Amen to That!

My first day of classes and prayer ministry started on Monday the 23rd. I didn't have a chance to get to know any of the students this year prior to class. In past years, I had attended a conference with the whole class, which gave me some time away from the classroom (and the teacher/student thing) to learn names and get a bit familiar with everyone. At the beginning I'm always a bit uncertain as to how I am going to be received and my teaching accepted, but experience tells me I have truth on my side. I guess I would rather teach truth and not be accepted than half-truth and be accepted.

I got to the CrossWalk early enough to watch their Praying the Bible session. I planned on observing them as they prayed and walked around the room. This way I could gain some insight through my gift of discernment (if God chose to give me anything). Observation is always important for me- I do a lot of it.

After I was introduced by Steve, Jonathan Evans began to pray for the class. As everyone typically bowed their heads, God nudged me to look around and see who was praying with their eyes open. There were 2 and I made an instant spiritual connection with the first one. God told me she either had gifts in Intercession or Deliverance. I was able to confirm that during the rest of the week through discussion, prayer and more personal observation.

Right off the bat, I saw that this class was going to be special. They were highly interested and inquisitive. I fielded lots of questions and there was plenty of great discussion (well beyond class time). I don't have all the answers, but between us, we were able to sort through some issues. I so love to teach in this kind of situation!

All five prayer ministry sessions went very well. Notable for me was someone who had at least 2 false Jesus images. False Jesus' come up when we have developed some wrong idea of who Jesus is- such as the idea that Jesus is some kind of galactic traffic cop, just waiting to give us a ticket when we go one mile over the limit. That's NOT the Jesus I serve, but many people think he's that way. In other words, their image of Jesus is false and when they meet this Jesus in listening prayer, he is easy to root out and chase away. The real Jesus comes in and shows them that he is not like that at all, rather loving and caring. It usually changes people's lives to see this new realization!

Most notable for me was a session where I was praying with a student from a third world country. I must admit, I went into this session with some prejudice I was shocked to be confronted with. My wrong assumption was that people from third world countries would have much more demonic stuff to deal with (in actuality, they understand it better and have often already dealt with much of the demonic junk in their lives- as opposed to the Western world, who doesn't believe in the spirit world of demons, etc).

In this particular prayer session, their whole image was God showing them the huge fields ripe for harvest and Jesus calling them to tend to that harvest! Very little, if any, was about that person or their own needs. It was all about their ministry to others. Down went my prejudice and up went praises to Jesus! I have never before experienced a session like this one! It was incredible and I was privileged to be a witness to it!

My prayer is that we all would have such a personal vision and we would devote our very lives to making it come to fruition. Amen (so be it).