How Prophecy Goes Hand in Hand with Evangelism

SEAN’S STORY

Sean’s parents met at a nightclub in the early 60’s and he was born as an “oops,” he says, nine months later. His dad, a chemical engineer at IBM, didn’t want to be a father and recommended his mom have an abortion.  She did not share that view, so she kept the baby, and raised Sean in poverty the best she could, with the help of her mother.  

When Sean was about to turn five, his mom decided to reach out to his dad as ask if he would see his son. “He looks like you,” she told him. He agreed and Sean had the best gift of his life at that point - meeting his dad, as well as his paternal grandparents.

While Sean would have loved more than anything for his mom and dad to marry, similar to “The Parent Trap” story, he says, he and his dad did continue to see each other once or twice a month after that for years.  

“It was my greatest desire,” Sean remembers. “It felt warm, connected, safer.” Though his dad was a strict disciplinarian who had a bit of a temper, Sean says the relationship was still overall very positive.  

In 1972, nine-year-old Sean was sent home from school one day to find his maternal grandmother who had helped raise him, waiting for him with tragic news. She told Sean that his father had been shot by two police officers after being stopped and pulled out of his car.

When he ran, they shot him. It was later determined that the shooting was racially motivated. The only recompense given the officers was one being fired, and the other assigned a desk job.  

His dad’s death was a great blow to young Sean. “I shut down,” he says, feeling great loss, ache, fear, mistrust of authority, especially the police, and of course, deep-seated anger.  He coped as best he could with all those feelings for years, not knowing what to do with them. It helped that his dad’s parents remained a part of his life.

When Sean was 17, his mom’s mom, who had been a functional alcoholic all his life, came to faith in Christ. He was intrigued by the change in her, including the fact that she was finally able to give up alcohol. She died a few years later, when Sean was in college, which left him depressed and suicidal. He threw himself into partying to dull the pain, which never lasted.  

One very low time, he remembered that his grandmother had told him to call out to Jesus. So he did. Sean asked to experience Him and says Jesus appeared to him and told him He would be a Father to the fatherless. Not long after, he went to a campus revival and publically confessed faith in Christ.  

Soon he felt strongly impressed that he needed to forgive the men who had killed his father. For the first time since his father’s death, Sean was able to do so, and even pray for their families. He joined a church, studied Scripture, and after college, worked as a campus pastor for the next ten years.  

PROPHETIC EVANGELISM 

Sean says that evangelism in our culture has for decades consisted of Christians inviting unbelievers to an event, performance, or conference where the gospel is preached. While conceding that countless people have come to faith in Christ through these means, he believes that more is needed.

“Today, for the most part, people don’t want to come to an event. They want to see Jesus in action. They want to see Him in you! Our culture is thirsty for an encounter with God, and the best way to give them that is by living a lifestyle of prophetic evangelism,” he says.

“I define it as God releasing revelatory phenomena in a way the opens the hearts of the lost. It’s the audio-visual download of heavenly intel that comes from the heart of the Father. In other words, you’re simply releasing what you hear God say, because the most important purpose of the prophetic is to reveal Jesus Christ,” he believes.

“That’s where prophetic evangelism has to begin. We have to have a revelation. Prophetic evangelists don’t rely on their abilities to persuade people; they rely on the Holy Spirit’s ability to reveal. Prophetic evangelism is a dynamic given so we can impact a modern world that has written off Christianity. When implemented, the revelation you share with lost people will cause them to encounter a living God and respond accordingly.”  

Applying this type of evangelism involves several steps, Sean says. We need to pray for an assignment at the beginning of the day, look for it to appear, be willing to be spontaneous, and learn to recognize God’s voice, which comes with sudden awareness and conviction, he says.

One of many such encounters that Sean has experienced, occurred at an Eastern New Age store he and friends happened to pass by. He sensed “a dark rush” when they walked past, and noticed a woman in the window reading tarot cards to customers. He and his friends prayed, then Sean walked into the store to correct her.

While he waited for her to finish, he says the Lord impressed upon him to have mercy, and told him three things he was to say to her: 1) She had been in a relationship with a guy who claimed to be an enlightened guru who ended up hurting and abusing her, 2) She had a dream in her heart to do something else, which He would open for her if she gave up the tarot cards, and 3) She was asking for a sign and would recognize Sean as that sign.  

As Sean told her these things, she was crying, and affirmed each point. He then asked to pray with her and she agreed. The woman renounced witchcraft and accepted salvation in Jesus alone.