The Fruits of Revival: Amazing outreach testimonies & tips | RISE UP CONFERENCE

She's like, what are you guys looking for? I said, we're looking for people who need Jesus.

She's like, wait, wait, I think it's going. And it went. And she got healing praise.

Yeah.

What are the fruits of revival? Brothers, sisters, there's been a lot of talk about revival in these days. And while revival can start at an event in our lives where god comes to meet us, true revival is going to transform us. It means our life will change. Just a few weeks ago, we had an event in Missouri called rise up. And at this event, many people were sent out into the streets of the surrounding cities to proclaim the gospel. They brought food to give to the poor. In this video, we're going to share some of these amazing testimonies for you to be encouraged about what the fruit of revival can look like.

We went up to another woman and we're like, hi, how are you? Would you like to pray today? And she's like, well, yes, I would. And we were like, okay, that's great. So we prayed for her shoulder, and each time she said it felt a little better and she could move it a little more. And the third time she was like, I think it's mostly better. And I was like, would you like us to pray for it again? She's like, wait, I think it's going. And it went. And she got healing praise.

Yeah.

She's like, what are you guys looking for? I said, we're looking for people who need Jesus. You know what I mean? She's like, basically, we ended up I'm like, let's go pray for you. Can we pray for you? So we got out and we prayed for and she was struggling with some things and depression, and we encouraged her, and the lord prayed and we prayed for and encouraged her to get back to church and invited her here tonight. And then we went on. And I don't ever carry anointing oil with me, but somebody gave this to me yesterday, so we felt led. We went to the school and anointed the school and prayed over the school. And then we went to the Masonic lodge in Seymour and prayed over that and cast down principalities and powers of darkness and bound them. And then we ended up amen. Then we went to the diner, which the lord led us there. We had a cup of coffee, and we ended up praying with almost everybody in the diner. So it was a good time. So the lord was magnified, and people were encouraged and edified. We didn't see any healing. The healing that we saw, for the most part, was spiritual, which is the best healing that you can experience. Amen.

Yeah.

When people are encouraged to be returned to the lord, it was good.

My immediate thought, I'm like, here in Walmart. I'm like, the last place you'd catch me on shabbat is a store in Walmart. But at the same time, that's the heart he wants in his people to be willing to go to the people that are on the wayside, right, where he says that the harlots and the tax collectors into the kingdom of heaven before you, right? But even in our daily lives, going to the store, right, he tells you to pray for the cashier, ask them how their day is going. For me, it was very much I love to see this because it came to my attention that especially in this area, that a lot of people who wore tassels have become a stench in the sight of a lot of the people who live here. A lot of believers have become almost repulsive to people. And it saddens my heart that we are supposed to represent the king, and yet we gave him a bad name. And so if they're going to hate us, let them hate us for the right reasons. Let it because we stand for the truth and because we are willing to love and because we are willing to help someone no one else can.

End.

We had a whole group of young kids. There was like eleven of us, but we kind of, like, split it in threes, you could say. But one really good testimony was this lady. She had a lot of pain in her right leg, so we're like, okay, can we pray for it? She's like, yeah, I'm a believer. And she was like, I believe that stuff. So we're like, okay, can we just pray for it? She was like, yeah, go back. Go for it. So we just played. Her hand were just like, we commanded to go in the name. Yeshua. And we prayed for it twice. And we're like, how does it feel? And she was like, wait, it's gone. She's like, it's not there anymore. And we're like, oh, awesome. Praise god. And she was like, wow, I can actually get in my car now. And we're like, oh, praise god, that's amazing. And all these, like, these kids, like, she's 1410, so they were just out there and they were bold and preaching, and it was awesome.

Everyone that I prayed there for, you.

Could just see they were just so touched that we were even there.

They were just so touched. And one lady was like, will you keep praying for me? And she just was a sweet lady, and I had to be, like, right at her ear for her to hear me. But she was so sweet, and they were all very sweet.

Don't forget the elderly.

Yeah. A was sharing a story testimony earlier how they just happened to stop at a random house in seymour, right? So we're on our way back through, coming up to seymour. We said, how about we just drive these back roads and just see where the lord leads us? And we're looking for, like, mobile home parks and wherever we can go and we end up coming to this junction, and you feel like we're supposed to just continue straight through. So we continue driving straight through, right into this lady's driveway. And we pull up in this house, and we're like, this is the house we're supposed to be at right here. And we get out, and this lady comes walking out, and she's like, Can I help you? She's like, yeah, we're here to bless you today. What can we pray for you for? And she's like, well, a couple of other guys were just here, like, 1015 minutes ago.

