This story is true, it reads like a “supernatural who done it” – Live it over again with me, because I was there and next time, you could be too!
Crime Scene – The Ladies Restroom
Nordstrom Department Store
Visit a shopping mall often enough and watch the change of seasons through fashion and fad. Shop, eat, hang with friends, and enjoy the mall pet store’s puppies playing behind display windows and rallying for human affection, as if to say, “please take me home, I am really cute!” Every generation has one, a “marketplace” (biblical word for this ‘agora’, also means ‘gathering place’) and for our generation, it is the “Shopping Mall”. For the Apostle Paul and the other disciples-apostles, as for me and you, the “gathering place” is “God’s Happening Place”!
So, here I was, at the mall, slightly a week after my father’s “going home to heaven” – there, simply to walk off sadness while clutching to “Kingdom equilibrium”. Even in my natural human sorrow, willing to participate in the Lord’s goodness and power. So, it happened, that participation, just a quick stop at the Nordstrom’s ladies room – the crime scene!
Here is how the story goes…. There was I navigating toward the ladies room wash basin, only to find myself blocked by a young women intently looking at an occupied bathroom stall, and then that same stall door opened……
A well dressed middle –aged woman exits a ferociously guarded stall. The glaring young woman stall monitor satisfied with the middle – aged woman’s exit bluntly says, “Did you see my IPhone”… The startled middle aged woman, looking at a phone, says “No, I only have my phone”. … The certain young woman, pushing the issue… “Well, I was only gone a few seconds when I realized that I left my phone in the stall from which you just exited!” As if the “cat swallowed the canary”, the middle aged woman says… “Well, I don’t know who was in the stall before me… this is my phone!” Definitive wording, but Inherent to the middle-aged woman’s assurances was a possible “guilty” demeanor. As both women continued to discuss the issue… that’s where I come!
Blocked by the two women, I had no where to go. It became obvious
that God had decided, before I ever existed, that His representation through me would be required at this Nordstrom ladies room juncture in “human real-time”. There in the midst of God’s nabbing of the thief, I was a “kingdom witness” to the thievery! As it were, a sort of “Kingdom Super Sleuth!” – endued with the authority, power and character of God to foster His conviction and redemption in the life of the victim, and of the thief!
So, as the young woman continued her insistence of thievery on the part of the middle aged woman, I, obviously led by the Holy Spirit, asked to call the young woman’s phone, so as to see if we could hear it ring. No sooner than the young woman dictates the number, the middle –aged woman mumbles incessantly and with deliberate nature quickly bolts from the restroom. So, there you have it, the woman was caught “red –handed” by the God who knows all, and who was telling me about it? His conviction was “all over the middle-aged woman!”
The young lady and I exited the restroom, but couldn’t find the IPhone nabber anywhere in sight. We immediately conscripted the clothing department sales person nearest to the restroom door for assistance. She, the sales person, hadn’t seen the run-away woman either, however, willingly contacted Customer’s Service just in case. So, with the IPhone and the middle-aged woman nowhere to be found, the young lady was now without her treasured possession. Offering my further consolation and to continue in the search, the IPhone owner and I parted company. During my mall walk, I kept my eye out for the middle-aged woman. I knew that God had spoken with His presence and that His providence was at work… all I had to do was be ready and wait for His resolve. The IPhone would be returned to its rightful owner!
Kingdom Influence – What A Difference One Hour Makes
About one hour later, still on my mall walk, I knew that my “Kingdom presence” had brought a successful influence to the “IPhone theft”. Nudged by the Holy Spirit……
I called the young girl’s telephone number. Again, no answer! A few minutes later, the phone’s true owner called me back…. Stunned, the young lady says, “My phone was turned in by the woman!” … Then, with her words, came my “Kingdom opportunity!”
Yes, where a son or daughter of the Lord is, there is God and His Kingdom too – His fullest presence of power, authority, and character, and with it His influence!
According to the phone’s owner, the woman who stole from her must have felt guilty and returned the IPhone to Nordstrom Customer Service! So, it was just as the Holy Spirit said….. The thief, convicted by the same Holy Spirit present with me, made amends! It was clear, during the restroom exchange, that the assumed thief became frazzled every time she looked at me, stunned and confused as her conscience wrestled with God. And, when pressured by God’s wisdom, through my dialing the stolen phone number, the thief ran fast, but not so far. Apparently, for a short time, the female IPhone lifter fenced with God, until deciding to do the right thing. And, at that moment, the “one who wronged”, along with the “one who was wronged”, became a recipient of God’s gracious influence.
Kingdom Opportunity – My Conversation With The IPhone Theft Victim
And God said, “There Is Always My Grace”
The courtroom of God’s Heavenly Kingdom had convened in the Ladies Lounge of Nordstrom Department Store. – There was a conviction (in the sense of conscience), a repentance, and, then a redemption for both the thief and the thievery’s victim.
