“It’s All Yours”

Some Sundays are different than any other you have ever had in your life.  Today was one of those days for me.

Madelynn, my oldest daughter, had a soccer tournament this weekend about 45 minutes away from home.  Our rule for playing on the travel team when we signed up for it was that we were great with her playing travel ball as long as we didn’t have to miss being in church on Sunday.  Some of the tournaments we were able to schedule speaking events for Not On My Watch in the same cities and made it all work together for all events.

As soon as the schedule came out for this weekend’s games, we made a plan for how it would all work out.  She was able to play the 9:00am game on Sunday and we had made plans to visit a church for a service that started at 11:00am.  The game played fast and we pulled out of the soccer field parking lot at 10:26am.  As we were pulling out on a main road to head to the church, I looked out the left side of the window and noticed a church right next to the fields and we pulled in as people were flooding into the open doors of the church foyer.  I quickly jumped on my phone and discovered that their services started right at 10:30am and their statement of faith on their website seemed to be a good fit…so we made the quick pivot as a family to worship at this church instead of the one we had planned the night before.  If you know our family personally, you know that this is not a normal pattern for us but we went with this change of plans.

Upon entering, we all quickly ran to the restroom and then tried to file into an empty row about halfway back on the left side of the sanctuary as the band was leading into the second song.  We all knew the songs that were being sung and we just started worshiping along with this church family. 

The worship leader led us into the last song (they didn’t tell us it was the last song I guess it was just a hunch from being around church for my whole life) and the pastor made his way to the pulpit with his Bible and message in hand ready to bring the message.  The pastor then began to pray as the service was transitioning from corporate worship into the message, yet I could tell the pastor (whom I had never met before in my life) was getting emotional and as I looked around this seemed to be a surprise to the congregation.  I could tell what was happening was not a normal occurrence, yet our visitor status didn’t lend us the template for the day. 

The pastor began to pray as he walked along the stage of the sanctuary and I closed my eyes to join him in prayer.  I’m not sure how much time passed, but the room got quiet and I opened my eyes to the see a friendly 70-something year old face staring at me. 

“Ma’am.  I have to be obedient to the Lord.  I don’t even know what this means but God would not allow me to continue on in the service without telling you this…” he said. 

This was an abnormal day that I was not prepared for.  First of all, I hadn’t even planned on coming to this church today.  Secondly, I wasn’t dressed like I would normally for church….it was jeans, a shirt, and my casual sandals that I had worn to the ball field.  Thirdly, this type of day is almost like an eclipse — comes around only once in a while.

I looked him straight in the eyes, his being filled with tears.

“The Lord says — it’s all yours.  All of it.  Every bit of it.  It’s yours.  I don’t know what that means.” 

I didn’t have time to process.  Words just welled up from my heart and overflowed off my tongue before I could even stop them.

“I know exactly what that means!” I spat out my mouth.  Sometimes when your brain doesn’t have time to catch up to your mouth it can be a bad thing….this wasn’t one of those times.

His face filled with relief almost as if to signal that he was relieved that the words he felt he needed to share were received with confirmation….see God is doing a billion things at once and we can only perceive a few of them at a time.

He then proceeded to lay his hand upon my forehead and prayed for me.

After a few moments, I opened my eyes and glanced at Jeff.  We didn’t have to say anything to each other but we both knew what each other was thinking….probably due to us being married for almost two decades but also because this was a confirmation of prayers that we have been praying together.

I thanked the Lord and knew that we had been at the right place at the right time.  And I thought our miracle day was over….but I didn’t know there would be more.

The service proceeded for about five more minutes and everyone began to take their seats and the worship team played softly as the pastor was still attempting to transition to his message.  So, I continued praying along with the congregation as the pastor was praying.  He then stopped again.

“I know this is different…to the woman I was praying for earlier, where are you?”

Oh my goodness!  This was the type of event that scared (and slightly intrigued) my friends growing up when I invited them to a Spirit-filled church with me.

I raised my hand.

“This type of thing has never happened to me in all my years of pastoring, but I can’t get away from it.”

Could God have possibly orchestrated all of this?

“Can you come down front with me?  You can bring your husband if you want.”

I slipped out the aisle and started walking forward.

“Closer, please.”

I moved closer.

“Right here, up front please.”

I stood exactly where he asked me to.

“Would I be right to say that you’ve been having a lot of change in your life right now?”

Nodding yes to his question was an understatement.

“I don’t know where you are in this transition.  I’m getting a glimpse of the end and it’s really good.  It’s all good.  Whatever it is, it’s good.  Really good.”

This man had no clue who I am or what changes we’ve been encountering, but the word of encouragement was so timely and necessary.

He prayed for me and then moved onto Jeff.

“I’m getting a picture in my mind of a concrete mixer, the kind you see on job sites.  The kind that mixes concrete.  The Lord wants me to remind you that He is making you into a strong man of God.  Incredibly strong.  You are a STRONG man of God,” he belted.

“I want to give you my personal phone number because when all this occurs, I’m going to need you to call me back so that I can hear about the fruition of this day.”

He then prayed for us and we walked back to our seats.

Essentially, the service was over.  We prayed for a few more minutes and the church was dismissed.

It was as if God came into that place just to speak to Jeff and I.  I know that others were encouraged, I believe the pastor’s faith was built today, but I know for sure that this will be a day that Jeff and I will never forget.  A day that we could never have planned or orchestrated ourselves.  In fact, we almost missed the turn into the parking lot, but God never missed a beat.

I share all of this in an article because I don’t want to ever forget what God did for me today.  But, I pray that it will also be an encouragement to you that God sees, He knows, and He still works miracles!