"Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."
(Matthew 13:18-23, ESV)
On Tuesday, JD, Caleb, and I headed over to the Plaza to "do the stuff." On the way over there, we saw a homeless lady. She was sitting down, and bobbing her leg really fast. I rolled the window down and asked if she had any pain in her body. She said she had puked a few times that day and that the heat was getting to her. I started to pray, but the light turned green. I had to go but we prayed in the car on the way around the corner.
After parking, we walked over to the park. Caleb approached a homeless man that was lying on the sidewalk. Caleb talked with him a while and loved on him, then prayed and we left.
Meanwhile, JD approached four homeless people sitting under a tree drinking beer. One of them had a concussion, so JD prayed. Then Caleb and I approached and started talking with them. One guy, I'll call him Joe since I can't remember his name, had a Bible. It was Psalms, Proverbs, and the New Testament. It looked like he had read the thing several times over, and there was writing in it and underlinings all throughout. When we talked to him, the Word just poured out of him. It was amazing to me. We all talked for a while, but other than the one with the concussion they weren't open to prayer. We left and went down the walking path.
Caleb approached a man sitting the grass, putting his shoes on and getting ready to run the trail. When Caleb approached the man and tried to start a conversation, he replied back "No habla English." So, Caleb, being fluent, replied back in Spanish, "That's okay, I speak Spanish." As soon as Caleb said this, the man shot back, "What do you want?" in perfect English. He wasn't open to prayer, so we kept walking.
We approached a homeless man on a bench, but got rejected. Then we approached another man, named Phillip. He was really cool and talked to us about all kinds of topics. He wasn't very open to Christianity because he had been burned by all the hypocrisy in the Church. We talked for a while, and he let us pray him. We checked his legs and God grew one out, but Phillip didn't believe. Then Caleb asked the Lord for a prophetic word, and the Lord gave him the word "Emily." Caleb asked Phillip if he knew an Emily, and he was shocked. He said that Emily was his son's mother. He seemed surprised, but in the end it didn't appear to have much of an impact. Caleb said that we planted seeds and that was the best we could do.
After that, we started to walk back towards the shopping area of the Plaza. We passed another homeless man, who appeared to be drunk, and he asked us if we had money. I said, "No, I don't carry cash. All I have is plastic, sorry man." He replied, "Well, can you buy me something to eat with your plastic?" I agreed and walked over to Cheesecake Factory. We got him a nice burger.
While I was inside waiting for the burger, JD prayed for an old man and grew his leg out. He said that the family was pretty shocked.
After the burger was ready, we gave it to the man and he hugged us and thanked us and left. While we were waiting for his food, Joe (from before) and another man he was sitting with, Mark, came over to beg for money. I decided to get them some food too. I went over and told them that they had food coming, and then I asked Joe if he had lower back pain and if I could check his legs. He agreed and went over and sat on a bench.
When I pulled his legs up, his left one was about an inch shorter than the other. I asked Mark to come over and hold his legs so that when it grew they would know that I didn't pull on it. Mark grabbed his legs, but he was in an awkward position so I told him to kneel. In the time it took Mark to kneel, Joe's leg grew out completely. I was shocked. I didn't even pray!
Joe stood up and said it felt different. Then he really opened up and started talking to JD and Caleb about his life story and how he got to where he was.
As that was going on, Mark asked me to pray for his health. He was checking into the hospital the next day because of high cholesterol and blood pressure problems. They told him that he was going to have a heart attack. I put my hand on his chest and prayed that he would be healed completely, and that his blood levels would come down and be normal.
After that, a man walked by us with a limp. He told me that he was in pain because of a boil on his leg. I prayed once, and he said the pain went from a 7 to a 3-4. The girl he was with shot him a glance and was like, "Are you serious?!" I prayed again, and he said it went down to a 1. I prayed a third time, and he said it was a 0. I told them that God loved them and thought they were both amazing. He walked away without a limp. Praise God!
While Caleb and JD were still ministering to Joe, I saw Hindi Sanskrit flash across my mind. It was weird. I turned around and saw three middle-eastern men walking behind me down an adjacent street. I wrestled with it for about 3-4 minutes, then I took off running after them. I caught them two blocks away, and asked them if they spoke Hindi. They said yes, but when I tried to give them some gospel tracts they said that they only speak it, they don't read it. I didn't really know what to do, so I wandered back. Oh well!
After that, we rolled out. Glory to God!
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