Undercover Marketing for Jesus :)

So I was sitting in an employee staffing when I felt the Holy Spirit come over me :) I started looking around the room.  I knew he was up to something. Within minutes a coworker seated right next to me mentioned she was having pain in her back.  I knew that she had been struggling with serious pain for months because at one point she had missed three weeks in a row due to a flare-up!  I leaned over to her to ask her if I could pray for her after the staffing. 

When we finally had a chance to get together later in the day, I could tell she was a little nervous and that the idea of praying for her back was quite foreign to her. I prayed two times in a row with no change.  Then the HS gave a word of knowledge about an issue of bitterness in her life.  She confirmed that this was true and I led her in a prayer of forgiveness for this individual.  I then resumed praying for her back.  The pain instantly went from a “9” out of 10 to a “3”.  Went on vacation.  Saw her about a week and a half later and asked her how her back was.  She said, “prayer really works . . . you totally messed up my ideas about God after you prayed for me”.  I asked her what she meant by this and she explained that she hated any kind of organized religion but did believe that there was a God.  She also said that after about a week her anger towards the person she had forgiven started to creep back up again.  So she decided to pray again to forgive just as I had showed her that day! 

Then this was the best part, “Margaret, why is it that when you prayed for me I felt this thing but when I prayed by myself I didn’t feel it.  I want to feel it again!"  I asked her to explain and she said that when we prayed the prayer of forgiveness that day, that she could feel a tremendous burden fall off of her. She described it as an “incredible feeling”.  I told her that this feeling was the HS working inside of her and that if she wanted to, she could have the HS too. She said that she definitely wanted to pray for the HS to come into her life so we did.  A few days later she came up to Melissa and I and said that we needed a prayer group for STAFF and that she had a few people in mind that she wanted to invite to it.  She said she couldn’t wait to pray again and feel that feeling again.  Way to go HS!  Please pray for my co-worker.  We are meeting next Thursday at lunch for our first prayer group.  I am confident that the Lord is leading her to himself!!  Also pray for other employees that he may lead to the group!

Organic Power Encounters #2

In my last post I told you how God had returned my friend Jess's wallet. This time I'll tell you about how He healed his knee!

I went to the gym Wednesday morning for a training session with Jess. We both started talking about our weekends, and Jess said that he had injured his knee. "Pulled a tendon" was how he put it. It was causing him a lot of pain, and even limiting his range of motion. He could not bring his foot up to his backside without wincing half way up. As a guy with a B.A. in Kinesiology and a pretty sharp mind, Jess was able to be very articulate in describing the pain and the limitations of his right knee caused by the injury. He said the pain was a 7 or an 8. I knew that this was another organic opportunity to pray for him. I was absolutely certain that God was going to heal him because I'd already seen God return his wallet, because I've seen a LOT of knees healed, and because I felt God encouraging me to pray for him and I felt the assurance of Him 'having my back.'

Before I could offer prayer, Jess also told me about a dream he had:

He was back at the church he attended as a kid (he stopped going as a teenager), walking through their fellowship hall where they served meals and banquets and held receptions. The whole area had been segregated into cubicles and these were being sold as condos. I asked him how he felt about that, and he said it made him vaguely sad.

I prayed that God would give me an interpretation since I thought the dream had some importance. I'm not a big dream interpreter, and I'm sure that there is more to the dream than what I got, but I gave him what I thought it meant:

That his old church wasn't what the dream was about. That it was about 'church' in general. That churches have found ways to separate people into little groups and keep them apart. That part of that is even a commercialization of faith: a whole subculture to go along with it including books, music, and all the rest of it. That churches have stopped knowing how to be about community and have stopped 'fellowshiping' because of it. I said the dream was an indictment of that failed way of doing church, but that this isn't God's plan at all. Men have made church fail, men have made fellowship hard, and it's men who are responsible for comoditizing religion and even faith.

Jess seemed to like that interpretation. After that I asked him if I could pray for his knee. He immediately agreed. I placed my hand on his knee cap, and prayed a very short prayer: "Lord please heal Jess' knee. Pain go away in Jesus name." I asked him to check it, and I have to say, I felt about 99% confident the knee would be much improved.

Jess tested out the knee. "Wow," he said. "That's really weird! The pain is almost completely gone. I can even put the knee through it's full range of motion." He was pretty surprised, and I was just sort of smiling at him, because I knew that God was just pouring out His love for Jess at that moment, that He was giving him a taste of what His version of love looks like.

"How is it now on a scale of 1-10?"

"It's a 1. Just a little bit of soreness left."

"Can I pray for that as well?"

"Sure."

"Lord, please take away all of the pain. Not even a little pain. No more pain in Jesus name."

He checked it again--and by check, keep in mind this guy's a physical trainer who knows how to poke, prod, and otherwise fully examine muscles, ligaments, etc--and it was still a little bit sore, but nothing even remotely close to where it had been earlier. Jess kept thanking me, and I kept telling him that it wasn't me at all. That I can't heal anyone, but that Jesus can and does and that he should thank Jesus instead.

I then got to talk to him again about who God is, and How much He loves people and cares for them. How He wants them to know He loves them and wants them to choose to be in relationship with Him. Jess listened to everything I said, and I could tell he was really processing through what had just happened and relating it to what I was telling him. I left him with a healed knee, and a head full of new ideas about Jesus: The King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and especially, Jesus the healer.

Organic Power Encounters

I've been guilty of ignoring this blog for far too long. Mostly that's because I've been reevaluating how I want to pursue a lifestyle of miracles and seeing God's goodness impact this world. The model of doing treasure hunts is fun and encouraging and something I still plan to pursue. However, it feels like God's been leading me towards a more 'organic' approach to praying for people. I'd define organic as praying for those people that I come into contact with in daily life, not going out with the specific purpose of finding 'treasures.' It's been a real paradigm shift for me to start looking at my daily routine as the jumping off point for seeking to see the Kingdom come to earth. Instead of going out to seek out treasures, I'm instead finding them right under my very nose in daily life!

