Wednesday morning we went to a local prison in Maun, it’s actually just around the bend from where we are tenting. After a man with Love Botswana preached we opened up time to pray with any prisoner who wanted it. Many didn’t come forward.
One older man came forward wearing his prison uniform but seemed very shy. He didn’t speak English so I had to get a translator over to help me. My heart broke for this man. I have no idea what he did to land himself in prison. But at the moment it didn’t matter what he had done, the thought didn’t cross my mind. He asked for healing and for the spirit of oppression to leave him. I knew as we were talking that this man was indeed in pain and truly wanted God to heal him. His faith was childlike and genuine. This was the first time that I prayed for a man and my heart broke. He seemed almost innocent, which is weird to say since he was in prison, but there was something about him that made my heart sad. And he was grateful for the prayer and I do believe that God can heal him. I felt a huge sense of peace about him after we prayed.
After this man, another man came to me for prayer. This time we didn’t need a translator, this man knew English. However, right away I sensed something wasn’t quite right. He told me that he wanted me to pray for healing for him also, but I had a feeling that he didn’t need healing, however since I had no idea why I was feeling this way and after a few half hearted answers from him, I prayed. By the end of the prayer (which ended up taking on a completely different tone and direction from the first man), I still had a funny feeling that something wasn’t quite right with his prayer request when he asked me for my watch. He didn’t want prayer, he wanted my watch. (Not an unusual request so far on the World Race.)
The cool moral of this story is that God was telling me the difference. I knew the first man was being honest and truly wanted God to heal him and I knew the second man didn’t really need the physical healing that he said he needed, his intentions were only to get close enough to my watch. Isn’t that awesome that God can give you the discernment you need when you pray for others!
