At last week’s Bible study with the High School girls, a young lady gave her life to Jesus. She’d been hearing the Gospel at Bible study for a few months, but she got saved because someone appeared to her on her bed while she was listening to her rap music. He had asked her if she wanted to take “the oath.” Her response was, “I’m gonna have to get back to you on that.” She got on her computer to research the “oath” and learned that one of her favorite rap artists has written about “the oath” he took when he sold his soul to the devil. And another of her favorites. And another, and another.

We found all this out when she confessed in the group that she knew her music was sinful and she needed to get rid of it. I asked, “How did you know your music was sinful?” wondering where she got this revelation. Then she told us “the story” above.

So…we had preached the Gospel to this young lady, and eventually the devil showed his hand by showing up on her bed. This young lady knew there was a way out. She had been pondering if she would be able to give up her life to Jesus, but this pushed her over the edge. She gave it all to Jesus. The enemy lost this battle.

A few months ago, OJ and I came across a DVD of a black preacher who was testifying of what the Lord had shown him years ago about the then-emerging hip-hop movement. In the wake of the phenomenon of satanic heavy metal, the Lord told this man that the enemy was releasing a power to prepare a generation for total anarchy and resistance to order.

There are lots of freaky people out there with scare tactics and conspiracy theories. But this guy didn’t have any theories. All he did was tell the self-published stories of the most popular hip-hop artists of the day. He showed their lyrics, album covers, books, and video clips. There was nothing hidden. All the occult references were glorified and emblazoned, bold. I was paying attention, very close attention, because I had already witnessed the music addiction of the young people. I had experienced the feeling of trying to preach the Gospel while opposed by a spirit of witchcraft, but I couldn’t explain why, because the young people were not involved in the occult.

This is how I’ve heard the young ladies talk about their music repeatedly before they come to the point of being willing to give it up to Jesus:

“It’s my heart.”
“It’s who I am, it’s my identity.”
“I can’t live without my music.”
“I love it more than anything. I need it.”
“It’s the only way I can get my feelings out.”

I don’t know how many times a year a demon offers a lonely child “the oath” in exchange for fame and money, and they accept it. I don’t really care. No oath is bigger than the blood of Jesus, so it’s a hoax anyway. How can you sell a soul that’s already bought by Jesus on the cross? The answer’s still the same…it’s the Gospel. So why am I telling this story?

I’m telling it because I’m burning inside with a consuming fire. The phrase “the valley of the shadow of death” has been going through my mind today, but not just because of rap music.   There has never been a land or a country more saturated with Christianity, more churched, and more familiar with the name of Jesus than ours. But demons are visiting kids on their beds, thousands of young people are primed for riots and rebellion in our inner cities, millions are being launched into perversion by media and public education, and overall the situation is so much more dire than anyone will admit.  I feel like the “valley of the shadow of death” describes our nation. A religious graveyard that is saturated with a powerless gospel.

But how can the gospel be powerless?  Romans 1:16 says that the Gospel IS the power of God unto salvation.  Here’s how:  we preach a powerless gospel even if it is doctrinally accurate when we don’t ourselves fully believe it.  For OJ and me, the hunt for the power of God has led us through a lot of grand ideas right back to the simple gospel, only to discover that this most glorious and beautiful of all that could ever be said, thought, or imagined, had for us been shrouded in unbelief.

As we dove in through repentance addressing our own unbelief, we began to see this pandemic of unbelieving believers.  Unbelief leaves us essentially disabled in preaching an effective Gospel and seeing souls saved, lives transformed, and people set free.  I’m not talking about getting people to say a sinner’s prayer from a speech on a stage, but personally leading lost people into salvation, or a bound person into freedom.  You know, normal Christian life.

We did not know how much unbelief was in our lives, we seemed to be filled with faith.  But what an awesome and powerful revelation it has been to have our eyes opened!  I’m excited to take a few blogs to talk about some areas of unbelief that are so normal to believers, we often don’t even believe you CAN believe them.  :)  First up, Salvation.  Check back in.