Is Popular YouTuber’s Salvation Reality or Appeasement?
Deliverance minister Isaiah Saldivar calls him “one of the most influential people in our generation online.”
If JiDion Adams, who has almost 8 million followers on YouTube, is sincere about turning his life completely over to Christ—which recently he did on a video on his channel—then certainly this is a huge blow to the enemy’s end times plans.
Adams, who was raised in a Christian background and professed to be a Christian, but never fully practiced it, told his YouTube followers that he was “all in” with Jesus late last month when the Holy Spirit convicted his heart following a conversation with an Uber driver.
Adams says he’s been mulling his “real decision” for Christ for about 18 months, but felt like he “wasn’t ready” for it. But after the chat with the Uber driver, who asked him if he knew where he was going if he were to die right now, he knew it was time.
He currently has friendships with secular celebrities and huge endorsement deals with the NBA. But he knows that isn’t God’s plan for him.
“I’ve been chopping it up with [rapper] ASAP Rocky, with [actor] Mark Wahlberg and [millionaire] Mark Cuban, or going to the silent charity match,” Adams says. “Would any of that really matter. No, it really wouldn’t.
“This is like me just really talking to y’all, trying to be so 100% transparent. But God tells us that a bird doesn’t have to worry about where he’s going to get his next meal from. And then he said, ‘are you not better than a bird?’ I’m way better than a bird, so why am I tripping?”
Adams says this decision is not simply a passing fancy. It’s for real. He knows the road and the gate to life is narrow.
He vows no more content like his previous videos, like ones titled, “Why Incest Should Be Legalized” or “Asking Strangers to Buy Me Beer Even Though I’m 21!” or “Using My BLM Discount on Black Friday.”
“I’m not trying to dip my pinkie toe in or I’m not just going to be sitting on the edge of the pool,” he says. “I want to jump full in. I want to dive full in. I don’t want to just talk the talk. I want you all to see it in my actions.
“I was with my girl coming back from her college. When we got back to the crib, this Uber driver looked back at us and asked us a question. Me answering it made my heart sink. She asked if I were to die would I go to heaven or hell. I had to be honest and look into myself and say, the way I’m living right now, if God was to take my breath away right now, I’m going to hell. I couldn’t even lie about it.”
Jesus said in Mark 8:34-36, “When He had called the people to Him, with His disciples, He said to them, ‘If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever would lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?'”
Adams says he knows what is expected of him going forward. He knows that living for Christ will be difficult, but he says there’s no other way for him.
“I was letting worldly things dictate how my spirit is,” Adams says. “The Bible talks about it all the time. You can’t be moved by the world. You have to hate the world. It’s crazy. Jesus is telling me I have to hate the world. But it’s hard to hate the world when the world loves me. You feel me?”
Isaac David, known as The Daily Disciple on YouTube with more than 217,000 followers, said he understands what JiDion is going through with this revelation.
“It’s hard to hate the world when the world loves you,” David says. “The sinful culture loves you for what you do and they support you. They cheer you on to a lot of this immorality and this sinfulness. It’s hard to say that I’m going to pack it up and not receive that praise anymore.
“But JiDion is realizing that there is something much more important than people’s praise. Jesus did say that ‘the world will hate you because they hated Me first.’ If JiDion continues to preach the gospel and speak up about his faith, it won’t be much longer before they begin to turn on him.”
JiDion says that if he continues to follow what the Holy Spirit is telling him, he won’t have a problem putting away worldly things. But he also knows that his fame may wane, and it may wane severely.
“If I do follow Jesus and His Word, tooth and nail of what it is, I’m not going to be JiDion anymore,” he says. “There are a lot of things that I know that were happening for me before, they’re not going to be happening for me now.”
Isaiah Saldivar, whose main ministry is, through Christ, getting people delivered from demons, says he believes JiDion’s decision is genuine and that his influence over others for Christ will be huge.
“JiDion, I know you say that you’re not a preacher and I’m not going to teach the Bible,” Saldivar says. “Brother, you are a preacher. You are a teacher. God has called you. God has anointed you to preach His word, to set the captives free, to lay hands on the sick, to cast out demons, to make disciples, to baptize people in water. You are a disciple, brother. You are called to preach to teach the Word of God, to share your testimony. Don’t let anyone tell you any different. We’re ambassadors of Christ as it says in 2 Corinthians 5. God is speaking through all of us, calling people back to Himself.”
Whether Adams will follow through remains to be seen. But if his worldly influence has already been great, how much greater can his kingdom influence be?
Pray for him and keep an eye on him. God certainly is. {eoa}
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
