“Therefore, behold, I am going to make them know - This time I will make them know My power and My might; And they shall know that My name is the Lord.” Jeremiah 16:21 (NASB)
In Reedley we prayed, and prayed, and prayed. After we secured a place to have our meetings, we prayed for at least two hours before the doors opened each night. One night we felt the painful reality of our physical limitations. We were so few. The town was so big by comparison. We prayed something like this.
“Lord, don’t be limited by us going out and actually talking with people because there aren’t too many of us. We pray that you would be released to go out and move in people’s lives.”
About a week later, again at the old grocery store we called the “Coffee House”, a girl walked in.
“I heard about this place and I’ve been trying to find you guys,” she began. “I need to tell you about what happened to me.”
Debbie was a student at Reedley College and lived in the dorm. One night in her room a deep hunger to know God came over her. She didn’t know what to do or how to satisfy this desire, but as the moments passed, her desire and the sensation of God’s presence grew and grew.
In a stack of magazines, close to her bed, Debbie stumbled upon a Decision Magazine, put out by Billy Graham’s organization. In the back were instructions about “How To Become a Christian”. By herself, in her room, without ever talking to another living Christian soul, Debbie did just that. She gave herself to Christ. The next day she began a quest to find other like minded people. It took her a few days, but Debbie found us.
When we compared notes, we realized that Debbie’s experience had happened the very night we prayed that prayer, releasing God to move on the lives of people without anyone even having to talk to them. When we finally left Reedley, after many weeks of revival, Debbie came along. She spent many years with the Agape Force, winning souls, devoted to the Lord who had drawn her to Himself that night, alone, in the quiet of her own room.
Greg Lanson