I’ve had a handful of spiritual experiences in my life
that I describe as “wild, weird, and wonderful.” These are incredible, out of
the ordinary moments, when God steps into my life in a supernatural way. I
don’t go looking for such events, but I want to be open to them when they
happen. I wrote about one of these in an earlier post (“No Shortcuts with God”, March 16, 2010) and last year I had another one.
I was standing in the church lobby on a Sunday
morning, when a man came in that I did not recognize. He marched right up to
Rob, our Associate Minister, and said, “I need to speak to the preacher of this
church.” Rob pointed me out. This man came over to me, placed his hands on my
shoulders, looked me closely in the eye, and said (in a loud and forceful
voice), “My name is Bill and I have a word from the Lord for you. Will you
receive it?”
That’s a rather unusual way to open a conversation, isn’t
it?
In our particular branch of God’s family, we don’t
talk like this. We don’t expect people to show up, out of the blue, with “a
word” from God. I was familiar with the concept, but not entirely comfortable
with what was happening.
Yet I knew that Bill believed the Holy Spirit was
directing him, and I was curious about his message. I did not actually know
whether or not I would be able to “receive” what he said without first hearing
the message. After all, Scripture tells us to evaluate what we hear that is
offered to us as a prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:29). So after a moment of
hesitation I said “Yes”, prepared to listen and try to discern if God really
was speaking through him during this moment.
Bill said, “The next time you plan your sermons, God
wants you to do so with your Bible open, in an attitude of prayer. He wants you
to listen carefully and preach the truth.” Bill then prayed over me, asking God
to bless me and to bless our church.
We had a brief conversation and I learned that he
never had visited our church before, nor did he know anyone in our congregation.
He did not come to attend worship…he came solely to bring me this message. All
week long, he said, the impression had been growing that he needed to stop by
and give me this “word”. I thanked him for being faithful to do what he
believed God was telling him to do, and then he left to attend worship at the church
he attends (nearly 12 miles away).
Not a typical way to start a Sunday morning at church!
All of this was far outside my usual experience. It wasn’t
bad, but it was a bit uncomfortable. And the very unusual nature of what took
place… along with the fact that Bill was a total stranger… made it easy to
think, “That guy is an oddball and I can just write him off.”
And yet…what’s not to like about the message Bill gave
me? I always prepare my sermons in an attitude of prayer with my Bible open.
After all, I cannot have perfect knowledge about what the people in our church
need to hear. Only by praying, and trying to listen, can I discern what God
wants me to say next. What Bill said was a marvelous affirmation of the way
that I prepare messages.
On the other hand, looking at Bill’s comment objectively,
God could have sent this same message to every pulpit minister that day and it
would apply. Any preaching minister could…and should…gladly receive such a
message. Shouldn’t every one of us prepare our messages with an open Bible and
a heart open to God?
In other words, it seemed like a fairly generic “word
from the Lord.”
Yet Bill was convinced that this word was specifically
for me, on this day, on behalf of our church. Was this in fact true? Was
he right? Was God speaking to him and speaking through him?
Yes.
I knew that this word truly was from God because of
something that Bill did not know. Because of something Bill could not know.
That very afternoon I was leaving for a two-day study
retreat to plan sermons for the next several months.
Think about that: Bill showed up, with a message from
God about sermon preparation, on the very day I was getting ready to start
preparing future sermons. Clearly this was not a coincidence.
So I chose to receive what Bill said as a prophetic
word from our loving God. I received this as a wake-up call to pay extremely close
attention as I was studying. I recognized that I needed to be listening
carefully to God.
I had goose bumps, because God had shown up in my life
in an amazingly dramatic way. It was a wild, weird, and wonderful experience.
God was speaking to me. He was
speaking to me about my responsibility to listen carefully on behalf of our
church.
The result of my study retreat was a series of
messages that led our church through the Book of 1 Peter. And week after week,
people in the church commented just how timely these sermons were for them
individually. The series turned out to be quite timely in the life of our entire
church, because it showed all of us how to live as men and women of faith in a
culture that is rapidly turning away from God.
All of this was tremendously encouraging. It reminded
us that God watches over us. He watches out for us. He has our best interests
at heart.
God wanted to make sure that we spent time in the Book
of 1 Peter. He wanted to catch my attention and make sure that I did not miss
what He wanted to say to me. So our Loving Father sent the Spirit to prompt
Bill – a complete stranger – to bring me a word of prophecy.
It was uncomfortable, it was out of ordinary, and
therefore it would have been easy to discount or even ignore it. But I could
not. It was a manifestation of the Holy Spirit for the good of our church.
God
was speaking. There have been many other times when I know I have missed His
voice. I am so thankful that on this particular morning, I was willing to
listen.
- Bruce
