Godly counsel

   This past Sunday, while at the jail, I had two men out of 12 stay behind for personal prayer. The Holy Spirit gave me words for both of the men.

   The first, I saw him standing on the carpet and it was pulled out from underneath him. He landed on it and God grabbed the carpet and pulled him along. I told him what I had seen and he said "I am an alcoholic. I have not been able to get back to the man I once was because I couldn't get my life straight. I want to be the man for my family that I should be, but I didn't know how." Through the leading of the Spirit I told him that God had him in the situation he was in, although it feels like the 'rug had been pulled out from underneath him' , God was using this time to bring him back to where he needed to be. I told him to trust God, and love Him, and allow God to move in his situation.

   The next man I seen a wheel turning, and the Holy Spirit said "this man already has plan B in his head, thought out, for when he fails the Lord. The wheels are already turning in his mind for how to fix his failure." I spent some time unpacking this for the man and he said that he always failed God and his family in the past, and that he wanted to stay true to God this time.

   I prayed for these men and blessed them in Jesus name for their respective situations.

   I could not have guessed any of these things. I have seen models of prophetic prayer work very well in two different ministries, both approaching the prophetic in different ways. Prophetic ministry is simply hearing God and then responding to what was heard. For follow up, for the men I minister to, I am setting aside two Sundays a month for visiting the jail, and the other two Sundays I am making available to meet with these men who are back on the streets. This is a jail ministry, not a prison ministry, and the men I have been led to minister to go back out into the county very quickly, often after they have only spent one Sunday with me in service.

   I will minister to these men based on their need. I will meet them where they are at with what limited resources I have, but spend time with them one on one giving them words from the heart of God.

   I have no 12 step program. I have a two step program. Hear God, and respond in faith. I think there are many great things about 12 step programs, and they should not be written off. In fact, parts of those programs I will use to touch lives. But as the old saying goes "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach him to fish and you feed him forever." I will show these men how to hear God, and how to respond, and I will trust that the Holy Spirit can do a much better job in teaching these men than I can..........