F. B. Meyer ( 1 ) commenting on Mark 9: 2 - 29 states that the duty of the Church is not to build tabernacles on the mount of vision, but to take her way into the haunts of crime and misery and cope with the power of satan. Faith is the channel through which the divine power passes.
v.14 - 16 This is a feature of street outreach work ... the religious people questioning the disciples of Jesus. These arguments could be a distraction by the enemy to get one?s attention off the person ( s ) needing the miracle ... in this case the boy with the evil spirit!
v.22, 23 The father said to the Lord if you can do anything help us. The question is not whether the Lord can do any thing, the question is can you believe ( v.23 ). Believe is the verb and faith is the noun! Faith is the link with God? s power. Faith works in the present tense... " Now faith is ... " ( Hebrews 11:1).
Thousands of clergy and laity lack the manifestation of the supernatural power of God in their lives because they are afraid to trust God completely.
...Lester Sumrall.
Jackie Pullinger says that initially when she went to Hong Kong she used to say, " Jesus loves you " to those on drugs, prostitutes, gangsters, etc but she found it did little good. After she was baptized in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues they had teams of Christians assigned to those that needed deliverance and would sit the person down and pray over them in the Spirit. They found that this method resulted in deliverance for those on drugs, etc.
Another successful ministry for deliverance from drugs, etc is Teen Challenge organized by David Wilkerson. People who have "graduated " from Wilkerson? s ministry included Nicki Cruz, Steve Hill and Sonny Arguinzoni. These men became preachers of the Gospel themselves!
v. 29 For evangelism to be successful it must be coupled with prayer and fasting. Evangelism has been likened unto dynamite and the prayer / intercession to the detonator. Both are required for the explosion.
One final illustration to show that it pays to go street preaching.
Hector
In early 1994 in Oslo, Norway there was a Christian conference with about half a dozen speakers. The main speaker was Hector Gimenez from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The organizers gave out a schedule but would not inform the people who was speaking at a particular time. The Lord told me to go once and for the Friday night service. Hector was the speaker.
He was once on drugs and had 2 police bullets in his body because of theft but both his wife and mother were praying for him. He was saved and about 8 years ago he started a church. In the early stages the congregation grew from 500 to 5000 in just 3 months. In 1994 it was reported that his congregation stood at some 150,000.
Initially Hector was preaching on the streets of Buenos Aires. One Saturday night after witnessing he went into a radio station and he received two breaks :-
1. he got on the radio for free on a regular spot
2. he was given the use of a theatre rent - free for the use of Christian meetings.
This sort of thing does not figure in a " business plan " but is obviously God? s favour and God? s doing. At one time this ministry that grew out of street work was the second largest church in the world.
----------------------------------------
1. Meyer, F. B., " Devotional Commentary, Tyndale House ( 1989 )
