We invite you to join us in praying for all of the following people the Lord has caused us to connect with (all in very interesting, different ways) in the last few weeks. God’s hand never ceases to amaze us!
1) Isaac – Home Depot employee: He’s been a church-goer with the Mormon church for many years. Despite Mormon teachings, he was interested in the Holy Spirit and the first sign of speaking in tongues. Some of us had the opportunity of praying with him in the store. After sharing the Word with him at the checkout, we came back later when he could take a break. He never received the Spirit at the time as he seemed distracted, but he’d like to continue to seek God.
2) Jeff: He came to our house to fix some blinds and my husband got talking about God together with him. It turns out that Jeff is the one that organizes the outreach at the festival where we met Mandy (see our earlier post). How’s that?! Jeff is Spirit-filled and understands, for the most part, the truth of the gospel message, but there were quite a few encouragements my husband was able share with him, as moved upon by God. They had a great discussion. Praise God for the way He leads us to connect with people that need to hear a message from Him!
3) Ariella: She’s Lisa’s daughter. (Lisa is the lady with the German Shepherd that we met outside of a sushi place – from an earlier story we posted on this page.) We met up with Lisa again for more prayer and discussion about God’s Word, and to help her with her dog. Ariella was there for the day and we got to share some scriptures with her, too. Ariella is very God conscious and was interested in what we had to say.
4) Young guy (can’t remember his name – it all happened so quickly!) outside of a McDonalds on our way to visit with Lisa: We stopped by the store for a quick bathroom break. There was a very God-conscious homeless guy outside of the store, preparing his sign that he would use to beg for money for the day. One of us got talking with him and it soon led to us praying with him to receive the Holy Spirit. We prayed under some trees in the quiet parking lot and he was filled with the Holy Spirit quite quickly. He had to leave to attend a local charity event, but we encouraged him to call or text us so we could water baptize him on our way back through. We never heard from him, but we hope and pray he will be mindful of everything we shared with him.
5) Gabrielle: We met her in a Chick-fil-A after connecting with Lisa and Ariella. What happened with Gabrielle was very interesting and completely new to us. My husband spied her “Got Jesus?” sticker on her computer as he exited the bathroom and passed by her table. He tried to speak with her, but communication was difficult because of her disability. We think she might be autistic or something similar.
After trying, my husband headed back to our table. Five minutes later, I noticed Gabrielle standing at the wall near the notice board. She seemed distracted, and she was wiping her eyes. I thought that maybe she had been tearing up a little. She then did an abrupt obout-face and beelined for us. She babbled a whole bunch of hard-to-decipher information to us as we listened from our table, so I interrupted and simply asked – gently and confidently – if she’d like me to pray for her. She rambled some more, so I lovingly offered once again, quietly seeking for the Holy Spirit to triumph in this unusual situation. I persisted, asking Gabrielle where she’d like me to pray with her. I pointed with a suggestion, but then Gabrielle motioned with her head in the opposite direction.
I got up and went with Gabrielle to the outdoor patio. She followed me to a corner, I quickly told her what I was going to do, and then I told her to start praising God with the word “Hallelujah.” I laid hands on her as I prayed along with her, and Gabrielle almost immediately received the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues fluently. I let Gabrielle pray for quite a long time, to get used to allowing the Holy Spirit to worship God in this new way. She then gave me a huge hug at the end. It was very special.
I was able to give her a card and some brief encouragement before she whipped herself away. It was quite a surreal experience for me as I had never before encountered praying with someone like this. I so wanted to know more about her and how much she understood, but I rested on my faith that God knows Gabrielle’s situation and He is the one that clearly filled her with the Holy Spirit. Obviously there were things going on that were far above and beyond my understanding, so far be it from me to question the Lord’s mighty hand!
