I am speaking at a woman's retreat in just over a week. The other speaker is going to be a guest in my home the night before the retreat. So I have two main items on my personal agenda: preparing my teachings for the retreat and cleaning house for my house guest.

But God had other plans for last night. I spent an hour studying scripture for my teaching. Then I felt strongly prompted to get on the computer. My first assumption was that there was an email that God wanted me to deal with.. but only mundane/routine email had come in, nothing that needed to be dealt with just then. Suddenly I felt restless and bored.. and had no idea why. (At the time, I did not realize that it was a word of knowledge.) I felt strongly impressed to log on to IRC (the undernet). I have not been there for a very long time.

So I logged on. I visited a couple of the channels I remembered.. #new-wine and #Christian-moms. No one was there. So I asked God where He wanted me to go.. and suddenly remembered the channel #bible. Normally I would not go to that channel because I remember it as a very hostile channel where folks are more interested in insulting each other and putting each other down than in promoting God's kingdom. But the Lord informed me that I had a divine appointment there. So I went, and there were people present. But they were not talking on that channel. I asked the Lord what was going on and about then someone messaged me privately and told me they were all talking on #scripture, so I went there.

The #scripture channel was about how I remember the #bible channel.. people were debating and insulting each other. I was not really interested in this sort of thing, but I sensed strongly in my spirit that I was to wait. So I stayed online. I tried to say one or two edifying things, but was mostly ignored.

There was a person on the channel who had a decidedly unchristian nick and who was very hostile and antagonistic to most of the people on the channel. Let's call this person Tim for the sake of discussion, even though that is not his real name. Tim was swearing a lot. He was insulting people and putting them down. He was clearly trying to get a rise from people. There were others there behaving in a similar manner. But God called my attention to Tim and began to speak to me about him. God told me that Tim is not really like that.. that he has a deep yearning and a deep hunger for the true things of God, but that he is disgusted and tired of the "watered down" and powerless carnal Christianity that he has been exposed to. I was not participating in the discussion, I was just watching it. But I began to see Tim through God's eyes.. and Tim was someone who God desired and was about to reach out to. Tim was less displeasing to the Lord than some of the self-righteous and arrogant people on the list.. because Tim was truly hungry for God. And God intended to satisfy Tim's hunger.

About then, Tim began trying to convince one of the people on the channel that they should send him some money.. trying to misuse some scriptures about giving. A lot of the people on the channel were uniting against Tim, which was the effect Tim had been trying to achieve. I don't even think they realized that he was "playing them" for attention, and they were giving him precisely what he wanted.

He again tried to convince this woman that if she really were a Christian, she should give him all of her money. Just then my fingers typed something along the lines of:

Tim, you're missing out if you just go for money. Why not go for the really good stuff like God's power to do with Him the things He is doing.. like healing.

I replied, "Then you are missing out, because God wants to show you His power."

Then God told me to begin to speak into his life.. right there on the channel. So I began to tell him who he really was.. I don't remember my exact words, but it was something along the lines of, "You are not the gruff and hostile person that you are trying to convince us you are. Down deep you are gentle and caring. You have a real hunger and passion for true righteousness and injustice makes you angry..."

There were some jeers (at Tim) interjected by a few on the channel, but I ignored them and spoke God's words of life to him.

Suddenly I got a private message from Tim. He said, "Don't waste your time trying to witness here on the internet. It does not work. It is better to do it face to face."

God told me to move to private message and continue the dialog with Tim. So I stopped typing in the public channel, and continued to prophecy to Tim privately. I told him that I was not here to witness, that I almost never go on IRC, but that God sent me there explicitly to speak with him. I continued to tell him who he really was... apparently accurate words of knowledge. Because he said something along the lines of "You have seen right through me."

Then he said I was spiritually discerning. He asked me if I was operating through the Holy Spirit or through divination. I told him that I was speaking the word of God through the Power of the Holy Spirit and that I did not know everything, only what God choose to show me.

God had me again tell Tim that He had sent me to him because Tim was hungry for God and crying out to Him, and that God intended to meet him in His power and His love.

Tim asked me, "Did He say when He intends to meet me?"

I told him that I was sorry, but I did not know when. Then I started to say goodbye to Tim, and he asked me to stay longer and talk to him more. God said, "Do it," so I did.

Tim told me that he was amazed to find someone so spiritually discerning on the internet. Tim began to open up and share, and even told me his name. He is a Christian, albeit really struggling in his walk right now. He was feeling bored and restless and that was why he came online. (That was when I realized my feeling bored/restless just before I went on IRC was a word of knowledge, and a strong confirmation to me that Tim was my divine appointment.)

Tim said that God nailed him and he was going to have to go back and repent (to God) for behaving the way he did. But he also felt so encouraged and this encounter was the best thing that had happened to him in a long time. I reminded him that God sent me online specifically for Tim, because God was after Tim and wanted to meet him and show him His power and love.

Then I felt prompted to share the time when I went through some very deep struggles in my walk with God. I'd been abused by my church and was considering walking away from the Church all together because they treated their own so badly. At the time, I felt that the world treats their own better than the church does. I felt hopeless and did not think I could hold on to God. Then Jesus met me and showed me John 6:38-40 and told me that it was His job to keep me.. I did not have to keep myself. He was not going to let go of me and He was going to get me through this. I shared how it took a few months before I could truly forgive and before God brought the healing to my heart. But God used that incident in my life to make me stronger and more mature, and to hear Him more clearly.

Tim really identified with what I shared. I guess his own situation had been similar. The Lord said to me, "offer to pray for him."

So I did. This same person who had at first seemed so hostile to anything of God said that he would welcome the prayer. As I began to pray, it turned more into a series of prophetic proclamations over Tim. "I thank You Lord, that You are strengthening Tim's inner man that he will rise up mighty in you. I thank You Lord, that you are empowering Tim to forgive and to release all bitterness. I thank You Lord that You are about to reveal yourself to Tim in a fuller way and that he will know the depth of Your love and the fullness of Your power in his life.." The prayer went on for a long time, where God was strengthening Tim and breathing His truth into him. It was fun ministry because the Holy Spirit was so present.

Somewhere in this process, Tim changed his IRC nick from one that was anti-Christian to a Christian one. That blessed me.. sort of a prophetic acting out of what God was doing in his spirit.. I did not suggest that to him.. he just did it on his own. When I finished praying, Tim shared how he knew that God had a big call on his life, and he'd been afraid of it. That was part of his area of struggle. But God had really met and encouraged him.

I was really blessed by all of this. I had seen the word of God breath life into Tim and transform him before my very eyes. God is so awesome. He can use us as His servants in every day life situations to minister powerfully. And when we need God to meet us, as Tim did, He is so faithful to show up and to meet us and breathe His life into us. Instead of judging and condemning us, He restores us, just like He did for Tim. What a wonderful God we serve!