Excerpt from my 2015 book, TGIF: Thank God It’s Friday, Chapter 5: “Cover One Eye” …

An example of the first kind of hearing happened around 1981 when I was newly involved with praying for Jamaica. Sometimes I prayed at home with an older Christian, Sybil Maloney; sometimes at mid-week cell meetings of believers; sometimes in general Mona Fellowship prayer meetings. Prayer was becoming a hallmark of my life and Jamaica was in a particular crisis, so that was where much prayer time and energy was focused. There was a lot that I didn’t know about the Bible, but I found that God wasn’t hindered by my ignorance, as you can tell from the following account.

One morning, I was suddenly awakened by a voice saying to me, “The lion is roaring!” I quickly got out of bed, took up my Bible (still KJV at the time) and went into the living room, wondering what to make of this strange awakening. I sat in a chair with the Bible held rather loosely in my hands, and it fell open in my lap. When I looked down, the word ‘lion’ caught my eye. I was looking directly at Amos 3:8- “The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?”

I couldn’t recall ever seeing that verse before. Amos isn’t a favorite text for people young in the faith, and I’d never heard anything from Amos in Sunday school. But now that God had Personally highlighted this verse for me, guess what I studied that morning – once the wifely and motherly duties were done. From Amos 1:1, I scoured the entire book with the help of a Bible commentary, for clues to the puzzle of what was now confirmed that I’d heard. This ‘lion’ was the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. In those days I knew nothing of God’s end-time agenda, so I didn’t wonder about any possible application for modern Israel; but the comparisons between Amos’ words and events in the Jamaican Church at the time, fuelled my prayers very fervently for a while. Out of that morning’s reading also, I received a new song to sing – a new bit of knowledge to declare from the depth of my ‘knower’. The first and second verses declared that The Lion had roared from Jerusalem and God had spoken from Zion. The last verse exulted with Amos over the demise of false religion:

Now the top of Mount Carmel is withering, / Yes the top of Mount Carmel is withering, / For the Lion hath taken His prey! / Who can but prophesy? Who can but prophesy?