By Michael Ashcraft –
Abraham Aguilar was a backslidden pothead when he attended the Potter’s House Church in Palmdale, California, and felt God impress on his heart: It’s either now or never.
As a result of Abraham’s simple decision to receive Jesus at the altar, he has turned into an evangelizing machine as a senior at Palmdale High School, and 895 students gave their lives to the Lord in 2023-24.
“There’s hope even when it seems like it’s impossible because addiction makes you feel there’s no other way,” Abraham told God Reports. “Jesus is the way, and nothing else in this world can be substituted for Jesus.”
As a youth, Abraham wanted to be a professional soccer player, but when he broke his collarbone, he lost hope in his dream and fell out with his older brother and friends into smoking marijuana and getting girls.
“My life was completely backslidden,” he says.
Then his mom got married and moved from Los Angeles to Palmdale. She delivered an ultimatum to her son: “If you want to live in my house, you have to go to church.”
Abraham had absolutely no desire to go to church and acted rebellious. But he relented and went, sitting always in the last row of the church – “backslider lane,” he calls it now.
Little by little, the preaching of the Word cracked open the rusted-shut door of his heart. After hearing a sermon about hell, he reached out to a brother in the church and asked for prayer.
Not long after that, a brother invited him to a men’s discipleship seminar. He hooked the still reluctant Abraham by offering to take him out to eat after the seminar.
“I felt God saying, It’s either now or never,” Abraham says. He asked to receive Jesus and said a prayer with the pastor.
“I surrendered to Jesus and my life started changing,” he recalls. He began attending outreach, prayer and other activities.
When the school year started, “I thought my senior year was going to be just another year of school.” But God had other plans.
“I just started witnessing to students, teachers and janitors,” he reports. “People were very open. During the lunch line, I would open my mouth and start boldly proclaiming God’s words.”
First a group of 12 got saved, and they launched a Bible study on campus. By the end of the semester, 275 teens had prayed to receive the Lord. Their high attendance was 73 at the lunch Bible study. They had to move from a classroom to the gym.
In the second semester, Abraham got even bolder. He preached in the school square, and 70 students responded. By the year’s end, 895 high schoolers gave their lives to Christ.
“I didn’t go to church thinking I was going to change. I still had my earring,” Abraham says. “Slowly I started taking steps. It’s scary in the beginning, but when you catch the flow of it, it all starts making sense.”
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About this writer: Michael Ashcraft pastors a church in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.