'spiritual encounters'? Or normal Christ follower life?

28.30.10 -Shepton Mallet, England-
Treasure hunting is the name of the game. The rules are basic and simple, but the difficulty is trusting that you've really received nuggets. This is what I mean: the teams are of atleast two people but better with three people. Snag a sheet of paper and write five categories- Images- Names- Clothing- Locations- Prayer Needs- and maybe even an 'Extra' category. Now pray, ask the Holy Spirit to give clues to who God has for you to meet. Wait a minute to see if He gives you anything and write the pictures, words, and names that come to mind- especially the first ones.. Now go outside, go to the city, go to the park or the beach- the point is to find the individuals who meet some of these criteria... Gather the prices to meet this 'treasure' person. I kidd you not, God has given you clues to whom He would like you to encounter or even to pray for.

Me and two others did this treasure hunt almost three days ago. We had amazing stories- one of which particularly stands out in my memory. I got a pretty specific image of a darker skinned male, have grown in beard, sun shades, and a hat. He was wearing shorts also. Well, I only shared the bit about glasses and a hat with my two newly met friends who were doing it with me... Yeah, really, I had just met these friends moments before we prayed together. Anyways, we went out, prayed for a couple people, and bang! My eyes laid upon a guy sitting at a bench table by himself. He fit the exact description of the image God gave to me. The only difference is that this guy in front of me was sitting down rather than standing up. "Ok," I think, "Obviously God wants this fellow to be blessed. I don't have a clue how this is going to go down but I don't care. This is way to cool to pass up and to do nothing about!"

We approach him. "Hello," I say, sort of interrupting his time thinking. He looks up with a smile like, 'what can I do for you? And why are you three strangers standing all around me?'
"This may be up front or even strange, but we three are on a treasure hunt. We just prayed to God that He'd lead us to people who need prayer - whether it be for healing, for pain, for school, for job, whatever. God gave me a pretty clear image of someone and, well, you're exactly him! I believe you're our treasure."

Well, this guy is a total Jesus believer, how cool! D is actually a missionary to Cape Town, South Africa. This guy was real, he was struggling. Because he is a believer, he knows a bit about the character of God. He knew that God uses us as people to minister to each other, being a believer or not. Our Father wants His love to be felt and to be known.. D gladly embraced our desire to pray for him - especially at this time in his life! For his own privacy, I will leave the details out, but he is struggling with some pretty serious relationships and partnerships in So Africa. The situation is to the point that he may even have to face moving himself and his family. We prayed. We gave him words of encouragement. Sitting in front of him was a Bible. The cover had Jeremiah 29:11-12 embroidered in beautiful italics;

I know the plans I have towards you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans with a future filled with hope. Then you will pray to me and will cry out to me, and I will hear you.

What a great scripture to reiterate to D. What truth! God is looking over D and D's entire situation under control- the issue is simply trusting in what God has said.. And that He will remain faithful to His word.

This treasure hunt was gold. How easy and even fun it is to be able to reach out and help a human in need! D was blessed, God spoke through us to him, what could be better?

By the way, you should try this where you're at. It's so much fun and it takes a bit of balls cause our human instinct is to be self absorbed and to keep to ourselves.. Really there is a huge void of pain that we are able to tap into only if we ask. God does so so much healing through prayer. We just have to do it.

Well, the faith travel continues... Tomorrow we head to Lake District and there are already too many stories to tell!