“Dude, you got witchcraft all over you!”

It was an unconventional way to intro the gospel, but it was true.  I couldn’t leave the store without telling the incredibly talented and forceful young manager a little bit about his reality, about the waste he was headed into, about the salvation Jesus Christ offers…

I have been asking the Lord for “woman at the well” encounters.  We’ve experienced many years of ministering to Christians through prophetic revelation, people who have a grid for watching you close your eyes and ask for revelation, who will wait patiently and hunger for the word of the Lord.  This method doesn’t exactly work on the fly at McDonalds, the park, or the well, for instance.  So we’ve been crying out, “Lord, increase our revelation to be able to speak to the lost…as a sign…”  He’s answering, of course.  The greatest obstacle is really the fear of man.

So I went for it with this guy.  OJ’s helping me to walk in boldness, always about 10 years ahead of the crowd in this.  Anyway, this guy gave me the worst possible response, “What are you talking about?”  But I was already knee deep, so I just blundered ahead, looking at him with the eyes of my heart…

“Have you ever read the Bible?”

“Yeah.”

“You know some of the things that God hates…drinking of blood, sacrificing animals to demons, crazy sexual immorality…?  Those things are direct partnership with the devil (who’s real) and God (who’s real) hates them, because they’re front door invitation to the demonic to come in, hang out, and destroy your life.  Well, whether you’re doing those things yourself, or watching others do it in your movies and music, it’s still witchcraft.”

BINGO.  We were tracking.  “I like that stuff.”

“I know.  You’re numb to it, because you’re so angry.  And you have your reasons.  But do you know what it’s doing to you?”  I jumped out there again, telling him some things he experiences because of the witchcraft in his life.  And then I told him a little of his original design, how God had made him, with incredible drive for excellence and competition.  He was an amazing young man, who will face increasing frustration and bondage and eventually death or find freedom in Jesus Christ. It’s really that simple, and that urgent.

By the end, he was shaking my hand, and asking if I’d come talk to him some more.  That young man has a destiny, and a hallmark card’s not gonna get him there.  The more we cry out for the salvation of this generation, and look at the gospel preaching that was done in the New Testament by Jesus and those He commissioned, the more we reach the conclusion that wimpy gospel preaching and indifference go together.  The more we love these young people, the more forcefully we find ourselves speaking truth.  I think often of George Whitefield preaching to the coal miners with tears flowing down his face.  If the preacher doesn’t recognize or care that the lost are lost, how will they?