HIS FACE IN MY JOURNEY
A Prophetic Encounter
"We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay
attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your
hearts." 2 Peter 1:19
Four months after I completed chemotherapy, I went to church on a Saturday evening to pray with my pastor and a few others. We were praying for the church service the next morning, listening for what God wanted to do. As I prayed and listened (John 8:47; John 10:4, 27) I had a strong sense that someone there would be going through a time of loss that felt like death or trauma. I felt that the person would be carrying guilt, that somehow it was their fault. I sensed the Lord was saying to them, "it wasn't your fault".
The next day at church, my pastor told the congregation about our prayer time and shared the following: "Someone here has suffered a loss or trauma that they feel responsible for. The Lord wants you to know that it wasn't your fault". At the end of the service, I was part of a prayer team, and we prayed for several people who approached us. The last person I prayed for was a beautiful young woman who told us that her sister had tried to commit suicide the previous day and was in the hospital. She was too upset to say much more. We prayed over her and ministered to her.
A few days later, I remembered the words and emotions I had experienced during that Saturday evening prayer time, and I realized that the young woman I had prayed for was in fact experiencing a trauma related to death. I followed up with her the next week. She was doing better and her sister was receiving treatment and counseling. I asked her if she felt responsible for what had happened. While she did not feel responsible for the actual suicide attempt, she did feel responsible for not responding to the warning signs because she was too caught up in her own life. I asked her if she had heard the words that our pastor had read in church, and if she connected with them. She did remember hearing those words, but at the time, did not necessarily think they were for her. But, now that I mentioned it, she could see the connection. I told her that I was the one who had heard those words - the very day her sister attempted suicide - and that it was no coincidence that she came to me for prayer. The Lord had connected us to let her know that it
was not her fault, and she was deeply touched.
I went home that day and was filled with such awe that I could not move from my chair
for 4 hours! It was the first time that I had ever experienced any type of prophetic gifting,
which, along with certain other spiritual gifts, I had resisted in the past (1 Corinthians 12:1-11). I was
deeply humbled. As I reflected on what I had experienced, I felt faith rising in my spirit. The prophetic was real. I discarded my skepticism and, for the first time, understood why the apostle Paul placed such high value on the gift of prophecy and urged us to seek after it (1 Corinthians 14:1). God releases His love and His power through the prophetic. We can choose to ignore it, or we can believe it and receive it.
My husband asked me how my experience that day was affecting my faith in the prophetic pictures and words that others had spoken to me during my healing process. I hadn't even thought of that! But as soon as he said it, I felt my faith soar! Not only did God bless the young woman at church, He used the experience to increase my faith in my own healing.
