End Times Prophetic, Prophecy, Visions, Dreams, Revelation, Christian Blog

I was at a meeting a few days ago, where a woman confessed she found it almost ‘impossible’ to witness in her secular work environment. Whereas she found it easy to talk to strangers about Jesus, some ‘thing’ held her back at work and almost paralysed her.

I know exactly what she meant. In my own life I have experienced it and seen it time after time in others. I mean, haven’t we all been there to some degree? And the longer we stay silent, the stronger the bondage becomes (the dumbness and paralytic state).

What is it? Fear. Fear of man. Fear of being laughed at. Fear of being thought any less of. Fear of making a fool of oneself. Fear of negative reprisals and repurcussions. Fear of getting it wrong. Fear of not sounding eloquent enough. Fear, sheer fear. Linked to other weaknesses and sins like pride and self-conciousness and poor self-esteem and self-confidence (which is actually inverted pride).

I was about to respond that this fear needed to be fought, and whether we felt we flowed when speaking or whether we spoke staccato, we still needed to preach the gospel in a sympathetic manner ‘in season or not in season’ wherever we were. When I say a ’sympathetic manner’, I do not mean ‘compromised’, I do not mean ’soft’, I mean in a relevant way that is specifically tailored to the person we are witnessing to. Jesus, when he spoke to the woman at the well (John 4), knew exactly how to reach the woman - he got right in there to the heart with ‘prophetic evangelism’ that was relevant to the situation they were both in. It ministered to the individual and not the crowd, it met her need, and offered her God’s solution to her felt needs without any religiousness, pretence or bull.

So sympathetic evangelism is prophetic evanglism and it is to pray and ask God about the person’s needs and witness and minister to that. God has promised that when we are close to him, and obedient to him, he will give us the words to say, even when we have not prepared beforehand. Spirit-led evangelism gets to the public’s heart. We speak prophetic words as a prophetic people and those spirit empowered words get straight to the heart, and keep on working long after we are gone. When they go straight to the heart they do not always recieve a positive response as with the woman at the well - convicted people like throwing stones - BUT the people’s response is not up to us, it is up to us to be obedient and be faithful messengers.

Someone not becoming a Christian in response to our message is not a sign of failure. Our failure to deliver the message, however, IS.

Even if you do not think what you say is prophetic evangelism still be faithful and speak the word and God will guide you and bless your faithfulness. I still remember the look of shock on one of these ‘The end of the world is nigh!’ type preacher’s faces when I went up on him on the street 21 years ago and told him I wanted to become a Christian. He had the priviledge of leading me to the Lord right there on the street. It was not anything the guy had actually said that day, he was just available at the right time and the right place - I had been prepared for weeks beforehand. This guy reaped the rewards of others speaking into my life. If you feel impotent remember you just have to make yourself available like this guy, be obedient and God can still use you. Some of the most powerful true evangelists I know have been the ‘weakest’ people naturally - because they are weak they have to depend on God all the more so they are of the spirit and not the flesh - their charm, charisma, intelligence or beauty does not win people over, but their spirit empowered words do. God often deliberately chooses naturally ‘weak’ or ‘insignificant’ people to be supernaturally powerful (eg David, Gideon, Moses). If you feel incompetent, fearful or useless, then good news as you can be in that hall of fame too! YOU TOO CAN BE USED BY GOD POWERFULLY.

More people than we realise WANT to hear a relevant gospel. They are ready, waiting, hoping for it, hungry for it. They do not know what it is they want yet, but you may be pleasantly surprised when you take a step of faith and speak up for Jesus. Just remember keep it real and don’t be all religious - be yourself! There’s no better b.s. detector than a non-Christian. I just wish they’d be around the modern church more for that reason and others!

Anyway I was about to say all this to the woman who was having problems at work speaking up, when the other Christians present at the meeting gave her their advice. The common consensus from them was - ‘Don’t worry, just love her, and she will see how differant you are and one day will ask you why you are differant and then you can tell her.’ I was shocked at such a un-biblical view from a room of (supposedly) spirit-filled church members.

