Not far from our lodging was an interesting arts and crafts store selling beautifully hand-made pieces by local artists.. After my initial visit there, I felt drawn to pray privately for a more senior store assistant who had served me – her name is Renée. She had been knowledgeable about the local artists yet mentioned she was not from the area, and I wondered what her story might be. And what Father God might want to show me about her to encourage her later.
When praying, I felt God called Renée a “trainer” but a very personalised one. She is gifted at training people in ways very specific to their needs and ways of learning rather than just in a generalised way. She knows how to be patient and encouraging with those who take longer to “get there” – but she works with them to get them where they want and need to be and do.. A “personalised trainer” rather than a “personal trainer”! I wondered when I would get to share this word with Renée.
A couple of days later, I hoped to collect a certain item in the store. The item wasn’t there but Renée was and this time was by herself in the shop. After some friendly general conversation, I explained to Renée that I had been praying for her and would love to share something encouraging from Father God, if she would like that. She was open to this – first telling me several things about her own spiritual journeying that incorporated a lot of Eastern, Shamanic and New Age practices together with a Catholic background from her childhood.
When I shared the word about her being a “personalised trainer”etc, Renée’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor and she put up a hand to gesture “just wait a minute” and went to get her business card from her bag. It turns out that she is a counsellor/trainer who comes alongside bereaved people and trains them personally in how to process through grief. Each one differently. She was currently in the process of writing a book about this.
Renée then told me something of her own bereavement story, particularly the loss of her husband which had taken a very long, hard toll on her. She was overcome at the “God message” I brought her, which spoke so clearly of God giving her the ability to train others now, after all she had been through herself.
I felt prompted to ask Renée how she was doing physically, explaining that I often pray for people with physical pain and see God remove that pain. She told me of longstanding pain right across her shoulders but particularly on one side. Not acute but constant and debilitating, including right then. She was more than happy for me to pray for her. I prayed briefly, thanking God for all He was doing in our meeting today, for who He had made Renée to be and how He now wanted her free of her pain.
I took authority over the trauma and infirmity within her body and released the deep Peace of Jesus to every part of her neck and shoulder area, commanding full healing and all pain to leave through His Name. Renée was smiling as she checked herself out and said “Oh yes!”
“It’s good! she announced. I really felt something move when you prayed. I feel so much better and relaxed there now, thank you so much!” I would have liked to go further with the checking out, but a customer came in the shop at that moment, so I trusted the Holy Spirit’s timing and quietly made my exit.
On the last day of our trip, I popped in to see if Renée was there but someone else was serving that day. I had her business card now, though, and once I was back in the UK, waited for the prompt to email her to see how she was doing. Her reply came back quickly, saying she had finished writing her manuscript and how thankful she had been to meet me that day when I prayed for her. She told me that her shoulder is still doing well and if ever she gets a twinge there, she just imagines herself being prayed for back in the shop that day and the twinge goes away! That is faith being activated, even without anyone telling her that’s what it is or how to do it!
Please pray for my ongoing contact with Renée, as well as others whom Holy Spirit will bring to her. Pray for the light of Jesus to become more constant and bright in her life, so those other sources of darkness that have captivated her will be completely dispelled. And Jesus alone will remain as the One she has been searching for all along. Hallelujah!!
P.S. Although I didn’t get to see Renée on my last trip to the store, I met with another young assistant, Michael,, who had deep back tension. He said he was a church goer but I’m not sure whether he knew Jesus or not. He gladly accepted prayer for his back (whilst a Muslim colleague looked on from a safe distance!) and received full release from all his tension after a brief prayer. Yayyyy!! Praise you Jesus and thank you for doing even more new things in Michael’s life to reveal to him who You really are.