The Miracle Sweater

Thank you for reading my blog today.  I hope these testimonies inspire and encourage you.  Like most folks just prior to Christmas I had opportunities to be shopping but I was also looking for public Kingdom Encounters.  I have discovered that most people are receptive to prayer and many will let me pray for them, even without them knowing what I believe, or in whom I believe.  All I do is simply be friendly, and look for ways to bring God up in the conversation and then ask if they need any prayer.  Sometimes they say no, but I will frequently yet gently probe asking if they have health issues for themselves or extended family, and then will sometimes ask if they need prayer for relationships or personal finances.

Last week while walking through a Sam’s Club, I was offered a free sample by a lovely young African American lady who had bleached her hair blonde and I complimented her hair color and style.  This led to her being very receptive to prayer as I witnessed to her, and she ultimately wanted prayer for her relationship to grow in and with the Lord. We had a nice prayer time right in the middle of the store. Then, I shared a Kingdom Encounter card with her and told her about our church plant too.  

Later that week I was at Whole Foods and enjoyed another conversation with a lady at the deli.  She was so happy and I commented on that, but her reply indicated that there was pain behind the smile, so I offered to pray for her, and she requested that she could be as happy at home as she was paid to be at work. I had a short prayer for her and her face beamed.  I believe this second smile was genuine.

Speaking of smiling, while coming out of a grocery store with my son Jason, I decided to start skipping, jumping and dancing as if I were in a musical production and some folks in the cars going past us started smiling and waving and we just had fun making others laugh.  I believe we carry the joy of the Lord!                                             So why not express it!

Earlier that week, I was at a J C Penney’s and my son Jason and I were looking for a Christmas present for my wife.  I found a really nice sweater, but unfortunately they had every size displayed but hers.  So I went to a check out person and inquired if they had more in the back and she told me that there were none in the back.  She did offer to check her computer and discovered that other Penney’s in the area had her size, but that this current store had sold out of that particular size.

I asked her if I could pray for her, but she turned me down, so I just said I was going to pray that I would find the sweater in that current store.  She assured me that the computer would have indicated if there was still one around even if it had been misplaced elsewhere in the store.

Jason and I headed around the store looking for the sweater, that had already been sold, but I felt confident that God had told me there was one left.  After walking around for awhile, I suggested to Jason that we broaden our search, and so we went further out and away from that section, and sure enough in a very short amount of time, Jason located the sweater in Diane’s size.  We took it to the check out counter and the lady had this amazed look on her face when I shared that after prayer we found the sweater that the computer said did not exist in that store.  I also shared one of our Kingdom Encounter cards with her.

Matthew 4:17 instructs us to recognize that the Kingdom of Heaven is always at hand. You and I have opportunities every day to see the Kingdom expanded and utilized.  Acts 17:28 further shares that in Him, (Jesus) we live and move and have our being. So yes, Jesus even lives and moves in and around Sam’s Club, Whole Foods and J.C. Penney.

To be honest I don’t know if that sweater somehow did not get imputed into the computer and God revealed that to us, or if God just had it supernaturally appear, but this much I do know, that in each of the cases above, I prayed, and God answered.  Here is Diane pictured with me, and wearing that sweater.