Good morning people who God desires to work through
Recently I read an article that made my spirit leap! As I read it I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to include it in BIY. So after obtaining permission, here it is. (Due to its length, you will receive the story over two days; this is part one). May God enlarge your expectation about what can happen through you!
(By Martina Sonneveld – thanks to Australian Marketplace Connections)
Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting a good friend at her work place, a call centre.
I met her staff as well, and after work other ex-staff members started to drop in. One of them, Alisha, came in to say goodbye before heading off to her Muslim country for 8 weeks. My friend asked her if she wanted us to pray for her and before I knew it, we were passionately praying for this girl for protection and for God’s spirit to guide her and help her. The other four staff and ex-staff members present joined us in prayer and stood around Alisha and laid their hands on her. For me it was a very special moment. The Lord was here, in the middle of the work place. It was so good to see how these people loved each other and cared for each other.
It has not always been like this. At the end of last year, my friend received a phone call from a distant friend, asking her to come and help and manage a team at the call centre. This would be a very difficult job – over the past 12 months a number of managers had given up and left. Although my friend was not keen on this job, she felt an urge from the Lord to go there.
She started working in an office where there was chaos, where people hated each other, where people arrived at work in an intoxicated state, and where there was no respect for each other or the manager. However, slowly things started to turn around and the staff started to confide in her.
I remember about a month after she started working there, we had a coffee together and she told me, “Martina, they all need the Lord, they are all depressed. They are so hurt and so abused and they have no self esteem. I have asked my mother and her friends to pray for all these people and for me, that they will get to know the Lord and receive healing and that I will be strong and know what the Lord wants from me”.
The first one that came to her was Tom. He was addicted to drugs, and he poured out his heart on what had been happening to him in his life. Her simple answer was, “I cannot help you, but I know the Lord can help you, would you like me to pray with you?” Tom agreed, so she prayed with him and handed Tom to the Lord. After that Tom was changed and the other staff noticed.
Continued tomorrow…