Jeremy Connor

It has been a while since my last update so first I need to discuss the week of encounters.

After the Prompting of God encounter, I was challenged later in the week to pray for healing in people I have never met and discuss the power of healing with relatives. One of the days a few of us prayed for someone that had severe pain and later we heard that the pain went away after we prayed. This always builds more faith.

On Tuesday I received another Spiritual Life Lesson. After I prayed for a friends family member, God spoke to me about “Taking every thought captive” 2 Corinthians 10:5. Normally I think of this verse when dealing with temptation, doubt and or disbelief. This day was different, when I was hearing a sorrowful story from a friend I was prompted to pray and pray immediately. Later in the day I felt as though I may have come across as unsympathetic. As I reflected on this I believe God said “take every thought captive”. When thoughts enter our heads during the day we should be taking them captive, praying about them and releasing them to Christ. I realized many times we start talking about things that grieve us, we being to lose Joy and get somewhat depressed. By taking those thoughts captive and praying about them it helps us release the depression and give God praise in all circumstances.

I would encourage you to pray for people(or yourself) that are in difficult situations and see how their countenance changes when the difficulties are truly released at the feet of Jesus.

I believe taking these thoughts captive and releasing them to Jesus will allow you to focus on God more and our current situations less.

At our last small group I prayed that we would have daily God lead encounters this week. So on Monday while I was checking out in Walmart I saw a woman that seemed to have a physical disability. And when I saw this woman, I was moved with compassion for her. I thought about stopping her to pray but then I was hit with the thoughts of being there by myself with my two small children. I began a dialogue in my head that went something like this; Do you want me to pray for her God? My heart isn’t racing like it usually does when you want me to do something out of the ordinary. I have my two kids and they might be too distracting to pray. Is it me just wanting you to use me to do a miracle? Am I just looking for everyone that is sick to be healed? What if she doesn’t want me to pray for her. This is too big for me to do here in Walmart Lord! I will stop there. Needles to say I didn’t stop and pray with the woman.

This situation brings up several questions. The most obvious one is; Did she miss a gift from God because I wasn’t willing to step out of my comfort zone? Well as I began to reflect on what had happened I ask more questions to God and I believe he revealed this to me; When I prompt with something don’t ask “Do you want me to pray Lord?” ask “What do you want me to do Lord?”. You see God began to reveal to me that it isn’t always about healing a person physically. Sometimes God wants to give someone a word of knowledge or even just an encouraging hug. God just wants to show His Love to people. He chooses how he wants to do it and we just need to ask him to direct us.

The Spiritual Life Lesson for this was; If you feel prompted to pray for someone ask God what He would like to do for them.