"So You're Called to Missions?" The Heart of a Servant

 A Christian Missionary:  A Disciple sent into an area to perform ministries of service or MEET A NEED.

To advocate or promote the Kingdom of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ by meeting the practical needs of a different culture or people group, then your own.

For me, this photo - based on the story of the woman (who was a sinner) in Luke chapter 7, is a perfect picture of what it is to have the heart of a servant. A heart that is completely sold-out to Him in reverential awe and thanksgiving, worship, surrender and service. Total abandon of the old (sinful bondage) to the new (forgiven and free to serve).

LUKE 7: ³⁷ And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, ³⁸ and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.

Genevieve's Version: In essence I can hear her saying,

"Because of You, and Your intense love for me, I will never be the same again. Here I am, at Your service. You have done so much for me, if I worshipped You for the rest of my life, it could never be enough. What can I do for You? If it's important to You, it's important to me. If it grieves You, it grieves me. You are my God and I am Yours. I surrender all".

 Jesus said to the Pharisees and religious people in the room:

⁴⁴ “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. ⁴⁵ You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. ⁴⁶ You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. ⁴⁷ Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

When you KNOW you have been forgiven of MUCH, you love (Jesus) MUCH! When you love Jesus MUCH, you begin to take on His characteristics and attributes.

...and we know Jesus was a SERVANT. and not just a servant, but also Highly exalted.

When we humble ourselves through His example, we live in a realm of resurrection power that cannot be found any other way.

Simply put, a Missionary is a SERVANT. A guest in a foreign land, whose focus is to Advance the Kingdom. One of the fastest and most effective ways to do that, is by doing it His way.

PHILIPPIANS 2:5 says:

⁵ Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. ⁹ Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

1 Peter 5:6 Instructs us to "Humble (bring down one’s pride and opinion of ones self) ourselves under the mighty hand of God (the same hand that created the universe) that He may exalt you (lift up high, raise to dignity and honor) in due time (the right time, opportune season).

Jesus came in a manger, in meekness and humility and as a result He received unparalleled power, anointing and authority in the Spirit. There is power in HUMILITY.

Nowhere in scripture does it say that freedom means to be free to live for SELF!

Being a servant means to live for someone else, other than yourself.

When preparing for the Mission Field, my advice is: "Get yourself off your mind!"

There is a bigger picture at hand. Refocus yourself on the Vision that God has for the ministry you are involved in.

It's not about me or you, it's about making His Name great.

After all we are His Representatives...the called out ones'. We are the one He is depending on to carry out His hearts' desires in the earth.

No pressure! (sarcasm)

I Corinthians 9:19 Paul says: "For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself a servant (giving of self wholly to ones' needs and service) unto all, that I might gain the more (winning a hurting people, a dying generation over to the Kingdom of God)".

Preparation of the Heart

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart,

as working for the Lord, not for men.” Colossians 3:23

     Ø  Lift up Jesus Christ with your thoughts, words, and actions

Ø  Develop and maintain a servant’s attitude.

Ø  Pray for and support your leadership and their decisions.

Ø  Attitude check! Be positive and encouraging.

Ø  Remember what you learned as a child, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”

Ø  MUY IMPORTANTE! Be a team player, not a gossiper.

Ø  Remember the missionary job is to learn and serve, not to lecture and direct.

Ø  Be open to different perspectives and ways of doing things.

Ø  Remember you are a guest in a different culture. Enjoy it and learn.

 

MAKING IT PRACTICAL!

(for sure common sense, but it's amazing how easy it is to forget in the midst of PRESSURE)

1.      Ability to Follow Instruction: and take direction in accordance with policy, regulation or case by case situation.

2.      Patience: and ability to work in very high stress and intense environment.

3.      Stress Management: The ability to keep functioning effectively when under pressure and maintain self-control in the face of hostility or provocation.

4.    Flexibility:  and willingness to adapt to constant change. Openness to different and new ways of doing things; willingness to modify one’s preferred way of doing things.

5.      Focused: individual must be devoted to the work at hand. (Again it is a Calling and not employment)

6.    Spiritual Fortitude: every missionary should have the mentality that Christ - His Word and His ways of doing things are at the center and core of who they are, who they strive to become and who they strive to please.

Much Love and Many Blessings to All!

"So, You're Called to Missions?"

Right around 15 years ago now I experienced a radical encounter with God. I don’t know any other way to describe it but to liken it to Paul on the road to Damascus. (Hope that doesn’t offend anyone?).

