Expecting More

A couple of weeks ago I went over to a young man who is homeless who sleeps in the shopping centre in our town. Joe (not his real name) is only 19. It breaks my heart because he is so young. He could be my son!

My friend and I had met him the week before where he’d seemed full of hope despite his bleak circumstances. Somebody had given him a bible the day before and we directed him to the story in Luke 15 which he said he would read. We bought him lunch and we prayed for healing from a chest infection, and he was visibly moved saying that after we prayed the second time it didn’t hurt when he took a breath in. God clearly touched him.

The next time I saw him he was pretty down. Someone had stolen all his stuff; his bag, his bedding and the bible too. Sadly it happens often on the street.  That morning God had been speaking to me about generosity and how extravagant his love is and how we can’t out give God.
As I looked at the thin sleeping bag, he was clutching I felt a strong urge to bless him extravagantly. I went to Primark, and I bought a duvet, a warm fleece and a bunch of warm socks and took them back to him. I wish you could have seen his face. I hadn’t realised he had no socks, and they were the first things he put on and then spread out his new duvet.

When I came back with these things there was a man talking to him who I later found out is an artist and who told me he wants to paint a picture of Joe and give it to him. What’s amazing is this man is 84 and nearly blind from glaucoma

As the three of us were talking together a lady in a mobility scooter asked if we could step aside; she was waving a five pound in her hand and trying to get to Joe. It was like God was showering this young man with his love. In that moment I saw and felt the atmosphere shift, and I recognised this is Kingdom culture and its contagious!

I share this story not, so you’ll think what a kind person I am but to encourage us to be intentional in looking for opportunities to bring heaven’s culture wherever we are. As we see the opposite of the Kingdom God is placing us to demonstrate kindness, speak life giving words over people, to bring comfort, and release peace and hope and as we do, we are pointing people to Jesus.

The elderly man let me pray for his eyes. I don’t know if there was any immediate change, but I told him Jesus healed blind eyes.

Jesus said, ‘I have not come to do my own will but the will of my Father who sent me’

As Jesus passed through towns and villages stopping for the many and for the one, we see Jesus living this out. As he engaged with lost people proclaiming and demonstrating the Kingdom he only ever did what the Father showed him, and the book of Acts is full of stories of the disciples doing the same. Stories such as Philip meeting with the Ethiopian and Peter and John healing the lame man at the temple and Paul meeting Lydia by the river.

Every day we are ‘passing through somewhere’ as we travel to work, meet with parents at the school gate, or our neighbours. As we have our hair cut, do our shopping, work out in the gym or walk the dog.
Every day we are ‘being sent’ by the Father and we can be expectant for the Holy Spirit to draw our attention to people around us where the Father is working.

As Lisa Mason beautifully expressed in a recent discipleship newsletter therawdisciple.com “We believe Jesus has gone ahead of us and is already working in the lives of those around us. Our prayer is simple: “Jesus, show us what you’re doing and who you’re drawing to you. Help us play our part in building your Kingdom, making disciples, and showing your love to the lost. Here we are, ready to do your will.”

Jesus stopping for the woman at the well is such a familiar story but has so much to teach us about going out of our way, going the extra mile, crossing cultures, loving unconditionally, listening to the person and to the Father and a whole town coming out to meet Jesus through one woman’s story of an encounter with Jesus.

Practically speaking…Jesus might bring someone to you. They might be sitting next to you on a bench or in a café or at a bus stop and just start talking to you, telling you a problem or engaging with you. These are often moments of invitation set up by our Father for us to show his love and to share his heart with them.

Sometimes you will feel the Holy Spirit drawing you to someone. Often for me it feels like a prompt or a nudge which I could easily follow or ignore. It always requires courage and having to step through the awkward but when I have followed it has usually led to something wonderful on the other side.

When I step out of my house, I practice asking the Holy Spirit to make me more aware of the people around me and if there is someone, he is leading me to. This way I am far more attentive

One time I went for a walk in my local park and having just prayed and asked the Father to show me someone, I saw a young woman walking slowly with a stick and wondered if she was that person. She spoke very little English but through sign language I learned that she had a problem with her ankle and left foot. When I offered to pray for her and she accepted, I bent down and prayed a simple prayer declaring Gods love for her, commanding the pain to leave and releasing healing to her ankle and foot. As I looked up, she was beaming and in broken English said “Better, better!!”and then threw her arms around me. This was during Lockdown by the way, when we weren’t encouraged to hug anyone and so I knew she had received a miracle from Jesus. I told her Jesus loved her and she went on her way walking normally.

