Sneaky Thief

The Sneaky Thief

It has been awhile since I have seen with the eyes of the Spirit. I feel rather sad to admit that, but it is the truth. A few days ago, as I travelling into Worcester from a farming community, I witnessed a very agile young man climb the equivalent of a two-story truck in order to retrieve some green apples. In actuality, he was stealing them. As the truck driver drove on, completely unaware of his uninvited visitor, the young man proceeded to throw the apples out on to the street corners to the passersby who readily accepted them and asked for more. At first, I was a bit flummoxed by it all. I thought:  my goodness that’s a rather dangerous, albeit bold move, and all for some green apples.

How is he going to get down? was my next thought. The drivers in South Africa, at least in my understanding, are notoriously bad about not considering a stop sign, a stop sign; it is more of a hesitation, pregnant pause, or perhaps even not that.  And even the best drivers of those big wheelers find it difficult to come to a complete stop, without lurching back. In fact, that is what a complete stop represents-one has to stop, and the forward motion is contradicted by a backwards lurch. I begin to wonder what would be the outcome of the surreptitious thief.

When I first related the story to a friend of mine, a white South Afrikaner, she put into words my initial thought: only in Africa would something like this happen. But, let me end the story. Miraculously, the driver stopped  at the stop sign, all without lurching back, and the agile young man got out of the truck, all while holding a bag of apples with which he had absconded. Amazing!

At first, my thoughts were simply- he’s blatant enough, and really pretty foolish, to try such a stunt.  But later at night, I began to reflect that the supernatural had to really have occurred for the young man to leave the site without injury or incident.

First of all, the truck driver stopped – almost unheard of in South Africa. Second, of all, he stopped at the stop sign, not beyond it. Third of all, he stopped completely still and no lurching. Fourth of all, he stopped long enough so that although the young man had problems getting all of his stolen loot, the apples, in his bag , (they were literally dropping them back into the cart in his haste to exit the moving vehicle), he somehow managed to get his stolen wares clumsily into his bag and was still able to descend the two- story truck, climb down its sides, all without injury.

 The miracioulous. Then the supernatural.

Part II

 Wait a minute.  What if God showed me this whole farcical scene so that I could pray? So, I began to take my spiritual authority and declared just as he, the thief, had surreptitiously entered that truck, that God would use this self-same stealth weapon, this thief, to surreptitiously enter closed- nations. God would use this young man to steal souls’ from the devil’s kingdom. I begin to declare God’s will and purposes for his life. You might wonder why you haven’t been doing this before. I have been seeing things in the natural, which admittedly is rather sad.

 Back when I did my DTs in 1998, I was given the worst DTS of all times- I had to pick up used condoms, unopened bottles of beer, cigarettes, and other horridly disgusting items. During that season, Holy Spirit instructed to pray over every lip, every body part that had touched those items. Including dirty diapers. Somewhere between those beginning years in missions to this last stint, I had a bit of spiritual anemia- I forgot that God has a calling and purpose on people’s lives even while they’re being used by the enemy mightily.

I am sure that my frustration with the way South Africa does not work blinded my ability to see that God’ has a plan and destiny for the ne’er-do-wells, vagrants, and the infidels that camp out on the streets. But I bless God that He opened my eyes again, and I felt the strength of the anointing, power, and authority as I prayed for this young man. And I am certain that I will see that thief in heaven. He will no longer be known as the thief of green apples, but the thief of millions of souls, in Jesus name.