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PROPHECY
Shawn Bolz - Bolz Ministries
Words
Did I hear you correctly God?
“His head turned so fast and his eyes were fixed like we’d just revealed is bank account details”
Ever have those moments where you get a nudge, or a word, or a picture about a certain situation or something a person is going through?
Ever get that feeling in your gut that something isn’t as it seems?
One of the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives is the gift of a Word of Knowledge.
A Word of Knowledge in its simplest of explanations is information that has been given to you, without any possible way of you knowing naturally on earth.
Let me explain a simple situation of a Word of Knowledge that happened with us.
We like to treasure hunt, we don’t mean the treasure hunt where you look for objects & collect different leafs etc.
We mean the treasure hunts that are about people and sharing the love of God with them.
How this works is, we pray, get clues, go hunt!
We pray to God and ask Him to give us “clues” = information about people in whom to approach.
What does this person look like?
What is their name?
Where will we find them?
Is there a message we are to give them?
Once we’ve asked these questions in prayer, God gives us information and He has always been, without fail, very forthcoming with “clues” for us to follow.
One time we had a description of a man we were to find.
He will be wearing a dark baseball hat & a dark jacket.
He will be sat on the log bench by the sand pit.
He will be with his daughter.
His name is Steve or the name Steve is important to him.
As always God’s “clues - information” was spot on.
There was the man, matching the description, location & there was his daughter playing next to him.
We approached the man & struck up a conversation.
We explained we were from the local Church & we were on a hunt to find people with clues given from God.
He was polite enough to give us his initial attention but then dismissed us as he claimed he wasn’t religious & turned his head & body away.
We respected his response & were about to leave.
When we got a ‘nudge’ to mention the name Steve.
“Does the name Steve mean anything to you?”
“His head turned so fast and his eyes were fixed on us like we’d just revealed his bank account details”
He just stared at us for just a moment... but what felt like a long time.
His reaction & his eyes were saying yes but we could tell he was scared or moved by this moment, the name Steve meant something significant to him.
He eventually snapped out of the look & dismissed us again.
It was at this moment we took the opportunity to just share that God knew his situation & that God cared about what was going on & he wasn’t alone.
Now this is the part we would love to share that he jumped up & down with joy and accepted Jesus as Lord & saviour... but he didn’t.
However, as we were walking away his eyes were fixed on us until he couldn’t see us anymore. Across an entire field.
In that one moment we believe God spoke to that man. It was a simple word, just a name, that allowed him to experience God. Maybe for the first time ever a door was opened, a seed was sown into Steve's heart.
We still don’t know the outcome of that moment but we have hope in a God who is working behind the scenes and within that moment we had been used by God to reach another heart.
Words of knowledge are always huge in terms of the message but sometimes they come in the simplest of forms, just a name, like Steve.
What Word of Knowledge, what “clues - information” is God giving you & who can you share the message of good news with today?
Peace.
hEALING
Did I really get healed?
Did I really get healed?
Have you ever had that moment where someone prayed for you to be physically healed & it actually happened?!
Like, it no longer hurts, or you can move it like you couldn’t earlier & all of a sudden God is so real, so pure & so amazing in that moment... you either start sobbing uncontrollably or you start smiling like the cat from Alice in wonderland.
One of the things I love about my God is that He loves to heal people. He loves to restore people. He loves to make us well! Like any good parent, He wants the best for His children.
However, there are sometimes these moments when for some reason the thing you have been healed from... starts to hurt again.
I was recently at a Christian festival where a young lad had really injured his leg, like 4 hours in hospital injured leg. When he got back to the festival you could see he was down about it whilst walking with crutches. The rest of his group didn’t seem too bothered. Probably because they had already been experiencing God healing people at the festival all week & thought to themselves ‘we will just ask God later for some healing and all will be fine’
Later that evening I bumped into the young lad who was walking around with NO CRUTCHES! I was so amazed I ran up to him and asked where his crutches were, he replied “God has healed me, He is so good”. AMAZING!
I walked away from him buzzing , especially as he is a sporty person & I know how much it meant for him to be healed physically.
The next morning however, I saw the young lad again, this time with a single crutch as he walked about.
I went up to him and said “what’s with the crutch?” He replied “yeah so it’s started to hurt again” his tone of voice let me know he was upset. He had been healed, WHY WAS IT HURTING AGAIN?
However, I smiled to reassure him & spoke about one of my favourite parts of scripture. Mark 8.22-26.
“And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him [Jesus] a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, "Do you see anything?" And he looked up and said, "I see people, but they look like trees, walking." Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home, saying, "Do not even enter the village."”
This very short account of Jesus healing the man amazes me & fills me with unwavering hope.
I explained that this is the only account where Jesus prays twice for the healing. Every other time we read that Jesus touched this person or prayed for that person & BAM... instant healing.
“Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again”
What does this mean? Did Jesus loose his healing power? Did the man not have enough faith? Did he not spit enough saliva into his eyes?
The reason why Jesus prays twice is still a mystery that scholars are still trying to figure out. However, I’m not trying to figure it out anymore... I’m just happy that he did pray twice.
It means that there is a hope, that we can continue to ask & pray for healing. That we must never give up on praying for healing, we must never be discouraged if we don’t receive instant complete healing. God wants to heal us, He wants his children to be happy & healed.
So the next time you pray for someone & they don’t seem to be “instantly healed”...
Keep praying...
“Jesus laid his hands on his eyes... again”
Top 3 ways
To help you to pray/speak in tongues.
Speaking in tongues during your personal devotional time is self edifying, it’s a way to communicate with God without having to translate it.
I often struggle to find the words to express how I’m feeling, with the gift of tongues I don’t need to use my head, but allow my heart to speak directly.
However, here at SNYC we’ve put together the top 3 reasons that often hinder us from receiving the gift and praying in tongues & how to overcome them.
1. Don’t disqualify.
Often the main reason people struggle with speaking/praying in tongues is because they tell themselves they are “Holy enough” to be given such a gift.
Nonsense, let’s face it, none of us are ever “Holy enough” or whatever that may even mean.
All have fallen short but it’s not about us, it’s about Him. If you disqualify yourself you start on the wrong foot entirely.
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.”
Romans 3:23-26 NLT
2. Ask.
If you have never spoken or prayed in tongues, my question to you is... have you ever asked for it?
As silly as it sounds to request it but by asking God to give you the gift, you are allowing Him permission to give the gift to you. In simpler terms: God doesn’t force Himself on anyone in anyway! So if you ask, He will happily give!
So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
Matthew 7 NLT
3. Start speaking
Find a quite space...
Where no one can hear you except God and start speaking.
Start by praying in English (or your native language)...
Ask God for the gift of tongues and start speaking.
At first it will feel really forced, silly & fake.
It’s ok, just think when you learnt to speak as a child.
It was probably forced, sounded really silly & you faked it until you could understand what you were saying.
Just start speaking & focus more on God than the words coming out of your mouth.
It’s ok if you don’t understand them, it’s your Spirit communicating to God in a way that doesn’t need to be interpreted by our words. It will sound bizarre to you, but God will be able to interpret it.
So with all that explained...
What are you waiting for?