Yeah, hallelujah.

So it was amazing. So you guys got to pray with her and pray for her for, you know, for her burdens and for her mom, who she's been taking care of since she was 14 years old. This lady's probably, like, in her 40s now, and she's been taking care of her mom and her dad, who was sick at the time. He's passed away from cancer now, but she's been taking care of them since she was 14 years old. Very burdened. We pray with her outside. And then I was like, well, hey, did your mom live here? She's like, well, yeah. I was like, well, hey, did they come inside and pray for her? She's like, no, they didn't. And I was like, well, cool. Let's come inside. Let's go pray for her. She's like, okay, let me go put the dogs up. Each one of them had a very specific word for both of them, and it encouraged them and got to pray through. Eventually, the mom was starting to come around, and she started breaking through some of the trauma, something she was holding on against god saying, Well, God, you're the reason why I lost my husband. And we were able to squash that lie, share the truth that God loved siri. He sent us there for that day, and she got blessed financially. While we were there, I said, look, my wife and I, we're going to come here. Ashley, the daughter who's been taking care of I said, hey, we're going to come back. We're going to bring you guys food. We're going to keep praying for your mom till she's healed. And so the door is open for a relationship now. That's awesome. Yeah. God was seeking them today.

Being a former Baptist, I fed a.

Bit of a disadvantage going out, but.

I went out with Brian and definitely outside of my comfort zone.

But I think we'll continue forward.

There was a little boy that caught my attention, and I was looking for a way to bring in conversation. So he was trying to get some candy out of the machine, and I walked up and I said, Here, here's a dollar for you. And his mom was at the register, and she's watching on, and he was like, no, no, no. And he refused several times. And I said to his mom, Can I give it to you to give to him. And she was like, okay. And I began to just give him a little bit of conversation and asking him questions about his life and, you know, so do you do you have brothers and sisters? Do you live with your mom and dad? I don't have a dad. Oh, I'm sorry. I have I have two moms. And then one of the other team members came over and while I was talking to the little boy, she began talking to the mom. And so the Lord used this in a different way and found out that the grandma was in the car and she had had a stroke and she had had different things happen to her. And so we are still standing in the store and the when I gave the dollar to the mom, the little boy, he said, I'll be right back. I have to go get something in the truck. And he ran out to the truck and came back in and he gave me this little tiny ring and it was just the most precious thing. And you could see in his spirit that he just had such a good, good heart and it must have really touched him just to do that. And so we went out to the car and we were able to pray with the grandmother and pray over healing for her from the stroke and whatnot. And we were able to bless them financially and all of us prayed in agreement afterwards and throughout this day, but that we're going to continue on forward and keep doing it. So thank you so much. Petting.

One store is open, and it was a game store, one of those game stores, dungeons and Dragons and all these things like that, right? And as we are passing the storefront, we noticed that it was open and we seen some people coming out, a couple of young men, David and Wyatt. Hey, how are you guys doing? What's going on in there? Making conversations? What kind of games are you guys doing in there? I know what's going on there, but my whole focus was wanting to share the Messiah with them. And so we did ask them if hey, after our introduction and I'm Andy, and what's your name? And all that, asked if they could use any prayer. And they're like, no, that starts the conversation. Well, do you believe there's a God? And so David isn't admitted agnostic and Wyatt probably shared the same belief. He was like, yeah, I don't know what I believe. So we had this discussion and then I did ask, Can I pray for you guys? And the whole point of this encounter, I think, that the Father put together was the point of every encounter. Because the healing is one thing, and it's great, but the prayer that they allowed me to speak over them. Was that they would know the Creator when they come to the point at the end of their life that we would be able to speak and know and have that relationship with the Father, to have eternal life. And that's the whole point of us being together. And that's why the Father put us together, because we could go out from here into our communities and into our families. Like that brother said, call your families up and talk about important things, because a lot of people, they don't know. I don't know. David's like, I don't know. I've never seen the proof. And this Wyatt, oh, everything's good. I'm like, Is it? Because if you don't know the Creator and I gave him some examples of the blessings that they're missing. If you don't know the Creator, at the end of your days, the hope is just death, and what good is that? And so we had this discussion. It was amazing. It was so and this is the whole point of us all getting here, is to talk to our loved ones, because if we love Ya, we're going to love our neighbors as ourselves. And how much more if we love ourselves? Why are we holding that in? Let's not hold that in. Let's share that with everybody, even guys that walk out of a Dungeons and Dragons games.

