some of the fruit

Without overcommitting, last month mentioned possibly penning a post or two about some of the fruit that's been sparsely mixed in with the barrenness during this long winter season.


A few weeks ago, on the night of February 14th and into the morning of February 15th, I drove overnight from Tennessee to Texas.

I got a later start than I'd intended, leaving about 8:45pm on Wednesday night and getting to my destination around 7:30am Thursday morning.

At 3:00am, I'm driving along when all of a sudden the Holy Spirit brings someone to mind. It's a friend who is a missionary. They have commonly been in Africa (Sudan, Tanzania, etc) with a sprinkling in Europe over the two years that I've known them.

They usually come home for very brief visits twice a year, once in December and once in July.

So I'm driving along and the Spirit does His thing, and as I start to think of them I begin to surge into God's heart to know what is going on with them.

I have no interest in sissy, vague-ish prayers. You know those types of prayers, "oh God, please bless So-n-So. Bless their work for You. Keep them safe as they serve You and sow seeds for your Kingdom, Lord, blah blah blah."

Ehhh! That doesn't fly in my book. Too generic, too superficial, too marginalized.

After all, are we not to be salt, rather than some weak, diluted something else that has lost its saltiness?

I want to REALLY know what is going on, hundreds or thousands of miles away. Distance means nothing.

I don't know how to explain it, but suffice it to say when I really pressed into God with regard to my friend I got something back.

As I pressed in, I got the sense that at that very hour, at that moment (3am where I was), they were in some type of intense situation above and beyond their normal decisions and routine of life as a missionary.

There was something of intensity, concern, perhaps even gravity, going on. Not that a missionary in Africa's life is without concerns and perils already, it just seemed like this "whatever it was" was something extra, not normal, not what they would generally encounter. It didn't seem to the point of life-threatening, but it did seem of great importance.

So that is what I prayed. I prayed for whatever intense, trying, perhaps even perilous situation they might be involved in.

I always make a point to note what time it is this friend is brought to mind for prayer. Since they could be in any time zone in the world, I like to tell them the day and time I was praying for them to see if/how that measures up with what they were doing or encountering at the time.

In my history for praying for them, there have been times the prayers were for general things, and others when I sensed the prayer was for that moment. This one was one of those "in this moment" ones, or so it seemed...

I had no idea, really. When I first have these prayers the thought definitely goes through my mind "Am I whack? Why on earth did I pray that? That is crazy, I'll have to let them know and see if I was totally off base or what."

So thanks to my laptop being out of commission, I didn't have the chance to email this friend until eleven days later, on February 26th. I described to them what went on in the middle of the night, in the wee hours of the morning of the 15th in the U.S..

Sometimes it is some time before hearing back from them, and I expect this because they are out of the States so much of the year and Africa is not exactly teeming with Starbucks or wi-fi connections.

To my surprise, I received an email from them within 24 hours.

Here is their reply:


"Its been a while. Hope you are doing well.

Wow, I read your email the first time and was like.... hmmm... couldn't think of anything happening that night. But I read the dates wrong.

Later in the day, I re-saw the dates & realized. I flew back to the U.S. on 2/14 and a friend of mine picked me up in my car really late at the airport. At about 2.00 am (my time, add an hour for central to 3.00 am), my car overheated & we were stranded on the side of the road in Montana, which might as well be the middle of no where. We waited for someone to pick us up from the missionary organization, but meanwhile dodged some weirdos that 'stopped to help'. Since we were only single women, we were skeptical of any 'help' at that hour of the night. We were praying no one else would stop & were fighting some fear since I didn't have a cell phone signal.

So, Yeah WOW.... you heard from God. Be encouraged & I'm really touched... how much God loves us, He prompts people to pray on our behalf the moment we need it. I'm stiting here with the friend who was waiting in the car with me and she can't belive it! She's like, 'whoa... that gives me chills.' Needless to say, THANK YOU FOR Praying."

The thing that really trips me up about today's Body is the notion that the life of a follower of Jesus, life being nudged and led by the Holy Spirit, is this orderly, sane, tranquil, pain free, euphoric existence.

To the contrary, I commonly find the things the Holy Spirit prods me to do seem nuts from a human standpoint.

Because of this, every time I send this friend an email I always start off with a disclaimer: "this is probably going to sound weird, but...", "I could well be wrong, but..." and then proceed to mention what went on in my thinking, praying and pondering about them has been.

The human part of my mind shouts I have no clue what is going on half the world away. And I don't.

It's just like in the movie Field of Dreams when Costner says "I have just created something totally illogical." When nudged by the Spirit it is common to do and pray things that are totally illogical...

This was not the first time that what was nudged to pray for my friend was spot on. No kudos for me, that's the Holy Spirit.

The word for Spirit (from Holy Spirit) in the bible is the same for word for "breath" and "wind". So yeah, when we lean into God we are close enough to hear his Breath, hear when the Spirit speaks what's going on with God. (John 16)

When life becomes one of intercourse and being led by God's Spirit, it's natural for part of us to think what we hear is nuts. He tells us and prods us to say and do things that sometimes seem totally whack.

Don't for one minute think it's a quiet, orderly, serene thing when we become part of what God is doing.

Go read the book of Acts, or dare to tell God you want to be part of His life (versus asking Him to be part of yours), and then tell me I'm lying.

Be forewarned. If you tell God you want to get in on the script He's penning, get ready for some MAJOR tilling and unearthing. You can pretty much bank your life will become pretty close to opposite what is being preached in the pulpit.

(The pulpit has to preach safely. They have to keep the people coming in the doors to pay the mortgage and the salaries. It's thin ice to preach about life as we know it becoming uprooted and disheveled.)

But that's how much of a gentleman God is. He doesn't brow beat anyone away from playing country club into a life of dishevelment without their asking for it. Most people are introduced to a safe, country club type of Christianity from the word go. If we want to play country club, make our appearances and live in the realm of "I'm blessed, brother, how are you", so be it.

Doing so will relegate us to Christian "power" consisting of 'lifestyle evangelism', being a 'living witness' and telling people "I'll be praying for you" and "God bless you".

That's about as powerful as it gets. Nice and safe. And that's why so many are into this. There is no danger or unpredictability.

If we're going to move from there and get on God's page, there is some rather painful detangling that must take place.

Spiritual detox is not even remotely pain free.

Yet it's only when we get over onto His page that raising the dead, healing the sick, dispelling demons, cleansing lepers and drinking poison which will not harm us type things start to come into the realm of reality.

Talk of this type of power puts on the brakes for most people. Most Christians run as fast and as far away as they can from this. Others somehow embrace it. Others go around the corner but peek their head back around in curiosity, and given some time might wander back over, unsure but intrigued.

The ones who run away will relish Harry Potter stuff but they won't believe the very things their Creator bids them to embrace.

Have you ever pondered that Jesus is not speaking out of His ass when He tells you and me "greater things than I have done will you do, because I go to the Father"?

Later in the NT we read "every man has been given the measure of faith".

Not the measure of faith you've already tapped and are embracing right now. The other kind.

It's in there. In you. In me. Placed there by our Designer.

Would we venture to tap it?

Grab your toupee before you say yes.