Encountering Holy Moments Head on

A Life Changing Encounter: THE John Johnson

            While I was in California at a ministry training school called 21 Project, I had the wildest encounter with the Holy Spirit that truly changed my life forever.

            It was my fourth day in Pasadena and I was in a specific track at the school called Circuit Riders. Essentially, that track was all about evangelism and the equipping of sharing the Gospel anywhere you go. In the beginning of, for lack of a better word, class that day we were doing an exercise in which half the students in the room shared the Gospel and the other half improved a character that has never heard of God. I partnered up with my good friend, Alan, who happened to be black. (For whatever reason I just feel like this is an important point to add to the story). Our dialogue went just like this:

Luke: “Hey, what’s up man! My name is Luke… what’s yours?”

Alan: “Ayo wassup homie, muh name is Ace Hood.”

Luke: “haha c’mon bro, what’s your real name? That’s who I want to meet!”
Alan: “Oh word dog, well my name is John.”
Luke: “John!? Nice man, Luke and John… we’re in the bible together! Haha”
Alan: “Yeah word dog…”

Luke: “What’s your last name, John?”
Alan: “Oh my last name? Uhh… shoot. My last name? Uhh… Johnson!!”

Luke: “John… Johnson? Haha cool, nice to meet ya dude”

Anyways, long story short there I end up sharing the Gospel with this random character named John Johnson. Towards the end of our class we partnered up again and we were confessing any disbelief that we had to our partners in the room. I partnered up with my friend, Michael, and told him that I had such a lack of faith in my heart to believe that ALL of mankind could be saved by the news of the Gospel. I then told him I was specifically speaking of people from the hood that are in gangs. I confessed how wrong I was to believe that and that I wanted to have faith that ANYONE could be saved because Jesus died for EVERYONE! I prayed that prayer and believed God was going to help me in my unbelief… little did I know he would do it that very day.

Later in the evening everyone at the school went hiking to an amazing spot where we overlooked the entire city of Pasadena. We worshipped and prayed over the city and asked God to save the people of that city and for them to be encountered by his powerful love. It was a beautiful moment. On our way back to the school my good friend Allie who drove us to the mountain asked if we didn’t mind stopping at the store so she could buy some tea. We all had no objections and planned to stop by the next grocery store. Of course we missed our turn and decided to go to the next one we saw… coincidence? Nah. As we made our way in the store and nearby homeless man shouted out to us asking if we could spare some money for him. We told him on the way out we would give him any change we had. As soon as I walked in the store the Lord spoke to me and told me to go back out and talk to the homeless man. Everything in me wanted to just get what I needed and go on with my day but I knew I needed to be obedient to the Lord. So I made my way back to the front of the grocery store.

I went up to the homeless man and said hello to him and asked what his name was. He looked at me with a smirk and asked why I wanted to know his name… understandably so I guess. I told him my name was Luke and that I just wanted to talk with him and ask how he was doing. He then lightened up and told me his name was John. I laughed on the inside and figured I could stick with the script from earlier that day and joked with him about how we were in the bible together. He laughed at the joke and seemed to know what I was talking about so I had him if he was a Christian and he told me he was. I then asked him what his salvation story was or in other words how he came to know the Lord. He told me that his family is Christian and therefore he was. I did not want to judge that answer and told him I thought that was awesome and asked if I could pray for him and he gave me permission. As I prayed for him God immediately spoke to me and told me that He wanted to transform John’s heart through a Saul to Paul conversion. Referring back to the Bible of Saul who was persecuting Christians but then countered God in a mighty way and turned his life around by truly following God with all of his heart. As I was praying John interrupted me and told me he had to leave. I was confused by the sudden impulse and asked him why that was and he then responded to me telling me he had to do something that I couldn’t be around for and had to leave because of that. I knew John needed to stay and let me pray for him but also wanted to honor his requests so I asked him if I could buy him anything in the store. Reluctantly enough he was willing to stay and wait for me as I went to get him some orange juice in the store.

