Treasure Hunt 1-17-09

First of all, for those of you that don’t know what a treasure hunt is, it is where we ask God who He wants us to bless or minister to today; and He tells us various clues to help us find them, such as: location, name, physical description, what they need prayer for (specific injury or illness, finances, lost job, marriage problem, etc). We write this all down on a sheet of paper (the Treasure Map), then go find the person (God’s treasure). We then meet them, explain what we’re doing, and offer to pray for them… We’ve seen multiple people blessed and healed as a result of this evangelism that relies on the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Last Saturday, Jasmine and I went on a Treasure Hunt. We walked into Costco, and around 20 feet inside the door, we saw a kid with his right arm in a cast and a sling. Jasmine had on her treasure map “boy with brown hair w/ arm in sling” and I had on mine “right arm in cast”. We decided to go for it based on those clues. He was standing there with his mom. We talked for a minute, then his dad came up to join us. He was on a “motorized cart” with a “cane” in the basket… both of which I had on my treasure map. Awesome. We shared the map with this family and they were curious and said we could pray for the boy (Matthew)’s arms. They were already believers that attend a Charismatic-type church in the area, so we could speak plainly with them.

We prayed for his arms and he said that 100% of the pain left his arms immediately. We then asked the dad (Curtis) why he was on the motorized cart, and he said he had bad arthritis in his knees and it hurt to walk. Jasmine had “knee problems” on her map. We prayed for his knees and the right one was immediately 100% pain free, but the left one still had about 20-30% of the pain left. I got a word of knowledge that he had serious “low back pain” (turned out to be on Jasmine’s map). I asked him to stand up so we could pray. We prayed for his back and 100% of the pain left. I then asked him to check out the left knee, and he reported 100% pain was now gone. “Pain? What pain?” he said, amazed. Then Jasmine got a word of knowledge about the mom (Carrie) working with kids and teaching, which she confirmed that yes, she teaches kids every week.

I said, “Hey, we’re on a roll… Is there anything YOU need prayer for? She said that she also had low back pain. I asked what it was from, and she said she had a car accident. I pulled out my treasure map again and showed her where it said “low back pain from a car accident” on it… “No WAY!” she said. We prayed and 100% pain left immediately. I got a word of knowledge that she had problems in her right leg coming from the hip area down the leg and she confirmed that she had sciatica that shot pain down her right leg. I quickly repeated all the clues God had pegged them with so far, “boy with brown hair w/ arm in sling”, “right arm in cast”, “motorized cart”, “cane”, “knee problems”, “low back pain”, “low back pain from car accident”… I said, I don’t even think we need to pray, just check yourself out and I think God already did it. She did and God had already healed it. She said that there had been pain in her hip and leg even when we first started talking, but now it was 100% gone.

I got a word from the Lord that He was imparting to her right then a serious increase in the gifts of healings and working of miracles and that He wanted to use her to heal people. She said excitedly, “My hands are burning! My hands are burning!” I wanted to find someone for her to pray for, but didn’t see anyone in the immediate area that had any obvious physical problem… Darn! Anyway, they were all still 100% pain free. They said that Matthew had an appointment for a checkup on his arms the coming week. We are hoping that the doctor’s report confirms the work of God in him. Praise God.. it was a good encounter and God’s love was revealed to this family and He received much glory!

UPDATE:

We ran into them at Wal-Mart the other day (Redding is not a big city), and we got an update from them:

Carrie told us that since we all prayed together at Costco, both her and Curtis’ backs, the sciatica and knees were all better. Perhaps the coolest news was that Matthew immediately stopped taking pain killers after he was prayed for because the pain did not return. He was supposed to have the casts on both of his arms for SIX weeks; but he went for his scheduled checkup appointment a couple of days after we prayed, and got his casts off after only THREE weeks because his arms were healed!!

Isn’t God AMAZING?!?! It’s always nice to hear when doctors confirm what God did…

Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever… He’s still walking through cities, preaching the Kingdom, and healing the sick today.. through His Body (that’s US!)

PRAISE THE LORD!