The Christmas Story and Betting Your “Donkey”

Finally, Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore…          Ephesians 6:10-

Well, if you have been visiting this site wondering how odd it may seem, so erratic, so serious, and or so weird. I have to admit I am a Prayer Pastor. I know that sounds weird because I didn’t know such a thing existed until I became one. So I say all that to preface what I am about to say. You may need to know that this is the lens that I see through.

Last night some of our prayer people were invited to a local church to intercede for an event that was being held for a large group of homeless people. A small group of church people served food and beverages to multiple different homeless people coming from many different shelters. Now that I think about it, it sounds a lot like the parable of the banquet (Luke 14:12-). These folks were fed good food and were given a dance performance by about 60 kids ranging for 4 years old to 17 years old.

Before it started I was given the opportunity to pray for the performers. Some words that I spoke seem to come right out of the air and are still resounding in my heart. “Father it is through a child that you saved the world may it be trough a child that you save these grown men”. And may I tell you in advance that this is what happened. After we prayed they went loudly scurrying off to take there places and begin the show. In that time we were drawn to pray for the event, for about 15 or 20 minutes the Lord place all kinds of things in our mouths to pray. Some were poignant some were broad. We prayed that bondage would be broken and the shackles of oppression would be torn down. We prayed that the spirit of God would be present.

After we prayed we went down to the show. The large group of people were sitting glued to the stage where well trained and over practiced children performed there parts. It was beautiful, almost too beautiful. Can you imagine anything more beautiful, children teaching the elders. The simple making fools of the wise. It was precious. I could feel the real presence of the Lord brooding in the room. It was evident because no one could keep themselves from being fully captivated by the show. I will admit in every way the show was amazing, but nothing makes an event alive like the life giver.

About three quarters through the wonder-full show the narrator wisely told the audience that the show was taking a turn towards Christ and the warfare that is always pulling at all of us. The words were sober and most appropriate to the situation. All who were there were not at all disturbed by these words but seems fully prepared for what was going to happen kind of like telling a child that “we are going to the toy section of the store but we are not going to buy anything”.

After a few songs and visual portrayals of spiritual light and dark, including of course emphasis on Christ’s supremacy, the narrator came back. She asked if anyone wanted to receive Christ and to receive prayer. Hands went up like there was a reverse gravity pulling them up. Let me just give you a foot note here these men and women are poor, poor in spirit, poor in possessions… poor. But they saw the treasure that is spoken of as being the pearl of great price. The one thing that really matters. The Gospel.

The hands went up and we went to each of them with hearts full of Christ. I bounced around praying for all kinds of needs. And as I was walking through a man had his head on the table and didn’t have his hand up. I got close to him and asked him if I could pray for him. He said “yes”, I asked him his name he said “Steven”, I asked him if there was anything specific that he wanted prayer for he shook his head to say no. All the while keeping his head down. I begin to pray as I could only imagine someone in his position could need prayer. I prayer about bitterness towards people in his past, I prayed about strength, I prayed everything that I knew how. But I kept hitting a wall, kind of like a spiritual coldness that  hindered my prayer. I kept hitting this coldness, then I told him that scripture tells us that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord you will be saved. I asked him to say something to the Lord to invite him in. He didn’t say a word, his head was still down tears falling from his eyes straight to the ground as his head was still face the floor. I waited and watched all the while my hands were on his shoulders and my knees on the ground. I waited and watched then he began to tremble and I felt a bolt of the spirit begin to stream in like a river of life. It aloud me to pray again, not with a wall to hinder but with a rejoicing that led me to say phrase like “Jesus is real” and a “Thank you Lord”. After that moment I prayed random prayers of strength and encouragement and that was that.

After that things got real blurry for me. The joy of that experience is what still has me intoxicated. A few more acts followed and the group of men left as we all did. But what God did in that room will never be forgotten. God put a plan together so that he would be the main event. When people surrender to what God wants to do you can bet your “donkey” that things will never be the same.