I love the Lord’s perfect timing — simply put, it’s miraculous! Here are some recent examples:
1) For a while now, we have been meaning to visit Christi at her new coffee shop, and we finally got there a couple of weekends ago. Christi’s story is in one of our journal posts from quite a while back. She was the one we prayed with at a local farmer’s market, at which she had a little “John 3:16” coffee booth. We prayed with her after the market; she received the Holy Spirit and was so beautifully touched. Christi has kept in touch with us since, and soon after she opened her cafe, she shared how God had been moving upon her life so mightily and how she loves to pray in the Holy Spirit (in tongues).
Anyway, two Saturdays ago, we spontaneously texted Christi to see if she would be around for us to finally come visit her. We made arrangements to be there just before the cafe closed, and when we arrived, to our surprise, she introduced us to her fiance, Dustin. They had recently gotten engaged just two weeks prior — timing! Dustin wasn’t meant to be around that afternoon, but he had quickly popped in to see Christi at an appointment, and she urged him to stay so he could meet us. He still wasn’t going to stay, but she urged him some more, and we’re so glad the Lord moved on her to do so because . . .
We ended up sitting and chatting with Christi and Dustin for a long time, sharing how we had come to pray with Christi, plus lots of discussion about the Lord and Scripture — mainly to do with the salvation message and that it is much deeper than people’s shallow interpretation of John 3:16. When Dustin first realized who we were (in terms of the connection with Christi and her walk with Jesus), he was very excited to talk. But, the more we shared, the more Dustin became burdened with an internal challenge. Our experiences didn’t line up with his Baptist upbringing (which he had come to realize was somewhat empty), and neither did they line up with the theology course he had recently been immersed in.
For a long while, Dustin had a particular aversion to speaking in tongues. This was until one day (not long before we met Dustin), Christi had an overwhelmingly strong urge to pray over Dustin in the Holy Spirit. As she prayed, it seemed like the Holy Spirit broke down his defenses and by the end, he felt very touched and open to learn more about the Holy Spirit. Then, God sent us into his life weeks later . . . timing!!
Still, Dustin had many questions and reservations. So, we continued to share testimonies and offered deeper context to scriptures he was familiar with (such as the “thief on the cross”). After a long while, we simply offered to pray over him and allow God the opportunity to give increase to what we had been sharing. Surprisingly, Dustin was beautifully humble enough to sincerely pray and see what God would do.
So, we moved from the hotel seating area (Christi’s cafe is adjacent to a boutique hotel) into Christi’s cafe (which was closed and empty by now). We all laid hands on Dustin and prayed. This first time seemed to be a breaking down and an “exposing”. Don felt moved to stop and ask Dustin some “hard” questions, at which point Dustin and Don went away to have a heart-to-heart. When Dustin returned, he was really ready, so we prayed some more, and wow . . . ! The Holy Spirit filled Dustin so mightily. He dropped to his knees and prayed fervently, with tears and joy, and more tears, and an overwhelming sense of revelation and gratitude.
We asked Dustin if we could video a response, and what he shared was so touching and inspiring. (We look forward to posting it for ya’ll to watch.) Christi and Dustin could also see God’s miraculous hand upon the day — and upon the timing of us all coming together. God had been working on their lives and bringing Dustin to a point where he was truly ready to lose his life for Christ’s sake!
Oh, yes, I almost forgot: As we were leaving the cafe, we decided to all get a picture together. As we were trying the group selfie thing, a young man, who was walking down the sidewalk toward us, offered to take the photo for us. After accepting, we got chatting with him, only to find ourselves back in the cafe minutes later to pray over him! He is already Spirit-filled, but he hadn’t prayed in tongues very much (mainly just during worship at church — at times). He prayed in tongues with us for a while, and Don spoke several things over him, so it is now up to him to take our encouragement and apply it to his life, for his good and God’s glory. Anyway, that was another example of God’s beautiful, perfect timing!!
2) Over the last few weeks, a number of ladies have been upon my heart, and it seemed like the Lord kept bringing them to my attention until I reached out to them with an encouraging message. Each time, the sister (in the Lord) replied, expressing how timely the message was because of something that just happened — even that very day! I am learning more and more to be in tune with the Holy Spirit, to be used as a messenger of the Lord, to encourage and comfort His children who need to be reminded of His love, mercy, and grace.
3) A series of things have happened to cause our pool service to switch around — and then for the serviceman to change from one to the next and then back again. This last week, one of our original servicemen returned to do the work. He said it will be him who will come from now on. Don was planning to leave the house to do errands, but he decided to stay, so he ended up outside in the pool patio area when the pool guy arrived.
Somehow, they got chatting about the Lord. I think it was a brief comment that the guy made that prompted Don to ask if he was a church-going man. The beautiful thing is that Don discovered that the guy and his wife are Spirit-filled. It’s just that (as we commonly come across) they haven’t prayed much in tongues — hardly at all. (It’s so sad that churches don’t encourage such a vital part of growing our relationship with God once we’re born again!)
Anyway, Don briefly shared some of our experiences with him and offered to pray over the guy — to get him confident with speaking in tongues. He was keen, so they prayed, and by the time the guy left, he was so grateful and motivated to go and share things with his wife. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say when he returns to service the pool next week . . . !
Summary:
“Thank you, Lord, for your miraculous timing and orchestration of people’s days, yet again!” God wants to strengthen His people. He wants to touch the lives of those who are hungering and thirsting for a strong relationship with Him, and God moves upon His messengers and sets up all kinds of situations so that His Kingdom can spread and grow upon this planet.
It’s all about overcoming evil with good, and we feel so privileged and grateful to be a small part of God’s great and mighty work. It’s not about understanding it. We don’t have to, and we never fully will until Jesus returns. We can simply rejoice in it and just do what God puts before us day after day.
