It seems most of the time, God reveals and provides opportunity without warning…

I was in Starbucks minding my own business, when a lady shows up with a couple large empty covered plastic containers.  A Starbucks employee proceeds to give her all the dated pastries for her containers and she hangs around at a table in front me sorting things out.

After a while, i get up to leave and go to work.  I stop in front of her and make comment that i bet she is going to make some people happy. She explains she is from the Saint Assisi or something catholic church and these pastries will go to feed the homeless.  As we are chatting about the local homeless shelter, i am doing a heart check and i think God is saying give her money.  You have to understand there was a time when giving from my excess was not challenging at all.  Today, i give from what i don’t have and i am very aware to give without God’s direction is stupid.

So as she is talking, i am thinking, “God.  Do you want me to give? i am not sure and i want to be responsible with the little i have.”  i am confident this thought was from God.  “Whether you give or not, you will know my will when you walk out the door.”  It reminded me of the times, i heard God and chose to ignore the opportunity to be used by Him.  I get that really sick feeling in my stomach that i just blew it.

Today, i was not going to blow it.  i reached in my pocket and pulled out the exact amount God had impressed on me (without counting).  I handed it to the lady and without a word, began walking out.  She yelled, “What’s your name?”  I wish i had said, “Jesus.”

Incredible Stories of Treasure Hunts

 

Jim Taylor November 14 at 11:48pm Report

Not sure if you are familiar with the concept Archie .. there are a number of Churches and groups who do this .. My wife and I led several teams for some years doing this .. and we still do it in Africa at times…

Mark 14:

12 And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?
13 And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him.
14 And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?
15 And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us.
16 And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.

Treasure Hunts are based on this and similar Scriptures where Jesus, who only did what the Father showed Him, gave specific commands to His followers and as they carried them out, the will of God was done.

Note above that the disciples wanted a question answered. Jesus gave them an assignment.
– Go into the city.
– Look for man carrying a pitcher of water. (this is a CLUE as to WHO to look for .. mostly women carried the water)
– Follow him where ever he goes
– When he goes into a house, approach the head man and ask “Where is the room for the Master?”
– He will show you the room.
– Get it ready.

We do the same things. We spend time fellowshipping with and worshiping the Lord.
We ask for clues as to who He wants us to share with.
We write them down.
We compare them and pray over them.
Then we go look for the clues.

EXAMPLE: During prayer my grand-daughter and I got the following clues:
– A blue baseball cap
– A couple who have had a recent sadness in their lives and God wants them to know He is aware and that He wants to restore joy to them.

So we set out. Every time we saw someone wearing a blue baseball cap we would approach them and tell them, “We are on a Treasure Hunt and our first clues was a blue baseball cap.” This opened the door to talk to them further. We found some who wanted prayer and we prayed for them, but they did not fit both clues.

After a half hour or so we met a couple, both wearing blue baseball caps. We stopped them and shared with them the clues. As we mentioned the sadness they both burst into tears. We knew we had found THE treasure we were seeking! It was so cool to see God minister to them. They received a real sense that God actually knows them .. that He is aware of their situation .. and that He is working with them regardless of how they feel!!

It’s not hard to do … EXCEPT there usually is no assurance that you are hearing correctly. You must take that “leap of faith” and get out of the boat. The worst thing that will happen is you will be totally embarrassed and humiliated. That is not always bad.

One evening during prayer we felt we were to go to a Mazzio’s Pizza that was next to a WalMart. We checked by phone and the only Mazzio’s next to WalMart that we could find was in a town 25 miles away. As we got ready to go we got the message that we were going to meet a young girl, unmarried, pregnent, who had decided to keep the child. God said we were to tell her He was pleased with the decision and to make sure she knew the baby would not be a problem.

So we wrote it down and put the note in our pocket and set off.

In Mazzio’s we ordered pizza and began to pray .. there were 8 of us. We got words of knowledge for the waitress and ministered to her. She was amazed at how God could know her life and prayed with us, then said “let me get my friends”. She brought two girls who sat down the group began to minister to them. They both gave their lives to Jesus. Then the one girl said, “Maybe God already told you, but I am pregnent”. I handed her the note and she began to weep as she read it.

It turned out that in addition to the pregnancy she had be diagnosed with pre-cancerous cells on her cervix, but because of the pregnancy they could not treat it until after the baby was born. Yet she chose not to abort, but to have the baby. And of course the fear was there .. 7 more months of cancer growing inside!

But God had clearly said the baby would not be a problem.

The ladies gathered around her, laid hands on her tummy and we prayed. As we did her womb grew hot.. almost uncomfortably so. We assured her God was healing her and she would have no problems.

As we talked with her we found she did not own a Bible. Being right next to Walmart we ran over and bought her a Bible! Now how cool is that?

We followed up with her … met the baby girl after she was born .. and kept encouraging her. She had no cancerous cells to deal with!! The last time we met with her she was doing great!

I have lots of stories similar of how God led us to people … how He read their lives to them and showed them His love … of how many came to Jesus because of a demonstration of the Kingdom. Supernatural evangelism is supposed to be the norm in the Kingdom. It’s not hard. We just have to get out of the way and get religious misconceptions out of our heads and hearts.

God loves people! He wants to show them His love. All we need to do is co-operate with Him.

Please note we do not say or believe this is THE ONLY WAY to evangelize. It is ONE WAY among many that Papa God uses. It is effective when God calls for it!

Blessings

Jim

 

 

“…there was a man who came to earth. His name was Jesus…”~Burkinabe

Guest post by Darrel and Kim Auvenshine

Christ Revealed Today at 8:49am

Every day Kim and I are praying that Christ will be revealed in the classroom while we are teaching here in Burnkina Faso. We each have a class of about 30 students, plus or minus a few. The students are all in their teens or early 20’s. We have had opportunity to speak of Christ in some of the discussions while teaching English, but today was one of those “God Spots” as my friend Archie Rhines calls it.

My class was learning how to have conversation in English on the topic of Holidays, Customs and Traditions. The students each had to select a holiday that they personally celebrate and answer questions that the other students asked about the holiday. So one of the young men stood and shared about Easter. When it happens. Who celebrates it. How do you celebrate it. etc. Then the “God Spot” happened. One of the students, said, “tell us the story”.

So this young Burkinabe stood and began to share…”there was a man who came to earth. His name was Jesus. He was born in a small town called Bethlehem. He grew up and when he was about 28 years old, he was baptized by John. After that he began to do many great things, but not everyone loved him. He said he was the Son of God and this made some people very angry. So they killed him. But three days after they killed him, he was alive again. And so we celebrate Easter because Jesus is alive!

There are students from all different religous backgrounds in our class, but I would say most of the students are secular. They know the religion of their ancesstors, but they unlikely practice themselves. At the moment when this student said, “His name is Jesus”. I felt an immediate anointing in the room. No doubt God was revealing Christ in that moment. Pray with us for the students of Burkina Faso. We pray they will know Christ personally.