Transcription
Hey everybody, this is Joshua Lewis with V Remnant Radio. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I've got a great interview today with Sean Smith. It is going to be a powerful episode about prophetic evangelism here at the 8:18 conference. You want to stay tuned; you don't want to miss it. [Music]
Shawn Smith, and we're talking about prophetic evangelism, man. It's so—it's an honor to have you on the show. I'm really excited to have you be here with you guys.
Yeah, hey. So, so tell us a little bit who you are and how people can follow you on social media and contact you, books that you've sold, all that, all that good stuff. Yet, give us a little full-on…
Oh yeah. Hey, Shawn Smith, and I travel as itinerant, but my heart burns for revival, burns for prophetic evangelism. And anyone that could follow us, our Twitter or our Instagram is at Reb John Smith, and then our website is PointBlankInternational.org. And so they can, they can follow us that way.
Cool. Excellent. Well, I'm excited that you killed it last night. Such a good sermon. Tell us a little bit about the story, if you can. I know we got 20 minutes, but give us a real nutshell version of the, the story that you gave about when you went into the bookstore and shared the gospel with that lady.
Yes. The Lord directed me to go into a new age bookstore in Monterey, California, where a woman who's a total tarot card reader was actually reading and giving people readings and psychic, you know, supposing wisdom. So the Lord prompted me to go into this bookstore. I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I didn't know if I was just supposed to stand on site and pray against it, but when I got there, God gave me three specific downloads about her, the first being this phrase, “I am your sign.” I was supposed to tell this psychic tarot card reader, “I am your sign.” Yeah, and then two other very specific things that pertain to her life. So when I got to the point where I could come up in line and share it with her, she was stunned on the first one, because she had been kind of in her own way praying to the cosmos, “Show me a sign.” Here I walk up, the first thing I say is, “God wants me to tell you, ‘I am your sign,’” and, and then followed by two very specific things about her life. So she ends up recognizing how real God is, and as prophetic evangelism does, words of knowledge causes you to feel that space of God's love for you in a very personal way. She gave her life to Christ, renouncing new age, and walks out of that New Age bookstore with me on the spot to never do that again, in her own words. And she had made Jesus Lord. So it wasn't a mom thing. The power of prophetic evangelism… My favorite part of that story is when you had said you’re telling her these prophetic words, and her response was, “How did you know?” That’s hysterical. That someone who has built their life upon supernatural unknown knowledge comes to Christ because of supernatural unknown knowledge. It’s like that prophets of Baal, “Whoever answers with fire, let him be God” situation. Really powerful stuff.
So when we talk about prophetic evangelism, that’s not just a Pentecostal charismatic adjective that we tossed in front of evangelism. Explain to us how that functions. What is prophetic evangelism?
Yes. I think there are two great examples, the first of which is when Jesus has this opportunity where one of his disciples was speaking to this guy, I believe it was Nathaniel. And when he comes to Nathaniel, Nathaniel is walking towards Jesus, and Jesus said to him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.” And the guy goes, “How do you know me?” Like, to me, that would be generic. He didn’t tell him his dad’s name, didn’t tell him, you know, you have come from this region or whatever, but evidently, as all prophetic, I think evangelism in terms of words of knowledge, there was a touch point, in reference point that there’s always a setup that we don’t know about. We know in part, prophesy in part. And so when he said that to him, he felt known. Jesus goes on to