Day 25 of my 90 Day Journey to Experience More and I had a great conversation with a family in the local mall. My brother just got in from out of state and I was spending some time with him. However, while I was out with my brother I was able to pray for 2 out of the 4 people I approached today and no obvious healing took place. But I learned another valuable lesson in my journey to experience more. It is a lot easier to pray for people when you have built a relationship first before you dive in and ask to pray. Find out what I mean by reading further. . .
My brother was shopping at the mall with my mom today, so I decided to walk around while they were shopping and see who I could pray for. The first person I came across was a lady with crutches walking with her two sons. I went up to her and introduced myself and asked her if I could pray for her. She was kind enough but did not want any prayer from me. I am finding out that some people are reluctant to receive prayer from someone they don't know. They might want to be healed but because they don't know my background they are hesitant.
I continued to walk around the mall for another 20 minutes before I saw someone else to pray for. All along I was asking the Holy Spirit for words of knowledge and direction. I saw one lady sitting in a wheel chair whose legs were amputated and another talking along side her also sitting in a wheel chair. I didn't know quite what to say so I walked past them on the other side of the hallway asking the Holy Spirit to give me direction.
I turned around and came back hoping the Holy Spirit would give me something to say when I approached them. As I came closer, I noticed that another man was talking with them in one of those coin operated message chairs. So instead of saying, "I'm a Christian. Can I pray for you?" I said, "It is sure hot today. Do you mind if I sit down next to you?" (Pointing to one of the message chairs right next to the man).
I continued to talk about how comfortable the chair was and how nice it was to get off my feet. We talked about how hot it was outside and how cool it was in the mall. After striking up a conversation about the heat, I found out that he was married to one of the ladies sitting in the wheel chair and that the other person was her sister. The man told me of his trouble breathing and being on an oxygen tank which he doesn't like. He didn't have one at the time. I asked more about his trouble breathing and after about 10 minutes into the conversation and building a relationship, I asked him if I could pray for him. He responded positively and accepted my prayer.
They all held hands as I prayed for healing for his lungs but after praying nothing seemed to happen. He responded, "I didn't expect anything to happen." I didn't point out his lack of faith but rather I reassured him that God loved him and wants to heal him. I also told him that not everyone I pray for gets healed right away but in the past 5 weeks over 10 people have received healing when I prayed for them (I did not include people that were healed at church).
After this, his wife who was in the wheel chair was very open and started sharing with me her problems with her leg. She said that she was bed ridden and couldn't get out of the house for six years and only recently was she able to get out. She has diabetes, a heart condition, and her right foot and leg was just recently operated on. Before the operation she couldn't go anywhere away from her home and was in bed most of the time. She continued telling me details about her family and having trouble walking at a very young age because of her diabetes and poor blood circulation.
I was able to pray for her as well. I commanded her foot and leg to be healed, her diabetes to leave, and her heart to be healed. I also commanded any generational curse to be broken related to her condition. Again nothing obvious seemed to happen after I prayed but I would have never been able to learn so much if I didn't spend time to build a relationship and a lot of time to listen. I was talking with them for about 30 minutes before I left. We built a connection and became friends during that time. I also was able to give them my contact information because they did not have many Christian friends and were not going to Church anywhere.
My time was up and I needed to get back to my brother and mom who were waiting for me. Even though I didn't approach a lot of people today to pray for them, I learned another valuable lesson from the Holy Spirit. If I can, I will try first to develop a relationship or build a rapport with the person I want to pray for. I might get a better response and will know more how to direct my prayers. Sometimes it isn't possible to build a rapport. But it was a lot easier to ask them to respond to prayer once they knew I was a friend.
I wonder what God is going to teach me the next time I go out on Monday the 26th Day of my Journey to Experience More. Let me know what you think or send an encouraging word in the comments below. Your response is greatly appreciated. Check back often to see what God is going to do next in my journey.
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