Friday, September 28, 2018

Last night, after two years, I went back to the city to street preach.

Why did I stop? I don’t know, only that the Holy Ghost compulsion to go simply left me two years ago.

It’s not like I’ve been doing nothing in that two years, I’ve been preaching in a homeless mission on a regular basis, I have preached twice at a drug rehab centre and also a Baptist church. I’m almost now qualified as a Chaplain too, but the street preaching just stopped. I didn’t have any idea if I ever would go back to the street, but I knew that I certainly didn’t want to go back in the flesh.

The fact that I had been given an amazing PA system for free and I’d only used it once street-preaching sometimes haunted me. I had said a number of times to a fellow street-preacher that he is welcome to it, but he never came to collect it.

So why did I go back? I don’t know either. Only that over the last few months I’ve started to feel the desire to go again. Every now and then, little things, and then the fire inside would leap a little. And then I’d pray “Do you want me to go back Lord? I will go back but only if You want me to and You need to show me”.

And then I’d let it rest again.

And then my Mum said she’d take my kids last night for the night as it’s school holidays at the moment. Then I heard on the grapevine that the team was going out last night to the city. It was a perfect set of circumstances to go. And I wanted to go.

Then….I woke up yesterday morning with that familiar nervousness in the pit of my stomach, thinking why do I have to go? Why does it have to be me? All the other Christians are going out for dinner or sitting at home in their comfy PJ’s watching tv, why me? Sad huh.

If you want me to go, please confirm it Lord, because I don’t want to. I’m scared.

Then I see Pst Bill Randles Blog title “Wisdom Cries In the Streets”. I turn to Proverbs 1:20, 21:

“Wisdom cries aloud in the streets

She raises her voice in the open squares.

She cries out in the chief concourses

At the openings of the gates of the city…”

Hmmm. I remember that right now it is Sukkot and that Jesus cried out in the street at Sukkot:

“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, “if anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37, 38

So I went. I took a darling daughter in Christ with me, for her first time, and we went. When we arrived Pst David prayed over us John 7:38.

I thought I wouldn’t preach, that I’d just hand out tracts and see how I went.

That’s what I thought.

When I got to the “gate of the city” at the steps of the great station I knew I was to preach. Seas and seas of people crossing the road toward me, coming down the steps from the trains behind me. Seas and seas of people whom perhaps had never heard the gospel, who may never hear it. So I preached. And man, it just felt like home. It felt so good, so right, so amazing.

Even when the two lesbians very deliberately came and stood right in front of me passionately kissing as I preached the gospel. Even when the father leant over on his small son’s back in mocking laughter at me. Even as people called out “My god is football!”

I was so glad to be there. Because that’s where Christ Jesus is.

I had forgotten that “all the while He was down (by His Spirit) among the poor struggling, drowning creatures in the angry deep, with His arms around them trying to drag them out, and looking up – oh! so longingly but all in vain – to those on the rock, crying to them with His voice all hoarse from calling, “Come to Me! Come, and help Me!” [1]

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Saturday 14th October 2017

On Saturday night I preached at an inner-city mission. And praise the Lord a prostitute was saved!

After all these years of street-preaching and never being invited to preach anywhere, I have actually been invited to preach monthly at this inner city Mission for the homeless and disadvantaged.

The thing is I don’t know how to do “normal” preaching. I can’t get three points and then a conclusion and stand behind a pulpit.

As part of my Chaplaincy course I’ve just been reading an essay on how to be an “Effective Communicator” as a preacher.  Even though this article does make some valid points, I find it rather sad that it is all about how to get your points across, how to make sure the audience remembers what you’ve said, how to be an effective communicator etc etc.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t seem to come into it at all – it’s all fleshly business-speak.  In these days of downloadable sermons and effective sound-bytes there is a need for anointed preaching again. For goodness sake let’s get back to the power of the Holy Spirit!  So here’s my “how-to” list to preach in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Preaching in the Spirit

• Be in an intimate relationship with Jesus. If you’re not, then please don’t preach.  Really.
• Be constantly in the Word.  It just needs to be a part of you.
• Check your heart. If there’s anything between you and God deal with it immediately.
• Cry. Yes, weep. This is hugely important.  Weeping is the key to the anointing.  This is something that cannot be forced, so ask God to break you for the sins of the people you will be preaching to. Preaching should ALWAYS come from a place of brokenness but it usually never does, and that’s why power in preaching is so rare these days.
• Ask Him for His heart, for His burden, for what He wants to say.   Even if you only get one scripture from Him it is enough. It is better to preach that one verse for 5 minutes if it’s from His heart than to preach for 30 minutes from your flesh.
• Yield yourself to Him and His will. Ask Him to have His way in you and for you to be a vessel for Him.
• Pray before you go: For Him to fill you with His Spirit; for the people’s hearts to be prepared; for the Spirit to preach through you right into the spiritual realm. You will need to resist the devil – all his methods, his agents, his interruptions, anything he would seek to do to disrupt or interfere with God’s message being delivered.
• Cry again.
• Thank God for the victory we have in Christ Jesus.
• Go in Holy Ghost boldness, knowing it’s not about you, but about Him.

I preached Isaiah 1:18 on Saturday night: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

The Holy Spirit had impressed upon me that it was all about being honest with God, calling a sin a sin.  So that’s what I preached. Afterwards there was a time of ministry and the prostitute came to me and we cried together and she was saved, praise the Lord. The pastor said at the end of the night that there had been a shift in the Spirit tonight, that there was a new honesty and people were being real.

And that’s the point: a shift in the spiritual realm. T Austin Sparks called it “preaching to the back of things.”

Preaching to the flesh is a waste of time. The flesh cannot receive the things of the Spirit. People may feel inspired in the emotional realm for a while, but nothing changes.  No, we must preach to the back of things. We preach to the angels, the devils, to the spirit of man, to Christ Himself. And that’s when things happen.

Blessings,

Belinda :0)

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Friday 17th June 2016

Today I encountered a hostility which I have never encountered before.  It left me a little disturbed.

I was there with my little group, 5 of us, and my new PA, graciously provided by God. Because it was raining we set up under the shelter at the train station.

Before long I was preaching and praise the Lord, the anointing fell down on that place. People were listening, some were recording on their mobile phones. One of the ladies with me said it was so amazing that she felt to repent all over again.

But then out came the cops. One of them said that I can’t preach there, I need a permit , blah blah etc. I had done my homework and so very respectfully I told him that I am allowed to preach without a permit as it comes under the Freedom of Speech Act. He acquiesced but told me to turn the PA down, it was too loud (I’ve never had that problem before!).

So we kept going. We had many good conversations with people – a syncretistic muslim who simultaneously is reading the Bible and the Q’uran. He said he is going to come back again to continue our conversation. A confused Christian who thought that his occult gifts had been given him by God in order to help others. He left saying that he is going home to get rid of all his astrology etc books and tapes, renounce it all and repent. I pray that he did.

Then preaching again. Then the anointing again. Then the cops again.

This time he was agitated.

“No, you cant keep doing this! You have to go now!”