say, “Hey, you know, I saw you went underneath the fig tree.” And he says, “Hey, before this is over, you’re gonna see the Angels ascending and descending upon the Son of God.” So he told him something about his present terms, something about his past terms, something about his future. Yeah. This guy goes from being, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” to being martyred for Christ and for martyrs. And so Jesus modeled it. He told Peter, he says, “Hey, this is where to launch your net.” Peter catches the biggest catch of his life, and he says, “From now on you’ll be fishers of men,” as if, “This, in the way that you made this catch in this moment, this is a metaphor for how you’ll reach the lost.” So I feel like the greatest harvest is on the other end of your word declaration. Because Peter said, “At your word,” nevertheless, “At your word, I’ll let down my nets.” At your word, evangelism is the way all evangelism should, should be. In other words, it’s the Holy Spirit leading us. Jesus, and I get it because I’ve been involved in a lot of evangelistic Crusades where you do what’s called cold turkey evangelism, shared who witnessed to everyone, and that can be really thoughtful, sure. But Jesus didn’t model that. Jesus was led very specific to specific people, and that’s the reason why whenever Jesus witnessed, there was always immediate Kingdom Yahoo and harvest. And I feel like the Lord wants to lead us like that, why? Because the Holy Spirit knows where people are at in their discovery process. There’s what’s called the law of hearings. They say the average person hears the gospel 7.2 times before they give their life to Christ. Yeah. I’m convinced that in prophetic evangelism, it could be the law of one hearing. You speak what the Father’s speaking in that moment, He grips the heart there immediately. Even Corinthian says that if you all prophesy and an unbeliever comes in, your measure, the guy will, will not be convinced that God is among you and be convicted in their hearts. Good. It’s that releasing of the atmosphere when God speaks to you prophetically. Here’s what I love to say: when you speak it, you release unto the hearer, they seem atmosphere that was, that it was birthed out of. And so if it comes out of my mind and I’m witnessing to him, it bursts that atmosphere. But if it comes from the heart of God, it’s gonna hit them at a whole nother level.
So, so okay, I can put—so I’ve got critics, and I’m trying to listen to what you’re saying through the mind of a critic, and the critic says, “You’re saying that the prophetic word is more powerful than the biblical word of repent and believe,” but you’re not saying that. What you’re saying is, is you are preaching the biblical word of repent and believe, but the prophetic is giving it in a narrative the way that person can receive it, right? So, so that prophetic gospel declaration is just God is giving you supernatural knowledge of how to present the gospel to the hearer, right? So that the hearer who hears, surely God is, and that’s that, that prophetic call. I see that in the woman at the well encounter, right? I think that’s uh, I don’t know definitively, then that’s Jim Hennessey’s favorite scripture verse, but I—and when I was here for about a year, he tossed it and that almost every sermon I felt like songs, and there’s, there’s so much meat in that text. So he comes, and you’re, you’re a man, you’re a Jewish man, you’re a prophet, I perceive your prophet, you are the Son of God, and there’s this progression of Revelation given to this lady. She goes out, and the harvest, which we were talking about, that prophetic harvest, she goes out into the harvest and brings people back to express for that, for that transformation. So, so how, how have you seen a prophetic ministry, discipleship, that this prophetic evangelism, have you seen sons and daughters grow up in the faith to go on and do this woman at the well, when you have a woman at the well encounter, you become a woman at the well encounter, and you go out, and so, so give us some of those stories.
