Looking for People God has Prepared

What does a spiritual movement look like?  How do you know when you are seeing a spiritual movement?  I want to focus for the next several weeks on the big picture of what is a spiritual movement.  It probably is much more simple than you have imagined.

One of the main focuses of a spiritual movement is Looking for the People God has Prepared among the lost.  Obviously this means that you are involved in evangelism, both “initiative evangelism” and relational evangelism.  (“Initiative evangelism” means that you are taking the initiative to initiate/being intentional about sharing the gospel with people you don’t know to invite them to hear the gospel.)  Last week I wrote about the idea of ‘Precision Harvesting’ which is part of looking for those who He has prepared among the lost who are ready to turn their lives to Jesus as their Savior and Lord. 

Another element of Looking for the People God has Prepared is to look for believers who God has already called with a similar vision to the one He gave you.  You sometimes will come across believers as you are sharing the gospel.  You can also find the believers God has prepared through targeted strategies (see last week’s blog, Reaping where you did not sow, for ideas).  Of course, if anyone comes to Christ as you are sharing the gospel, share your vision with them about how you want others to experience God’s love and forgiveness just as this person has received that love and forgiveness which only comes from God.  They may be the most motivated person to join you as they understand the need for believing students on campus to share with those who don’t know God.

I believe that the Lord has placed someone else on your campus or in your city with a similar desire to see Him work on your campus.  If you are the only believer with a heart to see God move among students, continue to pray that He would raise up a ‘teammate’ to join you in His cause.  Share the vision God has given you with every believer you meet and ask them if they would like to join you in trusting God to work through you in building a spiritual movement for Him at your school. 

If you are part of a team of believers asking God to move among the students on your campuses, continue to share the gospel with each and every student in your city!  Ask God to connect you with more believers who He has called to join you in building a spiritual movement on your campus which will bring Him much glory among the lost.  Seek to take the gospel to every corner of the student world in your city and ask God to build movements in each of those areas.  I know He is already preparing those people for you!

To summarize the first part of a spiritual movement is:

Looking for the People God has Prepared  (Evangelism)

          Among the lost – as you are involved in evangelism, through BOTH:

-initiative, and

-relational as well as

Among believers – searching for those He has raised up to join you:

   -when students on campus become believers,

-when you come across believers as you are sharing the gospel, and

               -through targeted strategies to find believers. 

Reaping where you did not sow

This summer I was reading through the gospel of John and I came across a passage in John 4 (vv.35-38) where Jesus said to the disciples,

Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

One sows and another reaps

I worked in a peach orchard during the summers when I was in high school.  I wasn’t there when years before the seeds were sown to grow peach trees.  I wasn’t even there in the spring when the farmer prepared the soil and pruned the trees to get them ready for a good harvest.  I wasn’t there to protect the trees from frost or insects or wind or hail.  I was just hired for the precise time of harvest.  The orchard was ‘white’ for harvest in July, and I was there to help in the harvest. 

Even then there were peaches that were still a little green and so we left them on the trees a few more days before harvesting them.  There were some peaches that were just starting to be perfectly ripe, which we reached up and pulled them with little effort from the branches to fill our baskets.  There were other peaches that were so ripe, we just brushed against a ripe one and it fell into our hands.  And there were others that had already fallen to the ground on their own because they were so ripe.

He who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together

The harvest season was intense but we had lots of fun working together.  The orchard owner was very glad that he had enough hired help to bring in the crop during the harvest season. 

I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored

Years ago I had heard the phrase, “Precision Harvesting” and the person who used this phrase talked about how a ‘precision harvester’ focused on looking for the ripe fruit to pick, leaving the unripe fruit behind.  The speaker talked about how we think we each should follow a specific order:

1) preparing the soil, then

2) sowing the seed, then

3) cultivating the ground and only then

4) reaping in our own field. 

This is not a bad thing!  But there are times when He sends us to reap in fields where others have cultivated when the fruit is ready to fall off the branches.  The order is changed to the order of Precision Harvesting:

1) reap in someone else’s field, while you

2) prepare your own field, and

3) sow, and

4) cultivate and

5) reap – either you or someone else, it doesn’t matter. 

I like this idea of ‘precision harvesting’.  I believe there are lost people all around me who want to know God now, people who God has used other people to sow the seed into and they are ripe for harvest now!  If there are lost students around you who are ready to be harvested, then, why not find a way to determine who is ready now and bring the harvest in?!  These new believers will be able to join you in bringing in the rest of the harvest of students on your campus and in your city.

Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest  

I was recently at a conference in Manila and hear someone serving in another country talk about how in  their city they have a strategy called, ‘fast and slow’.  The idea of ‘fast and slow’ is that the first hour they are on a campus or among a large group of students, they try to approach 25-50 students in that one hour – the ‘fast part’.  They are looking for those God has already prepared to hear the gospel.  They ask 2 questions: 1) do you know where a church is? and 2) do you know any Christians?  From that fast approach to talking to as many students as possible, they find the 1-2 students who are open and ready to hear about Jesus.  The second hour, the ‘slow’ hour, they focus on in-depth conversations about the gospel with that handful of students they found during the ‘fast’ hour who showed interest in spiritual topics.

The guy telling the story told about how one day they were in the ‘fast’ part of this strategy and had already asked their questions to 10-15 students at this point, then turned to the next student and asked him if he knew of any churches and he said no.  They then asked, do you know any Christians? and he answered, ‘no, but if you find one can you introduce me to him because I really want to know how I can find God and I don’t know of anyone to talk to about that.’  You know what happened next!  The Christians introduced themselves as Christians and spent time with him later in the afternoon to share the gospel with this student who was so ripe he fell off the branches into their hands as he placed his trust in Christ as his Savior!  He then went on to become the student leader of the spiritual movement on that campus!

