Mobile Prayer Station: DAY 37

Well, the day started off with a bang. Denise, a regular who hangs out in the park, came by cursing and screaming about something and someone. Without missing a beat, I called out to her and asked her if I could pray for her. She agreed and we enjoyed a few moments of peace as I prayed that the Lord would give her a change of heart and help her to love her enemies. I am so grateful to the Lord for opening up avenues of prayer with some of the regulars of Wicker Park and even allowed me (at times) to be able to speak truth and life to them because the growing compassion of the Lord that dwells within me needs an outlet. 

Whenever I read about Jesus' life and the way He interacted with people, I'm always impacted by how He had compassion on the masses of people who came to Him to be healed (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34). Over the last many days, the Lord has used my time being on the street with the Mobile Prayer Station to cultivate more of His compassion within me. Just the other day I was spending time with a group of friends and one of them said that there was something different about me. She literally asked me if God had healed me or something because she said that there was a softness about me that was new. At the time, I really didn't understand what she meant. But, in reflecting on this now (I feel like the Lord is connecting the dots for me even now as I write this), the softness that she was sensing from me was the compassion of the Lord growing within me. Praise God! 

The highlight of the day came with three teenagers who must have passed by me three times before they stopped and we started talking about dreams. Without any delay, Gabriel, Gerard and Ashley started sharing dreams that they had in the past with me. Many of them were dreams of demonic visitations where dark shadow figures would come into their bedrooms inciting terror and fear in them. Now, this is something I am very familiar with, so I took this opportunity to talk about the reality of angels and demons and the cosmic battle between good and evil. While we were talking I felt like the Lord gave me a word for them: that He has placed an incredible destiny on their lives, but the devil was currently trying to steal their dreams, kill any sense of hope in them and destroy their awareness of God's destiny for them by instilling fear in them. So, I shared this with them and asked if I could pray into God's destiny for their lives. They excitedly agreed. Let me just say that it was probably a moment that these kids will carry with them for a very long time. Thank You Jesus! 

I love how God meets us all right where were at. The seed of faith that was planted in these kids hearts and mind today was the reality that God has a destiny for their lives and that He will fight for this destiny to happen. That's where the good soil was within their hearts. Sometimes, I feel like good intention believers end up blindly throwing seeds of faith against brick walls in people's hearts and minds because they fail to spend the time in discerning where a person is at on this journey through life, where the Lord has someone on their faith journey and where the good soil actually is within their hearts and minds. What this takes is a sensitivity towards the Holy Spirit, but also a compassion towards people. To be like Jesus means to embody both. And the Good News is that both of these graces are available to a believer because we are in Christ. Maybe today is a good day to start meditating on what it actually means for you to be in Christ and all that that entails...

Mobile Prayer Station: DAY 34

What can I say about today? Well, my friend Dave came out today. He is on staff with the campus ministry InterVarsity and works predominately with the art schools in Chicago. After giving Dave a little "orientation" about the Mobile Prayer Station we chatted until God drew Hilda to us, who came up inquiring about dream interpretation. When, we asked her about her dreams she said she didn't really remember any of them, so we asked if we could pray for her. During the prayer time Dave got an image of a drawing of a butterfly that looked like it was drawn by a kid. We found out later that she actually works with kids. When he shared this image with Hilda she was amazed. It was obvious that butterflies hold some significance to her. But, then she started to ask Dave if he had any kids and if they drew pictures, maybe even of butterflies. What I believe Hilda was doing was trying to find an answer in the natural realm for the supernatural prophetic revelation. But, isn't that what we do? When something unexplainable happens, our immediate reaction is to try to find some sort of logical explanation for it, rather than accepting that maybe something supernatural did just happened. Hopeful I will see Hilda again. 

