“I will never do that!” I thought to myself as my friend Jacques Oberholzer told me stories over the phone of his latest testimony. We are good friends and we love the move of the Holy Spirit so a few years ago when we both began to experience a fresh out pouring of the Holy Spirit in our churches we called each other regularly to swap stories of what had been happening to encourage each other and to fire one another up. However when he told me of people sticking things to the wall by prayer my initial reaction was not positive. It just seemed so strange, so pointless and controversial. I could do without the kickback. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately God has a way of changing our minds. That night I was at a prayer meeting soaking with a large group of people from our church and the presence of God fell in the room. Waves of the presence were sweeping across the room to the point that the room resembled a joyful party. The lights were dimmed, the praise music was loud and no one was paying any attention to me and I began to wonder” I wonder if that would work” so making sure that I was not observed I went into the furthest corner of the room and began to experiment and play with God. I simply did what I had heard Jacques describe. I held a coin against the wall and prayed. The coin stuck! I was standing mouth hanging open, staring at the coin when I heard a voice beside me asking “What are you doing Pastor?” I whirled around and found one of our church members standing right beside me. I had been so intent on my experiments that I hadn’t noticed her coming up to me. When I told her she was delighted and joyfully announced to the room what I was doing. The mood in the room became even more fun with groups of people clustered at the walls holding coins to the wall praying and laughing uproariously whether their coins stuck or not. The level of joy and celebration in the room exploded. That night many coins did stick and so began a journey that I had vowed never to take. Soon I began to hear stories of people sticking coins to walls at home, children sticking coins to walls at school and all sorts of different fun testimonies. For quite a while there would be coins on the wall after everyone had left church on Sunday morning, so much so that on Monday morning the staff would come in and collect the coins which had fallen over night as a “Monday morning coffee collection.”
There is always so many other things going on that I have never really thought that intensely about it, it was just one more fun thing that Daddy God did around us. Lately however I have been really meditating on it because this sign has literally started following me like a crazy Hollywood stalker! It started in Nashville About two years ago I went out to lunch with two new friends and we spent lunch chatting about signs, wonders and miracles that we have seen and in the course of the conversation my friends asked me about “Sticky Glory” I told him the stories and then right there in the restaurant we tried it out and a coin stuck. He went home and told his kids about it and his mother and they began playing and it wasn’t long before pennies had stuck to the wall, then a wedding ring and even a teaspoon. They sent me pictures and I shared with the people I was staying in Nashville with and soon they wanted to try and it wasn’t long before their kids were joyfully playing and seeing God stick coins to the wall before their eyes. It released such faith, joy and expectation.
Then it happened in Cape Town when I got home, In Johannesburg at a conference there. It has happened in France, Gabon, Turkey, Germany amongst other places. In Germany some people even stuck coins to the ceiling.
People have been asking me “Why” and that has got me thinking and praying about these and other signs. These are some of my initial ideas. (however let me be the first to admit that I do not have all the answers. )
Jesus came not just to preach about the Father but to reveal the Father to a world that has lost connection with the Father. A natural sign points to something larger than itself so it is with supernatural Signs point to the realities of the unseen realm. When God plays with us we learn so much about our Father. Much like children who wrestle playfully with their father on the carpet in the living room get to experience something unique, intimate and special in their relationship with their Dad so do we when we allow ourselves to relax and see what God will do. A child wrestling with his or her Dad experiences Dad’s strength but they also encounters his gentleness and kindness as Dad restrains his power out of love for his child. In the wrestling a child gets to discover their own strength, to test their limits and to grow in confidence in themselves. In our moments of joyful playfulness with God we get to see the something of the power, kindness, joy, love and playfulness of our Father we also get to see that we can partner powerfully with him and experience the reality of God in us the hope of Glory. The same awesome God who with a word flung billions of stars into space gets down on the carpet of our lives and sticks a penny to the wall, because he is our father.
Last year I was ministering in Richmond, Virginia in a small house group. There was a man there who had recently been released from prison after serving a sentence for attempted murder. He sat at the front of the meeting unmoved by the testimonies and stories I shared until I mentioned “Sticky glory”. Interrupting me he asked me to clarify what did I meant, so taking a deep breath and praying inwardly I made my way to the wall, took out a coin and prayed. The coin fell several times and then all of a sudden it stuck! The atmosphere in the room shifted and other people began to try it out too, including this man. After a few failed attempts his coin stuck! The change in the man’s countenance was amazing, the tough guy melted and a delighted child emerged. We all began to play joyfully. I went over to him and laid my hands on him and the tangible presence of God started to fall on him. His legs began to shake as he felt the presence of God filling him. His joy turned to awe as the sense of god’s love and presence grew until finally unable to stand he collapsed and yielded to the love of God. I have no doubt that he had a powerful encounter with his heavenly father that night, it was a night that I will never forget and more importantly neither will he.
The world is filled with an orphan spirit where people have rejected the words we preach as they desperately try to make their way through life as best they can because there is no revelation of the love of Father God. All the while the church shouts from the sidelines of our culture but fails to touch the heart of a world which needs to reconnect with the father. There is no substitute for a father’s authority in the home. If the father is away or absent in a home a child will often push back against authority or against their siblings with the exclamation “You’re not my Father!” In the same way our society rejects the words we carry because they cannot see the Father. Signs and wonders, the supernatural, prophesy, healing, dreams, visions, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are all manifestations of the unseen realm, they reveal to our world what is hidden from our natural eyes but real all the same. They reveal eternity and that we are not alone, that there is indeed a Father who loves us us yearns for us to return home to his love. I believe one reason God gives us signs because they point to something more in the universe, something mystical and powerful-someone who loves us-Our Father, who is in heaven.
