Met A Prophet

Yesterday I was swimming at a friend's relative's house; I went into the house to use the bathroom and met a prophet. I've not had much exposure to the prophetic gift before, but this beautiful, dark black man from Jamaica seemed to have it in spades. It wasn't so much his prophecies that were impressive--and only time will tell if he was right--but the discernment he was given about the lives of the people in attendance was just amazing, and certainly built faith in the rest of what he had to say.

He knew nothing about us. We didn't know why he was there or who had invited him. One of the leaders of the meeting knew us, but didn't know we were coming to swim, and the other one had never met us. And as I said, I was just...on my way to the bathroom.

As I came in, he was just speaking to my husband. The first thing he said was, "You are a very serious man and you enjoy studying." He went on to talk about him being a business man--not a logical connection, usually. But Papa Rooster is in fact, a priest/theologian by avocation and a business man by vocation. The first thing he said to me was, "You are in a season of rest [from ministry, it was implied by his later remarks]...You are caring for your family." To my friend who had wandered in after me he said, "You are worried about your family, especially one of your children." She has two HUGE concerns in her life right now--one was a child, and he nailed the other one too. He went on to say, "God has heard your prayers and you will see..." and he named two specific things that she and a prayer partner had just begun praying for! To another woman, unshowered and in her oldest clothes, he said, "I am not fooled by those clothes. I see wealth, wealth, wealth." She and her husband are, in fact, worth millions. To another young woman whose wedding is a month away, he said, "You are making a good marriage." To her soon-to-be father-in-law, though he didn't know he was that, he said, "I see you playing a guitar and singing, at a wedding, very soon...and being ordained as a minister." This man, late in his business career, has just started taking seminary courses.

His prophecies were all encouraging and hopeful. A few seemed a little over the top--trophies, medals, prizes. Or was it just his third world understanding of such concepts? But to a couple people, he had harder words to give. "You are on the rough side of the mountain, and you have more to climb, but restoration is coming." "I see darkness...but you will not die...and I see you praising God afterword." He spoke in a conversational tone, not emotionally worked up, with his eyes open as he "saw" images--like on a movie screen, he said. Occasionally, he would hear thing as well, such as dates which he would repeat; he said these were dates on which God was going to act and on which they should watch for Him. Every sentence was punctuated with "fillers" like "Hallelujah...Praise to Jesus Christ...Glory to God."

One of the most amazing prophecies he gave, we thought, was to Bantam 15, our son with high-functioning autism (who had come inside looking for everybody). He said, "You have many gifts, but you don't believe in yourself. You need...[and he said this slowly as if not a phrase he was familiar with] self-confidence. I see pain...God knows your pain. You think you cannot learn. I see that you have many gifts and abilities. I see improvement in your grades at school, a big improvement. People think you are antisocial, but you really are not. I see friends, more friends. I see a big change for you in 18 months...a change in your brain...a transformation in the way you think. I see that God wants to give you many of the dreams that you have. You will be a writer. You will invent things."

Our son's greatest challenges are with learning and with social understanding. Struggling in these areas has markedly diminished his self-confidence, which affects his speech and his peer relationships. He especially struggles to grasp basic mathematical concepts, and we have been praying for a change in the way his brain works. He has a great gift of creativity and his desires, until recently, have been to be a writer and an inventor. (He has just started thinking about becoming a priest.) In eighteen months and five days, he turns 17.

Remarkable, huh? No, I won't tell you what he said to me. As I said, only time will tell. And as he mentioned, not as an excuse but in an offhand way, "Sin can cancel out any of these blessings God wants to give."

And that was the biggest takeaway for me. God does want to pour out favor and blessing on those who walk in His ways. The Scriptures are full of such promises! It is truly by our own sin and by our choices to go our own way that we require his discipline. Even in tragedy, we have a choice to blame or demand explanation from God, or we can receive the blessings of his comfort, his love, his presence, and of life.

Psalm 34:10 ...They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.
Judges 5:31 Let them that love Him be as the sun when he goes forth in his might.
John 17:22 The glory which thou gavest me I have given them...
John 12:26 If any man serve me...him will my Father honor.
Proverbs 11:27 He that diligently seeketh good procureth favor...
Matthew 6:33 Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

At any rate, I think you'll have to agree: It was a most interesting trip to the bathroom.