Slough Thursday lunchtime in October
The street market was up and running and there was a nice lunchtime feel to the town centre. It wasn’t too long before I came across Kieran – a (now) gentle giant with a real “turnaround” story that saw him going from a life of crime to one of helping young people stay out of crime, especially knife crime. It was an honour to listen to his story. He was also interested in my story, and it was a great opportunity to tell him about the One who turned my life around when I called out to Him during a difficult time, many years ago.
I explained how I am now passionate to give people a taste of the goodness of God, just like Jesus did, especially by praying for anyone in pain. When I asked Kieran if he currently had any physical pain bothering him, he said lots of places over his body were hurting – the worst being his shoulder area. He was happy to let me pray for him too. Here is a short audio clip interview of Kieran’s experience. It was interesting how the pain in his body “jumped” to a different area - an indication to cancel infirmity and affliction trying to resist having their hold broken on the person. Once pain moves , though, it is on its way out!!!
It was exciting to hear that Kieran had also had a couple of other “random believers” bump into him recently and tell him their own testimonies of God’s turnaround power. He certainly cottoned on that God was up to something in his life right now! Perhaps as you read this you could pray for this young man who is now a father himself, wanting the very best for his own children. May Kieran come to know the most perfect Father of all fathers who has nothing but the best for each and every one of his dearly loved children.
Later on I came across a young man called “Miles” working for a finance company. He comes from a “religious family” background but he has no personal faith himself other than believing there is “something out there”. After explaining about praying briefly for people in pain, he said he didn’t really have any pain himself, other than stomach pain that comes and goes. He really wants to progress in management in his job role, though, so I offered to pray about that and he was glad to accept! I felt I had a few different “downloads” for Miles as I prayed for him and he kept nodding as the prayer went along. He said he was very grateful for what I had prayed, it had encouraged him a lot. Over to you, Holy Spirit, use this and many other encounters with You to bring this precious one home to the Heavenly Father!
There were a couple of other young guys on the high street – I think they may have been colleagues of Miles. I offered to pray for one but he said he had no pain and was disengaged. The second colleague, “Callum” had constant back pain – about 6/10 pain level. I said I would be happy to help with that and although he was a bit disengaged too I quickly prayed for him. He said it hadn’t changed and was worse. I felt as I prayed for him again that something was a bit strange here, there was a palpable resistance coming from him perhaps because he was with his colleague, but I kept on undaunted. Callum maintained that nothing had changed but inside I felt this wasn’t accurate. I had to honour Callum’s statement, though, and leave the true outcome of the praying to Jesus.
I encouraged Callum to expect the evidence of the healing to come, if it hadn’t already, and thanked him for letting me pray for him. One thing I know for sure – it is impossible to be touched by the love and power of Jesus and for things to stay the same, whatever it looks like from the outside!! Hallelujah!
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