On Friday evening, 4 September, I was in a local shopping area in Virginia with some friends. There was a large group of teenagers hanging out on a street corner, and we started talking to them. I told one teenager named “Shaw” that we were giving people encouraging words from God and we would give him one if he wanted. He said, “Sure”. I told him to give us 10-15 seconds. Everyone laughed, including the other teenager standing with him. I focused on God for about 10 seconds to see what I would hear. After about 10 seconds I told him “I have an impression of a stream or river, flowing fast with clear water, but with black rocks at various places in the stream. You are surfing down the stream and you are going around all the rocks, and not hitting them, just surfing down the stream and having fun.” He then said “Wow, that’s me man. I am a surfer.” Then he told me, “I’m afraid of dark places, like even those back streets over there that are dark, they really scare me. I just don’t like the dark. I am fearful of the dark.” He was pretty serious about this and not kidding around. I told him that I thought the impression meant that God wanted to take him around all the dark places, and that when dark or scary things come up in his life, that God would give him what he needs to get around them.” He liked that.
He talked more about how he has a great fear of the dark and anything evil. I told him about the great light of the world, Jesus, and how when you invite Jesus to live inside of you, all darkness must flee. After about 10 minutes of more talking, we prayed for him, that all darkness would flee, and that he be blessed in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterwards he said “I feel like lighter. It’s hard to explain.” I told him that it was the presence of the Holy Spirit on him. We talked more about Jesus, and that Jesus would protect him and live inside of him, but he had to ask him to live inside. He said he wasn’t ready to do that yet. I told him that’s fine, but next time he was by himself and fearing the darkness, to call on the name of Jesus and he would come.
A little bit later someone told us that “Shaw’s” back was hurt. We asked about this, and Shaw told us that he hurt his back while skateboarding. He let us put our hands on his shoulder and pray. We prayed in the name of Jesus Christ for healing for 20 seconds. Afterwards we told him to test it out and he said “Hmm, it does feel better, yeah, it feels better. That’s cool.” I told him that God is a 100% God, so let’s pray again. We did and we told him to test it out again. Shaw said “Hey….for real, all of the pain is gone… this is weird man! My back is good!” We had to go so we left him and his friends on the corner, with a back healed by Jesus Christ. He was still testing out his back.
I think that the next time Shaw fears the darkness, he will call on the one and only living God that he experienced first hand on the street corner on a Friday night.