October 21 I Thursday

Isaiah 62-64

“As you sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”   —John 17:18

“Growing the body of Christ for God’s global mission” is the mission statement of The Peoples Church in Toronto, Canada. The heart of this mission is to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ, mature them, grow them and deepen their faith. This is done with an eye towards what God is doing globally. Vision is not a one-time moment or a pithy statement that the church puts on the wall; it is a continual posture of dependence, discerning how God is at work around us. If our vision is compromised, we could be missing the activity of God all around us.

       In John 5, after Jesus healed a man who had been an invalid for 38 years on the Sabbath, He was questioned by the Jewish leaders. In His defense, Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (John 5:19). From Jesus’s response, we see that His vision is about seeing what God is doing and how He is at work in the world around us. If we cannot perceive what the Father is doing, we cannot join Him in it. Jesus also reminds us through this text that apart from God we can do a whole lot of nothing. 

       What we see throughout the Gospels is Jesus constantly adjusting the perspective of His disciples so they can see how the kingdom of God is advancing and join Him in His ministry. Although global missions is a vital part of The Peoples Church identity and calling, there is a constant reminder that it is God’s mission and not our own. 

       A life of missions begins on our knees seeking to see where God is at work, recognizing that we can only do what we see Him doing. We need Jesus to reorient our vision. God could be at work right in front of us, but we completely misread what He is up to and do not realize that maybe the very people we struggle with or secretly despise in our minds and our hearts are the very ones we are sent to reveal Christ to. Hence, we ought to pray that the Lord would help us correctly see how He sees others, how He sees evangelism and how He sees a life of worship and prayer. As we pray for our eyes to see correctly, may we see His hand at work in our lives, in our communities and in the world. 

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I come before You humbly asking You to help me see correctly, so that I can join You and what You are doing all around the world. Thank You, Lord.