NightStrike Friday March 26, 2010

Once again it was another beautiful night in the city of Saint Francis (San Francisco). Mark Neitz brought about 20 people from his youth group at the Gateway church. Incredible bunch of young people. I had the honor of leading half the team out to the streets. It was good to see an old Night Strike leader, Forrest, come out tonight. Forrest set me straight years ago on the gifts of the Spirit. I believed we could only have one. Don't you love these preconceived notions? On my second Night Strike I ever went out on I was placed on Forrest's team. That night, Forrest told his team it was going to be a night of healing on the streets. I boldly raised my hand and said my spiritual gift wasn't in healing. Forrest renounced my short comings and proclaimed that 'tonight I am a healer'. And things literally took off from there. Forrest just had to speak it over me.

With Forrest, Bill (team leader), Tim's team from Cornerstone, a team from Valley Bible Church, Samantha and Katie from Lions Pride for worship, I think there were nearly 30 people or better on Night Strike. Samantha and Katie stayed behind to worship and keep an open heaven for us on the streets. Katie and Sam reported there was even a worship jam session that broke out, with another street team, so they had a heavenly party at the plaza.

When I leave the plaza I tend to bolt past all the street people on my walk because they're close enough to the plaza to get ministered. I like to speedily head up to the top of the Tenderloin district and maintain supplies for ministry there. On this evening, the Holy Spirit stopped the team at the first intersection. I never do that. I was getting anxious that we should quickly move on. But the stop was long enough for a divine appointment which is why God stopped us there. A woman saw us and recognized us and she wanted prayer. She said she was walking as fast as she could and she was glad we had stopped. She was able to catch up with us and she was in dire need of prayer. She was slightly out of breath.

She said her name was Robin (I always change the names for blogs, so if you were on my team, I know that wasn't her name) and that she needed prayer because she felt defeated, her addiction was ruling her life, she was alone and that her dream of one day being a mother was slowly fading.

One of the women from Gateway, Kelly, prayed with me. And we asked the Holy Spirit to come and bless Robin. As I was praying for Robin I started getting pictures of her about nurturing. It was a spiritual nurturing, not a physical. Then I started getting pictures of prophetic eyes. It took me a moment to put together the pictures I was getting. Meantime, Kelly was right in there praying for this woman for inner healing. Robin was crying as Kelly addressed the issues surfacing. Once I put together what the Holy Spirit was telling me I told Robin that she had a gift for seeing and that she needed to be raised up in her gifts. The enemy was severely attacking her to distract her from what she really needed to do. I told her that she was being called back by the Father to church and that she hadn't been in some time. Robin needed to be nurtured in her gifts. Robin acknowledged that what I was receiving was correct and that she had visions and could see. And she said the Father was calling her. Her friends are trying to get her to go to church. I told Robin she couldn't go to just any church and get preached to. She had to find a church the Holy Spirit was active in and that her spirit would jump and she would know right away when she walked into the right church. But it was time for her to return to church. She wiped her eyes and agreed with the prayers Kelly and I prayed over her. Now I was so glad the Holy Spirit had stopped the team at the very beginning.

After this divine appointment I had the opportunity to talk with Rich, from Gateway, one of the chaperones out tonight with Mark. He is a U.S. Mail carrier and he shared with me some exciting stories of his adventures in praying for healing on people on his mail route. I think that helped set the precedence for the evening that people with me were comfortable with whatever the Holy Spirit would reveal. All the young people with us were eager to jump in and pray for people which was another plus.

We turned on Ellis and made our way into the Tenderloin. Our first stop we prayed for several people. I was surprised at the number of people out on the streets on this evening. I knew off the bat we would run out of provisions early and just have a night of pure ministry. Which are my favorite kind of nights in Night Strike. Again we prayed over several people congregated in this one spot. I walked around to keep an eye on the kids and check everybody as they prayed for people. I walked over to Rich who was praying for healing for a man named John. John needed eye surgery. As I lay hands on John I immediately get a picture of a little brown, city looking mutt dog, sitting right next to John at his side. I asked John if he had a little brown dog. He said no. It came in so strong, I asked the Holy Spirit what was the brown dog picture about. I received the word interpretation, “faithful companion”, “faithful friend”. The message John was to receive was that he was faithful and a friend of God. We didn't see the healing in John's eye. But that doesn't mean its not going to happen. Faithful. When we left John, we blessed him. Rich said, “be safe on the streets”. John replied, “nothing bad ever happens to me.” There was that faithful spirit. The Father touches his children in ways He sees fit. We'll never truly know how the word of a little brown dog will impact John. We're just the messengers.