God's been doing some really great stuff. As I've relaxed and just let Him direct me to pray for people as the situation calls for, I've seen a couple really neat things happen. Here are a few, both of which involve a physical trainer at the gym I work out at. His name is Jess, and I've been building a friendship with him for the last 6 months.

Back in June, Jess told me that he had lost his wallet which included his credit cards, bank card, CTA pass, etc. He was pretty upset about this as it meant he had to go through the process of canceling all of them. Even worse was the loss of his monthly CTA pass which you cannot replace without buying another one. As he told me about this, I knew i should pray for the return of his wallet, but felt a bit awkward asking him for permission.

It took most of an hour to get up the courage to ask. Finally I asked him and he agreed to let me pray. I prayed briefly that God would return his wallet to him and that he wouldn't lose anything important from it. He thanked me and I left the gym.

The next day, this is the e-mail I received from him:

Not that God works to give us what we want, when we want it and how we want it. HOWEVER, this morning @ 7:30 AM, he saw fit that my wallet was returned. Thank you for your prayers!

I was blown away and really excited that God had answered my prayer that quickly! When I check with him about how this had happened, he said that one of the other trainers just happened to be cleaning up the employee locker-room that morning and had found it underneath the netting of a soccer goal. Jess was thrilled to have the wallet back, and this opened up a conversation about who God is, and how He loves people enough to get involved even in the 'little things.' Seeing God return his wallet was great, but having the opportunity to talk about the Lord's goodness and love for him was even better!

This happened about a month ago so I am so sorry I am sitting down to write you just now.

I came home in the middle of the day to find my neighbor Jerry (in his 50/60s) raking leaves. I said "hello" and we started chatting when at some point during the conversation he told me that he was in pain because of an old rotator cuff injury. He was hoping that the physical exercise might help since he is a trucker and never really uses his arm. I asked him if I could pray for him and he agreed. His pain was at a "10". I barely got "Holy spirit come ..." out of my mouth when he asked me what religion I was. I told him I was a Christian and then he joked that he was converting to Islam because "they cut your hands off if you steal something". He then told me that he grew up Catholic but didn't really have any kind of faith. I replied, "Catholic? Oh good, then you have heard of the Holy Spirit". I started praying and you could see a look of surprise begin to emerge on his face. When I checked in with him he said he no longer felt any pain. I pressed him because I wanted to make sure the pain was completely gone. He said he could feel some stiffness so I prayed again. Before I could finish my prayer he said, "Margaret . . . you are freaking me out!" He said he was at a "0". At this point he started moving his arm around and wondering out loud if the exercise/raking had in fact helped him. You could tell he was in amazement and disbelief. At that point I pressed him again and he said, "there is absolutely no pain. I still don't have full mobility or rotation but that will never go away". I told him that God wasn't done with him yet and prayed again. Then he said, "Margaret! If this works, I am going to give you my Porsche!" "What church did you say you go to?" "Margaret, I think I need to go to church with you!"

I wanted to pray one last time but he wanted to test it out a little so I walked my dog and then came back. He was feeling so great that He offered me his Porsche again :) I prayed one last time and then this time he said, "Margaret, this time when you prayed I could feel a short, intense throbbing and then relief" At this point I could see that my neighbor was thoroughly freaked out so I bid him goodbye and went back to work. When I got to work I knew the power was flowing so I went in search of my secretary who has deafness in one ear. She wasn't there that day. When I asked the other secretary where she was I could see that she was in pain and her eyes were teary. I asked her what was wrong and she anxiously questioned back, "Is this where your appendix is?" She had been in intense abdominal pain that morning and didn't know why. I told her that I knew I was supposed to pray for someone at work, took her into a different room and prayed for her. She said the same thing that Jerry said when God completely took the pain away, "Margaret, you are freaking me out". I went into my next appointment at work and in the middle of the hour my left upper arm started throbbing. My muscles felt spastic and like they were about to burst out my arm. It was quite uncomfortable. I asked the Lord if I was supposed to pray for someone else and he said, "No, I just wanted you to know that I am still working on Jerry's arm" It was my left arm that was throbbing, the same side as Jerry's :)

The Currency of Heaven is Risk

It's been a while since I've been out on a Tuesday night and it was great to get back out. I don't know why there always seems to be a bit of shy-ness, human nature I guess. So the things that that I remind myself are (1)I have something valuable to offer to people that they might not have the chance to receive tonight if I don't offer it and (2) they aren't rejecting me, they are rejecting God - makes me feel sad, but is also freeing, ya know? So we went out there and started interacting with people, taking risks, being bold (and gentle) to approach and it was amazing. By the end of the night I felt alive in a way I haven't for quite a while, and was acutely aware of God's pleasure in my taking risks to show His love.

Treasure Hunt to Wal*Mart - 3-10-09

Out team consisted of Donna Napolitano, Jana Lutovsky and myself.

Many of the clues on our Treasure Maps we found including: Red Hat, Candy Isle, Violet, Yogurt, Green Shoes, Pink Scarf, Right Knee, Lower Back, and Jean.

Our clue was green shoes and this young girl with her mom and dad was wearing them. I approached the father who was named James and told him about the Treasure Hunt and that we had Green Shoes as a clue. I pointed to my list and asked if he had a knee problem (right knee was a clue on my map) or a lower back problem (another clue on my map). He said he had a lower back problem and his wife had a right knee problem. James motioned for us to pray for her but she didn't want any part of this at first. I showed her my Map and that we had the clues Green Shoes, Lower Back and Right Knee. She was then more responsive to our requests to pray for her.

Her name was Lina and it turned out she had a tumor on her right knee. She felt hot when we were praying for her but the tumor didn't dissolve. We prayed multiple times for her. Then we prayed for her husband James for his lower back problems. His pain level was at 8.5 (from a scale from 1 - 10) when we started praying for him. After our first couple of prayers he said the pain went down to about a 4. After more prayers he said the pain was down to 0.5 and he was good.

