Seventeen people showed-up at Zion, and another 5 joined us at Portage Place. After a time of worship and a few announcements Hannah, an Ethiopian lady, gave a testimony of having been healed of a serious toothache, at the recent Zion Saturday night training (Kingdom H2O). Michelle noted she hadn’t been there, but she also had a serious tooth problem. A few people gathered around her including Hannah. As Hannah prayed we experienced a powerful visit of the Holy Spirit. The room was suddenly filled with the presence of God. Hannah began to hop up and down, and then she went over backward onto the floor. She was praying in another language (tongues probably, or her native language I am not sure). Then the room was filled with joy, which was expressed by most people breaking into laughter, and some more people fell to the floor. The joy lasted for quite a while. Michelle said her pain was gone, but wouldn’t know if her tooth was healed until she saw a dentist. It was during this time I knew something amazing was going to happen on the streets. This was the first time we had anything like this happen. I am not laughing out loud as I write this, but I am still experiencing joy.
The time of joy was followed by praying for Iris, who was having trouble breathing in deep. She said she noticed the difficulty breathing when she was laughing. After praying for her and my telling a Hutterite joke to make her laugh to check her breathing, she found she could breathe normally (Iris is a former Hutterite).
Iris was my team leader, and the first person she encountered at Portage Place was a very angry First Nations lady. Female members from other teams joined her. I wasn’t close enough to hear all that went on, but learned later that although her anger did diminish somewhat she completely refused prayer.
While Iris was occupied the rest of our team approached different people in the food court, but no one was willing to engage. I even had a bag of mini-chocolate bars left over from Halloween, that I was offering people, but even had people refuse to take one of them.
When Iris joined us, the team prayed for a man with a blind eye, but there was no noticeable improvement. We then prayed for a man at the next table who had pain in his knee, and all his pain left. He wiggled his leg around to demonstrate to us that he was healed. After failing to engage anyone else we decided to go up to the 2nd level and see who we could encounter there. We also bombed-out there, and as we were coming down the escalator Iris began praying out loud asking the Lord for a Divine appointment. As we neared the ground floor Gaylene was motioning us to join her. She was engaged with a young First Nations man, Zachariah, who wanted to be free of alcohol. He was pretty drunk. Gaylene often calls me into these situations as I am a healed alcoholic. I interviewed the young man, who had trouble talking, but I learned part of his story. He was 23 years old, was in hairdressing school, had an alcoholic father, and a mother who was never home. He was failing his course because his alcoholism was causing him to be absent from classes. He was dropping eff-bombs, and apologizing for that, for the alcohol on his breath, and for his big earrings. We told him to not worry about those things. Gaylene is a recovered alcoholic, and to plant seeds of hope, she told him how she had been set free 31 years ago. In order to build his confidence in healing power, I told him how I had been healed of alcoholism 35 years ago. I then asked him if he wanted to be sober right now. He nodded with his head down, but Gaylene made him look me in the eyes and say ‘yes, I want to be sober’. I placed my hands on his shoulders and I spoke a blessing of sobriety into him. He began to sober-up immediately, as was evidenced by his improved speech, and his improved ability to focus. We then prayed for him to be released from alcoholism. Then many of us spoke prophetically into his life. This whole scenario took a long time. He was so happy and so amazed. At what I thought was the end of our encounter I said, “Zach, I am old enough to be your grandfather, can I give you a grand father’s hug”. He didn’t hesitate he jumped into my arms, and we held each other very tightly – a very moving experience. Alyssa then began to give him information on going to Zion Church.
I was debriefing with other team members when I noticed Lorraine was now praying with Zach. She told me later that when she put her hand on his shoulder, her hand got very hot, so she asked him if he had any pain in his body. He pulled up his pant leg, and said he had 2 puncture wounds on his leg that were very painful. Lorraine prayed and all of his pain left. Once again I thought we were finished with Zach for the night. I invited him to come back next Thursday or to come to Zion on a Saturday night.
The next thing I knew Trevor was praying over Zach. I went over to see what that was about, and Zach was laughing, and I heard him say, “I almost fell down.” This is what Trevor told me: “I just saw an Eagle on him and also said that Jesus loves you and you are His son. And I prayed over him and he felt energy coming from me when I spoke over him that he will feel God’s Radiance right now and then I said, “There it is”. I started Laughing and he started laughing as well and he felt that energy flowing through him and I told him it’s Jesus!”
Zach kept saying he was so surprised because he never talked about any of these things with anyone ever in his life. This was not only our Divine Appointment, but this was also his Divine appointment. We kept assuring him that it was no coincidence that we had met, but that God had orchestrated everything. What an ‘over the top’ encounter. Thank you Jesus.
It was about 9:30 and I began debriefing with Al Hiller when a First Nations lady walked by, and she smiled and waved at us. Al said, “There goes Hannah’s coat.” I asked him what he meant. He told me they had been ministering to her outside, and they could see she was cold, so Hannah took-off her coat and gave it to her. I immediately found Hannah, gave her a hug, and spoke words of blessing to her.
Isn’t hindsight always wonderful? I regret not exploring the possibility and releasing Zach from the possible generational curse of alcoholism. And I regret not giving Hannah some money to help her buy another coat.