‘I’m sorry that is NOT the truth and NOT the gospel.’ I said. ‘Although there may be times we should hold back or use a differant evangelism tactic if the Holy Spirit specifically leads us to, generally to wait til people ask about our faith is a washed-out and compromised Christianity.’

Satan then entered the room as the room turned to attack me. There was such anger, the atmosphere had turned in one second. A long-time church member in good standing practically shook his fist at me. ‘How dare you!’ he shouted as others blushed red with rage and indignation. ‘How dare you judge how I live my life!’ A few minutes later he turned around and apologised to me. ‘I am sorry,’ he said, ‘what you said just hit a raw nerve’. He had been convicted. He realised he had been ‘had’ for too long. Much of the Church has been ‘had’ for too long by this lie also.

I am all for loving people into the Kingdom albeit love without words is totally worthless (as are words without love mere clanging bells). I all too often have heard this lie, and it is a lie, about witnessing through your works alone, but folks this ain’t the Bible, it ain’t the gospel. Love people, absolutely, but the word must be present (along with prayer).

Repentance unto salvation and signs and wonders FOLLOW the preaching/release of the word. They do not come from keeping quiet and hiding in the prayer closet, however much you may ‘love’ the person you pray for. Love should be demonstrative anyway, it does not remain silent. Because God loved he sent his Son to speak and show his love to the world. Jesus did not wait for the world to ask Him about things before he went to people and spoke up and taught. As God sent his son, so Jesus sends his church (or tries to).

By and large non Christians will NOT see the REAL differance in your life compared to any non Christians unless you are one of the few whose mere shadow heals the sick (lucky you). If you are a nice person then they will think this is what you naturally are - a nice person. There are lots of ‘nice’ people out there in almost every religion. Some of the (on the surface) kindest people I have ever met are in the Roman Catholic church. They go out of their way to give to the poor etc etc and lead very self-sacrifical lives. Father William Doyle was a Jesuit Priest who was chaplain to the Irish troops in World War 1. He died ministering to the troops, and won a medal for his bravery, and his whole life was on the surface ‘nice’, loving and self-sacrificial. He went to the extremes of letting people sleep on his back by burying himself in the mud in the trenches among the rats. His motives were to win favour with God and to get brownie points for heaven, to flagilate himself to punish himself for sin but that’s another story. A devout Marian, he neither knew or loved the true Jesus or the true gospel. To non Christians though he was the epitome of ‘nice’ or ‘kind’, and would be viewed as a ’saint’. He and his type probably have many more brownie points than most of us on the ‘niceness’ stakes…even over Ned Flanders! And then of course there are the Mother Theresas and the Gandhis or the people who give their lives to their cause, to the cats home, to the environment or wherever. If you are out to win people by being ‘nice’ alone then you have a lot of work for an ineffective and washed-out message! Your gospel becomes one of self-righteousness and bull.

If you are calm, joyful…then people likewise think that you are naturally calm, joyful, unless you tell them! Some people after all are more cheery than others, or are the office joker. What really makes you any differant? Are you that stuck in super-spiritual land that you think others can spot your spirituality glowing from half a mile away without you saying anything? I mean really?! Oh may God delivery you of your pride if you do! They, the non Christians, won’t know you used to be an unloving ratbag or a nervous wreck and were redeemed from being a depressive alcoholic unless you tell them such.

The differances non Christians see will be differant to what you think they see in you. For the most part they see a list of negatives about you…..that you don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t swear etc, they rarely see the real love, joy and peace in your life. They will just view you as a good person who is ‘religious’, and possibly view you as hyprocritical because of their misunderstandings about what a Christian actually is and what YOU think a Christian is. Unless you correct them they will know no differant. They will not know about miracles unless you tell them or speak the word out so miracles are released into the secular workplace.

There’s the story of the Christian who decided to witness to his neighbour by being just ‘nice’. Week after week he fell over himself to ‘witness’ with his niceness, longing for the day his neighbour would ask him why he was differant. Then he finally could spill the beans. After around a year and a half the day came where the neighbour spoke up.

‘Hey there’s something differant about you!’ The Christian’s heart started pounding, his neighbour had noticed, hallelujah!, and he was about to let loose with the gospel when the neighbour said, ‘Yes, you go to the gym every Tuesday and Friday don’t you?’