We also prayed for a young girl (Katrina) who was by the Yogurt (Jana's clue) for her shoulder and after a couple of times she said she was completely healed. It turned out we had prayed for her Grandmother two weeks earlier when we were on another Treasure Hunt here at Wal*Mart.

We prayed for Justin who had a broken arm and Donna was able to share Jesus with him. We challenged him to ask Jesus to reveal Himself to him when he goes home and prays. His mom was blessed we prayed for him.

I had Red Hat on my list and near the end of out hunt we found her. Jana spotted her and her name was Geraldine. She had bunion problems and we prayed for her to be healed and after Jana said "bunions be gone" the woman said don't you need a physician to cut them off. We said something like Jesus is the Great Physician and He can totally heal her. She said something like "that can happen"? And we said Jesus can totally heal her. We prayed for her a number of times and she said her feet felt better. A friend with her was name Jean and Jana had her name on her Map. We prayed for God's wisdom for her. They were Christians and we talked about each other's churches. It was a great time talking to Jean.

We ran into a woman with a pink scarf (on my map) as we were leaving. She was an employee who said she didn't want to get fired because of us praying for her so we prayed for her as we walked out. She was naming a number of people to pray for too as we were walking out.

It was a wonderful night and it was a blessing to pray for so many people. God is good and people felt His presence tonight. Praise God.

Bob Holzner

First night at the ERs

First stop was West Suburban Medical Center.



Our team, Dan Pietrini, Carrie Rubenking and myself (Bob Holzner), walked up the the hospital and stepped through the doors to the Emergency Room. This was way out of my comfort zone. Each of us eased our way to a seat at different parts of the Waiting Room and blended in. It was very awkward at first as to what to say. What does one say? How do you start the conversation? I sheepishly looked around for the right someone to pray with in my area.

How in the world did I get to this point?

I must say it has been a journey and God was putting the pieces together gradually for me.

I was first blessed to be able to take the three Healing Classes VOP offered. Two things radically set me on a wonderful new course in my life. The first was when we were asked to come up with a healing word for someone in the room. While the directions were being said I had a thought about a particular illness. I first thought it was just me but it turned out to be a correct word about someone's illness. This never happened to me before. This was new territory and God was laying some foundation in my life.

The second exercise was to pray for healing for someone in the group. I was amazed that while I was praying for someone during this exercise the presence of the Holy Spirit fell upon the man and he felt God's healing hand. Nothing ever happened to me like this when I prayed for someone before and it was a break through for me. More foundation work from the Father.

I learned that God does talk to us today and that He heals people today. This was a bit new for me but I was excited to move forward with this new revelation in my life. After this I had been praying for people in church off and on but God was about to take me further still.

I was hanging with Mike McGee around this time and learned about Bill Johnson and Bethel Church. They actually went out and would pray for people on the streets to be healed. If someone had a cane, walker or wheelchair they were open encounters and they would offer to pray for them to be healed. Now that was radical and way out of my comfort zone. Praying for people in church was one thing but people I don't know on the streets was another.

Nonetheless, God was doing a work in me and I saw a woman with a walker and I felt the gentle urge from God to pray for her but I didn't have the courage. I still had fears and I felt bad I didn't pray for her. God worked with me through this and I eventually started praying for people I didn't know while I was out shopping. If I saw a cane I would ask them if I could pray for them. Remarkably nearly all of them let me pray from them. It wasn't that bad either after getting over the initial fears.

The downside was I felt a bit like a lone warrior for Christ. I wanted to be part of a team.

My desire to pray for people continued to grow and to be part of a team doing this. Then I heard about the Healing Seminar at Bethel Valparaiso and I joined the Prayer Team soon after. I was able to go to that seminar and we went on a Treasure Hunt and many people were healed miraculously (See Dan's post My Power Week # 1 & 2).

Great things were happening at VOP now with many people getting healed and I was stoked. Dan talked about his encounters on one Sunday and I talked to him briefly after church. The excitement was growing. The next week Dan dropped the bomb and said on Tuesday they were going to the ER to pray for people to be healed. After church I mentioned to Dan I would like to come too. God was moving, something beautiful was starting, and I wanted to follow.

So here I am. I turned to the young man with a small baby on my left and asked if he was waiting on the doctor? Seemed like a good starting conversation. He said no and someone he was with was inside getting taken care of. That seemed to end the conversation but I stumbled further and asked what they were being treated for if you don't mind me asking. Then I felt I needed to tell him who I was and what I was trying to get at. I said something like I wanted to pray for their loved one and I believe Jesus heals today. He said yes and that she might be having problems with the pregnancy. I prayed for her to be healed and there would be no problems with the pregnancy and the doctors would be amazed at her recovery. He thanked me and seemed very blessed.

I breathed a sign of relief as I began to get a feel for how things were unfolding this night. This was new ground for me and I am still learning. I looked around and I saw there was one small boy with a white identification wrist band. I made my way over to him and his mother. He had a rash on his chest and was waiting to see the doctor. I asked his mom if I could pray for him and she said yes. I asked the rash to be supernaturally healed and gone and when he went in to see the doctor the doctor would say "what rash." He seemed very happy to receive prayer. This wasn't so bad after all and to tell you the truth it was addicting. What we have been freely given we should freely give.

We went through the room and prayed for those who wanted prayer. It was still early so we decided to go to another ER to pray for people. We decided on Loretto Hospital in the Austin neighborhood.

As we walked out of the hospital a young man called out to us. It was the young man with the baby that I prayed with. He thanked us again as we were leaving and we blessed him again. That really felt good. Praise God.

Continued in The First Night - Part Two.

What to do with rejection…

So the stories of people getting healed and having power encounters with God are awesome but what about those times when people reject you? What do you do when someone says no but you know that God wants to heal them or pour out his love on them? If you are going to seriously go out and “spread the love” I guarantee you that you will be rejected. I don’t say this to scare you but instead to prepare you.

So Nathan and I were out on a treasure hunt and we walked into a Home Depot. As soon as we walked in the lady at the paint counter caught both of our eyes. She was obviously in physical pain. You didn’t have to be prophetic to see this. After walking around the store we went up to her and offered prayer.

