Over-cautious is not a word I would use to describe myself when it comes to my fingers and hands, despite how frequently I play my guitar and lead worship these days - but, I typically consider myself a fairly OSHA-compliant worker when it comes to proper lifting, and very Boy-Scout-compliant when it comes to how I handle knives, pass knives, etc.  Well a couple of days ago I made a pretty deep cut in my left index finger while constructing a weatherproof box for a wireless internet antenna - and that was about 3 hours before I was scheduled to play guitar for a men’s gathering at a local church building.  Needless to say, during the soundcheck and quick rehearsal EVERY chord was excrutiating, despite the liberal amounts of Superglue[tm] I had applied to my finger tip.

So, that’s dilemna number one.  Secondly, as I prayed about the song list, I felt like I was suppose to do a bunch of older songs that I hadn’t played in a long time.  I was glad I went through the songs as my soundcheck, because there were a lot of incorrect chords, they were in bad keys, etc.  I’m sure the people in the room during that time were thinking, “oh… wow… this guy is aweful.”

Probably motivated by how incredibly bad everything sounded, the leader and some other men decided to pray for my finger (hoping that it was that pain that was making everything else so bad.. hehe…).  Okay, so it’s normal for you to feel your heartbeat in an open wound, but I hadn’t up to that point… but when the guys were praying for me, my heartbeat got really intense there, and I was given the faith to believe it would not bother me during our worship time.

The worship time came, and there was no pain in the finger… the songs came together okay, but during every song I felt like I needed to stop playing my guitar, back off of the microphone, and just listen to the men sing out as much as possible.  As I pray for a song list, I ask the Lord questions like, “What is Your heart for the people who will be there?”  By the last song of the worship time, I realized, the desire I had to hear the men sing out WAS the desire of God’s heart.  HE wanted to hear the men fill the room in their simple, all-on-melody, deep voices all in unison.

“The Lord gives us the desires of our heart.”

I’ve had this revelation of this scripture for a while, but I just seem to forget about it.  It’s not that this scripture always means that the Lord will fulfill the desires that we, as humans, come up with in our own carnal minds; it can just as easily mean that The Lord GIVES us the very desires themselves.  i.e.  The Lord says, “I want Aaron to desire the thing that I desire right now… I want to give Aaron MY desires.”

So, I spoke that out during the last song, and encouraged the men to “fill the room” with their voices.  Turns out, it rang true and in-line with other thoughts and feelings and even plans for the night that were on several of the mens’ hearts.  Through that, the Lord built my faith, their faith, and in turn the faith of the others gathered in that room.  The Lord can always find a way to bring Himself glory through our frailty.  Truly, “His strength is made perfect in our weakness.”

I often share this testimony when I teach about prayer, faith, and hearing from the Lord - but it’s such a powerful testimony of how the Lord really works (versus how we’d like Him to work), that I really felt like I needed to post it today.

In the late nineties I got connected with a brother from Wales who flowed in the prophetic in such a specific way, to the likes I haven’t seen since, yet.  We got to hang out a few days at a time, but then we brought him in for about 10 days one summer and he stayed with me in a house that we were house-sitting for a couple from our church.  I can’t even begin to tell you some of the crazy things I saw in that time, just because we were willing to spend time in prayer and then go and do simple things like walk around the streets of downtown Ft Smith asking the Lord who He wanted us to speak to, and what He wanted us to say.  (You’ll probably hear me share one or two of these VERY specific prophetic words He gave to people, during another post, or during a teaching time.)

Anyway, this brother was on a mission trip and was asked to preach to a crowd of over 1000 who had gathered.  He, by his own admission, is not a gifted teacher, and this group they were ministering to was primarily from a particular denomination and had not yet embraced post-first-century prophetic ministry - but, he said yes anyway.  Here he was in his required black suit and tie, teaching about something in broken phrases as the translator did his job, when he heard the voice of the Lord.

“Steve, I want to heal someone who is blind, right now.”

Fear came over him - good and bad.  Would these people throw him and their whole team out for saying “he heard the voice of God” or for calling people up for “faith healing”?  Would it be “decently and in order”?  Could he just ignore what he knew was the voice of the Lord?  He wrestled with this for a while, between breaks in his message (since he had plenty of time between the translator.. hehe.. just imagine…).  He finally decided that his fear of the Lord was greater than his fear of man.

“I feel like the Lord told me that He wants to heal someone who is blind, in this place, today.  So, if you’re blind, please come up to the front and I will lay hands on you and ask the Lord to do what He said He would do.”

Over a hundred people came forward.  This is very difficult for me to fathom.  Over a hundred people out of around a thousand were blind?  Statistically you’d never see anything like this in the United States. (This is a side note that should move our hearts towards missions, the poor, and the needs of others.)  However, in many countries around the world, the lack of vacinations and other at-birth treatments that we in the U.S. are required at birth to receive, are not available to them, and the rate of infections and other complications that lead to blindness “from birth” are extremely high.  (End of side note.)

Over a hundred people came forward and lined up.  He went to the first one and prayed something like, “Lord, You said You wanted to heal the blind today, so I ask You to heal him now in the name of Jesus!”

…nothing.

So, he went to the next person in the line.  Similar prayer… nothing.

He remarked that the vast majority of these people were obviously, physically blind (sunken eye sockets, discoloration of the eyes, etc).  There was little opportunity for “just claim your healing, the Lord’s started a work, brother.”  The Lord said He wanted to heal someone “right now”.