By the time I got out of the store my friend David walked out with me and saw two homeless guys nearby (John being one of them) and thought it would be a cool idea to pray for them. I chuckled and walked with him towards the homeless guys handing John the orange juice I bought for him. There was another homeless guy with him named Samuel and we asked him if we could pray for him as well as John again. Samuel’s face lit up as he said “yeah what a great idea! Let’s all hold hands and pray and allow God to do something cool.” I figured he was mocking us but I figured what the heck, if anything this guy really does need prayer. As I started to pray for him God put the actual person of Samuel from the bible on my heart. I told him how Samuel was a prophet for the Lord and would anoint the next king to be. I then told the man in front of me, Samuel, that I felt like the Holy Spirit was going to empower Samuel and mark him with a similar calling to speak life over other people and anoint them through prophecy. As I was saying that I was thinking to myself, this guy is homeless! He has absolutely no idea what I am talking about… am I really hearing from God!? Well that answer was quickly answered and it was so affirming to realize that I did indeed hear from God. After I finished praying for Samuel he immediately laid his hands on me and started praying over me. He prayed over the things I had already accomplished and prophesied over me the things I was going to do which lined up accordingly to what I was passionate about and felt God calling me into. I kid you not, I even felt burning on my chest from where he had places his hands. At some point you just have to accept that the Holy Spirit is moving and it was in that moment that God was taking a lot of doubt out of my own heart and showing me how real and tangible his presence was.

After Samuel was done praying we learned that he loved God and how he committed his life to going wherever the Spirit led him. During that time John was walking back and fourth hovering in and out of our conversations. In the process of Samuel leaving the Holy Spirit gripped my heart for John in a supernatural way. I couldn’t really explain what happened but all of the sudden I felt the hurt in john’s own heart and God was highlighting a moment in his life to me that hurt him. I asked John if there had ever been a moment in his life where he got really hurt or just felt broken. To my surprise, john opened up to me. He told me that back in the day he rolled with a well known gang known as the bloods. During that time, he got thrown in prison and while he was locked up the blood’s rival gang known as the crypts has attacked his little brother in a car and killed him. John expressed his hatred for the guys that did that and told me that everything in him wanted to get back at them and kill them. As soon as I heard that I understood the pain I had felt in my heart and realized that God had shared that with me so that I could challenge John in an attempt to allow the Lord to heal his heart. I asked John if he forgave the guys that killed his brother. Immediately after I asked John that he aggressively got in my face cursing me out and angrily objecting the question I asked him. I felt the authority of the Holy Spirit and came back at him with aggression telling him to hear me out before he came after me with such hatred. I reminded him that he told me he was following Jesus and asked if he realized that we, as humans, did a very similar thing that the crypts did to john’s little brother. I explained to John that it was our sin that hung Jesus on a cross and killed him yet Jesus didn’t seek revenge but only forgiveness for our wrongdoing. John took a long pause and looked down and when he looked back up at me I realized there was something different about his look. I took the opportunity in that time to ask him if I could pray for him again with my friends and he allowed it. As we were praying the Lord spoke to me and told me that he wanted to come back into John’s life for real and change it. I asked John if he wanted to give his life back to Jesus and he confirmed that he did. I then led John on what to say and listened as this broken man humbled himself and gave his life to Jesus. It was absolutely incredible.

What happened next was a moment that seriously changed my life forever. After we prayed John’s face LIT UP with a smile. Roughly half and hour ago this man wouldn’t even share his name with me and now he was embracing all of us with a huge hug and was filled with laughter. I literally witnessed this man have a Saul to Paul transformation just as God promised. In the process of praying of him some lady had stopped by and gave one of our friend’s an invitation to her church. She said that she saw us praying and felt called to invite us… what is hilarious is that God knew what he was doing all along. As we were saying our final goodbyes to John I asked him what his last name was, he looked at me and said Johnson. I swear time froze in that moment. I was in absolute awe of what God had done. He perfectly orchestrated every step of mine from the beginning of my day and had completely revived my faith that all men could be saved by the Gospel, even the gang bangers. It was a moment where I truly was undone by God’s power. It is real and impossible to explain. It took me to a place where I realized that I don’t even want to comprehend it, I just want to trust that He truly is who He says He is and never doubt Him again. God is GOOD.