3. It was also a good example of being supernaturally natural. The boys were surprised by our request to pray for them, but they weren’t looking at us like we were a bunch of religious fanatics. Iris just engaged them in conversation and asked if we could pray for them. They just looked at one another and said sure.
4. It is also a further reminder, that generally speaking, people everywhere are open to prayer.
5. It also demonstrates the night isn’t over until God says it is over.
My highlights were:
Lottery man: Mel noticed an older gentleman scratching lottery tickets and engaged him in conversion, asking him if we could pray for him. Gerald said that he has back pain that has been with him since he was a kid. We chatted for about 20 min, and then I asked him again if we could pray. He said, “Oh, all right.” We put our hands on his arms and prayed a simple prayer and waited. I asked Gerald if he noticed a difference, and he said, “I can feel it going away.” He could feel the pain lifting off of his neck. Mel mentioned he would like to pray for him again, for the osteoarthritis. “Oh, I don’t think God can do anything about that.” We prayed and his pain went down from a 4-5 to a 1.
Mother/Daughter Duo: We walked past a mother and daughter in front of A & W and asked them if we could pray. We surprised them that people do that, and they were open but not sure what to make of us. The daughter had a job interview coming up on Monday, and we prayed for her and blessed her. And then prayed for the mom, who started crying. She seemed confused and had had a lot of odd things happen to her this past year. So we prayed for protection over her, and to break off some curses. She kept saying that she was not sure why she was crying, and Mel told her she was encountering God’s presence. They were grateful that we stopped and prayed for them.
I was out with Gord, Sheila, and Denzel. We met a man outside the mall who was very troubled and confused. Not sure if he was struggling due to a demonic influence or if he was genuinely mentally confused. We offered to pray for him, never did find out his name, and he would not receive prayer but instead went on many tangents in a number of directions speaking about the End Times and other related issues, world religions, Christianity, etc. It was quite confusing to follow him and in the end, he was unwilling to engage with us. Very sad. We did pray for him on our way back to the church that evening.
I met a young mom with her 12-month-old son and 16 yr old son and the teenager asked if we could pray for him because it was his birthday on the 17th of November. We also prayed for his family. As we prayed for this young man I noticed that my left hand was very hot. Not sure what the Holy Spirit was up to there but he (and his mom) were very grateful for the prayer and blessed.
We next met a man eating some chicken standing next to a bench in the mall. We asked if we could pray for him and it turned out that he had epilepsy. Not sure if he was healed or not, but I remember the story in the Scriptures where Jesus healed the young boy who had epilepsy and the thought crossed my mind that this man might also have a similar situation where he is afflicted by an unclean spirit too. Not 100% sure, but I prayed healing and then also prayed to break off the spirit of infirmity that causes epilepsy.
Later, we met up with a lovely lady named Jenn who happened to be a Christian and willingly received our prayers for her. We blessed her and asked if she needed anything. Sure enough, Jenn needed money for the bus and I have her some bus tickets to use. (I like to buy bus tickets so that we can give them away to those who need to get somewhere on the bus.) As well, she needed some shower wash and I gave her $5.00 in order to go to the store to buy some. She was very grateful.
Jenn had a friend with her called Brad who was in some pain. Josh joined us at that time along with a few other of our teams and he prayed for Brad. Josh was delighted and blown away when Brad told him that his pain in his head (a headache I guess) had almost all left immediately after Josh prayed. Josh was totally pumped!! I encouraged Josh to go after more and command one more time that the pain all leave now in Jesus’ name. He did and the man was healed of his headache! Then I sensed that there was more going on so I asked Brad if he had pain anywhere else. The word of knowledge was something about his leg somewhere and sure enough, he told us that he had pain in his right knee. I invited Josh to pray for that too! As we prayed the Lord then said the word arthritis. So we asked him about that and sure enough, he did have arthritis and that was the source of his knee pain. Josh prayed a few more times and it seemed as if the pain had almost left. We asked Brad to do something he couldn’t do before. So he walked down and then back up some stairs. No pain!! All the affliction was gone. Josh was totally rocked!! (So exciting to see God use this young man who is so excited about what God is doing!) LOL
We also saw Joseph and prayed for his kidneys. He had some lower back pain there and the pain seemed to go. We also prayed for brand new kidneys and total healing for his body (he regularly has dialysis to help him). While Joseph sat there he began to smile and experience the love of God and was almost a bit giddy with the Spirit of God touching him. It was awesome to see his joy. Never saw that in him before! So good! In the meantime, Sheila came and told me that Lucas needed a new cart for his things (he lives on the streets and loves to play the piano in the mall and likes to evangelize people when he’s out on the streets.) Apparently, Lucas uses his cart all the time but the wheel was damaged on it and he needed to buy a new one. Sheila decided to help him out and gave him some money to go and buy a new one! Wow! Thank You God for Your love and how You prompted Sheila to bless Lucas like that! Thank you Sheila!
Anyway, I met Dale, Margit and Dale’s friend in the mall sitting at a table and soon there was a group of other team members sitting down at another table and Sheila and I prayed with Gelane who had requested prayer. [Love the way Sheila prays— a very powerful woman of God!] And then Josh and some of the guys came to sit down beside us in the Food Court. Sheila mentioned that she needed some help to get up from the chair because she had weakness in her knees and pain in her back. I invited Josh to again lay hands on her with her permission and pray for her that all pain and weakness would go in Jesus’ name. He did and within minutes Sheila promptly stood up with no weakness or pain and said good-bye for the night! LOL Josh was blown away! [Yeah Josh, love your passion and your heart to love others!].