So, he prayed for the next person in the line… nothing.  I don’t know about you, but I would have been seriously looking for an “exit strategy” - do these people know enough about the prophetic that they may decide to stone me?  Not to mention the sheer embarrasment for you, and the extreme disappointment for the people who came expecting to be healed.

He prayed for the next person… nothing… nothing… nothing… BUT, on about person number 40-something - complete and total restoration.  He witness the structure of the persons face change, their eyes clear-up, and the cries and shouts as the person began to see for the first time in their memory.  He witnessed the tears of joy from their surrounding family.  So, he kept on down the line… “Lord, You are at work here, I’m obeying Your word - heal this person now in the name of Jesus.”

Nothing… nothing… nothing… when the day was done, a handful of people had their site returned by the healing power of the Lord.  It’s so easy for us to say, “but what about the other 90 something.”  And, how many of us could have made it to person number 47, without having given up much earlier.  But, when it comes right down to it, “Several people who were blind CAN NOW SEE because of the healing power of God, and the obedience and humility of a man!!”  Praise the Lord!

Is the Lord asking you to pray and contend for something?  A cancer-free zone in your region? For the protection and restoration of marriages? For the health of a loved one?  For revival in your area that seems to be on a moral and spiritual down-slide?  We have to forget about the 99.  We have to forget questions like, “why did the Lord heal this person, but not that person? Why did the Lord supernatural provide for you but not me?”  The Lord is asking for our attention, and for our obedience.  We have to give Him opportunities, but leave the rest up to Him.

There is a “unity banquet” at the glass pavilion (”riverfront pavilion”) in Ft Smith this Friday night (Nov 9th) at either 6:30 or 7:00pm.  They will have meal, followed by some worship (which I will be helping with) and some discussion.  This has had me focusing a little more on unity in my prayers and thoughts this week, so here’s some ”Aaron backstory” for you: 

In probably the middle of 1996 I had a weird dream where a big holographic-looking face was up in the sky sharing the gospel and could be seen from all over the area.  It was teaching and exhorting from Jesus’ prayer in John 17:19-end where Jesus is asking the father desparately that “those who would believe” would come together “in perfect unity”.  I could then see people going outside of their church-buildings and tearing down the words on their signs.  They tore down their denominational affiliations, and they tore down their own names - read “identity”.  Unfortunately, my pendulum swung more towards “anti-denominational” than “non-denominational”.

It was summer in Colorado Springs, and I was gathered in the un-finished World Prayer Center at New Life Church, praying with other leaders from around the nation who had brought various groups (mostly youth and young adults) to three days of prayer and fasting called “Prayer Storm”.  During a time of prayer, the Lord spoke two distinct things to me that I feel the weight of to this day.  First, He asked my permission to be martyred for the sake of the salvation of others; He made me say the words, “Martyr Me.”  (I don’t even like typing that, for I do not take it lightly.)  Second, He told me to “never slander His Bride.”  The expressions of faith and love that have been cultivated in people through their local churches, family, and denominations is not something we should insult flippantly - because, although even now I find it hard to believe in a lot of instances, it is still these people’s expression of faith of love, and it is precious to the Lord.

 Why is it that we can embrace the phrase, “though I’m dark, I am lovely” for those of us struggling with our same thorns and lack of personal righteousness, but we give no grace to the person who feel is too religious or hypocritical or judgemental.  Though they are dark, He calls them lovely - and, if they are willing, He (and only He) will bring them from glory to glory as He desires.  The Lord put it into this perspective for me one time:

“Aaron, you despise the ‘religious’ because they are so unloving towards the ‘green-hairs’ and pierced - but in that SAME WAY you are unloving towards the ‘religious’.  The ‘unlovable’ in the phrase ‘love the unlovable’ is different for each person, but a necessity for everyone.”

Later that summer I was at a church camp serving and during one of my quiet times the Lord showed me my tombstone.  It read:

“…his obedience to God
   helped unify the Body of Christ.”

Let’s pray that the “eyes of our understanding would be enlightened” and that the Lord would “fill us with a knowledge of His will” and with “the hope of His calling” - because praying that humbly over all of us will do far more good than arguing or even intellectual debate or scholarly reasoning.  And you know what, this unity comes with a promise from Jesus Himself, prayed by Jesus Himself, and that we can agree with (by word and action) and with which we can make a claim of fruition:

“Let them be one, as You (Father) and I are one -
so that the world will believe.”

(emphasis added)

I am so encouraged by the amount of prayer and worship that is rising up from the Ft Smith river valley these days -  Yeah, many people might already be stumbling over “why can’t we all do ‘our things’ together in one place each week, month, or whatever,” but I am excited that the enemy is being confronted from so many different angles, and that the Lord is being glorified from so many different places, in so many different expressions.

If the Lord is being glorified, scripture is being sang and/or prayed, and we’re contending for the will, ways, presence, and power of the Lord, decently and in order, who cares if we’re in the same buildings or not.  Yeah, a “good turn-out” would be nice and encouraging sometimes - but an emerging army on many fronts, led by praise, worship, and prayer is good… goooooood.

So - don’t ever slander His Bride, or anyone’s biblical expression of love and devotion to Him.  Be encouraged that the Lord is gathering watchmen in the river valley.