Great Faith

Great faith. I received a prophetic word in 2003 that said I would have great faith but until recently I hadn't thought too much about it. In fact, in just the past couple of days my awareness about it has heightened to where I just went back to listen to it and transcribe a portion of the prophecy.

"In the days to come you are going to be a man noted by great faith. A dogged determination. If God said it He will do it. That's going to be infectious and will be imparted to many other people and you are going to be amazed that as you encourage others the great exploits that they will do based upon your faith for them."

On Sunday night I felt like I was starting to operate in faith. Not that I hadn't been praying for people in faith, but more like I was starting to believe that they are going to get healed when I pray because my faith will stir God to show up.

Anyway, today I had many errands to run in preparation for leaving for San Diego tomorrow. I needed to go to the bank, get my oil changed, see if Old Navy had jeans on sale that I liked, and then perhaps go to Target if they didn't. After going to the bank I thought that I would go to Old Navy since it is just across the street and that way I wouldn't have to back track after getting my oil changed. So I go in and almost immediately spot 4-5 people with developmental disabilities. I am thinking to myself, "God, you set me up! How could you do this to me? I am praying for breakthrough right now and am fasting to be baptised in power and you are throwing all of my favorite foods in front of me!" The bad thing is that my first reaction was that it isn't time yet for the breakthrough to come. It wouldn't be very cool to tell someone who is dying of some disease that you are fasting and praying for breakthrough but since you aren't done yet they aren't gonna get healed. Actually, that is pretty funny in a bad kinda way.

So after looking through way too many pairs of jeans and only finding 3 that were my size but none of which I liked (I couldn't even find one I liked that was my size not on sale!) I went out to look for them (Since two were in wheelchairs I knew they wouldn't be able to get far away from me...haha). So I saw them in another store that was women's clothing and I didn't want to follow them in there so I wasted time walking and then sat down in a seat nearby. Once they came out I got up and started to follow them (bad idea...haha) and when I finally got along side them and started to talk the first thing out of their mouth was "I thought you were a stalker" (they were slightly joking...). Anyway, I ask for permission to pray after explaining how I believe that God is wanting to heal disabilities. So the caregiver mentions that one man in the wheelchair will never walk again due to arthritis in his knee and an accident when he was a teenager.

My prayer was something that you might expect from a 7 year old who has never prayed for someone before. Ok, maybe not quite that bad, but it was definitely not a prayer of faith by the standards of how I prayed for people on Sunday. Nothing happened in the physical but I am happy that I went for it because believe it or not, that was the first time I have ever approached people with developmental disabilities (not counting the man at Berkeley who was paralyzed, I am talking about people who were born with a condition effecting their brain) in public. There have been a few times in a church setting that I have gotten to pray for people, but this was my first time in public. I realized that if I am believing to see people get healed in public that I better start praying for people in public. If I want to see a paralyzed man get out of a wheelchair on February 8th then I better start praying for people in wheelchairs.

So I got my oil changed and went to church for our informal meeting with Pastor Bill to watch videos of A.A. Allen and Jack Coe. They were amazing! Particularly I noticed how A.A. Allen prayed with such faith that I couldn't really imagine someone not getting healed when he prayed. It was a sight to see. I know that he was doing this in a church setting (people coming to him for prayer and not him going to people wanting to see if they will let him pray for them) but I still believe that I should pray with such great faith when I am at the mall or somewhere else outside the church.

After the meeting I went to the prayer house and then when I was leaving a woman was pushing in a man in a wheelchair. This time not upset at God but rather thankful for the opportunity I asked him if I could pray for him. Turns out he has ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. This time, although I was still trying to not talk too loudly, I prayed with much more faith that God would heal him than I did with the man at the mall (this was kinda a church setting, although he didn't approach me, I knew he would be up for prayer since he was there). Again, we didn't see anything happen right there, but I am believing that God is gonna heal him completely. He was diagnosed with ALS eight years ago and the doctors gave him three years to live. So much for the doctor's report. Ha, go Jesus! So he is already believing that God has kept him alive much longer than he was supposed to.

Last thing. Early this morning when I was praying I had a short vision that I want to share just part of (don't want to say the whole thing just because of who else was in it). In the vision I was on a univeristy campus in Budapest, Hungary leading an outreach. I went to pray for a man who was paralyzed and after just commanding his legs and body to be strengthened, I commanded him to get up and walk in Jesus name and he did! I share this not to try to brag, although I do believe that will happen sometime when I visit my sister in Budapest, but rather because of the prayer of great faith. It seems as though God is speaking that to me. A few weeks ago I mentioned how I was gonna stop commanding and just kinda ask God politely to come. Well, as nice as that is, I think He is changing my opinion on how I should pray. Seriously, if each person who was paralyzed that I prayed for got healed, I probably would just shout, "Get up and walk in Jesus name!" or "Be healed in Jesus name!" not some long, drawn out petition.

Well, I better start packing for San Diego so I can get to bed. Please pray for safe travels, that we get rocked by God, and that God uses us to rock other people all 5 days we are gone!