I didn’t know what to do to be honest, as I am of the opinion to respect authority. However I knew he was on Satan’s errand and that I was perfectly within my rights to be there.

However, God stepped in on my behalf and the policeman’s partner, whom previously had said nothing, quietly said, “Just turn it down a bit more.”

So I did and I never saw them again.

But that’s when the real fun began. I went around handing out tracts to people and came to a bloke who was physically huge with a long, white beard. He looked like a biker. I tried to hand him a tract and immediately he started blaspheming Jesus. As I could see that the conversation was going nowhere I started to move away from him. That’s when he started on me.

“You crazy, deluded lady! You are crazy.  You think you know Jesus.  Oh you’ve met Him have you?” He said this while looking me in the eye and then openly laughed a mocking laugh at me.

I’ve been called many things before, actually things a lot worse than what he called me. I’ve had horrendous swear words, blasphemies thrown at me while preaching. I’ve had people laugh and shake their heads at me, but somehow this was worse than all of that. I think it’s because he looked at me in the eye while he said it and laughed. It was disturbing. I realised that this man was full of demons.  A mocking spirit was very obvious and I took myself away from him.

It entered my mind that he was so big he could probably kill me with one punch. Now this is not a typical thought for me on the street. I rarely ever feel unsure or threatened out there because the presence of the Lord is so real.

Anyhow I started preaching again and he stayed to heckle me. This was ok by me though. Strange as it sounds I enjoy a good heckle. I find the Holy Spirit anointing is so strong when I am being heckled. Also, it draws a crowd, and therefore more people hear the gospel.

He was screaming at me while I preached. You know – crazy lady, blah blah blah. He was trying to drown me out and he almost did because my PA had been turned down so much. He shut up for a little while until I preached about the coming day of wrath and to flee to Jesus from the wrath that is to come. Well, that set him right off again.

“You are preaching hate!! Hate preacher. I’ll get you for religious vilification.”  For a while all I could hear was the word “hate”.

I realised he was waving around a Q’uran. Aha – not a biker dude, an Aussie muslim convert.

Well he kept going and I kept going. There was a crowd. It was quite fun.

Every now and then though a thought would pop in my mind that he may come over and break my arm with one flick of his wrist. He really hated me, that much I knew.

To my left then I noticed were two men standing there. They looked like workmen because they were wearing orange high-vis vests. They were standing in the rain, although they could have easily fit under the cover. They stood together and quietly talked whilst intensely watching the big man screaming at me.

They never once looked at me, nor even in my direction. They kept their eyes firmly planted on him, and I immediately knew that they were there to protect me. I just knew that my Father had sent them to watch over me and that if screaming man took one step towards me they would intervene.

I wonder if they were angels? I have no idea if they were or not, but I knew like I knew that God had sent them there.

After I finished preaching and started packing up to leave the big man was still screaming at me. He was still saying that he was going to get me for religious vilification.

The two workmen were still standing watching him.  When he finally shut up and started losing interest I looked back and they were gone.

Anyway then we went to McDonalds for lunch and praised God for an awesome time.

One thing I know for sure : that when we obey the Lord He will provide for us and He will watch over us. I left there with the sense that Jesus is happy with us.

 

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Friday 6th May 2016 

Unfortunately my PA didn’t work properly, on every third word or so it would cut out.  So I couldn’t preach as my voice isn’t naturally strong.

But God sent Tony, the homeless man whom we met two times ago.

Tony used his God-given, very loud, male voice to open-air preach. Thank God for men.

Tony has no home, no money, hardly any clothes.  But I tell you what – he is one of the best preachers I’ve ever heard.  Not just one of the best street-preachers, but I mean, any preacher.  That includes pastors, televangelists, you know, the ones who’ve grown rich on Churchianity.

On the street, his home, Tony shares his testimony. He was a drug addict who’d done time in prison.  He was a murderer of the heart.  But one day he met Jesus.  And Jesus changed him.

“You may think I’m crazy!” he cries, “Well I am!  I am crazy for Jesus!”

Praise God for that.

Where are all the pastors, the ministers, the ones who get paid to stand up in front of a nice, middle-class congregation on a Sunday morning?  Where are they?  I have not seen them on the streets.

Instead God is using us, a ragtag bunch of women, and one homeless guy.

“In that day I will assemble the lame and gather the outcasts and those whom I’ve afflicted.  I will make the lame a remnant and the outcast a strong nation.” Micah 4:6

Truly God uses the lame, the weak, the outcast.  Btw, of us women:

1 is an ex-muslim, ex-alcoholic, ex-agoraphobic (see From Muhammed to Jesus)

1 is an ex-atheist

1 is an ex-Christian cult

All glory to the Lord Jesus Christ!

So Jesus used us outcasts to save “D”, another homeless man, on Friday.  He came up to us and told us he is a thief and a drug addict. No hope for him.  I told him about the thief on the cross.  He said he shot up ice that morning.

Tony sat with him on the ground and talked with him.  He ended up leading him to Christ.

I have rarely seen a more beautiful sight than two homeless guys sitting together talking about the love of God.  One in the love of Christ leading the other to Christ.

“Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread”

(Oh – and the Lord sent me a Christian after we finished on Friday who provided another PA for us! He is a good God.)

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26th February 2016

Metro-man didn’t come out and tell us off today.  In fact I didn’t even lay eyes on him, so perhaps he wasn’t at work today.

The street-preaching went really well.  Lots of people stopped and listened.  Many actually videoed me preaching 

We had some very good conversations today too.  The hearts of people were generally more open than usual.  It was quite encouraging and I pray God blesses the sowing of the seed today.

🙂

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27th November 2015

I didn’t want to go street preaching today. I actually couldn’t think of anything less I’d rather do. I felt so oppressed, almost like I had been drugged. I had to go though, if only to show Metro-man that he hadn’t won and pushed us out of the area by calling the police on us last time. I wondered though if this may be the last time I went in.

This is how my brain was working this morning. Oh God, I’m going strictly in obedience to You and the vision You gave me. Please give me some encouragement. I can’t do it without You.

….I can never do it without You….

My friends, I am here to tell you that God is a God of encouragement. He knows when we need it.

My tactic when I get into the city (after prayer together) is always to immediately begin to preach. This is because if I wait and consider the people I will be preaching to, there is a danger I will chicken out altogether.

So I preached the gospel. The full gospel.   And the oppression I’d felt all morning was immediately broken.

God one by one sent other Christians to us to encourage us. One guy was a homeless man called Tony who lives by faith. I tell you what this guy was full of the Holy Spirit and knew the Bible inside out. He said this morning he prayed that he could somehow preach the gospel.

There’s the microphone, I said.

Tony preached. He shared that he was a former drug addict and murderer (of the heart) but Jesus had found him and pulled him out. It was amazing.

Another young guy with a guitar came and encouraged us. He is also a street-preacher/singer.

Then another guy came over to us. He was a vision impaired man in a scooter who sings gospel songs on the bridge. He said that nobody preaches the whole counsel of God anymore and was encouraged himself that we were actually preaching repentance from sin, hell, God’s coming judgment as well as the gospel of Christ and the love of God.

