Learn to Declare!

Reading afresh Mark's Gospel I am struck at how many times Jesus spoke directly to impure spirits, to sickness conditions, and to people afflicted with conditions (even when the affliction was being dead!). Just a few examples in the first 5 chapters are:

• 1:25 commanding the impure spirit to come out
• 1:42 commanding the man afflicted with a skin condition to 'be clean'
• 3:5 directing the man to 'stretch out his hand'
• 5:41 commanding the dead girl to 'get up'
  

The phrases recorded in the gospels are direct, sharp, and to the point. They are not couched in 'ifs', 'buts' or other hedging your bets type expressions! This is Jesus commanding specific action in the physical. I assume (and this is my own theological speculation) that he did this knowing the spiritual-physical connections, and that as he uttered the words I presume he implied a corresponding change in the spiritual that would sit behind the physical outcome.

But regardless of how the spiritual & physical interact (it is hard for us to be sure on such matters), it is worth us learning from these examples! Often our prayers are less direct, filled with 'ifs' and 'maybes'. Can we learn when a direct approach is appropriate, and learn to use direct language in those circumstances?

Certainly with the impure spirits there is surely no argument in the matter. An impure spirit afflicting someone is plain wrong - full stop. It is not Kingdom, not in any way aligned with God's will. So anything less than direct words in these circumstances would actually be inappropriate.

Can we learn to do similar with other clearly discernable situations? I.e. circumstances where there is clear evil action or ongoing oppression that any of us can know is plain wrong, and cannot be squared with God's Kingdom. In those cases can we imagine positive next steps and declare those in our prayers with clear, direct, even commanding language?

If we are to follow Jesus, to learn to do as He did, surely our own prayer life and action should incorporate this style for which we see in the life of Jesus many examples.

Create in us a Desire - O Lord

A clear trait of those with evangelistic giftings is having a clear desire for other people to discover Jesus and to come to faith in Him. A frustration shared between evangelists is that other believers do not always appear to exhibit such a desire! I recall a prominent church leader explaining how their congregation didn't develop as they had hoped in the area of witnessing. After some reflection they concluded two underlying reasons: a lack of simple 'how to ...', and a lack of desire among the individual members. The first aspect can be addressed with training or coaching, but the latter is a spiritual issue.

Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4 above is a well known verse. But do we forget that God's own heart desire is for each and every person? His heart desire is to reach out to them, to include them in. For that He sent Jesus. For that He chooses to work through us.

Another Christian leader with a multi-decade ministry that has encouraged many to come to Jesus asked it like this: 'Each day, do we wake up with a genuine concern for the lost?'. I myself worry that this depth of concern seems missing among many believers. I pray that dynamic changes!

In our own work locally on a new housing estate, we are refining our thinking on how we express our sense of belonging as believers to one another where we live. Personally, we seem to be coming down to three commitments:

1. A commitment to Christ
2. A commitment to those around us (on the estate)
3. A commitment to seeing God's Kingdom across the whole estate

This set of commitments can also be expressed as what I believe are Godly desires:

1. A desire for God
2. A desire for one another (on the estate)
3. A desire for the whole estate

That third desire conveys a hope for Kingdom flourishing for the whole estate. That implies a clear desire for people to discover Jesus and to come to faith in Him.

Yet such a desire does not necessarily come automatically ... Create in us a desire, O Lord!

Adaptive Ministry

In Acts we see Paul working methodically - in most places he went first to the synagogue (the local collection of Jewish believers), and then later met with a more diverse group elsewhere. Even with his orderly approach there would have been complex mixes of Jewish believers by ancestry, Jewish believers who had 'joined', and then the 'Gentile' audiences. We glean enough in Acts to know that Paul used different angles in his telling of Jesus that best suited the hearers starting points. In other words he adapted his approach to suit.

