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!
Are you going to follow up with this person to see what happens next? Just wondering. I know I would be curious to know what takes place in the coming days in their lives.
I do sometimes, but the number of people that I stop for can get very numerous so I have had to let that one go and trust God … that day I prayed for two more people – a girl in the next shop, and a Christian with a heart for street evangelism that I met in the post office and I prayed for her, laying on hands for impartation.
There are times when I give my mobile (cell) number and I let them follow me up … then they are free to respond if they want to. A few have called, like the mum from the “Christmas shopping with Jesus” story, she told me that her autistic son had been impacted and was ery very peaceful, she later gave her heart to Jesus on the phone and I have since walked the journey with her through the year …
Other times I meet them again on the streets in the strangest of coincidences and I get to find out what happened, which is really cool.
To be honest, there was a moment there when I felt the mum wanted follow up, so I could have missed it this time … it was when she stopped and asked if I shopped in the strip of shops regularly … I nearly gave her my number to let me know how she got on, but didn’t in this instance … perhaps I should have.
If I ever find out, which sometimes I do, I post a praise report, and have learnt to call them “Praise Reports” so they are easy to find.
Alright, that makes sense. I like the idea of giving them a phone number and having them call if they want to. That really leaves it up to them. It is always wonderful to hear how God answers prayer.
I really try to leave each person feeling honoured, loved and empowered … and if I sense God suggesting I give a number I do … sometimes they even ask for one so they can call me … that being said there was a while when people would give their hearts to Christ and I tried to follow them all up but could not manage it and so I said to God if He promted me to lead them to Him He needed to look after them … but we also now have a home group for people that want to come that have had power encounters with God to find a frame work for their encounter (pre-believers and believers alike) and to encourage them to learn how to walk in Christ … although the nights tend to turn into “soaking sessions” 🙂