Missions Roles: Going

"We are already commanded to go.  It takes a call from God to stay."  Some missions spokesmen have used that logic in reply to those who say they don't "feel" called to go as a missionary.  There is truth to it.  The Great Commission does tell us to go.  Jesus told all the disciples present on the night of His resurrection that they were sent just as the Father had sent Him (John 20:21).  If the Bible says, "Go," then we should move in that direction unless the Spirit prevents us.

In my formative years, as my classmates and I were seeking the Lord and His will for our lives, I often heard someone say, "I'm afraid to surrender completely to the Lord -- He might send me to Africa!"  What most of us discovered was that the decision to surrender our wills to His, even if it meant going to Africa, brought a breakthrough to spiritual freedom and to greater clarity about what God really wanted us to do.  There had to be a willingness to do whatever the Lord asked before we could clearly hear His call.  Jesus said, "If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God" (John 7:17 NKJV).  Once we get our will out of the way, His will becomes clear.  The greater includes the lesser.  When we can truly say with the hymn, "Wherever He leads, I'll go," our hearts will finally be in harmony with His.

The fear of surrender is rooted in the flesh's resistance to His will:  "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.  So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:7-8).  Our old nature, the sinful nature we all have without Christ, wants its own way as surely as Adam chose his own way over God's.  The tactics the flesh uses to avoid God's will can be subtle and ingenious.  I have heard Avery Willis use the illustration of how as a child he would figure out how far his mother's voice would carry and then go just a block or two further to play with his friends; that way he would not hear her when she called him to come in and he could honestly say to her, "But I didn't hear you when you called me!"  In my previous posts about Jonah, I told about my own resistance to missions by avoiding the seminary chapel services that were dedicated to missions. I wonder how many Christians allow the fear of missions to rob them of the joy of complete surrender.

It is clear that many who should go are not going.  No general would arrange his forces the way Christian workers are currently serving.  In general terms, the American church keeps more than 95% of its resources at home to reach what is less than 5% of the world's population.  Our churches are stocked with multiple staff members while 3,800 people groups around the world have no one to tell them about Jesus.  Someone is not doing what God wants them to do.  Let's make sure that that someone is not us.

Let's pray until our will is completely surrendered to His will.  Let's pray to go until He says to stay.