Prophetic Evangelism
Greetings in the Lord!
Today I will share a story about when I was living and playing basketball in Syria. I found it so interesting how the Holy Spirit demonstrated Himself during my conversations with my Syrian teammates and friends by giving words of knowledge and wisdom, even revelations, in an environment that tried hard to stamp out all truth. In essence, the Spirit of Truth was being Himself!
Right off the bat the Spirit filled my mouth with words of truth that they were not accustomed to hearing because by telling the truth someone would be exposed or "lose face," and that was not culturally acceptable. Instead, they'd make excuses for someone's poor behavior so that all seemed well and some sort of injustice really didn't appear that unjust. The Lord was having none of that and brought to my heart many scripture references to tell them why the behavior or social practice was sinful in His eyes. Because my answer was based on scripture, they did not know how to answer, and when they did, their arguements quickly proved hollow and false. I was learning the ultimate authority of the Word of God---it silences its foes and casts away all doubts and lies.
I found it interesting too, that while some didn't want to accept the prophetic words given to them, they could not deny the power of the Holy Spirit when the words came to pass. And I especially liked to see how the Lord delayed some words from being fullfilled, even allowing an indication that just the opposite would happen (much to their anticipated delight!), then would drop it on them in the most unsuspecting and embarrassing ways. There were times that my teammates would literally run from the gym in shame when a word had been fullfilled right in front of everybody. In a shame-based society, being shown to be out of the will of Allah (as they understood God to be), was terribly damaging to their reputations and put them at risk for being ostracized by other Muslims. Meanwhile, I was scorned all the more. To have the words come to pass after I told them it was from "the Holy Spirit," caused them as much confusion and angst about their religion as it did plant a seed for them in accepting the true Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, how fun it is to be an evangelizing Spirit-filled Christian.
~With much agape love
Today I will share a story about when I was living and playing basketball in Syria. I found it so interesting how the Holy Spirit demonstrated Himself during my conversations with my Syrian teammates and friends by giving words of knowledge and wisdom, even revelations, in an environment that tried hard to stamp out all truth. In essence, the Spirit of Truth was being Himself!
Right off the bat the Spirit filled my mouth with words of truth that they were not accustomed to hearing because by telling the truth someone would be exposed or "lose face," and that was not culturally acceptable. Instead, they'd make excuses for someone's poor behavior so that all seemed well and some sort of injustice really didn't appear that unjust. The Lord was having none of that and brought to my heart many scripture references to tell them why the behavior or social practice was sinful in His eyes. Because my answer was based on scripture, they did not know how to answer, and when they did, their arguements quickly proved hollow and false. I was learning the ultimate authority of the Word of God---it silences its foes and casts away all doubts and lies.
I found it interesting too, that while some didn't want to accept the prophetic words given to them, they could not deny the power of the Holy Spirit when the words came to pass. And I especially liked to see how the Lord delayed some words from being fullfilled, even allowing an indication that just the opposite would happen (much to their anticipated delight!), then would drop it on them in the most unsuspecting and embarrassing ways. There were times that my teammates would literally run from the gym in shame when a word had been fullfilled right in front of everybody. In a shame-based society, being shown to be out of the will of Allah (as they understood God to be), was terribly damaging to their reputations and put them at risk for being ostracized by other Muslims. Meanwhile, I was scorned all the more. To have the words come to pass after I told them it was from "the Holy Spirit," caused them as much confusion and angst about their religion as it did plant a seed for them in accepting the true Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, how fun it is to be an evangelizing Spirit-filled Christian.
~With much agape love
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