Touching the Invisible - Matthew 18:18-20
Mt 18:18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Jn 15:6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
In 1940 Norman Grubb, who was leading WEC in England at the time, wrote a book called “Touching the Invisible”. It was really a book of testimonies as to how the Lord had abundantly provided for the missions agency WEC or the Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade as it was then called. The spread of the gospel and other achievements of WEC, under God have been quite remarkable. WEC saw God provide funds for missionaries and even send out fresh ones to the field in the height of the war years. Clearly as Grubb was writing his book he was aware of the extraordinary hurdles he would have to overcome as he led a missions agency at that difficult time.
Grubb felt that he could only move ahead with the mission’s strategy as the mission’s members knew and heard God directing them. Grubb called this ‘touching the invisible’.
WEC was touching the Invisible. Not just the invisible God, but also that invisible communication with the Lord - and in particular that of prayerfully waiting on God for guidance which can only ultimately be perceived spiritually. This is facilitated by the fact we are indwelt by the Spirit of Christ. “Christ in you the hope of Glory”, [Colossians 1:27] was Norman Grubb’s motto Bible verse.
It was a belief that God’s work done God’s way will see God’s full provision at every level: in personnel, in God’s providential arrangement of circumstances and finally in financial support. WEC refused to solicit financial support and still does.
What does it not look like? Not rushing in on a project, but waiting on God to hear his voice on a matter. Not carrying on in the flesh without God’s confirmation on what look like good projects. Not doing something just because there is a perceived need. This brings about burn-out in workers, a sense of failure when doing the right thing under peer-pressure does not work out like it says it should in the latest paperback from California.
How do we know when it is God’s still small voice and not a fantasy, not a whim of the flesh of a leader with a pushy personality or whether we have just too much cheese late at night? Grubb led the WEC HQ in South London in devotions every day: reading the word of God, laying before God in prayer all the needs of the mission, waiting on Him. I am told that sometimes those meetings could last much longer than was convenient for the running of the mission. But they looked for unity among the group about whether a decision should be taken and did not move ahead until they had it: whether a new field should be opened; whether to accept a new candidate for the mission; how undesignated funds should be used.
One of the characteristics of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in a fellowship is the unity it brings among God’s people. I think this is lost in the drive for strong Christian leadership today, drawing much from Old Testament imagery, from a time when only prophets priests and kings received the Holy Spirit. In the New Covenant we are a Kingdom of Priests, all of us. In the same way the Jerusalem church chose its first deacons [Acts 6:5], we can collectively make decisions too. One of the characteristics about answered prayer is that it gives “the peace of God which passeth all understanding.” You know it’s a God thing, rather than just a good idea carried out because you had the cash to do it that month.
I have seen this worked out at the college in New Zealand. In fact I think I have seen more miracles in New Zealand since 1997 than we did in our 6½ years in the chaos of incipient civil war in Africa. This college was a vision of a Welshman Ivor Davies who in 1960 came to lead WEC in New Zealand after 20 wonderful revival years in Congo. The first mention of a planned college in WEC New Zealand’s official committee minutes was in June 1963. Every attempt or nudge towards setting one up came to nothing for 30 years. Then in 1992 the WEC NZ conference ‘touched the Invisible’, and agreed to set up a college. Allan Shadbolt the man appointed to lead it started the project with nothing but a deposited $10 gift from a Wellington widow in a new account. Then God gave WEC outright a field of 33 acres … then God gathered together a team … then God gathered finances with some huge unsolicited financial gifts by people who caught the vision.
Looking back we can see what happened could only have happened in that window of time, 1992-1999. A government relaxed laws and allowed private colleges to be set up relatively easily, and which could gain accreditation for an educational program. That could not happen now. Then God brought an agricultural boom to NZ which allowed many Christian farmers to release money to the college - that boom is now over. All those things would not happen now and it couldn’t have happened before 1992.
When we stepped outside touching the invisible. We fell flat. We felt the need to build a kindergarten for our students’ children and for locals and applied for a government grant because we were encouraged to do so and the government was doling out money very generously for early childhood for education. We mysteriously failed to get a penny. The day we opened it the local MP came around ready to give a speech about how the government had been so generous in giving a grant – because he had not unreasonably assumed that we had received a grant. But God provided anyway and the embarrassed MP had to put his speech away and it was deemed to be the best kindergarten in New Zealand when it was built at the first inspection
What does touching the invisible look like in 2020? We are a praying staff and a staff who pray together, but we can all touch the invisible.