We had a few hours on a Saturday to do child free Christmas shopping before going to a movie. With our list in hand, we did not know that Jesus had His own Christmas shopping list for us to do too…!
I was in the ‘ladies’ when I found the first on His list. God told me to pray for someone outside my cubicle. Side note: Yes, He talks to me everywhere.
‘She has been a great blessing to others for many, many years, I want you to bless her’.
As I washed my hands, I looked at ‘her’ in the mirror.
She was an elderly woman waiting for her granddaughter. I introduced myself and stated that that I believed she had been a great blessing to many people over the years. I then asked if I could pray a blessing over her. She looked surprised but agreed.
Her name was Joy.
She was the second Joy I had prayed for that week and I mentally noted the ‘coincidence.’
I blessed Joy knowing that she knew Joy and was familiar with the Joy of God. She teared up a little as I prayed and blessed her, and once done, she asked if I would also pray for her granddaughter. I agreed and prayed and prophesied over her granddaughter, declaring her destiny would open and unfold, that she was a pillar and a leader in the coming move of God, which I believed would be a move that came through the youth in power. Joy excitedly said she had been praying for revival for years…
My husband had been waiting patiently outside. He knew what was going on inside because people were coming out from the bathroom saying in amazement that there was “someone praying in there for people…” and pointing back to the door. Andrew knew what I was up to and laughed. I hadn’t thought about that sort of impact, but it was quite funny…
Jesus assignment done, we got a coffee and discussed our shopping…
As we waited for our coffees, I popped into another store to “bag” our first item. C served me, and yes, God had me pray for her. C was a young girl (about 16) who “felt” the anointing as I prayed. I prophesied she would discover who she was and why she was in the next two years. She had said she did not know, but my gosh, she was a marvellous girl!. I headed off with my purchase and sat with my husband to finish our coffee…
I felt I had done my dash, and we headed off to a sporting store. We purchased nothing, but on our way out I walked past a very disabled girl with her parents. Strapped into her wheelchair, her arms and legs fastened down. The girl’s body was small, deformed, and she displayed no control over her head movements. I felt God’s strong desire for me to pray, but I was so intimidated by the severity of her condition. I internally argued with God as we walked away from the store, but ultimately said:
‘Ok, for You, I’m willing to do it…’ and I went back to search the shop.
I found the girl with her parents waiting at the checkout. The intensity of my nerves made it an extreme fight to approach them. I fought the extreme urge to walk away, knowing that God really wanted me to ask if I could pray for her…
Stopping in front of her chair, I asked her parents if I could pray. I desperately did not want them to feel that I felt sorry for them, but I also wanted them to know that I cared. They agreed, so I knelt and addressed their daughter, who could not talk at all.
She was dribbling and had an angry-looking rash on her face from the dampness of her dribble. Her hands were unformed, and her body was tiny. I knelt and taking her hand in mine, and I quietly introduced myself. Her parents looked weary and watched on as I prayed, and her father leant in to listen.
As I prayed, she locked her gaze on mine. I believe she could clearly feel God as I prayed for her. The frantic movements slowed, and she held onto my gaze several times. I prayed for her parents too and asked God to provide solutions.
Leaving the store, I thanked the girl and parents for stopping and allowing me to pray for them. I felt wobbly and said to Andrew it must be nerves; instead he encouraged me, suggesting it was the intensity of anointing…
“Ok” I thought, “big one down”, shake, shake, shake, “gosh, ok, deep breath” shake, shake, shake…
I slowly settled down as we walked through Big W, fighting the negative thoughts, the accusations of failure and the residual impact of the nerves.
As the legs stopped shaking, I could focus on our task at hand. Andrew encouraging me all the way, we successfully made further purchases.
As we left God prompted me to pray for the cashier who said to me ‘I am not a Christian’ to which I said something like ‘that doesn’t matter, I can still bless you’ which I promptly did, placing my hand on his elbow as I spoke peace over him for this season of business.
It was time for our movie, so we headed toward the theatre. To our surprise, we had calmly and easily done all our shopping.
I felt quite successful, having bagged all that we had, and I waited while Andrew put our purchases into the car. As I stood, I tried to ignore a young girl in a wheelchair. I had noticed her out of the corner of my eye. I calmly ignored the very brief, quiet prompting, preferring to hear the louder “no” that came very much on top of the whispered ‘pray for her’. The prompt was so subtle, and I wanted to get to our movie on time, so I tried to ignore her, and I literally turned my back.
I stood and argued internally, but it was no good; I knew I had to stop for this one too.
Walking over to the girl’s mother, I introduced myself, asked what her daughter had done and if I could pray. The Mum’s name was ‘A’ and was also with her teenage son, who looked like he had down syndrome, but who we later found out had autism. She looked back at me and immediately said yes, that would be great.
I knelt by the young girl (she was 14 years old) and she told me a brick wall had fallen on her, crushing and breaking one leg. The damage included the growth plate, so they had to do the same with the other leg in order that the legs would grow at the same rate.
I placed my hands on her legs (after she also gave me permission) and I prayed. She felt heat. I continued to pray and prophesy, while her friends stood by our side, politely not looking.
I asked her if she had asked Jesus into her heart. She said she had, but on a prompt I said ‘let’s do it again’ and so in response she asked Jesus into her heart. I suggested she ask that He fill her up, so she did. I continued to pray and when she said “enough” (a boundary we had agreed upon before I prayed) I thanked her and looked at her mother who then thanked me.
