Serious Like A Heart Attack

April 14, 2011

Thursday night at the Healing Rooms in downtown Kennewick and no one wants to go out treasure hunting with me. I wonder why; its cold and the gusty wind makes it feel colder. I should have worn a warmer coat. I wanted to stay inside but felt that I must go out. It seems like a mini-revival is starting on the streets down here and I had to see what God was up to tonight. Awesome, Roger didn’t want to see me go out alone so he decided to join me.

We listened for the clues (words of knowledge) that Holy Spirit gave us and wrote them down on our treasure maps. The ones I’ll share about are black on top, daughter, black and white hat, ball cap, lower back pain and a name J_ _ _ . At the door I asked Brett, one of the Healing Rooms leaders, “Which way should we go - left or right?” He thought for a second, and said, “left”.

We turned left, went half a block, and found a couple that matched some of our clues. As Roger approached them, one of them asked him, “Are you treasure hunting?” He said yes, and they said, “We don’t want any.” Not too good of a start. L We kept walking west, crossed the street across from the Sports Page tavern, and then we noticed a person at the end of the block that was wearing black on top.

It turned out to be three guys gathered in a doorway trying to get out of the wind. The guy on the left was black, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt; definitely black on top.  The guy on the right was also in black with a black and white hat, a ball cap.  We had found our treasure.  What happened next was the mind blower.  Two weeks before Cindy and I had found this same young man, Matt, along with two other guys named Levi and Shannon.  Matt had split as soon as he found out they were the treasure and we wanted to pray for them.  Levi and Shannon both had an encounter with Holy Spirit and then went and told him what happened.  I told them to tell Matt that he could run but he couldn’t hide, God had his number.

Now fast forward and this same young man, Matt, is saying, “I can’t believe it’s you!  Oh man!”  At the same time Roger is talking to the black man whose name was Albert explaining what we are doing and how we had his description.  It was apparent that we were focusing on Albert so Matt said “I’m not leaving this time, I gotta see this”.  We then asked if any of the letters we had for names fit any of them.  The black guy, Albert, said he had a daughter whose name started with a “J”, her name is “JAEL”.  We then showed him that on our maps we had the clue of “J” followed by three dashes for his daughter’s name.  I told him we could fill in his daughters name right there.  I then said he really felt like somebody might have something going on that concerned a daughter. Albert was then going “oh man, oh man”.  “I’m from New York and I’m here because I have a one year old daughter by a woman here in Kennewick”.  We queried a little more about the relationship and he proceeds to tell us it was really rocky and he and the mother were at odds most of the time.  We asked if we could pray for him and he said yes.   It was pretty obvious he had been raised to be respectful as he was very well mannered.  Roger prayed for him first and then I prayed...  The tears were running down his face like a flood.  When we were done we blessed him and then he said he had to go inside to use the restroom (maybe gather his composure?)  The guy in the back split with him and then we turned out attention to the young guy, Matt.  As we talked to him about what had happened two weeks ago and what had just happened, Roger asked if he needed prayer.  He said his back had been hurting ever since that night two weeks ago.  Roger then showed him his treasure map with lower back on it; he said “how do you guys do that?”  We explained we don’t do anything, God does it.  So I asked if I could pray for him.  He consented and after a fairly short prayer I asked him to check out his back.  He did and was in shock, the pain had left.

I then laid out the plan of salvation, asked if I could pray for him again, and then I stretched my hands out over his hands and prayed. Suddenly his mood had changed; he was no longer flippant and laughing; he was serious like a heart attack.  His face was dead serious.  I then asked him if he would like to receive the same Jesus who healed his back and whose power he had felt in his hands and he said, “yes.”  I then led him in prayer to receive Jesus.  We then invited him down to the Bridge Church the next Thursday for a bible and more prayer.

What just happened? God had showed up again and His presence manifested on the sidewalks of downtown Kennewick. I don’t feel so cold now!

Have You Been Reading My Facebook?

Mar 31, 2011

Cindy and I, as a prayer team, had just watched a ladies pain level drop from a “12” (her words) on a scale of 1 to 10, to zero! She had suffered from pain in multiple parts of her body. The pain was replaced with joy as Holy Spirit touched every part of her. I am part of the Healing Rooms prayer team that meets on Thursday nights in downtown Kennewick.

Back in the prayer room, I decided to go on a treasure hunt and Cindy wanted to join me. We got some treasure maps, prayed, wrote down the words of knowledge Holy Spirit gave us, and took off down the sidewalk. I believed there were some people God really wanted to touch tonight and it was our job to find them.

Outside, among the bars and clubs, the sounds of a Thursday night were quite different than inside the Healing Rooms. Instead of praise and worship music, we were bombarded with misc. curse words as we walked along. It was difficult tonight. We were finding some of our clues but the people were not open for prayer. We did pray for a woman with a soft cast on her wrist believing for a miracle, but she reported no change after we had prayed for her. Bummer. We continued on. I found the guy wearing the black boots, one of my clues. After he understood that the “treasure” we were looking for was someone God wanted to bless, he said “f*** Him” and walked away. We were about ready to go back in the healing rooms when we spotted a group of three guys just ahead of us not far from a tavern. One of the guys had some yellow/gold colors on his jacket. Maybe these are the guys we are looking for. We stopped them and told them what we up to. One of their names, Matt (he soon left) matched one of our clues. As we read them our other clues, family problem (father), sadness/depression, need for a job, and ankle pain, we realized the other two young men, Levi and Shannon, were God’s treasure we had been looking for.

We prayed for Levi first. After telling him about our good God and Father and sharing that He will never let us down as our earthly fathers do, I asked him to hold out his hand. I held my hand about 3” above his and invited Holy Spirit to make his presence known to him so he would know that God is real. His hand started to get warm as God touched him. Levi’s ankle had been shattered and because of the plates and screws, the pain never left. He told us his ankle always hurt. Cindy and I laid our hands on his ankle and commanded the pain to leave and in about 30 seconds, Levi was telling his friend that all the pain was now gone! Awesome God! You are awesome!

Then Cindy prayed and prophesied over Shannon. He got rocked with her words. He asked, “Have you guys been reading my Facebook?” as Holy Spirit began to give Cindy the words for him. Then we prayed for both of them to find jobs (another clue).

The glory of God had found us on the sidewalk a short distance from the tavern. God, you are so faithful. I love you.

P.S. Levi and Shannon, email me, there’s more!