Evangelist Todd White says spending time with God helps fight the devil’s temptations
ORLANDO — Todd White, one of the organizers of The Send, a "new Jesus movement" that was attended by nearly 60,000 people at Camping World Stadium last weekend, shared advice with The Christian Post on how believers can discipline themselves to overcome temptation.
White, a former drug addict turned evangelist, spoke at the event about resisting evil and focusing on God in a world full of distractions.
“When I got saved, I realized I was living for the devil my whole life and I was blind," he told CP. "This master of darkness blinded me and I was ball and chained to him and I had no idea that I was a slave to sin and an instrument of unrighteous my whole life."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The Lifestyle Christianity leader said he fell in love with Jesus once he was saved and realized that those who love Jesus will obey His commands.
“The two greatest commandments are to love God and love my neighbor as myself. I can't love my neighbor unless I love myself, and I can't love myself unless I know how much God loves me. And so when I dove into this, I just started to spend time with Him,” White said, detailing the process of his transformation.
The former atheist emphasized that it’s all about spending time with Jesus.
“If I do it out of discipline, it's kind of out of duty, but if I do it out of love then it's completely different,” White continued. “His love empowers me to walk out what the grace of God has called me to, He's called me to the truth. The truth in love is different. So when I find out how much the father loves me, I find out my value. And when I find out my value, I no longer want to do those things that [my flesh] calls me to do. But I want to spend time with Him because the greatest opportunities we have is to know Him.”
"The Send," was a 10-hour event organized by Youth With A Mission, Christ for All Nations, and Lou Engle of Lou Engle Ministries. The event featured several collaborators from various national ministries including White, who all hoped to motivate Christians to fulfill their God-given call.
"Unless we fall in love with Him, we can't do anything the Bible calls us to do. When we can love with a phileo love, but it's not agape love, I have to spend time with love itself in order to become the very instrument of righteousness that He's called me to be,” White added.
When White wakes up every morning his first words, he says, are always, “Jesus.”
"It's making sure that I carve time every day as soon as I wake up, I want to carve that time out. I want to spend time with Jesus,” White said. “God says, ‘it's the love of the Father, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the communion in the Holy Ghost.’ So I need to know how much the Father loves me and the reality of the price He paid for me determines my value.”
“When I see my value I start to recognize His love for me. When I see His love for me, I can actually look in the mirror and like what I see, because I see Him inside me and the price that He paid. Then I can see people's value all around me,” he said. “The discipline part is more out of duty, but the relationship part, like intimacy, I don't have to think about.”
White ended by saying that he never has to think about loving his wife, because intimacy naturally activates that love. “I love my wife out of an intimate relationship with her.”
The Send event was “a call to action, a call to repentance and a call to service.” White has also made that motto his mission statement.
To watch The Send 2019, visit bethel.tv/thesend.
