In another city centre one sunny lunchtime, I sat down in an area of the high street where there are several stone benches facing each other at different angles.
I became aware of two young adults sitting opposite me, a man and a lady in their early twenties. It seemed like they might be a couple. They were finishing lunch and listening to a video on their phones, but I couldn’t make out what language it was in, nor the language I heard them speak to each other.
As I looked at them, it felt like I could see in a flash through the Holy Spirit that the young lady had an issue in her stomach area. Outwardly she seemed perfectly fine and healthy, but I knew I had seen the brief image and waited to see what I needed to do with it. If God was highlighting it, He wanted to heal it!
I also sensed with sadness that I saw the young man as a boy, repeatedly being the subject of harsh, negative, critical language against him. These verbal lashings seemed to be from his own family members but also from other adults in positions of authority. It felt like he had been told from early on that he couldn’t do anything and would never achieve anything in the future.
As the couple got up to gather their belongings and leave, I realised it was now or never!!
I approached them with a smile and a cheery “Hello!” then asked them what language they had been speaking as I didn’t recognise it. It became clear that they didn’t speak much English, particularly the young lady, but the man told me they were Bulgarian, over in the UK to visit his relative. The lady’s name is “Camilla” and the young man “Miro”.
Through a combination of gestures and very simple language, I managed to communicate that I was a Christian and would like to tell them something special from God.
The young man cottoned on and seemed to be okay with this, saying they believe in God. He quickly pulled out his phone and put it onto Google Translate – English to Bulgarian! Now I could type in my message of what I had seen concerning Camilla.
When Camilla read about God highlighting her stomach to me for healing, she gasped in surprise and proceeded to indicate to me one side of her stomach where she regularly gets repeated, intermittent pain. I could see the anxiety this pain had been bringing her, even though she didn’t have the pain right at that moment. When I offered (via Google) to pray healing for her stomach now, Camilla enthusiastically nodded her agreement, typing onto the phone “Please pray for me”
I prayed (in English!), commanding the root and effects of this pain to be bound and cast out through Jesus’ Name. Even if she couldn’t understand all my words, I could sense Camilla was receiving the presence and power of Jesus outside of the constraints of language. Once I had finished, a tear trickled down her cheek and it was very evident that Jesus had touched this dear one deeply.
I then went on to type in the message about Miro and his boyhood and how this affected him still today. They both looked at the phone and at each other knowingly, then animatedly told me how this was entirely true, this was indeed Miro’s experience.
Miro wanted me to pray for him in the light of this and I cut him off from the lies these words had left deep inside him, skewing his mindsets about his own worth and capability. I released healing to the wounding in his heart and then replaced the past lies with truths about how God sees him as a man of standing, with his head held high, capable of very important things.
Miro seemed to understand the gist of my prayer, but it was after I typed the main elements of it onto his phone translator that a big smile spread over his face. It really did seem like he grew in stature before my eyes and held himself more confidently! Woo Hoo!
It was so precious to bless this dear young couple in this way, right there in the middle of the town centre. It made me realise how easy it would have been to dismiss those initial brief “flashes” of the Spirit that weren’t obvious to the natural eye as “just my imagination”. Or to have just let the couple go on their way without saying anything to them, especially when I realised we didn’t speak the same language! But all I needed was to give a simple opening greeting and the Holy Spirit provided everything else – including Google Translate, a fantastic tool for enabling ministry beyond language barriers!
Praise you Jesus for your bench ministry – where we are seated with you in Heavenly places whilst being sat on earthly benches, strategically placed for those you want to encounter through us!