I think one of the greatest benefits of being used by God is that sometimes only you and He know. On my trip to Norway I was on the ministry team for a conference the Americans presented there. I had a chance to minister to many people over the few days that conference ran. But my favorite experience was with a man I met in the hallway just off the lobby. I don't remember his name; actually I may not have asked him. I do remember asking him if I could share a few impressions with him. I don't know that he really knew what I was talking about. I began sharing with him that I felt he had a huge change of course in his life. I saw that he was a computer programmer and that he and I had that in common. Actually I was able to tell him what language he programmed in. I think that got his attention. I never met him before, so it didn't mean a whole lot to me. I was just going on faith and the flow of the Holy Spirit. I spoke of the teaching gift that he had and some other details of his life.
I just love how God gets involved in people's lives. I don't know why this man decided to wander in. He was just going about his day-today business and bumped into me. It was like the story of the woman at the well. She perceived from Jesus' words of knowledge, that there was something very different about Him. This man perceived that some of things that I knew about his life in the Holy Spirit were things that I could not have known. God often does this so that the receiver knows that the future events that are spoken over him are from God.
When I finished, he shared with me that he was in fact a computer programmer and God had changed the course of his life when he received Christ a few years earlier. I think it was Billy Graham that evangelized him. He went on to say that he slowly became excited about Jesus and was now attending an evangelical seminary in Oslo; not far from the conference. It appears that some of his classmates had not had much good to say about some of the conference speakers because they were known to be Pentecostal and Charismatic. He admitted that he was skeptical about it all, but he decided to check it out quietly by himself. That is why he was in the back... so he could make a quick escape. Now I don't know that I did all this perfectly, I just blessed him in the name of the Lord and wished him well. He was a bit in shock and I am sure that he never asked my name.
On our team we had partners that we were with for most of the events. At dinner that night, my partner said that he and a select group of teachers were going to minister at a local seminary and would not be joining us for one of the morning conference meetings. When he returned that evening I asked him how the teaching time went. He said, "They didn't want us to teach at all. One of the seminarians had met someone from our team that knew everything about him. The man was so excited about it, that he convinced the president to allow our team to come and prophesy over all the students there.” My partner said, "We were kind of shocked at the request. The man thought that the entire team had the same gifting and wanted his classmates to see that God was good."
Often when I travel, I only tell people my first name. It is a wonderful thing to let the Holy Spirit simply do his job and bring forth the things that God has for an individual. I don't rely on men for invitations, for speaking engagements or ministry trips. I do my best to minister in humility where ever I am regardless of who is looking, or who will know when I am done.
I just love how God gets involved in people's lives. I don't know why this man decided to wander in. He was just going about his day-today business and bumped into me. It was like the story of the woman at the well. She perceived from Jesus' words of knowledge, that there was something very different about Him. This man perceived that some of things that I knew about his life in the Holy Spirit were things that I could not have known. God often does this so that the receiver knows that the future events that are spoken over him are from God.
When I finished, he shared with me that he was in fact a computer programmer and God had changed the course of his life when he received Christ a few years earlier. I think it was Billy Graham that evangelized him. He went on to say that he slowly became excited about Jesus and was now attending an evangelical seminary in Oslo; not far from the conference. It appears that some of his classmates had not had much good to say about some of the conference speakers because they were known to be Pentecostal and Charismatic. He admitted that he was skeptical about it all, but he decided to check it out quietly by himself. That is why he was in the back... so he could make a quick escape. Now I don't know that I did all this perfectly, I just blessed him in the name of the Lord and wished him well. He was a bit in shock and I am sure that he never asked my name.
On our team we had partners that we were with for most of the events. At dinner that night, my partner said that he and a select group of teachers were going to minister at a local seminary and would not be joining us for one of the morning conference meetings. When he returned that evening I asked him how the teaching time went. He said, "They didn't want us to teach at all. One of the seminarians had met someone from our team that knew everything about him. The man was so excited about it, that he convinced the president to allow our team to come and prophesy over all the students there.” My partner said, "We were kind of shocked at the request. The man thought that the entire team had the same gifting and wanted his classmates to see that God was good."
Often when I travel, I only tell people my first name. It is a wonderful thing to let the Holy Spirit simply do his job and bring forth the things that God has for an individual. I don't rely on men for invitations, for speaking engagements or ministry trips. I do my best to minister in humility where ever I am regardless of who is looking, or who will know when I am done.
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