It’s dangerous when the Holy Spirit gets involved. People who have no intention of getting saved suddenly find themselves crying out for mercy.
In their book, A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories That Stretch and Stir, Colin Hansen and John Woodbridge relate the following story about the Great Awakening:
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The Weekly History contained an account of a Boston slave owner who walked in on his slave preaching to himself, imitating Whitfield’s dramatic style. The owner, no fan of the revival, was so amused that he called together his friends for some after-dinner entertainment.
“Supplying his friends with pipes and glasses all around, he instructed his slave to mount a stool in the center of the room and preach as he had the day before,” historian Frank Lambert explains. “As he began, the company laughed heartily, but when he warned of the new birth, ‘the Negro spoke with such Authority that struck the Gentleman to Heart’. To their host’s dismay, the men began to listen intently, and many, as a result of the day’s ‘entertainment’, became ‘pious sober Men’”.
The Holy Spirit enjoys such surprises.
