I have recently learned that someone dear to me has recently passed away. My reaction surprised me because this was not a relative or a friend that I had known my entire life. This was someone who mentored me from the time I was seventeen years old to about 20 years old. This dear lady’s name is Mary. She influenced my life in many ways and in ways that I probably won’t know until later in my life.
After the first time I attended her bible study meeting, she welcomed me to share my God encounters with the people there. She believed in my stories and testimony of faith. At the end someone received Christ in their heart and we got to pray for the people there.
Now this was the first time for me to have other people hearing me pray, so I prayed quietly at first. Then while praying for a woman, she turned to me and said, “This is not the time to be shy and quiet, this is the time to open your mouth. Holy Spirit is getting ready to speak through you.” The next person I prayed, Holy Spirit did speak through with boldness and gusto.
Later that same person came up to me and told me that the things I had said were perfectly correct. Mary stayed up there with me as we prayed and then she prayed a prayer to close the service out.
Then as people were leaving someone asked me to pray for something specifically for them and someone said to Mary, “Don’t you think you should help her?” “Naw, she’s got this,” Mary replied.
Whenever I was in need of prayer, I could always call her up and she would pray for me. I would also call to see how she was doing. There were moments when she would tell me that I was on her heart to pray for and then I would tell her, “Mary, I asked Jesus to put me on your heart.”
I would continue to attend her bible study services over the next couple of years. At the end she would pray for those who wanted prayer, and I loved how she would ask others to come up and join in to pray for a person too.
I will never forget how the tangible presence of God would be so strong there at times, and how much my life was blessed being there. I was poured into there and I would open myself up to allow God to use my voice, my hands and to completely pour me out.
Luke 6 verse 38 references this well when Jesus said —
“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. “
This place was a small training ground for me, and I will never forget how my friendship with Mary has impacted my life and the people that I knew there.
Mary I will miss you, but I am thankful that you no longer will have to face any kind of sickness and that you are now completely consumed by the presence of our God.
