What's Your Dream, part 2

Align Your Dream with God’s Dream

      As a follower of Christ, you need to become acutely aware of what is on God’s heart at this moment in time. As I read the Bible it becomes very clear that God’s heart is for people all over the world to know Him and experience a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. God desperately desires that people know and believe that Jesus paid the price for their sin on the cross. As you read on I want to challenge you as a follower of Jesus to align yourself with a dream from God’s heart; that all people know Jesus and have eternal life. My challenge to you is to give yourself to seeing this achieved on the earth in your lifetime. The good news is you don’t have to become a traditional missionary to do this but you will have to make a conscious decision to become aware and pray for the needs of the world and take practical steps to achieve your part in God’s dream and plan.

      Your part in God’s dream and desire will differ from the next person. One may be called to serve God with an unreached tribe in the Philippines and another may be called to make millions in business to contribute to mission. Another person may be called to be an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher in order to build up the church to serve God better in the world. Yet another may be called to bring the kingdom of God into the world of politics or education. Note the word ‘called’. Your calling is aligned to your dream! I believe each one of us is called to serve God in some capacity.

      It must be said here that we need to lay down our own personal selfish ambitions and live for God inspired dreams. I could quickly list off ten great ambitions that I could have if my faith were to fly out of the window. I would love to cruise the world, own a BMW, own a house in LA, become a millionaire, travel first class everywhere I go, build my own dream home, have a swimming pool, own a private jet, wear designer clothes and eat in Michelin Star restaurants. All of these things are not wrong, but they are very wrong if I make them the main aim and goal for my life. The heart of dreaming God’s dreams is putting Him first in everything and laying down our desires. In Romans 12:1 we are encouraged to be ‘living sacrifices’; that means that we die to our own desires and live for what God would have us live for.

       If you align your dream with God’s dream then you will achieve great fulfilment in your life. You will be truly blessed as you live for something much bigger than yourself. This may require a shift in mindset. Many of us were taught to leave the spreading of the gospel to the experts, give to the church and get a good job. It is not wrong to be in secular work. I really believe God needs ambassadors in all walks of life. Start to see yourself as part of God’s huge plan and purpose for the world. Ask God to help you to see yourself as an ambassador of Christ as you pursue the dream. See your God given dream as more than just a dream; see it as your mission, your role in bringing the kingdom of God to people. This is where life gets really exciting!

What's Your Dream?

Each of us has desires in our heart, things we would love to accomplish. Maybe you have a dream to become an author or an artist. You could have a deep desire to be a preacher or to one day set up an orphanage on the other side of the world. When we have fully given our lives to Christ, the desires of our heart align with God’s desires for us. We often dream God’s dreams for us without even knowing it. In Psalm 37:3-5 it says ‘Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart’. When we are truly in a good place with God and we are delighting in Him and when He is our number one priority, then we start to see our dreams come true.

      Let’s take a closer look at your dreams. What is it that you would love to see happen in your lifetime? If you could really achieve anything, what would it be? What inspires you? Who inspires you? When we answer these questions we then begin to tap into the real ‘desires of our heart’, the very desires that God longs to fulfil.

      One thing that grieves me is when I hear people saying that they do not enjoy their career. A great amount of most people’s adult life is spent in the workplace and it is distressing to think that so many people are unhappy in their job. Many stay in an unhappy work situation because it is safe and pays the bills.

      It is unfortunate that many people are locked into a ‘safe’ world where their real desires and dreams will never come true. That ‘safe’ place then becomes a prison and a place of confinement. Some of the most inspiring people I have met are those who are willing to follow their dreams. They are people who take positive steps into their desired future. I want to make a note here that these people are not ‘chasing fantasies’ they are individuals who truly follow their God inspired dreams. Proverbs 12:11 says ‘Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense’. Following a God given dream will take hard work. It will mean that you will have to ‘work the land’. Proverbs 28:19 states that those who chase fantasies will have their ‘fill of poverty’. It is very important that we discern the difference between a fantasy and a God given dream and desire. As you read on my hope is that your focus becomes clear and you get a real revelation of the dreams that God has placed inside your heart. 

Normal Evangelism

When we think about evangelists we tend to think about powerful characters who can command an audience and achieve great results in God.

We are all called to do the work of an evangelist and share our story with the world around us.

It's not that hard when we step into the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Wherever you are today, ask God for opportunities to talk about Him to people in your world.

Missional Church! What makes a Church Missional?

I really thank God that the church we are involved in is indeed missional!

Here are some basic thoughts on Missional Church as I try to get my head around it.

There is a huge spectrum of what mission looks like at a local church level. Below are some of the scenarios you often find in churches who are totally involved in missions, partly involved and not at all engaged.

