Divine Encounters
It’s perfectly fine to plan evangelistic events, and we do. But you will find that many of your opportunities to minister to the sick occur in what seem like random encounters that are really divine encounters.
For example, I was at the supermarket waiting in a long checkout line because the place was short-staffed and only had one checkout lane open. The line was wrapping back into one of the grocery aisles. The woman behind me said, “My arthritis is killing me!” I was able to share what Jesus had done for her and my wife and I had a chance to lay hands on her later in the parking lot. She was so taken up with the chance to be healed that she willingly let the ice cream she had just bought go soft so we could minister to her some more. She felt better by the time we got done.
My wife and I were at an ice cream stand and my wife struck up a conversation with a woman. We talked about some things, and the next thing we knew, the Lord healed her of COPD right there at the ice cream stand, and she could prove it by singing, which she had not been able to do for 20 years! She was so thrilled, she asked us to pray for her deaf husband, so we laid hands on him. He was healed on the spot and proved he could hear us, right in front of people waiting in line for ice cream! We had no intention of doing anything like that; we had just gone for the ice cream. But if you’re open to having God use you, such opportunities can come up quite often!
I was at a Home Depot waiting outside for my wife to do some shopping, and a Baptist man in a truck next to me started telling me all his troubles. I was getting ready to lay hands on him (with his permission) when his friend came out. Now I had to decide if I was going to go for it in prayer with both of them there. I did, and both Baptists felt the power of God hit them in their truck. They said they had never felt anything like that before. The anointing works everywhere, not just in church services.
I was in the meat aisle at a Walmart when someone was talking about how bad she felt. I was just walking around getting exercise while my wife was shopping. (I don’t love shopping, but my wife does, and I love my wife, so we usually go shopping on our weekly date nights, among other things.) I talked with her and got to command her to be healed in Jesus’ name. Then someone else saw this and wanted prayer, so I commanded that person to be healed. A third person had been laid up in bed for four days with a flu strain that was going around, but she needed food desperately and just happened to be there in the meat aisle when I was. She was healed on the spot and started running around the meat aisle in front of everyone rejoicing in her healing. I had more fun in that meat aisle that night than I did in some services!
Another man at a Bass Pro Shops was telling me his litany of woes, and I got to minister to him in the back aisle of the store.
A man at a Cracker Barrel restaurant was telling us his troubles and we got to command his body to be healed. We didn’t make a big scene; only the people at his table knew what we were doing. The name of Jesus works just a well in as low voice as when it’s screamed.
I got to lay hands on another man near the eighteenth green of the golf course we were playing.
I got to command someone else to be healed (with his permission) near an “endcap” between two aisles at the supermarket where we encountered the arthritic lady.
I could go on. When this becomes a lifestyle – offering healing to people who need it – “everyday” kinds of days can turn into fun days in a hurry!
Note that I am against pre-planned visits to stores where you just go around offering to pray for sick people without buying anything. A well-meaning church (not mine) tried to turn a certain Walmart into a revival center on a regular basis, and they were justly forced to stop. It’s their store and their parking lot, and they have the right to make you stop because it’s their private property. However, I’ve never had a store interfere with ministry when it was just the result of “random” conversations when I was there to buy things anyway. I know someone who laid hands on a deaf person at a Walmart and the person was healed on the spot. It can happen! Just don’t get yourself in trouble being there for that express purpose. If they make you leave, they are simply asserting their property rights, not persecuting you for the gospel’s sake.
A variation of this is when God leads you explicitly to a certain place, even though you had no plans to go there. You follow His leading, and someone is there who needs ministry who will let you minister. I remember a night when someone at the church we attended felt led to go to a certain parking lot on our outreach night so that we could meet a black man with dreadlocks. Sure enough, a black man with dreadlocks was there in that parking lot that night, and he got baptized with the Holy Spirit!
Praying for such events on purpose is known in some circles as a “treasure hunt” where people are the treasure you’re looking for. Cases like the one I just mentioned can be a real faith booster to the people involved. The only danger with a “treasure hunt” is getting the attitude that you’re only looking for one or two specific people, when God’s will is for EVERYONE to get something from Him. They won’t all be willing, but you don’t want to box yourself in. Be sensitive to the needs of everyone around you if you’re going out like this, not just waiting for one or two people. Good things can happen on “treasure hunts” to people whom no one saw in advance in prayer!
Be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading, and expect that you too will have divine encounters. It is biblical to ask God to open doors of opportunity for you to minister (Colossians 4:3), so you should expect answers to such prayers. It’s fun!
We’ve encouraged people in our churches to go out and do the same, and they are thrilled to see God use them this way too!