Well then he got on the microphone and preached too. Then off he went and came back and blessed us with McDonalds for lunch for all of us.

God certainly provides for His children.

God used a homeless man, a blind man and a young man to bless and encourage us today. And I believe that they in turn were also blessed. God is good God. So very, very good. We must always remember that. He is faithful, ever faithful and He always, always, always honours the preaching of His Word.

Needless to say, that is NOT the last time I will be going to the streets. I am back baby.

The lines from this old Christmas carol was the theme God gave me to preach on today:

“Hark the Herald Angels sing,

‘Glory to the newborn King!’

Peace on earth and mercy mild

God and sinner reconciled”

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20

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18th September 2015

“Crystal meth is the devil’s drug,” Jacob said.

“You mean ice?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he  answered, “It is the devil’s drug. I was on it.  It ruined my life.  I lost my family and my friends.

“Everyone’s on it,” he went on, “it’s taking over this city.”

I was talking to Jacob last night on the street.  A young guy who looked like he had done some heavy stuff in his young life.

“One time, ” Jacob told me, “I went straight up through the clouds to heaven (on a trip).  But when I got there the gates were locked and they wouldn’t let me in.  I have had a bad past.  So they sent me to hell to work as a slave.  It was so hot there I could feel the flames.  I knew I wasn’t fit enough or strong enough to stay in hell forever though and I didn’t know how to get out.”

Ice is crystal methamphetamine, a synthetic drug, in its purest form.  Ice is now endemic in Australia.  The government and law enforcement are powerless against this demonic drug, but so far are unwilling to admit that they have lost control and have no idea what to do about it.

I believe that we are entering a new season my brothers and sisters.  And ice is only a small part of what is coming.  God is going to all0w everything that can be shaken to be shaken.  Everything we have trusted in – money, global economics, security, the things Western culture was built on, even Christianity – everything that can be shaken will be shaken.

“Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah that I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms. I will overthrow chariots and their drivers; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother.” Haggai 2:21, 22

The birth pangs have already begun : earthquakes in diverse places, mass deception, wars, rumours of wars, men  are now lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,  traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (see Matthew 24 and 2 Timothy 3)

All this was prophesied 2000 years ago, and it is happening right NOW.  There’s not time left now.  God is permitting a huge shaking to come and it is going to begin in the church.

Why would He do that?

“”I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it…” Ezekiel 21:27

Because He needs to sort the wheat from the chaff.

The only way to separate precious wheat kernels from the inedible husk (or chaff) is to shake, shake, shake it with a winnowing fork till

the chaff breaks off.  The wind then catches the useless chaff and blows it away, leaving only the lovely kernel of wheat.

“He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”  Luke 3:17 (John Baptist speaking of Christ)

Jesus is now looking to see who will stand.  Who will stand when the shaking comes? When all we have put our trust in topples and falls… will we be blown away as chaff?  Where will we put our trust…  Will it be in Christ alone?

Will the Son of Man find faith on the earth?

This is it my friends.  Now is the time to topple Self off the throne of your life and allow the rightful King back  on His throne.  It is Jesus Christ only who will provide refuge in the coming storm.  It is Him alone who can save you.

Jacob said to me last night on the street that he is the “god of his own life”.

(Is that the case with you?)

My answer to Jacob was : “Well, you are going to hell then.”

He half-gasped/ half-laughed in surprise: “I can’t believe you just said that to me.”

Yeah, because no one says the honest, blatant truth anymore.

The essence of sin is self-love.  That is it.  The devil had it, he tried to elevate himself to god-hood and he is on his way to the lake of fire to burn with the chaff for eternity.

There’s no time left for seeker-sensitive rubbish and I can’t be bothered with it anymore.  For goodness sake, Christ has died for us. He took the punishment for your sin and mine at the cross.  He shed His sinless blood to pay for our horrendous crimes against God.  What wondrous love is that? What more could He do?

Get right with God now or face Him at the judgment seat of Christ. Your choice.

Jacob took a New Testament last night.  He said that he is going to seriously consider what we talked about.

I pray that he will. I pray that you will too.

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28th August 2015

“It’s not about Jesus!” He screamed at me “it’s about yourself!”
“@#%*! stop talking about Jesus! #%*# self! #%^* self!”

This man was screaming at me literally within seconds of me beginning to preach today. He was so angry that at one point he looked like he was going to run at me. That was a little disconcerting to be honest. But I kept preaching as the joy of the Lord began to rise in me. The woman he was with held him back as his veins bulged and he kept screaming at me until she managed to lead him around the corner and they’d gone. Most of what I could hear him saying was foul language and the word “self”. Talk about a manifestation of the spirit of this age!

I am always encouraged when someone screams like that. I know that may sound strange but there are a few reasons for why I find it encouraging:

• It shows me that we are getting through to the unseen realm and having an impact
• It draws a crowd to hear the gospel
• It breaks off of me the fear of man like nothing else does
• The joy that comes from being abused for Jesus’ sake is supernatural and inexplicable

So much happened today! Here is just some of it:

• The anointing fell as one of the ladies chalked Isaiah 55:6 on the ground and I was preaching
• A witch accosted us and told us we are making people feel bad about themselves and that she has never sinned and in fact, she is truth
• A young homosexual couple called me over. They were under conviction. They seriously asked me questions about how to be saved and if it meant giving up homosexuality
• A young woman who was open to the gospel gladly received a Bible and would like to keep in touch
• God gave me physical grace to preach. Having had an ulcerated oesophagus for the last 3 weeks I struggled at first. My chest was heaving like I was severely unfit and I could only speak for a few minutes. Then my sisters prayed for me and I was able to preach.
• There were six of us there and each one functioned in her/his part of the Body of Christ as one. That was a special blessing. (Psalm 133:1,2)
• We were told by some “official” that we shouldn’t be chalking there. This is because we had a lady with us whose first time it was on the street. She had received Isaiah 55:6 specifically for the chalking and there was a real anointing to it. Thus, predictably, the enemy was trying to shut it down.
• Finally, our chalking ended up on the news because immediately after we left the station there was a huge protest in that very spot. Thus hundreds of people would have read it at the station and many more on the news.

 

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26th July 2015

I’ve just come back after preaching on the city streets this morning with two other ladies.  The thing that has impressed me most is this : there is power and authority in the Name of Jesus Christ.

The devil knows it.  But he doesn’t want us to know it.

The devil was trembling and tried everything to stop us going in today. He wasn’t fearful of us.  He was fearful of the gospel being preached in the power of The Name.  I had horrible nightmares last night, two ladies who were supposed to come with us got sick, the road into the city was literally blocked and our usual car park closed off.

Within minutes of being there one of the young ladies with me was reduced to tears after a conversation with someone.

I knew it was the devil trying his hardest to stop this girl from preaching the gospel.  I advised her not to take it personally, the devil is doing his best to stop us and her in particular. She has just recently turned from sin and God is moving powerfully in and through her. So praise God she kept going.  And wow, she preached today!  First time ever on the PA and she preached the gospel!  Praise God.