I thought I was going to go into the movie theatre after this and time was ticking along. We had not been to a movie for years by ourselves, so it was a real treat. However, I felt to pray for her brother and so turning to the mother I asked if I could pray for him too. She again readily agreed.
The boy called “B” was 16 years old. He swayed heavily under the anointing, and I motioned to Andrew, who quickly steadied him. He was incredibly ‘open’ to God’s presence.
I felt to suggest he say, ‘Jesus, come into my heart’
He did.
I then felt to suggest to him, ‘say Jesus fill me up,’
B said ‘Jesus fill me up’, and on saying it he kept saying it, over and over, laughing and swaying heavily under the anointing.
I finished and turned to the mother, knowing I had to pray for her too.
‘Well, this is more important than being on time for the movie,’ I thought and I offered to pray.
She agreed.
As I prayed for the mother, the compassion of God came upon me and I nearly cried. She looked like she did too. I received words of knowledge about her–she was struggling (that was obviously a possibility given her two kids) she was making major decisions, and she was a single Mum.
She told me she had 3 children and had told my husband prior to me praying that she had found the recent challenges with her daughter’s injury tough. I prayed, and she quietly received; she was so very thirsty for God and drank Him in, and as I finished praying for her, I placed my arms around her and held her close for a long, long time.
I went to release my hug, but she hung on, so I hugged her some more and when I felt it was enough, I again tried to disengage, but she again hung on again. So, I continued to hold her, yet feeling quite embarrassed by now. Again I went to release her, but she continued to hang onto me quietly. I tried again, and she hung on again… so I just stood in the middle of the busy shopping centre and let her drink and cling to me for what seemed an eternity…
I gave her our church card, and I wrote my private number on it so she could call me if she felt she wanted.
As we walked away my husband said to me he believed we were there, not so much for the daughter, but for the Mother, who had been through such a tough time, for Jesus says:
‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me… streams of living water will flow from within him.’John 7:38-39
We saw our movie, but we missed the promos. This did not bother us at all. We even had time to go to the bathroom and settle in before the movie started. God had it all timed beautifully and I am so glad that I did not rush because He had treasures in the darkness to give…
Every person I encountered was a treasure in the darkness, waiting to be discovered. Each was a treasure set out for me to discover, to find, to uncover and my footsteps ordered by a loving and knowing God. He not only blessed us with the miracle of a great time together, Christmas shopping in the Christmas rush, but He also entrusted 10 people that all needed a touch from their mighty and loving God. Ten people altered for ever more. He left those treasures out for me to find because …
God is Good.
Post Script: The shopping day was a Saturday, a few years ago now. I wrote the story up on a Tuesday, and just as I finished writing the mum rang me with the following report:
Her daughter stood without crutches on the Sunday;
Her son lost his aggression and was much calmer. There was a change in his eyes, and they looked ‘more alert.’ He had stopped asking about his father who left the family earlier that and she said the ‘worry has lifted from his face’, he is ‘much calmer’. She told me he continues to say ‘Jesus fill me up’ and is laying hands on his mother and family friends and asking ‘can you feel that?’ and she can;
The mum (A) felt much more at peace (in her home and in herself). The night before meeting us she was suicidal, and when she saw us across the shops, she stood willing us to come over. She said there was a light around both Andrew and I that she saw and wanted to be near. From that afternoon A cared for herself properly, eating 3 meals a day, and was feeling at peace.
A told me she had thought about the encounter every day. She believed it was not a coincidence that we met. Just before she met us she had looked for a car park and just knew that she would find one on the middle level (where she met us) at about 1.30pm, just in time to meet us after getting her daughter out of the car with the wheelchair. She said that she had told her daughter that there would be a car park for them in that place, and there was a reason for the delay in finding one.
During our discussion on the telephone, A gave her heart to Christ. We talked at length and she shared some of her story with me. She also asked for and received the gift of tongues, feeling a ‘tingling up and down her legs’ as we prayed. She also felt the tingles over her head, as she had done earlier. Her ‘spirit spot’ burned lightly as we talked and prayed.
Post Post Script:
I kept in contact with A over Christmas and eventually arranged a coffee at my home in mid-January.
The bell rang, and on answering the door A was with her daughter who was standing. Her daughter’s name also begins with A so I will call her Little A. I stood looking at Little A and they both laughed at my shock. Little A was walking, without leg braces, without a wheelchair and without a walking stick.
After my initial shock, they came into my home where I heard the story.
Little A had stood for the first time unaided the day after I had prayed for her. She had been told on 6th January by her physiotherapist that she would need the wheelchair, leg braces and a crutch for another 6 weeks. Yet, she was walking completely unaided on 18th January… 12 days later! At the six week mark she was back training with cadets.
Apparently she had been walking not long after being prayed for. They had gone on holidays after Christmas at a caravan park in Phillip Island. They took the wheelchair, but had not used it, and she had been walking unaided since.
So, here she was, walking well, on Wednesday 18th January, having had two broken legs and having been told she would need a wheelchair, leg braces and a walking stick for at least another 6 weeks on 6th January…!
