Street Jesus (ATL Lifestyle)

What do you think of when you think of church, dear reader? Maybe you see a big building with excellent music and pristine dressed people. Most people see the church as the place they receive the Lord and their salvation. What if I told you Jesus is on the streets, standing on the corner with prostitutes, dancing in the club with alcoholics, and sitting on the curb with drug dealers? None of those people have to be in a building called church to actually experience church, the Lord, or salvation (and for the record, neither do we.) We, the church, have a cool opportunity to go to them.

Here on the World Race, we do this thing called ATL, ask the Lord. This is where we pause our busy lives and ask God what He has for us in that moment. This can range from finding places to stay, ministries to partner with, and everyday evangelism. This week my squad and I have had the privilege to ATL out past curfew and take Jesus to the streets of Jaco, Costa Rica. We had people set up on a rooftop in the city, overlooking the blinding lights below, interceding for those of us who felt prompted to hit the streets. In groups of three, the rest of us took on the city and attended some divine appointments set up by Heaven.

My team and I were walking and praying when we felt a pang in our chests that we couldn’t ignore. Holy Spirit was pointing us in a direction we, in our flesh, were a little unsure of, but in our spirit, we knew what He was asking us to do. We had come across two men, more muscley than I’ve ever seen, tattooed head to toe posted up mean mugging anyone who walked by (including us) while smoking a couple of cigars on a bench. Our burden overcame our fear, and we greeted them with smiles and confidence.

Our new friends were a little walled up at first. I mean, how else are you supposed to feel when approached by foreigners in chacos? But when we told them we felt like God asked us to pray for them, there was a switch in their attitudes and not the switch I was expecting from two street thugs. Looking at each other, one of them had an expression of pure shock and the other laughing saying, “It’s a sign!” as he stood up from the bench, signaling us to take a seat. He then left us with his friend, Ben, who was still sitting with the most bewildered yet excited look on his face. “I was about to make a deal with the devil ten minutes before you guys showed up.” he told us with a glimmer of hope in his voice, “This really can’t be just a coincidence.” We were just as amazed as our new friend was. We all stood there for a second, soaking in the sweetness of God. God loves this man so much that he sent three random strangers to show him His constant pursuit. God loves us so much that He wanted to let us be a part of bringing Ben into the kingdom. Wild.

We exchanged numbers with Ben and invited him to church on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The evening went on, and we got to pray for a drunken man, buy groceries for two women, cast the spirit of depression out of a lady, and war against the strongholds outside of a prostitution hub. It was all so incredible, but the most significant victory of the evening, to me, was seeing the look on Ben’s face when we told him Jesus loved him and was after him. It was the face of someone who realized that they are unconditionally loved for the first time in their life. He really got it. I hope you get to see such a thing in your life too, dear reader, someone’s face after hearing the gospel for the first time. Nothing in this world is more beautiful than that.

Since then, Ben has been coming to church and getting plugged into community! His first time there, he leaned over during worship and whispered, “This feels like home.” My squad sees him all over town on his motorcycle. He will always smile and wave or pull over and talk to us for a bit. It’s been less than a month since our first encounter with Ben, yet he is already so different. Joy seems to have taken over his life in a way it never has. It’s not because my team and I did anything special. We just asked the Lord who He wanted to talk to that evening. Jesus lived this way. He was moved from town to town, city to city, family to family simply because of who the Father wanted Him to talk to that day. Jesus lived his life one divine appointment at a time, so should we. The special thing about living an ATL lifestyle is that you don’t have to do anything special to live it. You don’t have to be in vocational ministry or on the missions field to live this way. You can walk into your job, school, or home and simply ask, act, and watch what kind of crazy adventure God takes you on.

Ask the Lord what kind of divine appointment He has set up for you today. In what ways does He want to use you to change the world today?