So ever since we came into Torah, I didn't know if healing was a thing anymore. And it's just really encouraging to see God's people stepping up and being used. And, yeah, we got pushed out very uncomfortably because I think it's always uncomfortable for me. But we got to pray over multiple people. And one guy was with his wife who was in a wheelchair at Walmart, and obviously we went over to her to ask if she needed prayer. She said, everyone's praying for me. It's fine. I'm like, well, does your husband need prayer? She's like, yeah, it's back. And so we're like, all right, let's pray for his back. So we just declared his back to be healed, and he said, before he can move like this. And so we're like, Is that as far as you can go? He says, yeah, the pain starts here. And so then me and John prayed again for him and said, Check it out again. And then he spent almost fully that much more. And we're like, that's awesome. We're like, Is that normal? He's like, no, that's not normal. And it's kind of hard to know their reactions. That's like, Are you joking with me? But he says, no, this is totally different. This is awesome. And it was really cool. We prayed over a few more people, and on our way out, I saw them buying groceries, and they're using an ebt card or something, and we got to bless them for their groceries, too, and just show them as much love as we could.

Then we roll up to O'Reilly, where we both felt like we should go in, and we walk in and there's these seven big I think they're like 1920, and they're just hanging out there. They said, yeah, our generation is trash. And I'm like, God wants to use that generation, and he really has a plan. My kids are in that generation, and my daughter's heart bleeds for that generation, and our heart should bleed for that generation, too. We need to pray for that generation. And for the younger ones, it was beautiful to see because they all were very respectful and listened, and you could tell some of them didn't want to hear what we had to say. But there were those that were receptive. And even if we didn't see it manifest before us, it's a plant. It's a seed. Love on the young people, encourage them in their faith.

Sometimes as we're walking, by the way, we just get to scatter a little bit of seed, right? And we don't always get to pick the hearts of the people. Sometimes the ground's rocky. Sometimes the birds come by and still the seed. Sometimes there's thorns. But our job is to cast the seed, right? We just go, and as we go, we cast the seed. We shama, right? We hear and we obey. And he says, Go ye. Right? And so as we go through our day in our work, when you're at the gas station pumping your gas, go ye. Because there's people everywhere who need his love. Is there anybody that you run into who he didn't pay for? The answer is no. And so if I look at somebody and he taps me on the shoulder and says, go talk to that one. And I feel judgment in my heart, or if I feel like, man, I'm nearly not feeling it today, I'm too tired, I just go, okay, I give you my judgment. I give you my exhaustion. I give you whatever it is that I'm feeling that isn't his heart for them. And as you walk, give me your eyes, right? Give me your heartbeat, give me your thoughts. Give me your words for this one. Give me your compassion for this one. But if we make that introduction, if we're walking with our hand in abba's hand, right, and we make that introduction and we put those hands together, then something's going to happen.

You all on the street.

Yeah, we saw all of you and we're like, okay, you guys, you're doing your job. We want to go somewhere where there's no one and we're driving, and there's a car at pools in that's driving in front of us suddenly. And it says, Follow me.

And also the verse where yeshua says, I am the way, the truth and the life. And we're like, wow. Well, we're just like, okay, I guess.

We'Ll follow this truck. And so this truck is we're going to Ava. And the truck drives into Ava, into the Walmart. There parks at the parking lot. Lady gets out, husband is there. We start talking to the husband, and he's like, no, we love God. And God did this in my life. I was a drug addict, and he delivered me and so on. And we're like, wow, thank you so much. She's like, you have to meet my wife. He takes us into Walmart. We're following the follow me, right? He takes us into Walmart. We meet his wife. His wife is a Sabbath keeper, keeps the Sabbath, loves the Lord, spirit filled. She's like, we need the Holy Spirit. And this is why I think we were led there.

I felt in my spirit we were looking at the time like, okay, we need to be heading back now. But I felt in my spirit that, no, you need to pay for someone's groceries. So I went over to the self checkout line, and I saw someone. I'm like, okay, maybe it's that person right there. But as I'm walking past, I hear this beep sound, and I turn over, and there's this lady who's trying to swipe her card, but her card is getting declined and declined, and she's not able to pay for her groceries. So right in that moment when God says, go pay for someone's groceries, there's someone who's not able to pay for her groceries. And so it was such a precious moment as I went over and said, hey, is everything okay? My card won't go through. Hey, can I bless you right now in the name of Jesus? I want to cover your groceries for you. And she was just surprised, kind of just shocked. She didn't say anything because she's like, sure. Thank you. Sweet older lady with her daughter. And yeah, now then Petty came over as well.