It was as if the Power of God literally fell upon my life so suddenly and so forcefully that even my own free will was overridden as I stood under the conviction and mercy and forgiveness of a Living God. I knew at that moment in time that the rest of my life here on earth, would be taking a completely different course.

My life to that point consisted of hopelessness, despair, drugs, alcohol, addiction, rejection and abandonment, abuse, failure and worthlessness just to name a few.

II Timothy 1:9 says that we have not only been saved, but that we have also been called.  
“who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began”.

I began to understand that even before time began God knew that I would be saved (rescued, delivered, healed; made whole) and He knew the call (to Name and give an attribute or assign a quality to).

Only 3 years after my life-changing encounter with God and as much teaching, training, Word and Praise that I could fit in, I knew without a doubt that God had called me out of one place, and into another.
I didn’t have a vocabulary for it then, and I certainly would have never considered ‘missionary’ to describe Gods’ call on my life, but come to find out it was/is the assignment on my life.


Here is a definition.
A Christian Missionary is a Disciple sent into an area to perform ministries of service or MEET A NEED. To advocate or promote the Kingdom of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ by meeting the practical needs of a different culture or people group.

At the most basic level, a missionary is someone who has been sent. That’s what the word “mission” entails. It may not appear in your English Bibles, but it’s still a biblical word. Eckhard Schnabel—one of the world’s leading experts on mission in the New Testament— makes this point forcefully.

The argument that the word mission does not occur in the New Testament is incorrect. The Latin verb mittere corresponds to the Greek verb apostellein, which occurs 136 times in the New Testament (97 times in the Gospels, used both for Jesus having been “sent” by God and for the Twelve being “sent” by Jesus). (Paul the Missionary, 27-28)

The apostles, in the broadest sense of the term, were those who had been sent out. Linguistically, this sent-outness is also the first thing we should note relative to the term missionary. It is, after all, the first thing Jesus notes about his mission–that he was sent to proclaim a message of good news to the poor (Luke 4:18). Being “on mission” or engaging in mission work suggests intentionality and movement (Paul the Missionary, 22, 27). Missionaries are those who have been sent from one place that they might go somewhere else.

Every Christian–if we are going to be obedient to the Great Commission–must be involved in missions, but not every Christian is a missionary.

When most people think of Mission work they automatically think of international or even 3rd World Countries, etc.

But here in the U.S., right in our back yard is a mission field.

The purpose of this Blog and several to follow is to educate on the subject of Missionary and being sent into the "Native American Mission Field", and what it looks like to PREPARE YOURSELF for it.

For Non-Natives in particular, to be in Native American Ministry means to be called to a different place, a different culture and nation.

HISTORICAL: The story of the Native American people is complicated and marked by significant trauma and atrocities which resulted in the largest genocide of the 19th Century. Efforts to assimilate Indians into mainstream American society often involved the removal of native children from their homes on tribal land and sending them to religious and BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) boarding schools. Fueled by Richard Henry Pratt’s belief that Indians could be civilized through total immersion, these schools prohibited children from speaking their language, following their cultural practices, or spiritual beliefs. What happened to these young vulnerable children in many of these schools resulted in overwhelming, long-standing effects of trauma and unresolved grief. These traumas which interrupted the ability to parent, has led to most of the current social problems which plague Indian communities today.

GENERATIONAL: To grow up as a young Native American in the world today is very different than in most other cultures and people groups.  The generational cycles of affliction and hardship make it much more difficult.

STATISTICALLY:
Child Abuse and Neglect: A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds and more than five children die every day as a result (NCAS)
Alcohol Abuse: Alcohol abuse in the Native American community is epidemic and the leading cause of death of the tribal youth more than any other drug. (The Indian Reporter)
Domestic Violence: Three-fourths of Native American women have experienced some type of sexual assault in their lives (American Indian Women’s Chemical Health Project)
Child Sexual Abuse: One of the most destructive problems affecting children in Indian Country today is sexual abuse. Life for Young Natives Today
Poverty, Suicide, Hopelessness and Despair.
.......the list goes on and on, and to be honest most of these statistics describe my own personal life before Christ....BUT GOD.



Especially for those of you who feel the Calling of God for this type of ministry the next several blogs I want to look at the following pertinent topics:

• Spiritual Warfare
• Cultural Sensitivity
• Servants' Heart
• Walking in the Spirit vs. the Flesh
• The Condition of the Heart
• Community Living

Also maybe some real life examples from some of the best Missionaries that I know:).

In Him and with much love...........Bless YOU