May 30. Todd White. Todd is a former drug addict. And he is a former non-Christian. Everything changed for Todd the day he had a close encounter with the living God. Ten years later, he launched Lifestyle Christianity, a ministry geared toward activating the church to walk daily in love and power as they share the love of God with the lost.
When God speaks, let’s be smart and listen up.
Standing at the payphone, Todd White was using every strategy he had to get his drug dealer to hook him up. Even though he had no money, he desperately needed the high. Still talking, he looked up and saw his 12-year-old daughter staring at him. And she looked totally disappointed. In a separate car, his girlfriend had brought his daughter.
“You promised, daddy,” she said.
He told her he was sorry, and he felt it. He was sorry. But he didn’t have the will power to change. He turned from away from her and asked his dealer again if he’d give him the drugs upfront. Todd would pay later. He was desperate.
He considered himself a Christian. Or at least he felt he was because five months before, he had prayed the prayer of repentance. But Todd still dominated everything in Todd’s life.
Nothing in his life changed.
He hung up the phone, hopped in his car, and sped down backroads and alley ways to lose the car his girlfriend and daughter were in. He didn’t want them to see what he was going to do next.
In an alley, Todd stopped and picked up a kid from New York City, who had the goods he needed. As the kid—no older than 15—got in, Todd turned on him and impersonated a cop. Todd read him his rights, grabbed his bag of cocaine, and told what is npp him to get out of the car and put his hands behind his head.
Visibly shaking, the kid climbed out. But just as the door closed Todd stomped on the gas pedal.
As his tires fought for traction and speed, a loud bang exploded around Todd. The 15-year-old kid unloaded his nine-millimeter on Todd as he was trying to speed away. From 10-feet away, bullets sizzled through the air toward his car. But the bullets never landed.
As Todd drove away from the gunshots, a clear, stern voice spoke: “I took those bullets for you. Are you ready to live for me now?”
Not wanting to listen, Todd drove home. He got out of the car and shone a flashlight all over the body of the car. No bullets had even grazed the finish.
Not wanting to accept what had happened in the alley, he smoked the whole bag he’d stolen. Yet he couldn’t get the high he was craving. Instead that voice replayed itself over and over in his head. It wasn’t leaving. Todd knew God was real.
Morning dawned, and something had changed. He drove to the same church he had been to five months before and found the pastor who’d first told him about Jesus. Todd talked to him openly, and the pastor suggested intensive rehab.
From that moment on, his life changed. He gave every part of himself and his life over to be stewarded by Jesus. There was no plan B. This was it. The more he dove into Jesus he knew this wasn’t something to keep to himself, and he began to teach others.
Now he ministers to thousands who need Jesus. He helps those who want deeper intimacy with Jesus through his ministry school, Power and Love. He prays for everyone he meets; no one is excluded from God’s family. He dives into the Bible every day to stay grounded in what truth looks like.
God wanted the whole book. Not just a chapter.
“Lord, you have come to my defense; you have redeemed my life,” (Lamentations 3:58, NLT).
As God speaks to you today, what is he saying? When God speaks, let’s be smart and listen up.
White, Todd. “About Todd White.” Facebook. Accessed August 11, 2020.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/ToddWhiteLC/about/?ref=page_internal.
“Todd White – My Testimony”. Youtube, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsnMTWxFNRU.
Lancaster, Jessilyn. “Todd White’s Testimony: I Got Shot At, And That’s When The Lord Spoke To Me”. Charisma News, 2019. https://www.charismanews.com/culture/76510-todd-white-s-testimony-i-got-shot-and-that-s-when-the-lord-spoke-spoke-to-me.
Story read by Nathan Walker
Story written by Abigail Schultz, https://www.instagram.com/abigail_faith65