On this visit, Little A explained that she still needed more strength in her legs. I laid hands on her legs and called strength into her thigh muscles and as I did her mother, my daughter and I noticed her knee caps moving up and down with no input from her, as if her thigh muscles were being contracted and released. She did not feel it, it just happened.
She stood and tried them out and I prayed again, and it happened again…
Her Mother and I concluded her thigh muscles must have been being strengthened supernaturally. It was the oddest thing to watch her knee caps bobbing up and down in a rapid movement!
After we finished praying and we went for a walk during which I heard more of her story.
Apparently A’s family transformed. Her son was no longer violent, she was walking in abundant favour, disputes settled supernaturally, with no effort on her part. She shared how she had told a friend who was also in a place of despair how she too could be free-she was ready to give what she had received away to others!
A said the entire journey had been remarkable, the turnaround, marvellous…
I just listened in awe, knowing that it was all a miracle, and I noted that I nearly did not stop for them because I wanted to get to the movies on time…
I wondered how many others I had simply walked past…
How many others may have had a life transformed… had I stopped for the one…
I am certain that there is no condemnation in Christ, but how His heart yearns for us to recognise and to step into who we truly are, to co-labour with Him in the family business.
Well I’ve never really told my story on this blog. In fact, in typical Aussie style I have kept myself out of this blog on purpose, essentially because:
Australians hate “big noting Aussies”. Yes people the tall poppy syndrome does exist here. I never wanted to be accused of “big noting” or making this blog about myself – because this blog was about God, and His goodness and His willingness to use me (a random Aussie girl who wanted to give “the big stuff a go! So I made sure my identity was keep out of it);
Online safety – I don’t have a face book page, I instagram, but without identifiers, and I have two children I did not want to expose to the internet – essentially, if I am real with you I have a fear of unknown consequences 🙂
most importantly – I felt I needed to be anonymous, and hopefully by being anonymous people would be inspired to understand that anyone (yes you) can do the God stuff too – you don’t need to be clever, talented, qualified, you just needed to love God, listen and do as He says in faith (with love!)
I have now come to understand that a lot of what I was doing on the streets as I went about my days is now identified as “prophetic evangelism”, but even giving it a name seemed (and still seems) wrong – I saw, and still see the “as I go” and “stopping for the one” as merely being God’s friend, being His child, being the heart and hands of God in my community – I actually believe it’s being a Christian, and that we are ALL called to do the same (if Bill Sweeney from Unshakeable Hope with ALS from a hospice bed can “do the stuff” and reach the unreached, and love a dying world – and he can’t move or speak people – then none of us have an excuse. Hit the link to Bill’s blog – it will rock your socks off and then some more. Hi Bill I hope your’e ok with what I just wrote. You inspire me!)
I also now understand that my own story has power, my own story of growing up in an atheist home, searching for God desperately for years, and coming to know Christ as my loving Saviour, is important, and people need to hear it.
A couple of years ago, a gentle man called Chris heard my testimony at church. He was (and still is) responsible for recording radio for the Salvation Army. He asked to interview me. I was a bit overwhelmed at this idea, but feeling God on it I said yes. So here is the link to some of my recorded story. I hope it blesses, I hope it encourages, and I really really hope you understand that I waited from the age of 6 or 7 until 23 for someone to step out, take a risk and invite me to meet Jesus. While I am grateful for the silent witness of the families around me over the years, I wish that someone had actually stopped and explained that I too could have a friend like Jesus,. Had anyone done so sooner, so much heart ache in my life may have been avoided. So I share, hoping that someone, at least one, will know that there are people out there waiting for you to talk to them about Jesus , waiting for you to invite them into the Kingdom and the family of God, and that by doing so you will invite them to see that …
At some stage of this journey, after the food etc I had felt to give to the kindy teacher and her husband a couple of small pamphlets on healing and keeping healing. I also felt to pop in a pamphlet on who Jesus was … it was a little book (one of a pack of 10 that I had bought many years prior on the prompting of God) that was called “Why Jesus?”. I think it was written by Nicky Gumble, but I could be wrong. It was a little red book that I had handed out as I felt I was meant to over the years, and this was my last copy … I gave it to them, hoping it would not cause offence.
My relationship with the kindy teacher remained positive, she returned my bags I had provided the food in with her note, and she gave me updates on how L was doing. Christmas was coming and life was busy with two small children. The kindy teacher gave me updates and said how much she wanted us to come back and pray for L again. When school and kindy finished we would make a time to visit and to pray for L again … but in the meantime I got updates and I would pray, thanking God I had not completely botched it!
Eventually, we arranged to visit L and the kindy teacher at their home. I can’t remember all the details, but my husband A and I went along, and we prayed for L, answering their questions about God. They then pulled out the little red book, and sheepishly said to me that this little red book had given them a prayer to pray, and that the little red book advised that, if they prayed this prayer then they should tell someone … and they looked at us and giggled and said that they had prayed the prayer and they were now telling me … they had become Christians!
I was shocked and delighted for them … but they said there was a story that I had to hear …
They told me that L had suddenly got better after the prayer, he had then slipped back a bit, but while all this was happening, L’s son and wife in South Africa had been given a little red book … !!!
Yes it was THE SAME little red book I had given them here in Australia …
They said that his son had spoken to them about Jesus … he had told them that he had become a Christian and he wanted the same for them … well as they spoke to him, they told him about their little red book … and their decision to become Christians … and they told A and I with giggles of delight that simultaneously on the other side of the world, completely independent of us, they had all become Christians at the same time … after reading the same little red book …
I was flabbergasted!
