Have you every had people make really odd reactions to you for no particular reason? This has been happening to me a lot lately, usually when I'm in silent but intense prayer.
For instance, not long ago I was walking down the "main drag" of San Francisco's Financial District, on my way to work. This street is always very crowded with pedestrians, particularly when people are on their way to work. I was hardly paying attention to anyone around me, as I was very aware of the Lord's presence. In fact, His presnse on me felt as strong as at most renewal meetings, but I was not manifsting in any way. I was praying in response to His presence, mostly worship. A very respectable looking woman was walking towards me, carrying a briefcase and a cup of coffee. Our eyes happened to meet as we got within about 6 feet of each other. All of the sudden, she got an expression on her face that looked like a snarl, stopped dead in her tracks and did an abrupt about face. She darted into the loby of the nearest building and peered out at me through the glass door with a horrified look on her face. After I passed her, she exited the building and continued walking down the street in her original direction.
Yesterday morning I had an incredible devotion time with the Lord. My spirit felt so alive and so full of Him. He had given me a very encouraging verse from Psalm 21:2 -- about giving us the desires of our heart and hearing and answering our prayers. Of course, that encouraged me to interceed and pray even more excitedly for our upcoming India trip. I was in prayer the whole 25 minute drive to the BART station. An wonderful oddity occurred, there were exactly two empty sets on the train (usaully it is standing room only and seats are considered a valuable commodity). I was the first on the train from this station, having been in the front of the line. I took a seat, silently thanking the Lord for the wonderful surprise. The lady behind me started to take the seat next to me. Suddenly, she scowled at me and moved away. The person after her took the seat and sat down and smiled at me. The first lady (the one who would not sit next to me) kept glaring at me from across the train and giving me dirty looks. Usually something like that would have bothered bothered me, but the intensity to interceed was on me so strongly that I soon became lost in silent prayer. I happened to notice the woman scowling at me again, so I silently began praying for her. She immediately stiffened and turned her back, and did not glance my direction again the rest of the trip.
Last night I was coming home from work very late, and BART trains were only running every 20 minutes or so. I had been standing on the platform, waiting for a train, for about 15 minutes. It was about 10:30 at night. Several other people were on the platform also waiting for the train. Two women in their early twenties walked by me. I was lost in silent but fairly intense worship and intimacy prayer and hardly noticed them. All of the sudden, for no apparent reason, one of them looked right at me and let out a blood curdling scream. Every head on the platform turned to look at her. She immediately got embarassed and sucrried away. Her friend shrugged apologeticly and followed her off.
So, I asked the Lord what was going on. I am not sure if I heard correctly, but what I think He said is that His presence has been on me fairly heavily lately. (I think this is because He is preparing me for the trip to India.) Then I think He said that when His presence is this intense, that it will sometimes cause demons to manifest in people, which was why these people had been having those reacations to me lately.
This seems a bit strange to me... and I am wondering if I heard right. Yet, I was just minding my own business and praying silently, hardly aware of these people. I have certainly been getting some odd reactions lately, particularly when I'm silently praying or worshipping in a public place.
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