In a voice that sounded pretty offended she said, “Oh no. I pray for myself and I have family that prays for me. I don’t need your prayer.”

We made sure that she really didn’t want prayer and left her.

Another time I was at the bank and saw that the security guard had a limp. So I went over to him and offered prayer. His response was to tell me that if I wanted to I could pray for him when I said my prayers at night. But I said that I wanted to pray for him right now. He still said no and kind of gave me that signal that said, “If you don’t leave I will make you leave.”

After these kinds of encounters it is easy to just say, “Forget it. I don’t want to do this anymore.” Or “This must not be something that I am supposed to do. God would have made it easier if it had been.” After all, who wants to be rejected anyway?

We have to push through these thoughts. Something that helps me to get past this is to know that they are not rejecting me…they are rejecting God. The two most common reasons that I have found that people don’t want receive prayer are that they have been hurt by the church in the past or they don’t want to call attention to themselves. They don’t want to look silly. There are ways to get around the walls people have set up and maybe I will go into that in later posts but the main thing to remember is that if you were to stop doing something because you were rejected once, the only thing you would ever do is sit at home doing nothing…and I mean nothing. Even the TV can make you feel rejected at times.

You might have heard the theory that if you want to see people healed, you should make it a goal to pray for a thousand people if that is what it takes to see one person healed…and pray for a thousand more if that is what it takes to see a second person healed. It is all but a guarantee that if you pray for two thousand people to be healed you will see some very powerful acts of God and will see many healings. I propose that if you don’t want to be afraid to approach people and ask them for prayer then you should prepare yourself for being rejected a thousand times. I can all but guarantee that after a thousand rejections they will just bounce off of you.

My advice is just do it. What is the worst that can happen? They say no. They don’t get healed. Your prophetic word was wrong. Remember it is not your responsibility to heal people, it is God’s.

Rock on for Jesus!!!

Pizza anyone???

So at work we decided to have an office lunch party once a week. The first week we ordered pizza. I happened to be coming back from a showing just as the pizza lady was walking up to the front stairs. I said hi to her and asked if that was the pizza for us. She said it was and I let her in and told her that our office was on the third floor. (By the way, there are no elevators.) At this she looked at me and I could see pain in her eyes.

She said, “Can you call them to come down here. I have arthritis and it is very painful to walk up stairs.”

My heart sank at this and I gave our office a call to bring down the money. As we were standing there waiting for someone to come down with the money I was debating the best way to ask her if I could pray for her.

When the money came down I told her that we are Christians and that we believe that God heals people today and offered to pray for her. What was interesting to me was that she wanted prayer but not for healing. She proceeded to tell us about how her husband had died and she saw him everywhere and how she could not let go. Her heart was broken and she wanted it to be fixed.

So we prayed for her heart and that God would bring her comfort and peace…and of course we prayed for her arthritis. After we were done she said she felt good. I asked how her arthritis was and asked her to check it out to see if it was any different. She tested it on a few steps and looked up in amazement.

“Oh my goodness! It doesn’t hurt any more.” She said.

I said one more quick prayer for her and blessed her and she left…with no pain. Go God.

Rock on for Jesus!!!

Treasure Hunt, Feb 24 - Bob/Jen/Walmart

First of all, besides Walmart being on one of our Treasure Maps as a 'clue', I thought later, actually Walmart really had been a good place to go because of all the years of fusion giveaways - i always remembered the stories that came back from the Walmart parking lot were positive ones, that people were open to receive. So tonight we wanted to go where those seeds had been sown and reap some harvest... and i believe we did...

(Words in CAPS were the "clues" we had on our Treasure Map - see link on the right if you want to download an example of a treasure map to learn more about it)

> Walked in and saw the CLOWN FACE staring at me (on the back of a guy's jacket) - was on Nathan's treausre map - texted him "clown near milk"!

> Then Bob saw the lady in the RED JACKET WITH BLONDE HAIR - texted Nathan! He told us later she had 'all the clues'

> Found a young girl with PINK SHOES and told her she was God's treasure :)

> Showed a woman who was wearing BLUE ON TOP our list (who had a SMALL CHILD with her) and ended up praying with her for her mom's liver problems

> Approached a woman with PINK on, tried to communicate with woman who didn't speak English, made hand gestures to see if she had pain and wanted prayer, she motioned yes pain all over her body, so we prayed

> Bob asked a worker if there was anyone who worked there who had the names on his list, she told us there was a TIM who was a co-manager and he'd be walking around, we found him easily and prayed for his high blood pressure plus gave words of encouragement and blessing, he was quite nicely open to us, smiled and wished us luck on the rest of our treasure hunt!!

> Guy with a COMB IN HAIR - he didn't have any pain or prayer needs, but the girl with him was smiling as we listed off things we could pray for and so she wanted us to pray for their relationship!

> Woman in a YELLOW HAT, her daughter translated and told us about her many failed surgeries for her throat, that they did not have good tools in Romania and damaged her vocal chords when trying to attend to her thyroid. She was supposed to die and doctors gave her one year to live - eleven years ago - and she promised God to pray every morning and night, with her bible, which she has been faithful to. Tonight we got to be God's messengers and to pray for her.


All of these "clues" helped give us confidence and open doors for conversation with people and for them to believe they were being highlighted, special to God. we prayed with every one, left bits of kingdom dust with every encounter.

It was fun!

Old School Nike High-tops

Jennie M. and I are cruising through Ultra Foods (we had a clue for "grocery store") when we spot a guy with a few of my clues: "Old School Nike High-tops," and "Beard." We approach him and introduce ourselves, and then ask if he has any pain in his body. "Yeah, I've got some back pain," he says, which is crazy because Jennie has "back pain" on her list of clues. We pray for him, and when we're done, he reports that his back feels great. He does a few minor stretches, and affirms again that the pain is gone.
We thank Jesus for what He did, and then start to offer some prophetic words. Jennie starts speaking about his heart for kids, and that they look up to him, etc., and when she is done, he tells us that he works for an academy that specializes on special needs kids. He is blown away that we came and prayed for him, and keeps thanking us and going over how strange it was that we knew those things about him. We remind him that it's God's goodness not us, and he agrees. We leave him grinning, and with a new appreciation for God's care and love for him.

