Day 15: Praying for Kingdom expansion and the great commission

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:16-20

 

We have arrived at the final stretch of our 21 Day Fasting Prayer. Throughout the scriptures, we see how God gives his people specific commands. One of those many commands is the underscoring vision of Commission Church. We are commissioned to “Go to all the world and make disciples”. We are a church who is committed to building disciples who will in-turn go and make disciples of others. This particular command of Jesus is important because it’s fulfillment rests on the collaboration of the entire body of Christ. Someone once said, if churches stopped focusing on building itself and started building the Kingdom, the Lord’s coming won’t tarry! Yet this requires an overwhelming sense of unity within the body. It is a task too big for one person or one organization to accomplish, but as believers of the Lord Jesus, we have a duty to embrace this command and are responsible for helping to bring it to fruition.

One of my favorite authors, John Piper writes, “we have three options in responding to the Great Commission: Go, send, or disobey.” We have the choice to lean in and chose one of these responses.

Goers: I love “goers”. They’re not easy to come by. It’s not a calling for everybody. Goers are forerunners, equippers, disciple makers, and church planters. They sacrifice so much to spread the gospel. Are you a goer? Do you want to be a goer? Pray that God opens doors for you and that you are able to hear his calling clearly.

Senders: Like I said before, not everyone is called to be a goer. Every Christian that doesn’t fall under the category of a goer, must be a sender. This is an equally important role because one cannot exist without the other. A sender prays or financially invests in the cause of Christ. As a church, we are not just goers; we are also senders. We are a “champion church” with a a church planting organization called Church Multiplication Network. We financially support CMN in their efforts to plant more churches in America and across the globe.

Disobey: It may alarm you to know that a majority of Christians aren’t goers or senders. They are passive church attendees. They don’t carry the burden of the gospel or thirst for souls. They don’t know what the great commission is or the enormity of this Commission. People don’t intentionally land in this category by resolving to disobey. They land in the category by not falling into either of the former categories.

Kingdom expansion is in the hands of men and women like us who can have a burden for the great commission and sense the urgency and need of unity in Kingdom Expansion.

Listen to Meryl as she encourages us from this topic.