Special Service with Joan Pearce #2: Being a Witness for Jesus

Joan Pearce teaches in this special service that every believer is called to be a witness for Jesus, and that the Holy Spirit, not human cleverness, leads us to the right person at the right time. Before she preaches, she ministers healing and prophetic words to people in the room, then opens Romans 10, 1 Corinthians 1–2 and Hebrews 2 to show why God gave the gospel to us and not to the angels.

Below you will find the full video, a summary of the message, every Scripture she reads (linked to the NKJV on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline and practical steps for sharing your faith.

Sermon at a Glance

This is the second night of special meetings with evangelist Joan Pearce at NTC Ministries, posted on March 27, 2025. It runs about 82 minutes. The service opens with a testimony from the night before, moves into a long stretch of prayer for the sick, and only then turns to the message, which she sums up in one line: it is all about being a witness for Jesus.

She preaches without notes, telling stories as the Holy Spirit brings them to mind, and closes in prayer.

The Holy Spirit Moves Before the Message

The evening begins with a woman sharing that when Joan breathed into the microphone the night before, heat came over her and the pain in her right leg, which had hurt all day and all night, stopped. Joan had only been illustrating the wind of the Holy Spirit.

Instead of preaching right away, Joan calls up a woman in pain, saying the Lord told her she did not need to sit through the sermon hurting. She speaks to the financial pressure and heaviness on the family and breaks the enemy’s hold in the name of Jesus. She then prays for a woman with a film over her eyes, and for another who describes ten years of spine and hip pain, with numbness in her feet and hands.

Next she brings up two couples and gives prophetic words. To the first, she says God has put them together as a team, that hurting people will be drawn to them, and that they will lead many to the Lord at home and in the marketplace. To the second, she speaks of authority to say to the storm, be still, and of eyes that will operate in the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom.

Along the way she teaches. In her schools of the supernatural, she tells students that “you’ll never know how to move in the gifts if you don’t step out and try.” She also stresses that “God does not call sicknesses out just to make you feel good.” He calls them out because He wants to heal. So she tells people not to pray but to receive, because you cannot talk and listen at the same time. See Jesus on the cross, she says: by His stripes you were healed (1 Peter 2:24).

She also discerns a tormenting spirit pressing against a woman who had been crying out for more of God, keeping her tired, out of the Word and unable to sleep. Joan is careful to say she is not claiming the woman has a demon in her, only that a demonic force has been after her. She breaks that assignment and speaks peace and sleep over her.

Receive It, Believe It, Say It

Before turning to her text, Joan speaks to those watching online. If you need a miracle, she says, you do not have to wait for someone to pray for you. Jesus already did it 2,000 years ago. All you have to do is claim it, receive it, believe it and say it: thank You, Jesus, I’m healed. Keep confessing it, she says, and you have it.

If you do not feel it yet, she points to her husband’s example. When he is going through something, he tells her not to even talk about it, because he knows it is already done. You believe it and leave it with Jesus. The same goes for your finances and your ministry: you cannot make anything happen, but Jesus can, when you lean not on your own understanding and learn to trust the Lord (Proverbs 3:5–6).

Then you wait for the manifestation and stand. Having done all, you stand (Ephesians 6:13). Joan admits there have been nightmare situations in her life, but she learned to put her hand to the plow and not look back (Luke 9:62). Sometimes it feels like pushing against a boulder or a cement wall, but you keep rocking it until it moves, because you cannot go backwards.

Every December she takes a couple of weeks off and evaluates her year with the Lord. She asks where she is compared to last year, what she is doing wrong, what she is doing right, and what He wants changed. When He gives direction, she says, it happens with no striving on her part.

Joan Pearce on Trusting God to Open Doors

It was not always that way. Joan Pearce describes years of striving to make ministry happen. Her secretary kept a filing cabinet of colored papers listing pastors, and Joan called one after another, only to be turned down again and again.

One day she broke down crying and, in her own words, threw a fit. She threw the whole filing cabinet across the living room and scattered papers everywhere. When she came to her senses, the Holy Spirit told her to pick up three: a white one stuck on the sofa, a blue one and a pink one. All three pastors said yes.

One of them was a home church of six people in San Diego, so poor that she bought their groceries. While she was teaching them evangelism, the fields near their dead-end street caught fire. As fire trucks and news cameras arrived, Joan had the little group serve cookies, lemonade and coffee, then asked the firefighters to form a circle for prayer. They ended up on the news, and she says they led them to Jesus.