Attention K-mart Shoppers: Healing is going on in the shoe aisle

It's amazing how even when you have the wrong clue God can still use it for His purposes. I had the clue "Gucci" (as in Gucci hand bag) but was not seeing anyone with Gucci anything on anyone at K-mart, or any of my other clues. Jen and I had been wandering around for about fifteen minutes and hadn't prayed for anyone when I saw three men passing us, and one of them had on a hoodey with the word "Googi" on it. I let them pass. Wrong clue. Then God prompted me to go talk to the guy anyway, and that the "wrong" clue would have to suffice.

Jen and I approached the three guys who were checking out shoes. They were all in their eary twenties, tall, and athletic looking. I didn't give myself time to get nervous and just walked right up to the guy with the Googi hoodey. I told him that we were on a treasure hunt, and that I thought he might be the treasure. He was plenty skeptical until I asked "do you have any pain in your knees?" He did. He said it was about a 7-8 out of ten on a pain scale. "So you would know if it went away?"

"Absolutely. It hurts."

I decided it was really time to push my boundaries, and so I asked if I could put my hand on his knee. Surprisingly, he agreed, and so I knelt next to him and asked for the kingdom to come, and for Jesus to heal his knee. "How is it now?"

I'm starting to get used to the look on his face. An awkward smile, a sort of deer in headlights 'I don't have a clue what just happened to me, but I like it!" look. "It's better!" he said. "A lot better!"

"All the way better?"

"No, but it's better."

"Can I pray again? I want to see it all the way better. So does Jesus."

"Sure.

Again I'm on my knees. "Lord Jesus, bring your healing. No more pain. In Jesus name." I'm really feeling the nearness of God, and his love for this man. I know that Jesus is going to totally heal his knee. I'm praying with authority, while the man's two friends wander at the end of the aisle, unsure if they really want to know what's going on, trying to be aloof, but watching non-the-less.

"What's going on now?"

"Wow. It's like completely fine." He walks down to the end of the aisle and back, a huge smile on his face. His friends are now paying close attention. He does a few knee bends. "There's just a little stiffness left."

"Do you want me to pray for that stiffness? Jesus will take it away."

"Sure."

Third time is the charm. He's really testing the knee now, doing a calf stretch, and more walking.

"It feels great!" he says, almost laughing.

"That's Jesus." I say. "He loves you. He loves you a lot."

Friend number one has wandered over and is checking things out, so I turn to him: "Do you have any pain in your body?"

"No."

"Nothing at all? No pain?"

"Well I've got a little knee thing too."

Prayer time. This time I know Jesus is going to heal things. The atmosphere is just electric, and I feel so much confidence in God's authority, so much confidence in His goodness and His love and His power. I say a very short prayer, hand on his knee, and then ask him to test it out. Again I get the look. A little shock, a little joy, and a little doubt intermingled. "I don't feel it anymore."

"It's good?"

"Yeah it's good."

Friend number two is talking to the first guy God healed, and so Jen and I ask him if he has pain. "No, I'm fine," he says, but he does have pain, it's just in his eyes and heart, not his body. Jen and I learn that he is looking for an office job and that he would really like to be working. So we pray that God will open doors, and for His favor, etc. Then Jen begins to call out the gold in him, and prophesies about God's heart for him. When she is done, I add a few things, and before we leave, Jen gives friend number two a hug.

Then the first guy comes over with a massive smile and gives me a hug. "Thank you so much," he says. "Thank Jesus. That's His goodness all over you. I can't heal anyone."

We leave the three guys to pick out their shoes, each of them knowing in a new and real way that their Father loves them. God is so good. Acting on a 'wrong' clue led to the most powerful encounter I've ever experienced on Treasure Hunt.

Tattoos on Fingers

Dan and I went out on a little 'treasure hunt' (asking God for clues to help lead us to His treasures: those who need to hear about his Love, be healed, encouraged, etc.) Thursday night. We have a lot of clues, but were not really finding any. One of my clues was "tattoos on fingers," and one of Dan's clues was for a location: 7-11. This was our last stop, and while we'd been pretty bold for most of the night, we'd not really found anyone who specifically matched our clues. Then at 7-11, Dan spotted a store employee cleaning one of the coffee stations who just happened to have tattoos on several of his fingers.

We struck up a conversation with the man and learned his name was Hugo. I showed him my treasure map with the tattoo clue, and he was visibly surprised. Then Dan had a word of knowledge that he suffered from back pain. Hugo said he did have back pain regularly, but not at that specific moment. He did however, have a swollen thumb with a black nail that has been caused by being slammed in a car door. We asked if we could pray, and Hugo said sure. Dan opened up with prayers for his back and asked that Jesus Christ heal his back and repair anything that was out of whack.

Then I decided to pray for his thumb. I started praying, and I felt God direct me to put my finger tips very near his thumb; not touching it, but as close as possible. As I did this, I felt my fingers tips get very hot, and felt that heat transfer to Hugo's thumb. I prayed, and when I was done, I asked Hugo "Did you just feel that heat?"

"Yeah!" he said, and I could tell that again, he was very surprised. Then I felt God giving me a prophetic word for him. As I talked, I saw he was totally engaged and that the words were drawing him out. The Lord was loving him in that moment, reassuring him that he was not a castaway, not a screw-up. That he was a son and that his Father loved him. There were some specific details that he seemed to relate to, and so when I was done with the word, Dan had the insight to ask Hugo if the words made sense.

"Totally," he said. Dan then reinforced that it was because of God's goodness and His love for him that he had given me those words. Then I told Hugo that God was working on his thumb: that tomorrow he would be able to move it, and that in seven days the color would return to the nail and that he wouldn't have to lose the fingernail. I'm not sure what he thought about that, but when we left, he was visibly more at peace than when we arrived.