A severely handicapped man tried to unplug me as the anointing fell.  I  politely told him to remove his hands from my property.

Another man tried to shut us down because we didn’t have a permit.  (We don’t need a permit).

I think Satan was particularly scared because yesterday as I prayed and fasted about street-ministry today Holy Spirit gave me this scripture:

“…You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’  Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you.”  Deuteronomy 9:1-3

I am here to tell you that there is power in the Name of Jesus.  At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord!  The devil cannot stop the gospel going forth.  No man can stop it.  There is no power on earth that is more powerful than the blood of Jesus Christ! Hallelujah to the Lamb!  He is a great and mighty God and He is mighty to save.  The devil is aware of his own defeat at the cross, but he would like to stop us from finding that out.

“Satan cannot stand against us when we dare to believe God and claim the power God has for us, the same power God showed when He raised Christ from the dead and gave Him a place above all principalities and powers.” Joshua – Victorious by Faith, Theodore Epp

Do not fear.  People are just people.  They are not nearly as scary as we imagine them to be.  What can man do to us? Kill us?  Maybe, but we will go to be with the Lord and the gospel will go out even stronger.

But God is God, and He is calling each one of us to go forth in the power of the Name of Jesus and wage war against sin.

All honour praise and glory to the Lamb!

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19th July 2015

“The fear of man brings a snare.” Proverbs 29:25

• The fear of man contaminates pure truth.
• The fear of man leads to bondage.
• The fear of man brings fear of rejection.
• The fear of man shuts your mouth when you should speak.
• The fear of man changes the truth of God’s Word into something more palatable.
• The fear of man brings compromise.

And thus the fear of man cannot please God.

God’s prophets are those who will stand in the midst of rejection. These are ones whom will not stop speaking truth even in the face of resistance, hostility and open aggression. They will not bow to the pressure of man. God’s mouthpieces are those who understand the consequences of speaking on His behalf, and may even be afraid to, yet they will still speak it.

God’s ambassadors are those He sends forth in the fear of Him.

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8th May 2015 – Street Preaching and Chalk

Today we used chalk to write on the ground as well as the typical preaching with the PA, handing out tracts and one-on-one conversations.

I think the chalk worked really well.  I found the most effective place was at the bottom of the stairs leading into the train station.  People coming down the stairs actually stopped, turned around and read the words.  People coming up the stairs read them on their way up.  I was surprised by how many people actually stop to read chalk messages on the ground.  I guess it’s just natural curiosity.

It’s also a valuable evangelism method because after you leave the area, the words still remain.

Has anyone else ever tried this method?  What else has worked for you?

 

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21st November 2014

Today I was so blessed because a large group of Asian teenage students came along when H was preaching.  They stopped and were listening. I went over to them with tracts and little books containing the gospel of John.  They were so hungry for the gospel.  They clamoured for tracts.  When one saw I had little books as well, she cried out “I want a little book!”  Well that set off the rest of the group who all also didn’t want to miss out and clamoured for the “little books”.  They were so pleased and thanked me profusely.

It is rare to see that kind of hunger here in Australia.  Oh God have mercy on us.

The Holy Spirit gave us Judges 7:13, 14 before we went in to preach today:

“And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along. 14And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.”

Just as God sent Gideon into battle the enemy with only 300 men, so God today sent 3 women in to the enemy’s territory.

When we first arrived there was a strange feel to the place.  I suddenly felt very ill with nerves.  My stomach came down with a bad case of butterflies looking at all the people.

The best antidote for fear and nerves I have found is to get on with preaching immediately.  If I procrastinate I can lose my nerve and sink into a mire of fear.

The funny thing is that as soon as I begin to preach the fear always leaves immediately.  The strange feel to the place also left too.

I want to encourage you that our individual testimony of God’s grace and power in our life is powerful.  H was sharing her testimony when a young man walked past.  He kept stopping and looking back at her as she spoke about how God had changed her.  Eventually he came back and asked me for a tract.

We each have a testimony to share with someone – and that is sufficient to be able to bring the gospel to someone who is lost.

These words from Wesley’s hymn “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” were on my heart all day today:

Hark the herald angels sing:

“Glory to the new born King

Peace on earth and mercy mild

God and sinner reconciled!”

That’s what it’s all about.

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27th October 2014

Friday morning 3 others and I went into the city to preach.

Beforehand in prayer the Holy Spirit gave us Joshua 2:24:

“And they said to Joshua, ‘Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are fainthearted because of us.”

Something the Body of Christ needs to know:

The demons indeed are fainthearted when the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached.

CT Studd said “If you don’t want the Devil to hit you, hit him first, and hit him with all your might, so that he may be too crippled to hit back. ‘Preach the Word’ is the rod the Devil fears and hates.”

Why? Because Jesus Christ has “disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.” Colossians 2:15

When the Word is preached, it is the proclamation of the public spectacle over all the powers of hell, over all the powers of sin and darkness, which was accomplished by Christ at the cross.

But.  And there is a “but”… preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ needs to be done in the power of the Holy Spirit.  The preacher needs the anointing of God.

Why?

Because it is essential to be able to preach to the “back of things” as T Austin Sparks would say.

We are not preaching merely at men and women.  We are preaching to the spiritual realm at the back of all things.  I would say that primarily we are preaching to the unseen realm.  And this requires power – the supernatural power of the Holy Ghost.

The greatest anointing I have experienced whilst street preaching is when I knew I was preaching directly to Jesus Himself.  That is when the anointing fell and folks were literally stopped in their tracks.

I have also known when I am preaching to the unseen powers of darkness.  This was in the Battle with the Hare krishnas.  I knew that the victory of Jesus Christ was to be enforced over the principalities and powers.  They fought and they tried, but Christ has “already lead captivity captive” and is already the victor.

When we are under the anointing of God we are standing in Christ’s stead, we are His ambassadors.

“Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you, be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20

If we don’t have the anointing we are working merely in the flesh, the physical realm.  We may have the correct doctrine and the right words but we are merely skimming the surface of things because the unseen realm is left undisturbed. As a consequence nothing of much value is accomplished.

How is that ice-addict to be freed from the grip of Satan?  How will that young woman bound in witchcraft be made to see when the god of this age has blinded her eyes?  The devil has to be dealt with first.  Proclaim the victory of the cross of Christ, in the power of the Spirit, and his grip will be loosened enough for them to be able to hear the gospel.

With the anointing anything is possible.  By the power of the Spirit when the gospel is proclaimed, the devil trembles and knows he is defeated already.

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8

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17th October 2014

I was under massive oppression all day today.  I felt like crying, like giving up, I felt condemned, useless, hopeless.

And so I almost didn’t go into the city to street-preach tonight.

But when my wonderful husband said “I think “someone” is trying to stop you going in there tonight…”  my will-power kicked in.  Why should I be trampled down when my Jesus says “Behold I give you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions”?

So in I went.

And boy, I am glad I did.

There is a Jehovah’s Witness Convention on in the city this weekend and those JW’s were everywhere tonight!  I know this because they wore purple badges.