Before leaving, she told the house church pastor that she had to see a Baptist pastor he knew. After persistent phone calls he gave her half an hour. She played a four-minute video about taking the city for God, and he began to cry. He had been asking God for more and had heard the Holy Spirit say someone would take him to another level, just before a truck turned in front of him with her name on the side.

Because his church did not allow women ministers, he snuck her in to share. Then he booked her for counseling appointments. After one exhausting day, she stopped listening to problems, prayed quietly in the Spirit and let the Holy Spirit show her each need. People were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, including the pastor himself. He later had to start an independent church, which grew and began operating in miracles.

How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher?

Joan then opens Romans 10:8–10, the passage used to lead people to the Lord: the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:11–13 adds that whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame, and whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, whatever their background.

She illustrates with a day in the Bronx, passing out flyers with Becky. A young man on a corner warned them the neighborhood was full of gangs and drug lords. Joan told him what she would say to a drug lord about the mothers she has held after overdoses. After an hour he admitted he was one. He repented and was saved, and she told him he had to stop what he was doing. Her lesson: be bold, not afraid.

Romans 10:14–15 asks how they will hear without a preacher, and says how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace. We do not preach with our feet, Joan notes, but our feet must take us wherever the Holy Ghost leads. One life led to the Lord ripples out like a rock thrown into a pond and can reach a whole family.

She warns about what happens to long-time believers. New converts tell everyone, but after a while our circle of unsaved friends disappears and we become lukewarm pew warmers. Pray, she says, Holy Spirit, help me be a soul winner, and change my heart. A real Christian bears fruit: sheep produce sheep, apple trees produce apples, and “Christians should produce other Christians.”

Gospel tracts are one simple tool she urges on the church. A small folded tract with four scriptures and a prayer is a conversation starter. Slip one in with a bill payment or hand one over at a drive-through, and choose tracts that carry good news.

The Foolishness of the Message Preached

Next Joan turns to Paul. In 1 Corinthians 1:17–21, Paul says Christ did not send him to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those being saved it is the power of God, and God will destroy the wisdom of the wise.

She tells of sitting on a plane next to a scientist who had spent ten years researching how the universe began. She told him God said let there be, and that is how it happened. He did not speak to her again. In contrast, on a door-to-door outing, a Muslim woman told her team that a man in a white gown had appeared to her in a vision, said He was Jesus, and that she was looking for someone who knew Him. She was saved. Jesus had already done the work, Joan says.

1 Corinthians 1:28–31 says God chose the base and despised things so that no flesh would glory in His presence. Too many ministers want to be noticed, Joan says: “I don’t care if you ever know who Joan Pearce is. I want you to know who Jesus Christ is.” God will not share His glory, and our job is to love people and keep the gospel simple.

She models that simplicity with her neighbors. She and her husband Marty give every neighbor an Easter basket and Christmas gifts filled with crosses, books and Bibles. One Christmas she invited a neighbor she had never met, who came and recognized them as the Christians behind the gifts.

Beyond Fear: Why God Gave the Gospel to Us

In 1 Corinthians 2:1–5, Paul says he came in weakness, fear and much trembling. Joan was stumped, because 2 Timothy 1:7 says God has not given us a spirit of fear. She asked the Lord how Paul could write both. His answer: Paul knew the secret. When you approach a stranger, butterflies come, but once you walk past that fear barrier and obey, the fear leaves and the Holy Ghost takes over. The more fear the devil puts on you, she says, the closer that person is to being saved.

Her proof is a story from a Circle K. The Holy Spirit pointed her to a young man with a shaved head, a bone through his nose and 666 shaved into his scalp. Nervous, she asked if he wanted to know how to go to heaven. He said he had been thinking about heaven and hell but could not find anyone to tell him. He prayed right there, joined her door-to-door, and at the first house the Holy Spirit chose, the man who opened the door was his old high school friend. That friend was saved too.

Finally she reads Hebrews 2:1–4: how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, first spoken by the Lord and confirmed with signs, wonders and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Angels are ministering spirits, Joan says, but God did not give them the privilege to preach the gospel. “God took the most precious thing ever in history and put it in our hands.” Her team once led 1,700 people to the Lord in two years.