I plan to go back to 7-11 in a week's time and see how Hugo's thumb is doing, as well as again let him know that his Father loves him. I will post again once that happens and provide an update.

One Hand In My Pocket...

If you want to have someone agree to let you pray with them, there are a few things to remember. The first is that developing some rapport with them first is a great idea. The second is that you should introduce yourself and let them know why you are there (to pray for healing) and where you are from (a local church). The third is that you shouldn't come charging up to them with your hand jammed in your jeans pocket and demand to know if "they're in pain or here with someone who is having pain."

I learned each of these valuable lessons after choking down my sickening level of anxiety and rushing up to the first man I laid eyes on in the Loyola Hospital ER waiting room. A light skinned African American man in a red Comcast jacket, he looked at me standing over him, stood up, and said 'no, but that man over there does." I could tell from his demeanor that he wasn't really enjoying my presence, and I felt I needed to let him know I was 'ok.' I explained that I was there to pray for anyone who wanted it. He nodded, laughed, and relaxed. It was clear he was a nice guy and that I’d just surprised him a bit.

Five minutes later, after learning that the second man's mother was in the ER after suffering a minor stroke, and that he was related to the larger family that Jen had already befriended and was making small talk with, we got down to praying. Jen and I prayed for the woman to be fully restored and to have no repercussions from the stroke. We asked for the Kingdom to come, and for Jesus to heal her body.

When we were done, a curious thing happened. The entire family, and the man in the Comcast jacket, began to give me pointers. "Don't just come running up to people without introducing yourself first!" said one the three women Jen had been talking to. "You've got to let us know who you are and why you're here."

Then, Comcast jacket guy stared in, and as he talked, I felt my face growing red. "You come up to me with your hand in your pocket. Your hand in your pocket! You certainly got my attention. And I'm sitting there, and I'm like, man I'm not even on my feet. You know, that's not really going to put anyone at ease."

There's not much I can say except "You're right." I'm feeling embarrassed, but it's the good sort of embarrassment that comes when you realize you've made some silly mistakes, but that you can learn from them. Comcast guy is being very polite, and he's not exaggerating things. He's actually doing me a favor. He's pointing out that if you want to do the work of Christ, if you want to contend for the Kingdom, and if you want to pray for healing, you've first got to convince the person that you're talking to you're not there to shoot them in the face.

I'm thankful to Comcast guy. He gave me the opportunity to see how my spectacular level of nervousness which led to me shoving my hand into my pocket and approaching him far to directly out of fear that if I didn't, I never would, had created walls that never needed to be there. He showed me, and explained in detail, what I already knew: that developing rapport is essential. What I knew, but what I couldn't apply because I let my fear get in the way of expressing the love of Christ. It's clear to me that God put that man in my path and not someone who would have taken offense, closed themselves off (or worse!) so that I could learn some valuable lessons.

first time out

[FROM JEN] hi all. i'm new at this. well, not really. praying for people is something that's been a part of my life for a while now, but now i'm pursuing physical healing with more boldness and intentionality. and my eyes are being opened to more need around me, knowing i have something to offer that can change things. oh, and the other big difference is we're going outside the walls of the church...

so tuesday night a group of six of us gathered at church to worship ('get filled up') and then go out and pray for people ('leak'). we split in two groups and headed opposite directions to visit a few ER waiting rooms at nearby hospitals. it was a learning night for us (it was our first time) and a night of encouragement and blessing for those we had interactions with. once we got past the awkwardness of the conversation (who are you and why are you here?) we were able to simply share the love of God. we didn't see anyone physically healed that night, but many individuals had love encounters through words spoken from the Father's heart or even just that we showed up to bring some comfort. We also noticed a visible atmosphere change in each ER we visited that night from the time we walked in to the time we left (more peace in people's interactions with each other, more smiling, no longer isolated). so, although we didn't see healings, we believe God was with us and many were touched by His love that night as we went to step out and take risks, speaking in the name of Jesus, as He has commissioned us to do.

My power week - Part 4

(Please start at part 1 if you haven't.)

Thursday 2/5/09
Thursday was another day that I had an encounter with someone that I was showing an apartment to. I was showing the apartment to a grandma, mom and child. The apartment was for the mom and child and the grandma had a cane. As soon as I saw this I said, “Alright God, here we go!” After showing them the apartment I pulled out an application and as I was talking to them I realized that this lady did not have enough income for the apartment to meet our requirements. I tried everything I could think of so that this lady could get the apartment but there just wasn’t enough income. And all this time my excitement level was getting lower and lower. I would say that even my faith got lower.

So when I ran out of things to try, we said goodbye and they started to walk down the street. At that moment I remembered that they pulled up in a taxi and that they just lived a short distance across town. So I asked them how they were getting home and they said that they were going to walk to the store and call a cab. At this point I am thinking, “Oh that’s real great; the grandma with a cane walking four blocks to the store and then standing there waiting for a cab to show up. So I offered them a ride and they accepted. On the way to their house I said, “If you don’t mind me asking, what is the cane for?” She responded by saying, “Well you are going to laugh at me, but Christmas of 2005 (three years ago) I was waiting at the front doors of Wal-Mart for them to open and when they opened the doors I got knocked over and tore the ligament in my knee.” She continued saying, “The worst part is that I have to have surgery on it but can’t because I live on the third floor and if I had the surgery I would not be able to get out of bed for six months to a year and I have no one who can take care of me.”

So I explained that I am a Christian and that I have seen a lot of people healed by God lately and that I would like to pray for her. She kind of gave me the old-yes you can pray for me as soon as I leave. To which I said the magic seven words, “Can I pray for you right now.” She accepted. I prayed and asked how her knee felt. She told me that she wouldn’t know until she got out of the car. I asked if she would mind if I got out of the car with her to see how it was and she said that it would be ok. So we both got out of the car and she started to test it out. With a very puzzled look on her face (remember to always look at the face not the injury) she said, “It really feels better.” I asked if it was 100% better. It wasn’t so I prayed again. This time she started walking without her cane. I asked her if she was able to walk without the cane before and she said no. We praised God and she went in her apartment with a miracle from God.

