Chances are good that at least some of you, our DWOD subscribers, are soccer fans who are feasting right now on the Brazilian churrascaria known as the FIFA World Cup.

For the benefit of those who haven’t been to one, a churrascaria is a restaurant where different cuts of meat perched on metal skewers are turned slowly over an open flame. Servers bring the meat-laden skewers to your table and carve the pieces you would like right on to your plate. They’ll keep doing this until you feel that you can’t eat anything else for the next 4 days or you’ve gained 6 lbs, whichever comes first! But I digress…

Although I have not watched a single match yet, I do catch the highlights occasionally. It would appear that every country has at least one superstar who can make a soccer ball do things that make you wonder whether they have it tied to their toes on a string that they can manipulate at will!

Yet, despite all the mesmerizing manoeuvres, fancy footwork and pinpoint passes that comprise their repertoire, the players never forget that the aim of the game is to deposit the ball in the opponent’s net.

As much as fans can get caught up in the artistic antics and the thrill of the skills on display, ultimately what counts is the goals that are scored and the victories that are won.

Should a player forget this and simply focus on showing off his abilities, it would still be considered part of the game, but it would not contribute to the overall aim.

In yesterday’s DWOD, you read about an encounter that a young woman had with Jesus through an accurate prophetic word. As thrilling as it was to see her response to that word, the entire exercise was not about delivering a spell-binding, gut-wrenching, heartwarming, tear-inducing spiritual reading. The aim was to point her to Jesus and give her the opportunity to surrender her life to Him.

That same afternoon, a young man walked into our pod seeking healing prayer for his back which had been damaged badly when the car in which he was a passenger crashed while his buddy was driving at 180 km/hr (110 mph). After my partner Amelia and I persisted in prayer, he was pleasantly surprised to discover that his pain had subsided by 60%.

Once again, the doors were opened for us to speak into his life and let him know that it was Jesus who brought about the healing in his back. We gave him some prophetic words that Holy Spirit delivered to us from the Father’s heart. He too gave his life to Jesus before he left the encounter pod.

The aim of the game was not for him to receive healing, but for him to encounter the Healer Himself!

Dear DWOD friend, please bear in mind that as much as you may be able to dazzle others with dizzying displays of your gifts, even spiritual gifts, that is not what your destiny is all about. It is about leading others to Jesus, without whom your gifts are no better than ball tricks in the middle of a soccer field that have nothing more than entertainment value.

However, when you use those gifts with the aim of adding eternal value to the lives of others, now you’re within striking distance of a soul. Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal!

“Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:13-14)

It never ceases to amaze me how a simple sign that says: Free Spiritual Readings & Healing Prayer attracts people who will wait in line for hours, if necessary, to step into an “encounter pod”.

Yesterday was no exception as Rev. Heather Curnew and crew set up shop at a community outreach in the city of Hamilton, Ontario. My ministry partner Amelia and I ministered to seven people over a three hour period.

One of them was a lovely young woman with a pleasant personality, who came quite expectantly, even though she had never received a spiritual reading before in her life. She did admit that despite her childhood Christian upbringing, she had searched out other faiths. At the moment, she was fascinated by native spirituality.

We informed her that we were Christians who hear from the Father in the name of Jesus and release the mail delivered by the Holy Spirit.

We begged her indulgence for a few moments of silence while we waited to see or hear something. All I was getting was a picture of a train. So I simply said to her: “I am seeing a train.”

No sooner had those words hit her ear drum than her eyes started to well up with tears and her lips started to quiver. Amelia promptly handed her a tissue with which to wipe her tears.

“I see you standing on the platform in a railway station. You are kicking yourself for missing the train. But God says it was a timing issue. You are getting back on the train and going to your destination.”

The tears kept on flowing as the prophetic flow kept on increasing.

At that moment, I saw her dressed like a doctor and said: “You’ve always wanted to be in the medical field. You are worried about the money. But, don’t worry. God will provide you with the resources and the connections you need…but there is one man you need to forgive first.”

It was time to pause now and ask her why she was so emotional about what she heard. The simple answer was because it was all so true. Her grandmother’s house was by a train station. A teen pregnancy had made her feel as though she had missed the train. Yes, she had always wanted to be a doctor. And she thought she had forgiven that man.

We asked her if she had ever experienced anything like this in the other faiths she had explored. Nada. Nyet. Non. We told her: “What just happened was all Jesus.” To make a long story short, the session ended with her surrendering her life to Jesus and earnestly desiring to be his disciple. We took down her contact information and promised to be in touch.

What made it possible for such accurate prophetic words to be delivered that afternoon? Was it a gift? An anointing? An impartation?

Probably all three to some degree. But simply receiving the gift or anointing or impartation was not enough. It was “by constant use” that the accuracy came.

Whether it was at pastors’ gatherings with my spiritual father Steve Long, outreaches with Heather Curnew, online sessions and Facebook groups, Activate! sessions at our churches, the prayer lines at Catch the Fire, Toronto and other places…seizing the opportunities that the Lord opened up along the way…sticking to it despite the initial fumbles, stumbles, one-sentence and one-picture feeble attempts…that is what led to encounters such as the one in Hamilton last Friday.

Dear DWOD friend, no matter what your particular gift may be, please realize that you cannot cut corners when it comes to constant use. It is absolutely indispensable for you to move from milk to solid food, from infancy to maturity. Put your gift to constant use and watch what happens. You will advance toward your destiny at a greater pace than ever before!