Anyhow, there was a real anointing on the preaching tonight.  People stopped and listened. Lots of people.  Lots of teenagers, lots of Muslims.  Lots of conversations were had. Praise God.

The JW’s didn’t stop though.  They kept walking in their well-trained, don’t-make-eye-contact way.  They wagged their heads at me, particularly when I quoted John 1:14 and proclaimed that Jesus IS God.  They didn’t like it when I said that as Jesus hung on the CROSS the people wagged their heads at Him.

Someone else actually paid me $5 as I preached.  That’s a first. I am not actually sure whether that’s a good or a bad thing.  Anyway I gave the money away because it just felt too weird.

Again someone tried to unplug me as I preached, but I caught the young man and gave him a good scolding as only a mother can do.

By the third time I preached the devil tried to stop me.  An angry atheist was sent to my left belting out antagonisms and an unstable person to my right continually tapping me on the shoulder saying “Do you have a minute?…Do you have a minute?”

My voice is hoarse now, my body shaky.

My oppression – ALL GONE!

 

Would you do service for Jesus your King?

There’s POWER in the blood! Power in the Blood!

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29th August, 2014

The last time I went in to preach in the city’s streets was in the battle with the Hares some weeks back.  That ended up taking a huge toll on me and I was sick for some time afterwards…

The good news is that they apparently haven’t been back to the area since.

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” 2 Corinthians 2:14

Something else I discovered tonight: a large Muslim contingent has set up two tables in the city’s most popular mall.  There they distribute Islamic literature and even preach on microphones to the public.

Of course, they are entitled to do so, just as we are.

I find this disturbing though.  Why?  Because it is really hard to get Christians out there to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, yet the Muslims are seemingly doing it for Allah.

I suppose that may be because as Christians we are partakers of God’s wondrous grace.  We certainly don’t have to street-preach or to share the gospel to be saved.  We don’t have to work for salvation at all. No, it is all the work of God. And praise Him for that! However, I do wonder why it is so hard to get Christians out there when we have the greatest love story in the world to share (not to mention the Great Commission Christ gave us and the Holy Spirit to help us).

Christian brothers and sisters – we need to pray that God sends out more labourers into the harvest!  We really do.  Whilst most of the church is sitting in their comfy chairs watching tv or arguing amongst themselves over doctrinal issues, the devil is working diligently against the gospel of Christ.

I am not trying to put condemnation on anyone. It is hard to get out there.  Believe me, I know.  I also know that no-one wants to hear this….  But I think it necessary to speak the truth of what I see.

Brothers and sisters we urgently need two things :

• intercessors, and
• those willing to go.  We need those like Isaiah who will say:

“Here I am Lord; send me.”

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7th June, 2014

The Hare Krishna’s came back as we were preaching.  Last time, they came and did their dance to Krishna but left after only a few minutes.

Well last night they came as I began to preach.  But this time they stayed.

This time they had an amp with them and sang songs and chanted mantras to Krishna whilst they danced.  It was loud.

I kept preaching though.  I kept on, like last time:

“Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the LIfe. No one comes to the Father but by Him…”  etc

“There is no other Name under heaven by which humankind can be saved than the Name of Jesus…”

On they stayed.

On I kept preaching.

“Jesus is Lord.  And at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of the Father!”

It went on.  Multitudes of people came over to see what was going on. They were fascinated.  It was a battle and everyone knew it.  Many people video-ed all of it on their phones (if you see it on YouTube, let me know!)

10 minutes – I began calling out the words to “Amazing Grace”.

The Hare Krishnas became frenzied. Faster and faster they got, they worked themselves into an ecstatic frenzy. They reminded me of the prophets of Baal as they cried out to their “god” to answer them on Mount Carmel.

 

15 minutes…

My voice started hurting, my chest was heaving. I prayed to God that He would sustain me to keep going.  I saw why He had prompted me to get fit lately.

I looked into the crowd as I proclaimed that “Jesus is Lord” and there was a gift from God.  A young lady with her hands in the air crying out “Amen! Jesus is Lord!”

She became my lifeline.  I looked to her as it went on.  She encouraged me to keep going.

I didn’t know what else to do.  I lifted my hands in the air and shut my eyes and cried out:

“Jesus, I proclaim that You are Lord over this station!  You are Lord. I praise the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world!  I praise you Lord! Hallelujah to the Lamb!”

The Hare Krishna’s left.

Praise God.

I kept preaching for another minute, then the gift-from-God young lady came over and asked if she could sing.  She had never sung by herself in a public street before but the presence of God was so strong.

She sung a beautiful song all about Jesus.

Some people from the crowd hung around to talk to some of the guys.

There was a great battle last night, but there was a great victory for the kingdom of God too!

Needless to say, it has taken me all day today to recover…:)

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” 2 Corinthians 2:14

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May 23rd, 2014

It was different tonight than it’s ever been.

It began pretty much the same as usual, but at some point I noticed the Hare Krishna’s dancing their noisy way towards us.

Great

With their colourful clothes, tambourines and dancing they make it all but impossible to preach the gospel.  They usually pull up in a wide circle in front of where we are preaching and dance and sing for sometimes 10-15 minutes.

Usually we get pushed to the sidelines amongst all the colourful chaos and the tourists bustling to take photos of them.  Standing on the sidelines politely waiting for them to finish their worship ceremony to their false god is absolutely frustrating.  It feels like Satan has got one over on us.

Something I’ve learnt: if you give Satan an inch – he will take a mile.

We are in a spiritual battle and being on the city streets you cannot forget it.

So tonight as they approached I grabbed the microphone and began preaching. As they came up to us I kept going.  They waved to me, I waved back.  I was polite, but not polite enough to stop. I preached:

“Jesus said ‘I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father but by Me”.

They kept going.  I kept going: “There is no other name under heaven by which man can be saved, than the Name of Jesus!”  Sometimes I just called out “Jesus! Jesus!” over their noise.

They stayed for maybe two minutes then gave up and left.

But then it happened…

As I was preaching, I began weeping.

Yes, weeping.  In front of lots of people. It was weird. I couldn’t stop it. I felt God’s heart breaking for these lost sinners.  I felt Him yearning for them to come home.  It wasn’t me being emotional or sad – it was Him calling to them through me.  I wept as I preached to them His heart.

But then I stopped preaching because I began to think.  That can be a problem whilst preaching.  The anointing lifts off when you start to really think, especially if you wonder what people are thinking of you.  Now I kind of wish I kept going because that’s never happened to me before and I think I probably stopped it before God was done.  Sorry Lord.

Important point: I believe God wants to raise up preachers who are broken for the sins of the people.

You see, there are preachers who preach the cold, hard truth of the gospel.  They want the authority that gives them, but they don’t take any responsibility for the people.

Then there are preachers who in response to the above have taken out most of the truth of the gospel and replaced it with psychology or self-help or something else human.  They want to take responsibility for the people, yet they have no God-given authority to do so.

God is raising up those who will “speak the truth in love”.  We can get rid of neither love nor truth, and that is what so many have done.

God gives authority to those who will take responsibility.  And being willing to take responsibility for others brings authority.

