A conversation (in my head) with Jesus (He’s in italics)          March 31, 2006

Ok, Jesus, here I am, sitting in this place. If I were married, I wouldn’t be sitting here with my husband. I’d be getting both our tags, and he’d be working.

–or maybe he’d be sitting here and you’d be working.

Well, here I am anyway. The chair next to me is empty, have a seat.

–thanks. So how are ya?

Happy. I like this idea of praying for healing for all the people that I see who need prayer. But, that means it’s just praying for people who I see with my eyes who need prayer. You saw people with your heart, or God pointed them out to you, or what?

–both.

I’d like to be able to see that way –with my heart.

–that’s what it means to pray that the eyes of your heart would be opened. (1)

Oh yea. Makes sense…..

Say- when you went around healing people, and preaching to them and stuff, what made you so bold? Was it knowing you were gonna die, so you figured you’d just be out there anyway?

-no- it was the Holy Spirit that gave me boldness. When you pray for people, it is the Holy Spirit that gives you boldness.

Well- I don’t always know when to pray for someone. Sometimes I get a tingling in my hands when I’m about to pray for someone for healing. I do feel goose bumps when I am telling a God story and  I’m just happy to be talking about you to anyone who will listen.

-well- it’s partly a gift I’ve given you, and partly the presence of the HS. You walk in Him enough of the time that it’s sometimes second nature to you. Ask others who are not as bold as you. They will tell you they could never ask a total stranger to pray for their arthritic shoulder.

-heh- you’re not limited to only praying for people with an obvious physical need. Remember the times in Ann Arbor that you prayed for people because I put my heart feelings on your heart?

Yea- but remind me.

-ok- the heaviness in your heart lead you toward the guy who’s brother had just murdered someone. You felt intense chest pressure with Mary Elaine’s heart attack. Your heart felt Marsha Swiss’ sadness for her kids. On the way to prison fellowship I put it on your heart that there was a prisoner who was worried what his dad would say when he got out of prison. Jesse’s whopper headache and me telling you to tell him I saw his pain and I am there for him. Stuff like that. When I take up residence in your heart, I speak to you in your language. That’s what being intimate is all about. Us talking to each other, us communicating with each other, in our own language, in our own way. At times when you need me most, or even at times when you want to share a God story with me. When I need you to help me out- to pray for someone, to call someone. Whatever. Developing intimacy is like learning how to dance. You’ve got to hold me closely, but let me lead. Then, the music starts, and you watch the dance instructor, and you try it out, and bingo, we’re dancing. All the stuff we do together fosters a deeper and deeper relationship between the two of us. It is like that with another person. Being intimate with another person involves the same kinds of things. Spending time with them. Learning their language, learning the dance steps, which songs they like to dance to, stuff like that. I know what you like. I made you. So I am gonna start with songs that make your toes tap. I gave you a Bible you could understand. I gave you a friend who knows me (Judy). She told you about me from her vantage point. You heard just enough to wet your appetite. Then, you took me into your heart, and we took off on our little journey. It’s turned out to be a BIG, long journey, eh? But I’ve had just as much fun as you have had. Even more. I’m in on things that your human brain can’t fathom. The pain you felt, I felt it too. It’s like when Erin cries, and you feel her heart. Or when you prayed for that guy at church, and you felt my compassion for him.  What I want you to pass on to others is that they need to find me in their language. In the things that they like. When I put on music for them, it will be the kind that makes them want to dance with me. It won’t always sound like your be-bopping’ stuff. Like- Judy is learning to hear from me, and she’s getting stuff- but it is not what you would have thought. And Joni- when your prayed for her the other day to have me sit down at the dinner table with her, and you asked me to come and speak to her, you had in mind that I would tell her something, or hug her. That is what YOU would need to feel comforted. She saw me sitting next to her, and she merely rested her head on my shoulder, and she knew I was there, and that I was comforting her. She felt OK. Help people to find their own language. Encourage them to wait on me, to listen for me, to see me in their heads, to have me make myself known to them. The theophostic stuff is right on. I will come to them, I will make myself known to them. Look in the Bible at several examples of how I healed, of who I talked to, of how I communicated. Help everyone to dance with me, or sing with me, or paint with me, or whatever. I am an expression of them, and they are an expression of me. Ok- now go. We will talk again later. You have some dancing to do!  Enjoy!