Others have labored and you have entered into their labor

What I love about this is how God has already prepared fruit for us to harvest that we have not labored for.  Of course we need to continue to be involved in sowing and cultivating in the lives of other lost people, asking God to prepare them for our harvest or for someone else to harvest.  But it is also good for us to rearrange the order and to figure out how to reap where we have not sown, as we are sowing where we or someone else may reap.

Precision Harvesting ideas

•  One way that we are trying to ‘reap where we did not sow’ is through the evangelistic ads through V Kontakte (which I wrote about last spring – go to the интернет tag).
• Using the ‘fast and slow’ strategy is another way.
• Setting up an open (evangelistic) group on V Kontakte and connecting with those who seem to be the most open is an idea.
• Any approach where you immediately get right to the heart of the matter will do (‘Do you know God?  Do you want to know God?). 

Have you tried something like this?  Please share with us how you Precision Harvest!

Numbers 13 Prayer exercise

I was recently reading a blog that Gilbert Kingsley, a friend of mine, writes.  He was telling about an idea for praying for your campus that a co-worker, Dave Peterson, shared with him. Dave used a passage from Numbers 13 to help a group of students to pray for their campus in a different way than they usually pray. This might be helpful as you think about as you prepare yourselves for what God wants to do through you this year at your campus or among the students of your city.

Numbers 13 Prayer exercise

It is really pretty easy to do. Last week I met with a team of leaders who had just transitioned in because the key leader from the fall is spending the semester abroad.

I had the four students work together to make a map of the campus [you can draw out each location of your school in different sections on a piece of paper]. I had them highlight the dorms and write in how many students were in each dorm. If a dorm had freshman concentrations I had them write that information, [or other facts you know about the students in each dorm]. I then had them identify how many commuters came to the school and write that information where [they arrive when coming to campus]. The next thing I had them do on the map was have them … identify the main pathways and [hangout places] that exist on the campus.  [And list out any other helpful information about the students at your school.]

When they had completed this I had them open to Numbers 13:1-3, 17-33. We read the passage and I asked them the following questions:

§  What was happening in the passage?

§  What was the land like that the spies explored?

§  What was the report that the spies gave?

§  Did all the spies agree?

§  What was the difference between Joshua and Caleb and the other spies? (eyes of faith)

§  What do you think God wanted the people of Israel to do?

Answer the following questions as you think of your campus,

§  What is it like?

§  What are the giants that you face on campus?

§  What do you think God wants to do on our campus?

§  What do you need to do to see God’s plan for your campus become a reality.

… [Talk together about what you all are asking God to do at your school.  What would it look like if God answered your prayers and if God could work freely on your campus?]  Pray together conversationally about the vision that God has laid on your heart.

I think this is a really great idea for inspiring prayers of faith as you together ask God to do something that only He can do on your campus.  Please let me know what you are praying for God to do so that my team and I can join you in prayer!

Beloved charter

I was very involved in ministry on campus most of my student years.  But when I reached my 5^th year, I began student teaching and had to step out of student ministry during that time as the preparation for teaching my classes took up most of my time.  I slowly began to have a nagging feeling that God wasn’t as pleased with me as He was when I was ‘serving’ Him daily on campus.  I understood in my head that He loves me and is pleased with me no matter what, but deep in my heart I still struggled with the idea that I needed to work somehow to earn His pleasure.

This summer I started working through a workbook called, Discovering our spiritual identities (practices for God’s Beloved).  It was the subtitle that caught my eye.  I am really enjoying going through the exercises understanding my ‘belovedness’ is based on God’s heart  rather than on what I do for Him.

I wanted to share with you one of the exercises that I have enjoyed the most so far.  It is to write what the author, Trevor Hudson, calls ‘a personal beloved charter.’   The Beloved Charter (I call mine, ‘my beloved letter’) “induces us to see ourselves through the eyes of the Holy One and to feel about ourselves the way God feels [about us].”   As an example, here is Trevor’s “Beloved Charter”:

Trevor, you are My beloved child in whom I delight.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you.  You are My friend.  I formed your inward parts and knitted you together in your mother’s womb. You are fearfully and wonderfully made a little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory and honor.  You have been created in Christ Jesus for good works which I have already prepared to be your way of life.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you, when you walk through fire you shall not be burned and the flames shall not consume you.  You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you.  I know all your longings; your sighing is not hidden from Me.  Nothing will ever be able to separate you from My love in Christ Jesus, your Lord.  Abide in My love.

When I read Trevor’s ‘Beloved charter’ I had a sense of the deep issues that his heart must struggle with.  I thought about which verses in the Bible really grab my heart and soul when I read them and so I came up with my own ‘Beloved charter/letter’.  You will see the deeper struggles of my heart (belonging, longing to experience grace and kindness, to be ‘fancied’/enjoyed/wanted – I’m a girl!). 

O Hephzibah, My delight is in you!  You are Mine and I am yours and together We belong to God.  You are precious in My sight and I love you, I am with you and nothing can separate you from My love. I desire your beauty.  I rejoice over you, I sing and shout over you. 

I will betroth you to Me forever in faithfulness and in kindness and compassion.  I long to be gracious to you… to have compassion on you.  I will allure [woo] you and speak kindly to you. I have loved you with an everlasting love.  I have drawn you with loving-kindness.  I will surround you and enfold you with unfailing love .

I think about you all day long, I sing over you throughout the night.  I cannot stop thinking about you and the number of My thoughts toward you cannot be counted.  I watch over everything that concerns you. You are My beloved, Hephzibah!  I have called you by name and you are Mine!

I heartily encourage you to write your own ‘Beloved letter’!  Read it frequently.  Delight that He simply loves you; it is not based on what you do!  Abide in His love.  Let your service flow out of your relationship with Him.