at Adventures in Missions is the idea of “rais[ing] up a generation of radically committed disciples.” We are constantly saying we want to become the generation that brings God’s Kingdom to the nations. When we talk about our mission statement and vision for ministry, we focus on the generation being the bigger picture. But I am not sure that is the biggest at which we can look. I think we can go much deeper into our roots to find out to what God is calling us.
“Kingdom” is the other buzz word for us around the World Race. We talk a lot on how we are a part of the Kingdom of God, how we are responsible to live Kingdom-driven lives. We want to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, love the un-loved, give hope to the hopeless. My belief, however, is that these are all characteristics of the children of God, not things or actions.
It says throughout the Bible, and specifically in 1 John that “God is Love.” It does not say that God gives love, but that He is love. Love is not an action of God, it is a characteristic of God. God exists and so does love. Scripture also says “God is Light.â€� Not that God made light but that
He
is
Light. Genesis 1 says, “Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.� It was not something that God created out of nothing. It was something that was because God was.
Here is when things get even better. Again in 1 John, it says “As He is, so are we in this world.� So what God is we are also. Who God is we are. God made man in His own image. And we know that God has His own Kingdom, right? Things start to piece together when we look at Christ and what Paul said about Christ. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he says that we are children of God (like sons of God, get it?). It says we are co-heirs with Christ (The Son of God). Christ says, Himself, that we will do greater things than Himself. To me this sounds like Christ is saying I am His brother, and that I have just as much a place in Heaven as He does, especially since He sanctified me from death.
We inherit the Kingdom of God alongside Jesus Christ, Himself.
To get back to my point, this goes a lot deeper than our generation. Or the next generation. Or the last generation. This goes back to the beginning. In the beginning, God created mankind. God created a species. God created a nation of people. A tribe. A Kingdom. An entire Creation. And it really started with Adam. We were, as a people, sons and daughters of God. We were inheritors of God’s Kingdom. We were royalty from the beginning!
Unfortunately, Adam and Eve began to forget who they were. Mankind started to think they were their own, or that they were simply a little toy God liked to play with. We forgot that we are royalty. We forgot that we had a place for us in God’s Kingdom before we were born. Scripture says, “Before you were in your mothers womb, I knew you.� So to put it into very confusing language,
We were before we were.
And because God is Love, He never filled up that place in His Kingdom that was ours before we were created physically. And He did not fill the spot when we forgot who we were. Jesus Christ came not just to walk on water, put on a magic show, and run out of the tomb naked. He came to Earth so that we could be reminded of Who We Are, and the place we still have in Our Kingdom.
We are more than just a group of friends. We are more than a group of like-minded people who have experienced the world. We are more than a group of people who believe in the same thing. We are more than our prayers. We are more than our love. We are more than our songs. We are more than prophecies, healings, or other miracles. We are more than a generation. We are more than a species.
We are a nation. A Kingdom. A Tribe. A Creation. Children of God. Holy. Righteous. Power. Love. And this is not something new that God is planning for us to get into in the future. It is who we were from the beginning and who we forgot we were. It is who Jesus Christ came to remind us we are.
When we go out into the nations as missionaries, or when we send out hundreds of missionaries, our desire is not to put on shows, to tell people something they want to hear so that they will give us money or that we will get a special place in heaven. We, very simply put, want to remind people of who they are, who God created them to be.
Thanks for reading.
