Most mornings, I pray these words: “Lord, please precede me this day. Whatever happens (or even doesn’t happen…), may it be according to your will.” It brings me inexplicable peace and the strength to be flexible, so that when I’m in the middle of something, or if I have what seems to be a firm schedule, I can instantly drop what I’m doing or change directions in order to be obedient to God and His work. So many different things happen from week to week. Here are some recents:
1) It has been taking such a long time for Don to try to find the right company to do some work on the gutters before the rest of the pool renovations can be completed. It has led to a number of valuable conversations between Don and various tradesmen, and then last week, Don got talking with another representative that came to give a quote. Don genuinely loves chatting with people, to get to know them and show interest in their lives. This time, Don learned that the rep had very recently been through a deeply tragic experience, and his entire family was devastated. He is a dedicated churchgoer and loves to try to share about Jesus with his workmates, etc. but most often to little avail, much to his frustration and disappointment. He had sincerely been wanting to be more effective at touching others’ lives with God’s Word, and then he ended up being called to our house…!
Needless to say, Don told the rep as much as he could about our Book of Acts style ministry, invited him to meet the rest of our family, and then offered for him to come back to pray whenever he had more time. Later, the rep texted us to ask if it was okay if he brought his son with him (wonderful!), so they both came the very next day. After chatting for quite a while, we all prayed over the dad and then the son, and they were both filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues. Thank you, Lord!
2) A sister in the Lord who has been joining us in person for prayer group texted out of the blue one day, asking if we were available. She then called to share that she’d just been talking with her brother (who lives interstate), and that he in turn had just been having an exciting conversation about the Lord with one of his new-ish friends. We ended up praying over the phone with the brother, but it wasn’t working out for him, so Don invited him to fly down to pray with us all (including his sister) in person.
There are many more details than this, but the short of it is that the brother slept at the airport that night and flew here the very next morning. He got water baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit (in the very same tub as his sister, which was very cool!), and spent the rest of the day with us before he had to fly back that night. It was a whirlwind of less than 36 hours, but that is the way God often works. After all, Jesus said to his disciples, “Come follow me” — meaning instantly, and more often than not, that’s the way God tends to use our family as His vessels and messengers.
3) I was out for a jog when I felt I should head in a different direction than normal, so I decided to run along the main street in our village area. As I turned down a side street to prepare to make my way home, I passed a tall man handing out little pamphlets on the street corner. For various reasons, I normally don’t stop at these kinds of scenarios whenever I’m on my own, but this time I felt that I simply couldn’t run any further and I just had to turn back from where I was now at in order to go talk with the man.
It turned out to be completely God orchestrated and I had a wonderfully blessed conversation with him. He is such a lovely guy, and I quickly discovered that both he and his wife are born again of water and of the Holy Spirit. Just like us, they greatly value praying in tongues, but I was able to encourage him in a number of things that will help him to be more effective in his personal ministry. At the end, I prayed over him, and then he did with me likewise for our family’s ministry. I was so glad I obeyed the guiding of the Holy Spirit and didn’t force myself to keep running!
4) Oh, and this is unrelated to my introduction, but just a quick note: There is a sister in the Lord in Australia that I have been encouraging with the Word for a long while now, and she has been mightily transformed through the work of the Holy Spirit. As a result, she has been ministering to another sister in the Lord who has, in turn, been miraculously affected. It’s the ripple effect of the power of God’s Living Word that is written on our hearts and minds through the Holy Spirit anointing — as God uses us as His vessels to heal, build, and strengthen the Body of Christ!
