May 22 / Proverbs 22 / Luke 8

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Proverbs 22:22

Do not abuse poor people because they are poor, and do not take away the rights of the needy in court.

How you treat the poor, needy, children, and animals says a lot about you. For these can give you little in return. They are easily taken advantage of. A good heart will treat even the least of these with dignity and respect. A good heart sees the value of each person for who that person is, never lumping them into some category to be judged unworthy of our attention. Oh how we love to categorize and dismiss! It’s so effortless, which is at least part of the attraction.

Never forget that every person you will see today was made by God, in His image, and has the potential to change the world for the better.

EVERY

PERSON.

Luke 8:11

The seed is God’s message.

Just give the word of God.

He will work it in the hearts according to His will.

Trust the word.

Notice it is GOD’S message, not yours.

So do not put unnecessary pressure on yourself. Simply let God’s word penetrate hearts as only it can.

Don’t stop giving the word of God, whether His written word or Spirit-given. The Holy Spirit still speaks, if we but listen. Sometimes He gives us a word for someone else. Which is cool.

Allow me a personal story of illustration. Over a year ago, I had this dream in which I received a prophetic message for a teacher at our daughters’ school, Oaks Academy. Now this teacher, Mrs. Kelly, was in her first year at our Brookside location, after transferring from Fall Creek. So we had formally met maybe once, and I remember a conversation I had with Jesus that morning on the way to her classroom.  “OK Jesus, I’m suppose to tell this woman, ‘I had a dream about you last nite with a message, by the way, my name is Rob?’ How creepy is this gonna sound?” It’s difficult to explain the clarity of such a dream or word to give, but I can say confidently that it is crystal clear, and that I was definitely to tell Mrs. Kelly what I heard. Otherwise I obviously wouldn’t be doing this. As I approached her room, I remember praying, “I’m trusting You that this is what You want! I will obey You no matter how weird it is…” She greets me with a smile, I re-introduce myself, and thought quickly to myself, “Whatever you do, don’t blurt out something like ‘I dreamed about you last nite!'” I just began–“This may sound odd, but I received a message for you in a dream from the Holy Spirit that I’m suppose to share with you.” “OK.” She was very cordial. I just delivered the message straight up, “You need to trust, there is going to be a healing in your family.” I could tell by her non-verbal cues, that she was at least slightly frightened by me. It doesn’t help that I dress the way I do–like a Star Wars geek biker who runs a gym. She did a very fine job of keeping her composure, I must say. She accepted it and thanked me, probably wanting to run away. “Alright, well have a nice day,” I told her, then turned around to walk away. Well, that was weird. “OK, Jesus, I did it.”

Fast forward to over a year later to April 2016. My wife Ana and I are on the fourth grade overnite trip to Saint Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana. Mrs. Kelly teaches fourth grade and is on the trip. (Our 4th grade daughter Gabriela has the other fourth grade teacher, Mr. Crawshaw.) It’s the second day, sitting at breakfast before we hit the road for home. Mrs. kelly comes over to sit with a group of us at our table. “Mr. Pallikan, I wanted to share something with you. You came into my classroom a year ago and shared a word with me.” Oh boy, here it comes. She tells the story to fill everyone in, and admitted that she went to the librarian after I talked with her to ask if I was legit. Not remembering my name, she asked, “The guy with the long hair, is he for real?” Thank God Miss Putzier, the librarian, stuck up for me and said I was totally legit and that there was nothing to worry about. I owe her one! Mrs. Kelly goes on, “What I didn’t tell you was that my husband was having some horrible health issues at the time. His GI issues got to the point where he literally couldn’t eat anything. Last summer we saw that Heidi Baker was gonna be in Chicago, and we decided to drive up.” (For those of you who are not familiar with Heidi Baker, she is a Christian missionary who has the gift of physical healing, and has restored blind people’s sight and even raised the dead around the world.) So the Kellys go to this conference, but some guy was there instead of Heidi for some reason. He also had this gift of healing, and at the end, he said he was going to do something he doesn’t normally do, and asked  if anyone needed healing right then and there, and to come forward.

So Mr. Kelly went up.

And he was healed.

Instantly.

She said, “He felt so good that we drove straight from there to eat at Perkins, and it didn’t bother him a bit. He’s been fine ever since. So your word was true. It really happened.”

Oh my goodness, vindication! She shared how she totally believes in healing and prophetic words, so when I approached a year ago, it wasn’t that strange to her, she just didn’t know me. She also said that the word I gave her was, “You need to trust, your husband is going to be healed.” I don’t remember that I specifically said her husband, but it wouldn’t surprise me that the Spirit would say that. Praise be to God that He still speaks, and still heals!

I’ll say in closing, that we cannot really comprehend fully the Word of the Lord or the changing of a heart, and I don’t think we are responsible for the comprehension or changing since it is something only God can do. Yet we are responsible for doing what we can do, what God calls on us to do, to obey that still small voice and speak to whomever He puts on our heart. I’m sure we’ve all had that voice telling us to call someone, or write someone, or something like that, haven’t we?

Obey that voice. It’s always worth it.

Then speak His message, not your own agenda.

Pray on it.

Trust in it.

Rest in it.

Pray to God.

Trust in God.

Rest in God.

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