It was so God!
It made me laugh and cry simultaneously … of all the things for God to line up … to show the entire family (and me) that He was on the case and had it in hand …
Simply and basically all I could say to them at that moment was, that well …
Last year I wrote a post about a teacher at my daughter’s school who had been waiting for me to pray for her for some time. When I did pray for her she had cried, saying she had been frightened she had been overlooked by God. Some are just waiting to be asked! (Click here for story) Her time had come, she had not been missed and I had prayed …
Later, I had prayed for her again, in a complete set up by God (see same post) and at that second time I had given her the same scripture reference and the same advice that the school chaplain had given her a day or two earlier … God was so clearly on her case! She was amazed and could see God on it too!
On one of these occasions I had said that she was on a journey, that she was being pursued by God, and I had explained how easy it would be for her to step into a deeper relationship with Jesus, just by simply asking Him into her heart … I had not felt to suggest she do it at that time, nor to push the point, I knew instead that God was wooing her and her time would come, and I told her so … that perhaps she would do it in private (and I explained how) … but whenever it would be, her time would come and she would know it …
About a month ago, I was waiting for my daughter in the school reception area when this particular teacher walked into the same area. We greeted one another and I asked her about an outing she had been on recently …
She is one of those people who are always full of joy, she makes you smile, she really is delightful. As she spoke I felt to pray for her again, which she readily agreed to, and as I held her hand and I started to pray for her I knew it was her time to ask Jesus into her heart … it was her time to be rescued by the knight in shining armour, riding the white horse…
I said so, and stated, more than asked, that she had not yet asked Him into her heart. She agreed that she had not …
I suggested that it might be time, and she agreed that it was …
And so, in the reception area of a local school, she gave her heart to Jesus, she asked Him to take up residence in her heart. It was a simple prayer, it was her prayer. He gave her the words and she prayed them.
I smiled and hugged her and said well done.
We had a brief discussion about faith and I shared some of my background and journey. I said to her, as with any relationship it takes time to get to know someone, and with time spent together you will come to know Jesus more and more. We talked about the open door that is Jesus, and she stepped forward and through that door prophetically, on my suggestion, as if to step into the open door before her, the open door that is Jesus, and she shone with joy and happiness. She seemed to intuitively understand that this was not a function of the mind, but of the heart and of relationship, not that she had to shut off her mind to believe, but that her mind would catch up to her heart belief … she understood …
I suggested she tell the school chaplain of her decision (the school chaplain has since given her a Bible), and we went on our respective ways … me with my daughter, and her shining and transformed with the love of Jesus not only by her side, but fully resident in her heart knowing and experiencing that …
My daughter and I were up at the local shopping centre last Friday … checking school shoe size to ensure her feet were not cramped for the start of the new term.
As we ducked through a department store, I quickly noticed a jumper and felt to buy it and so, after checking size and colour, we proceeded to the cashier desk.
A beautiful young girl “Alicia” came to serve us, and as she processed the sale and bagged up my purchase I knew I was to ask her if I could pray for her.
She finished processing the sale, and as she did I chatted to her, feeling my way through the “words of knowledge” that were popping into my mind. I mentioned that I felt she was not destined to work at the store, that there was something else to her future. I asked her about that, and she mentioned that she was studying to become a teacher. I explained I was a Christian and that I wanted to know if I could pray for her, for her destiny to open up and she readily agreed. So, I took her hand in mine and listened for what God wanted me to pray … patiently listening, with my daughter by my side.
The word “travel” came to mind, and I sensed that it was “overseas travel”. I asked her about this and she agreed she was saving up to travel overseas. And so with the start of my “assignment” I proceeded to bless her finances, and declared “open doors” to her destiny. I then “heard” the words “special ed”. I again queried her, saying: “I know you are studying to become a teacher, but I sense that your heart is in special education, is thatright?” She took a breath, saying that yes, special education was her passion …
I then proceeded to pray open doors for her into the field of special education and I blessed those desires of her heart, declaring and telling her that she was going to be a marvellous special education teacher, that I sensed she would bless many “special ed children” and their families, that she would in fact alter destinies of those she taught for the better, … she would be great, great blessing … and I knew these words to be so … I just knew …
I then felt I heard the words “UK” … United Kingdom, and I asked her if she was travelling there. She said she, in fact, wanted to travel to the USA to meet friends that were apparently having a blast over there. I smiled and said to her to not discount the idea of travelling to the United Kingdom, that there may be opportunities for her there and open doors for her to teach in special education and I said the UK was a wonderful place to live … but, I also said, “I could also be wrong in that … just don’t discount the idea though” … and I smiled …
My daughter grinned up at me, and tugged on my arm in excitement, and Alicia said to me that she was shocked that I would know these things about her and so I explained to her that I knew these things not because I was special but because God wanted me to know them so that I could pray for her for them to come to pass, and so that she would know that she was loved by Him …
I then felt to ask her if she wanted Jesus Christ in her heart and I said: “you have not asked Jesus into your heart yet … have you?”
