Doug & Becky's

I remember being thrilled when my cousin invited me ...

I remember leaving work that first night ...
I remember wanting to back out and just go home ...
But my cousin was expecting me, so I went.

I remember walking into the quiet room ...
I remember seeing people spread out soaking in the presence of the Lord ...
I remember hunger welling up in my heart and knowing I was where I should be ...
So grateful I had come.

I remember Doug saying that they would pray for me ...
He said they would ask the Lord to give them words of knowledge for me ...
I was excited and scared at the same time ...
What would God tell them about me?

They prayed and one by one shared what God spoke ...
I sat in silence as they spoke about who I was ...
About things that God was placing inside of me ...
They prophesied a gift of healing in my hands.

I remember driving away that night, marveling ...
Their words had touched a deep place in my spirit ...
I remember the hunger to experience more ...
I remember coming back nearly every week for six months.

Doug & Becky are a young couple with a gift for the prophetic. Once a week, they opened their home to young people; it started as people from their church and grew to include others. It was a small, intimate gathering; nothing like anything I had ever experienced. Sometimes Doug would teach; someone played guitar and sang or we listened to CDs of worshipful, "soaking" music; we prayed for each other and learned to recognize the voice of God together.

I remember the night Doug explained what the voice of God can sound like. He said it can be that thought that that comes so quickly and gently into your spirit and mind, that you go "oh, where did that come from?" (Well, something like that; he explained it much better). That was an "ahha" moment: I realized I had heard the voice of God before but never recognized it as His voice. This answered so many questions in my heart. Every week then we would practice hearing or rather recognizing God's voice as we prayed for one another (and any new people who would come) and asked God for words of knowledge for each other.

It was all preparation for and the beginning of the beginning of the walls coming down around my heart. But that didn't happen until I did my Discipleship Training School at Youth With a Mission (YWAM).