Her name will be Samantha Grace!

So I have to tell you the awesome answer to prayer I got this weekend!

Knowing that we would be having Victory Weekend this weekend, I began to pray for God to do a number of things in our family. I really wanted him to help us work through any last minute issues we have, before the baby comes and stuff like that. Well one of my more specific prayers was related to the sex of the baby. I basically prayed :

"God, I am frustrated that we do not know what we are having yet, but the reality is I want you to tell me, not some ultrasound which isn't usually very clear anyways."

Since they were doing prophetic ministry on Friday night, I was hoping this would be our opportunity for God to tell us. Well the prophesies didn't really start until 9:30 and I knew we could probably only stay for an hour and the focus was on people who have never had a word before. So I decided not to worry about it. If God wanted us to know he would tell us.

Although we did not get a word on Friday night, I was encouraged to feel my baby moving more than ever before during that one hour of prophecy. I could even sense it's excitement for what God was doing for those he was ministering to. This was so encouraging, because I have been continually praying that our baby would feel God's presence even in the womb and that the baby would worship him even now. I truly feel that our child could have a prophetic gifting and a heart for worship.

Well the next morning, I ran into Susan and she told me that she had exciting news. She told me that Pastor Chuck had gotten a word for us, but we left before he could give it to us. She mentioned that it had to do with the sex of the baby, but she wanted Pastor Chuck to talk to me about it. So on Sunday morning, when I saw him, he told me that God had given him a word for our baby and that he wanted to stop us as we were leaving on friday, but he was already in the middle of a another prophecy at the time. I told him that I had heard that he had gotten a word for us and that we were very excited about it, because I had been praying that God would tell us. This is the word he got for our baby:

He said when he looked at us, God showed him a little girl who was dancing and like a root she shot into the ground. He explained that this had to do with the inheritance of the Kingdom of God here on earth. He said that this might have something to do with dance or worship, but he would need to ponder that more.

Although the prophetic word was not long, it was definitely what I had been praying for and it brought so much peace to my heart. As you can see the word very much paralleled the physical manifestation of the baby moving throughout that entire hour of ministry that we were there for. Also I have felt like were having a girl all along, but wasn't sure if that was my own preference or if God was really showing me that. Another random but crazy confirmation that related to this word, was a conversation I had Sunday morning right before I ran into Pastor Chuck. Anna Harrington was wanting to see me and her mom was telling me about how she had been asking about me because she had not seen me lately. Then randomly in the middle of our conversation, little Anna did a ballet arabesque. It was so sweet. So I asked her, "Are you taking ballet?" And she shook her head up and down with such a cute little smile. Her mom then went on to explain that she was in the Wildwood dance program and that it was so great because they don't just dance, but they teach the children how to worship God through dance. My reply to that was, "If we have a girl, I want her to dance and do that program." What seemed like a random convo at the time, turned into further confirmation that Pastor Chuck had truly heard from the Lord and when I explained to him all the confirmations I was having, it encouraged him as well.

Praise God that he speaks through us and ministers to our needs. I am so thankful, for His faithfulness to answer prayer and am so thankful for the gift of prophecy and encouragement I pray more than ever that I can grow in this gifting and that our daughter will operate in it as well.

So like the title says, " Her name will be Samantha Grace!" Samantha is a Hebrew name, meaning Listener of God. How cool is that! I liked it before I knew it's meaning. But now that I know it's meaning, I love it and know that it is the right name for our daughter.

I hope this is encouraging to you and that it builds your faith for whatever you are believing for God to do in your life. No prayer is too simple or silly for God :)