Yesterday was a little different than usual for me – I worked a half-shift instead of a full shift and had the afternoon free. I had to stop by a friend’s house to pick up our share of raw milk from a farm co-op we belong to. This couple, my wife and I, and one or two other people have formed our own ‘church’, and we fellowship every Tuesday night over dinner and an episode of “Marvel: Agents of Shield.” From time to time the agenda will change and we will end up doing something else for the evening, but both regularly and impromptu we gather in each others’ homes, break bread together, and simply BE the Body of Christ.

While I was there this afternoon, the wife of the couple (we’ll call her “Kay”) and I took a few spontaneous moments to pray for her as she and her husband are assisting with an important event this weekend from their ‘Normal’ church. We stood by the kitchen counter and simply held hands wordlessly, receiving and releasing God’s Presence and Love into the matter. While doing this we chatted some, but spent a large part of that time silent, enjoying and seeking God silently in our hearts.

After a few minutes of this, I was ‘ready’ to be done praying, but Kay hadn’t let go. I could have simply moved my hands away, but something about the situation kept me from stopping – and it’s good that I did. In that moment I made a conscious choice to wait just a little longer. I decided in my heart not to simply pray for her, but to also let God’s love and peace well up in me. I chose to cease being simply a conduit from God-to-Kay and instead become a vessel willing and ready to be filled. As I did this, I could feel my own internal atmosphere begin to shift, as well as the air space directly around my body. It took on a sort of gentle energy-filled state, almost like being in a small breeze or suddenly surrounded by a peaceful current of water. This is what the presence of Holy Spirit often feels like to me – a gentle moving and subtle shifting of the atmosphere right around me.

As I gave in to this feeling, letting God be God and I being open to His goodness, things started to happen. Kay mentioned to me that she had been having wrist pain and stiffness over the past few days that had appeared somewhat suddenly and was becoming troublesome. I began to pray over the wrist and command all demon spirits to leave, when Kay suddenly coughed – a common occurrence when demons leave the body, and a good sign of success. After praying for a few more minutes and doing a little more spiritual work on her body, her wrist was significantly better, with only the last remnants of the pain and stiffness remaining.

Right as we finished praying, her right ear started to get stopped up and her hearing diminished, and her left ear which has been having this problem for weeks suddenly worsened. Being no stranger to the activity of demons, this was clearly the work of spirits attempting to find another place to afflict. We moved to the ears next, and I placed my hands on the sides of her head. We both continued with this wordless soaking-type prayer as my right hand began to vibrate and tremor as God’s power started touching her ears.

When we finished praying for her ears, her right ear was restored and her left ear far better than it had been for some time. And then one of her housemates, “Sarah”, came down on her way to a prayer gathering at another church. We took about 2 minutes, as she needed to get out the door, to pray for her and decree more of Heaven into her life, and then we all headed out to finish our own errands for the day. Each of us left touched by God in some way, filled up and strengthened for whatever tasks lay ahead.

As I pondered this event – something simple and spontaneous yet impacting, I realized that there was more to this than the immediate event. I felt God speaking to my heart about a message for many in this time. We all go through situations in life where we need to be encouraged or strengthened and where we need a touch from Heaven. Some of those times we pray and receive the answer and other times we go away disappointed. Other times we keep on and continue to pray and seek and ask and knock, knowing that God’s Word says that ‘everyone who asks will receive, he who seeks will find, and to him who knocks the door will be opened.’

There are many of us right now who have been asking and seeking, some even begging for God to do certain things. The answers have not come, and we’re ready to stop, possibly give up, and move on. In the same way that I was getting ready to finish praying but the job wasn’t done, I needed to come back and take a fresh look at things. For everyone who is getting ready to give up, to stop praying, stop seeking, stop asking, and stop knocking, now is a time to press through. Now is a time to come back to a place of centering on Him and His goodness and letting him not just manifest through you, but also to FILL you. DO NOT GIVE UP!!

For as surely as the rain comes in due season, so will the rain of heaven pour itself upon your life. In every area that you have been asking for God to come and touch, He will come and fill it. Continue to press through, even after you feel like you can’t do it anymore. Return to the Lord in your heart that times of refreshing would come. Wait on him once more, wait just a little longer. For “Your breakthrough shall come” says the Lord. “I am not a liar, that I should say one thing one moment and another the next. No, all the promises I have given you are ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ in my Son Jesus Christ. Continue to seek ME – look to Me and you will find your rest and peace – a rest and peace which will carry you into the next season full of joy and singing. Yes, you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you in singing and the trees shall clap their hands.”