Yes. I have a spiritual son, and this is perfect, because he saw me be using for fake advantages, and he says, “How, how do you have the voice of God like that? I can’t hear the voice of God.” I’ll begin to mentor, and I said, “The first thing we’re gonna be in with is that you need to change your confession. ‘I’m saying I cannot hear the voice of God.’ You must stand on scripture. Scripture says John 10:27, ‘My sheep know my voice.’ That’s strange. Any, when I follow, I say, you’ve got to confess the Word of God over your life.” I love what you said earlier, it does not invalidate, prophetic evangelism isn’t saying it evaluates the word. It’s like the plane carries the cargo of the gospel, right? The plumb line of truth, but many times what runway you come on is determined by what’s going on in the ecosystem, so that particular airport, so that person’s life, there may be a runway open, and maybe runways closed. I’m still bringing the same cargo. So here’s a great example, my friend that I, I being a mentor and prophetic evangelism, he begins to do a campus ministry and lead kids around a prophetic evangelism. He ends up being in a position where he’s standing in front of a gal, and he says, “Hey, my name is Matt.” She stops him. She says, “I know exactly who you are. You’re a pastor. I don’t have anything to do with you. I’m a nurse, Jenny.” And then she goes on to say, she says to him, “I’m an atheist, I’m a Wiccan, I’m a feminist, and I’m a lesbian. So you would think for the most possible would grab their little Baba now.” He stops any dialogues. He says, “Holy Spirit, what do you want to say to her?” And so Holy Spirit, down low, so he says to her, he says, “The Lord shows me that you’re being attacked at night. You suffered from severe headaches and breathing conditions between the ages of 12 and 14 years of age. You were violated, but the Lord wants you to know He loves you, He died for you, and He wants to make a difference in your life.” Where she walks away, he doesn’t know like, “What was that?” Right off, you know. Yeah. How does he do that right off? She comes back to him in the very next day. She says, “Three o’clock last night, and won’t you know I gave my life to Christ?” No way, anyone would know that about me. She says out of her own mouth, she says, “Laughing—so grip me that I’m no longer an atheist, I’m no longer Wiccan, I’m no longer feminist, and I’m no longer a lesbian.” But wait, that’s not all. She’s discipled nine months in his campus ministry because she was saved in that type of place, given to the Holy Spirit to direct her life, where to keep in step with Holy Spirit, the Bible says. She, nine months later, moves away. She’s an intern, as she’s studying to be a nurse. She actually be exactly in hospital room where there’s a surgeon, sister surgeon, nurse, sister nurse. She’s fifth on the food chain. There’s a guy on the table that they’re gonna do a heart surgery, which none of them are routine, but this wasn’t supposed to be, you know, life-threatening, but I guess anyway, the guy dies on the table, like the scope goes boo, there’s no heart rate. So they do the defibrillator paddles, everything. This girl, nine months removed from being those things that she mentioned, she hears the Holy Spirit say, “I want you to raise him from the dead.” Now I submit to you, if, if she is it saved under the power of the Holy Spirit, see, we have to be a two-wing bird. We have to have word and spirit come on one wing. Birds do awesome somersaults, but if they’re gonna soar, it’s spirit and truth. Jesus looking for worshipers who worship Him in spirit and in truth. And so she goes over to this dead man’s toes on the table. She doesn’t whisper, she says it, and you got a, the zeal of a person nine months removed from being an atheist, a lesbian, awakened, and, and you know, a feminist. She grabs her toes. She says, “In the name of Jesus, I rebuke this murder, death. I command life.” And people say, “What happened?” And so my response is, “Nothing,” for ten seconds. And I love this thing because many times their eternity just right in front of a bunch of dice, and they’re all looking at her like, “Are you crazy?” But many times what we, we forget is that between the conception, there’s an incubation, then there’s the birth. Yeah. Sometimes we give up in this incubation, like, “No one believes that,” you know, “Husbands don’t know, wife and tomorrow you’re gonna have a baby.” So sometimes in prayer you’ve got to stand in a place of faith. She stood, ten seconds later the scope gives a beep, and then another beep, and then another beep, and then the nurses and one of the doctors turn and look at this intern, they make the connection. This dude is dead. You prayed a prayer that we all think is very awkward, and this guy’s come back to life. And I submit to you that when a generation is raised believing that God can speak to, and He loves humanity enough that He wants to interject Himself in their narrative, then that becomes their normal command. So that is probably one of the best examples. Yeah.