Yeah. So our card at least went through. I was like, okay. I told her. It said decline, decline, decline. All of us in humanity, we are in decline. We have had our cards been declined, but he has paid a price to get us back. I just told her, this is yeshua, he is paying for this, and thank us. Thank Him. What blows my mind is that the Lord knew that there was going to be a lady in a certain moment where her car was going to be declining. But 15 minutes before that, he already put us on the road there. And then Christina, suddenly she was like, I need to go to the south checkout. And she starts walking, and I'm kind of falling off to her. And then there it is. It's just so high above our ways, right? Come on. But we have to trust Him. We have to trust Him and be like, Lord, I don't know what to do. Help me. I'll do whatever I need to do. Amen. And I thank every one of you who came forward here to share the testimonies. I think it's just so evident that the Lord is doing something here, and I want to just praise Him. So can we just give a big hallelujah to the Lord. And as part of this conference, we ask the attendees to come and bring food and supply things that can really help the needy. And what happened is a week later, many of those people who attended the conference came together, went out, hit the streets and shared food and things with people and shared the gospel along with that. And today I have Aaron and Crystal Stevens here with me, and I'm honored, excited to have them on here again, just to share they were at that. Crystal was, in fact, very intimately involved in the organizing of it, and we're going to talk a bit about that, too. But hey, guys, thank you so much for coming on.

We've always had a huge heart for outreach, and it's been really on our hearts to want to be able to do these things a lot more as a spirit and truth community. As we're saying, we're about spirit and truth. Like, we need to be about reaching out and doing the great commission.

Like Aaron said in this last season, we haven't always had a ton of people to run with who have the same heart, and so we've just tried to make the best of that and just serve as a family. We're really big on just providing opportunities for our kids to really have compassion and grow in compassion. Like when yeshua, it talks about him being moved with compassion, often in the Gospels. And in order to be moved with compassion, you have to encounter situations that move you to compassion. And so last week on Sunday when we went out, there was 35 people up and a whole range of ages, tons of kids. We had youth, we had adults, and just a whole group of people that were excited to go out and bless the community. We just kind of looked up, okay, where's the mobile home parks? Where's the apartment buildings? Just the parts of town that are most likely where people could use some free food. So we hit all four of those locations. We just split up in teams and went to those places and we just had some radical things happen.

I want to hear about those. I want to share that. I remember what you just said a little bit earlier regarding compassion, and I just want to touch on that for a second before we move ahead. I remember when I started, when I was still living in South Africa, and I had the same hungry that you had, right, to go out and share with the homeless and the people who were really poor. Very quick you start to realize that, well, this person is hungry for actual physical food, and here I am coming of trying to give them spiritual food, but it's so important for me to meet that physical need, and then there is an open door to meet that spiritual need. And I think that's so key for us to keep in mind and be willing to come with a heart that's generous and giving. I would also say, no matter how prepared or unprepared you are, always be ready with that spiritual food. But to be very conscious about, wow, I can meet someone's need, and that shine the light of Christ, which is love and care and generosity. And that's because he's the most generous person ever lived, giving his own life for us, and we didn't deserve any of it. And so you need to ask yourself, anyone who's listening, is there anyone in my community who doesn't deserve love? Let me go love on them, because that's what Yeshua did. So it's not about, like, us, because I know a lot of people think about this topic, and they're like, well, a lot of homeless people, they deserve where they're at because they don't want to work or they this or they that. And we have all of these judgments that we have sometimes some of it may be warranted, but at the same time, yeshua could point a lot of fingers at us, but yet he doesn't. He dies on the cross for us and gives. So the question is, when we hear the gospel of what he's done for us, what do we do with that? And in the same way, when you give to a homeless or a person who's in need, wherever they're at, the question is, what do they do with that? It's your responsibility is to give, and what do they do with that? That is their responsibility. And so we have to pour out for them. And last thing I'll say on this crystal is I love what you mentioned about this compassion, because I remembered how it grew my faith, I think, even more than the people I was going and ministering to. It grew my relationship with the Father. It grew my relationship with Yeshua. I felt more love because it's like, sometimes I felt like, oh, I struggled to love people. But then when I went out and forced myself to give something to a poor man and pray for the poor man or whatever it is, then there is like this love of God that just comes and flows into me and changes me in the process. And so that's what I love about it. I think, like you said, for our kids, how precious and important that is.

Yeah. So good.

Please continue sharing what happened there. You were in the middle of a testimony there.

