GLIMPSES OF GLORY
Page One
Every year for the last 20 years our family
have gone to Bible camp for a week. It feels a bit like doing a "feast of
tents." We live in temporary structures, far from modern conveniences and
comforts, get up early to praise God and spend the day being taught His word.
In the evenings, we celebrate with songs and praises and prayer and more
teaching from the Word. Sometimes, there are opportunities to "pray with" or
"minister to" each other. These usually (but not always) follow altar calls.
Personally, I don't like doing this much, but on this particular occasion, my
wife and I were fairly sure that we were meant to pray with a couple, but had no
idea
who it would be.
That particular night the Word was preached about the legacy of Jesus, from
Hebrews 9, and the power of the Blood of Jesus in releasing God's blessing was
being proclaimed. At the end, we went forward as part of the prayer team to
find ourselves right behind a couple who were standing waiting to be "prayed
with".
Before I could even begin to pray, the word
was imprinted on my mind, and I found myself blurting out "The Lord says that
your prayer is "Write your law on our hearts, that we might not sin against
You". Is that right?" (I had to go and look it up in my Bible later, to check
it was actually there! Turned out to be a really gash paraphrase of Ps
119-11)
To my amazement, as soon as I asked that, they both began to cry, and knelt
together on the grass inside the tent, and confessed their sins to each other.
We stayed with them, and when they had finished, asked why they had come
forward? They both answered that they wanted to be filled with the Holy
Spirit. My wife and I looked at each other, and reckoned that the Lord had this
well in hand, as they had repented right in front of us! So we agreed to lay
hands on them and pray. They both began to speak in tongues, and peace settled
on their faces. Then, quite surprisingly, I blurted out again, "Do you (the
husband) have a problem with your shoulder?" He replied that he had hurt his
right shoulder in a car accident and was unable to use it as much as his work
required. More to my amazement, we asked his
permission, and were allowed to pray for his shoulder, but it stayed stiff.
Getting somewhat bold, I remembered from somewhere that Jesus rarely prayed for
healing, but commanded it. So, I balled up my fist, gently struck him on the
arm, and said "In the name of Jesus, be healed". He looked at me "a bit gone
out", as they say round here, then held his arm with his other hand, and said
"that felt weird", then smiled, and rotated his arm all the way over.
We ended the evening with a cautionary
note, that God had done the greatest thing for them in cleansing them from their
sin and giving them His Holy Spirit that night, and that the healing was simply
a blessing and a reminder that God loved them and forgave them, and that what
they had done that night was real.
The following day, we had the added joy of seeing the husband, carrying two of
his children (one on each shoulder) across the campsite to the baptism service.
We overheard one of the children ask where they were going, and he replied
"Daddy's going to get baptised, and bury the old nature for good, and you can
come and watch.")
Footnote: It turns out that some old friends of ours had been ministering love
and help into this couple's lives for nearly two years, and had brought them to
camp knowing of their sins, and were desperately praying for Jesus to deliver
them and heal their marriage. We just happened to be there at one signpost in
their ongoing story. This happened some years ago, and they have had a lot to
work through since then, but are still walking with God.
Isn't Jesus wonderful?
Submitted August 3, 2007
Used with permission
