One of many highlights from the Fuerza Agape Youth Conference we took part in yesterday here in Mexico City:
Remember a movie called The 3 Amigos? Well, I got The 3 Miguels yesterday: all in a row, one after the other, for prayer at end of the meeting. All 3 with our son’s name! What are the odds on this?
M1 spoke pretty good English, but rather than prayer for himself, he asked if I could pray for his friend: M2, who’d never been to a Christian meeting before.
M2 stepped forward, out of the crowd: 16 years old? not tall, with tattoos, piercings and rings all over his ears, lips and nose, black leather jacket, black hair, in fact, his whole countenance looked downcast black.
But he had been all day in the meeting and now he wanted prayer.
M2 didn’t raise his eyes and only briefly did they meet mine, but I felt the Father’s love for him so deeply and I knew in my heart nothing was going to stop Father from engaging this prodigal with nowhere else to go.
He stood in front of me, head down. And I began to pray… just simply that M2 would see, hear and know Jesus as the Father’s love-gift in the midst of his confused and confusing sin-sick world. I took authority over anything that would try to separate him from this love. As my hand barely touched his forehead, his body suddenly started to quiver, then shake and weave from side to side. Tears broke from his eyes, flowed down his cheeks and M2 fell out of control, forward, right into my arms which could barely keep him standing! It all happened so quickly and
unexpectedly, all I could do was stand there, holding his virtually collapsed form against my frame, praying healing for his heart, mind and whole being. I felt tears saturate my shirt. Something wonderful was indeed happening!
Time was giving way to eternity; a once-closed heart was opening to the infinity of Father’s love.
His arms held, then folded and tightened around me, almost like in a wrestling match he was determined not to lose.
Then just as suddenly as he’d put the hold on me, he now released me. I raised his chin, lifted his head upwards, looked into two very different, now clearly bright eyes, and asked him if he wanted to receive Jesus. He replied he didn’t know what that meant.
Now I could have tried to explain this in my very incompetent Spanish, gone for the kill and got him notched on my born-again, new converts belt, but I felt to not pressure him and called his friend M1 in to show M2 the Jesus Way!
M2 gracia’d me and I felt a simple assurance that M2’s born-again experience would not tarry long after such an encounter with the Father.
M1 + M2 walked away together and next in line appeared M3: much younger, only 7 yrs old? and this little guy had decided he wanted prayer too, all on his own! Jesus’ words rang in my heart:
‘Don’t forbid the little children to come to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven!’
When I got home last night, I remembered my 3 Miguels and wondered whether our roads might meet again?
Some prayers definitely take less time for answers. Today M1 came to me right after church and reported: M2 gave his heart to Jesus immediately after they’d left me and confirmed his commitment in church this morning!
You don’t always have to hit a home-run. Just get a runner safely on base and let the Father bring him home. He is well able to complete what He’s begun.
Remember a movie called The 3 Amigos? Well, I got The 3 Miguels yesterday: all in a row, one after the other, for prayer at end of the meeting. All 3 with our son’s name! What are the odds on this?
M1 spoke pretty good English, but rather than prayer for himself, he asked if I could pray for his friend: M2, who’d never been to a Christian meeting before.
M2 stepped forward, out of the crowd: 16 years old? not tall, with tattoos, piercings and rings all over his ears, lips and nose, black leather jacket, black hair, in fact, his whole countenance looked downcast black.
But he had been all day in the meeting and now he wanted prayer.
M2 didn’t raise his eyes and only briefly did they meet mine, but I felt the Father’s love for him so deeply and I knew in my heart nothing was going to stop Father from engaging this prodigal with nowhere else to go.
He stood in front of me, head down. And I began to pray… just simply that M2 would see, hear and know Jesus as the Father’s love-gift in the midst of his confused and confusing sin-sick world. I took authority over anything that would try to separate him from this love. As my hand barely touched his forehead, his body suddenly started to quiver, then shake and weave from side to side. Tears broke from his eyes, flowed down his cheeks and M2 fell out of control, forward, right into my arms which could barely keep him standing! It all happened so quickly and
unexpectedly, all I could do was stand there, holding his virtually collapsed form against my frame, praying healing for his heart, mind and whole being. I felt tears saturate my shirt. Something wonderful was indeed happening!
Time was giving way to eternity; a once-closed heart was opening to the infinity of Father’s love.
His arms held, then folded and tightened around me, almost like in a wrestling match he was determined not to lose.
Then just as suddenly as he’d put the hold on me, he now released me. I raised his chin, lifted his head upwards, looked into two very different, now clearly bright eyes, and asked him if he wanted to receive Jesus. He replied he didn’t know what that meant.
Now I could have tried to explain this in my very incompetent Spanish, gone for the kill and got him notched on my born-again, new converts belt, but I felt to not pressure him and called his friend M1 in to show M2 the Jesus Way!
M2 gracia’d me and I felt a simple assurance that M2’s born-again experience would not tarry long after such an encounter with the Father.
M1 + M2 walked away together and next in line appeared M3: much younger, only 7 yrs old? and this little guy had decided he wanted prayer too, all on his own! Jesus’ words rang in my heart:
‘Don’t forbid the little children to come to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven!’
When I got home last night, I remembered my 3 Miguels and wondered whether our roads might meet again?
Some prayers definitely take less time for answers. Today M1 came to me right after church and reported: M2 gave his heart to Jesus immediately after they’d left me and confirmed his commitment in church this morning!
You don’t always have to hit a home-run. Just get a runner safely on base and let the Father bring him home. He is well able to complete what He’s begun.
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