"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)

Waking up at four in the morning is odd enough for me, not only because I usually sleep for about seven hours a day, but also because a verse came to mind the instant my eyes opened.  The verse is above.  These verse seemed to have come to mind because of the events that had occurred last Sunday.  On the way to church, I bumped into a few people who needed stuff that I would need.  And, it was strange indeed.  The reason why I call this strange was because these people were asking me for things that I used to over-consume, things that I was addicted to, and things that I would consume, adding to the grand total of caffeine consumed.  Some people always ask me for a few dollars and it is my policy to not give them money (most of the time), not because I am skimpy or because I am not generous, but because I do not know what they would do with it.  However, last Sunday, something different happened.

A man came up to me and asked me for a dollar. I asked him what he needed the dollar for.  He told me that he wanted a cup of coffee.  I told him that I would get him the coffee from Starbucks.  He enjoyed the coffee.

On the way out, I met a lady who just wanted a Coke.  She was under the government's care and although they provided her with shelter, food, and clothes, they did not give her enough money each month to buy things that she wanted.  She could not just go out and get a Coke if she wanted because she received little cash a month.  Sure, she was fed three meals a day, had a place to crash, and clothes, but not enough spending money.  In talking to her, I thought to myself, this must be really frustrating and even more frustrating if she couldn't get her Coke.  I spoke to her for about fifteen to twenty minutes before buying her a liter.

I have no doubts that these two encounters are divine appointments, preordained by God to teach me.  Before you jump on me and tell me that I am reading to much into things and that these are only two people asking me for things, please consider some simple facts.  I drink coffee a lot and that day, I drank only one cup in the morning, didn't even think twice about buying someone a cup.  I drink Coke Zero a lot and didn't not think twice about buying someone else a Coke.  These events shows me that I am no longer addicted to caffeine.  First, I didn't buy a coffee for myself when I was that man in Starbucks.  Second, I didn't buy a Coke Zero for myself when I was buying one for that woman.  These are the two biggest favorites for me when it comes to caffeine beverages of choice.

When I woke up this morning, it clicked.  God was showing me that I was over my caffeine addiction!  He was showing this to me in His own unique fatherly and loving way.    And, I realized that I met these two people at the human level.  I believe that God pointed to the verse above to point me to how hospitable Jesus is with the tax collectors and sinners and how inhospitable the Pharisees were.  In another sense, I believe that Jesus is showing us that we can learn a lot from each other, regardless of our background, regardless of where we come from, and of where we are going because we are all His children.  Because His Spirit dwells in us, there is something of Him that we can learn/teach and embark to each other.  And, a random stranger, created in His image, a random brother, and/or a random sister on the street asking for coffee/Coke could provide a spiritual insight.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)

Some time ago, during the midst of bar exam study and at the beginning of my withdrawal symptoms from caffeine, the Holy Spirit overcame me with empathy and compassion for a brother in Christ.  I was led to listen to him.  It was getting really late on a Tuesday night, going onto midnight, but He was tugging me, so I obeyed despite needing to work the next morning and needing time to study for the bar exam.  At first, I thought He wanted me just talk to him since we had not had a deep conversation for a long time, but as the night moved on, it became clear that the Spirit wanted me to pray for this person.  He could not hear well (some of you will probably know who I am talking about and I did indeed ask him permission if I could blog this story).  It is believed that he was born not being able to hear well.  I do not know what moved me to pray for him to be healed as I did not have the gift of healing, nor have I ever healed any one physically, not that I am know of yet.  However, I was moved to pray for him.  I prayed for him a few times and each time, I would ask him for feedback and prayed again.  In one of the feedback sessions, we tested his hearing, having him move further and further away as I spoke in a normal tone.  It seemed it was improving, but it has not yet reached full hearing capacity.  He was never healed, but something incredible happened.  Jesus showed up, nevertheless.  Jesus touched both of us in ways that I hope we will always remember.

