Who Would Have Ever Thought?

I would never have thought when I went through the prayer experience almost 10 years ago that I would be leading almost 50 people through training that will prepare them to lead others in deliverance prayer.

Last weekend was our third training weekend for Healing Prayer. We decided to open the doors wider and train in a weekend format; rather than in a week to week format so more people could join in.

We weren't prepared for those hungry to grow in their prayer life to come from the extended greater Seattle area: Bremerton, Paulsbo, Maple Valley, and even, Mount Vernon. We were surprised that whole groups of people came; one church had four come for training so they could start their own Healing Prayer Ministry. The group from Maple Valley kept growing because the testimonies of their own healing through the training spurred others to come!

I was thinking about my own experience before we moved to Seattle and how absolutely transformed I was by the prayer. Life got much easier; the struggles seemed to become much less and the sense of Jesus' presence grew much stronger. As I read the evaluations of the trainees experience overall; I got a sense that they were experiencing the same.

Some people get freaked out by the thought of deliverance prayer; imagining it to be something far different than it is. I guess the movie the Exorcism became the measure for thinking about it; but in reality, it is simply inviting Jesus to come and clean us out so there is more room for him. One of the women who went through the training wrote "She was amazed at normal and straight forward it was."

The best part for me is the end. We all gather around candles glowing in the dark as the candles remind us that "Jesus is the Light of the World." We each light a candle, from one another as we state how God has moved in us through our experience of learning to and experiencing prayer.

As we went around the circle, people from very different Christian faith expressions, different ethnicities and economic status, as well as different life stages stated their hunger to know and follow Jesus in deeper ways and their commitment to want to continue relationship with one another because of how God moved in them when they were together with kindred spirits.

One woman remarked on how this moved her; our differences becoming so far less when we come together in unity with Jesus. I stood there celebrating because this was what Jesus had showed me in the beginning that Missio Lux would do; calling people into a deeper relationship with him so that our differences fell to the ground and our love for one another would continue to expand.

We aren't finished yet: the desire to learn and to experience Jesus has called us to create a fourth weekend where we will take all three segments: physical, emotional and spiritual healing and integrate them together.

We are also coming together for the Worship Services and the prayer services at Marionwood and Spiritwood in Sammamish. We also meet the first and third Tuesdays for community and prayer and continuing training.

I never dreamed that all this would happen that day I received deliverance prayer, or that such amazing expansion would take place through training; but this is the result of taking one step at a time in response to Jesus' direction in our lives.

I know that if I knew all the stories of how God uses each person to help others "experience and share the freedom and hope Jesus offers everyone" that I would never stop blogging!