A New child of God: David's Story

                I met David walking the streets of Hillcrest and praying for the neighborhood. We started a small conversation and eventually it led to me praying for his friend who he was visiting in the hospital. He let me and I explained that I had moved to Hillcrest because the Church has done a bad job reaching the LGBT with the message and hope we have. We ended up arranging some time to hang out and share our stories. Thus began my relationship with this guy.

Over the next 6 months we began to hang out more and delve into many aspects of our lives, including spirituality. David started studying the Bible with me, even though he had never read it since his confirmation in his teens and now 48. He came to some of our dinner parties. We played games, ate good food, and laughed. Though, we started a new friendship it often seemed like he was veering away from me. I thought it was because we were pretty upfront about our faith, maybe too upfront at times. Yet, at the same time, it seemed that God was tugging on his heart and I’d like to share one example of this.

In one of those times where David was veering in our friendship, God gave him a dream and showed me He was tying David to me. I hadn’t spoken with him for several weeks at this point when I learned of the dream. It was Saturday and I was on a mission to get a plunger of all things.  Unexpectedly, I ran in to him at the place I volunteer at in Hillcrest. He then told me that he was considering what it would be like to follow Jesus and that he had had some sort of dream that when he woke up from it, he would say, “Patrick!” and throw his hands in the air. I didn’t really know what was going on but I was excited because God was doing things I could never do. Later on I found out that in his dream, I was there. I handed him a book with a picture of a person blind folded and chained. He handed it back to me and I asked him if he had had enough yet. I already knew that this man suffered for many years (30 years with HIV, several rounds of cancer, 12 near deaths according to him, living on the streets) and it has become more clear how much he suffered and how God wanted to give him sight and freedom. We started meeting up again after that and the day came recently where he finally decided to follow Jesus.

One morning, I received a call from David and I found out that he needed a ride to the emergency room to get treated for severe anemia. On the way to the hospital and even before, I had been realizing that David may be near the end of his life and he didn’t know Jesus. Many people had been praying for this guy and for me to be bold in sharing the good news of King Jesus. So, I started talking with him again about what was stopping him from following Jesus. As we rolled up to the loading zone at the hospital, it seemed he gave in and told me “I want what you have.” He wanted Jesus and in tears he started to yield what had been holding him back in his life, his ability to control his own life. I led him through a brief prayer and asked God to seal him as His child. When I asked him earlier he had said that he was afraid about going to the hospital. After we prayed, he said he felt no fear but peace.

Needless to say, many people were rejoicing with the angels that day. David is just starting his journey following Jesus and really neither of us know all that that means. All i know is that we are both headed for Him.

The Kingdom of God is Near

I went to the house of a high potential LGBT background Christian to do the 3^rd study of part 1 of the “Who is Jesus? Study”. He had a really sore back. We prayed, in the name of Jesus and invited the Kingdom of God to come, and it did. It was only after some time of reflection that I realized how significant this moment was, not only the healing but the timing and surrounding circumstances.

It was a few weeks earlier where I was sharing about the vision God gave me to spread His word all over Hillcrest and see what grows and this same guy grabbed on to that vision in a big way. I shared how we wanted to see the “Who is Jesus?” study pop up all over the place just like Jesus described in the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-20). The next week or so after sharing about that parable, he came to our monthly Hillcrest prayer meeting. Esther prayed for him and said she saw a multiplication sign over him. After she prayed, he then told us that earlier that morning he had been praying and asking God to make him the soil that would bear crop a hundred times what was sown. Esther and I were stoked for this man who had such a long journey of surrender to God, and was now in a place of hunger and desire to see his own life used in a huge way.

This potential leader in our effort to reach the lost LGBT was hungry not in word only but in action. Since the time we started to hang with him, he started tithing fully to his church, he started waking up early to pray and be with God, he started attending all we were doing, and he even was confessing his desire for Jesus above all other lovers. As you can see, he was and is going after God and this is the posture wherein God met him in an other worldly, Kingdom way.

So, then came the night of his healing, the night he and I both experienced the reality of the nearness of the Kingdom of God. This particular night, the night of our Bible Study his back was extremely sore from moving people’s stuff and also from awkwardly twisting it at work. He was so sore that he didn’t even want to join me to study at the coffee table for the fear of pain and not being able to get back up from the ground. With very weak faith, I suggested we should pray and he agreed. So we prayed and he believed God, even testing it and moving to the floor where he was once worried he wouldn’t have been able to get up. Throughout the short prayer, the words that kept coming up to me were: the kingdom of God is near. I kept repeating that to him. He not only sat on the floor, but got up with less pain and the next day he told me his back was feeling great.

This first message of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels (Mark 1:15) became more real to us than it had perhaps ever been. In this place I realized what God might be doing. I saw that God was preparing these guys to see the evidence of what they may one day be sharing in Hillcrest: the Kingdom is near. I was and am super encouraged by the faithfulness of God. He is meeting us here in Hillcrest and though we haven’t seen huge and rumbling revival on a broad scale, we are starting to see the first fruits; namely, a small group of people with encouraged and hungry hearts. Hearts, that are realizing the Kingdom of God is near, Jesus is near and His reign and rule is accessible to us today, just as it was for the 72 when Jesus told them then to “Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you.’” (Luke 10:9)

Yet, the Kingdom only becomes good news for the select few who realize the character of the One enthroned, what He stands for, what He has done, and what is their destiny. If you think of us, remember the name of the blog and pray that His name would be lifted high in Hillcrest and His Kingdom would come. Your prayers are a huge part in why we are seeing the Kingdom a new.