We need to speak the whole truth of the gospel – yes, including sin, the law, hell and judgment.  BUT we need to speak the truth from a heart that has been broken for the people’s sins.  We have no right to be preaching to people about whom we couldn’t care less. That is not God’s heart.  That has never been His way.  Think of Moses, Samuel, Jesus, Paul…  We need to be willing to take responsibility for them by standing in the gap and interceding.

Preaching and intercessory prayer go hand-in-hand

Just as:

Authority and responsibility go hand-in-hand

May our mighty God bless you!

“If sinners be dammed, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one GO there UNWARNED and UNPRAYED for.” Charles Spurgeon

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April 4, 2014

Stony, hard hearts greeted us tonight.  Hardly anyone took a tract or stopped for a chat.

I did preach for a long time though which was good. People are always surprised to see a woman preaching, it’s quite fun to see their faces.   🙂

Sometimes it’s just labour going out there but I know my Jesus is happy with us.

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March 28, 2014

“If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.” (Leonard Ravenhill)

“What are you doing?”

“WHAT are you doing?”

The man was standing on my right hand side, and he was very, very close.  Yesterday morning I was preaching in the city.  It had been a great morning, with very little resistance to the gospel.  In fact, astonishingly, people had been quite open to it.  As soon as I’d started preaching some individuals had immediately come over to talk to the others and ask for tracts (I’ve never seen that before!).   But then this man: he couldn’t have been standing more than a foot away from me.  It made me uncomfortable.

“What are you doing?” he said to me again.

“I will talk to you when I’m finished,” I said, momentarily pausing from preaching.  I could see that he wasn’t about to go anywhere soon.

I turned my back to him slightly and kept going, trying to ignore him.

I usually get nervous when I go to the streets, but I’ve never been afraid.  There is a difference.

Something the Lord has caused me to see is that when I am sent somewhere by the Holy Spirit, then I am going in the authority of Jesus Christ. I am going in His Name.  It is like an ambassador being sent from the US to another country.  He goes with the authority of the US and with the strength of the US behind him.  When we go out from Jesus’ presence into the world we go as His ambassador.  We go under His authority and we have the whole of Heaven behind us, supporting us, cheering us on.

“…and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him, who fills all in all.”

JESUS IS LORD!

There is nothing to fear when we walk with the King of kings, the Lord of Lords.

Back to that man standing close to me: as I spoke with him it became obvious there was a proud, religious spirit manifesting. (…”You don’t know the Bible….You don’t know Jesus….I know Jesus…I know Him better than anyone, better than He knows Himself…“) – and, yes, he actually said that.

The Holy Spirit was grieved by this and He had me take authority over the situation.  I had no choice but to tell him politely but firmly that his heart was not right, that he was wasting my time and that I was ending the conversation with him.  I walked away.  As Christians we are to show love to people but zero tolerance to Satan.

“I am well assured that I did far more good to my Lincolnshire parishioners by preaching three days on my father‟s tomb than I did by preaching three years in his pulpit.” John Wesley

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21 March 2014

“I believe I never was more acceptable to my Master than when I was standing to teach those hearers in the open fields…I now preach to ten times more people than I would if I had been confined to the churches.” George Whitfield

We were there to street-preach before the concert began and set up the PA system. With wave upon wave of people coming across the street toward us and hundreds more pouring out from the train station behind us, it was crazy busy.  There were so many people that at one point I could hardly move.

It was too good an opportunity to pass up. I preached.

“Nobody cares!” someone screamed at me.

Who cares if nobody cares?  I certainly don’t.  My Lord Jesus told me to “Go”.

I kept preaching. I preached for as long as I could, until my voice started cracking and I had to stop for its sake.

Street-preaching – why? (I ask myself this when I’m feeling tired or lazy)

Because thousands of people, both old and young heard the gospel of Jesus Christ last night who perhaps wouldn’t have otherwise.

What if those people never once in their life ever stepped inside a Church?What if they never heard the gospel before they died?

Thank you my Jesus.

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February 28,2014

Today I went street-preaching with two other special ladies in the city.  It started off a bit rocky, but thankfully got a lot better.

When we arrived I set up the PA system and started preaching before I lost my nerve.  Within seconds a demon-possessed man manifested and screamed an obscenity at me so bad that I cannot repeat it. Even though I’m regularly verbally abused on the street, I have never been called anything like that before.  Read the full story here

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February 8, 2014

Praise God, the anointing came upon me as I preached tonight.  I really felt the love of God constraining me.  I preached till my voice was hoarse.  I know when the Holy Ghost is upon me because I start moving forward towards the people.  It is quite a difference because I know that in my flesh I would be shrinking back from them. People mocked of course but I saw many, many listening.

People who were stopped in their cars at the traffic lights were listening too, I know because I saw one of them making a rude gesture at me the whole time.

A guy put his arm around me while his friend took a photo.  I told him not to touch me.  He caused quite a scene and many people were laughing, but it was good because a large crowd came to see what was happening and then they all heard the gospel too.  God is good.

You can read my list of the persecutions I’ve suffered on the street here

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December 22, 2013 – Christmas Carols

Tonight I saw a young man I’ve gotten to know a bit.  He was on the way to his gig with his mohawk-ed friend.  We had a chat about Jesus and the Bible then off they went.

Lucy, Pst David and I ended up singing impromptu Christmas carols.  I made sure David held the microphone as I cannot sing, but he can.  It was a blessing to sing ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ out there.  People actually stopped and listened and even smiled at us!  Made for a nice change 🙂

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September 20, 2013 – Once Upon a Moonlit Night (or “the night I met a lovely girl”)

Tonight was the first time I’ve been street preaching for a while.

Having recently lost two people I love within four days of each other, my life has obviously taken a rather different turn for a while.

But tonight I felt ready to go back out.  It’s funny how when you haven’t done something for a while, it suddenly becomes all big and scary.  All day I’ve been nervous about going into the city tonight.   The thought of going out there and shouting out a message that is generally unwelcome to most people made my stomach churn.   I thought of how I used to love going out there and couldn’t really remember why that was.

But I felt I should go, even though I didn’t really feel like it, if that makes sense.

I put my I-phone music on shuffle as I drove into the city.  I said to the Lord something I’ve never said before :

“Lord,” I said, “Whatever song randomly comes up first, I will take as a message from you.”  Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures…

Franz Family “Wherever You Are” came on:

“But the will of God won’t lead you,

Where the grace of God can’t keep you

You will never be out of His care,

Remember that the Lord’s already there….

Wherever you are,

Wherever you’re going

God is right there beside you, seeing and knowing

Wherever you go,

He already knows

What lies ahead

And what’s behind

You’ll always find He’s never too far from wherever you are.”

Wow. Ok thank you Jesus.

My usual 40 minute trip into the city took 1.5 hours tonight.  It was raining and there was heavy traffic.  But I felt there was something God had for me when I got there and so I sung and prayed.

However 1.5 hours later, trying to find a car spot, on the verge of tears, I almost turned around and went home.  I said to God,

“Please help me, I need this night to be easy Lord.”