We had been praying for divine appointments and just that the Father would lead us to the right doors. And a friend of mine ended up going up to this family's door and offering them groceries. And the woman was visibly touched. She was just like, wow, you don't even know how much this means to us. And as they continued to visit and talk, the story kind of came out that her husband was super hard worker, but just through a number of circumstances hadn't been able to get much work lately. And so they were really struggling financially and they had actually just gone to church that morning and were driving back and the husband had been really struggling and just saying, it feels like God doesn't even see us. And the woman had said, we just need to have faith. And he had kind of shut her down and just said, it doesn't work that way. He was just really struggling. And so then my friend shows up on their doorstep with groceries like a few hours later and they're both just like later on the husband was crying and just really touched and convicted about just not having that trust in the Lord. And so it was just a really cool opportunity even for the team that was ministering to them, just to, like you said, when we step out to bless others, they get blessed, but then we get blessed in the process. And so I think for everyone involved in that, it was just really powerful just for them to be able to pray over them and just see how the father had just so divinely orchestrated that and even down to the kids. My friend had told her son, who was a similar age to one of their kids, like, okay, you play with that boy so that we can talk with the parents and pray with them. First involved in keeping their kids happy. And when they were leaving the other family's kids were like, oh, you're my best friend, I want you to come to my birthday party. And the kids are all connecting and ministering to each other as well. And so it was just this beautiful thing. And then we had another group go to the elderly home facility and it was just precious hearing some of the stories of just these elderly people that didn't have any family coming to visit them. They're super lonely, they're just beautiful people that are just alone. And so one of my friends spent most of her time just visiting between two different homes with these elderly people and just seeing her children just ministering to these elderly people too. And just like we were talking about just the compassion just kind of growing in their hearts, there was just a lot I mean, it was cool. We haven't even gotten to hear half the testimonies because we had a little debrief afterwards and half the people had to go off and do other things and so we haven't even heard all of it was just the general feel. When we got together afterwards, everyone was just like, that was awesome. And everyone was just encouraged. The kids were like super stoked to be part of it. And we also took out little forms of paper just with some questions on it just to get a feel for just what are other needs that you. Have. Is there anything else? Is there any other way we can serve you? And also, you've lived here a long time. What are some ideas of what the community needs? So we're practically just handing out food and ministering to people, but also with a long term vision of what can we do in the future. So there was one elderly man who he needed a ride to the grocery store a couple of times a month because his ride wasn't working out. I put that out to a few people in our community and this sweet family responded right away. They're like, we'd love to do that. And so just little practical things, just loving on people. And so there's a lot of good fruit that came from that.

And I think what's so key is what I love about this is it wasn't like we're going to go do these things so that and then what you expect from the people. What is so key, I think, is to have the people because people kind of smell it when you're trying to get something from them or trying to manipulate them into something. And I think it's so key for us to be going with no strings attached. Like, I'm here to love on you. I'm here to give you a ride to the grocery store as many times as you need. And you don't ever have to give anything back to me. You don't even have to say a prayer if you don't want to. We have this heart of shining the light for Yeshua. We have a heart of we want to rest in with Yeshua and the Gospel, absolutely. But it's this freely we give, not because I need to write a report on how many people got converted or whatever, like report back to my church about that, even though we love it when there's good testimony. I just think that I'm just trying to say that this motive as to why we go needs to be just to treat people the way that Yeshua would. And I think I just want to read this here. Matthew 25 35. He says, For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited at me. I was in prison, you came to me then the righteous will answer him, saying, lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you as a stranger, welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in person or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them truly I say to you as you did it to the least of these, you did to me. And I know we're familiar with this, but I want us to think about what he's really saying that I think he may actually be speaking about a real moment there where he's going to be with people who have said that we follow you. Yeshua. And he's going to ask them, I was with you. I was hungry. And then it's like, well, what do you mean? That's how you treated the people who are the least that is how you treat me. So when you go and you see someone in need, you need to be seen. Yeshua. And considering if this was my Messiah, if this was my Lord and Savior, how would I actually treat this person in front of me? So that's why I'm super excited about hearing all of this, because that's really a move of the spirit. I can talk till I'm blue in the face, and we can talk to a blue in the face, but until the Holy Spirit convicts you, who is listening to this brother and dear sister, to do the same, to become revival in your community, until the Spirit moves upon you, man, I can't convince you. So you need to be like, God, make me hungry to be to treat people the way that you would the young people.