As I continued to become overfilled with compassion and empathy for my brother, I suddenly felt his pain taking over me.  I almost broke down in tears as his pains and scars overtook me.  The Lord would not reveal what those pains and scars were.  I then asked him, "how do you deal with all this stuff?"  He noticed my voice cracking and that I was about to break into tears.  And, for that moment his burdens were lifted from him.  He wrote,

He shared with me many things in his life.  And, I listened.  Then, the next morning, I woke up and the sent him the following prayer, as he shared on his blog.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:29-30)

During the past few days, Father God had been bringing to my attention in various ways that He wants me to change the way I eat and consume food and drink.  Knowing this about Father God is wonderful indeed because He is showing me that He loves me as a Son.  In the bible, Father God gave the Israelites an entire set of dietary laws down to what foods they could and could not eat and specifically how such foods can and cannot be prepared.  So specific are these instructions that today, for example, there are kitchens that separate the diary from the meat and the meat from the diary.  The purpose of bringing up the dietary laws is not talk about them, not to have a theological debate about them, not to discuss the scientific merits about them, not to discuss the cultural impacts of them, but to merely make the simply point that Father God cares about our diet.  He cares about my diet and He convicted me in August 6, 2009 about it (see post here).  He has been speaking through others about it the past few weeks.

During the past few weeks, He had been reaching out to me about my caffeine intake, which has been over 1000mgs a day.  Yes, that is how much caffeine I intake a day without really realizing it.  It makes me nervous, gives me bursts of energy, gives me energy crashes, increases my heartbeat, and causes a variety of other problems.  And, the problem is that I love coffee.  I love black coffee a lot and I drink it constantly.  And, some people have been telling me to slow down.  Just this Sunday, I consumed a double energy drink - it was innocent - didn't think twice about it. I was not supposed to do that.  I did not even need it, but when I realized that I did after someone asked about how much caffeine I had, I realized that there was a problem.  Why did I consume it?  Was I that much out of control of myself that I went for the caffeine without thinking about it?  So, I thought about it.  128 oz. of soda a day.  Many refills of diet coke in restaurants.  It all added up.  I was addicted.

Then, came my complaints about the energy crashes and how that was affecting my studying for the bar exam.  It was really bad.  I wanted to get to the root of that problem because I didn't want it affecting my studies and preventing me from focusing during the bar exam.  And, thinking about it - the problem is caffeine.  And, thinking about it further.  And, somehow along the way, I thought that caffeine was the solution because it would keep me awake to do more and now, it isn't really the solution at all.  It's the problem. 

The problem is deeper than that.  The problem seems to be my inability to control myself when it comes to food and drink.  I control my schedule fine, down to the tee.  I allocate time to study, time to blog, time to work, time to socialize, time to do this and that, and I get things done, but why can't I control what I eat when I want to eat and how I want to eat?  And, then the Lord rebuked me.  He showed me that I had the discipline to control my diet, that I was not asserting myself, and that I just wanted to eat whatever I wanted.  I just wanted to eat as much as I wanted because it tasted good.  Two Wendy's triple with cheese.  Yummy!  Let's have a eating contest with White Castle Burgers!  Heck, I am probably the most irresponsible person with food and drink!  And, He is telling me that it is time I should assert the same discipline that He knows I have with my schedule to food and drink.

I used to eat and drink a lot when I was depressed and it made me feel good before I was saved - that's over three years ago.  Although I no longer do that because Jesus is with me, somehow, these old habits are hard to break and it requires a changing of the mind, a transformation of the mind.  It was my overeating during my bouts of depression that made me gain weight to begin with and somehow, my brain associated eating a lot with feeling good.  That's the root of the problem.  The root of the problem is a psychological one.  And, since I had been cured of my extreme mood swings, the psychological programming/remnants needs time to change.  And, perhaps, it is time now for the transformation of the mind to occur in this area.  And, for freedom to break here.  I need to associate feeling good with taking care of the temple of the Holy Spirit, with eating the right amount of food and eating right.  That's the change that needs to occur. 

