Evangelizing on the streets of Orlando
This last Friday night was
outstanding. I walked the streets with my friend Daniel who we just connected
with again after about twelve years or so. We were homeschooled together in the
same group way back when. Anyway, we had one interesting conversation with a
guy who was Rostifarian. And then our second conversation occupied the rest of
the night, because the young man was so intently listening and was allowing us
to share everything we could think of to persuade him to surrender control of
his life and repent of sin and learn to love God and to think like God thinks.
For instance, a while into the conversation, he said very thoughtfully, ‘So
you’re telling me I have to give up my sin and stop being in control of my
life?’ Amen!!! And he really, really valued Daniel’s prayer for him after that!
And then we still talked for another twenty min. or so. It was great. We are
praying for Tommy, that this truth will resound through the power of the Holy
Spirit until it drives him to his knees to surrender his life to God!
Then Saturday, we had planned a
huge surprise for Operation 180. YWAM and us had planned to show up somewhat
unannounced and join up with their team for the night. Basically from the time
Bobby (YWAM) got there until the end of the night at around 2AM, we really
challenged and strengthened each other in the Lord and in the work that God has
called us to do together in Orlando. And we verified truths with each other and
observations about the condition of the people downtown. Then we spent about an
hour in intense intercession in front of the Wachovia bank for the city and for
the people that walk the streets of downtown and for the church, the body of
Christ, in Orlando! It was a powerful time for God to speak and reveal His heart
to us! We were so amazed at the resolve that God was giving us to be diligent
and preach boldly and to tear down the strongholds downtown! We were all
greatly refreshed!
Two more stories from Saturday
night that happened before Bobby came and joined us and Op 180. Two men who
claim the name of Christ with two different situations. One was a cab driver
with an accurate gospel and a desire to see souls saved. We strengthened and
challenged him to be more frequent and more bold in talking with his passengers
about the truths of the gospel. He was very convicted and said he felt lazy,
and that he intended to do something about what we said. The other man, Reggie,
goes to a so-called church that I was familiar with that has rejected the fear
of the Lord. So I said to him, ‘It’s comfortable there isn’t it?’ He agreed. So
I asked him again. Again he agreed but he said, ‘I’m not sure I know what
you’re saying’. I told him that I was familiar with them and how they do not
teach the truth, but that they teach what is comfortable to hear. He had to
agree. Sean and I together shared many verses from God’s Word with him, to
scare him away from complacency and sin that he is comfortable with at the
moment. After a while of talking, he got the interruption he wanted in a phone
call, so we let him go. He did however admit that everything that we said was
true and accurate and that he agreed that he needed to hear it and that he
would think about it. Unfortunately, it was not as sincere as I would wish. But
God has ways of getting it to become more sincere, and I trust that He will for
Reggie’s sake!