The Prophet

My husband, Jason is a fitness director at a local gym. He runs the personal training department, does a little training himself and focuses mainly on selling personal training packages. He loves helping, training, teaching, motivating and education people in the areas of health and wellness. He finds great joy in bringing life saving tools to the morbidly obese and unhealthy people he sees on a regular basis but he hates the fact that money stops so many from taking advantage of the services they so desperately need. Every day he says, "I love what I do...I just wish I could do it for free."
One of the trainers he works with is a young woman with a heart for God and a masters in Theology. They have random conversations about faith and belief in the bible. One day, during one of these conversations, she mentioned that her father was a prophet.
Jay was very intrigued by this and was eager to tell me all about it. That Saturday, this woman's father called Jason and asked if he could come and visit us. I was a bit nervous but I do believe in prophetic gifts...I also believe that there are a lot of crazies who come in the name of the lord so I was rightfully guarded.
Ten minutes later, he arrived. He was probably in his 60's and he had a blue tooth in one of his ears.
He came in and sat down. He asked us questions about ourselves...I mentioned that I had written a book and he asked to see it. When I gave it to him he said, "Do you mind if I take a moment to read this?" and he proceeded to 'speed read' the entire book in front of us in about 2 minutes. He said he had trained for 6 weeks to be a speed reader and he had mastered the art. I wasn't convinced he wasn't a kook at this point.
He then told us about himself. How he is from California, he's a double doctorate in theology, he was raised in the Catholic church and could speak five languages. He was definitely one of the most interesting people I have ever met. He then spoke about us as if he knew us. He wasn't ultra specific but what he did say was very applicable.
He told us that whatever God has put in us to do with our lives, He meant for us to do it together...that we were to work with one another....that God has given Jason a help mate in me and that He had given me a protector and provider in Jason. It was true. We've always had a strong desire to do ministry with one another. We play directly off of each other's strengths and weaknesses...he wasn't saying anything shocking or surprising...the only thing shocking was that he knew it.
He stayed with us for two hours and convinced me that although he may be a bit more...how shall we say...'free spirited' than I am, he was definitely a biblical Christian who knew God's word upside down and backwards and believed it passionately to be true.
He asked if he could pray for us individually. Jay accepted. I declined. Trust issues...read my previous post to catch up on that ;)....but he graciously understood my concern and assured me his feelings weren't hurt or offended. He invited us to his church which meets at 6pm on Sunday evenings and we decided to go this past Sunday.
He encouraged us to bring the children however I didn't feel comfortable bringing them into an unknown spiritual environment without knowing it was 'safe' myself. One off the wall, un-orderly Christian experience would probably scar Caden for life.
We showed up and instead of a church building, it was more like an office. We walked in and there were about 15 people there, smiling and greeting us....we were evidently the first new comers they had encountered in a long time...if, ever.
I was really nervous when I saw this...wondering when the snakes were going to come out...
They began to sing...an older woman played the guitar and they sang song after song...mostly southern gospel choruses that brought back memories of my parents Gaither videos....(shutter)....just kidding, Dad ;)
They prayed in tongues and lifted their hands...there was no 'order of service', worship leader or regimented schedule...just a freeing gathering of people who love God and who seemingly loved each other.
It was actually really nice.
It was a pretty calm evening...everyone spoke calmly and gently...several people stood and spoke prophetically...there was a common theme to the prophesies...how God who was faithful to begin a good work would be faithful to complete it...that courage was needed to walk down the path He has pre-destined for us...it was all about embracing His direction with boldness...
Afterward, everyone swarmed us and made us feel really welcome. They assured us there were no snakes hiding in the back and amidst their laughter, I felt much better. They invited us to come back and bring the babies and we may just do that.
So, all in all, our experience with 'the prophet' was an interesting and enlightening one. Just goes to show, you can't judge a book by it's cover...unless of course, you're a prophet ;)