Stopping for the one will not always be convenient. We can often be busy with our own agendas, in a hurry to get somewhere or just tired. In the same story of the Samaritan woman when the disciples returned and were astonished that Jesus was not only speaking to a woman but wasn’t hungry for his lunch, he told them “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”  This provokes me that learning to live expectantly and obediently means living available and allowing God to interrupt my day.

One time I was in a café waiting for a hair appointment when a lady began talking to me out of the blue. She said “Peace at last, this is the only day I have to myself. I’m caring for my mother who has dementia, my mother-in-law has just died, and I’ve just come from bereavement counselling.”

I recognised how the Holy Spirit was getting my attention and leaning in I invited her to come and sit with me and for the next two hours she opened up her life to me. When I talked with her about Jesus, she became very emotional and remembered a time where Jesus had drawn near.

That day I missed my hair appointment, but I had the privilege of praying with her and introducing her to Jesus. I’m not encouraging missing appointments, but when we’re intentional about being out in the harvest; our primary mission, we discover the exciting adventure of following where Jesus leads us

How are you doing at walking this out in your everyday life with Jesus?

If you want to hear more stories to encourage you on this journey, I have written a book called,  Go: Everyday Stories of Stopping to Love:  I also help lead an online course called ‘Equipping for the Harvest’ link

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Jesus said in Matthew 10:7 ‘As you go, preach the gospel.’ Every day I believe God wants to give us opportunities to sow gospel seed though I know I can often miss them.

Today I met Andi as I walked through the park. He was admiring a patch of ground that was being rotavated and began telling me how he wished he’d had a rotavator for his allotment because it had been such hard work digging over the hard clay soil and with very poor results. After talking about allotments and watching the soil being turned over I felt the Holy Spirit remind me of the parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 or the Parable of the soils as it is sometimes referred to.

I said, “This reminds me of where Jesus talks about different soil types” and Andi listened as I told him the parable but then he quickly moved on telling me of the good things he always tries to do., how he is generous if people ask him for something. He said I am an alcoholic but I am not like drug addicts.  Trying to justify himself reminded me of another parable Jesus told.

I gently spoke to him about how even though it is always good when we are generous and kind to others we can’t earn God’s approval by our good works alone, how we needed a Saviour and why God had sent Jesus for us. Andi listened as I explained the gospel, but he didn’t seem to hear it and continued talking about his good works. It was like the seed fell on the ground which I felt sad about. I told him that God loved him very much and he thanked me for talking to him and shook my hand.

We know it is God alone who opens people’s hearts to receive him and I’m praying that when Andi is next digging his allotment maybe he’ll be reminded of the story I shared with him today.

El Roi is Hebrew for ”The God Who Sees Me. He is the God who numbers the hairs on our heads and counts our every tear. He knows every detail of our circumstances. He knows everything about us.

The other day I was sitting in Starbucks having a quick bite of lunch when I noticed a lady and her small child come into the coffee shop and sit at a table not far from me. The mum spread out their shared lunch on the table and I smiled across at them a couple of times; I was drawn to them and by this cosy scene of motherhood.  A short while after I felt God speak to me and say I want you to go and tell her what an amazing mum she is and to give her the flowers you bought.  I had bought two bunches that morning one for a friend who was moving house and one for myself at home.

Before leaving I went across and said, “Excuse me, I’m sorry to interrupt you, but God told me to tell you that you are an amazing mum and to give you these flowers.” As soon as I said the words, “You’re an amazing mum”  she burst into tears and dropped her head and I could see they meant something to her. I took her hand and asked if she was having a difficult time and she nodded. I also asked if she was on her own as a mum and she told me “No, that she was married and didn’t know how single mums managed!” As her little girl started to get upset because she could see her mum crying I tried to reassure her that it was all ok. When she had gathered herself, the lady asked if I was a Christian and told me she was too and was so thankful for this moment… and for the flowers.