For the record, I’m jealous because I’ve yet to raise… Oh no, yes. Nine months old in the Lord, praise God, you know. And that’s, but that’s that is eternal fruit, you know, like, you know, are, are very clear. I would love God to use me to raise the dead. I’ve said it a million times, and I’m, I’m believing before I die it’s gonna be good. I’ve asked my friends, “Hey, when you die, make sure your family knows I get time with the body before…” Like we’ve got our, we’ve, we’ve got this pact amongst a couple of us, like, “If I die and I’m sixty, let me go, but if I’m fifty, you’re invited to mine, and I’m invited to yours.” So we’re all about that, right? But that being said, our goal and our mission is to preach the gospel to see Jesus made famous in the earth. And that moment made Jesus famous in the earth. And whether I do it, you do it, or some other person does, yes, our goal is Kingdom-minded, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s setting free those who are captive. So that opportunity, you preach the gospel, sets one soul free. She lays hands on a dead person, preaches the gospel, and you see souls liberated, but by the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s a powerful finish, and we win. My wife and I, we travel and we equip people in prophetic evangelism, and what I found out is statistically saying 95% of Christians that never led one soul to Christ. Yeah. Everyone that comes to Christ apart from God giving them an encounter or being raised, you know, in a Christian family, which that would still be somebody witnessing, your mom and dad, sure. Only 5% of the body of Christ are seen fruit. I don’t say that as a condemnation. I say that it’s kind of like Heather’s dream for a moment. What if 95 percent of Christians began to lead people to Christ? We’d have an awakening overnight. I don’t believe it’s for some people, training equipment evangelism, and they kind of berate Christians like, “You don’t care.” I don’t believe that. I believe people do care. I believe they want their family, relatives, at business associates, others saved, but they don’t feel equipped. And so one of the things that I think is that when you feel you have power tools on your belt, it causes you to want to step as a part of the solution. And God has equipped us with the Word of God. The Word of God is not going to come back void. In addition to that, we can be directed by Holy Spirit. So when you bring those two weaponry to the table, I’m convinced secular humanism does not have a defense for it. One time I felt like the Lord gave me a vision. In His vision, I was sitting around a table. I don’t play poker. All I know is the top hand runs a Royal Flush. I’m sitting across from this guy, I’ve seen him on ESPN, so this is kind of a vision God’s given me, and he’s got the black glasses on. Anyone that’s watching it’s been, you’ve seen the World Poker, and I’m looking at my hand, and I have a royal flush, but I’m kind of playing with my chips, deciding how much to put in the middle, and the Lord pulls me out of it and says, “This is the church. They don’t know they have the winning hand. And when you have the winning hand, you don’t deliberate with the chips. It’s all in. It’s gonna say there’s nothing on the other side of that table, secular humanism, Satanism, men’s agenda, a religious spirit in the negative sense. There’s nothing that the enemy can throw down, they can trump my hand. He’s given us. And so we need to act like we have the winning hand. And part of it, I believe, is the reason why Acts chapter 2 is so important, that when the power of God comes on you to become a witness, you look at Peter’s witness before Acts 2. Obviously, he denied Jesus three times in front of a kept fire, girl, when I can sell their cookies, right? Right, a campfire. And then standing up on the day of Pentecost in front of the general vicinity of where his, his Savior and master was crucified, he’s standing there, and the difference is when the Holy Spirit saturates his life, we know when anyone comes to Christ, Holy Spirit lives inside of them. So I love to say at that point you possess Holy Spirit, but I believe there comes a point where the Holy Spirit can possess you to where you walk in a level of boldness, you walk in a level of sensitivity, and then when you operate and stand with God, there’s a greater authority, or Acts 2:22 would say, the endorsement of God, how God is yours. Jesus. Now that what we want is that endorsement. That’s powerful.
Minute, and thank you so much fun for coming on. I want to let you guys know, if y’all want to hear Pastor Shawn or other speakers of his caliber, you need to come out to 818 this week. Conference is still going on. It will be going on through Saturday. Show up, get your tickets. It’s gonna be a powerful encounter. If you want the book that this conference is ultimately based off of, it’s *The Dream King* by Matt Lockett and Will Ford. It’s the dream of Martin Luther King, of former slave-owners and, and, and former slaves coming together at the table of brotherhood. If you want a book of how that prophetic word is still happening today, you need to check this out. You can share this video, and you’ll be entered to win and a raffle ticket to win this book. So thank you, Sean, so much for coming on. It is such an honor. It’s really been, it’s really been fun. And those of you who are new to Remnant Radio, check us out on all of our platforms, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, etc., etc. Be blessed. We’ll see you next time.