The third day of my 90 Day Journey to Experience More and it was pretty difficult to start. I got a later start today and didn't get out the door until 4:30 p.m. I was dealing with customer service on a storage unit I have that took over my afternoon. I didn't spend as much quiet time with my Heavenly Father as I would have liked to and I was still thinking of the problems I had with customer service. I finally decided that instead of focusing on the problem I was going to focus on pursuing God's Kingdom and let Him take care of ". . .all these things as well" (Matt. 6:33). Today I barely was able to approach 10 people to ask if they needed prayer, but I did accomplished my goal - 4 had an outward appearance that they needed to be healed and 6 had no obvious signs. Out of the 10 people I asked to pray for, only 4 of them wanted to receive prayer of which 2 were healed in some way. Read on to find out more.
I didn't want the things of this world to get in the way of enjoying the journey and adventure in pursuing God's Kingdom. By-the-way, God has no problems only solutions. He is not surprised by anything - He already knows what the outcome is going to be. He has all the resources, all the wisdom, and all the power to take care of anything that comes our way. It is only a waste of time to worry about any problems when you give them over to Him and start focusing on His Kingdom. So I gave up the problem to God and pursued the third day of my Journey to experience more of Him.
Today I almost wasn't able to approach 10 people to ask if they needed prayer, but I accomplished my goal - 4 had an outward appearance that they needed to be healed and 6 had no obvious signs. Out of the 10 people I asked to pray for, only 4 of them wanted to receive prayer of which 2 were healed in some way.
I first dropped my son off at the library and then as I was driving down the street I asked the Holy Spirit where I should go. As soon as I asked the question, I heard "Wal-Mart" in my mind and I didn't hear anything else, so I proceeded to go to Target on my way to Wal-Mart. I though maybe it would be more efficient to stop off at Target first because I would be passing right by. I though that I might miss an opportunity to pray with someone. Two days ago I prayed for an older lady at Target who had a recent head trauma and was having difficulty getting around. I searched the whole store and walked around the store twice but could not find one person who had an obvious need for prayer. I realized right then that what I might think as efficient use of time God knows everything that is going on and that I would do better listening and following Him in the first place and not take any detours. So I immediately left Target and went directly to Wal-Mart passing by all the other stores I stopped by two days ago.
While I was getting out of my car at Wal-Mart, I saw a guy with crutches getting out of his vehicle in the front of the store. I also saw an older lady with a cane approaching the store and right inside the store I found another man with a cane looking at some sale items. What a goldmine of opportunities to pray for people. I should have listened to the Holy Spirit in the first place. So I enthusiastically approached all these people that I saw who needed prayer and I walked right past all of them and chickened out at first. Remember my day didn't start off that well. To be honest, I really wasn't feeling that eager to pray for others because of what happened earlier. These opportunities came up suddenly and I wasn't ready. However, I quickly got my bearings and reminded myself why I was there and went back to the last guy I past.
The first person I approached to pray for was the older guy with the cane who was still looking at the same sale items at the front of the store. God graciously kept him there until I was ready to talk with him. I found out that he had two knee replacements and was going back for surgery to have them replaced again. He graciously accepted my offer to pray for him but nothing seemed to happen after I prayed. He did however say he felt heat from my warm hands.
I tracked down the guy on crutches who was now in the Pharmacy Department waiting for his prescription. I told him I was a Christian and I said, "Sometimes when I pray people get healed. Would you like me to prayer for you?"
He accepted my offer to pray for him. He told me his left knee was recently broken or fractured and he was wearing a temporary knee brace. I asked the Holy Spirit to come and bless his knee. I commanded his knee to be healed. After praying twice for his knee I asked him how he felt and he said all the pain is gone. He was able to bend his knee more and there was no pain when he bent it. After his knee was healed he told me that the top of his left foot was injured too. His left foot was in pain and he could not put any weight on that foot without experiencing pain. I prayed and almost immediately all the pain left his foot and he was able to put weight on that foot. I gave him my information and asked him to contact me after he saw the doctor to let me know if he was completely healed. I saw him later when I was leaving the store and I asked him how he was doing. He told me he was doing good and he still didn't have any pain although I noticed he was still using his crutches a little.
I saw the older lady with the cane in Wal-Mart driving one of those electric carts. I tried to chase after her but I was never able to track her down so I just gave up. Instead I found someone who was waiting to pick up their prescription if they needed prayer but they declined my offer. There were no outward signs that she needed prayer and I didn't receive any words of knowledge, I was just pressing in for more and needed to accomplish my goal of approaching at least 10 people a day for prayer.
I left Wal-Mart and went to a local grocery store where I met another older guy with a cane. When I asked if I could pray for him he declined and told me that he didn't need prayer; then he proceeded to tell me all the problems he had: cancer, a bad back, bad knee and others things.
I left there and went to another store and met an older Hispanic lady that was walking with a cane. Her daughter had to interpret for her because she did not speak English. I was able to pray for her two knees that were in pain. After praying, her daughter told me that she said that her knees felt lighter. I think that was good. Something happened! She then asked if I could pray for her back pain. Her daughter told me that her back felt better after I prayed for her. They both thanked me for praying and we praised God together.
I was only up to five people that I approached for prayer but already had two great experiences of healing. I wanted to accomplish my goal and it was getting later so decided to ask the next five people I met if they needed prayer. Of these last five people I approached only one person accepted my offer for prayer and asked that God would give her guidance in future career choices she needed to make.
It is interesting that on a day when I felt the least ready to pray for anybody God intervened and healed two people. Whereas, two days ago when I thought I was the most ready to pray for others no one seemed to be healed. I guess it has nothing to do with how ready I am or how great I feel but has everything to do with God moving when and how He wants as I faithfully obey Him. I don't want to miss out on the next time God wants to use me and can't wait to see what He's going to do tomorrow. Check in tomorrow to see Day 4 of my Journey to Experience More.
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