After I’d parked the car I walked down to the station where we preach.  Standing at the corner waiting to cross the busy road, I realized I hadn’t been there for over 2 months.  I looked at our “spot” across the road and I felt like I was coming home.

…..An uncomfortable, dysfunctional home yes, but home nonetheless.

That surprised me.

I crossed the road and at that very moment a girl came over to me and asked me:

“What makes you come out here to do this?”

We had a beautiful conversation.  She was only 16 years old, and currently homeless – couch-surfing between her dad’s and a friend’s place.  And in the city at night, all by herself.  She looked as if she’d been through a rough time.  Yet she was so lovely and soft and tender still, still a child.  Poor kid.

I shared my testimony with her, how God set me free from a cult, from depression, from anxiety, from a hard and cold heart.  How He has changed me, how He loves me, and how He loves her.  I shared the precious gospel with her.  She got tears in her eyes and said that she hopes she has the strength to find Jesus too one day.  She said she was just so tired.

“You know what” I said, “You don’t need strength. Just come to Him as you are, He will not turn you away.  He said for all who are weary and heavy burdened to come to Him and He will give them rest.”

She asked me :

“How do I find Him..?”

We prayed together.

I cried for her on my way home, beautiful child that she is.  I felt His compassion for her.  How greatly He loves her and is calling her home.

And I remembered why it is that I love going out there.

But…I have two questions:

How many more of these kids are out there?

and

“Who will go?”

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June 21st, 2013 – Daytime Street Preaching

Yesterday morning I went into the city to street preach with two other women.

Every kind of opposition was thrown against us beforehand to try to stop us from going, including the fact that my five year old son came down with a severe case of croup on Monday night and was still sick yesterday.  Praise God for mothers though, mine looked after Tom while I went into the city.  I was reminded of CT Studd’s words: ” ‘Preach the Word’ is the rod the Devil fears and hates”….

But we got there.  It was a completely different ballgame to open air preach during the daylight hours.  At night time there are a lot of homeless people, youth hanging out, as well as people going home from work and others out for the night.  During the day there were older people, there were high school students on excursions with their teachers, there were tourists and group outings.  I felt conspicuous setting up the PA on the little raised area at the front of the station.  During the day, there is nowhere to hide, no cover of darkness at all.  You are very much out there.

It was my friend W’s first time out on the streets.  She was a complete natural.  After the three of us prayed together she immediately started going over to the people sitting on the steps and handing out tracts.  I began to preach after a moment of panic wondering in my new PA was loud enough.  It was, as long as I held the mike pressed against my chin.

After a while I thought that it is easier preaching during the day because nobody screamed at me to “Shut up” or anything worse.  What a breeze. I saw people laughing and mocking of course but people were quite polite.  That is until I went over to a nicely dressed couple after I had preached, to talk to them and saw that the opposition was in fact there, bubbling away just as fierce, but hidden under a well-dressed facade.

“Your literalism is wrong,” he sneered at me, “everything you say is wrong.”

We talked for a little while.  it was one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had.  I can honestly say I have rarely spoken to anyone who has been so bitter and angry.  And he used to be a pastor for 20 years.  Scary. As we parted, he still spitting venom at me, Holy Spirit gave me the words to say to him: “And yet, Jesus, knowing that you were going to reject Him, still died for you…”  He shook his head and walked away.

That was just one experience though.  We had a good time. The Word went out and seeds were sown through the preaching, conversations and hundreds of tracts that were handed out.  At one point as I was preaching, some high school students out on an excursion, gathered in front of me and listened, much to their teacher’s consternation.

I’d like to thank those who were praying for us.  I thank God for the Body of Christ.

As we left the city and were driving home, W said to me, “I feel my whole life was building up to this point.  I am a different person.”

The preaching of the Word not only changes others, it changes us.

Hallelujah.

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June 19, 2013 – Hmmmm….considering the black box

I am now the proud (also excited and a little scared) owner of this black beauty….

I am excited because it means more autonomy as a street-preacher.  Also it means not having to rely on others’ and their equipment which will allow me more freedom.  It means that I can now go out during the day time as well as the night. But mainly it’s because owning this little baby is the consolidation and the establishment of a vision God gave me for my life years and years ago….

I remember the first time I ever saw an open-air street preacher.  I was walking through the city with my boyfriend (now husband) Matt.  We were out for a lovely day, strolling in the sunshine, holding  hands.  I saw this young guy with black hair standing on a little ledge at the bottom of an Anglican cathedral. He was holding a black Bible and reading from it.  There were three gothic youths standing around him listening respectfully.  Something about him, about what he was doing, laid hold of me.  It made no sense to me whatsoever, that he would stand there and do that, I mean to read from the Bible in public and not care what anyone thought of him was a foreign concept to me.  Yet I was drawn to him. I really wanted to stop and listen, but I couldn’t.  I don’t know why.  My legs just wouldn’t stop.  I couldn’t do it.  I kept on walking, but I kept looking back.  I remember the primary feeling I had for him was respect, because my primary thought  “That is something I could never do“.

After many experiences and years had gone by, there was one day when God gave me a vision of myself standing on a busy city street during the day and preaching.  Yes, preaching. No one was more astonished at the vision than I was, believe me.  It seemed so random that I actually dismissed it from my mind as an impossibility.  However I couldn’t dismiss it from my heart, because God had put it there.  It kept popping up, and popping up, and popping up until God must have decided that I was especially thick, and He had to make it very clear to me by calling me to go out to the road, (as I’ve detailed in “The Call” post from March ’13).

So whilst I have been preaching in the city on Friday nights for two and a half years now, to be able to preach during the day is new to me.  This Friday, in fact, is when I will be starting this new adventure with a small group of ladies.  So it is very exciting that a vision which God gave to me years ago, as of Friday, will be brought into existence.

(I just want to take a moment here to encourage you to hold on to the dream or vision God has given you for your life.  And the more of an impossibility it seems to you, the more God will get the glory for it.)

However, it is also very scary to be the owner of this black box.  Why?  Um, because street preaching is scary.  Yes, I still find it scary.  I still get the shakes from nerves.  I still wonder why I am doing this to myself every time I drive into the city.    (That is, until the fire of God begins to burn so deeply within my soul that I just HAVE to preach, have to warn, have to share Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.  And the fire burns up the fear of man. It drives away the shakes and the fear…oh my friend – God is good, He will never leave you stranded – just try Him.)

It’s also scary to be entrusted with this responsibility.  The black box seems to stare at me from its solid position at my feet as if to say “You do realize that with me also comes more accountability, don’t you?  Don’t  you take me lightly now….”

I don’t ever want to take it lightly.  I want to appreciate more and more every day what my Jesus has done for me and is still doing for me and will continue to do for me.  He is my Lord and Saviour, He is my life, He is the reason for my being.  He is the love of my life.

Jesus, all for Jesus, all I am and have, and ever want to be… 

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14th June, 2013 – Tonight’s f-f-freezing Street Preaching

Christian – do you know that most high school and uni students think that the Theory of Evolution is a proven scientific fact?  Do you know that they don’t even know it is called the Theory of Evolution?  It has somehow along the way become simply “Evolution” and accepted as fact.