Wow, that's it?  He knows that I could do it.  He knows that I could plan ahead what I should eat during the day.  And, He knows that I would do it this time because He made it clear this time, speaking through me (August 6, 2009) and through others.  I am so grateful and thankful that He is so patient with me regarding this.  He loves me so much. 

Father God laid down the challenge/intervention because He loves me like a son.  Now, let's get at it shall we?  He wants me to depend on Him and not on food and drink!

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:17)

Since the deliverance on February 27, 2010, Father God has grown me tremendously in His love and in the usage of the gifts that He has given me.  Sometimes, I catch myself asking myself where, how, and when did I learn to love people in the way that I did love them and I smile to myself because I know that it was not I who had cause this to happen, but Father God who did.  I vaguely remember the "doghouse," where I put people on Facebook who annoy me or who I do not trust into.  When people are in the "doghouse," they cannot see anything I post.  Now, there is no doghouse.  I am more a open book unless it places my life in danger.  And, I wonder how this happened.

Then, I remembered a long time ago in late 2008 and early 2009 when I communicated to the old church that a demon was causing my migraines.  They did not believe me and tried to convince me that it was stress, some medical explanation, and/or scientific explanation.  Then, this thought came to me, which made me angry for some time and placed me into spiritual warfare for a few days - "They not only did not believe you.  They also did not deliver you from the demon and let you suffer needlessly for a year."  That really made me righteously angry.  And, as the week progressed into July 3rd, I became angrier and angrier, righteously so.  I could not understand why people who I cared about and loved did not believe me when I told them the truth about the demon.  What made it worse was that they did not help me, they just stood around and let the demon bother me further.  And, with all the righteous anger, I realized how foolish they were, dismissed things out of hand instead of investigating the truth of a person's statement first.  Instead of asking me why I believed that a demon was causing the migraines, they choose to just not listen to me at all.  And, in the end, Father God made sure the truth bites them where it hurts and trust me, it hurt them a lot because their church failed in this regard and in many other regards.  Their church failed to protect a brother when the brother was going through a real spiritual issue.

But, then something happened.  I spoke to my best friend.  She asked me a simply question, "Did you forgive them?"  I answered, "I did."  She replied, "Then, the enemy is just using it to cause problems.  We need to pray."  We went out for a walk.  And, when we found a place to sit down, I started to tell her other things that were bothering me.  Then, I saw the shadow of a demon flew by quickly.  I asked her if she saw or sensed it.  She did not, but the demon started to reveal its presence to scare us.  There was a car parked near us on the street.  When a car passed it on the possible side, the car alarm went off.  I just laughed and said, "this is what I have to deal in the spiritual realms.  Demons annoying me like this."  The car alarm eventually stopped and cars passing on the same side did not cause the alarm to go off.  Any hypothesis that it was sensitive alarm system was out because cars traveling on the same side of the street was not tripping the alarm off.  Then, when there were no cars, the alarm went off again.  I just laughed again.  My best friend told me to pray.  So, we prayed.  I was praying in tongues.  Then, God spoke to me, "They are bothering you because they see you as a threat."  Then, I remembered the Assistant Pastor of the old church, who left under direct command from Father God, tell me the same thing over three years ago when the demons tried to get me to doubts my faith in Jesus.  He told me, "They are attacking you because you are a threat to them."  I got up and told my best friend, "Let's go."  My best friend asked me, "Did God speak to you?"  I said, "Yes."  My best friend said, "God spoke to me too.  He said, 'Be still and know that He is God.'"  I replied, "God spoke to the two of us at the same time again."  The alarm system in the car did not go off anymore as we walked slowly down the street back to where we were.