She replied she that she hadn’t asked Him into her heart, and so on an unction I asked her if she wanted to do so. She thought for a moment and said “yes, I do” and so in the women’s clothing section she gave her heart to Jesus Christ, accepting what He had done for her on the cross and asking Him to fill her heart …
Once finished I felt to give her my mobile (cell) phone number and name, and I briefly explained my background so she would be comfortable to know I was not a fruit loop … and I left, with my 9-year-old daughter’s face shining, with me thoroughly washed in the love of Jesus (because that which flows through you, leaves a residual Presence … which, is why it is so much fun to do this) and with Alicia staring at us as we left … and, as she stared she would have seen a very ordinary mum and daughter … off to buy school shoes, hand in hand leaving behind a beautiful and much-loved young woman with a bright destiny open, and a salvation obtained.
I will be surprised if she does call me, I hope she does. Some do call, but many don’t. I may be criticised for this … leading someone to Christ but not following them up personally. I used to, and ran myself ragged, and I now feel a peace about this because, I feel that unless God prompts me to get their number and chase them up, that He has their best interests at heart, and I trust that He will call them into His Church, into His Body … and I feel that I leave them free to contact me as and when they wish … it is their journey with a loving Father, and hence their call …
Regardless, I do what I feel I am required to do, and I “go about My Father’s business” (Luke 2:49), as best I can, and as I do I am certain and sure that they will know, that Alicia now knows that …
I was heading interstate a few weeks ago, and while at the airport, I stopped to buy a tea and fruit salad, having rushed the entire day.
As I stood to pay for my purchase I felt the usual prompting to offer to pray for her … to stop for the one … to pray for Mona …
She readily agreed to my suggestion after I quickly told her the story from Coles, and I asked what in particular she may need prayer for. She motioned for me to come over, to the edge of the serving area, and so I followed her to the end of the counter …
She headed up to the end of the counter where it was a little more private and I took her hands in mine. I blessed her, calling forth her destiny. I asked her a few questions, sensing that she was in transition, she had just come to the end of something and she was not yet sure what she wanted to do, that she was artistic and so I encouraged her to step into it … she agreed with the words of knowledge and she asked me how I knew, I must be psychic …
I told her that God speaks to us all, and that since He loved her and wanted to reach out to her, through me, in this instance, He would let me know the areas of her life that He wanted to impact, to have prayed for, so I could make His plans a reality through agreeing with His intentions for her life … I explained that this was what Christians called being “prophetic”.
I sensed that I was to invite her into the Kingdom of Heaven, make an invitation to her to ask Jesus into her heart and life, but feeling awkward, I let her get on with her work …
I sat down and chatted to my friend, mentioning that I had “missed it”, he nodded, agreeing, knowing that I had too. In any case, I drank my tea, and noticed that as we chatted she kept looking over to us …
Not long after … she came right out to us, leaving the serving area, to where we were sitting and asked ernestly:
“Will God heal me of something?”
“Sure” my friend said and we listened as she explained what had been wrong. She explained that she had undergone extensive surgery to remove growths on her uterus, she was still in pain from the surgery … she didn’t want to growths to come back, she wanted a full recovery.
My friend recounted a testimony of a friend who had been completely healed of uterine cancer a couple of weeks before and I then stood, placed my hand on her abdomen … and we prayed … Holy Spirit was all around …
She then looked at me and said excitedly “Do you know anything about numbers?” and she asked me again if I was psychic … she kept on …
“I keep getting the same numbers over and over and I do not understand what they all mean.” She explained that, over the last couple of weeks,she kept getting, noticing, seeing 111 and 10:10 …
I laughed saying that those numbers were the exact ones that I often got at very “coincidental” times and I explained how whenever I felt like He had wanted me to stop for someone and I did, that I would often see the sequence of “111” straight after and, after speaking to a Christian friend who could interpret dreams, visions and numbers (thank you DH), I came to understand that it meant, “My Beloved Son” … “My beloved Daughter” or “I love you” … (see Mark 1:11).
The “111 thing” started happening for me just after Leif Hetland had come to our church a year ago. Leif had released the “Blessing of the Father” … and within a week, these strange coincidences started happening with “111” … it has since become part of my personal vocabulary that God uses to speak to me. For example, about a week after the Leif Hetland seminar, I had stopped for a girl with a broken arm at the shops with my toddler, when I hadn’t really wanted to stop. I prayed for her healing and led her to the Lord. As I left, running late for something and with a toddler who was well and truly over the shops, I flicked on my phone and as I did up flashed 1:11 …
This would happen everywhere, it was ridiculous … 111 on number plates just after pleasing Him, stopping for someone, 111 on an advertisement, or in a headline that I would see just after feeling down, when I felt I had failed Him … it still happens now … last Sunday night, when I had been questioning things and I was feeling sad and challenged, I looked up at the Tour de France on tv, and straight across the backside of the bike rider that panned into the camera shot was … yes … 111 … twice! Once on his left hip and once on his right hip! God was saying “I Love You!” … “I see you” … “I appreciate you” … it actually made me laugh … and I always say right back … “I love you too!”
I mentioned the pattern to her and she smiled …
“What about 10:10?” she asked
I replied that I had been seeing this everywhere for a while, and a Christian friend who had studied at Bethel had once suggested it was indicating the completion of a cycle and the start of a cycle (thank you JS) … which also made her smile … saying that she had completed a tough time in her life, that she felt the surgery was the end of that time and that she was about to start something new … as confirmed with my prophetic words over her life before …
As we spoke my friend did a quick search and suggested that “111” could also mean “open doors” which also resonated with her … and I laughed saying well … “Jesus IS the door … He is knocking … will you invite Him in …?”
