There is wayyyy to much to tell in just one blog, so I’m going to write a three part series for the next three days. So check back each of the next few days to get the final story. I promise it’s worth it, and it just might change your life too.
So like most of you know, we are in Byron Bay, Australia without a specific ministry contact. Therefore most of our days are spent asking God what He wants us to do. It’s involved meeting people, prayer, homeless ministry, etc. And honestly it hasn’t been difficult for me to keep myself busy and doing ministry. I’ve always been the type of person who hates to waste time, and since I’m on a mission trip I wasn’t just going to come to the beach and have a vacation.
So I’ve been taking it upon myself to really push and challenge my team to step out of their comfort zones and be proactive. I wasn’t going to let us “waste” a month. But seemingly everyday, I would hear this whisper, “Enjoy life Danny. Relax, rest, enjoy Australia, enjoy Bryon Bay, enjoy your friends, have fun.” But those thoughts were so contrary to how I live my life. How could I just relax and have fun when I am in this city with so many lost people? When I am surrounded by people whose souls were crying out for the Gospel of Jesus Christ? So I just pushed those thoughts back and pushed forward. “lets go team, what are we doing today? What has God asked us to do?”
Things were moving in our ministry, our presence was clearly being felt here in Byron Bay. People were asking us if we were the “Christians” around occasionally, and for the most part being warmly received. Then one night, team Wrecked 52:7 decided they wanted to devote 24 straight hours to prayer for Byron Bay. So they set up shop at this park which receives lots of foot traffic. That night we joined them to pray and to talk to whoever wanted to talk. We had so many great conversations that night, and if you browse some other blogs you can probably read about them as well. But my story involves something a little less heartwarming…
Around 11:15 that night as things we cooling down, a man named “Taurus” sat down at the picnic table I was sitting at. Taurus was probably 24, dark hair down to his shoulders, he spoke with a very spaced out voice, and honestly when I shook his hand and looked into his eyes I shuddered. His eyes were dark, and extremely eerie. We struck up a conversation and quickly things turned spiritual. Taurus immediately said he believes in God and then continued to tell us all of his other beliefs. He seemed to have quite the knowledge of lots of religious texts including some extremely far out ones. However, as the conversation progressed it became much less of a conversation and much more of Him attacking the Bible and all truth we as believers of Jesus stand on. His tone became confrontational as his voice rose louder and louder. He began to say more and more blasphemous things like the devil is God’s brother, and that God and Jesus don’t want you to worship them, but they want you to worship yourself. I soon realized a beneficial conversation with him was not possible, so I tried to ignore him and talk to another stranger. However Taurus refused to let that happen. He continued to fight for my attention and it was impossible to ignore. So I asked God what can I do to make this man leave. All I heard was, name of Jesus. Say the name of Jesus.
Taurus then asked me how many levels of heaven are there. I responded with one. Taurus jumped on that. With a loud and attacking voice he fired at me, “One?! Ha, there are at least five. And you will have to work to get to the first one. You are going to work, and work, and work, AND WORK, AND WORK! THEN YOU’LL GET TO THE FIRST LEVEL AND YOU WILL WORK SOME MORE. YOU THINK IT’S EASY, BUT OH NO, YOU WILL BE WORKING YOUR ENTIRE LIFE! AND THEN FOR ETERNITY. You should be scared about how much you will work.”
As he spoke, I could not help but think that I am literally talking to Satan himself. I saw then enemy challenging me as to what is truth. So I called him on his lies. I responded with, “Do you know you are speaking the very words of the devil? I will not work. I do not have to work. I trust in Jesus Christ. I trust in the Son of God. I am justified by faith in Christ alone. I am offered eternal life through none of my good works but through the blood of Christ. Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is the living water. I am not scared of you, but you should be scared of me. I have the light in me, and there is no darkness.”
As I stared at Taurus and said those words he got nervous and defensive. He began to fidget. He stood up from the table and began to creep away. All the while trying to contradict me. He then began to tell me I had a demon. That he was scared of me. “look in the mirror man, you have a demon! I AM scared of you.” I just kept confessing the truth of the scriptures, and with each word he backed away, until eventually he left.
For more of the story, come back tomorrow ; )