We walked back and the spiritual warfare ended.  I was stoked that Father God gave my best friend a glimpse into the spiritual warfare that I dealt with.  And, as the enemy attack regarding the ignorance of the old church, I am reminded of these verses.

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34)

I smiled to myself, knowing that I had shared in His glory and His suffering.  For one year, I suffered because people did not know what they were doing.  And, I consider it an honor to be able to draw closer to Him and somewhat understand and see a glimpse of my Savior's suffering on the cross and He uttered those same words.

This is Amazing Grace indeed!

On February 27, 2010, a demon was delivered from me.  Since that time, the migraines have disappeared.  It has been about five months since the deliverance and there has not been one migraine.  I had been enjoying life so much the past few months that I had forgotten that I had them.  And, I had been growing in my Father's love tremendously in the past few months that I had forgotten that I lived under demonic oppression.  Since that deliverance, my life has changed dramatically, not just the migraines disappearing and growing in love, but also growing in my spiritual gifts and learning my identity and role in the Kingdom.

It has been an interesting journey.  People tell me that the fire will eventually burn out.  I was born again on February 9, 2007.  I believe that it was only beginning, that Father God is only starting a fire in me that will last forever.  And, during this July 4th, I not only celebrate my nation's freedom, but the freedom that Jesus gave me by dying on the cross for me.  With this freedom, I am able to love harder, live more abundantly, have better health, and be joyful.

After the spiritual attacks thwarted, I reflected on the events that leading up to them, wondering what could be done differently the next to prevent and preempt them from occurring to the intensity that they had.  Running the events through my head, the days leading up to the attack were riddled with many spiritual attacks, Kingdom activities that were breaking through.  One of the most important of them was Father God's love breaking through and exhibited to others through prophetic gifts.  And, it was this very gifting that the enemy tried to attack and attempt to shut down because it was becoming effective for the Kingdom.

During the last few months, I had been prophesying to strangers on the train and giving them encouraging messages I feel God was telling me.  Sometimes, I get feedback from the receiver.  And, what I learned about those who receive the word, I would never forget.  I learned that God reaches out to people who practice alternative lifestyles, people who worship on Saturdays, people who are hungover from the night before, people who haven't taken baths for months, and the list goes on and on.  The most surprising and exciting thing to me is not so much the words are on target, but the emotions that people exhibit when they receive them - you know that the message was divine.  And, to know that Father God actually does reach out to people from all backgrounds is an amazing way to experience the width, depth, height, and length of His love for His children.  What is more amazing is that I believe I have learned more from those the words are given to than from giving the words.  I had learned that God loves everyone and that for me, was a humbling experience.  The enemy tried to convince me that this was silly and that God was using me like a radio - perhaps, this has some truth to it, but that is what Christians thrive for, they thrive for God to use them like this.  To be used as a radio or not, being useful to God is an honor, in my humble opinion.  And, in that usefulness is the best gift of all, to serve Him and to experience His presence. 

And, reflecting on this humbled me because I came to the realization that I am here to serve Father God and to serve His children.  These messages are about Father God communicating to His children; they have nothing to do with me or my ability to speak to God.  It is God who chose to speak through me.  And, like the times when I was in the desert, He could choose not to speak to me for long periods.  Relying completely on Him in faith is important, very important, especially in this ministry.  I liken myself to a messenger with a message, nothing more.  And, through this process of giving messages to His children, I learned a lot about His love and a lot about how to love my brothers and sisters.  And, knowing that He loves them so much makes it hard for me not to love them.

1.  He loves the man who accused me falsely - he gave me a word for that man, told that man that the cancer bills would be paid months before it was paid.
2.  He loves the homosexual person - he gave me a word for that man, which comforted him.
3.  He loves the man who celebrates the Sabbath on a Saturday - he gave a word to that man that made him excited.
4.  He loves the man who had a hangover - he gave a word to that man, knowing where the sister lived, name of the childhood best friend, and family best friend.

