Thoughts for Life: #88 Receive Words from God

C. Peter Wagner tells us: An
important part of what happens
when intercessors spend long
periods of time in very close
relationship to God is that they
hear directly from Him.

My friend David Bryant, leader
of the dynamic Concerts of Prayer
movement, calls this the "strategy
of silence."

In the strategy of silence we go before God to seek His direction even in what we should pray about and how we should pray.

Openness and obedience are keys to hearing from God.

At times the instructions God gives are almost as unconventional as when He told Ezekiel to eat a scroll or lie on his lift side for 390 days or shave his head and beard and burn one-third of his hair in the middle of the city. Ezek. 4-5.

But intercessors anointed for this strategy of silence have developed the discernment to know when it is authentic.

A few years ago I was doing a church-planting seminar in Toronto. I called Cathy Schaller on Tuesday and she prayed for me on the phone.

She sensed that God wanted to use me to "release gifts of healing."

This was hard to understand because it had nothing to do with the subject of the seminar, nor was I in the habit, as some of my friends are, of praying to release gifts in others.

My understanding of spiritual gifts is a bit more conservative than that and Cathy knew it. She indicated that God would show me what to do the next day, Wednesday.

I expected He would show me what to do in my prayer time, but I got nothing. Meanwhile, Joseph Mak, one of our Fuller graduates, had called Doris a week previously asking her if I would pray for two sick people, one in the hospital, when I went to Toronto.

I was reluctant because I ordinarily do not do that, but I sensed God wanted me to do it this time so I agreed.

When I arrived in Toronto, Joseph Mak said that God had used the telephone call to Doris as the turning point in the sickness of Anisa, the woman in the hospital, and that she had been discharged. We then agreed to pray at the hotel Wednesday afternoon.

Anisa was late for the appointment, but the other woman I was to pray for, Rita, was there with her pastor.

Her finger had been damaged in a badminton game, but when I asked her about it she said she was already healed.

I said how? She said, "I prayed and God healed me." When I told her this was really unusual, she said it had happened to her many times. Then I asked her if she prays for healing for others. She said, "No, I wouldn't dare. I have only told one other person about this other than you."

By then I knew she had a gift of healing and I told her so. "No, not me," she protested, "I'm not a doctor like you."

Before we left, Rita prayed both for Anisa and her pastor and saw God's healing power manifested. I then prayed that God would release the gift of healing in Rita, and exhorted her to begin to use it, holding herself accountable to her pastor and Joseph Mak.

So far as I can recall, this is the only time I have ever ministered in this way.

My point is this: The indication that this incident was God's will came through an intercessor who was accustomed to practicing the strategy of silence and discerning the will of God.

#88 Receive Words from God,

in the series taken from C. Peter

Wagner’s book, PRAYER SHIELD,

How to intercede for pastors, Christian

leaders and others on the spiritual

frontlines. (pgs. 165-167)
By Regal Books

(Emphasis added and Google image)

(Be sure to read my post on the 15th of June, How CAN We Hear from God? To date, I have 20 ways!)

Let’s pray:

Father, let me hear Your words at times I am quiet and listening. Help me write them so I will remember them.

May I discern Your Voice and receive all You speak to me.

There are times You've impressed me with thoughts that I'm sure are from You, and I've tried to obey.

Cause me to know the source of what enters my mind, and be able to "put down" any thoughts that are not peaceful, but which are frustrating and cannot be from a loving and caring God.

I ask this in Jesus' Name, Amen.

Today’s Bible verse: Amos 3:7 "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servant the prophets."

Today’s quote: Dr. Mike Evans – “Your brain weighs approximately three pounds and has more than 12,000,000,000 individual cells. There are well over one-hundred trillion connections between your brain cells that allow you to think, reason and function.

Like a computer, the output of your brain is determined by what you program into it. Is your mind filled with the thinking of the world, or with the thinking of God? A Christian who is walking in the power of the Holy Spirit and thinking with a renewed mind is a great danger to the kingdom of Satan.”

Some thoughts today: Some tests for our thoughts:

Do they build me up?
Do they agree with Scripture that I know?
Do the words witness to my spirit?
Do they promote obedience to God?
Is there a consistency with my life?
Will it improve my character?

31st- Saturday’s post: Feelings vs. Truth Kandy Wooter

June 1st- Sunday's post: How Long? James Cagle

1st- evening's post: Keeping the Family Ritual Sirmal Marthenis

3rd- Tuesday's post: #89 The Miracle for Pastor Everett C. Peter Wagner

A popular post: #10 The '59 Revival in Ireland Dr. R. A. Torrey tells us, "The news of what God was doing in 1857 in America spread to the North of Ireland, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland sent a Commission to America to study the work and to come back and report."