Christian Commentary Encouraging Devotions

Felt stirred in corporate prayer last night...

What's wrong?

Why aren't we seeing souls saved?

1) Our care-less attitude.

2) The enemy's blinded their eyes. (And ours.)

3) Not enough expecting.

4) Not enough praying.

5) Not enough sharing with people.

It's God's desire to see all men saved.

Not one lost.

Time's short.

The enemy's a defeated foe.

What is holding us back?

On a wider scale...

It is not unusual after a missions event for someone to approach me and say, "Dr. Rankin, I would be willing to go as a missionary but God has not called me." I have never figured out how to respond to such a statement tactfully. We have a lost world that God desires to save, and here is a dedicated Christian who is convinced he would be willing to go and be one of those needed to share the gospel, but it is God’s fault that he doesn’t since God hasn’t called him!

We have succumbed to Satan’s deception to embrace a myth concerning the call of God. We reason that unless we have had a burning bush experience or Damascus Road revelation that we are exempt from the responsibility of taking the gospel to the nations. We can sit comfortably in our pew, secure in our North American comfort zone, content to witness to those in our own community while an elite few, obligated by God’s call, seek to engage massive population segments in cross-cultural witness.

The call and responsibility to disciple the nations is to the church, the people of God, not to a select few super-dedicated servants of God. Certainly God moves upon the hearts of individuals to reveal specific guidance as to their place of service, but when billions are lost and bound for hell, and someone is willing to be the one to share the good news of salvation, it is hard for me to believe that God would say, "Never mind, I don’t need you." It is someone other than God who is convincing us to stay at home!

When the IMB reached 5,000 international missionaries we considered that a remarkable investment and milestone in global witness. But that amounts to one missionary for every 1.6 million people. What potential does that have for making the gospel accessible to all peoples? Even those who follow the call of God to Christian service tend to put a geographic restriction on that call and define it in terms of where they are willing to serve. Satan is quite satisfied for us to surrender to fulltime ministry as long as he can distort our perspective to think we are to just serve our own people rather than be part of an evangelistic force to reach the world.

Many who understand the scope of the missions challenge make excuses as Moses, saying, "I’m not qualified," or "Let someone else do it." But the Scripture tells us in response to these efforts to excuse himself, "Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses" (Ex. 4:14). Do we not realize we are incurring the wrath of God when we are disobedient to His call as the people of God to declare His glory among the nations?

My wife often tells about a time as a young person when she was earnestly seeking to know God’s will for her life. A youth evangelist commented in a message, "Young people, do you want to know God’s will for your life? I can tell you." My wife leaned forward eagerly and expectantly, but was a little disappointed when he continued, "God’s will is for you to be a witness for Him." She wanted the vocational specifics revealed.

We tend to be quite egotistic in our pursuit of God’s will. Asking the question, "What is God’s will for my life?" is the wrong question. We should be asking, "Lord, what is Your will?"—period! Once we come to an understanding of God’s will, then we know that His will for us personally should fit within His larger purpose. God’s will is for the nations to know Him, so each of us should realize that God has a place for us within that plan and purpose. Many more would be finding a way to go and take their witness around the world than the relatively few who are now serving as missionaries if our pursuit of God’s will was no so self-centered.

We would realize that God has blessed and prospered us materially, not for indulging in the comforts and amenities of our North American lifestyle. If we have a secure job and steady income we should realize it is so we can give more generously and sacrificially to send missionaries to the ends of the earth. If we recognized that God’s call to the nations involved us, we would be praying and interceding for them more faithfully and diligently. Churches would be giving a higher priority to strategic involvement and partnership in overseas missions and cross-cultural witness if we had a proper understanding of the call of God.

We need to recount the call of Isaiah. "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: ‘Who should I send? Who will go for Us?’ I said: ‘Here I am. Send me.’" This wasn’t a personal call. God did not tap Isaiah on the shoulder as the congregation was singing, "Wherever He Leads I’ll Go" and say, "Okay, you’re the one." No, it was a generic call. He sensed God’s heart pleading for someone, anyone, willing to go to a people lost and in darkness. Isaiah didn’t wait to be selected, he took the initiative and invited God to send Him.

That should be our approach to the call of God. If we were walking in intimacy with the Father, we would be aware of His yearning for the nations to know Him and for someone to be willing to go and proclaim the gospel. We would not allow Satan to convince us that only those who have a unique mystical experience are obligated for that task. We would be volunteering, pleading with God to let us be the one to have the privilege of going to bring the nations out of darkness to the Light.

How many Southern Baptists should be going to the nations? What would be a proper proportion for God to call and lead to proclaim the gospel to those who have not heard? How many would He desire to be available to impact 6 billion people around the world compared to those needed to witness to 300 million in our own country?

Currently .03 percent of Southern Baptists go overseas to serve with the IMB—that’s less than one out of every three thousand. What if one-tenth of 1 percent went as missionaries; we would have not 5,000 but 160,000 missionaries. Could not 99 percent of our members provide the support for 1 percent to go as missionaries? That would be 1.6 million missionaries—a number sufficient to fulfill the Great Commission.

Why have we fallen into a pattern of disproportionate use of resources and so few willing to take the gospel to the nations? Is this the way God desires it to be, or have we succumbed to a myth regarding the call to missions and allowed Satan to distort our understanding of God’s will?

http://rankinconnecting.com/2010/05/spiritual-warfare-missions-3/

Read Psalm 46:10.

David said in Psalm 23 that the Lord makes him lie down in green pastures and leads him beside still waters.

The longest, most detailed command in the 10 commandments is the one on rest.

How many times a day do you check your email? Is there really any reason to check it as often as we do?

How many times a day do you check twitter?

How many times a day do you check your facebook page?

Do you have a time during the day when you turn off your cell phone so that you can uninterrupted study time, prayer time and time with your spouse?

Do you always have to have noise around you…such as do you always have to have the radio on in the car and/or the TV on at home, even if you are not listening to/watching it?

How much time do you spend commenting on blogs and social media sites?

Are you accessible at any time of the day by anyone who needs you? If you want to walk with Jesus you can’t do it by always having a crowd around…you’ve got to have some time set aside.

Are you willing to make the adjustments that you need to make based on the questions above? If not then you are most likely addicted to noise and being busy…which looks good to others but absolutely destroys our walk with God.

PSALM 46:10!

adapted from perrynoble.com