It was such a small act of kindness yet God knew what she needed because he’s the God who always Sees

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

I’ve just returned from serving with friends at an Encounter Camp in Worcester and where we’ve been deeply impacted by the experience.

Early in the morning before we arrived, I had been reading Luke 15 and hadn’t been able to get past the first verse… ‘Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him.’ Later I saw this with my own eyes in a room of people as many who have struggled with life-controlling issues and trauma were joyfully worshipping Jesus. Hearing one after the other calling out their heartfelt prayers of thanksgiving to God for saving them, giving them a second chance and healing, and rescuing them has left a mark on me that I don’t want to forget. What stood out was how God’s presence felt so tangible in an atmosphere of such thanksgiving.

This morning as I was reading a familiar story in Luke 17; the story of the Ten Lepers who were healed by Jesus, God highlighted many parallels to me.

Jesus entered a village and was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance, and it says, ‘lifting up their voices they said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.’ As lepers, they stood at a distance because they knew they were outcasts. Their leprous condition meant they were very familiar with shame and rejection but as they cried out for mercy Jesus saw them. He sees those who are outcasts, who stand at a distance knowing they are sinful and broken. Jesus sees those who are stuck in shame and rejection. He saw me and he saw you. When we stood at a distance, He saw us and loved us even before we saw or loved Him and when we cried out, he heard us. He is the Prodigal Father who runs to restore us and celebrates us as we come home to Him.

In the story, the 10 lepers are healed as they go on their way, and I was reminded of a time when I saw Jesus do the same. I had spotted a girl across the road who was holding onto some railings because she had just badly sprained her ankle and my husband, and I went across to help her and ask if we could pray for her. At first, she was shy and embarrassed and reluctant to receive any prayer but after a while, she agreed. With a rush of faith, I told her that I believed she would be healed as she went on her way, the same words Jesus had spoken to the 10 lepers, and as we crossed over the road and looked back, we saw that she was no longer limping but walking normally.

What has spoken afresh to me from this story in Luke 17 and from my time away this week is how our thanksgiving attracts Jesus. In the story, it was only one who turned back to thank Jesus. When he saw that he was healed, it says, he turned back praising God with a loud voice and fell on his face at Jesus’ feet giving him thanks. That is what I saw and was deeply impacted by this week. Not that these people are perfect they are broken vessels like you and I, but they were so thankful, loudly praising God, dancing, waving, and shouting their thanksgiving to him without any hint of performance.

Over the two days we were there we saw many signs and wonders that remind me of why Jesus said in Luke 5:31-32, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’ Jesus loves to heal and in just one night we saw 19 people touched and healed from many painful conditions. One lady received Christ in the afternoon, her first word of knowledge in the evening and then she too herself was healed.

I think Jesus loves to come when we simply say, “Thank You”.

This morning I was re-reading the story of the centurion’s servant who was healed and struck again by Jesus’ response to the centurion’s faith. It’s the only time in the gospels that records such a response from Jesus.

The centurion had sent an urgent request to Jesus via a group of Jewish leaders. The servant he loved and highly valued was sick and close to death and he was asking if Jesus would be willing to heal him. He wasn’t a disciple; he was a Roman soldier and a Gentile and everything about this story is unusual. Jews were not fond of the Romans and even telling Jesus how honourable the centurion was, was highly unusual. When one of the representatives approached Jesus with the message from the centurion that he was not worthy to have Jesus come to his home but that he just needed to say the word and his servant would be healed, Jesus discerned this moment of extraordinary faith and marvelled at him. Turning to his disciples and those who had followed him, he said, “I tell you not even in Israel have I found such faith”

I don’t know about you, but I want to have that kind of faith that causes Jesus to marvel. Faith that believes Jesus can and will do what he has said no matter how impossible it might seem in the natural, where I trust God and take him at his word as the centurion did. I believe this is the kind of faith that pleases him; where it leads us to run to him like the woman who was bleeding and reach out to touch him and like the faith of Jabez who refused to let go until God blessed him. I want to have faith like those who broke through the roof to bring their friend to Jesus and like the blind man who called out for mercy. I want to keep taking risks of faith and believe more deeply than I have before.

