Slough – one Thursday in September 2019 

A welcome return of mild, sunny weather saw the High Street in relaxed mode with a street market and people taking early lunch break.  

After a brief chat with one or two folk in passing, I came across a guy called “Andrew” representing a charity and eager to chat with me about it.  The conversation eventually turned to what I was doing in town today and I explained about praying briefly for people in pain without preaching at them! Andrew explained his own physical situation after a severe knee injury a couple of years ago had wrecked most of his knee, leaving him unable to walk for a year. Rehab had been long and difficult and although he had much more use of his leg now, he still has residual pain which he was feeling today – 4/10 on the pain scale.  He said “I don’t mind if you do a little ten second prayer on that!”  So I did.

Following the prayer Andrew experienced immediate relief – down to almost zero – which was already surprising enough to him. But I persisted, wanting to get rid of the residue, so prayed briefly again.  You can hear his story in this brief audio clip – apologies for the wind interference, it was a pretty breezy day!  

As Andrew was processing this event, I had opportunity to talk with him about Jesus and how this healing today was to introduce Himself to Andrew as the God who is real, who loves Him crazy-much and who can heal not just his body but his whole life.  

I also prayed after the little audio interview for Andrew’s healing to be absolutely complete and the pain never to return again.  He was really grateful as we shook hands and parted.  His comment was – “that was amazing – truly a strange but pure experience!”. Over to you Holy Spirit….you know how to draw this precious one on further towards the Kingdom that was “at hand” for Andrew today.  Glory! 

I had a chat with one of Andrew’s colleagues “Clara” - lovely Italian girl who was pain-free and well today but was interested to hear about people being healed – including Andrew – through the name of Jesus.  She encouraged me to keep going and thanked me for doing what I’m doing!  Bless that girl, Lord Jesus, as Andrew shares his story with her and the rest of the team, May the ripples of that testimony reach out wide, touching many with your Life and Truth.

There was a young man inside the shopping centre at one of the stands.  We had a pleasant chat but although he did have some physical pain, he wasn’t up for being prayed for.  He is Jewish and smiled when I told him the Jewish names among our children!  I felt I encouraged him as far as I could towards prayer and was able to share a couple of recent testimonies but i had to respect his wishes and wasn’t able to pray for him today.  I did however “stealth pray” for him as I left him, blessing his business to prosper and for all pain to leave his body!  Ride in on that prayer, Holy Spirit, and surprise that young man with healing today in the way that you love to do!  

Before I left, my path crossed with two young guys recently over from Down Under! They were doing some promotion work to boost their funds as they travel around Europe.  One was called “Chris”, the other “Jacob”.  Chris was hale and hearty but Jacob had back pain from sleeping on poor mattresses.  His pain level today was 5/10.  The pain came down in degrees as I prayed.  I liked that Jacob was quite sceptical and wasn’t going to try to be nice to me or pretend he was better if he wasn’t . I wanted him to have the “real deal”, so even though the healing came slowly I knew it was genuine.  I think I prayed four times in all and Jacob had to – almost reluctantly! – admit that he did not have pain anymore and felt loose in his back.  He was thankful and I was able to explain about Jesus and who He really is to both these young men.    

Thank you Jesus for each person today who heard or received the Kingdom that is near!  Cause their memory to recall the events of the day again and again, and may their own mouths give repeated testimony to our Great God of Miracles!