After this I was totally pumped up. I went back to the office and as I was getting out of the car I saw a gentleman walking down the street and I knew he was going to ask me for money. I had already decided that I was going to give him money but I also thought, “If I am going to give you some money, you are going to humor me for a minute. So of course he asked me for money and I started to tell him about Jesus. I got to pray for him. He had just gotten out of jail and was faced with some serious depression. I got the privilege to pray for the depression to be broken off, for hope in his life and to release God’s love on him. As I was praying I noticed that his eye was a little yellow and a watery. When I brought it up he said that he had surgery on his eyes when he was a kid and now they were very sensitive to light. I prayed for his eyes and he wasn’t healed but I know that he had an encounter with God.

Friday 2/6/09
Friday was coming to a close and I hadn’t prayed for anybody yet. I was waiting for Lauren to get finished with work, sitting in my car with the window half way down, playing on my iPhone. When all of a sudden this guy walks up to the car, speaking broken English, who needs $1.80 for bus fare. My first reaction is “Just go away. Can’t you see that I am playing Superball 2?” You know…that godly reaction again. Then God hit me over the head and I woke up. All of a sudden I had that thought again, “If I am going to give you some money, you are going to humor me for a few minutes.” So I got out of the car. I start talking to him and find out his name is Andy. He just starts opening up to me, telling me about how his parents split up, and his dad remarried and was never there for him, and how he is a 32 year old man still living at home battling depression. I began prophesying over him about how he is the son of a King, which makes him a prince and about how much God loves him. And then I got to pray for him. Man, that was a power encounter. When I was finished both Andy and I had tears in our eyes, and he gave me a huge hug and said, “Thank you, Dan. Thank you.” And he started walking backwards saying Thank you over and over. That was awesome. I did however loose my game of Superball 2…but it was so worth it.

My power week - Part 3

(Please start at part 1 if you haven't.)

Tuesday 2/3/09
So on Tuesday Nathan and I were going to go out on a treasure hunt but he ended up having a fever and not being able to. The real catch for me was in the morning I was praying and I saw a picture of myself praying for a neck problem of one of the people who worked at Lalos restaurant. I now had a decision to make, do I stay home and watch Heroes or do I go for it on my own? I went for it. After a short worship session in my car outside of Lalos I went in. As I walked in the lady asked me if I needed a table for one, to which I said, “No. Actually this might sound a little weird but is there by chance anyone that works here that has any kind of neck or throat pain or sickness?” She looked at me like I was a nutter and told me she didn’t think so but asked why. So told her what I was doing and she told me that she would check with her manager.

I have to be honest. I thought I would have been kicked out by this point, but I am still there. So the manager came to the front door where I was and I explained everything to her. When I was done asking her she said, “No there is not anyone who I can think of but you know what is strange…” (Oh boy do I like that line.) “…I was at the dentist this morning and there was a guy doing exactly what you are doing, praying for people to be healed.” I thought that was crazy. So we talked a while and I got to share a bit about Jesus and how cool He is. She told me about her mother-in-law who is in Mexico and has cancer. I prayed for her mother-in-law and left.

I have to say; I am amazed at how open people are once you say you are a Christian. I feel like I have heard more life stories and intimate details about people’s lives. People are just hungry.

Wednesday 2/4/09
For those of you who don’t know, I am a leasing agent for a property management company. So a large part of my job is showing apartments. On Wednesday I had a 5 pm appointment and so at 5:15 pm when I am still sitting in front of the building waiting, I’m getting very mad. I’m thinking things like, “If this person was on time I could be home by now.” The gentleman finally shows up. As we are walking up to the building he asks if this is the apartment that is on the third floor, to which I responded yes. He said, “Well I guess my knee will be ok if this is just a short term lease.” Instantly I said to myself, there’s not a chance am I praying for this guy, he was late. He deserves to be in pain. You know, it was one of those real godly reactions.

So all the way up the three flights of stairs I am having an internal battle with God. It’s no big shock that by the time we got to the top of the stairs I gave in and said, “Fine God. I will pray for him.” As soon as I said this, all of my anger left and I felt a peace come over me. I ended up finding out that he was a chaplain and I got to pray for him. He did not get healed but I think I stretched his faith a little bit that day. More than that, God freed me from my own personal junk. Ever since that day, I have had much more patience for people and in general felt God’s peace in a new way. All because I lost an argument with God.

To be continued...

My power week - Part 2

(Please start at Part 1 if you haven't.)

Sunday 2/1/09
So on Sunday back at the VOP we had a healing service; naturally after a healing conference. At the end of the first service, the prayer team called out some words of knowledge (things they believed God wanted to heal) and the people with that pain or sickness stood up. My wife Lauren was one of those people. Anybody that did not have a pain or sickness was to pray for those who were standing. So I was praying for Lauren and as I was doing so I looked over at someone else praying for a gentleman who had legs that were about an inch different in length. As I was looking at them I saw the gentleman’s shorter leg grow, in front of my own eyes, to be the same length as the other leg. Without realizing it I had stopped praying for Lauren and out loud said, “holy cow!” At this point Lauren is asking me what is going on and I am just standing there with my mouth wide open.

Interestingly enough, the night before I felt that God was telling me to pray for Lauren’s leg to “grow” out. To give you a quick background, Lauren fell and hurt her hip about five years prior. She actually fell on it twice and it has never healed properly. So in between the two services I had Lauren sit down with her back flat against the back of a chair and I held her legs out and sure enough one leg was about a half inch shorter than the other. (As a side note, I don’t believe that one leg was actually shorter than the other, I think that things in her body were out of alignment.) So I prayed and instantly I watched as God “grew” the shorter leg to be the same length as the other. Lauren is sitting there asking what is going on because she didn’t feel anything or see anything. Later, though, she said that something was definitely different in her hips. It was hard for her to say that things were better because she is pregnant and this in it’s self has thrown things off a bit.

