Rather than waiting for some kind of
mystical call from God, every believer should respond to the revealed will of
God. Jesus Christ’s great commission to ‘make disciples of all nations’ remains
applicable to every believer ‘even to the end of the age’ (Mathew 28:19-20).
For a believer, personal involvement in the great commission is not optional.
We don’t need a call – we’ve already been commissioned. Every single Christian
is to be making some contribution to world evangelization and discipleship.
Every believer without exception must develop an obedient ‘great commission’
heart and then honestly ask, ‘How can I better obey the Lords commission to me?’
Given below are seven practical
steps that can help you on the road to greater obedience to the great commission:
1.
Commitment: The first step is availability, and
that step ought to be settled by grateful submission to the Lordship of Christ
(Luke 9:23-26; 59-62; 14:25-35). God looks primarily at your availability and
not at your ability. Your strength may in fact be your greatest weakness before
the Lord. Or you may have umpteen vain excuses to make like Moses, Jeremiah,
Isaiah or Gideon. Unfortunately we have mistakenly taught people to indefinitely
wait for a mystical call, which actually never comes, because the clear
commission already has been given.
2.
Investigation: Begin by gathering facts: What is
the need? What are the options? What can I do? What will it cost? What do I
have to give up? How, when and where can I begin?
3.
Involvement: Every believer must participate in
Christ’s worldwide mission right here and now. We must understand our call is
to begin first in our ‘Jerusalem’ (Acts 1:8). We must also understand that our
‘Jerusalem’ is the ‘end of the earth’ for another believer on the other half of
the globe. If God has placed you in a particular campus, that is Gods sovereign
and choice mission field for you now. It is often found that if one who not
involved in the great commission while as a student rarely gets involved later in
life too.
4.
Evaluation: Make a personal inventory,
evaluating your potential by the standard of missionary qualities and
qualifications. In some cases, wisdom will indicate that you can make more
contribution to missions through a vocation at home. Or you may discover in
yourself the raw material from which cross cultural missionaries are made. If
so, you should set out on a course whereby the Potter can shape the raw
material into a finished vessel, suitable for service in a far away land.
5.
Consultation: Personal evaluation should not be
carried out in a vacuum. The New Testament records the involvement of others in
recognizing, choosing, and sending those best suited for various works – be it
serving at the tables, or going on a mission trip. You should be actively
involved in ministry so that those in leadership will have opportunity to
access your gifts, your commitment, your strengths and your weaknesses.
6.
Preparation: As long as the light remains green,
you should take those steps that will lead to the mission field of your passion.
The most important of these steps is to enrol in an accountability group whose
motto is ‘Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness’ (1 Timothy 4:7). Do
the required extensive reading and team up with those who are already in the work.
Learn as you go and learn while you do.
7.
Prayer: Pray for wisdom, strength, and open doors of
opportunity. And submit, in advance to the sovereign will of the Lord of the
harvest (Luke 10:2). Then proceed, as you pray, to obey His moral will – with
the confidence that He is at work in you ‘both to will and to work for His good
pleasure’ (Philippians 2:13).
In every endeavour of life, God wants
us to take one small step at a time based on the light that we have already been
given, leaving the unknown future in the hands of Him who holds our future. Only
as we obey one step at a time, we shall be given light for the next step. Let
us not wait nor ask to see what the end scene may look like. Instead let us in
faith step out in obedience to the great commission while it is yet TODAY…here
and now is the time for obedience.
