For a number of years now, I’ve been meeting regularly with a group of pastors and leaders who are mentored by Pastor Steve Long.

Our meetings follow a predictable pattern. We begin with a time of sharing, receive teaching and then move on to what we affectionately call “hot-seat” prayer.

For the uninitiated, this means that one person sits on a chair, a.k.a. the hot seat, while the others gather around, lay hands on him/her and pray for them.

The person receiving prayer can state a specific need which the rest of us then lift up before the Lord. The pray-ers also relay any words/pictures/impressions they may receive from the Lord for the pray-ee.

While taking my turn on the hot seat at one of these gatherings, I heard a friend say: “I see you standing tall on stilts where the dogs that are yipping and yapping and trying to nip at your heels can’t get you.”

For one who had never ever attempted to stand on stilts or even contemplated the possibility, her words seemed silly at first. As a matter of fact, visualizing myself in this rather preposterous posture gave me the giggles.

Yet, there was something very powerful about the relevance and timing of her revelation that spoke to the predicament in which I found myself at that time.

To say that I was under attack would be an understatement. At times I felt as though I were being ripped to shreds. But the picture she got suggested that this would turn out to be no more than a nipping at the heels. And even those nips would not cause any damage.

A few hours later that same day, at a Conference in Toronto, one of the speakers casually remarked that we should make it a habit to read out aloud two passages of Scripture on a daily basis—Psalm 27 & Psalm 91.

As one who had quoted copiously from both psalms over the years, I was quite familiar with their content. Yet, something incredible happened as I started reading out aloud the words of Psalm 27 that evening in my hotel room.

The first verse was the most familiar one: “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?” That in itself was reassuring.

I kept on reading the rest of the psalm without any aha’s until I hit verses 5 & 6: “For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me…”

At that very instant, my mind flashed back to the picture that Teresa Wells had given me earlier in the day. Standing tall on stilts no longer gave me the giggles. As a matter of fact, it gave me goosebumps!

I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that she had not conjured up this image in the creative crevasses of her cranial matter. This was indeed something she had received from the Lord and relayed to yours truly.

I’ve lost track of the number of times that this picture helped sustain me on my journey through the yips and the yaps and the attempted nips of the following months. To this day, I cannot read Psalm 27 without seeing myself on stilts.

Ever experienced something similar? A word, a verse or a picture that someone gave you that turned out to be a lifesaver? Would you kindly encourage the rest of your DWOD family by sharing it with us? Thank you.