So, what did I say to the happy young lady while we conversed through her newly returned IPhone…. Something like this…“I wanted you to know that I am a Christian, and I love Jesus. I have loved Him and participated in His interests of others for just about all of my life. In the Ladies Room at Nordstrom’s, I represented God’s interest in your life, and it was His intention for the women who took your IPhone to be convicted in conscience, so as to return your possession to you. Jesus loves you and cares about you. In the future, no matter what happens in your life, remember that Jesus is always there for you. All you need to do is to remember this, and ask Him to help you – And He will, just like today. “To those words, the young lady said, “Well whatever you did, it worked!” She also went on to allude to remembering Jesus in the future. We concluded the conversation.
THE IPHONE OWNER & A FUTURE IN NEED OF GOD’S REDEMPTION
Finally, what I was not permitted to say to the young IPhone owner…. There would be some sad, dangerous and desperate times ahead, a trend that she would bring on her self. Including Incidences that would be deleterious to her physically. Yet, in assurance of God’s victorious future result, I know that the Holy Spirit demonstrated His interest in this young IPhone owner, right there in a department store restroom, and that this memory will always stick with her. There is also my face, and God’s words through me to recall. And that whatever it is I did (her words), that it worked! – All Gifts From A Loving God to a young girl in the process of being saved from her self.
P.S. I talked with my mother after I hung up with the IPhone owner… My mum said something along the lines of, “Linda, I knew you and The Lord were just up to something. He just told me, so what just happened”?
Most importantly, in the words of my father, “That is my story, and I am sticking to it!” Yours Truly, Dr. Linda – A Kingdom Super Sleuth!
KINGDOM SUPER SLEUTHING
WHAT GOD WANTS YOU TO SEE
(Let’s have a discussion on teaching below – Comment:
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1. The “Heavenly Kingdom’s Sphere of Influence” is in action on earth, as it is in heaven. What earthly geography is off limits to the Trinity’s purposes? Be it a Ladies Room or a Department Store or a Super Mall! Where not is God’s earthly presence?
2. Even the grieving sons or daughters of God choose to be ever-willing to participate in the Holy Spirit’s acts of conviction, repentance and redemption. What power does sadness have to isolate God’s children from His loving endeavours towards the human objects of His love? Even when in the throngs of personal sadness, a “knower of Jesus” can share in the “joy of God’s victory” in human affairs.
3. A Person, Not Yet a Christian, Can Encounter the “Grace of God”. Though selfish or forgetful of God or out-right rejecting of His existence, an encounter of His presence can be planted in their spirit for future remembrance. – A God encounter for the one “off –track” further inching them towards their God Appointed Redemptive Future.
4. The “Kingdom Opportunities”, provided by the providence of Trinity, are precious gifts from this interested and loving God-Head to His Children participants. They further the Trinity’s earthly and eternal destiny in each son or daughter. To encounter and then enjoy the always existent perfect joy of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as together they share their person and works with us, is a pleasure without descriptive earthly words. It is our God’s good pleasure to show us His beautiful ways.
5. That “Word of Knowledge” (A gift of the Holy Spirit), can be applied in an action – Being directed to dial the lost phone’s number. – Possible Purpose, to further convict the thief and expose the phone’s whereabouts. Was the phone still turned on? The act of dialing was enough to make the middle-aged woman run from the scene of the crime! Was it God’s way of saying, “I got your number and I know where you live?”
6. That “Word of Wisdom”, (A gift of the Holy Spirit), although speaking of a “future” event, can be realized in a short duration. I knew that the IPhone thief was convicted by the Holy Spirit’s presence with me. In less than one hour, the “one who stole” returned the lifted item to Customer Service. In conjunction with my help, the IPhone owner had already set up the information needed for Nordstrom’s Customer Service to be in contact.
7. The Authority of the “Kingdom” – God’s rule and reign through a son or daughter has the jurisdiction to expose sin to the “sinner” and to the “sinned against”. A believer can act as a “witness” to human sinful acts simply by being present during the “acts of sin” or to “witness the aftermath” or to participate as God convicts or disciplines. Simply standing there or being in the vicinity can bring Kingdom protection or other solutions to the one wronged. In companionship with a “present” Child of God is a “present” living God.
Note: My phoning at just the right time, gave me the opportunity to tell the young IPhone owner “why” her phone was returned to her, and that I knew it was God’s plan all along.
A MARKETPLACE DECLARATION
Lord, whether in a shopping mall or department store or supermarket or anywhere, Your presence encompasses me – I willing participate with You, whether sad or happy. Be I apathetic or exuberant or afraid, no matter what my mood. – You rule, and so do Your purposes and influences. I am available to stop that which is not redemptive or to exude Your grace or to impart Your power and virtues. I permit You to live in and through and around me. Intrinsic to the minutes, hours, days and years of my earthly living, I wish to be alongside You and to devote my time to Your treasured plans! Jesus, I am Your Ambassador. Holy Spirit, I am Your willing partner. Father God, I am Your extended and far reaching loving arms. Amen!
Dedicated to My Father – Mr. Earl Wainwright – I, so, wanted to share this story with him, but, when I turned to tell him today, he was not there. As this empty feeling began to over-whelm me, I was comforted with the hope that I will tell him about it in heaven one day. For it is my sincerest desire, throughout the many years of my future earthly life, that I will compile a library of God’s victories and my participation in them. All for You, my dearest Heavenly Father, and, also too, my dearest earthly father. With Love, Your daughter, Linda.
Dr. Linda Wainwright Trott – Copyright -April 2013