I do need to tell you what sin is.  God tells you that clearly in the Bible and God tells you clearly that He loves us, so there you go - He loves sinners - that is why He died for us while we are still sinners.

I know that He would not give them messages, communicate with them if He did not love them.  And, knowing that I see Father's love for His children.  I see Father's love and I am in awe and cannot help, but love them too.  That's what Father's love does, overflows like that into many other situations and circumstances.

It seems the ability to discern and home in on the spiritual world and the activities of the enemy is important in spiritual warfare.  Just a last week, there were thoughts in my subconscious mind regarding whether people were really Christians or not and yesterday, there were thoughts about just giving up and walking away from this church plant that I had been involve with.  The most telling thing about this spiritual attack is that the thoughts were not there before and seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere just as serious decisions needed to be made - for example, not renewing my lease and moving to where the church plant is.  These thoughts are not my thoughts - they are coming from another source and once I knew that, they were dealt with by drawing closer to God.

First and foremost, the thoughts regarding others' salvation comes from the enemy.  It is a fleeting thought.  Admittedly, it is there and I do notice it, but it does not come from me.  I spend time with my brothers and sisters.  I had partied with them, drank with them, and did it responsibly.  I have no problems with responsible drinking on occasions.  The thought that people who drink irresponsibly will go to hell is one that comes from the enemy.  I love my brothers and sisters who have made lapses in judgment.  I had made lapses in judgment myself and people, not even Christians have helped me.  This thought is a ridiculous thought when I had the chance to sit and think through it logically.  It is not mine because I do not think illogically and it is not of God because it does not reflect His heart.  It is from the enemy.  And, trust me, this has happened to me before that the thoughts of the enemy somehow seemed to become my own - I am so used to the demon being up close to me and personal.   As a separate entity, unattached, tempting me, it is more difficult for me to recognize the subtleties.

Just yesterday, it became obvious that I was under spiritual attack.  The enemy tried to convince me to give up on the church plant.  It tried to tell me that I was no good, that the church plant would eventually be taken over by someone and moved in a different direction.  It showed me what happened at the old church and how that caused me a lot of pain and hurt - how people were holding onto that church, preventing it from being taken over by others.  And, it told me that when my team does pass away, the church will turn for the worse or move in a different direction like another church that I know.  So, even if the church plant were to be success it does not guarantee that the church will continue the way we envisioned it.  The church could go in any direction.  So, why should church plant at all?  Why bother?  There would be power struggles and the wrong people may takeover, etc.  I just ignored the temper. 

In the end, I realized why God showed me angels at two different churches, the one that struggled to remained the way that it was and the one that embraced change.  Both were blessed by Him - both had angels.  They are both His children and it is not about which direction churches go insofar as they within the parameters of God's mission, it is more where their heart lies.  Both are blessed and should be blessed by us as brothers and sisters.  God showed me the angels to teach me that.  The enemy twisted that and planted the thought that I was jealous because I didn't see angels at my church.

My best friend gave me this verse.  Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God; and whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight (1 John 3:21-22).  When I realized that it was all in my mind and that my heart was not condemned, I asked God to draw closer to me and breakdown those walls/strongholds and He did.  And, the rest of the story is peace and serenity.  This is friend is a special friend, one who obviously have aided me in a spiritual battle in a way that no one can/could.

Anyway, it is not my heart that these thoughts are coming from.  These thoughts are there because of spiritual attacks.  Apparently, my heart is in the right place.  At times God may point something out, the enemy may attack/tempt, or my mind may be thinking things.  I need discernment.

Please pray that my discernment increases so that I know where thoughts are coming from instead of making the assumption rather wrongly that the thoughts are coming from me.

