The Greatest Missionary

I never thought that I would be someone in full time missions. Now we live in Africa.

When I was a small boy I was torn between becoming a racecar drive and a dinosaur. Throughout college, although I was in student ministry, my focus and pursuit was the medical field. When I graduated and found my first job, I believed I had found my career. Looking back now, it was just a training ground for where we are today. It humbles me that the Lord has chosen us to be sent out into the world. There have been countless missionaries before us, and the road is well paved, and yet it still seems so surreal. I love my calling and I count it a privilege to be full time in ministry. Am I any more of a missionary now than I was when I worked for the Reference Laboratory and was in lay college ministry? No. Am I any more of a missionary now than when I worked as a Medical Technologist? No. Is this new vocation God’s direction in my life? Yes. I’ve preached for years “be a missionary wherever you go.” It doesn’t matter what you’ve chosen as your vocation in life. Our chief responsibility is to hear from the Lord and be lead by the Holy Spirit, keeping ourselves pure so as to not have anything come between our soul and the Savior.

As humans, we often like to think about “who is the greatest?” The greatest football player? Walter Payton. The greatest author? Shakespeare. The person that is the best at a particular gifting. The best at making money? Bill Gates (among others). The best salesman? Most politicians. You get the point. What about who was the greatest missionary? Was it someone like Billy Graham, David Livingston or George Muller? Although all of these were great missionaries, the greatest of them all was Jesus Christ.

Jesus left his eternal dwelling place. The place he had always known for all of eternity. He left the perfect unity of fellowship with the Father to come to this earth. The place that he had created became what wasn’t intended to be. The sin cursed earth needed a Redeemer and he was sent. You would think that all of humanity would instantaneously bow at his feet in gratitude and thanksgiving but instead “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” (Jn 1:11). But he still came. He was obedient to the will of the Father.

I was blown away by a verse that I read recently. I’ve read this verse countless times but it jumped off the page and into my heart this past week. “For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.” (Jn 3:34) Jesus has been sent. He was the greatest missionary of all time. He left his eternal dwelling place and came to earth. He left the familiar (purity) and came to a place of unfamiliarity (sin and its consequences). He came to those that didn’t know him, despised him, rejected him and ultimately put him to death. As a sent one, he was the voice, the oracle of God, representing the Father in all ways. Was he alone on his journey? No. He had a helpmate, the Holy Spirit, the paraclete – one who comes up beside, a helper.

In human terms, we usually think of things that ultimately get depleted and run out. Food, money, gasoline, batteries etc run out. When we use something, it ends up becoming empty, depleted, broken or useless over time. It’s one of the laws of our universe. There is one major exception though and Jn 3:34 emphasizes it: the unending supply of the Holy Spirit. We have been given a gift that doesn’t run out. An infinite, limitless supply. This principle of a limitless supply of the Holy Spirit applies not only to Jesus, but to us as well. First, we see God – the creator and sustainer of life, has a will and a purpose for us. He had a purpose for Christ, and he has a will for all of humanity. This same Creator sends us out – those that respond by faith to his will, to accomplish his will here on earth. As we are responsive to the will of God, we can be his mouthpiece. Just as Christ was the voice of God, so we are called to vocalize the will of God. To speak as we are spoken to through the conduit called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is that channel by which we get our marching orders. With the Holy Spirit comes incredible blessings, like a limitless supply of power, strength and truth. It doesn’t run out. The Holy Spirit doesn’t become tired, spent, exhausted or worn out like all of creation. The Holy Spirit is limitless! Without limit, without end.

I challenge you to consider your ways. Are you God’s servant, being lead out to in a missional way to represent him each and every day? God doesn’t call every person into full time missions in another culture (it wouldn’t make sense, who would represent him in the stores, factories, organizations and companies in every part of the world??) he has you just where he wants you. You are to be his mouthpiece. You are sent into the world to speak his voice. Where does your strength, power, courage, boldness and vitality come from? A limitless supply of the Holy Spirit. Ask that the Lord would clearly confirm your calling and to fill you in a greater way with the limitless supply of the Holy Spirit and just see what happens…

May you be encouraged.