Friday, 13 March 2009

• Can the Gospel Still Save Thousands at One Time?

  Guest post by Clayton King

  
  

  We are not living in the book of Acts; the West has become post-modern and post-Christian, church attendance is declining, and Billy Graham is no longer doing stadium crusades.  So can 2,000 people still get saved all at once?  Evidently, they can.

  I just saw 2,000 people repent of their sins and publicly profess their faith in Jesus Christ.

  The backstory:  The event was the TN Youth Evangelism Conference.  It was held in downtown Nashville, with just under 12,000 attendees.  On Thursday night, I sensed the Holy Spirit challenging me to pray an audacious prayer, reminding me of the 1,500 people who trusted Christ in Beaumont, TX in January.  I confessed to The Lord that I did not have faith to pray for 2,000 people to be saved.  He would not let me go.  He kept bothering me, telling me that the gospel works and that if I would just believe Him, He would show off.
  

  I reluctantly submitted to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and I did, indeed, ask God to give me the faith to believe that 2,000 people would begin a journey of salvation on Friday night.  I prayed fervently, and began to notice that the more I prayed, the more I believed God would do it, and the more sensitive I became to the lostness of the people around me, even in the airport and the hotel.

  I preached from Romans 10:8-10 a very simple message on what is required of us in order to be saved.  According to Paul, we have to believe in our hearts that Jesus is raised from the dead and we have to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord.  I told them they were not allowed to rededicate.  I did not want any Christians to make a re-commitment.  I was only going to extend an invitation for people who had never repented, never believed, never been saved, never met Jesus personally.

  Instead of doing a typical Baptist invitation (heads bowed, eyes closed, music playing softly, lights down with nobody looking), I had all the lights on, all eyes open, no music, and everyone looking.  Then I challenged them to do exactly what Paul commanded the church in Rome to do for salvation.  

  STAND UP.  OPEN YOUR MOUTH.  CONFESS “JESUS IS LORD.”

  I did not allow anyone to clap or shout or say amen.  The room was totally silent.  One by one, people began to stand up and declare their faith in Jesus.  You should have heard it…voices filling an auditorium with thousands present, confessing the Lordship of Christ in front of earthly and heavenly witnesses.  God had answered my prayer.  

  Afterwards, I met lots of people.  A 51-year-old chaperone was saved.  A 29-year-old youth pastor was saved.  And 3 of the security guards were saved.  There are 2,000 new names written in God’s book, people who have begun a lifelong journey of salvation.

  The gospel works.  We don’t have to dumb it down, we just have to declare it with boldness, love, and conviction.  The Holy Spirit does all the work in people’s hearts because Jesus did all the work on the cross.  Pray for all your new brothers and sisters in Christ who have a new heart, and new life, and new destiny.

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