Mission. It’s a very strong and powerful word. No matter what you are talking about, when you use the word “mission,” everyone around you knows you are focused and serious on accomplishing the task before you.
When I first told people I was going on the World Race, the responses I got were overwhelmingly positive. Even if people didn’t consider themselves Christians, they were at least excited for the opportunity and the overall humanitarian impact this trip was going to have on thousands of people, myself included. To some people, it seemed absolutely crazy. And maybe it was. But I was too focused and determined. The Lord had already been pulling at my heart strings for a while. And now was the time for me to take the leap of faith and say “yes.” It was time for me to embark on my kingdom journey.
Since starting this journey over a year ago (because it really started even before I left home), I have grown so much in understanding my place in the Kingdom of God… and understanding what God’s Kingdom itself is. What’s really interesting to note is that most of my growth in understanding my mission is directly related to my intimacy with God. That’s because Jesus’ calling for His disciples to go and make disciples is called a CO-mission. We can’t go about it ourselves. We need Him. Our intimacy with Jesus directly correlates to our true effectiveness in spreading the Kingdom to everyone we meet.
Without further ado, here as some ways in which I’ve grown in mission this year.
I’ve grown to understand what “His Kingdom” means.
Whenever we as people try to define God’s Kingdom, our minds seem to go straight to heaven or paradise. But the truth of the Kingdom is that it’s not just “a place we go when we die.” God’s Kingdom can be experienced here on earth! We get to encounter His Kingdom in many ways if we are willing to partner with Him!
What does “God’s Kingdom” mean, then? It’s the domain where God is the King and it encompasses all the things that happen because God has decreed it. We ourselves are part of it whenever we fully walk in obedience to the Lord because we are partnering with what God speaks and decrees in order to bring about His purposes. In other words, we are taking part in the great CO-mission.
When we understand more of the Kingdom, we realize that even the smallest things can play a part. That’s why God says even giving a cup a cool water to the “least of these” is such a powerful thing because it is living the Kingdom lifestyle! It’s bringing the love of God to someone in seemingly small ways (in our minds) but make ripples of change in the spiritual realm (or rather, the immediately real but unseen world). Saying something is “spiritual” tends to make people think that these things aren’t tangible or physically experienced. But that’s not always the case (ex: miracles and other powerful works of the Holy Spirit). Kingdom living is often about starting small and letting God turn it into something big.
I’ve discovered some new gifts and passions this year.
Spiritual gifts was always something I was very interested in. I partially came on the Race because I was hoping to discover maybe a spiritual gift inside of me that I had never unlocked before. I grew up in a Pentecostal church, so naturally I heard about them a lot from a theoretical standpoint. But practically, they didn’t make a lot of sense in my head. Eventually, I formed the belief that “gifts of the Holy Spirit” don’t mean that we are given a special “talent.” Rather the Holy Spirit gifts a body of believers with a manifestation of His power in order to bring His Kingdom to earth. In other words, it’s us praying, “Thy Kingdom come,” and seeing Him answer the prayer directly and supernaturally. While the Lord does sometimes give people this ability all the time and calls them into a role for their whole lives (ex: prophets), thinking about spiritual gifts as manifestations if the Holy Spirit that can happen to any and every believer that God chooses to use takes the focus off of the person and puts it on God. And that’s really the way it should be. For more context on spiritual gifts, I’d recommend reading 1 Corinthians 12 as well as Romans 12.
That being said, there have been some manifestations of the Spirit that I have gotten to experience myself. At the same time, I’ve also developed passions for certain areas of ministry. These include:
- Intercessory Prayer
- I discovered this deep passion I n Colombia (month 1) and have been growing in it ever since! In Uganda (month 7), I realized just how much I’ve grown to love praying for others. I could literally sit for HOURS and pray.
- Preaching
- I discovered a greater desire for this in Rwanda (month 6). I fell in love with reading the Word and began to really hear the Lord very clearly through it. I grew in knowledge and understanding of His word all Race, but it wasn’t until Rwanda that I realized I actually enjoyed preaching and teaching from the word!
- Evangelism
- I don’t know if I would fully call myself a gifted evangelist, but I’ve recently begun to see my increased desire for evangelism. I used to be terrified of it, but I’ve done it (what feels like) hundreds of times by now on the Race. I realize my approach to evangelism is in just building relationships based on grace, not judgment. Any time I share the gospel, it feels more tangible and practical because I try to tailor it to the person’s specific story and incorporate my own story. It really feels like specific, relational preaching in a way! Haha!
- Discipleship
- This one is also more of a passion rather than a fully developed gift as well. Discipleship is how I approach my leadership. I want to see people develop, and I walk with them every step of the way. I try to put myself in their shoes and help them carry their burdens. This is how I approached team leading. True, it wasn’t officially in my job description to be a discipler as well as a leader… but I really couldn’t help it! I WANT to be there for my teammates like this. That’s just who I am, and that’s how I lead.
- Encouragement
- Truth be told, I think I’ve had this gift for a while, but I’ve grown like CRAZY in this since the Race started. I always look for ways to encourage people. I have grown to think that I’d rather be awkward in “over-encouraging” a person and showing love to them than for them to go a day without realizing how much I care about them. I think there’s always time and room for encouragement in someone’s day!
- Prophetic Words, Word if Knowledge, Discernment, Visions, and Dream Interpretation
- This is how I feel like the Lord has been speaking to me from time to time. I have been growing since month 1 in the prophetic, and I am super passionate about it! I eagerly desire to grow in this and can’t wait to see what the Lord does with this desire! His word says to eagerly desire to prophesy, and I will continue to eagerly desire it! I wouldn’t consider myself a prophet per se. But I fully believe that God does occasionally speak to me this way. And every time He does, He opens my mind to a world of love and power like I’ve never experienced before. If and when He moves in me through prophetic manifestations, I’m usually extremely surprised to see just how clearly the Lord speaks and how uniquely and specifically He speaks into other people. It amazes me He would choose to use any people like this. He doesn’t need to, but He loves us so much that He wants to include us in His Kingdom’s work! How awesome is He?
I’ve seen powerful moves of God in ministry.
I came on the Race desiring to see the Holy Spirit do “something crazy.” What I know realize is that God doesn’t do “crazy things.” The things He does are GLORIOUS because they bring Him glory! I’ve seen the Lord suddenly cure people of blindness, deliver people from demons (really!), tell people very specific details about other people they never would have known otherwise, and SO much more! It’s honestly hard to find words to describe it. But I guess you’d have to see most of this for yourself to believe it. But it’s all VERY real. Just as the Bible says it is! And now, I can know speak from experience, too!
The main thing I’ve realized is that His mission is LOVE. God wants to love His children. He will literally move mountains to prove it. We just need to believe Him at His word and partner with Him in His mission. Do you want to see people healed of all kinds of sickness? Start praying for anything and everything. Do you want to grow in prophecy? Speak love and encouragement over the people in your life. Start small, because that is sometimes how the Kingdom starts to manifest in our lives. It’s like a mustard seed at the first. But in the end, it becomes larger than life.
In all things, be blessed!
AG
