Dec 28, 2011

I had an interesting day but felt it was more progress in my adventure with God. Had a normal morning with my client but on my way home I had an encounter or instruction from the Spirit I wasn't expecting. I stopped to get some coffee and as I enter the freeway to continue my way home, I notice a man standing on the corner with a sign that says please help. So just glancing I continue to drive on. Instantly and as loud as it can be I heard the Spirit say you spent your day doing your work and now its time to do mine. So I check my purse and I have no money so I think okay I will find a bank. So as I am looking for a bank I hear

"Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." 
- Acts 3:6

What dont give him money? LOL I laugh thinking about it cause that's how I think! So then what do I give him? You pray for him and give him Jesus. How simple the basic good news and I'm perplexed by it. What if I where to offend him? What if people saw? Heard the Spirit say did Jesus care what people thought? He walked into a place and said Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near, He walked into a temple and threw over the tables when they have turned it into a market. Peter went in Acts 4:3 and said "Look at us!".

Why is it today you are afraid of being offensive? God was offensive to the Pharisees with Jesus, they thought he was using the power of the devil. They did not recognize him and its pretty safe to assume they will not recognize us either or they will mistake us for evil. Satan has set it up nicely that even those who do believe tend to become offended when things happen that makes them uncomfortable. So this was not the first time God had caused my stomach to turn and I have gotten pretty good at recognizing that. So I turn around go back and pull up next to him. Get out of the car and pray for him. Now I have never done this before and honestly I am not sure if my praying was correct or but I did what I knew God wanted me to do. The man rushed back to his corner to collect more money. I felt dumb, did I say the right thing? Did anything happen? was his life even touched? So I quickly removed those thoughts because I have noticed they lead to disappointment and that's not God. We do not always see what he is doing and that's part of the mystery. I was being obedient and I knew it was a training tool for me to break out of my shell.

So on my way I go and I get off the freeway to head home and I see another homeless man sitting there with his bike. I have seen this man before and always stop to give him money. Today I had no money so I just drove by again I heard the Spirit say why didn't you stop and pray for him? I again started to reason with myself when I really felt the Lord say you are hungry and didn't eat lunch why don't you each lunch with him? So again I turn around being obedient this time I am excited not as uncomfortable as the time before so I stop and he knows who I am because I have stopped and given him money before. I asked if he was hungry and he said yes, I said okay I will bring us some lunch what do you want? He was really bewildered by me offering to eat lunch with him but he said a salad (I had to laugh that was his request of all the things you want a salad okay because I get it all the time I do not see its value but it made me smile). Went to Dennys and brought it back and sat there eating lunch and talking with him. He said he believed Jesus was Lord but as he kept talking it got stranger and stranger, now I am used to God surprising me but this guy wasn't right and the feeling I had was not good. He said he knew I was a child of God he could see his light shining on me and no one ever talks to him they just pass by. I ate some lunch listened to his stories and said it was time to go, he wasn't happy I was leaving but I knew he had something on him I did not want, it was a very dark spirit and while I am fine to sit and talk with people, in the desert, by myself ummm not going to sit around with this feeling. I really felt the Spirit tell me to hold onto that feeling, remember what it felt like to be near him. Again another training experience that actually lead me even closer to God, it gave me questions that only he could answer.