Normal People Who Simply Believe

Praying for the sick at one of the 50 evenings of gospel crusades we organised.

There are certain moments in my life when I become aware of the significance of the moment I am in, in the light of eternity. Where I know that this moment is significant and set up before the foundation of the world. Where I can see how God has converged the lives of people together. Where I know this group of people I am with will change the course of eternity and world history. In these moments I thank God that I get to be part of this. One of those moments was today when I met with my wider team for this next year in Redding doing Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry.

This year I get to serve a team of people who are weekly reaching hundreds of senior leaders including government leaders and pastors across the globe and thousands of others who desire to establish a Kingdom culture in their region. These leaders are leading thousands, probably hundreds of thousands to walk in the fullness of the Gospel across the globe. The vision for this was given by God over 15 years ago, in specific moments with God and dreams in the night. Some of those who founded this network of leaders sat today and shared this with us. They shared about the friendships, the way God connected them to each other, and they could take us back to the moments and places where this happened. All these moments could be seen as seemingly ordinary small moments, yet significant in the light of eternity. These are normal people who believed God would do what He showed them, that it could be possible to create a family of believers worldwide who were mothered and fathered and empowered to see their regions transformed by power of the Gospel.

I really believe we have seen nothing yet, compared to the fullness of the vision God has for this global network. One of the leaders encouraged us to close our eyes and to invite the Holy Spirit to help us imagine this global network. As I did this, I saw a vision of the globe and hundreds of fiery paths like flight maps, connecting nations to nations, cities to cities across the globe. This is just the beginning of seeing the global Church receive the revelation of mothering and fathering, empowered to believe God for the impossible to happen in their region.

I have been incredibly thankful over the last 10 years to sit in rooms with those that will go down in eternal history as generals in the faith. Many I have talked with, shared meals with, and I have had the honour of being let in to their inner worlds. I have at times seen their personalities, known their likes and dislikes, known of their weaknesses and mistakes. Some I have been in their homes and met their families. Some of these people have planted thousands of churches, some have been used by God to be key leaders in moves of God that had global impact, and some have personally led millions to the Lord.

Outside of this I am incredibly thankful to know many faithful men and women who are not well known, but who are leading nations to the Lord, some hundreds of thousands at a time, some giving their lives to preach the Gospel in war zones and persecuted nations. These same people I have also prayed with them, laughed with them, danced with them, been able to share encouragement with them, and seen them grieve with the challenges they have faced. I have seen the real-life struggles, sometimes very personal. I have known of challenging family dynamics, of life and death situations, health challenges and many other things.

You cannot have these experiences, see and know these things and not be personally affected. Sometimes people comment on the faith I have or the big vision I have or the passion and hunger I have for God. Of course, the big visions I have come from God, but when I sit with these people, I realise that they are just normal people, who walk through their own challenges, but they just simply believe God is who He says He is, and just believe that if He could use another, then why could He not use them. They are people who have decided to get back up again, and to not quit.

I have seen and known both the fragility of man, yet the power of the Holy Spirit. We never graduate out of our weaknesses. We never come to a place where vulnerability is no longer necessary, or where we have it all together. Yet we have Jesus, who gives abundant grace and who brings family around us to walk this journey together.

"For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies." - 2 Corinthians 4:6-10 ESV

Oh, if we would just dream bigger. I once heard someone say - if you can envision it, then it can happen. God is a God of the impossible. Oh, if we would know His nature and character, His abundant love. If we would just know what He thinks of us and if we would just know how much Heaven is backing us.

I remember when I was in Africa planning mass gospel crusades. In that season I was working long hours communicating, administrating, project and operational managing, crusade managing, event coordinating and pastoring teams, alongside preaching and teaching at churches. As a team we brought thousands of churches together, trained up hundreds of thousands of volunteers and saw cities transformed by the Gospel.

We preached the Gospel to tens of thousands each night - over 50 times - with many of these gospel crusades happening at the same time in different locations. We saw hundreds of thousands, or probably over a million people gather to hear the preaching of the Gospel. We were daily having planning meetings for months on end, sometimes eating and talking with bishops who were overseeing hundreds of churches in their nation. We even met with some of the presidency of the nation. We saw hundreds of thousands of documented decisions for Jesus over those months. We saw thousands of miracles, the paralysed walk, the deaf hear, the blind see, demoniacs delivered amongst many other things. We were living the book of Acts.

It is fully God who shows up, He is the One that saves, heals and delivers. He gave the vision for this. But we had to create the resting place for God to move in this way. We had to organise this, administrate this, pray into this and lead teams to see this come to pass. I was overseeing many aspects of this, doing things that I really had no idea what I was doing. In my own strength and ability, it was absolutely impossible. And in the midst of this I was going through my own challenges. I needed the Lord more than ever.

It was in my weakness that God met me. I could take you to a moment where I was knelt on the floor of my bedroom and was asking God to help me. I could describe to you the room, the coldness of the floor, where I was. Suddenly I became aware that I was not alone, I saw a vision of the Great Cloud of Witnesses cheering me on, knowing what was about to happen and that it was a set up from Heaven. I began weeping as the glory of God filled the room. I will never forget that moment.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." - Hebrews 12:1-4 ESV

In my weakness, in my inadequacy, in my own personal challenges, lack of experience, lack of natural knowledge, God gave me the strength and ability, the knowledge, wisdom, revelation and grace to complete the Gospel crusades and be part of an eternal story. I know that one day I will meet hundreds of thousands in heaven who were there those nights and whose lives were transformed. Hundreds of thousands of testimonies.

We are called to dream bigger, and to know that it is not in our own strength, but it is despite our weaknesses, our failings, our mistakes that God will use us to shape eternal history.

Would you believe that God would use you to impact your sphere of influence? Your family, your workplace, your city, your nation? Do not forget that every moment you show love to someone you are affecting eternal history. Oh, that we would recognise the significance of the moment we are in.

I pray you would ask God to show you the moment you are living in. I pray you would recognise the power of God, and the all sufficiency of His love to transform this world. I pray that you would not allow your challenges and weaknesses to disqualify you. I pray you would dream bigger and believe that God could use you to change eternal history every day. I pray you would recongise how normal you are and realise that every other man and woman of God who shaped history was a regular person who simply believed. I pray we would see with Gods eyes.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." - Romans 1:16 ESV

And for those who feel disqualified by their weaknesses and mistakes. I pray you would get back up again by the grace of God. I pray you would recognise the power of the Gospel in your own life. His blood is enough to wash away any sin, any regret, and shame. His love enough to heal every broken heart, every pain of betrayal and loss. I pray you would recognise His Great Mercy towards you, His Great Grace towards you and above all His Great Love towards you. You are the apple of His eye. You are His delight. He believes in you even if you don't. Ask Him to see yourself with His eyes.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. ”No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:35-39 ESV