“The One”

What an interesting week. We had a trend this week that was very cool. It was like the Lord was revealing his heart for “the one”. I have heard Heidi Baker talk about this often. It’s the reality that the Lord would leave the 99 healthy sheep for the one lost sheep. This was illustrated powerfully this week as almost wherever we went, we saw “the one” have their encounter with the Lord. We have been getting used to groups and crowds meeting Jesus, getting healed and getting prophecies, but this week, it was all about that one person that desperately needed the Lord having their personal encounter. Granted, it’s definitely more exciting when crowds of people are giving their lives to Jesus, but nonetheless, it’s powerful to see the Lord orchestrate events for, “the one”.

HEALING FOR “THE ONE”
We went to what turned out to be the last football game of the season this Friday. Our group was large, so we had to split up into two different teams. One of the teams went to a game about thirty minutes from the church and I took the other team to a school that was over an hour from the church. We ended up getting stuck in traffic and were in the car for over an hour and a half. Needless to say, we were already worn out by the time we got to the game. I reminded myself that David Hogan and his team often will drive 4-6 hours, then get out and hike for 3-4 hours to get to a meeting of only a handful of people! That really put things into perspective for our little one and a half hour drive.

So we get to the game and almost instantly, we’re seeing that it’s going to be unlike the other games. It was a second round playoff game and it looked like most of the people were actually there to watch the game, unlike many of the other games we had gone to where most of the kids were there for a social gathering. There were only a handful of people walking around so we found what seemed to be a good place and just hung out, looking for an opportunity to bring the Kingdom of God.

Sure enough, a few minutes later a kid went hobbling by on crutches. A couple folks on our team ran over to see what was wrong. It turns out that the kid had been in a 4 wheeler accident a couple weeks before and dislocated his hip. Even after a couple of weeks, it was very painful and he could hardly put any weight on it. Our team prayed for him and asked him to check the injury. In an instant, Jesus took away all of the pain! I looked over and saw his friends carrying his crutches with him walking up and down the concession area, elated at his total healing! They went on to preach the Gospel to him and they asked where we were from. When he heard that we had come over and hour and a half, he exclaimed, “So, you came all this way for me?” “I guess we did!” was our reply.

SALVATION FOR “THE ONE”
The next Saturday morning, we spread out into a couple of groups and headed into some neighborhoods where we have been for a couple of months. Since the end of Daylight Savings Time and the loss of daylight during the weekdays, we have had a different strategy during the fall and winter months. Our primary goal is to strengthen the existing house churches and believers that we have already reached and our secondary goal is to get into new neighborhoods. So we headed out into a neighborhood where groups of Hispanic men have met the Lord all at one time. We go to the house of a couple of young people that have recently been born again and delivered of some major demonic junk. Their mother has, to this point, been very reserved and not really given us the time of day. We were sure that the changes in her children would be noticed and that she would eventually be touched by the Gospel. We were right.

The Mom answers the door and we find out that both kids are gone. They have a visitor over and we begin just talking about things that are going on. We had prayed very briefly for the mother a few weeks previous and I asked her if she had noticed a change in her conditions. She hadn’t noticed any difference, which gave me an opportunity to tell her what the Lord had shown me. The first time we had prayed for her, the Lord showed me that her many physical problems were caused by demonic oppression. I saw specifically anger and fear bringing torment and pain to her body. I told her this and as I called out fear and anger, her demeanor changed. The Lord spoke to me and showed me a well of unforgiveness and anger inside of her. I saw a man standing at the top of the well. So I tell her, “The Lord is showing me a deep reservoir of anger and unforgiveness and it was caused by something that a man did to you.” Her eyes got real big and she says, “I’ll never be able to forgive him”.

In a few minutes, we are sitting on her couch and she is pouring out her heart, speaking of being sexually abused by her father when she was a little girl and the resulting anger and unforgiveness. I giver her several scriptures about unforgiveness and the Lord’s forgiveness for us and she melts. The Holy Spirit is melting her anger with the fire of His awesome love. She is convinced of His love and convicted of her sin. She literally asks me, “What should I do?” I tell her simply that she needs to give her life to Jesus, repent of her sins and forgive her Father, since Jesus has forgiven her. She agrees and we get the distinct privilege of leading her to Jesus and getting her free from the anger and unforgiveness to her Dad. She lightens, looks different and thanks us profusely for coming to see her. We walk out of her house, thrilled at the mercy of God for “the one”.

“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, does he not leave the ninety and nine and go into the mountains and seek the straying one?” Matthew 18:22