Subtle Fruit in Times of Deep Trouble
A Testimony of Linda Heard from Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022
Dear Brother,
Let me tell you what the Lord has done.
I was talking to my daughter Angela on the phone and she asked me if I would be able to take her to a store to buy a belt for her husband for the following day as the one he was wearing had just broken. I looked at the clock and asked her if 10:30am would be good for me to pick her up. This was interesting because usually I pick her up at 10:00am instead. She said that would work for her.
After I hung up I felt a check in my spirit and sensed I was to offer her 11:00am instead. So I called her back and she said 11:00am was even better.
Once I picked her up we went directly to the store she had in mind. She hasn’t had extra finances in a while so I was surprised that she wanted to browse through the tops. I looked up and there was an employee at the end of her row filling the racks with more clothes. I went to the employee and asked her if I had ever given her one of my Thank you cards. She looked at me as if she was seeing a ghost and told me “no” she had never received one.
They always have a choice of colors but she wanted me to choose one for her, so I did. She looked at it and read the message…For all you are and for all you do Thank you. She looked up at me with a radiant countenance, and said, “This is God! This is God!”
I agreed as this whole Thank you card project was and is His idea. Then went on my way to find more workers to give a card to. When my daughter and I caught up with each other she said the woman had told her that she had just been talking to God and telling Him how people were so ungrateful for all the hard work they did in keeping the merchandise out on the shelves and racks. Just as she had finished I walked up and gave her the card. HALLELUJAH!!!!!
As I look back on the whole scenario I can see God’s orchestration from Julio’s belt breaking, him calling Angela to see if she could get a ride to the store, for me being available, and then offering a later time and then extending that time, to walking in the store and going down the very isle that that employee was working in. God’s hand is all over this. I am absolutely ecstatic.
After Action thoughts by M.Reyes
First off, Linda is a dear saint I’ve been blessed to have in my life for many years now. Over the years we have shared many stories and experiences with G-d in the area of faith, but this was one that really resonated in me and that I felt needed to be shared with a larger audience. I have also personally been a recipient of one of her Thinking of you or Thank You cards in times past. She does put a lot of effort into crafting them herself as part of her spending time with G-d.
There were a number of things that vividly jumped out to me as Linda was sharing this. The most profound for me was the sheer contrast in subtle obedience over something so seemingly miniscule (bordering on unimportant) as compared to the fruit that it produced in someone’s life.
Sometimes we think of miracles or the movement of G-d as primarily occurring during church services and primarily in terms of physical healing or miracles along those lines. Don’t misunderstand me…Those things are genuine, relevant and critically important as well. I am not endeavoring to slight those more explosive things that G-d genuinely does in any way. What I am trying to do is recalibrate our view of them into better sync and scope with the other genuine miracles He does in the lives of people. This is an example of a powerful prayer intercessor hearing something so subtle and simple from G-d that produced something wondrously powerful in the life of another person. The little choices we make are important. G-d is interested and involved down into the microlevel decisions of life and He is engaged there on purpose. He longs for us to be able to perceive or hear from Him clearly for something so far beyond the Saturday/Sunday religious rote or check-box.
What do your conversations with Him look like? What is the common topic? Can it be more or different? Jesus paid a high price to give us the opportunity to have this relationship with G-d. Now, of all the times in human history, is not the time to shy away from the practical reality of such a relationship. It truly is impossible to have a relationship with someone where dialogue (two-way communication and listening) does not exist.
A friend of mine recorded the cover of a song for me years ago that dealt with this relational dynamic between us and G-d:
I want to know you,
I want to feel what makes you smile,
What makes you cry,
What might have happened if Linda hadn’t waited that small additional amount of time? We’ll never know because she chose to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit instead of dismissing Him or offering any one of the infinite excuses available to us in 2022. I’d like to encourage you, regardless of how advanced you are in prayer or matters of faith, to come back to your first love and ask about His day. See what happens. Checkboxes are boring anyway.