Also in Acts we see that on their travels Christ followers apparently bumped into one another (somewhat randomly). This provided connections, encouragements and strategic opportunities as they covered the geography. Also in that random meeting there were 'levelling processes' with some - they had only heard of "John's baptism", or not heard/experienced the filling of the Spirit for example. In some cases they 'explained the gospel more adequately' (e.g. Acts 18). In other words they had to adapt their ministry dynamically, based on who they had bumped into.

As mentioned before, we are working methodically with a 'Four Fields' approach - making friendships, listening for who is spiritually open, hoping to help lead to Jesus and discipleship, and then connecting new disciples with wider networks of believers. That model assumes that everyone we meet is starting with no clear faith in Jesus ... but of course real life is way more messy! As we meet people, we discover other believers - some clear in their faith, some attending places of worship elsewhere, some with faith but not so sure on some things, and so on.

We too therefore, whilst following a model for outreach purposes, are open to adaptation. Discovering other believers is a blessing, and we can happily draw alongside to make what we believe are strategic suggestions for emerging spiritual life across the estate. Some might need particular encouragement, or benefit from input into their lives and their own walk with Jesus. Again we can swap into a mode where we offer that for those who want it.

This is ministry that adapts based on the people we meet. We have our own model for outreach, and we have some clear strategic thinking that gives high level direction to the approaches we take - but within that we then adapt, making ourselves available to walk alongside, hoping all the while to lead to more revelation of Jesus for each and every person.

Gearing

When we drive a car we change gears up or down as we pull away, accelerate, change speed etc. The gearbox in the vehicle enables us to select the best ratio of power produced by the engine to wheel speed for the conditions and vehicle speed in the moment. Car design engineers put a lot of work and calculation into those gear ratios for good reason - without the right ratios the car would not drive well.

But do we think about the ratios of our time reserved for prayer with respect to the 'wheel speed' of our activity? Or to put it another way: the 'gearing' associated with our ministry activity? Is the time and effort expended on the actual activity greater than the time (and effort) expended on prayer - and prayer focussed on that activity? Such a ratio of prayer to activity(mathematically prayer:activity) would be less than 1.0 - is that right or a good thing?

Personally I came to realise that for my own situation the ratio was not where I thought it should be - it was way less than 1.0! I figure these days it should quite often be greater than 1.0, i.e. more prayer than activity. The problem was I found that the demands of activity meant that (despite my efforts) I struggled to adjust things towards a better ratio (back to the car analogy: my gear stick was stuck!).

A new gearbox was needed ...

Sometimes we need to take quite radical action to change the gearing of our ministry. Think about your ratios, think about your own gearing. Change as necessary!

Multiplication Sacrifice

When the flood recedes and Noah lands the ark, God gives instructions to him, his family and the animals/birds on board to 'go forth and multiply' (in the polite and positive sense!) - see Genesis 8.

Yet the first thing Noah does on the newly dried land is to build an altar and sacrifice some of the (clean) animals & birds on it. From a multiplication or population growth perspective, this was a counter-productive thing to do! Reducing the population at the outset reduces the probability of successful growth and rich gene diversity in the eventual population. On these calculations it would have been much better to let the several pairs of a certain species breed and produce.

But Noah's multiplication calculations are based on a different logic. Rather than the pure statistics, Noah's heart is set on God and a desire for a Godly population to follow. He therefore sacrifices, putting down a marker at the outset: honour God first & foremost, future growth depends on Him.

Discipleship multiplication movements know the same logic. A true movement, with multi-generational multiplication in evidence, only comes as a result of a move of God - they cannot simply be manufactured no matter how good the intent of the pioneers or the method deployed.

When we start out do we first accept a God-honouring 'reducing down' process, that runs contrary to the human logic of ensuring initial strength and resilience? Are we looking for merely 'growth by the method appearing to work' or God ordained growth? If the motives deep in our hearts were truly exposed, would it be about God or about us?

God commands multiplication, but with Himself as the multiplying-factor! God will work with us and through us - our human endeavours have validity - but we will do well to think how we are to lay down a marker of honouring God first & foremost, and to think how we will continue in that same heart & mindset.