‘Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples.’ 1 Chronicles 16:24
When we think of our aim to see all God’s people on Mission with God, I have often been asked – what does this actually look like?
‘Mission is really making us all aware of the incredible love that God has for all of us. It says things like: you don’t have to earn God’s love, God loves you period. Everything flows from there’. Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Bishop Katharine Schori stated that mission is about receiving love and then responding by going out and sharing. ‘It is a matter of calling the near and the far off together into the fold. It is about healing and reconciling. It is about making that love incarnate in the lives of people around us and in the lives of people on the other end of the earth.’
We are joining God on His mission to glorify His name, to establish His kingdom and to reconcile the world to Himself.
God is pursuing a love relationship with us and we cannot know His will without knowing Him better. As we come to know Him better, He reveals His will in a clearer way and we are changed as well. We find that we want to do His will more and more (Philippians 2:13 – For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose).
On mission with God, we will experience that God is love. His will is always best and He pursues a love relationship with us so we can join Him in His mission.
On mission with God, we will experience that God is all-knowing. His directions are always right and He reveals them when we are obedient to Him.
On mission with God, we will experience that God is all-powerful. He enables us to accomplish His will when we are totally dependent on Him.
Jesus was on mission with the Father, and He calls every one of His followers to join Him in that relationship of love, power and purpose. Nothing could be more precious than to follow God on mission in the same way that Jesus did.
Prayer Points:
- Give thanks for the ripened harvest fields of the world. ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.’ (Psalm 24:1)
- Pray the Lord will give divine and direct guidance by the Holy Spirit to the labourers going into the fields. ‘They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia and were prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the message in Asia. (Acts 16:6)’
- Ask the Lord to open the door of cities, communities and villages to His labourers by opening the heart of at least one person to initially receive them. ‘And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. (Acts 16:14)’
Margaret McLaren