Since YPI...

     Ok, I realize I'm doing this blog out of order, but I am more anxious to write about what has happened since Youth Power Invasion (Curitiba, Brazil) than I am even about the things that took place while I was there. I had no idea that God was as interesting/amazing/fun as I have recently discovered. To give you some background incase you are reading this, and have no idea what YPI is all about, I went on a 2-week trip with over 200 Americans/Europeans to Brazil to connect with what the Holy Spirit is doing there. There is a revival happening there like no where else in the world. For the first week, we were trained in healing, prophecy, words of knowledge, impartation, and intercession. We also went with the speakers in groups to four different churches on four different nights. We saw all kinds of healings, manifestations, and miracles.
     As amazing as it was, I was adamant in prayer that I needed to be able to bring it back with me to Parker, AZ. In fact, I told God that I wanted to see Him move on the plane. I told Him I wanted to get words of knowledge and see healing even on the plane. I had no idea when I asked for this, how much God was willing to bless that desire.
     In my flight out of Sao Paulo to Santiago, Chile, I sat next to a man who was returning home to Chile. He didn't speak much English, but I speak Spanish well enough to get by, so we made small talk about what he had been doing in Brazil for awhile. Then he asked me why I was in Brazil. I smiled and began to tell him about YPI and all of the wonderful miracles and healings God did through me and around me. He waited for me to finish, and he said, "I don't believe that." I insisted that it was true, and began to explain more stories about words of knowledge and how God had shown me things about people I had never met. He sat back, crossed his arms and said, "Ok, show me what you've got." As you can imagine, I began to panic inside and stuttered and stammered as I tried to explain that I was new to all of this, and that I still didn't know exactly how it worked etc. He just sat back and waited. So I said, "Um, I think I need a minute to pray..." This is where I pulled out that secret prophet's prayer that Will Hart told us about, that goes something like this:
"Help me Jesus, help me Jesus, help me Jesus, help me Jesus, help me Jesus..."
     I'd love to be able to tell you that I clearly heard the Lord speak to me about this man. However, I didn't hear anything or see anything. I could imagine things about him, but who wants to risk God's reputation on that? I could imagine that his wife was pregnant, that he is a hypochondriac but couldn't be sure that was from God. So I turned and explained to him that I was still working on telling the Lord's voice from my own, and I asked him to forgive me if any of the information was wrong. I remember wincing as I asked him if he was a hypochondriac, to which he responded with a surprised expression and a simple, "Actually, yes." I totally freaked out. "What???? Really????? Oh my gosh!!!!" Then I suddenly remembered that when I sat down next to him I got a sharp pain in my stomach. Ordinarily I never would have said anything and would have passed it off as hunger pains, however, I was feeling a little more bold at this point. So I asked him if he had a stomach problem. Again, he looked surprised as he told me he had gastritis. "Oh thank God!" I said, and then quickly added, "Not that you have gastritis, just that I was right."
     I looked down at my journal where I had jotted down all of these things, and decided that the rest was too bold for me. Why ruin the good streak? Unbeknownst to me, he had been looking over my shoulder and pointed to something on my page. "What's THAT?" he asked. I began to hem and haw thinking that I had already blown it, when he added, "How did you know my wife is pregnant??" By this point I was totally freaking out and so excited I think I may have woken people up on the plane with my celebrating. Now I really had his attention. However, that wasn't all. "How did you know her name was Patricia?" he asked, freaking out himself at this point. Now I was confused more than excited. "What?" I asked. He pointed to my paper where, at the top of the page, just before getting on the plane, I had written down the name Patricia King. Someone I had been traveling with suggested I check out this speaker named Patricia King. It was the only other thing written on that page, and I had written 'wife pregnant' just underneath it. He started asking me questions like, "Is everything ok with my wife's pregnancy?" I'm like, "I don't know, I'm not a psychic, it's the Holy Spirit!"
     So I asked if I could pray for his gastritis and hypochondria, and he of course said yes. He didn't feel any heat or tingling like others had expereinced, but as I prayed for him my right hand began to shake and my body began to twitch. He couldn't test out the healing on the plane, unfortunately, because he had taken medicine, but he assured me he would test it out when he got home. Come to find out, he believed in a god, but he thought all religions were the same. He began to ask me theological questions, and for the rest of the plane ride we went through the Bible and talked about all kinds of things. It seemed like he had more doubts than I could answer, but as the plane landed, he said, "You know, there's a pentacostal church in my city. Maybe I'll go and check it out."
     I was so blessed by this plane ride. More than he'll ever know. It would have been awesome if that was all that happened on the way home. But it wasn't.