The true prize

Yesterday I read a Facebook post from a guy (who lives a mile from me) about how he’d lost his wallet. He’d put it on the roof of his car and driven off. He put his phone number and address on the post. As I read his post, I felt like I should go look for his wallet, but I didn’t have time because I was heading out to pray for people at my school’s healing rooms. Also, I just didn’t want to. :)

When I got home hours later, I was editing my friend’s book that he’s about to send to a  publisher. In it, he tells the story of a dream he had about finding someone’s wallet. At that point, I said to the Holy Spirit, “Ok! I get it! I’ll do it!” But it was dark and late, so early this morning, I set out to look for the missing wallet.

I prayed and was full of faith that God would show me where it is. I texted the guy and asked him some questions.  Then I went to his house and slowly drove the route he’d driven when he lost the wallet. I looked carefully in both the natural and supernatural realms as I drove. I didn’t see the wallet but noted some places to stop and search on the way home. When I got to the destination, I parked there for a long time, praying and thinking. Then I got out and walked up and down both sides of the street for some distance. I started driving back, stopping to check the places I’d noted earlier. Nothing.

I sent the guy a text saying, “So sorry I didn’t find it but will keep praying for its safe return. And even though your physical ID was lost, your actual identity as a child of God can never be lost. Blessings to you.” He replied with gratitude. I was disappointed and told God as much. I was still stinging from Sunday’s lack of healing, despite my faith, fasting, and intense focus on the Lord all last week, which resulted in a definite word of knowledge that He would heal left ears through me. At school, we learned that when we pray for people, even if they aren’t healed on the spot, they should feel God’s love. So when nobody got healed on Sunday, nobody got healed in the healing rooms last night, and now I didn’t find the wallet, I asked God, "What was the point of all that?" He said that people felt His love through what I did. I mouthed off, “Is making people feel loved the best You can do?” He immediately replied, “Yes. There is nothing better than My love.” There was some repentance and crying as the truth of that sunk in. His love is not a consolation prize or a disappointment. It IS the prize. Everything else is a bonus.

The silver lining to the gold oozing

Remember my gold-oozing chigger bites? Well, the itch returned with a vengeance. It was so bad that I didn't go to work all week because I couldn't wear clothes. I just stayed home, naked and fasting (I had already been planning to fast so I could hear the Lord clearly about what He wanted to do through me on Sunday). In a maddening burst of itching, I complained to the Lord, "What happened to my healing?" He said, "I have you right where I want you: naked before Me with nowhere you have to be." So I quit asking for healing and just enjoyed a week with nothing to do but focus on Him. 

Today I was back at the gym in my pool class, and one of the ladies noticed the bites still clearly visible all over me, and she asked me where I got them. I said, "In the woods" and she asked what I was doing in the woods. She kept asking all the right questions that drew the whole story out of me about worshiping on the forest floor with the cicadas for hours. She seemed very interested, and I noticed that everyone had gotten unusually quiet and was listening to me talk about how all creation praises the Lord, and I accompanied the cicadas' song on my harp. She even asked me, "Whatever gave you the idea to do that?" and I said, "Probably the Holy Spirit".  She was quiet for awhile and then asked me, "How do you hear the Holy Spirit?" and that led to a whole conversation. At the end of class, she said, "You gave me a lot to think about. I'm sure glad I asked about those chigger bites!" Another silver lining to all the miserable itching.  

Miracles

Over the weekend, I noticed that Shiloh had a small open wound. Two days later, on the way to the vet, she was crying. I unzipped her carrier and put my hand on her and prayed for her healing and for peace to descend on her. She stopped crying. The vet examined her, and we were looking at this closed wound covered with a thin layer of fur. He said, "That's an old wound; it doesn't need any treatment" and I said, "No really, it was only two days ago." He said there's no way it could have healed that quickly and I told him I had prayed for her. 

I was doing laundry while watching some work-required training videos. I arrived at a good stopping point in the training and saw that the dryer had 10 minutes remaining, not enough time to start another section. I prayed, "God, what do you want to do in these next 10 minutes?" He reminded me that I hadn't yet done my daily centering prayer, which involves 7 minutes of silence. So I did that, but we were having such a good time that I didn't want the dryer to interrupt, so I asked Him not to let it, and He said, "If I can make the sun stand still for Joshua, I can certainly extend the drying time of your laundry." And He did. When we had processed Our important work together (He was giving me words of knowledge for an upcoming ministry time), which was certainly longer than 10 minutes, then the dryer buzzed. All in His perfect timing.

I have extremely itchy bug bites over a large percentage of my body, so much so that I couldn't sleep at all last night. I noticed one of the bites was oozing a gold colored liquid so I sent a picture of it to my friend Paula and said, "Am I oozing glory? That's what I've been praying for, but I didn't think it would look like this!" She called me and prayed that the itch would stop...and it did.