Throughout that month in Costa Rica, the Lord covered
His people in the nation of Carpio with the Spirit of freedom from the bondages
and baggage that they were prisoners to their whole lives. Most of the ministry that took place in
Carpio was through spiritual and emotional healings. But not by what I thought the method would
be. The freedom ministry came out of us
through an unexpected way of physical labor and relationship building. And the Lord spoke to me about that. I listened and learned. He says that missions doesn’t always look as
we think it should. It doesn’t always
have the ‘face’ of what we may recognize. And missions doesn’t always introduce it’s self as a missionary. Sometimes missions introduce it’s self as a
friend or a worker/servant or a teacher/helper. Sometimes missions don’t even introduces it’s self at all! It just jumps right on in the middle without
any warning. It says “this looks
like a good spot”. And before you
know it, ministry has taken place. And
it’s awesome when it does. I’ve learned
to be ready for it at any moment, in any activity, during any emotion, for any
outcome. God’s ministry; the Kingdom
business… that is what I am about. I am
an employee of the Kingdom business. Spreading the Word and gathering in the harvest! And that doesn’t always mean preaching,
preaching, preaching but it does mean reaching; reaching out.
By consecrating my
life and all my days to the Lord, by standing up, raising my hand and saying
“here I am, send me”, by choosing to opt in on the position in the
Kingdom business that the Lord has placed me in, by dropping all of me and all
I have and by faith following Jesus with my cross; by this I thought I was a
missionary. But the Lord said to me that
wasn’t it at all. It reminded me of when
I was a kid and I didn’t understand something that someone had said to me. My brother would take his hand flat, sweep it
over my head and make an airplane noise as if it flew right over my head. I missed it. God explained to me that it wasn’t the initial ‘yes’ response that
entitled me as a missionary but the life that comes after that. And that life can look like hauling wheel
barrels of rocks, sweating over dirt and concrete to make a church, or by
spending all day in a field chopping weeds with a machete so children can have
a place to play out of the streets, by crying and holding a baby of a young
girl next to me and it being her daughter `and` sister, or by praying for an
eight year old boy’s blind eyes and telling him that he is healed, by answering
those questions of that man about why my life is for God, what this passion in
my heart is, why Christ wants his life also. By serving, loving, forgiving, sharing, teaching, healing, praying,
caring, reaching out, and more…even when it’s hard, unpleasant, unwanted,
unsure, cold, and seems impossible; God says this is a missionary. Preserver… don’t be denied. Some call that supernatural living but I call
that normalchristian living.
