Friendly Antagonist

“‘He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.’” Matthew 12:30-31, NASB.

A volunteer team from the United States had come to pray and strike up conversations with people among an unreached group in the Pacific Rim. One afternoon in a market area the team was trying to talk to people, but it was difficult. A wiry, weathered old man in a blue baseball hat kept following the foreigners.

Attempts had been made to talk with this man, but he was not interested in anything spiritual. He also made sure that any conversation that the team tried to initiate did not get very far. There could be many reasons for this man’s behavior.

He may be thinking that a group of foreigners means money, and he doesn’t want to miss out on any of the action. It could be that he found the team’s topic of conversation to be disturbing, and he wanted to protect his community from their influence. It may even just be plain curiosity.

Whatever the cause of his behavior there is one thing for sure, whenever the Gospel is being shared there is an adversary. He doesn’t want the unreached to hear the Good News, and he is not opposed to using the lost as barriers to keep people from hearing. He uses them like human shields to deflect the truth.

Pray that:

God will bind the strongman so that the unreached may find liberty in Christ among this particular people group.

Believers sharing the Gospel in this unreached area will not lose heart because of the “human shields” that the enemy uses to keep others from hearing the truth.

God will work in the heart of one wiry, weathered old man to bring him to salvation.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.