It was a beautiful spring Monday morning, 2004, as I made my way over to the church to pray. I would go early to pray, worship, and give praise to my Heavenly Father, God, before I went to work. Around 6 am, I put on praise and worship music in the sanctuary, praying and worshiping my Lord and Savior.
As I step out through the front doors to leave, I looked up and said to God with tears streaming from my eyes, “I don’t want to leave, can I just stay here.” I was impressed with this thought; it was as though God Himself spoke to me; “take me with you for there are others who need me.” I than asked, “could you do something special today’’ meaning, I am willing to be used for you.”
When I walked into my workplace, I felt such a presence of the Holy Spirit upon me. Yes, I was different that morning. As I was casing and preparing the mail, one of my co-workers came over to me and looked me in the face and stated, “all I see is Jesus, I don’t see Paul.” She then proceeded to say, “she wanted to talk to me about Jesus after work.” I said, ok.
As I left the Post Office, I stopped at my normal morning coffee shop, for a break. I sat down next to an elderly gentleman and ordered coffee and a roll. As I got up to leave, something said to me, “tell Him about pray.” I then looked at my watch, and my ten-minute break was finished. Let me add, I had just been studying the night before, about prayer and how to pray. I had written down in my journal this pattern of prayer which I had once read. I reached for a napkin and proceeded to write this down. I said, “Sir, when you pray, pray like this” it spells ACTS.”
A. for adoration. Give God praise for who he is.
C. for confession. It’s like this cup, no one wants to drink out of a dirty cup and God cannot and will not use a dirty vessel. Then the gentleman interrupted me with these words. “At 5:30 am, I was awake reading a book, but I did not understand it, so I grabbed another book, and I still did not understand it. Then something said to me, “go over to the coffee shop and there will be a young man who will explain this to you.” He then said, I am beginning to understand it.” I then proceeded to say this.
T. is for thanksgiving, give Him thanks for what He did. He washed away all your sins.
S. is for Supplication. Ask Him for what you need.
As I asked Him, “what is it you need?” He proceeded to tell me, He needed to write a letter to a friend, but He did not know how to say it. I will say, this man was an educated man. I said, “when you go home, pray in a similar manner. Pray this pattern of prayer, from your heart. For me I said, it’s like I step into the throne room of God with my petition, and I bring it to Him. I prayed a brief prayer with Him and left. As I stepped outside, I looked at my watch and it was only ten minutes from when I went inside. Did God stop time for me? I asked God, “what was that all about,” and the thought was, what did you ask for earlier?
Later I pondered over that day and realized that I was still in bed at the moment, when God spoke to the gentleman to go to the coffee shop to meet me. Yes, God knows our steps before we even do them. It is important to always pay attention to the voice of God when He speaks.
Experienced by Paul V. Lundmark
Share Life Ministries 