Praying For The City

Two of us went on the streets today, praying around the city. We went to the Court Buildings, the Cathedral, the City Council Building and the prison.  

My companion  picked up a Polish gospel tract as he came out this morning. Sure enough, we met a man walking his dog – he was Polish. His right hand was bandaged, damaged two days ago in an accident. We offered to pray for his hand, so while I did that my companion played with the guy’s dog. When I lapsed into praying in tongues, the Polish man said “I recognise that language” I said “what is it?” He replied “it’s Italian” I knew it wasn’t so I said: “no, it’s a heavenly language, not Italian”. After we prayed for him, we gave him the Polish tract and invited him to read it.

We carried on round the city, shedding a few tears as we prayed for those in power and authority over us, that justice and righteousness might prevail.

Healing Offer Rejected

On the streets today we met a 34 year old guy who walks round the country with his dog. He spent his childhood in care until the age of 14, when he walked out and has been walking ever since. It took him 3 weeks to walk to our city from South Devon. He normally covers 25 miles a day. As a result one of his knees is wearing out, bone rubbing on bone. We offered to pray for healing but he stubbornly refused it. He said God would do it when he needed it. We pointed out that God had already led us to this part of town and we were ready to do God’s will in offering him healing. Nothing we said could make him reconsider. He was short of a decent sleeping bag,  so as there was a sale on in Blacks the camping shop, we went off there to get him one. We picked up a good one, reduced from £39.99 to £15. When I took it to the cash desk to pay, the guy behind the counter smiled and said “that will be £2.50 please”. God is good! 

We took the sleeping bag to our friend and he received it gladly. He told us he had made a commitment to Jesus in prison many years ago and then had spoken in tongues. I asked if he still used tongues. He said he hadn’t tried. We blessed him and off we went.

While we had a coffee indoors in the market, the group on the table next to us saw our badges and asked what we did. We explained what we did and had a good conversation, passing them a couple of tracts in the process.

Prayed Over Drinker On Detox

A guy I knew came in for food and he was clearly suffering the shakes. He told us he was doing detox from alcohol and was part way through the 72 hr process. We chatted for a little while, during which time he told us the method he uses to get into the back of the local Iceland supermarket to get free out of date food.

He said his liver was painful too, so we offered to pray for him and he agreed. After praying a minute or so, he said was going to have a fit and needed to lie down. We put him on the sofa and I prayed over him in tongues for a few minutes, during which time the fit subsided and he became calm and peaceful. He attends a local baptist church, and had made some sort of commitment in the past. He said he would come back next week for a coffee and a chat and we wished him well on the detox.

Later on, a guy came in who I seemed to recognise from a previous visit. It turned out he was the Muslim guy I had witnessed to a couple of years back, had sent him a Christian book, and who is now a Christian.

The Preacher Was Undone

Last Saturday we did Healing On The Streets. Some 50 yards from us another group of Christians started preaching the gospel. One guy was really loud, and kept looking over to our team as he preached about sin and repentance. I eventually went over to them and saw that the loud preacher’s trouser zip was completely undone. I went up and told him this. Quick as a flash he retorted: “you shouldn’t be looking at me; you should be looking at Jesus!”

One of their team,as he arrived, came past us. We chatted and he asked me to listen to him speaking in tongues and tell him if I thought it was genuine. I asked for his testimony, and how he came by it. He told me it was at Colin Urquart’s church, where a woman prayed for him. I listened to his tongue and it sounded OK to me. I reminded him of Jesus’ words: “if you, who are evil, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good things/the holy spirit to those who ask him.”

He seemed reassured and went off to join his team of evangelists.