So again at the end of the second service the prayer team came up and gave words of knowledge. Now I am looking around for someone to pounce on and pray for. Lo and behold the lady next to me stood up. She had sharp pain in her stomach and when she was a child she broke her ankle and it never healed right which always caused her pain. So I first prayed for her stomach and instantly God healed it. Then I prayed for her ankle and again God instantly healed it. We took a minute to rejoice in God’s goodness but I wasn’t done yet. I turned around to the lady behind me who was also standing. This lady did not speak any English so I had to do everything through a translator. I found out that she had constant pain in her ankles, back and hip. First I prayed for her ankles. After I finished praying I asked her to check it out to see how the pain was. She gave me that face that said yea I think it is a little better. So prayed again and this time she gave me the face of holy cow the pain is gone. I then prayed for her hips and back. After I finished praying I asked her to check to see how the pain was. This lady bent over and touched her toes to which her daughter yells out, “Oh my God, I can’t remember the last time she was able to do that.” The lady stood up, still not realizing that God had healed her, lifter her knee almost to her chest and then it hit her. She burst into tears, threw her arms around me and wept. Now that is what I call a power encounter with the Living God!!!

As a side note, if you are one of those people who pray for healing and can never tell whether the person is really healed or if they are just trying to make you happy, here is a hint: don’t look at the body part they are testing, rather, look at their face. As soon as they realize they are healed (or not) they cannot hide the truth in there reaction.

So after church Lauren and I were hungry, it was lunchtime after all, and partnering with God can use a lot of energy. So we decided on a restaurant that we hadn’t been to in a while. As we were sitting at the table I felt like I received a word of knowledge that there was someone who worked in the restaurant who was missing a tip of their finger and God wanted me to pray for them. Towards the end of the meal I asked the waitress if there was a cook or someone who was missing the tip of their finger. She gave me a puzzled look and said no. At that point I was going to drop it but she asked me why. So I explained to her that I was a Christian and that I believed in healing and I felt like God wanted me to pray for that person. After that I asked her if there was anything she wanted prayer for. She said that she wanted prayer for her broken heart and proceeded to tell us about her long-term boyfriend who cheated on her and that they had just broken up. Lauren and I prayed for her and when we were done she said, “You know I didn’t want to say this before but the strange thing is…” (I love when people say this.) “…when I was a child the tip of my finger was cut off and it never grew back.” I prayed for her finger. It got really hot which usually means that God is doing something but nothing happened. But after this, this waitress proceeded to tell us just about her whole life story. Lauren and I got to pray for her and minister to her and at the end she said that she felt like God had sent us in there just for her and I believe He did.

Monday 2/2/09
I got nothing for Monday. Let’s call this my Sabbath.

To be continued...

My power week - Part 1

So this is the story of what I have dubbed “my power week.” In actuality it is a bit longer than a week but let’s not go into semantics. Let me give you a little background leading up to this week. For those of you who don’t know, I am the Director of the High School Ministry at the Oak Park Vineyard and prior to this week I had become pretty dry. What I mean is that my walk with God was feeling very draining and heavy. I was hanging in there but was feeling burnt out.

I needed a jump-start and the perfect opportunity came up in a healing conference held in Valparaiso, IN. After a few stumbling blocks I found myself at this conference where God met me in a very tangible way. I was so hungry that at the point in the conference when most people had left, I was still there. I told God that I wanted to be there if there was even the slightest chance that He was going to do something or even if He was just going to be there. Anywhere that there was someone praying a blessing, I wiggled my way to the front. If a mantle was being passed, I wanted it. I was just plain hungry.

Friday 1/30/09
So getting started on this “power” week. It started on Friday, which was the last day of the conference. Everyone from the conference was going out on a “treasure hunt.” What you do on a treasure hunt is, first you ask God to give you clues for your treasure map. These are things like red shirt, Starbucks, back problems…or anything that could possible lead you to a person that God wants you to pray for. Then you partner up with one or two other people and you put your treasure maps together. I ended up going out with Ian and Rachel Carroll. So you use your treasure map to go to where you think God is telling you to go and you pray for people. It is really quite simple when you think about it…and/or completely terrifying.

So Rachel, Ian and I ended up going to an outside mall. We started by going to Starbucks because Rachel and I both had it on our map. Well I guess God had given that word to a lot of people because when we walked in there were about twenty people from the conference and three that were not. So we moved on with the assumption that God had Starbucks covered. (Who knows, maybe everyone just needed a little pick me up after sitting in the conference all day.) Anyway, so that I don’t just go on forever let me get to some highlights. Through clues on our treasure maps we blessed a young man working at a Sherwin Williams Paint store, blessed a woman shopping at a pet store, prayed for a young woman at Home Depot to be fanatically blessed and receive a raise, and…now for the most exciting part. Let me say, I don’t want to down play the three people we prayed for up to this point. All of them were awesome encounters with God, both for us and for them. So at Home Depot Rachel decided that she wanted some chocolate, after all who doesn’t like chocolate. As Ian and Rachel were being rung up Ian said something to the effect of, “If God didn’t want us to eat chocolate, He wouldn’t have made so much of it.” To which the cashier responded, “Yea. I ate a lot of chocolate ice cream after I had a tumor on my tong removed.” **Hold on a minute. Stop the story. How did we go from chocolate to tumors? All I have to say is thank you Jesus.** So Ian asked her how the tumor was doing right now and she said that it had actually just come back. We asked to pray for her and she said yes. Before we prayed we asked how much pain there was on a scale of 0-10, ten being that she needed to go to the hospital. She said it was a 7. We prayed. God came, and the pain went down to a 3. Come on God. But it still hurt a bit so we prayed again and it went down to a 2. At that point she was getting anxious with other customers and such so we told her a bit about Jesus and left.

Holy cow! What a way to start off this healing thing. A tumor. I’m thinking let’s pray for a headache and God says nope, pray for a tumor. God is so awesome.

To be continued...