She adds that “we’re not supposed to go make decisions, we’re supposed to make disciples.” Like a mother, you stay there when new believers struggle, and if they move away you keep praying for them. Heaven rejoices over each person saved (Luke 15:10), and in Luke 14:16–24 the master keeps sending servants to the highways and hedges despite every excuse. So go again, and go again.

She closes with Hebrews 4:12: the word of God is living, powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. One person witnesses, another does a kind deed, and the Word does not return without accomplishing its purpose (Isaiah 55:11). If we lift Jesus up, He draws people (John 12:32).

The table below gathers the outreach stories she tells and what each one teaches.

Becoming a Soul Winner This Week

Joan Pearce ends by praying that God would make everyone a soul winner, more aware and with eyes to see in the spirit realm. Here are the practical steps drawn from her message:

• Pray for a soul winner’s heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to change your heart and lead your feet, at the store, the gas station or the laundromat.
• Carry simple tracts. Leave a short, good-news tract with a bill payment or a server; it takes seconds to read.
• Walk past the butterflies. When fear rises as the Spirit points to someone, obey anyway and expect it to lift.
• Offer a small prayer. When someone looks stressed, take their hand and ask Jesus to help them have a better day.
• Love your neighbors on purpose. Gifts, a meal or a children’s book can open a door that words alone cannot.
• Evaluate your year with God. Like Joan, set aside time to ask what to change, then follow His direction without striving.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Testimony from the night before
• 1:10 A woman in pain is called up
• 2:18 Prayer for eyes, spine and hips
• 5:30 Prophetic word to a ministry couple
• 8:53 Step out and try: learning the gifts
• 13:47 God does not call out sickness to tease
• 18:31 Claim it, receive it, believe it, say it
• 20:47 Her yearly evaluation with God
• 22:54 The filing cabinet story
• 28:17 The field fire outreach
• 31:23 The Baptist pastor and the truck
• 38:02 Romans 10: confess and believe
• 40:17 The drug lord in the Bronx
• 43:49 How beautiful are the feet
• 47:15 Christians produce Christians; tracts
• 49:45 1 Corinthians 1: preach the gospel
• 52:37 The scientist on the plane
• 54:42 A Muslim woman’s vision of Jesus
• 58:24 Easter baskets and a Christmas dinner
• 1:02:39 Weakness, fear and trembling
• 1:04:53 The young man at the Circle K
• 1:09:40 Hebrews 2: so great a salvation
• 1:13:47 Make disciples, not decisions
• 1:17:32 Hebrews 4:12 and closing prayer

Joan Pearce Special Service Series

Joan Pearce ministered at NTC Ministries over more than one service. Continue with the next message:

• You are here: Special Service with Joan Pearce #2: Being a Witness for Jesus
• Next: Special Service with Joan Pearce #3: Carrying the Glory of God

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I do if I am prayed for and feel nothing?

Joan’s counsel is to keep believing and confessing. She points to her husband, who, when he is going through something, refuses to dwell on it because he knows it is already done. You believe it, leave it with Jesus and wait for the manifestation. In the meantime you stand, keep your hand on the plow and do not look back, even when it feels like pushing against a wall.

Does Joan Pearce think every Christian should evangelize?

Yes. She says that if you never talk to anyone about the Lord, something is not right, because a real Christian bears fruit. Not everyone will lead people to Christ every week, but everyone can plant seeds through a tract, a kind deed or a short prayer. Over time several witnesses, one after another, may be part of the same person’s salvation.

Why does she say angels cannot preach the gospel?

From Hebrews 2, she teaches that God did not put the world to come under the angels. Angels are ministering spirits who work with the heirs of salvation, but the privilege of preaching belongs to believers. She says that if God had sent angels, the world would have been saved many times over, which is why she wants believers to realize how important they are.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Romans 10:8–10 — confess with your mouth, believe in your heart
• Romans 10:14–15 — how beautiful are the feet
• 1 Corinthians 1:17–21 — the message of the cross
• 1 Corinthians 2:1–5 — in weakness, fear and trembling
• 2 Timothy 1:7 — not a spirit of fear
• Hebrews 2:1–4 — so great a salvation
• Hebrews 4:12 — the living word of God
• 1 Peter 2:24 — by His stripes you were healed

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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