Thursday, September 20, 2007

Back In the Saddle Again - Part I

It’s been a few weeks since I last wrote. Mainly because I was off on vacation for a couple of weeks… Ah, the beach! Anyway, I’m back and have already seen God do some very cool stuff in the last week. What’s best is that I came home to a bunch of stories from our outreach team and other folks in the church. Lots of healings, salvations, disciples being made and even a few house churches coming together!

The week before I left town we visited a neighborhood that’s new to us this year. We’ve been in there 5 or 6 times already and before I left town for a couple of weeks I wanted to get in there again. This neighborhood has been weird, because we’ve seen some people get healed and prophesied and prayed for a bunch of people, but nothing really was happening past that point. No disciples were coming out of it and we haven’t got a meeting going in there yet. What we’re looking for is hunger; a hunger that lasts past the point of receiving a miracle or witnessing a demonstration of God’s power. As we demonstrate the power of the Gospel through prophetic gifts or healings and miracles, we then call people to repentance and to lay down their lives and serve Jesus. The ones who respond with true hunger are the disciples we can work with. So as we were driving into Sedgefield a couple of weeks ago, I was praying and asking the Lord to help us get our foot in the door and meet the right people.


The Lord didn’t just let us get our foot in the door; He let us kick it down!



THREATS OF VIOLENCE

We were barely in the neighborhood more than about ten minutes when I spotted a guy that we had talked to a couple of weeks before down the block and across the street. I turned to the team and told them, “This guy hates me.” It was because a couple of weeks before, things got a little heated. We were preaching to him and then he tried telling us about some demon doctrine through his alcohol induced haze, calling himself a Christian, etc. I can’t stand it when sloppy drunks try to instruct me in the things of God, so I told him that I didn’t want to hear anything from him until he sobered up and repented for his sin. He got ticked! But that was a couple of weeks before.


As we approached him, he looked up and saw me coming. He had a rag in his hand and started waving it around wildly, calling out to me, “If you step over to this side of the street, you’re going to get shot!” I proceeded directly towards him undeterred. I didn’t really bother preaching to him, I just wanted to remind him that everything I had told him a couple of weeks ago was still valid. Namely, if he wanted freedom, he just had to repent, call on Jesus and we would pray for him and get him delivered. He didn’t want anything to do with it, so I proceeded to talk to his neighbors sitting just a few feet away.



THE LOVE OF GOD REVEALED

So, we talked to several people sitting on some steps nearby. It started with the Lord showing me one thing about a lady having to do with a grace and gifting that the Lord had given her. I opened my mouth to share it and got more. Some 10 minutes later, the lady is in tears, rocked by the goodness of God. Her husband is sitting right there, affirming what we were saying. An older woman is there, she’s obviously inebriated, but asks meekly, “Is God showing you anything for me?” To be honest, at the moment, I had nothing. But I knew that the Lord had something for her so I told her, “sure!” Some might recoil at that, but after years of preaching the gospel to the lost, I’m convinced that God has things to say about EVERYONE, any time we ask Him! Think about it, He knows EVERYTHING going on with EVERYONE; all we have to do is ask Him for it.


This is the scriptural basis for what I’m saying:


And He said to them, which of you shall have a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him? And he answering from inside may say, Do not trouble me. The door is now shut and my children are in bed with me. I cannot rise and give to you. I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will arise and give him as many as he needs. And I say to you, Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. And he who seeks finds. And to him who knocks it shall be opened. Luke 11:5-10

If someone comes to us and asks us for bread (the word of God) we can, in boldness, go to God and ask Him for bread (spiritual provision, the word of God) to feed our friends. It’s not because of our relationship or intimacy with the Lord that He gives us what we ask for, but because of our boldness to ask Him. Time and time again we’ve seen this work. It’s a normal thing now for new believers to bring us their friends and family members, sit them right in front of us and simply say,”do them”. Meaning, “prophesy”. 90% of the time, we have nothing, but in faith, we go to God and get something for them, meeting the hunger of their heart.



BACK TO THE LADY...
I opened my mouth to say something (although I don’t know what) and out came some stuff concerning her dream life. It obviously made an impact. One of the ladies with me had something for her about the love of God and in a few minutes, she’s literally in a heap on the stairs, weeping under the presence of God. On and on it went that night, I believe we prophesied over about 12 people, all of them visibly shaken by what the Lord was giving us, and the accuracy of what the Lord was giving us was startling. The Lord showed us what people did for a living, what relationships in their homes were like… On and on it went, all night long. 3 people gave their lives to Jesus and a dozen were shaken to the core.


PROPHETIC POWER!

More and more I’m convinced that the prophetic gifts are one of the most powerful weapons in the Christian’s arsenal. Jesus used them with unbelievers and so can we. Remember the story of the woman at the well?


A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me to drink. John 4:7


Jesus said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have well said, I have no husband for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband. In that you spoke truly.
John 4:17-18

Jesus, talking to a complete stranger, starts telling her things about her life that there is no way He could have done in the natural. He gives her some very clear details about her life, namely that she is living with a man outside of marriage and that she has had five husbands in her past. Jesus received this as revelation from God the Father, through the Holy Ghost. Just look at the result from Jesus telling her details about her life.


The woman then left her water pot and went into the city and said to the men, Come see a man who told me all things that I ever did. Is this One not the Christ? And they went out of the city and came to Him. John 4:28-30


And many of the Samaritans of that city believed upon Him because of the saying of the woman, who testified, He told me all that I ever did.
John 4:39

Many in a city come out and believe on Jesus… why? Because Jesus received a word of knowledge. Her testimony spread like wildfire throughout the city and the hearts of many unbelievers were unlocked to receive the gospel through her testimony of what Jesus said to her. Over and over we have seen the same scene play out, the Lord will show us some stuff for an individual and many times they will go and get their friends and family members, bring them to us and basically say, “Do them”. I believe that we have led more people to the Lord through prophetic evangelism than any other means, by far.


Next time, I’ll tell you about Sona, who gave her life to Jesus that night.


Come on Jesus!



3 comments:

The Bearded Belgian said...

Great! Praise God!
I'd like to hear about Sona.

Still, I'd rather have God give me the Bread because we're intimate, then because of the boldness of waking Him up.

But that's probably just me.

By the way, I've added you to a linklist in my blogs. I hope you don't mind. If you mind, I'll remove you.

And do you have any news on Edouard?

Paul Ferree said...

Good stuff Ryan, I'm always encouraged when I read your updates.

I heard you had Danny Styne out to your church recently...anything to report about that. We saw him this Spring and I loved his style and his whole team.

We're looking forward to seeing you soon...although Brian won't go out with me :-), I'd love to have you come and mix it up with me downtown: http://www.howtobecomeamissionary.com/preaching-in-bricktown-pictures/

Paul

Anonymous said...

That's so awesome. I am so excited about what you are doing. I signed up for the intensive traing starting next week and I am pumped! Looking forward to meeting you.