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Time for Action
by
David Lumm
Before I say
what I have to say, first let me share my inspiration for this
article. The inspiration comes from Jesus' commands to the
disciples (and us) in Matthew 28:16-20 and Acts 1:1-5 and also
from the example of the early Church in Acts 2:1-4, 42-47.
Jesus commands: "Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20; all quotes
NIV) and then, before He is taken up to Heaven tells them, "Do
not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised,
which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with
water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy
Spirit." We see the early Church do this and "the Lord added
to their number daily those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47).
Sounds good, doesn't it?
I believe our identity as Salvationists is made up of three
key aspects, which can be viewed a little like embedded Venn
diagrams. As Christians we are part of the outer group, this
is the largest group that contains all the others - this is
representative of the Body of Christ. Within the first group
is a smaller group made up of the Holiness movement; The
Salvation Army is one of several groups born out of the
Methodist Holiness movement. Finally, as Salvationists we are
in an inner circle, a subset of the total Holiness movement.
Looking from the outside in, our "Christian Identity" is made
up of these three features: Salvation, Holiness and The
Salvation Army! This is important as our identity requires
certain things from us - to be honest what I'm talking about
isn't just for Salvationists, but our calling requires this of
us even more so! It's not that some Christians can ignore
Jesus' commands, rather that we have been called to live and
breathe His command aggressively for the rest of our days.
I had to go and mention calling, didn't I? The fact is that
God calls all of us. Calling isn't something for officers or
missionaries, it doesn't just apply to monks and nuns. People
might say "calling is for the priesthood", as if only some
people are specially set apart. Holiness is for all of us,
therefore all of us can be (and should be) set apart! In The
Salvation Army we believe in something called "the priesthood
of all believers" - that means that we're all priests, all
ministering to a flock and we all have the same access to God.
In the old days it might be a priest that spoke for God, now
it can be any one of us. So you see, if we're all priests,
we're all called. Tough.
Jesus gave that last command before He went up to Heaven: Go
and make disciples! He says a few other things in His last
moments on Earth, but this is the very last command He gives
just before He is taken up. He wasn't just talking to the men
and women gathered round Him on that hilltop. We don't know
how many people were gathered around Jesus that day, but I
think it's easy to say with some confidence that it would have
been nigh on impossible for that group to disciple the whole
world in their lifetime. The only way it could work
efficiently is if each of them discipled a couple of people,
who in turn disciple a couple more and on and on like that. In
more recent history the Church has started to think that one
should disciple the many and we've become more like recipients
rather than participants.
No, that's not how it's supposed to be. Go. Jesus says go and
make disciples. The instruction is to each and every one of
us! If you are saved you have something to teach somebody
else. We never stop growing, we never stop learning. Being a
disciple means we learn from someone else. That teaching and
learning starts with the truths of the gospel: All have sinned
and fall short of the glory of god; God is mighty to save and
unwilling that any should be lost; God so loved the world that
He gave his one and only son so that none should perish, but
all could have eternal life. If that's all you feel equipped
to teach, then teach it. Go and make disciples!
Here we are talking about mission, let's just take a look at
the mission statement of The Salvation Army. There are
actually a few things bouncing around and I forget which is
the official one these days, but my favourite was where John
Gowans summed up our mission perfectly with one simple short
sentence: "To save souls, grow saints and serve suffering
humanity". The first two (saving souls, growing saints) just
reaffirms the Great Commission of Jesus Christ, the latter
adds to it, defining The Salvation Army's specific calling in
the world.
To be honest, I think within the Salvation Army we've lost our
fighting spirit a little bit. If we're at the scene of a
battle (think men in armour more than modern warfare) The
Salvation Army has retreated back to camp to celebrate it's
victories and forgotten to come back out and fight. We've been
having our festivals, and enjoying fellowship, but we've
neglected the battle raging around us, all the while letting
other Churches that don't have our calling to fight in our
place. You know what? It's time for action! It's time to
fight! Is this an Army? This is The Salvation Army, pushing
out Salvation in front and leaving Holiness in our wake. Is
this an Army? Then where are it's soldiers? Will you go? Your
commander-in-chief needs you!
God is a giver of gifts. He loves to give to us and He's
infinitely generous, but He doesn't spoil us and He never
gives more than we need. He only gives us just enough of what
we need for a particular purpose before giving us the next
gift. He likes to know that we're dependent on Him! This all
starts when we are in Sin - God provides the gift of
salvation. Once saved He provides the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Once we're fully kitted out with Salvation and Holiness he
calls us, then He equips us to live out that calling! Each
gift highlights a new need and in turn God responds with
another gift. It becomes a constant cycle of
gift-calling-gift.
In Isaiah 55 God says to Israel (a promise now open to us
too): "Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink—even if you have no
money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk—it’s all free!
Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength?
Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you
will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food. Come to
me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. I
will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you
all the unfailing love I promised to David. See how I used him
to display my power among the peoples. I made him a leader
among the nations. You also will command nations you do not
know, and peoples unknown to you will come running to obey,
because I, the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, have
made you glorious."
God is saying "Come and receive what you need. Now go with my
power behind you!" Looking back at our reading we heard Jesus'
final instruction was a mission statement, 'go and make
disciples'. The followers had another instruction to follow
before that, though. Jesus had met with them and said 'wait'.
The long term mission is 'go' but the immediate instruction is
'first wait'. The followers had to be equipped before they
could follow. Before they could fulfill their ultimate mission
to go and make disciples they had to receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit. You know what? Once they received the gift, God
lived up to his promise and made them glorious! That last
passage ends "And the Lord added to their number daily those
who were being saved." Oh boy, He made them glorious! They
follow their calling and the rewards are great. When they were
in step with God's calling, doing the right combination of
going and waiting, the church was born, and boy was it born
quick!
In Matthew (17:20) Jesus says to His disciples "I tell you the
truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can
say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will
move. Nothing will be impossible for you." A little bit of
faith and nothing will be impossible. He has made you
glorious! We have the early church to prove it. We have the
early Salvation Army to prove it.
Katie Booth-Clibborn, daughter of William and Catherine was
taken to Paris by her mother at the age of 22 and left there
with a small group of young women to introduce "L'Armee du
Salut" to France.
Within a week she was “sworn at, jeered at, and pelted with
stones and mud …” But her incredible tenacity and sincerity of
purpose gradually won through. They nicknamed her “La
Capitaine” at first … and then “La Maréchale” (the Marshall).
The first meetings in Paris were in a dingy building in a
rough quarter, where, as the police sergeant remarked, “they
have got in that crowd half the cut-throats of Paris”. Yet
these hardened men were dazzled by the innocent and dedicated
zeal of the young ladies pressing upon them a gospel which
their religion-hating culture had denied them. After no
result from exhausting effort a Christian lady advised Katie
to return to her mother in England. The reply came, “If I
cannot save France, I can die for it!” Young Catherine won her
first convert by going to an old washer-woman at the back of
the meeting, hugging her and telling her how much she loved
her. With the assistance of a dozen other young women
under her remarkable leadership – ever in the forefront of the
battle for souls – the Maréchale planted the Salvation Army
also in Switzerland, Belgium and Holland.
This isn't just faith, this is faith with teeth! This is
powerful stuff. They had faith, they followed a calling and
they were blessed. God made them glorious! These days we seem
to think that it's OK to just "believe", we don't necessarily
have to act on it. More than that, some people think they can
be Christians and never be with other Christians. It's not
solitary and it's not idle. James wrote about faith and action
in his letter, in James 2:14-18 (from the Message paraphrase)
"Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if
you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does
merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has
it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags
and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in
Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without
providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that
get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is
outrageous nonsense? I can already hear one of you agreeing by
saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department,
I'll handle the works department." Not so fast. You can no
more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show
you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and
faith, fit together hand in glove."
Faith requires action, and action born out of true faith is
confident and passionate. To paraphrase Catherine Booth, "show
people anything less than whole-hearted spirit-filled
world-changing Christianity and they will spit on it and turn
their backs". Real faith, real action is the sort of stuff
that will make us glorious! God says go, so don't just meander
off in that general direction, get going! Go!
William Booth said, "While women weep, as they do now, I'll
fight; while children go hungry, as they do now I'll fight;
while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do
now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there
is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one
dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight, I'll fight to
the very end!" That's fighting talk, that is! That's passion.
That's faith in action! He lived up to his promise and boy did
God make him glorious! Well done, my good and faithful
servant!
God isn't just a God of gifts. He is a God of impossible
gifts. Just look at how He treated the Isrealites escaping
Egypt. When they found a river that was impossible to cross
blocking their way, God made it possible. When they were
hungry in the desert and thought their survival was
impossible, God made it possible. When they were thirsty in
the desert God made water come out of a stone. Impossible?
What about all those excuses you're thinking of, all those
obstacles stopping you from living out your calling? Are they
bigger than an uncrossable river, more drastic than a distinct
absence of food, more impossible than finding water in a
desert? Is the almighty God not big enough to handle your
problems? If God is calling you, why shouldn't you follow? Has
He not proven Himself able? Is He not sufficient? Are not all
the promises of God sure? God has surely proven Himself
trustworthy! Take a look back over your life, when has God
been anything less than all-mighty? If God calls, He equips!
Go!
You want excuses? God called Abraham to leave everything he
knew in pursuit of an unknown land filled with promise.
Abraham left his comfortable life in order to receive an
incredible blessing from God. Where would we be now if Abraham
had not followed. Abraham was 75 when he started that journey!
He was 100 when he finally got the promised son. Abraham had
plenty of excuses and (frankly) not a lot of faith, but God
made him glorious!