And just everybody was, like, super pumped. They're like, they're coming up with all kinds of ideas, and they're just getting excited for what we can do in our community to really begin to reach out. And so it's just like, there's so much momentum in there, and they're one of the moms was saying, oh, my kids, she's got a lot of kids. All my kids want to go pray for people now, and they want to go to people. It was like just that testimony and even as we're talking about asbury, it's like asbury kind of maybe is getting started with testimony is getting released and people starting to get the spirit starting to get poured out, it's like, man, we want you to cultivate that heart for service. And as we can tell these stories, it's like, it releases faith and tangible life into people that want to do the same thing, because there's nothing special about us any more than, like, we're all special. We're all children of God, but it's like, we're not like these big televangelists that are whatever. It's like, man, if a father can use us, he can do it everywhere.

And that's really what rappened that rise up at the event that previous weekend is. We were just sharing testimonies for the most part. Most of at least even what I was sharing was, God has done this, and all I've got has done that in my life. I've seen this, I've seen that, because that's what people think. Like, well, maybe God could do that for me. And then we had the outreaches, like, okay, guys, we're going to go now. And some people were I asked the crowd who's scared. Half the people, at least they were honest. The other half weren't honest. Everyone was going to really raise their hand and did raise their hand. And then I said, but who's hungry? And then everyone raised their hand because it's like, yeah, we're a little scared about this. Many of us have never done this before, but we're so hungry to do the Lord's work and to see the Holy Spirit work through us. And that was like, what caused him to be like, okay, my hunger is more than my fear. I'm going to go and do this. And then they did and you were there. And it's like after that, we have a line of people next to the stage coming up to share the things that God has done. And they were fearful before, and now they're super excited and they have testimonies to share, and now people hear that. And now we have the next weekend, you guys with them, and there's a whole large group, right, being like, we want to do this now again, next weekend, and we want to do more, and we want to figure out how we can be alive. I want to just encourage anyone listening. How can you be alight in your community? And maybe we can crystal, maybe we can speak a bit about that. We are talking about big ideas here, and I think things can definitely grow into something big for anyone, but it doesn't have to start that way. And I don't want anyone listening to this to be intimidated by. It needs to be big. No, it can be very small. In fact, it's so precious when it's small because it can happen anywhere at any time, even if it's with just your family. So how can someone who's got a little bit of a hunger for this now they're like, wow, maybe we can do something in our community. Where can they start, do you think?

Yeah, there's a number of things that we've done in the past with our kids, just a few things. I used to get my kids to draw. Like, we'd sit down with a piece of paper and we'd just pray and ask the Father to give us an encouraging picture or a scripture. And so my kids would, like, draw something. And this was when they were younger, so it didn't even really look like much. Sometimes I would write like I would ask them, okay, what do you think the encouraging message is with this picture? And I would write it on there. And then we'd just go shopping wherever we had to go, walmart, the Dollar Store, whatever. And I would tell the kids, okay, look around and find the person that you think this is for. If someone's kind of highlighted to you, then let me know. And we'll walk up to them, especially when they're little. I'd help them out and do most of the talking, but I'd just say, hey, this might sound different, but we were just praying this morning and asking God for someone to encourage. And my child drew this picture for you. He felt like it was for you and then just explain the message or whatever. And we had all kinds of people that were just super encouraged by that and blessed. And then it can kind of open into, hey, is there something you need prayer for?

I love that involvement.

Yeah. If they need healing or just anything. And that's a super simple. All you need is like, a piece of paper and some things to color with, which you probably already have. Another thing that we've consistently done is we try to keep, like, granola bars or just some type of basic non perishable food in the car so that when we see people with signs on the side of the road, we can have something to give, and sometimes we have more time or we're in a good location to park and actually go talk to the person and just be like, hey, what's your story? What's going on? And sometimes it's just a quick drive. Yesterday I was in the car with my kids and my son was on the right hand side and there were some few homeless people there. And so I handed him a couple of the granola bars we had and, like rolled down your window. And it was cool because Peter Keen, I barely said anything. He just was able to be like, hey, can you guys use this? And God bless you. And it's just a quick drive by, but it's just that little expression of God's love, like, hey, we care. We're not going to just look the other way and pretend we didn't see you. Also, especially in the winter, we try to keep, like, little bags of socks or gloves or hand warmers, some food, maybe a little Bible, just little gallons Ziploc bags in the car also for the same purpose. So those are a few little things we've done.

Yeah.

