Missions thoughts derived from recent experiences

Three levels...

1. First, myself, that I must always be bringing the gospel further and further into my heart. If all I learn does not change me, I have not learned. If what I preach to others I do not first preach to myself, I am danger of being like those men in Matthew 7, who said, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Then Jesus told them plainly, I never knew you.

So even in the midst of all ministry, my own heart must be changing, conforming, etc. My own pride must be daily brought low. My own sins must be confessed and repented of. My own experience examined. Forgive me for the times I fall short, when my profession advances far beyond my actions.

Forgive me.

2. Second, that the work of missions is done in prayer. The external actings are like the tip of the iceberg. Every action prepped and performed in prayer, laid for Jesus. Why is this? Every action performed in service of God must be done in the power of the Spirit. For the flesh wages war against the Spirit. It is the Spirit that enlightens the mind to receive the Word, the Spirit that applies the Word to the heart, the Spirit that implants grace into the heart that hears, etc.

God works when his people pray. Not only is this the testimony of the Scriptures, but also the universal experience of every lasting missions work. If you want to see God work, lay a foundation of prayer and be prepared to wait.

Pray for me.

3. That the key prayer in this regard is for laborers. Jesus says ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers. Not all men are to go, of course, nor is it normative. Most men remain in the position to which God has called them, discharging their duty to God in their various professions, glorifying God in their labor. This is good. But the field needs harvesters, it needs men who will go. Only those we receive a call will go. So pray for the Lord to call men.

Owen says that if the Bible tells us to pray for something, then it is supplied for us from the hand of God. In some ways, this is almost insultingly obvious. But sometimes it pleases God to make simple things hard to see, so that we should become like little children to see them. Pray for the Lord to raise up laborers to every nation.

My vision is that this dying gasp of the American church would produce a flood of laborers. That from the least of these would come a mighty nation, and that the Lord, who has all power, might do it quickly, if it is in his time.

Pray and go.