It was at this point that I knew I was to now invite her into a relationship with Jesus …
I pointed out this “coincidence” and the “coincidence of me stopping and asking her if I could pray, after a cycle of a couple of weeks of her seeing and noticing these numbers in such a way that she had been querying it, and I quietly asked her if she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart, explaining a little about it to her and feeling the Holy Spirit, the anointing, swirling all around …
My friend teared up, as did I and she just quietly responded … “yes” …
She prayed asking Jesus to fill her, to come into her heart. She invited the Holy Spirit to fill her to over flowing … she used her own words after I had explained the basics and what it meant. I told her God would give her the words … and He did. I then blessed her, commanding all darkness to leave and for her to be filled with the Light of Jesus …
She glowed, fired up by this all …
My friend and I glowed and dabbed the tears …
I promised that on my way back through the following day I would drop some materials off for her to go through (which I did) and I gave her my number and hugged her goodbye …
She waved us off as we left for our flight … she was afresh and full of the glow of a loving encounter with a Magnificent God …
She had been wooed with the oddities of numbers. God had positioned me, who had also been wooed in a similar, and strange way … We had connected and God invited her in through the Open Door that is Jesus, into a relationship with Himself …
Her journey began before I came on the scene … and her journey will continue …
She saw and will continue to see, a kind God at work in her life …
She discovered that God so loved her, that He wooed her, He called her … He arranged the ordinary to become so highlighted that her attention was drawn to them, and then He sent a stranger to stop and pray … one who could unpack some of her journey, having had a similar strange experiences … and He let her know, through this and a stranger taking time to stop for the one that …
God is Good!
Post Script: we all have a journey that is as unique and as special as we are! We are all positioned in communities and in places where those that will relate to us congregate … God has a purpose and a plan for our lives, including where we go, where we live and what we do … and if we will just stop and listen to Him, walk in His Presence, be aware of the realities of His Kingdom and purposes … we will hear and stop and see His goodness … I encourage you … there are people all around you just waiting for you to be who you are so they can discover whose they can be …
In my last post I told the story of stopping for a cashier at a local supermarket. I prayed for her wrist, which was in a brace, and she was healed on the spot … pain gone … brace removed … smiles all around … God is Good!
Last Friday morning, I had the pleasure of being guided to walk down the entire length of our shopping strip to buy some chocolate for my son’s birthday party. I lined up to pay in the shortest queue at my local supermarket and realised that the same girl I had prayed for was serving on this particular cashier and, to my delight, she was minus the wrist support!
I smiled as I stepped forward and said “hello” and I promptly asked her how her wrist was, mentioning that she did not have her support on this morning …
She smiled and said “no”, and then went on to say that it was much, much better.
I asked if it had been completely clear of pain, and she responded that it was nearly completely clear of pain, and that it hurt a just a little, now and then …
I offered to pray again for her and, smiling broadly, she quickly and eagerly agreed, holding her arm towards me for the prayer …
I took her wrist, which now displayed a large faced watch, with a large white wrist band, and I prayed that it was time for the fullness of healing. I rebuked anything that would come against the fullness of healing, and I released the oil of the Holy Spirit. As I did this I felt the Holy Spirit say quietly to me “ask her if she wants Me in her heart” …
So, I simply asked her what I heard. I asked her if she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart.
She said “I’m a Buddhist …”
So I said “ok, but would you like to ask Jesus into your heart?” I had got the impression that she needed to “fill the house” with Jesus, and all the while, the anointing of the Holy Spirit was constantly tangible around us.
She answered simply “yes” …
I said something along the lines of “then, just ask him into your heart … say, Jesus come into my heart” aware that we were at her place of work and people were approaching the desk to be served …
She responded again “yes” …
I thought … “oh gosh … what do I do here?” and noted two blokes nearly at her cash register.
I then felt her focus shift and I asked the Holy Spirit for guidance … and I ever so gently felt the release, to “let it go” so I again quietly released the oil of the Holy Spirit into her wrist … and with the Holy Spirit’s encouragement I stepped aside, took my items, wished her a wonderful weekend and mentioned that I may see her again soon …
She smiled broadly saying “thank you …”
It was time …
It is time …
It was time for her to be healed the week or two before …
It was now time for her to be invited into the family of God … however brief the invitation may have been …
It is time for us, as God’s children, to be aware of the time … andto do the inviting, no matter how awkward, no matter how clumsily, and no matter how simply we do it … if we do … lives will be changed …
Who was I to argue with the Holy Spirit about place and time … it was a pure, timely and simple invitation … His words … His timing … straight from Heaven to her heart …
Who am I to say whether it was “effective” …
My son invited friends to his party recently …
My son (read with excited, Aussie accent): “Do you wanna come to my party?” …
Friend’s response: ”yes!”
Deal done!
