Monday, October 04, 2010

Evangelism, prophets-part 2

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Well just say a crowded restaurant is the sea. You look around and across the faces of the people in the room and if the Lord wants you to minister one will stand out. The best way I can explain it is that you need to look away from the one that you think is standing out and look around the room again. When you come back to look at the person again and they are still standing out you can just look at them for a while.


Then comes the time where you go to the captain. When I see a person in a crowded place and they stand out, I will ask the Lord does He want me to talk to them. He will normally reply with a yes, or to some The Spirit will give you a sort of resonance in your spirit. Then it's just a matter of waiting on the Lord for the message, which doesn't take long. As soon as the Lord gives you the message, that is normally enough confirmation in order to proceed.


Now I don't know about your city or where you live, but in Sydney where I live you are pretty much considered weird if you approach total strangers on the street. And so, no matter how long you are doing this, there can always be some amount of trepidation. One time I was sitting at Mc Donald's and sipping on a really large coke, and I looked across and saw a really really attractive young girl about 22 years old. I looked at her and then looked away and once again my eyes went to her. For a single guy this can be difficult to discern. Does this girl seem to be standing out to me because she is so attractive or is she glowing because the Lord wants me to speak to her?


Well it only takes a question to the Lord to find out. Yes on this occasion the Lord wanted me to speak to her. You'd think that would be easy for me to approach a young girl that any guy would like to chat to, but the opposite transpired. I was 38 and so somewhat older then her, and there was another girl sitting right next to her. Suddenly I was too scared to approach her. I was worried what she might think of me approaching her, because a lot of the time a single girl will assume you are coming to chat her up, and secondly I didn't want the girl next to her listening in and watching me be embarrassed.


I told the Lord I wasn't going to approach her. This was a first for me. I had faithfully delivered hundreds of messages to people up till this point. The Lord Jesus asked me what was my reason for not agreeing to approach her.


"She's too pretty Lord," I said.


"So if she wasn't pretty you'd approach her for me. But because she is so pretty you can't approach her for me?"


"Yes that's right!" There was also the fact that I didn't want to look a fool in front of the girl that was sitting next to her, but when you are making excuses why you are disobeying the leading of the Lord, you don't happily like to make too many.


"Will you at least listen to what I want you to say to her?" the Lord Jesus asked.


"Yes, okay"


"Tell her that I have been listening to her prayers and that I know that she feels that I am not hearing her prayers. Tell her that what she is praying for is not what I want for her life and that even though that may seem harsh I have something better for her in the future that is a lot better then what she is asking for. Tell her I love her and tell her that she is making me happy in the way she is conducting her Christian walk and to have faith and trust me that I know what I am doing."


So as you can see by the end of that I knew that the girl was a Christian. When I contemplated the prophetic word and whether I would appreciate someone giving it to me I had to admit if I was praying for something really dear to my heart and not seeing any progress I would like to hear the bad news rather then continuing to pray a prayer that wasn't in line with God's will.


So dear reader, it is often the word the Lord gives you that helps you over the line when it comes to the fear of men.


On this occasion even though I heard the word I was still struggling with approaching such a stunning girl. I stayed there and was sipping my coke and contemplating how I could wiggle out of it.


Then Jesus said to me. "Of course you can be like other Christians. You can pretend that I didn't ask you to do this and just walk out and ignore her. It's your choice Matthew. I am not going to force you. But consider this. Even pretty girls need answers from Me."


I took another sip of coke, breathed in deeply, and went over and delivered the message. As I delivered it I saw her change from doubting the message to strong confirmation when she realized the Lord was talking about the need she was praying for. Words of knowledge do that all the time, they bring strong confirmation in the person being ministered to.


Okay, now that you know I am a bit of a coward, LOL. Let me say I have delivered 100% of the personal words that the Lord has given me for another person. This is something that I am happy with. Not that I am boasting in saying this, but I still have sin in my life and so it makes me happy that at least in this area I am obedient the the Lord.


Now for the second way I use prophetic evangelism. This occurs when without being given a word from the Lord for a person I am just sitting by them or walking past them in my business of conducting life. I will always initiate conversations at every opportunity I get. If I am sitting on a bus I will start a conversation with the person next to me. This is something I am very good at, as I drove a cab for six years and before that I was in Amway and was always trying to get new people to join the business and had to approach strangers.
Tips that can start conversations that can lead to prophetic evangelism.