Another thing that's great, we encourage as many people to do as possible is if you have neighbors that are close. Right now we don't have a ton of neighbors that are close, but when we've had neighbors in a couple of different places we've lived, we would have neighbor dinner. So we would just, like, invite the four or five or six closest houses to where we lived and we'd invite them over for dinner, like once a month. And we just start building community and start just loving on our neighbors, being real intentional with really wanting to sow into. A lot of those neighbors didn't even really know each other very well, and they would start getting into each other and they would start to be community. But then as you start to do that, you start to have a lot more ability to speak into people's lives once you're feeding them and you're just hanging out with them and loving on them and then all kinds of great conversations and great discipleship can flow out of relationship. But when you don't have a relationship with somebody, it's real hard to reach where their heart is when they're already probably closed off to you. But when you reach out and you tangibly give, you give life, you bring healing. If you want to pray for people to get healed and they get healed all of a sudden, they're kind of going to be a lot more open to what you want to tell them, you know what I mean?

Yeah, that's crazy. I love that relationship aspect of things where because it's harder to reach a stranger. Right. And so that's why you need to show like yeshua, right. He always had some way of showing love to the person, whether it was through a spiritual gift. That's another way, right. Like you said, praying for them to get healed. And it's like, wow, there's an open door. You have love for me, clearly you care for me and you have this powerful god. Tell me about it, right? Or a word of knowledge, like you shoe a hat for the samar and women. I love that story. So spiritual gifts, that's what he did a lot of times and then doing acts of it doesn't have to be a miracle. Sometimes it can just be the simple practical things we're talking about now, which are very important. You can't pick and choose one or the other. It's a whole package. That's what your shoe did. And I love what you say crystal, like being intentional. Be like, how can I make sure that I'm ready for those opportunities that come across my path? So when I see someone let me have something in the car, that's great. And then also be intentional in the ways of, well, you have the people that you meet in your day to day, going here, going there. And those are these maybe more brief or maybe less brief, but on the way interactions. But then you have the interactions where you have to like you said, okay, we're going to go to a park and we're going to find someone, we're going to find that person of peace. And sometimes it'll be that you go out and I've had days where it's like, wow, I go out and it's just amazing. I see this, I see that, I see people are touched and they're very open. You have that happen and then you have other days where it's not as the same. It feels like you're not reaching the same amount of people really as deep as you'd like or whatever. And we have a lot of desires as to what we consider a success and what we consider, yes, this went well kind of thing. But I just want to remind everyone that in God's kingdom, we do all of this because he called us to do it. That's our main reason he told us to do it. And we love him. And that's why we do it. And so we're going to meet different situations and have different grounds that we so seed on and some of it will be along further. You know, we'll see fruit quicker in some areas and some areas not as quick, but it doesn't mean that stuff isn't happening. You know, I have so many stories that I can go on way too long for what we have time. But so many stories about people who seemed to be closed off, who actually later it came out that that interaction with them was what broke the ground. For the next thing God was going to do to really bring an extreme harvest in their life of good fruit. And so we have to be not walking by. It just like what we see and keep our eye on that person of peace that God has for us, that we are after that person who he has an appointment with that day. And sometimes you have to go through two, three, four people who isn't that person before you get to that person. Has that been your experience as well?

Yeah, for sure. And even the outreach that we were referring to, it's like we had some people who slammed doors in some of our teammates faces and plenty of people that were like, not really interested, didn't want prayer. And we had one young couple, we had knocked on their door. And when the young lady opened the door, I had already been talking to her boyfriend because he had come outside. And so we were chatting and then she opens the door. She's just like staring at me, looked very intense. But then she slowly kind of came out and started talking as well. And we had a really great interaction with them. And the next morning I woke up and I just couldn't stop thinking about them. And it was like the Father was showing me that he's pursuing them. And I was thinking like, what can we do to go back and love on them again and build relationship? And I think that that's the Father's heart. He's looking for that one lost sheep. And like you said, it might take a while to get to that person. But when you find them, even if something dramatic doesn't happen on the first encounter, you feel God's heart for them and they're highlighted to you, you know, that the Father wants to pursue them. And so you continue to pursue them. You don't just stop there at that one visit, you go back.

I spoke to some people at the conference who some people just didn't have always the best encounters in terms of every encounter being that way. But at the same time, I asked him, so what was it worth it? And would you want to go out again? Even despite that, they're like, of course I want to do this again, because, wow, I still saw that. Even though that happened, my fears of how I thought things would be, because people have all these fears, right. It just went out the window because it's like, wow, all my fears were actually just false and what the enemy was just putting on me. But I realized there's nothing to be afraid of. And even in those times when someone may not receive it the way we hope, it's not like, as bad as I thought. I'm still all right. They're still all right. No one died. And many times, crystals, like you said, it's like, well, this person is actually being highlighted, and God is actually wanting to pursue them. That's the fruit of that. The fruit of that is follow up in that situation. The fruit of that is that ground is just a little hard, and we're going to just soften that ground a bit, getting it ready for the sea to go. And for anyone who's scared about what we're talking about here, what word would you give them to encourage them?