Christian – do you know that most heavy metal rockers are intelligent, deep thinkers who do not fit into society?  That these “outcasts” are angry at a world that they can’t fit into and are open to the gospel.  Some of the best, most articulate conversations I have had are with these guys.

Christian – do you know that most Westerners who accept Buddhism and its teachings do so because they think it’s all about peace and love and have no idea of the real teachings of the Seen Ha, karma, the wheel of suffering and reincarnation.

Christian – do you know that most youth are looking for direction?  That they cover up their fear with mockery.  Do you know that if you persist with them as a mother or father would and speak the truth (even hard truths) to them in love that the mockery and fear will break away and they will come to respond to the gospel and even respect you for it?

Christian – do you know that a lot of people will actually thank you for taking the time to speak to them on the street?

“Preach abroad…It is the cooping yourselves up in rooms that has damped the work of God, which never was and never will be carried out to any purpose without going out into the highways and hedges and compelling them to come in.”  John Wesley

Love & blessings to you

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May 2013 – What a young man said to me on the street

“I have given up on Christianity because it is too sexist…(pause)…although I have never seen women street preachers before….”   🙂

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(Not Sure of the Date) The Night I Met Evie

Reflections of headlights flashed on the puddles as twilight set in.

I walked from the car-park looking for the others.

When I got to the corner where I was supposed to meet them, they weren’t there.

Where could they be?

I crossed the busy intersection to the other side, but they weren’t there either.

Hmmmm….

So down to the tunnel I went, the rain drops falling on my hair.

The entrance to the tunnel was busy but I made my way through.

Gosh, I didn’t realise how long this tunnel was. Past a busker winking at me, past the jostling crowds, out the other side.

I walked a little along the river, looked around, but, no, they weren’t there either.

Now I really don’t know what to do.

I stop to think. I turn slightly and that’s when I see Evie. Although it’s not until later that I learn her name.

Sitting at the end of the bridge begging. Her head in her hands, behind the scrawled sign “Please help”.

She looks so young.

I go over and sit with her, behind her sign.

“Hi”

“Hi”

“What are you doing here?”

She is homeless, spent the last few nights on the street.

She tells me that everything has been stolen from her as she had slept, her purse, her jumper, even her sanitary pads.

She says that she has a permanent place to go into on Monday, but it’s Friday and she needs help to get through the next two days.

I sit with her. I tell her about Jesus. She says, “That’s funny, everyone keeps telling me about Him.”

Even as we speak someone walks past and drops a gospel tract into her begging container.

She points to a man begging in the middle of the bridge.

“He’s mad at me, I have to watch out for him, I’m in his patch and taking his business from him. He’s a druggy.”

We have dinner together and afterward I put her in touch with a women’s shelter, I say that I will pray for her and we part.

I walk back along the river, back through the tunnel.

Back to where I was originally meant to meet with the other street preachers.

And I see them. Right there. They have been there all along.

I had walked right by them and not seen them. Somehow.

But that’s not the end of the story.

Tuesday night I pray. I pray for Evie and other stuff. I wait on God.

He says to me, clear as anything, “Go to Evie.”

Huh?

“Go to Evie.”

But Lord, she moved into a place yesterday, she is fine now.

“Go to Evie.”

But Lord, she’s not there at the bridge anymore

“She will be there, go to Evie.”

Ok. If you give me an opportunity to go, I will go to her.

Thursday afternoon.

My parents drop in and say they will mind my son.

I drive into the city.

The whole way there I think that I must be crazy, what am I doing? I could be sitting child-free in a café somewhere…

But I go anyway.

The car parked, I get out, walk. Then, for some reason, I start to run. I run and run to the bridge. I come over the crest and look to see if she is there.

She is there. She is begging.

I run to her, out of breath.

“Evie! what are you doing here? You were meant to move in to a place on Monday!”

She looks at me and says “Why are you running?” as only a teenager can.

I laugh, embarrassed, because I don’t know why I’m running myself.

Then she says “The place didn’t work out”

We have lunch.

Turns out she had gotten to the bridge five minutes before I arrived.

Another time she met my husband and we went out to dinner.

She came to my home once.

She said she was bringing someone for me to meet.

(Please God don’t let it be a man.)

I go out to meet her in the drive-way and she’s carrying a baby girl.

18 month old Rose.

Rose had been removed, but was now returned to her mum, Evie.

Because, Evie tells me, a house has become available for her.

Her boyfriend is getting out of jail

and her mum is coming to live with them too.

They stay for a while. Rose is so sweet. Evie is too.

That’s the last time I see her.

She moved into the house with her daughter, boyfriend and mum.

It’s far from here.

But she texts me and tells me that they’re doing well.

…….God didn’t let me see the friends I was meant to meet that night

Instead He wanted me to meet Evie,

A young mum,

homeless

daughterless

penniless

hopeless

But He knew.

And He had His eye on little Rose the whole time.

Truly His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.

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11 May 2013 – Tonight’s Street Preaching

So tonight the anointing came down.

A lot of the time when I preach  with the microphone people have one of four reactions as they walk past:
1. they laugh
2. they roll their eyes
3. they scream out blasphemy or
3. they yell at me to shut the f*#k up

Ha, good times.

(Actually to add another element to the mix is the Black Magician that seemingly only comes out when I am there. In his black clothes, make up and top hat he stands across from where we preach and moves his hands and legs around constantly in snake-like movements, as if he is casting spells on us. If you go close to him you realize that he is mocking us and repeats everything we say. He does that for hours – he doesn’t stop).

So anyway tonight the second time I preached the anointing came down. When the anointing of the Spirit falls everything changes. My preaching changes, it becomes powerful and the words flow easily. Under the anointing I could preach for hours, I don’t want to stop. I feel Jesus there with me SO real. I feel He is pleased with me.

But the BIG difference is that the people’s reactions change. Instead of walking past ridiculing and mocking, they stop walking. I mean they literally stop dead. One man stopped tonight in the middle of climbing the steps up to the station. The police officers stopped dead as they were questioning a drunk and listened. Crowds of people just stop and stare and listen. It’s like they are rooted to the spot.

So I kept on preaching as long as I could. Then when I finished the Holy Spirit told me to go straight to that man who was still stopped mid-way on the steps.

So I did. He saw me coming over to him, but he still couldn’t move. We started talking and he said :
“I was walking past but I had to stop. You captured me.”
That’s the Holy Spirit – hallelujah to the Lamb!

He was under conviction for his sin but as he spoke it was obvious that he was utterly amazed at what was happening.
“I’ve never done this before,” he said his eyes wide in surprise at himself. God bless him.

Anyway I just wanted to share 3 points with you
1. that under the anointing ANYTHING is possible.
2. that God will always honour the preaching of His Word and
3. that if you are seeking God’s presence in greater measure – look no further than the streets of your nearest city.

“For since in the wisdom the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching.”

1 Corinthians 1:21

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“Not called!” did you say? “Not heard the call,” I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not come there. Then look Christ in the face — whose mercy you have professed to obey — and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.”  William Booth