A Divine Encounter!

A Divine Encounter in a Furniture Store!

Here is something you can praise the Lord about!  My wife Sandra goes into Canton, Ohio and gives piano lessons every Thursday from 3:30 to 8:30 pm. After subbing in a local school district, I usually go into Canton and eat supper while she gives these piano lessons. 

As I was driving to my favorite restaurant, I was really pressing in on the Lord to continue to give me people to talk to about Him. I know there are those who He has appointed for me to see and talk to about the Kingdom of God – His Cross, His message, His salvation, His forgiveness, His mercy, His love, etc.  Luke tells us: 

  And

 He sent them out to proclaim

 the kingdom of God

and

to perform healing.

(My comment: Physical amd spiritual healing plus deliveance from demonic powers)

Luke 9:2 (NASB95)

     Let it be said that Jesus in these last days is looking for those He can sent out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and even to lay hands on the sick and demonc possesssed and they be made well - to be made whole - to be set free - to be liberated from the self-focus life and sinful life.

I told the Lord when I stand before Him, I want to have witnessed to thousands not hundreds. I boldly asked the Lord:

“Please Lord give me those whose hearts which are prepared to receive the salvation message.   May I also take the Gifts of Healings and the Fruit of the Holy Spirit to those needing to be restored in body, mind, and spirit.”  Let Jesus Your Son be praised and honored in these endeavors for I am just a servant seeking to obey your Scriptures.”

So, I ate my supper at Panda Express (Chinese restaurant).  I left the restaurant, got in my car and started down the street and saw Value City Furniture Store and thought - I need to go in there and look for a recliner.  Little did I know my divine appointment was waiting for me.  This happens to me often – these divine assignments.

I went into the store and started to look around when a woman came toward me with two other sales people and said she would help me when she finished with the people she was with.  For some reason, the two other people did not offer to help me but only this one lady.

So, I waited and waited and waited and was about to leave when she came over to assist me in looking for a recliner.  I found a recliner I liked and sat down in it to test it out.  She was with me, and I started a conversation about price.                   

 I noticed she had a sad countenance and seemed depressed and down but was able to maintain her composure.  I felt the Lord stirring in my spirit and I begin to ask her about how life was treating her. I beleive I was beginning to receive a Word of Knowledge about her.

 The conversation began to change, and she was open to share her life ups and downs with me.  I could tell Jesus was in our midst for this was a divine set up my Him. 

This was my call this day and I knew the Lord brought me to this lady.  This was a supernatural encounter.  All of this was over purchasing a recliner! The Lord does work in unusual ways. Many times we can miss these assignments if we are not open and listening to the guidance of Holy Spirit.

As I mentioned above, this type of thing happens a lot to me – Jesus setting up these encounters with hurting people, depressed poeple, confused people, lonely people, seeking people, or just people who need to know that Jesus loves them and has a word for them - or a supernatrural word which moves them toward spiritual transformation as we observe in the Book of Acts of people meeting Christ in powerful ways.

Allow me to say that I feel I am living the Book of Acts in these last days.  If you have not read the Book of Acts, I encourage you to start reading it.  It is the pattern for the true remnant church of today.

This lady’s name was -------------, 46 years old, divorced, lived with a man for 5 years and then got married.  He decided to leave her, and he move to Florida. 

They had a 13-year-old son who was very disrespectful to her, and she asked her ex-husband if he would take him. So, her son moved to Florida and lives with his dad.  She is now a single lady living alone.

She does not want much do with men anymore.  She had been hurt deep inside by her ex-husband.  We talked about men today and that it is hard to find a good husband who will be faithful and love their wife until death.  I could tell her heart was broken, empty, and drained of life. It was all over her face.

I talked about the culture I grew up in and the culture today as being very different.  It seemed men in my time were more faithful, loving, and loyal to their wives and children as well as the families were more in order, stable, peaceful, and not being ravaged by materialism, divorce, separation, drugs, adultery, violence in the home, etc.

As I talked, I noticed she was hanging on every word I was sharing.  I told her a little bit about my life before Christ and after Christ and my born-again experience and how the Lord means everything to me and has guided and blessed me beyond measure.  I told her about Jesus and how I came to know Him. 

She told me she was raised Catholic and prays using her beads.  I indicated that Jesus wants a relationship with those He is calling and that I felt my coming into the store was to talk to her about Jesus and how much He loves her.  She could not take her eyes off me and forgot about her work for this brief time. 

The more we talked the more I sensed in my spirit that Jesus was all over this lady.  We talked more and I finally said, “I know you go to the Catholic church, but let me ask, do you personally know Jesus?  Have you ever committed your life to Him like I was sharing how Jesus came into my life? 

She said no to both questions.  I told her Jesus is here now and has sent me to you to lead you to Him. Would you like to meet Him?  She said Yes.  So, I led in a prayer, and she repeated after me the prayer for salvation. 

After we prayed, I told her that she now has a new and wonderful husband who loves her, and He will never abandon or forsake her.  His name is Jesus – the Christ – the Messiah.

She was all smiles, and I could tell that the heaviness of heart she was carrying around for years was being lifted from her.  She than got a text message that some customer was asking for her. Talk about timing.

