my name, and then Katy, who was going to be called my name … “no coincidence!” God was up to something.

I thanked the amazing mother for allowing me to stop her and pray for Katy.  I wanted to pray for her too, but knew it was enough, so I did not offer.  I gave her my number and the name of my church so if she decided she wanted more prayer for Katy, she knew where she could go …

I went on my way, praying for Katy, and her mum as I went.  I collected my shopping items and went home, knowing that what had just happened was no coincidence.  I had been set up again by God.

I have received prophetic words about the “strange cases” being healed.  The deaf girl and Katy were both an invitation to step into my destiny … however, regardless of me … what I was even more aware of was the sense of responsibility and of my own ineptness … I started to pray for more power and anointing and I very quickly received the response … you have the anointing … just step into it … so I then said … well God I need more power …

We have all been called into the ministry of healing as we go … We are all called to stop for the one and set them free … We are all called to be like Jesus … We are being transformed, and as we are becoming more like Him, how else do you suppose we are going to truly discover who we are until we step out into the very basic ministry to which all believers are called …

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak in new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover (Mark 16:17-18)

I am not suggesting that we should drink poison or run around picking up snakes to prove this … but I am suggesting that we all should step out and give “laying hands on the sick” a go, and keep giving it a go until …

His word says I will lay hands on the sick and see them healed … I have the power to lay my hands on the sick to heal … who am I to refuse to believe God’s word … who am I to hold that back from someone like Katy …? If her mum had said “no” at least I had given them the choice to receive or not … I have no right to hold back what I have …  and so I step out and “do the Fathers business” and in doing so I am sure that I will see that …

God is good!