As we ministered a little farther down the streets, there was a young woman named Jade. Rich and a couple of the young people from the Gateway were ministering to her. The Holy Spirit gave me three distinct pictures of Jade, 1 she was painting, 2 she was taking pictures, and 3 she had a brown leather case over her right should, held there by a strap. It was her portfolio. So I flat out asked Jade if she paints or takes pictures. She said she does both. She had her art on display at the Tenderloin National Forest art museum (it's on Ellis St. And Sam, no jokes about the Tenderloin National Forest...). Then I asked her about her portfolio she was putting together (the leather case). She was stoked and excited and started telling us about the portfolio she was working on. I told her God was blessing her in her art and that he wanted her to know that.

We had a lot of ministering time on Ellis. Somewhere around Ellis and Leavensworth, a woman approaches me from behind. I hear, “Hey!” I stop to turn around and there is a familiar face approaching me. “Do you remember me?” I replied, “I sure do!”

Now, for those of you who were out on the Polk Street adventure with me last June (Lisa believes it may have been in the fall) the team was Elyssa, Diana, Lisa, myself and possibly Leah; there was a woman who needed feminine napkins. So I went in and purchased them at a little corner store for her and she bolted. And I thought, whoops there goes a ministry opportunity. Only we caught up with her again on Larkin and OFarrell at a crosswalk. Well, it was her!

Tina remembered the word of knowledge and prophetic word we spoke over her that night at the cross walk. The word of knowledge was that she was a writer and the prophetic word was that the time was now to start the writing project she was putting off. She was beside herself with the information. Elyssa and Lisa I believe gave her some prophetic words too.

So it was Tina who ran to catch up with me. And I told her I remembered her and that I wanted a signed copy of her book. She asked me for my name so she could put a dedication in it. Tina was ecstatic that we were talking to her and breathing words of life into her. Because of her current profession, Tina identified herself as a Mary Magdalene. I told no problem we'll pray for you. Mary Magdalene did some incredible things in the kingdom. She was energized and happy as she walked off. It was a cool divine encounter. Tina was a bit apprehensive when we first met. We believe she is or was a Jehovah Witness. Jesus is working with her. People are delicate and things take time. Besides the Father doesn't have an agenda or a timeline for his children.

Another interesting person I would like to mention, whom I always encounter in the Tenderloin is Mr. Smiley. This man has the Louis Armstrong gift from God. Mr. Smiley goes down to the peer to sing for tourists. Mr. Smiley is like this incredible grandpa figure. He always entertains his family members in Christ. What an incredible voice this gentleman has. All he asks for is a smile. He loved ministering a bit to the young people in our group.

Our last big stop was just past the Y-WHAM building in the Tenderloin. Kelly and I prayed over a man and his niece. A young lady on our team gave away her knitted cap to the niece. The woman was absolutely thrilled for the new cap. As Kelly prayed over the uncle, Tim, I was getting a strong tug from the Holy Spirit for another download. The Holy Spirit was pointing out another warrior. I saw his helmet, it was red, for being covered in the blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit just gave me the info on Tim, that he was here in this war zone for a purpose and that he was needed to protect others. His life was one big struggle. But that was by design. Warriors don't get to pick their battlefields we go where the Commander of the Lords army sends us. He was sent in behind enemy lines to protect people. And that every time he faces a hardship to remember was he was sent here to do. It was a cool download. Tim just received it and confirmed what the message was. Tim said he protects a lot of the people on the streets.

That was our incredible night on the streets. I really enjoyed taking out the Gateway youth group. It's great to see young people who are hungry for the Father and are willing to step out of their comfort zone to embrace God's people.