Prophecy that Opens Doors
There I sat, nervously, across from a high school principal 20 years my elder. I wasn’t in his office for discipline; I wasn’t even a student. I was a 22 year-old youth pastor who had heard from God and was stepping out in risk to see the kingdom advanced.
“Ok, you have 15 minutes. What can I do for you?” he asked.
Gulp.
“Eh-hem, um. My name is Adam Narciso. I’m an area youth pastor and I’m here on behalf of my church. We are a community that is actively praying for you. We believe God has given you a great platform to young people in our city and we honor you for your investment in their lives… My friends and I have been praying for you and we believe God has given us some things to share with you”…
I read the first three sentences of the multi-page document I brought; the pages shaking in my sweaty hands.
“Stop right there,” he said.
Oh no, that’s it. He’s kicking me out. I knew this was a bad idea.
The week prior to this meeting I received a phone call from a church friend—he knew my heart for revival in our city, especially for our high schools. He felt prompted to schedule an introductory meeting with this principal, whom he had a relationship with. My friend offered, “I thought you’d be interested in sitting down with him and maybe praying for him? Maybe God will show up?” That offer led to a subsequent prayer meeting with my wife and other pastors on our team. As we prayed, God downloaded words of knowledge and prophecy for the principal—faster than I could type!
“Nothing like this has ever happened to me,” the principal interjected. "Literally everything you read is absolutely true. I want to hear everything you have to say to me.”
He turned off his cell phone and his campus radio and he led me across campus to a storage room. With one dangling lightbulb overhead and stacked chairs and dust-covered desks all around I read the word of the Lord for this man and he wept in God’s presence, encountered by the God who knows all things—the God who loves him enough to speak to a stranger the secrets of his heart. After much prayer, we left that storage room filled with God. What he told me next changed everything:
“I want you and all your youth pastor friends here on this campus everyday. I want you to love my kids and share hope with them before class and during lunches. The door is open to you, Adam.”
When you hear God’s voice, you operate with supernatural advantage.
For the remainder of the year we went to work. We were on campus serving, volunteering and loving on kids. We helped students from our ministry pull off their own on-campus outreaches (free soda and a message in the courtyard—and 20 kids came to Christ). As well, we pulled off two larger gymnasium events (after school hours) where dozens met Jesus. So many kids were impacted that year; the entire boys cross country team came to Christ! What happened? We were blessed by the school’s principal and the entire school received a great blessing as result!
God knows how to open closed doors. The prophetic is sometimes the key He uses to pick the locks of the hearts of men. Consider Jesus’ encounter with the woman of Samaria (John 4:1–29). One word of knowledge about this woman’s life so carried the presence and power of heaven that her report to her town led to them receiving Jesus’ ministry for the rest of the weekend (4:30–42). Jesus speaks out one word of knowledge and it leads to the entire community receiving the good news!
Both the high school principal and the woman of Samaria were what Jesus called “Men of Peace” (Luke 10:1–12). Men of peace are people, prepared by God, to be vessels through which more ministry is extended to a community. Their openness to the gospel messenger can serve to impact the many behind them. While men of peace don’t always themselves receive the gospel, they are instruments of glory in the hand of God (Rom. 9:23). They are like bridges that connect gospel messengers to their people who are far from God.
Jesus’ model for mission and evangelism included finding men of peace and serving with them to be a blessing to their people. God is still breathing on this strategy today!
ABOUT ADAM
Adam Narciso is the visionary and pioneer of Catalyst Ministries, a training and global outreach mission for the next generation. Since 2009 Adam has trained and mobilized over 40 international evangelism teams and has equipped thousands in the areas of identity, hearing God and evangelism via seminars around the world. Adam has preached the gospel in city campaigns, universities, high schools and bamboo huts in remote villages, all with supernatural effect. Communicating with humor and fresh biblical insight, Adam is a unique prophetic evangelist who equips everyday Jesus-followers to live authentic, New Testament Christianity, discovering their highest joy in the Great Commandment and their unique assignment in the Great Commission.
Adam is author of New Identity: 30 Days of Prayer for Spiritual Transformation and producer of the Gospel Encounters eCourse. He and his wife, Jenny, have four children and reside in Franklin, TN.
Adam is ordained through Messenger Fellowship, an international community of leaders, churches and ministries committed to the glory of God.
