I was talking to one particular brother; I changed his name in the book for his security, I call him Raydon. Before he came to Christ, Raydon had been a fighter. He was sharing his testimony with us. He knew all these fighting techniques. He was talking about how he could take people down. We were taking a mental note not to mess with Raydon!
He told us about one time when he was in an unreached village. He was sharing the gospel in this one particular home, and the witch doctor in that village came to the house. Those are very common—they have a real spiritual sway over entire villages with their incantations and curses. The witch doctor called Raydon out of the house, basically wanting to pick a fight with him. So Raydon said he got up and turned around, ready to walk out and go take the witch doctor down. As he was walking out of the house, he sensed the Lord saying, "No, you don't do the fighting anymore; I do the fighting for you."
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So Raydon walked out, got a chair and sat down right in front of the witch doctor, looked at him and said, "I don't do the fighting anymore. My God does the fighting for me." He said the witch doctor began to speak; and as he began to speak, the witch doctor began to choke on his own words and gasp for air. Within a few moments, he had fallen over dead right in front of him.
Raydon said, "I didn't know what to do. I had no idea. All these crowds were coming, so I just started to preach the gospel." He said many people ended up coming to Christ that day; they just followed in the village. I do share in the book that I don't think sitting down in front of people and seeing them die right in front of you is necessarily the best method of evangelism!
Yet at the same time, it was a clear reminder to me that 2,000 years ago there was a name that, when proclaimed, caused the blind to see, the lame to walk and the dead to rise again; 2,000 years later the name is still good. There's power in the name of Christ and the gospel of Christ as it's going forward to the ends of the earth. We can have confidence as followers of Christ, ministers of the gospel, that there is great power that accompanies the preaching of the gospel.
