The lady introduced herself as Dorothy. Perhaps in her late sixties, she was already standing at her front gate as I came along, telling me that she had heard me speaking with a neighbour two doors down, so she “came out for a chat too.” She said she was a widow and as a consequence didn’t get to talk much with people.
It was no time before she was telling me what seemed her life’s story – from Sunday school as a child, to her three grown children, her dead husband, her dislike of Catholics “and all others who say they are the one true church.” Then she spoke about her fear of strangers, plus all her sicknesses – anxiety, arthritis, angina, thrombosis and blood clots. She didn’t seem to be aware of her anger and bitterness in all this but it was showing up in her speech, which made me wonder if those emotions were among the root causes of her sicknesses.
On listening to her story, I asked Dorothy if she knew anything about the gospel of Jesus Christ. She said could remember “little bits and pieces from Sunday school as a child.” I offered to pray for her at that point and as such, she was pleased to invite me inside. I did pray for her, taking authority over every demonic spirit I could sense and then asked the Lord to reveal Himself to her from this day forward in both practical and spiritual matters. She thanked me warmly for such a prayer.
I was in her home talking for about forty minutes, then it was time to leave. On the way out she told me a Jehovah’s Witness lady visits her once a month, but “only for a coffee, not their beliefs.” The fact that they too teach that they are the one true church didn’t seem to register with her, but I kept those thoughts to myself. Dorothy invited me back whenever I would be next in her street.
Two months later I was walking towards her home and she was at the front fence tending her shrubs when she saw me from quite a distance. She stood and waved and invited me inside again. This time we spoke for over an hour about the reality and power of Jesus Christ, with Dorothy asking lots of questions. At one point she paused and then asked me if I happened to be “just walking in my street or did you intend visiting me?” I told her it was my intention to visit, to which she said, “You were sent by God today.” I agreed.
She told me that a few nights previously she went to bed feeling agitated and worried. But while she was lying there she had a quick vision of either a “very peaceful Jesus or an angel – just a flash.” Immediately after that, she said she too became very peaceful, so she rolled over and went straight off to sleep. Dorothy said her usual practice was to lie awake for hours in bed trying to get to sleep. I took the opportunity here to encourage her to continue to build up her faith, by reading the New Testament daily and allowing Jesus Christ to minister to her through it and also to continue daily in prayer with Him.
Dorothy accepted the truth that if she wanted to stay in tune with the Lord, then she needed to know what He has revealed to her through the Scriptures. She asked me what the difference was between what we believed, in comparison to her Jehovah’s Witness friend. In reality there are vast differences, but keeping it simple, I explained that basically it comes down to two things – they deny Jesus Christ as God Jehovah and they deny the existence of the Trinity of God.
Because Dorothy believed it was Jesus she saw in her vision, resulting in her experiencing immediate peace, she said she had no problems in accepting Jesus for Who He says He is in the gospels. And although like most of us who have difficulty in understanding and explaining the Trinity of God, she accepted the reality of such by faith, because Jesus revealed this in His teaching also. I did visit this lady a couple of more times, but like so many people I met in this work, she came into my life for a season and then I saw her no more.
A week later I met a forty-eight year old man with an amazing story to tell. He told me he once fell from a height of two hundred and fifty feet into timber and lots of mud. The only damage was “a broken wrist and a sore leg.” A few years later, he said he fell from forty feet into sand and broke his spine. As a result of that fall he cannot now work.
Then he said he was compensated with a lot of money which his wife “blew.” According to him she simply spent and spent, but forgot all about the household bills, not the least of these being the house payments. He told me the money ruined his marriage.
This man knew the reason for my visit so he asked a few questions about God, at the same time telling me he was “not religious.” I asked him if he’d ever given God a thought in all of these events, to which he replied that he had, “from time to time given Him a lot of thought.” He told me that once he was supposed to go on a long car trip with his mates, but he slept in. On that trip one of his mates was killed, the other one was badly injured. So that was the major reason God came into his thoughts – why? why? – “why them and not me?” I responded by saying that we will never know the answer to that question, but that perhaps it was God Himself who placed those thoughts within him.
I further responded by telling him that he could know and experience the reality and power of Jesus Christ in his life today and, from this day forward he could experience a new beginning. He allowed me to share the gospel of Christ with him and explain what this meant for him personally. At the end of my sharing he asked me to pray for this reality of the Lord in his life. So with the laying on of my hands to his head I prayed a prayer, also asking him to pray to the Lord as well. He did.
I made arrangements to have a New Testament Bible and some appropriate Scripture helps sent to him, he thanked me very much, we shook hands and I never saw him again. “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust in Him.” Nahum 1:7