It was sooooooo crowded down town this time! WOW! Where did all these people come from? And for it to be the first part of May...we froze our buns off! The wind was really whippin'! Yet still, it was sidewalk to sidewalk of people!
Well, you know what the means.....our "congregation" was "up" and we had a lot more "visitors"! LOL! So we maintained our roles as pastors of A Church Without Walls, and stood on the side walk greeting people as if they had just walked into our church building. What ended up happening was kind of weird and humbling all at the same time. Instead of just us offering ministry to the passers-by, WE were ministered to through a lot of encouragement from folks who just wanted to stop by and say they supported what we were doing and wanted us to know that. That was special. Truly it was.
With a bigger crowd, we had a bigger opportunity. Unfortunately, our usual team members were unable to attend, so we were flying solo....well, not really. Holy Spirit was all over the place! Wow I love Him! We got to pray for healing for several people, lots of arthritis and that sort of thing. But I think the thing that was the most memorable was a man who came up for prayer. He was desperate for a touch from God, and we were more than happy to share His love with him. He came up and introduced himself and we talked for a while about salvation. He said he had received Christ years ago and was really struggling with some things right now. So Frank began to pray for him, and had his hands somewhere on his shoulders, while I had one hand on his back. And then the Lord told me to place my hand over his heart. This is not the first time God has compelled me to do this. I wonder why. ?? Anyway, when it was my turn to pray for this man, I asked him how much he had had to drink. He just replied that he had been drinking, which was apparent because all the while we were talking with him, he was less than understandable. So as I took my turn approaching the Throne of Grace on this man's behalf, I began by commanding his body to sober up right now in the name of Jesus. Now I'd like to say that there was a big "Woah" moment, like we've seen before, but it wasn't as a pronounced manifestation of deliverance as we have experienced in other people. However, even without the dramatic sobering that I wanted to see, this man did very suddenly become much more coherent. You go God! This was cool!
After we prayed for his specific needs, chiefly a desire for alcohol to be removed, and his relationship with his wife restored, he began to really open up with Frank about his life, his needs, his struggles and his desperations. I love that about God. I love how He allows His love to flow through you in such a way that it touches someone, and they begin to share things with you in such a way that you can point them to the One Who can solve all their problems. He's such a good, good God! He ended up giving Frank his phone number (well the phone number of the friend he was staying with) so that Frank could call him so he could continue ministering to him. Frank spoke words of LIFE into him......Heidi Baker (IRIS Ministries http://www.irismin.org/) has this great saying that instead of loving them to death, you love them to LIFE! We loved on this man for quite some time, and he felt like he had a friend, and a better Friend, Who was ready to listen to him and help him in his time of need.
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