Total Involvement A church with mission at the heart is a church who see mission as the DNA and structure around which the church is built. ·      This kind of church will usually include people in leadership who are apostolic or evangelistic in gifting and equip the whole church to be missional in their thinking and practice. ·         A majority of church activities are ‘outreach’ based and focus on winning people to Jesus. ·         The giving of such churches to missions is often outstanding and there is a general sense of excitement and motivation in the congregation. ·         There is a structure and expectation to support those who are wanting to be involved in long term mission service or set up local mission initiatives. ·         This kind of church would have a well structured mission programme and most likely have several short-term mission trips taking place every year. ·         This church would value mission right from the locality to the ends of the earth. They educate their congregation on unreached people groups and encourage all to get involved in giving and praying and going on mission.

Some Involvement ·         This church is concerned with keeping the membership happy and so cater to the desires of those who are in the church rather than outreaching into the community and the world. ·         There is some involvement in missions in terms of their giving to missions projects around the world and they may also run some outreach style activities but more on a sporadic basis. ·         Missions activity and evangelism is encouraged but there is no formal structure to enable this to happen.

A Little/ No Involvement ·         This kind of church has long since ceased to do any form of outreach or evangelism into the community. ·          It is more focused on maintaining the status quo. Such churches do not attract the younger generation. ·         If you asked the congregation whether they believe in evangelism they would whole heartedly agree and yet they do not know how to reach out to their community let alone the world. Such churches are often led by pastor/ teacher leaders in gifting who personally have no vision for outreach. ·         This kind of church may give to missionaries when they are on itinerary.

How can local churches be more missional?

The Leader Needs to be Mission minded

A well known saying by John Maxwell is that ‘everything rises and falls on leadership’. Great leaders have the potential to influence and enthuse their followers. Any church which is going to have a missional emphasis will definitely have a leader who is passionate about seeing a lost world won to Christ. Such leaders are innovative and active individuals who draw others into the task of the Great Commission.

The church will reflect its leader. If the leader is very pastoral and nurturing then the church will attract people who need care and attention. The church may also be full of nurturing types of people. If you have a church which is led by a very evangelistic or apostolic person, you will find a church enthused to do evangelism and outreach. If the leader has a passion for Israel, this too will be reflected in the church. For a church to be truly missional, the leader has to be mission minded and know how to equip and channel missional activity in the 

church.

The leader needs to be ‘releasing’ in nature. This means that they are more involved in the advancement of the Kingdom of God rather than holding onto gifted or talented individuals in the church- should those individuals wish to serve God in another capacity or context. The leader needs to also balance ‘releasing’ with ‘shepherding’ and protecting the congregation as they go about serving God.

The Vision of the Church Must be Missional

I believe it is wise for every church to have a vision statement. This needs to be prayerfully thought through. For a church to be truly missional the vision statement should reflect this emphasis and then the activities of the church should centre around this. My view is that a missional church should have ‘discipleship of all nations’ as an agenda.

A church leader we know stated that a missional church is ‘A church that pushes boundaries to reach people, breaks down barriers to minster the gospel to them, and builds bridges to connect them to God and the Church!’ This would be a great vision statement for a church to take on board.

The Church Must be Taught on Missions

The church congregation need to be taught about missions. I wonder how many Christians truly understand the Great Commission and placing God’s plan for the world as a top priority in their life.

Churches need to be taught about the significance of Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8 and other Great Commission scriptures. Christians need to know that God wants to use each person in His great master plan to reach the nations with the gospel. Such teaching and emphasis must be prioritised throughout the year.

The church need to be educated on global issues and unreached people groups with a focus on how we need to love all races in the world.

The Church Need Equipping and Encouraging to Get Involved in Mission.

Beyond teaching is the whole emphasis of training. Churches need to be trained and equipped to get involved in missions. There needs to be well thought through plans and opportunities for every church member to be equipped to reach others. Churches need to encourage those who have faith to share their faith with others. It is a good idea for churches to invite visiting evangelists to come and share thoughts and ideas on how to reach others with the gospel and opportunities to invite the un-churched to evangelistic meetings.

There also needs to be space and opportunities for individuals in the church to set up projects in order to raise money for mission and get further involved in missions work at home and abroad.

Thinking about the persecuted church

I have been deeply moved by the plight of Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani who is sentenced to death because he is a Christian. There are other false charges against him as well.

Let us pray for those who are in prison for their faith. God can move mountains!
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Today I've been talking to a friend on the phone who is passionate for mission, I thought to myself, if only all churches had one or two people in them who were so passionate- this nation would be changed. Let us get on fire for God and seek His Kingdom with all our hearts.