From the moment we believed and put our trust in Christ we each began our journey of growing in faith in Jesus and his promises and Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that ‘Without faith, it is impossible to please him”  Paul writes in Romans 10:17 this faith ‘comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.’  Jesus who is the living word is the substance of our faith and in Luke 18 where Jesus told the parable of the persistent widow reminding us to pray and not give up, he asks this provoking question…’ when he comes, will he find faith on the earth?’

There was a time when I heard of signs and wonders happening in faraway places and believed they only happened through specially anointed people. I listened to stories and heard of miraculous healings and marvelled at people’s faith. I am so thankful for the journey God is taking me on where I now fully believe this is the supernatural life Jesus intended for us all to expect to live out as his disciples and I’m thankful for the  miracles I have now seen, heard and even been part of.

As I have been encouraged, I want to encourage you too. Keep stewarding and exercising the measure of faith he has given you and you will see it increase and grow. Wherever you are on your journey of faith and whatever miracles and breakthroughs you are waiting and trusting Jesus for, keep standing on his word and pursuing childlike faith. Keep being full of awe and wonder at who He is and taking risks knowing that all things are possible to those who believe. As with the centurion may Jesus marvel at our faith.

Recently a friend sent me a prophetic picture that she’d had whilst praying for me. It was of a pie and like when we’re served dessert we often get asked, “How much would you like?” she saw me replying, “Yes, that’s the right size for me. In the picture, she saw the Father serving the pie and he kept increasing the size of the slice, saying to me, “No, there is more, try more, expect more” and as I got used to the size he offered me, he kept increasing it again. This picture excited me because God has been speaking about expecting the unexpected and seeing him change things, I haven’t seen him change before.

It was also a provocation because when I’m feeling discouraged or disappointed, I know I can take my eyes off who God is and expect too little; maybe you can relate. When we think like an orphan, we only expect a small portion, even crumbs or scraps; we’re just thankful for anything. When we think like a son or daughter, we wait with expectation because we know the Father always has more. He is a Father who delights to give us more than we can ask or imagine. He doesn’t just give us crumbs. His resources are unlimited.

In the desert, God provided food every day for his people instructing them not to keep any back but to trust that he would supply all that they needed. When Jesus fed the multitudes, he took their humble offering; the boy’s lunch, and multiplied it so that everyone was fed and satisfied. So satisfied that there were twelve baskets left over! Jesus wanted them to see that nothing is impossible with him and that in his Kingdom his supply is unlimited not only in terms of food and provision but in every way because He IS the Bread of Life!

I love this story from my friend Dan who is a paediatrician. Dan knows he’s a son and that he carries the Kingdom and partnering with the Holy Spirit he regularly steps out in his surgery to share the gospel.

Recently, a mother came in with her 3-month-old baby and he felt prompted to ask her how she was. Unsure at first if he meant her or her baby, she went ahead and told him how she was suffering from depression and that she wouldn’t be able to see a psychiatrist for another two months. After taking care of the baby’s medical needs, Dan said to her I would love for you to encounter God’s help, and stepping out he offered to pray for her and she said, “Yes please!” As he prayed, he told her how precious she was in God’s eyes, and at the end, he introduced her to the Bible and Jesus’ words in John 10:10 about how the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy but Jesus came to give us life in all its fullness. I’m looking forward to hearing what happens next in this mother’s life. I think everyday stories like these of sharing the good news of Jesus and his Kingdom are meant to be normal for us as believers when we live with an expectation of his goodness.

I wonder if like me, you have to regularly adjust the lens you look at God through. It might be when trusting him for financial provision or a breakthrough in an area you are facing, or it might be to do with promises he has spoken over you of how he wants to move through you.

Bill Johnson writes in his book, ‘When Heaven invades Earth,’ “It is abnormal for a Christian not to have an appetite for the impossible. It has been written into our spiritual DNA to hunger for the impossibilities around us to bow at the name of Jesus.’ Jesus taught his disciples to pray God-sized prayers. He said, ‘When you pray, pray like this, your Kingdom come; your will be done on earth… as it is in heaven’ Introducing people to Jesus and praying bold prayers for impossible situations comes from us knowing and believing how good God is. Let’s encourage one another to keep looking at God through eyes of faith expecting to see the impossible because He is the God of the impossible!

Paul prays in Ephesians 3:20-21, ‘Now to him, who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Photo by Edi Libedinsky on Unsplash