God Rewards Just Showing Up

Posted by Daniel on Apr 6, 2011 in Prophetic Topics | 8 comments

Last night I attended Barbie Breathitt‘s monthly Spiritual PhD class. I’ve been a little jaded towards certain styles of prophetic teaching because I’ve heard exciting announcements before that “God has begun doing X in the earth” and “The Spirit of God is releasing new levels of visions, dreams, encounters, and visitations” and I haven’t noticed a change. So when she announced that God is elevating us to new levels of revelation and encounter, my cynicism kicked in.

At the close of the meeting, Barbie offered to lay hands on everyone who came up to the altar and stood in line. There are times when I’m not full of faith, but I rarely pass on an opportunity for impartation or prayer. Because even if I’m not confident God will do something, I have to have a clear conscience and know that I put myself in His path at every opportunity and didn’t let one slip by.

I stood in line and waited. Knowing my past experiences of “willing” God to do something I can feel in a prayer line, I stood with my hands in my pockets and forced myself to be as casual as possible. If God wanted to touch me in any way, I wasn’t going to make believe it. Eventually, I decided hands in pocket was too stoic and resistant, so I clasped my hands behind my back and waited.

God Knows My Heart

Barbie came up to me, placed her hand on my forehead, asked me to give her my hands. I held both hands out in front and she touched my right hand. The first words out of her mouth were, “The money that has been stolen from him…” and she began praying for a blessing and a return of what had been stolen.

Not that I would doubt her, but I love that God chose to speak about something I know Barbie couldn’t possibly have heard about. A sizable chunk of money was lost in our past and I’ve always imagined how amazing it would be if God somehow restored it to us. But it’s not a story I linger on or share with most people.

So God got my attention. He knows what I’m going through and He brought up something very important that I have chosen not to concern myself with any longer. I surrendered that situation to Him long ago. He showed His goodness by telling me that my loss is important to Him.

God Heals My Body

After she prayed over everyone in the line, Barbie asked if anyone else needed a healing. My left foot was throbbing from standing for 10 minutes without moving, and I raised my hand (for those of you who don’t know, I was diagnosed as having dangerous calcification from my heel all the way along the tendon of my interior arch. I was told that if I didn’t do certain exercises daily, the tendon could someday calcify completely, turning a flexible tendon into a bone and causing unbearable pain.).

She laid her hand upon my forehead again and immediately said, “Oh, THERE’S the wind of the Spirit. Can you feel it?” And I actually could. It was like a desk fan 10 feet away was moving left to right and an occasional steady breeze would blow against my cheek. Totally cool.

When she finished praying, Barbie told me to test my foot. I moved it around, put pressure on my heel, and did all the things that had been causing the throbbing pain. I felt slight tingles in my leg, and the pain was totally gone! Zero pain in my heel and the underside of my foot.

Oddly, the muscles and tendons on the top of my foot were strained and sore from wearing oversized TOMS earlier that day. I had pointed my toes slightly upward while I walked to keep the sub par shoes from falling off my feet, and the effort strained my muscles. That strained feeling was still present. But then again, I hadn’t asked for prayer for that. I hadn’t even realized the pain was there because my heel was throbbing so much it overwhelmed my awareness of any other issue.

The Day After

In moments, God took away my pain. It’s been 12 hrs since that prayer and my heel is still pain free. These thoughts keep coming to my mind, warning me that if I don’t thank God enough or if I don’t maintain a confidence in my permanent healing that the pain will come back. But I have to choose not to believe that, since it’s not founded in God’s Word. What God heals God heals. If the pain somehow DID come back, I’d just go ask for prayer again.

But unless that happens, I’m just going to accept that my pain is gone, not assume more than I know, and be intensely grateful for a more comfortable and functional life.

Next month, I plan on going to the class again. If God wants to show up and heal something else, I’m ready. I know theologically that God doesn’t need a specific person to pray for my foot to heal it, but I’ve had half a dozen people pray for it and this is the only time the pain has gone away. I’m going to keep it simple. I don’t know why sometimes people get healed and sometimes they don’t. All I know is that i had a lot of pain, and now I don’t. And I’m very grateful.

The Moral of the Story

I received some very wise counsel recently about how we respond to the call on our lives. Part of his advice, which I think I’ll publish in full another day, was to essentially put myself in God’s path. In other words, just show up. Is there an opportunity nearby related to your calling? Show up. Be there. Don’t let it pass by because of cynicism or indifference. So I did, and I walked away with both a word of knowledge, a prophecy, and a healing.

Message received. Loud and clear.