It's not as hard as you think. And when you realize it's not as hard as you think, it gives you more, okay, I can do this. The father can use me. And he's called you like, he's put his spirit in you, and he's going to give you words to love on them. And what I'd say is the object isn't to get somebody saved or to get whatever. The object is to love them and be the hands and feet of Jesus. The hands and feet of yeshua. That he would just use us. And he wants to use you more than you want to be used. And that you realize that when you just enjoy who he is as your Father walking with you and leading you, all that you need to do is love them. Well, whether you can do everything perfectly or not, it's about loving them and meeting them where they're at and just being like, anybody can do that. Anybody can give somebody a hug and give somebody just smiling. Honestly, some of you out there, people are going to get touched just by the smile that you carry and the joy that you carry. And it's not about what your super amazing words are, but I just feel like it's not as complicated as we make it. It's exactly what you said, Pete. It's not as hard as I thought. It wasn't as big of a deal to even get rejected. It wasn't that big of a deal. But how much more so is it going to be amazing when people start to respond and you start to sow those seeds even when people aren't responding very well? It doesn't seem like those seeds get sown regardless. I've heard so many testimonies of people being like, that actually happened this last year. We prayed for this guy at one of the local hardware stores, and I come to find out that there's three or four other people that prayed for that exactly that same guy father is trying to get his attention. And so it's just kind of cool to see how it's like the father is after people's hearts. We prayed for a guy at the outreach during the conference. We prayed for this guy that said, yeah, this random guy came up to us like ten minutes earlier and we actually went to a different place, actually city than all the other outreaches went. And I don't think it was anybody from our group because it was like a totally different area. And this guy said, oh, somebody just asked us if we wanted prayer. So I guess he was super receptive because he was like, well, I guess the gods got my number right now or something, but he's preparing the way for us and he's going to do it.

Yeah. And when I was in my early twenty s, the Father spoke really clear to me during this one season and he said, do the things that you fear the most, just do them. And so I went through this radical season of if I was scared to lead worship, I signed up to lead worship. If I was scared to do whatever, I just looked for opportunities to do that thing until the fear was broken off of me. And I don't know that there is a way to break fear in your life until you just do that thing that you fear. I think that if we're wanting to become more like yeshua, we're wanting to go deeper with him, we're wanting to be entrusted with more. It's just something that you have to overcome and you overcome it by just doing it and just pushing through that fear because there's such a reward on the other side.

A lot of people would say faith is spelled R-A-S-R-I-S-K. Like just stepping out and going for it even when you don't know what the outcome is going to be, that is faith. And so we have to be able to risk and to be able to step out in faith and trust our Father and that he's called us to go and to be the light of Jesus, to be the light of yeshua to the world that's in darkness. And so we get to be his light. So it's awesome.

Amen.

What an honor. Come on.

Amen. What an honor. And if you really ask yourself like, what is it that we're really risking here? We're talking about risking our word reputation, risking what people may think of us. Like, come on, we're supposed to be dead to ourselves. We're supposed to not be alive to the cares of the world, but dead to the cares of the world and alive in Christ and his kingdom. And really the cares of his kingdom. And the cares of his kingdom is to be caring for the poor and caring for the meek and the lowly in this world. So that's what we're talking about here today. So guys, Crystal and Aaron, thank you guys so much for coming on with me. I really appreciate it. I know this is going to bless many people. And so guys, I hope that this has blessed you. I pray for father that you would just come into the hearts of everyone listening to this, Lord, and convict them and guide them and give them wisdom, knowledge, understanding, to think about how they can be a lot in their community, in their family and their friends. Father, I pray, Lord, that old fear, lord, we would just cause down all fear, Lord, and all fife in other things and put our faith in you, Lord, and the fact that, father, you are so much greater, lord, than our fears. And I pray that you would put a hunger in your people, lord, for the things that we're talking about here to be a servant. And Lord, I pray for that hunger to just outgrow the fears of men in the name of yeshua. Amen. Guys, thank you so much for joining me and I will see you guys in the next video. Subscribe to this channel like this video? Share it. And I'm excited. Shalom.

The harvest is ready. We have to go.

We won't stop till the whole world knows the heart is afraid.

We have to go.

We won't stop in the whole world.

We're not ashamed of you.