Seeing before seeing

I hold a firm conviction that God’s love and power have been immeasurably given to us and we can receive those things in any moment. When I chose to make the move from a YWAM missional culture (focused on the nations) to a local church in Norman-- trying to live missionally amidst the work, school, and daily life stuff-- I did so conscious that my conviction and faith had to be worked practically in the pace of “normal” life.

It’s my desire to see God’s love and power hit every facet of society: the arts realm, business world, education, religion, media, government and family. And I believe in order for that to happen there has to be champions-- people who follow Jesus who look at the impossible and believe that God makes possibilities out of crazy circumstances.

So, I’m in Norman working at a cafe, going to a community college in Oklahoma City, doing church, hanging out with friends and doing the normal daily routine. Every day I am faced with a decision: saying “Yes” to God or saying “Yes” to the spirit of the world that is everywhere around me. Like I said before, this transition from YWAM to Norman hasn’t been an easy one but it’s been a life giving one.

I thought that I’d give a few stories that have been encouraging to me that have happened in our community in the last while. These stories speak life to the dry places of my heart because they reveal God’s love and power and testify that He is working in America-- they show that we can live a passionate, kingdom-filled lifestyle and we don’t have to travel 10,000 miles to do it.

Story #1) A day before I was going to meet up with my discipleship group leader he gave me a call and told me that a guy named Josh would be joining us. He told me that he wanted me to pray over the dude and bring anything that Lord might say about him to the table but all he gave me was the name "Josh."

The next day, I was praying and I saw a picture of a short guy (around 5'6), with green eyes, brown hair and a blue shirt. It was a vague picture and I kind of was like, "There's no way I just saw a vision of the guy I'm about to meet." After that the Lord gave me a few things about Josh's destiny and some other gold stuff that is in his heart. I wrote it all down, figuring that if any of it was right the guy would only believe me if I had written it down. As I was driving down the road I got the phrase, "red head." I was confused at this point because earlier I saw a picture of a brown haired guy. I wrote it down, but wasn't planning on saying anything about it.

I walked into Starbucks, saw Phil and we started chatting. Josh walked in. He was a red head. He came over and introduced himself. Then he went over to a table and started to talk to someone while Phil and I got some coffee. He came over to us and told us that he had just been talking to a close friend who wanted to join us for our discipleship group. I walked over after getting my coffee and I saw that Josh's friend had short brown hair, green eyes, a blue shirt and he seems like he's a short height. My heart is pumping at this point as I begin to realize that Lord had given me a picture of this guy before ever meeting him.

Phil started sharing some stories about prophetic encounters. He loves doing that because it challenges people. Then he asked me if I had any stories to share. I pulled out my note pad (side note: most of my body is shaking at this point, out of nervousness and shock). I started to explain about how the Lord had shown me who Tyler was literally a few hours before I met him and that he had some stuff for Josh. I explained the picture I saw, showed him the noted pad and asked Tyler if he was 5'6. He nodded, giving me the "I'm freaking out right now" face (wide-eyed, jaw drop). Josh did the "I can't even look at you right now because I don't know what to think" face. Phil just laughed. I prophesied over Josh for a little bit. Afterwards, he looked at Tyler and says, "Does that sound right to you?" Tyler, still incredulous, "Oh yeah. He just described who you are." Then Josh started to tell me that some of the stuff I said to him, a close friend whom he hadn't seen in years had just recently (two days earlier) sat down with him over lunch and told him the exact same things, almost word-for-word.

At that point, Phil jumped in and explained that the Lord doesn't just give prophetic people a vision of what people look like and who they are on the inside for no reason-- He's was calling us somewhere. These guys left the discipleship group that night having encountered the love of God and with a new found passion for finding Jesus. A fun praise report-- These guys have been meeting with Phil and I all semester and have had numerous incredible encounters with the Lord. They grew up baptist and didn't even think this stuff was possible until the last few months. They are actually becoming quite prophetic themselves and have a passion for Jesus that is really inspiring.

Over the next few blog posts, I'll post some more recent stories from our community! Hope this encourages you. Sometimes even the faintest impressions are God speaking to you.