I had just drifted; my mind had just begun to wander when I felt a firm grip on my elbow, 'Hey mate, what's your name?'
'Ah, it's David' I said turning to face the man who wasn't exceptionally tall, but lanky and wearing a flannelette shirt that must have made him look rather angular and somehow authoritative.
Looking back now I don't know exactly why but I remember thinking he must have a supervisory role in the place, maybe arena staff or what have you. I wasn't sure, but something in his voice made me keen to hear what he had to say and yet calm enough not to ball up my other hand, ready.
'Cool Nathan' he said casually and his eyes smiled, though I guess he was rather intense. The arena was loud with music and the voices of 22,000 people shouting praises to their God. He could be forgiven for calling me Nathan.
'I've got a word for you', he said.
What's a 'word'?
A 'word' in the Christian context is a prophetic message—one Christians believe has been communicated supernaturally by God himself in order to edify or spur on another believer.
I've had these 'words' before. About two years ago a young man with dazzling blue eyes, so unnervingly light that I will never forget his face, came to me in a similar fashion.
'Are you David?' he had asked. Had I not already been halted by his gaze I was now.
'Yeah' I replied.
'You won't believe me when I tell you this, but I've been looking for you since the whole church gathering a few weeks back. I served as an usher in Section 18 and saw you standing in my section. In the middle of the service God gave me a word for you but I was too busy to come and tell you then. When I did try to find you later you were gone. I went home and I wrote it down and I'd like to send it to you. Do you have an email address?'
I could hardly believe my ears. At this point I had been relatively unscathed by the idea that God would communicate in this form with mankind. I gave him my email address expecting to receive an email along generic lines, like 'God wants you to know that he has a plan for you, to prosper you and not to harm you, that you have an incredibly bright future'.
Now, I'm not boasting but I know that already—it says it in Jeremiah. I was however, utterly shocked when I opened the email days later to find an essay length detailing of the image God had apparently provided to this guy about me.
I studied one of them in detail—there were three. Each vivid depiction was accompanied by at least a dozen Bible passages which seemed to fit with the images, and the guy's interpretations of each vision and message.
So awestruck was I that, number one, God would take the time to communicate this stuff about me to a random guy, and two, that this guy would then be so motivated that he would actually type this stuff up, seek me out and eventually send it to me. Freaky right? I thought so too.
A word to impact the nations
So back to my story about the guy who called me Nathan...
'I've got a word for you and it's this. I believe God wants you to know you have a word in you which is going to impact the generations'. The man laughed a little and gave me a friendly pat, 'I think you know what that is yeah?'
The friendly look was perfect. It was as though God was smiling at me and nodding his head at what I conjectured in my heart might be this word he was talking about.
I could see God nodding, with the same smile on his face as this guy's. 'Keep doing what you're doing. There will be thousands who are affected by it'. I distinctly remember those words, 'impact', 'generations', 'thousands'.
The man took his hand off my shoulder, 'Just wanted to let you know mate'. And he exited through the back door.
'Whoah!' I looked at the beams that ran across the ceiling. 'Two seconds God! Two seconds my mind wandered. I get it!' I exclaimed in sheer astonishment but really just revelling in the fact that he had noticed.
That in a sea of 22,000 he had noticed me take my eyes off the game and thought to interrupt me, to assure me that he had a plan and a purpose for my life.
I feel incredibly encouraged by that.
David Luschwitz is a writer living in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. He leaves for Spain in September where he plans to write a book.
To view more of David's writing head to www.davidluschwitz.com
To browse David's previous articles, head to http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/david-luschwitz.html