Maybe that’s all it took for her … or maybe it will require another invitation … I don’t know …
All I know is to be who I am called to be … to do as the Father shows me … and to invite as the Holy Spirit instructs me to invite … the rest is His responsibility … He’ll get them to the party, the same way my son’s friend’s parents got them to my son’s party on Saturday … they all made it … they all got there … because their parent knew where, how, when to go …
It may take another invitation … it may not …
Regardless I think that it really is that simple … the stepping over into the Kingdom of God isn’t complicated for, as Jesus said:
… the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these … (Matthew 19:14 NIV 2011)
and the “such as these” are the children … It is the “grown ups” that complicate things … the invitation has to be “just right”, sent at the “right time”, given in the right envelope, the right package … with clear instructions, directions, and strict guidelines on dress, behaviour, timing, etc etc etc … but if I take my son’s lead it really is simple …
“Wanna come to my party?” …
I hear the Holy Spirit say …
“Wannacome to My party?
Just say “yes” and I will get you there …
You leave the rest to Me …”
It’s not complicated …
I know she doesn’t need to know scripture and verse … it’s a matter of her spirit saying “yes” and coming alive to Jesus Christ … it’s a spiritual matter … one that the intellect and soul can catch up on later …
Whether she has new life … I do not know …
Whether she is still on the scale of “pre-Christian” … or “Christian” … I do not know …
What I do know is that I heard and I obeyed and I stepped out and a life was changed.
She was healed the first time.
She got a top up the second time … and was invited into the family …
I was leaving kindy drop off on 15th August when a sweet girl I have spoken of before (click here for story) stopped me and asked for a moment of my time …
It was freezing cold but the look in her eyes told me of the importance of her request and so I stopped and listened.
She started hesitatingly, telling the story of why she was stopping me …
Her daughter had taken an ambulance ride, she said, and so I heard how her young two-year old had collapsed, had a fit and had been rushed by ambulance to hospital. A scan was done, and an irregularity discovered in her brain … “epilepsy” was announced as the possible diagnosis … and more tests were advised …
My friend was obviously and understandably shaken, and started to sleep with her daughter, frightened she will fit again …
She told me the story … and shared her fears and as she did I knew she was reaching out to me, not as a friend, but because she knew I prayed … because in the recent past she had been healed by a loving God of a chest infection, she had felt His peace as I had prayed and she knew that God was a possible solution … and so she stepped out and asked … without asking, if I would pray …
I did pray.
I placed my hand on her daughter’s head and commanded any irregularity to leave, for her daughter to be healed of any issues, and I told her of another friend whose daughter had been scanned and irregularities had been found in the nerves of her back … a possible diagnosis of “multiple sclerosis” had been announced … I told her how the daughter still had symptoms, but how further scans had been done, or rather, re-done, and the scan had come back completely “all clear.” The doctors continue to search for a diagnosis and explanation for the other symptoms presenting, but the original report showing the nerve damage in the spine, was replaced with a further scan report that had come back all clear …
I told my friend this story … nerve damage identified in one scan … prayer … nerve damage all gone in the next scan … I spoke to her of God’s goodness and she shared some further fears and concerns with me … and as she did I offered her Jesus … I offered her an opportunity to ask Him into her heart … but told her to only do so if it was right for her now …
It was … she was ready … it felt right to her …
So, on the nature strip my friend quietly asked Jesus into her heart and for the Holy Spirit to fill her … she felt it … as did I …
The story is short, sweet and simple … it will be sweeter again with a report that all is well with her daughter, but for now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been released … the Kingdom of Peace, Joy, Health, Love … onto her daughter … and onto and into her mum, my friend …
I ask … unless we ask them if we can pray for them, unless we let them know we believe in a good God and believe He will heal and answer our prayers … how will they know to come to us in crisis and seek help from a loving God?
I dare you to show your Christian colours and reveal a good God … reveal a God that cares … about the big and the little … a God that heals… a God that died for all …
God loves it when we visit the hairdresser … or, that’s what I figure, because He keeps showing up whenever I go …
I was at the hairdressers a couple of days ago, and my now pregnant hairdresser (click here for praise story: Chicken Soup for the Soul) came and sat down to speak with me about all that had been going on for her since we last saw each other.
She said she had been hospitalised due to pelvic instability. She knew I would instantly understand because she had seen me deal with the same issue. Pelvic instability in pregnancy is due to an abundance of the relaxin hormone in the body and can cause the pelvis to relax so much that the pelvis and hips suffer extreme pain which can cause an inability to walk … I had required crutches and a wheelchair … but I had never been hospitalised …
As soon as she said what was happening I could feel the swirling presence of the Holy Spirit come around us … I knew vindication was coming … a 7-fold pay back on all that had been stolen from me was due 🙂
I listened and asked her if I could pray, briefly explaining that I wanted to see God’s vindication for all that had been stolen from my pregnancies, that I wanted to see her healed; that is, for her hormones to come into balance … I laid my hands on either side of her pelvis/hips and called forth balance in the hormones and told her body to behave perfectly throughout the pregnancy and for the pelvis to remain strong. I then asked if I could place my hands on her tummy, she agreed and so I blessed the baby and spoke fullness of destiny and health, I declared to her baby that s/he was loved and would sleep well, feed well and thrive …
She then sat down and started to tell me that she was doing pilates and was seeing a physiotherapist whom, she added, had performed reiki on her. I looked and said quite boldly “don’t let her do that again …”
I surprised even myself, because I had always tried to be gentle with her.