Wherever you are, no matter what you are doing try and make eye contact with people. As you are walking down the street make a habit of meeting people in the eye and saying hello in words or in a nod.


Whenever you come across a person standing still or sitting still next to you, try and strike up a conversation.


"How did work treat you today?"


People are generally open about that.


If you ask people a question about what they do for work. Do they enjoy it? If they had a choice of careers would their current job be their top choice? What would you do if time and money were not a problem for you, would you still do your job?


Then if you have time you can ask them a question about there family life. Are they married? Have they children. If they have, how old and what are their names? If they haven't do they plan on it? You get the picture ladies you know how to do this.


Then the third question that works pretty well is... what do you do to have fun when you are not working? Asking in depth and intelligent questions about their sport or leisure will put them at ease.


In all the questions, you are not being a cop, but you are allowing them to talk about things that are important to them. They are talking about their job and their dream job. They are talking about their family and the people they love. And they are talking about their favorite leisure activity. Believe me, the more you ask, the more they will open up.


Very FEW people indeed have EVER asked me, "Why all the questions?" I could say that less then twenty people have said that to me in ten years and I have had thousands of conversations.


Now here comes the good part. When you have asked the three main questions, work, family and hobbies/sport. They will feel obliged to ask you the same. This is where you can share your testimony with them.


A typical conversation with me goes like this. They ask:


"What do you do for work?"


I reply, "I am working part time at the moment and studying the Bible in order to become a full time preacher in the future"


"Have you preached before?"


"Yes three times. Twice I got a very good response and once people didn't want to talk to me after it"


And this can go anywhere


Then on to the next question.


"Are you married?"


Cont....


This week my answer was to one guy, "I work part time, and I am doing personal training to become a full time preacher in the future, and yet my current project is developing a web site that allows people to hear a personal message from God when they request it."


"How do you give them a message from God?"


"Well I have a good relationship with Him and when you have a good relationship with Him sometimes He gives you a gift of being able to give personal messages to other people. He essentially knows everyone and so, all I have to do is pray and He most often has something to say to the people who ask for a personal prophecy."


I went on with this guy to share three things about His character that Jesus told me. He was blown away and I gave him a card with this sites homepage on it.


So guys, you have to be able to start a gospel message with one of your three answers.


Some of you could say, bla bla bla.... and I am currently part of a prayer ministry team that support people who contact an Internet site that a friend of mine has created.....you can have that testimony by contacting me and becoming a part of my prayer team.


You could say, I am part of a group who deliver personal messages from God to people who contact a web site that offers them for free to people. That can be your story if you want to help with this site!


Whatever you say make sure it is an opening for the person who is curious about the things of God, to dig deeper.


So that's witnessing.


The second type of prophetic evangelism I do starts that way a lot and then I swing around and start to give them words of knowledge the Lord supplies me with. This really gets their attention.


I had an atheist say to me," I am an atheist," last week. I was able to say, "That's okay God forgives you for that. In fact, even if you don't believe in God, contact me on my web site and let me ask Him for a prophecy for you. When God starts talking about your life and mentioning things that only He could know, then you might change your opinion. In fact writing to me would have you half way on the way to believing in God."


"You know. I don't blame you for not thinking there is a God. But it's different for Me. I have met Jesus in the flesh and talked to Him in this very Mc Donald's. And on six occasions I have met Him in here where He appeared in a vision to me where only I could see Him. So the fact that you don't believe in Jesus doesn't hurt me or offend me. And really I don't need to prove that He lives to you. But, take a chance and email me, and we'll see what He has to say to you. Then you can judge for yourself if the message was supernatural."


So there is my little lesson on the subject. I know it's not much. But if you have anything you'd like to add to this, please write and I'll make a page for you to share your experiences and even a link to your web site or a contact email address.


If you'd like to step out and begin to share Jesus through the prophetic ask Jesus for the gift of prophecy.


If you are already well versed and very confident in your gift and would like to help me, by all means get in touch.


If you'd like to hear from the Lord, pray that you can hear His voice. He promises that His sheep hear His voice. And when you hear clearly start sharing that with others.

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