Preparing the Kaleo

So! It is Wednesday, another day of God exposing where he is working through me just by being able to talk and share with people things like this… But like a cup already full to the lid, God pours himself into my life and I end up overflowing with his plans for his people (all those who I tell my story to) but really, its more like me throwing up in people’s laps of God’s goodness… because when I tell a story, I don’t mess around! I can’t tell if I’m just one intense dude with a crazy story of God’s awesomeness!!! Or if the audience before me is surprisingly constipated or terrified to silence of the “throwing up in thou lap experience”. 

Well here’s to throwing up the good stuff!

God is good. Despite all my screw ups, all my regrets, doubts of his plans (whether it’ll actually work or not in the en), despite all my heart and flesh tell me to act in, or my unwillingness to be patient and listen rather than spew out the things I think should be said… God is still using me! Haha, it’s crazy. A great mentor in my life told me last that “God does not call the prepared, He prepares the called.” (the greek word for “the called” is “Kaleo; kuh-lay-oh”) and I’m pumped about that comment, because truthfully, I don’t feel prepared a lot of the time. I feel insignificant to the conditions of the world; insignificant and too small to change any of that. These thoughts are dwelled upon quite frequently sometimes, BUT! I know that it is not God who is placing a yearning to dwell on such things. I wonder why I seek to gain a fulfillment in serving the God of heaven and earth, based on what I can change!? Can I change a person’s point of view or change the communities I visit or will come across someday? No. JESUS, HOWEVER, can change our hearts and lives, points of view, Jesus can and will change our communities. I, was insignificant and small to change the world, but when I surrendered my life and deepest regrets at our training camp for this mission, God called me to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I now know that when I was lowered in the water of that freezing lake, my old-self was left behind when I was raised out of the water. I was raised to life, a life that God was calling me to live, a covenant between me and the Lord of all creation, King of kings. Everything changed from that moment on…

God revealed to me a spiritual gift. This is crazy and shocking and just crazy to read much less hear from a person who isn’t exactly renown to be the most honestest of honest people. (I spelled it wrong on purpose thank you)

So it begins… a day or two after being baptized I was listening to a stinkin’ awesome speaker talk about the crazy gift of speaking in tongues and was blown away by what the guy was saying. I’d never heard of people actually speaking in tongues or praying over people in tongues before, you’d think I would have at church, right? No! Let me tell you something, there is nothing on earth that can prepare you for how weird and weird or amazingly shocking it is to hear someone speak, whew!… speak in tongues. I am the best imitator in the world, any movie, comedian, war speech, epic quote or cartoon/disney character… I can get em’ down to a “T” no problem. It’s a gift. Well, this is craziness. I still don’t know exactly how far speaking in tongues goes or where that applies in miracles through God’s will or what have you, but let it be known, when it goes down, it’s serious stuff! 

Anyways, I don’t speak in tongues, sorry. Not yet, at least… But God did call me to do something crazy and awesome that night. So, this awesome speaker guy is talking about how the Lord would give him this bursting feeling on the inside of his stomach to do something at times; this was a feeling in relation I’m guessing, like an urge to do the will of God (however awkward and uncomfortable or ridiculous the timing may be…) Well, right at that moment, I get that feeling! Whatever that bursting urge this guy is talking about, I get exactly that. So God tells me to come to him in prayer, I do so with my hands out in surrender (this is kind of like raising your hands up when you surrender to someone, except I’m not raising them up in the middle of this guy’s sermon because that’d be ridiculous, right?) So, my hands are at half-mass so to speak, in my lap and I’ve got nothing I haven’t surrendered to God already so I say “Okay God,” with this bursting feeling, right? and I say “What do you wanna say to me?” and God answers “I want you to heal 2 people tonight.”

WHAT!? I beg your pardon sir- I mean God, you must have called the wrong guy (no, the signal was good. Got good God coverage) I came to God in confirmation and sure enough God not only said yes, but he gave me a picture of who I was supposed to heal! (I wont say who, sorry! Haha)

Anyways, this awesome pastor is still preaching, and I came to God and asked in confirmation “You want me to get up, right in the middle of this sermon, take everyone’s focus off of this preacher and heal this person in front of everybody?”….

“Yes, go and do it.”

“God, you want me to heal this person now? Not when worship starts or something?”

“No, go to this person now.”

“Okay God, just how am I supposed to pray over this person?”

