I traveled to South Bay Agape Christian Church in San Jose to go to the Empowered Conference hosted by Revival Valley. The keynote speaker was Joanne Moody of Agape Freedom Fighters. She leads healing teams, teaches, equips and empowers the body of Christ to live out Matthew 10:8 ~
“And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.’”
Towards the end of the evening we were encouraged to participate in a Words of Knowledge tunnel where the Holy Spirit would give us words specifically for the people in our group. Surprisingly, I was at peace and not anxious about this experience.
In previous times, I have excused myself to go to the bathroom because fear overwhelmed me: I never believed this could happen . . . how can I do this now? Will I hear from God? Will they be my words or His? What if I don’t hear anything? What if the person doesn’t like the word I have? What if I look stupid struggling to get a word?
However, this time I was determined to face my previous fears and overcome them. I was eagerly ready to do this anticipating I’d be able to hear the words I was to deliver. The Lord had been having me practice this with Him for over the last 6 months before my healing prayer appointments as I’d pray for each client. He’d been encouraging me to listen throughout my day to deliver words to His people He drew to my attention. God had been building my trust in Him showing up. He’d been teaching me how I receive these words from Him: pictures, impressions, thoughts of words, feelings in my body and more.
We were asked to form a group of 8 people who were complete strangers. This way we were insured to not know anything about each person in our group. The words would be completely based off of what we received, no preconceived impressions. Then we formed the famous soccer tunnel with 4 of us on one side and 4 on the other side facing the other group. Group A would start and each person in Group A would walk down Group B’s line giving each person a single, special, and unique word that popped into their mind from God when you paused and looked at them. At the end, each person in Group B would have collected 4 words from complete strangers. Then Group B would do the same to Group A. At the end all 8 of us had 4 unique words and maybe even some of the words would be repeated. This was an extremely powerful exercise of trusting God to deliver words through the Holy Spirit and then receiving what was given to us from our Heavenly Father.
The first one to speak to me was a young gentle Asian woman who was precious and treasured. Her word to me was “Wise.” That resonated. I hear this often when people pray with me. The next woman was a warrior and the word she delivered was “Regal.” Immediately I saw a picture of royalty . . . part of God’s royal team. That resonated, too. Next was a gentleman that appeared to be Hawaiian or Samoan. He walked with a cane and looked like a climber-of-large-mountains full of wisdom. He stood before me eyes closed and head down. I felt he had a word for me, but was wrestling with it. With his eyes still closed he stepped in even closer and tilted his head to my right. I really felt he had a word, but was seeking clarity. He opened his eyes, looked into my eyes, then looked down and stepped even closer to me. He was now 6 inches from my face . . . definitely invading my safe bubble space. Lol. He looked up as his shoulders relaxed and surrendered to giving me the word. He looked directly into my eyes again as he quietly spoke in a rugged voice, “Broken.” I admit I was a little knocked off kilter . . . kind of shocked, because I didn’t expect a negative word and that felt negative. Delivering any word in this type of environment takes courage to step out. Quickly trying to process, I told him “thank you.” However, I wasn’t sure I wanted to receive it, yet. The last was an Asian gentleman who seemed like a gentle giant. His word to me was “Prayerful.” This resonated, as well.
As we wrote our words down, I was trying to process through why I received that word I viewed was negative, broken. I knew the gentleman heard that word so I began asking God, “Why that word, what did You want to say to me through it?”
Right at that moment, Joanne Moody said, “Some of you might have received a word that seems negative. Maybe they missed it. Or, maybe that’s an area God is planning on working on in you. Ask the Holy Spirit.”
As I wrote my words down “Wise • Regal • Broken • Prayerful” I kept repeating them over and over in my mind. I felt the Lord say, “Yes, you are broken and I will be healing things in you, BUT your heart has always been for the ‘broken ones.’ You are for the ‘broken-hearted.’ You are My daughter that I have poured Wisdom into, a Regal daughter of mine that is Prayerful for the Broken.”
Now that is pretty powerful!!! I received that!
Afterwards, I told my husband who escaped to the bathroom beforehand, “I wish you would have done it even though it was intimidating. I think God would have delivered some powerful words to him that would have knocked his socks off!” I encouraged him and shared how I remember being there and done the same escape technique, too . . . All in God’s timing.
God is still building and refining this in me. He’s teaching me every day. Right after this day of training and seeing God do amazing things, I still wrestled with stepping out in faith. Ugh!
There was a tattooed girl in Target that I noticed. I thought her tattoo of colorful flowers was beautiful, intricate and exquisite. I felt God nudge me to tell her, “You are radiant, beautiful and extravagant. Many might be turned off by your tattoos but I think they are magnificent!” I wanted to share that I felt God impress upon my heart that He loves how you express yourself.
But . . . Nope, I didn’t do it. No shame, guilt or condemnation. Next time I will. It’s a process :o)