As I’ve been working my way through the Gospel of Mark recently, I’ve been impressed by how Jesus confronts the disciples to step out and do amazing things to demonstrate the compassion of the Kingdom of God. When he sends out the 70 he tells them to go with the simplest message and only the most basic supplies. We are to go in the Spirit and with a companion and trust in God to supply. This is a foreign strategy to most of today’s North American church. Yet when the disciples returned from this mission trip, they came back with amazing stories of all that God had done through them including healing many people and driving away evil. We sometimes feel that we simply don’t have the supplies or funding to make much of an impact in our world so we just muddle along, but Jesus calls us to realize that he himself is the provider—Jehovah – Jireh. We often look at the glass as half empty but Jesus’ attitude was to take all that you have (however little it may seem), thank God for it, and then give it all away and trust God to make it work. This was clearly his attitude when feeding the 5,000 with only five loaves of bread and two fish, and a miracle happened. In the gospel story, Jesus commands his disciples to feed the people. He tells them: “You give them something to eat.” They raise all kinds of objections about the cost and impracticality of doing this work but Jesus tells them to get started. I have had many experiences in ministry where I have acted like the disciples and determined to be practical and go cautiously, and I have found at times this caution has taken both the passion and the faith – risk element out of the project. There have also been times when even against common sense advice I have dared to initiate something that God has used to His glory and which has brought blessing to many people. One example of this was when I was pastor in Nelson, B.C., and we felt led to offer a series of summer schools that would reach out to adults from near and far. Many thought it would be impossible and no one would come. We had rented the local university and had recruited some well – known Christian leaders like J. I. Packer, and offered workshops led by local leaders. The result? People did come and there was an amazing work of the Holy Spirit among many, and people grew in ways that changed their lives. When I on occasion meet them, they always bring up the remembrance of those summer schools. I am not advocating that we become reckless, spiritual fanatics, but after many years of ministry I am saying if you want the joy and excitement that faith promises (but few experience) you need to be willing at some point to put aside just trying to do your best and instead just decide to do! This trusting in Jesus will take you to a new level of faith. Hebrews 11 teaches us that “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for … And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”Paul tells the church of his day that they also need to live to give glory to God by seeking to do more than they thought was humanly possible. He tells them and us in Ephesians 3:20 – 21: “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.” Let it not be our generation who fails to act with this holy boldness that brings blessing to us and to those to whom we minister in His name.