“I will tell you…”

And He told me word for word how to pray over this person. Very specific words too, for this specific person:

“First, put your hand on his/her head and ask if they accept this blessing…

Then, if they accept the blessing, place your hands on his or her shoulders and say “I rebuke the condition of your body in the name of my son.” (I would say “Jesus Christ” instead of “in the name of my son”)

Well, thank God worship started, but it started after a whole bunch of me confirming with some hesitation in me… And so a british guy who I will leave out his name as well, but he came up to me smiling (and just to let you know, when this guy would come up to a guy or young man, he’d kinda slap em’ on the face one or twice and maybe a kiss on the forehead or cheek if you were lucky or worthy, but you immediately felt surprised for one, but also extremely manly. Like I could’ve grown some chest hair right off the bat, braided the hair into a morning-star or mace, and have it both medieval & battle-ready… that would all happen after the british guy stuff. Not to mention the guy’s voice was as epic as they come, both deep with age and elegance like that of a great mentor that should be onscreen somewhere. Sounded like Patrick Stewart from X-men.

Anyways, worship had just started and (I’ll just call the british chap Gandalf) anyways, Gandalf came up to me smiling and  asked my name for the 3rd or 4th time and I yelled so he could hear me through the music “CAMERON!” 

“CAMERON?… OH YEAH SCOTTISH LAD!” and he slapped me twice and he started to pray over me: “O Lord, I pray you’d give Cameron this bursting feeling of the Holy Spirit prompting him to-” and I cut him off right there and straight up told him: “Gandalf, I’m already there.”

“Well what do ya mean?”

“I mean God wants me to heal 2 people tonight…!?!?” with a weird, unknowing, not knowing what in the world to expect out of a reaction from Gandalf, right? Eyes now fixed on me and around the room, different look now, “Well where are they?”

I pointed right at the person, for God had given me an exact vision of who I was supposed to pray over. “One of em’s right over there!”

Cooly, he asked “Well, can I come with you?”

“Hah, uh… sure man, let’s go…”

So me and Gandalf walked on over to this person who is definitely taller than me, and as I got closer, I noticed that the person was breathing a very uncomfortable breathing… as if he or she were shivering in pain with short and fast breathes. The person having no idea I was in front of him/her, rocking back and forth from heel to toe over and over again, I came up to him/her and placed my hand on their burning hot forehead and asked “Do you accept this blessing?”

Barely able to shiver out the words “Yes…” I then began to pray just as God had asked me to, moving my hands on his/her shoulders now and began: “Lord I lift up (Name) and, in the name of Jesus Christ, the power of your son’s name, his awesome name, I rebuke the condition of your body.” 

Then his/her body started to shake or shiver a little and collapsed towards me. (I found out later that Gandalf stopped me from falling backwards, but I honestly had no idea…) So, I guess it was Gandalf who kinda guided the 2 of us to the ground, still praying and he/her still shaking and breathing fast… started to slow down and then the person started laughing hysterically saying “I knew it was you, I knew it was you!” (We talked about the person’s condition 3 weeks prior to training camp about how God had told him/her that someone who might not know their spiritual gift yet, would come to training camp and heal 2 people so they could go on the tour… although excited and hopeful it would be me at the time to heal that person specifically, being one of the two… Ya, totally didn’t remember that at the time at all.) Anyways, the person said “I knew it was you! I knew it was you! You have that radical faith Cameron!” And I’m kinda laughing with a disturbed look… This feeling I was experiencing came to be called “Spiritual Shock” and the term stuck… that’s the only way I know how to describe it. 

The story goes on forever, but know that is merely an iceberg glimpse/taste for you all of the things God had done just at camp and how they went down in my shoes… Pretty crazy huh? Well, just to let you know, the Holy Spirit hasn’t stopped asking me to come to God in prayer. In fact, I’ve been so over-blessed to be a part of many people’s lives: family, friends, acquaintances or complete strangers alike, God brings fellowship, guidance, encouragement or his words become alive by “Throwing up in Thou lap” of all that God has done and what He is saying to me, and I suppose God is crazy at work in all thse lives that stories like this reach, because they either look blown away by God or they have a very threatened or weirded-out face that screams “Okay, I have to go now! See ya never!” The 2nd one hasn’t happened yet thank God… But rest-assured, there are more and more crazy stories I’ve got that will blow you away and make you get goosebumps.

 I found it hard to decide whether or not to write about the “Spiritual Shock/Healing” experience or not because like speaking in tongues, or really any of the things that Jesus or his disciples had done 2008 + years ago or whatever, I cannot deny that pretty much nobody talks about this in a church setting or small group or anything I had been a part of before my training camp for this mission trip. So, with that in mind, I knew and considered just how weird, bizarre, and hopefully awesome this story is. There is a craving and desire to be able to do such things in the name of Jesus Christ that I’ve had for so long, but I honestly never believed it to be a possibility in my life. I’m reminded, “God does not call the prepared, He prepares the Called.”

Knock Knock Neo… Haha