Father God did it again!  He revealed the deepest parts of my heart!  I used to drink a lot when I was in law school.  When I was saved, the Holy Spirit just took this habit away - just like that, so whenever a Christian drinks or gets a hangover, in the back of my mind, I think the following, "How could they be saved if they are still struggling with their drinking?  The Holy Spirit, if He is truly indwelt in this person, could easily help the person overcome this habit, in my opinion."  There seems to be a tendency for me subconsciously to compare my walk with others' walk and I believe that people do it all the time, in a deep down level, a level that they do not know about.  I did not know about this and I would not have known about this if the Holy Spirit did not expose this to me.  So, on the Redline, Father God through the Holy Spirit gave me words for a hangover man reeking with alcohol.  He was already sober in the morning and talking coherently.  And, he admitted to drinking the night before because the Hawks won the Stanley Cup some days earlier.  We talked for a long time and God revealed to me the state his sister lived in, the name of his childhood best friend, and the name of the his family's best friend.  He felt like I was reading his mind, but in the end, he believed that Father God could be reaching out to him in love.

What really challenged me about giving words and interacting with this man was that he smelled of alcohol, yet Father God wanted me to talk to him and interact with him - and after that incident with the train stopping, I know better than to argue with Father God.  In the end, the man placed his hands around my shoulders.  The situation was surreal and what really got me was how could I had become like this - staying away from drunken men when I was one of them on the train after each week of law school?  How did my heart come so hardened and why did I create so many walls around me, which Father God recently broke down?  Why were there "doghouses" for Facebook?  Then, I realized that I was hurt, hurt by past experiences with some cessationalists who did not believe that God spoke to me directly and who thought they knew everything to know in the Bible and had the right to teach me about it, even when the Holy Spirit was teaching me Himself just as He is teaching me right now through my experiences with Him - and I am angry, angry that this Pharisees have the audacity and arrogance to tell me that God does not speak to me directly.  They thought they were doing me good (because everything else not of the Bible was satanic for some of them), but in the end, they did more harm for the my spiritual health then good.  They ended up shutting me off from the world, from the spiritual word, and causing so much pain and hurt that I erected one of the biggest walls of my life, bigger than the walls that were erected since childhood.  And, these walls are really bad and they must go.  And, Father God through my ministry had been pointing to these walls often.

I request prayer for healing and the knocking down of walls and strongholds that the enemy may use in my life.  I request for prayer for spiritual protection and discernment as the Holy Spirit brings me through this process of healing and of deep cleansing of the things that had hurt me.  And, I pray that Father God works quickly to heal me and make me whole again so that I would be more effective for His kingdom.

About a month ago, Father God gave me a word of knowledge for a person on a train.  It was a word that I did not want to give at the time because I was not sure if it was from Him.  I was relatively new to receiving words of knowledge from God for others.  And, this particular word was not really positive.  This word was before the word that I received for the other man, the one in which I told him, "Jesus is walking right by you, but you aren't paying attention.  He wants you to start to paying more attention and draw closer to Him.(see previous post)"  I did not consider that word positive either, but I gave it anyway because of this experience a month ago.

I had an argument with Father God.  I did not want to give the word because I thought it was condemning.  In addition, I did not have good experiences giving these kinds of words, especially with experiences with cessationalists (a year before), who are not receptive to these kinds of words and they seem to have done me more harm than good, pushing behind my spiritual growth and preventing me from knowing Father God better and growing in Christ.  So, I just did not want to give the word.  Now, I learned that I was reacting to Father God more out of hurt and pain than out of a place of freedom and He was healing of the pain that past experiences had caused me.  Some did not realize that words of knowledge are for today and that God does indeed send messages through people to others.  And, that when someone says that they feel led by God or that God says or they feel God saying, it should be taken seriously and weighed by the person with God Himself, not just dismissed out of hand as the person will have to answer to God because God does speak through His saints.  Anyway, I fought Him hard.  And, when my stop came up, I told Him that we were under grace, that I confessed my sin, and that I was going to work.  As I was leaving the terminal, a woman came to the attendant and told her, "A person collapsed on the train going southbound.  We need to get a medic."  Then, God told me, "You are giving that word."  Defeated, I turned around, paid myself back in with my unlimited pass, ran, while praying for the fainted person, to the car I was in, pushed my way through the crowd saying "excuse me" until I reached the man.  I tapped him on the shoulder to wake him up as he was sleeping.  He did not wake up.  I tapped him again.  He finally woke up.  I told him the word.  He was groggy and was not paying attention, so I tapped him again.  He finally listened.  I told him that God stopped this train so that I could give him this word.  I told him what it was and said, "I have to go to work."  As I left, I looked back through the window to see how he was reacting.  He saluted me.  He acknowledged that the word was of divine origin.  And, I am not at liberty to tell what the word is, but it was important, so important that I did not want to give it.

