The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Ammitai….. (Jonah 1:1)
The word of the Lord came – God SPOKE – to Jonah, who was able to hear that word and understand what God wanted from him.
If this wonderful story about a reluctant prophet is to have any power in our lives, we need to believe that the word of the Lord can and does come to each one of
I shared the story of going on a “treasure hunt”: of gathering with a group to simply ask God where he wanted us to go and who he wanted us to minister to. I was so afraid I would not be able to do it. I’m a Methodist, you know? But we stood quietly praying for a few minutes, and as we prayed a picture of a super market parking lot appeared in my mind. In the parking lot was a person wearing a green windbreaker and white t-shirt and jeans. I thought, “Well, that must be it!” So I asked God, “So what is it that this person needs prayers for?” Immediately I had a sharp, transient pain on the right side of my neck. “That must be it.”us: that God speaks and we can hear and understand what God wants from us, too. It’s easier for me to believe that in the aftermath of a wonderful, challenging, eye opening three weeks at a summer intensive ministry school in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The 113 other persons, both adults and youth, who gathered there from 14 different nations around the world, experienced over and over again the reality of God speaking into hearts and lives with love and healing and hope. I came away with renewed conviction that God is still speaking, and caring, and acting to make that love and healing and hope visible in the lives of God’s children.
So off we went to the super market (we had to ask where one was). I got out of my car and turned around and realized I was looking right at a young woman wearing a double layered t-shirt (white under, green over) and jeans. When I approached her, I told her we were from a ministry school and had prayed to ask God where
we should go/who we should approach, and showed her my list: Green over white, jeans, in a parking lot… She thought that might be her. I did too.
I asked if she had a pain in her neck. She responded “No…..” and I thought I had missed it. But then she added, “I just woke up this morning with a little crick…or maybe a pinched nerve.” I asked, “On the right side?” She, astonished, said, “Well, yes.”
So we prayed for her neck, and it was better. But mostly we prayed that she be able to have a child, because that is what was most on her mind that day. And she went on about her day, knowing that God cared enough about her to send a bunch of crazy students to find her in a super market parking lot to pray for her….
God is still speaking. Not always in words, not always in an audible voice, but in pictures that appear in our minds unexpectedly, or impressions on the mind; or in dreams and visions. God is speaking to touch lives with hope and possibility; to communicate that he will do almost anything to demonstrate his love. What an amazing God we serve!
I’m never going to be the same. My prayer is that you won’t either. Together, let’s learn to listen better. Together, let’s learn to step out in faith that God loves the folks around us with a love that will never let them go, and wants to touch them with love through us.
Blessings and Peace
Pastor Deborah