Holy Spirit and Mission, part 1

Another school year is coming to a close.  Perhaps you have taken some time to “build a memorial to the Lord” as I wrote about last week.   Some of you were very encouraged as you reflected on all the things you saw God do through you this year.  Perhaps others of you were a little disappointed that it didn’t seem that God was working as strongly as you had hoped.  Perhaps you will be encouraged by the uncertain situation that the early disciples faced in Acts 1.

The disciples had been given the charge to take the gospel into all the world…but were then immediately instructed by Jesus to wait in Jerusalem until they had received God’s power for His mission (Acts 1:8-14).

  “Go…but wait first…”  Jesus’ instructions to wait seem contrary to His instructions to go, but the disciples obediently waited.  They didn’t know what else to do, so they prayed – this is a great principle in ministry:  when you don’t know what to do, pray!

“Prayer marks the beginning of most the significant Christian movements ever begun.  The beginning of this movement [in Acts 2] would begin in Jerusalem on Pentecost, when crowds from all over the world were gathered.  The disciples, praying and waiting, did not know the reasons for the delay, but continued to devote themselves to prayer.” (from the commentary on Acts by Charles Erdman)

God didn’t tell the disciples the ‘when’ and ‘how’ of His plan to get the gospel out to the nations.  He generally doesn’t give us His detailed plan either.  The disciples waited together and prayed together.  God was at work gathering everything needed to ensure that the gospel would indeed be taken to every dark corner of the world.  In this situation, He was waiting for the most strategic and effective moment to work: the moment during the holiday of Pentecost when there would be a representative from every tribe and nation gathered together in one place who would hear the gospel in an amazing work of the Holy Spirit that made it obvious that this was a work of God.

After that, the disciples were free to travel about carrying the gospel to world as commanded.  The rest of the book of Acts records how God built this great movement through the working of the Holy Spirit.

Where are you in this process?  God has called you to bring the gospel to your campus.  Perhaps you have been praying and waiting for a long time…but still have no clear indication of when God is going to start building a movement on your campus.  What has He promised?  Do you really believe that He is already at work preparing to start a movement?  Have you stayed together devoted in prayer?  Keep reminding Him through prayer of His promises to work at your university (which means you are reminding yourself of His promises).  Keep believing Him and keep waiting, keep being devoted to prayer.  He is indeed at work gathering together all the strategic elements needed to begin a great work of God on your campus!  When it happens, you will know that it is the work of God.

MEMORIAL TO THE LORD

“In the Old Testament God had His people build a monument

 every time He performed a great miracle in their lives.  The

monument was to remind them of God’s presence and power...of

God’s love and concern for [them].”    Ken Green

*Joshua 4:1-7

1 Samuel 6:18b (last part of verse only)

*1 Chronicles 16:12

*Psalm 145:5-7, 10-12

Psalm 103:2

Isaiah 55:12-13

Psalm 138:5

At regular intervals in your life and ministry (end of school years, end of summers, etc.) take some time with the Lord to reflect over what He has taught you, what He has done in your life and what He has done through you. 

In your journal list those things as memorials to the Lord, as testimonies to His faithfulness.  These lists will serve as written reminders of His presence and His power in your life, of His love and concern for you -- especially when you find yourself doubting Him.

I often do this this as a group of people who are trusting Him together as a team to work through us.  We often go on a prayer walk at the end of the school year and I look for stones in a ‘flat’ surface on one side which we will use at the end of a time of reflecting and ‘building our memorial’ to the Lord.   

After we individually spend time in reflection, then I have us come together as a group to share the things we want to remember that the Lord did for us during the past year.  Then I ask each person to choose one thing that most represents for them God’s power or provision or presence or work or care…and write that in a short phrase on their rock.   

We then place the rocks together in a pile, representing our ‘memorial’.  

Later, if you don’t want to keep the rocks piled together, each person can take their rock with them to serve as a reminder of what the Lord has done.  I have several such rocks on my bookshelf which are memorials to what God did over the years.  I strongly encourage you to do this exercise to help you keep your eyes on what God has done in response to your faith.

5 x 5 prayers

A few years ago the Holy Spirit had been convicting me that I had grown into some bad habits in prayer.  I had been focusing on praying blessings into my life all the while “praying away the sin in people that bothered me”.  I had become an ‘advisor’ to God in how He should be working in other people’s lives in order to make them easier for me to get along with.  Then I read an article on prayer in the Discipleship Journal magazine which broadened my prayers for others.  Here is an excerpt from the article:

“When Johnny Jones, living in a middle-class suburb in central California, made a commitment to pray, [he prayed]:

-5  blessings on

-5  neighbors for

-5 minutes a day for

-5 days a week for

-5 weeks,

[and] surprising things began to happen.

-One neighbor asked him how she could have a personal relationship with Christ. When Johnny shared the gospel with her, she accepted Christ as her Savior.

-A drug-dealing neighbor asked Johnny to pray for him and help him turn his life around and get out of the drug business.

-A Buddhist couple from across the street asked if they could go to church with Johnny's family.

-And a Hispanic couple living next door asked him to start a Bible study for the neighborhood.

I was immediately challenged to adapt this idea in my prayer life.  I listed out the people in my life who I had been praying that God would change.  Instead of praying “sin out of them”, I began to pray God’s blessings on their lives.  Five blessings on five people for five minutes a day, five days a week for five weeks.

I can’t list out such amazing results among my ‘neighbors’ as what you read above, but I can tell you that my perspective transformed toward the 5 people I had been asking God to make them easier for me to get along with!  Instead of being frustrated with how their personalities bothered me, I began to enjoy thinking about them and about what blessings I could pray for them that day.  I looked forward to being with them as it gave me clues what kinds of blessings to ask God to give them each day. 

I also began to see the sin better in my own life and started to pray for character changes in my life.  I prayed for the fruits of the Spirit (Gal.5:22-23) to be exhibited in my life when I interacted with my 5 friends (some of the things I had been praying for others to exhibit when they were around me!).  I think it became easier for my friends to be around me when I changed my perspective and started praying blessings on others and sin out of my life!