Sometimes what God asks of us doesn't make sense. It looks
like He's asking something silly, or something impossible. We
think there are too many reasons not to do it. We should do
it! If God asks us to do something we should trust him and do
it. Just go! There is a story of a man who felt called to buy
some milk, he was unsure but only that Sunday had the pastor
preached about listening to God, so he bought the milk - he
thought, if the worst comes to the worst, he could use it
himself. God asked him to drive through a rough part of town
late at night, despite it being out of his way, he was in no
rush so he decided to go. He then felt God ask him stop the
car and knock on a particular door - now this was getting
tough, it was time for real faith. He could hear shouting and
a baby crying... "This place, Lord?" he asked... But the
feeling in the pit of his stomach only grew stronger. Yeah, it
was this place. He knocked gingerly, hoping that the people
inside would just think he was weird and close the door on
him.
A woman came to the door, holding a baby and just looked at
him in silence. He slowly held up the milk and said nervously,
"I have a gift for you"... the woman ran back into the
apartment screaming and shouting in some foreign language and
then a rather large man came back with her, they were both
speaking in the strange language really fast. The man weighed
up his options, did he have time to run for it? He didn't and
anyway, he was frozen to the spot. The large man reached the
door and began to cry. In broken english he asked, "Are you an
angel?" "No," replies our man, now somewhat confused. "I
thought maybe you were an angel," the larger man says,
"because you have answered our prayers." It soon emerged that
the baby had been crying for some time because it was so
hungry; the family could not afford any food and didn't know
anyone in the city. They had prayed for two days solid to a
God they didn't really know and suddenly an unknown man had
brought them food. The first man left there crying himself,
utterly confused and utterly blessed, the family were left
with food and faith. God had spoken, the man had listened. A
little faith had gone a long long way!
You know what, sometimes God will ask us to do things that are
strange, or maybe aren't what we're used to. He may ask us to
do things that we don't feel capable of doing or don't think
is our place. The man in our story was not a milkman, but God
used him to deliver milk. Does that make sense?
God asked Noah to build a giant ship and load it with animals.
Despite everything Noah thought he knew, despite every gut
feeling, despite what the neighbours might say he did it. He
had no choice, really. He loved God, he trusted God and he
felt honoured and blessed to have been spoken to by God -
could he then turn around and say "Nah, I ain't the man for
this, sorry most high God". So can we refuse our mission?
There's always the question of how we understand our mission
and/or how we hear God's voice. Some people will be lucky
enough to hear an actual voice, but most will have feelings,
they'll hear things from other people, perhaps God will give
you an audible message via someone else. It may not happen so
suddenly and it may not be so drastic as the way God called
Abraham or Noah; God can build something deep into your heart.
He can insert a passion deep into your soul. That passion is
there to equip you to do His work. What are your passions? For
the early church, they waited as they were instructed and The
Holy Spirit led them. William Booth was already preaching but
felt moved to work with a particular group of unchurched
people. His spirit was moved to respond to a specific need.
For me and my wife, it was a combination of passion in our
hearts, messages from other people and even timely sermons.
Lucy has a built-in passion for Cornwall, I have a passion for
spiritual warfare and we both have a passion to work for God.
Someone gave us a word from God, others confirmed our passion
to tackle darkness head on and we heard sermons encouraging us
to get on and do what God was asking of us. Over a period of
about a month our thoughts and feelings, and all these
messages started to come together - leading us towards a
single vision: Go to Cornwall, go where there isn't an Army,
somewhere by the sea and spread the gospel and tackle
spiritual darkness. Over time we were able to collect the
basic elements of our mission into a modified form of the
mission statement above: To push back the darkness and claim
the land for God; To Save Souls, Grow Saints, Train Warriors
and serve suffering humanity.
So to recap, you get saved, you get called, and then what
next? Test it. Read the Bible, pray, speak to other believers
you trust and ask them to pray. Ultimately, you need to follow
the model that I have highlighted, which is get a calling that
is in-line with your commission (if it isn't, reject it
because it's not of God), wait to be equipped and then "Go"!
One thing we found important was that it's OK to test God.
Gideon tested God and God wasn't angry. If you're not sure,
ask for a sign, but be specific! God is able! He's also
endlessly patient! When it comes to actually going, the cost
may be high, but the rewards are so much more valuable.
Remember that God will make you glorious!
I believe that there is a question hanging in the air for each
and every one of us and it requires an answer! God is asking,
whom shall I send? Will you go? Will you go in the strength of
the Lord? What is God asking of you? What mission does he have
for you? Perhaps today He is saying "Go!" or perhaps He is
telling you to wait to be equipped. Maybe today God's message
for you is as simple as "I AM SUFFICIENT!" Whatever the
message, don't ignore it! If He is asking you to go and do
something, I encourage you to try saying yes to God - it'll be
exciting!
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