I then briefly explained that reiki practitioners, as far as I knew, had hands laid on them and some sort of impartation was performed … I said to her they may function in a gift of healing, but the source of healing may not be God … and to be really careful, especially with the baby … that she was potentially opening herself and the baby up to stuff that was not too good …
I was surprised at how direct I was but I felt she trusted me. We have 8 years of history together – her seeing me do life, hearing my stories. Me listening to her challenges, answering her questions and then, when she decided she wanted a baby, praying for her pregnancy … for about a year. I was pretty certain that she knew I had her best interests at heart. All these thoughts flew through my mind as I spoke and so I went on …
She said she had not felt comfortable at the time. The girl treating her had laid hands on her without permission and she had asked the girl to stop. She felt that I was just confirming her gut feeling that it was not ok … I relaxed, relieved that I had not offended her.
As we talked about this I felt Holy Spirit say “pray for her” and I knew I needed to tell anything that may have been released over her or the baby to leave … and so I took her hand and prayed and as I did the scripture which warns of the emptying a house and not filling it came to mind (see Matthew 12:43-45) and I felt Holy Spirit say “ask her if she wants Me, ask her if she wants to ask Jesus into her heart…”.
I listened to the prompting, told anything to that had been released over/around her and the baby to leave and then gently asked if she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart … it felt like a culmination of 8 years of gentle discussions … I was nervous and excited at the same time …
She looked at me, in her delightful, uncomplicated and honest manner and said “yes … why not … I do” and so she did …
I then said that the power force behind her being kept protected and safe was the Holy Spirit … did she want to ask Him to fill her up …?
Again she said “yes” and so she repeated after me … “Fill me up Holy Spirit” … I prayed for a complete filling to overflow of her and the baby …
The anointing was powerful … not because of anything I did … but because He loved her … herkairos time, her God appointed time of salvation had come … and I was delighted!
I looked and said “do you feel that?”
She did …
I then explained that this was just the first step, that we would need to explore what this would mean for her; however, for that moment, I knew her “house” was full of Him (Praise God) and that she, and her baby, were covered, protected and alive to Christ. With Him I knew she, and the baby would be safe because …
We are all being set up for God encounters … encounters for ourselves, and, as brokers of God, encounters for others. The secret to being a broker of His love is really is no secret … it is just to believe that God is good and that He wants to be the solution to a hurting world … in every situation …
We were at a school function and I was standing nearby to someone whose teenage daughter, upon walking into the room looking drained, even haunted. I instantly felt called to pray … well to at least offer to pray.
I quietly suggested it to her mother. She agreed, having herself been the recipient of prayer and prophetic words over the last 8 or so months, and so I turned to her daughter and offered to pray. Her daughter agreed. I gently took the things she was holding and placed them onto a nearby table and I took her hands in mine as I invited the Holy Spirit to come.
She instantly teared up as God came, and I took a moment to listen for what I should pray and release over her. As I did I felt to release Peace, rest … and for energy to flood her body. She needed the energy then and there so that she could get through a school play performance for the school afternoon.
I prayed accordingly, and then I felt I received a word of knowledge, that she had not been sleeping well and that she had been dealing with night terrors that had been keeping her awake in the night, making her so tired…
She nodded in agreement saying it had been the week before. So, I again released Peace and felt the gentle prompting of the Holy Spirit to ask her if she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart … into her life…
I explained what I felt, saying there was no pressure, and I asked her if she would like to ask Jesus into her heart…
She did, and so we stood in the noise around us and she quietly asked Jesus into her heart. She got more teary as she felt Him on and in her and I again gently asked if she would like to be filled with the Holy Spirit…that He was the empowering force that would guide her, comfort her, protect her …
She did and so she asked for the Holy Spirit to come and fill her up …
As she did I agreed with her in prayer, telling all the powers of darkness to leave, advising them they were now trespassing, and I commanded them to go… I then asked the Holy Spirit to fill her to overflow.
As we stood and prayed, the strain left her face and she got some colour back. I said we would need to meet to explore what had happened to her, and that I would teach her to go to where God was for her so that she could learn for herself how to access and stay in that place of Peace and as I hugged her, a few more tears dropped …
I left that morning thinking how very good God is. Here was a stressed, young woman, needing a touch from a loving Father … and God came through and gave her Himself … and He comes with so much including Peace, Joy, Hope, Faith and the full empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
I had been set up to be there at just the right time … what a privilege!
The harvest is all around us … and it is ready. Will you be one of the harvesters?
If you agree to be, God will set you up to be the broker of a God encounter for others. A broker of Heaven in your world, in your sphere of influence, because, as Jesus said:
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few …” (Matthew 9:37)
I do not believe that living a Christian lifestyle for our own blessing and claiming that a good life is a great witness is enough … it is required of us, but do note, none of us will get it right because we all fall and stuff things up … but if we will all believe who we are or “whose” we are … we can release His Presence on people and then they get to experience for themselves a good God, a God that cares, a God with the answers … a God that won’t stuff it up!
He wants us to step into our destiny of being brokers of Heaven; and, I believe He wants us to, not just for “them”, but for us as well, because as we broker Heaven on earth so we learn to lean into Him, and to therefore listen to Him, and as we incline our ears and our hearts He speaks to us of whowe are … and that, I believe, releases our identity and with it our destiny … and who would not want to fulfil their God-given destiny because …
We had a few hours on a Saturday to do child free Christmas shopping before going to a movie. With our list in hand, we did not know that Jesus had His own Christmas shopping list for us to do too…!