As you see, after this incident, I was freed from the pain and hurt of past experiences, and, I am able to give words like, "Jesus is walking right by you, but you aren't paying attention.  He wants you to start to paying more attention and draw closer to Him" without worrying about the person's reactions (see previous post).  If you think about it, these words could be interpreted as condemning and mockery.  But, the person who received it saw it as an answer to prayer and praised the Lord for answering His prayer and sending a message to him through someone.  So, that's what faith is, taking risks.

One Saturday morning on my way to my friend's place on the Redline, Jesus gave me an impression into His relationship with a man who was walking with another man.  Jesus showed me that He was walking with the man, but the man was not paying attention and that he should start paying more attention to Him.  The three of us got into the same car.  I asked Father God for further confirmation into this insight, whether I should just pray for the man or tell him.  He told me to tell him.  I turned around and made eye contact with the gentlemen, who is older than the other gentlemen he was having a conversation with, and said, "Jesus is walking right by you, but you aren't paying attention.  He wants you to start to paying more attention and draw closer to Him."

The gentlemen looked at me and said, "Say that again."
I repeated, "Jesus is walking right by you, but you aren't paying attention.  He wants you to start paying more attention and draw closer to Him."

This started a long conversation about how the gentlemen prayed this morning to draw closer to Jesus and how he felt he was not close to Him.  The gentlemen shared on the train how he read in the Bible that God does work this way and he would never imagine that God would actually let him experience God working this way.  He was excited and some people on the train was paying attention to what was going on.  Then, he recounted stories about how he knows the Holy Spirit works, Cornelius and Peter being one of those stories.  Yet, he never imagined that in the life of him that it would happen to him and for the first time in his life.  He was so grateful that his prayer to draw closer to the Lord was answered today as he was going to church.  He told me that he was a Seventh Day Adventist and that today was the Lord's actual Sabbath and that man changed it from Saturday to Sunday.

I smiled and avoided discussing the Sabbath being on Saturday or Sunday.  Of course, we had a longer conversation, but I just wanted to recount the more relevant parts.

And, when I got off the train that day.  I am never the same either.  I had always had problems with Seventh Day Adventists because of their doctrine.  I struggled much like Peter did in Acts  when he was going to meet Cornelius.  It is clear to me that Father God loves them too and He gave one of them a wonderful word through me.  And, in the end, like Peter who visited Cornelius, who am I to argue with God who loves this man too?  I prayed that day too, asking God for word of knowledge to give and for confirmation that He had been giving those words to strangers on the train since these experiences are relatively new pushing me beyond my comfort zone.

And, thinking back on the experience, only God would know both our hearts to have arrange an incident such as this one draw us ever closer to His Son, Jesus and to reveal to us His heart for us and for His children.

Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. (Acts 10:34-35 NIV)

Peter fairly exploded with his good news: "It's God's own truth, nothing could be plainer: God plays no favorites! It makes no difference who you are or where you're from—if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open. (Acts 10:34-35 MSG)

One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. (Romans 14:5 NIV)

Or, say, one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So, each person is free to follow the convictions of conscience.  (Romans 14:5 MSG)