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Understanding Evangelism

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I have always had a heart for evangelizing; meaning winning souls and renewing backsliders. For many years I thought evangelism was all about leading lost souls in the sinner’s prayer witnessing them being born-again. Well, Holy Spirit has shown me much more about evangelism that has freed me from a measure of personal guilt and self-condemnation.
 
What He has taught me is that my part in evangelism is calling out those who are to be a part of the prophetic movement. This one revelation has released me from the burden how I was to evangelize. In fact, Holy Spirit has shown me that when I prophesy I am leading believers and unbelievers into the revelation that Jesus is not dead, but alive and He is speaking to all who have an ear to hear and He will speak to you too.
 

“For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10c).

 
This understanding made me realize I needed a platform to start moving into God’s power to prophetically evangelize as many people as possible. So, I purchased time on a Christian radio station in Dallas, Texas so I could prophesy live over radio each Saturday morning. Also, I placed an ad in Charisma Magazine. Just so you know this was in the early 1990’s that all this took place; most people back then thought I was crazy including my pastor.
 
Within just a few short months, I had saved up enough money to pay one of my friends, who later became my brother-in-law, work up an ad to look just like what God had showed me. The very ad is the picture seen in the body of this paragraph.
 
Taking a deep breath, I sent the ad to Charisma Magazine then immediately went to work putting back enough money to pay for the next month’s ad. The wait for publication seemed to take forever. When I finally saw the ad in print, I felt I had really accomplished something great. That first month, not many people wrote in, but I did not lose sight of what I was doing, being obedient to God. The results were not my problem, nor did the measure of success dictate whether I continued running the ad. After a couple of months, we began to see the demand increase and it was becoming more difficult to balance doing the prophesies and continue working at my job; I knew then it was time to make a big decision. I wanted to give up my small business, but my wife and I were to be married soon and I could not see myself quitting as the ministry generated a huge monthly expense with no income to offset the cost. A few months had gone by and we were married and moved into our new home. I continued to keep the pace, building a new and controversial ministry as well as working a full-time job.
 
Then one day after coming home early from work, God began to deal with me about giving up my business and concentrating full time on the ministry. For the rest of the day, God and I had a back and forth discussion. I would remind Him that I just got married and my wife will think I am a bum if I close down my small business. He came back with the story of Elisha and how he broke down his plow, made a fire, and sacrificed his oxen as a symbol of his commitment to follow after the God of Elijah. Well, I knew what I had to do but did not know how my wife was going to take it. In a short time, she came home and she had a very strange look on her face. I was as nervous as cat on a hot tin roof, fearing she would break down when I told her what I had agreed to do.
 

“No one, having put his hand to the plow,
and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God”
(Luke 9:62).

 
When my wife came home from work that day she revealed that God had spoken to her. I patiently waited to hear what she had to share with me. She began with something like, “I’ve told you I didn’t want you to become a minister after seeing all my Dad had gone through as a pastor, but God has changed my thinking, and you need to quit your job.” I was in shock, fumbling around trying to find my words. She stood stunned as I told her about the experience I had encountered with our Heavenly Father. We both celebrated and where ecstatic that we were about to take on a huge financial loss.
 
As my wife left each day to work at her business, cleaning houses, I would go to the post office to pick up requests for prophesies, return home and began seeking God for His Word. One day I received a phone call that shook me to the core and at the same time gave me relief.
 
A Charisma Magazine executive called me and informed me that they were going to have to pull my ad. Baffled, I ask him why. He began to tell me that pastors from all over were calling and writing their office threatening to pull their subscriptions and tell their followers to do the same if they didn’t pull my ad. When I asked what the problem was, he revealed that company had no issue with the ad, but that a few pastors believed I was using my gift for financial gain. I resisted the urge to lose my temper over the phone reminding him that we only ask for a love offering, and thus far we had not received enough “love” to pay their monthly charge of $386.00. He said he was sorry, and I let it go. Relieved, knowing I would not have to come up with the funds for the next month, I found myself telling our Father that I had done all I could and that now the problem was His.
 
To my surprise the ad was in the next month’s issue. I just thought maybe someone made a mistake. However, when the next issue came out it still had the ad, I was totally perplexed.
 
Then in a few days I received another phone call and it was the Manager for Carman, a Christian Psalmist, and he said, “You will never know why your ad is still running unless someone tells you.” Then he proceeded to tell me that the editorial and sales staff for Strang Communications, which owned Charisma and many other publications, wrote in anonymously for a prophecy tape from you. He continued to tell me that he was there the day they all sat down at the huge boardroom table with their tapes in hand. As they passed around the tape player, they each played their prophecy and the others judged the Word. He reported that no one at the table had a dry eye; they cried and made a prayerful commitment they would NOT pull the ad as long as they owned the magazine. After 5 more years, I finally asked Charisma to pull the ad, because there were too many requests to keep up with each month.
 

Written by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet

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