Christian social media influencer's prayer with satanist goes viral
A Christian social media influencer recently shared a video of his encounter with a satanist and his prayer for the man that has since gone viral.
Bryce Crawford, a young evangelist with an Instagram following of around 686,000 followers, posted a video of himself praying for a satanist with whom he engages in conversation. The video has been viewed more than 138,000 times as of Aug. 5.
Uploaded to Instagram last week, the video shows a self-identified satanist saying that he would have set Jesus on fire rather than crucifying Him “because he’s a witch.”
“So you said ever since you started worshiping Satan your life has been better?” Crawford asked.
“Yeah, it actually has been better for me,” the man, who looked sad, claimed.
In response, Crawford said although worshiping Satan might lead to earthly pleasures, there is more hope in following Jesus.
“Yeah, I believe it, like in the physical. I believe that Satan would give me the things I want. You know, and there’s a lot of things that I want. And there’s been times that I’ve prayed to God and asked God for things that I wanted, but that’s not what I needed,” Crawford told the satanist.
“I feel like, as a Christian, when I ask Jesus for stuff when I pray, Jesus protects me from certain stuff because He knows what would harm me and steer me away from Him."
Crawford added that he believes "it makes total sense that by worshiping Satan your life feels better, and it feels better in the natural right at this life. But to me, I was tormented by mental struggles and mental health issues and not having hope for myself. Jesus gave me that hope.”
Crawford asked the avowed satanist if he could pray for him right there on the street, and the satanist allowed him to do so.
In a separate Instagram video, Crawford shares how, at one point in his life, he was on the edge of taking his own life but ended up giving his life to Jesus instead.
He said the Lord led him into full-time ministry and now he considers himself to be a missionary and participates in speaking engagements, especially in the Los Angeles area.
Crawford is affiliated with EquipNet, a nonprofit that, according to its website, seeks “to connect resources to well-vetted Christian leaders, organizations, and projects around the world that have the capacity to bring the love of Jesus, innovation, and Christian transformation to people in various formative spheres of society."
Crawford also has a Jesus In The Street website that shares his “passion for people to know who they are in Christ" and creates T-shirts in order to be "walking conversation starters for the Gospel."
Crawford also helps out at a house church that meets every Sunday night and “helped to start and pioneer a Wednesday night gathering” aimed at helping people deepen their relationship with Christ, according to his biography on EquipNet.
Crawford can also be heard on his podcast in which he talks about different Christian topics.
Nicole VanDyke is a reporter for The Christian Post.