I did get to do one dream interpretation for a man who was with a couple teenagers who were on a one day mission trip in the city from a church in Elgin. It wasn't really a recent dream he had, but still - he shared that he was flying in his dream and then all of sudden started falling, but God took hold of his hand and pulled him up. While he was talking, I was silently asking God to bring revelation and interpretation to the dream. This is what came up, I told the man that him flying meant God was planning to give him some sort of breakthrough in his life and that he could trust that God will carry him through which was highlighted by God catching him when he was falling. It was a seemingly straightforward interpretation which I was grateful for (being my first one out here). I asked him if that seemed right in thinking back when he had the dream and he said it seemed right. Very cool! I also got to pray for him and the kids before they left while Dave had his hands full talking with William. What can I say about William except that Dave and I spent at least 30 minutes if not more talking with him about faith and life (Dave must have talked with him for a solid 30 minutes before I joined the conversation because I was talking with some other people). Let me say this, William has some issues with God. But, rather than start the story here, I think I'll retell the whole story on Day 35 because not only did we pray for William but God actually answered our prayers for William and did some pretty amazing things which he came back around to tell us. So stay tuned...


There were a couple more people who I got to pray with (while Dave was talking with William). First, there was Jeff who I know and while I was talking with Jeff, Harry came up. So, the three of us were talking when Jeff said he had to go, but before he left I prayed for rest for him and that God would give him dreams of his destiny. After he left and I turned back to Harry, who looked straight at me and said, "you need to pray for me." He shared how he felt that God was calling him to be bolder in his faith and to even preach the Gospel. Very cool! So, I prayed into this and some other things that the Holy Spirit brought to mind. Afterwards, he said that he felt like my words were coming right from the Holy Spirit because I hit everything that he's been holding in heart hoping to get prayer for. I just love it when God just shows up and loves on people. Harry's story also doesn't end here, but also continues on into Day 35. I love it when prayers are answered and people actually come back to share them with me. But, rather than make you wait on this one, I'll finish the story here. So, on Day 35 Harry came back around and said that since we prayed together, his faith has increased and he has been feeling more confident in God's presence in his life. Some of his fears are still lingering, but he doesn't feel immobilized by them. Praise God! My friend Nate who came out got the words baby steps and shared with Harry that he can trust that God will walk him through these first few small steps. Thank you Jesus!

Norah Jones: Nightingale

Whenever I hear this song, it makes me long to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit ever louder in my life. You see, the Holy Spirit speaks to me through thoughts, images and feelings. In many ways, He sings directly to my soul about the Father's love for me, about the words of Jesus and His Kingdom, even about the way God thinks and feels about others. So, when I hear Norah Jones singing about longing to hear the love song of the nightingale to guide and direct her, I immediately think about the Holy Spirit, who's loving voice often guides and directs me through this life.

The Bible describes the Holy Spirit as a dove who comes to rest upon Jesus after He was baptized (Matthew 3:16) and who also leads believers into all Truth (John 16:13) and into greater intimacy with God (John 14:16-19) because through the Holy Spirit believers are adopted into the family of God (Romans 8:15-16) where they experience the deepness of God's Love (Romans 5:5).

I also completely relate to the lyrics that say: "All the voices that are spinnin' around me. Trying to tell me what to say. So can I fly right behind you? And you can take me away." Maybe you can relate as well? There are so many other voices in my life that get in the way of me hearing the Voice of God. My deepest longing is to know the depths of God's Love, but oftentimes these other voices get in the way of me knowing and experiencing this Love. So, these lyrics resonate my own heart's cry to want to be close to the Spirit of God. So close that I am literally right there with Him as we soar together through this life with me listening to the Spirit's sweet song of Love filling the air and my soul.

And God said...

This video reminds me of Genesis 1 where God is creating. When I read that the Spirit of God is hovering over the deep (Genesis 1:2), this is what I envision because the original Hebrew word רָחַף, means more than to just hover, but to actually shake, quiver, even vibrate. There is a greater sense of motion to the Hebrew word than to just hover. So, for me this video gives a good depiction of the engerizing role of the Holy Spirit as God spoke creation into existence.

Led by the Spirit

I hope that this powerfully moving video based on Galatians 5:16-25 has inspired you to: Invite the Holy Spirit to transform your worldly and fleshly appetites into eternal and righteous ones to the glory and praise of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is only through Him that we have true and lasting redemption where all things become possible (Mark 10:27).