  We talked for 45 minutes with no interruptions and at the end, she was being called back to work.  We both were drawn into the “Jesus Zone” where He was ministering to her as I spoke His Word He was putting into her heart.

The Word of God is powerful when proclaimed by those who desire to see Jesus meet the

unsaved in extraordinary ways. It was all Jesus, and I was just the mailman delivering the heavenly message.

O brother and sister, Jesus is looking for more extraordinary disciples who are seeking Him 24/7 so He can send them to witness and testify of Him.

There are many living with broken hearts, lost in the world, and are overrun by a wicked and perverse culture who are looking for a new life free from sin, pain, and sorrow. 

It is only Jesus who can fix their broken lives and give them a new life of purpose, direction, joy and victory in Him. I told her I would check back with her to see how she is doing.  Again, she was nothing but smiles - totally different from when I first encountered her. 

Jesus took a lonely, hurting, and hopeless woman and transformed her in a nano second and drew her into His arms to begin giving her His abundant love and blessing He wanted her to possess. Talk about a transformaton!

One hour before my encounter with her, I indicated to her that I asked Jesus to lead to me to someone I could bring into His Kingdom with the help of the Holy Spirit.  I was pleading with him to do this as I was driving to the restaurant and then comng to the furniture store. He answered my prayer.

I left the store and praised Jesus all the way home and prayed for her that Jesus would continue to minister His life of love, mercy, and grace to her.

This is what the Gospel of Christ is all about, “Go into the world and disciple….tell them….share with them….I love them and will give them a new life in Me if they come to Me and give Me their whole heart.” 

I believe the more one has intimacy with Jesus through His Word and obeying His Word, the more He opens doors to witness for Him in a variety of supernaturally ways. I know because it happens to me without any planing but asking to be sent in the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit.

But one needs to continue to ask Jesus for those He has prepared their hearts to receive Him.  It is all Holy Spirit led and generated. I did not plan this encounter as many of these encounters He plans and sets up for me. 

Passion for Christ and intimacy with Christ fosters doors to open supernaturally as shown to us in the Book of Acts. 

The church must get back to living the Book of Acts for this was how the Lord set it up in the beginning of the church. 

Let us remember, the early church was Holy Spirit led, Holy Spirit directed, and Holy Spirit infused with signs, wonders, miracles, healings and deliverance from demonic powers.  What Jesus did in the early church has not ceased for…..

Jesus Christ

(the Messiah) is [always]

the same, yesterday, today,

[yes]

and

 forever (to the ages).

Hebrews 13:8 (AMP)

My final thought is this - Jesus does not care how much you know, how much education you have, how many degress you possess, how many times you attend church, how many courses on evangelism you have taken, how much you give in terms of money, time, and talent to the church, or what position you may hold in the church, or how good a person you are. 

  Christ’s last words to Peter is His last day Words to every disciple who follows in the footsteps of the Master – 

“Do you love Me?

 Peter responds,

“Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”

He said to him,

“Tend My lambs.”

Do you love me?

Peter responds,

“Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”

He said to him,

“Shepherd My sheep.”

Do you love me?

Peter responds,

He said to him,

Lord, You know all things;

You know that I love You.”

Jesus *said to him,

“Tend My sheep.”

My encounter with the lady in the furniture store was sharing Jesus’s love with her and His call on her life to come to Him.  I felt I was tending this little lamb by feeding her the Word of the Lord he was giving to me as I talked with her.  I am nothing special but just a person doing what Jesus asks Me to do…… “Feed His lambs….Tend His sheep.”

 I do not need to be a pastor or hold some office in the church organization.  I just need to read the Scriptures, possess a red-hot passion for the Savior, and He responds by saying, “Go” ……I have divine assignments for you to fulfill. I will go with you and affirm to you My presence.”

He says that to all His disciples who are willing to listen, obey, and go into the fields white for harvest (John 4:35). He asks this of me, and He will ask it of you if you are His serious disciple and willing to have Him consume all your heart. I hear Him say…..

Rich, do you love Me?

 Then

go and I will show you 

who I want you to talk to?

Rich do you love me more than anything else in your life? 

Then

go and speak My word 

I will place in your mouth?

Rich,

do you really love me to give Me your whole heart and mind

 for there are many just waiting to hear the Good News of My Son?

My answer….. Jesus send me no matter what the costs!!

“Jesus I do love you more than anything in this life so continue to send me into the harvest in the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit with the Gifts and Fruit of the Holy Spirit in operation for I need your spiritual tools to do your extraordinary work in these final days of this age.

I do not wish to be just an ordinary servant, but a humble and extraordinary servant speaking Your life in me to their life you put in my presence.

I am nothing and unworthy to be called Your servant, but I appeal to you to continue emptying me of self and filling me with the Holy Spirit for I know this is the only way to do the work of Your Kingdom. Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven! So be it, Lord Jesus.

P.S.  I told the lady in the furnitre store before leaving, and she agreed that even though I came into this store to look at recliners, the real reason unknown to me until I met her was to speak to her about Jesus and His love for her. She knew that it was a divine appointment and so did I.  Give all the glory and praise to Him!!

By the way, I bought the recliner.

Rich Arnold 

Servant of the Lord

311 Adelaide Ave SW

Hartville, Ohio 44632

330-704-9306

richaranold3@gmail.com