The Life of Faith - Revelation 5:9-10
[13th June 2015]
Ultimately a life of faith has to be dependent on the promises of the word of God. I don’t think we are called to be reckless or take pointless ‘risks’ supposedly in the name of God, without the backup of actual promises of God.
The word of God tells me that around the throne at the end of time there will be people from every tribe tongue and nation. In John’s vision he heard the angels sing to the Lamb:
Rev 5:9 by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
I live for, and work with the belief that Jesus Christ will return, but will do so when the world has fully heard the gospel. The word of God tells me in Mk 13:9 that before Christ returns the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. So, no, I don’t think Jesus is coming back just yet, because so many different, and some very large, peoples around the world have not yet heard the gospel and they certainly don’t have viable churches among them.
And so the command of the word of God commands us to make disciples is a real one, and it is not just a bare command but one couched in promises to stand on by faith.
Mt 28:18 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.”
I believe that God will achieve his purposes for missions so I want to be part of it and he will be with us.
As soon as I became a Christian in September 1977 I had a certainty that I would enter full-time Christian work, probably as a missionary. I gave up my work with the British Railways in 1983 aged 25. I set out, and like Abraham, I “knew not whither” with my first term’s bible college fees.
So I live and work by faith that God wants to evangelise the world. A man called Ivor Davies whom some older people may remember was director of WEC in New Zealand and prayed continuously from 1960 until his death for a missionary training college to be set up in New Zealand. He never lived to see it. That finally came about at Gordonton in 1996, some years after he died.
The college Ivor Davies prayed for runs on the faith principle Ivor Davies lived by himself with no salaries and no debts. I stand on giants’ shoulders: the giants who have the faith to give and to pray. I have seen more miracles of provision in Gordonton than I ever saw in Africa. I believe it is because God intends to keep his promise to see the gospel fully preached before he sends his Son to judge the earth.
We train people to go to hard places where the gospel is unlikely to be wildly successful in the visible – but it will be one day, according to promises of God’s word. This is my walk of faith. The walk of the irony that – seeming failure leads to success in God’s sight. The walk of faith does not necessarily lead to prosperity or success in the world’s eyes. One of my Gordonton students was murdered for his faith in 2006 along with 4 others. There’s still no real church where he died – but there will be … because the word of God says so:
Is 60:6 All those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.
This is worth living by faith for. It is grounded on the sure and certain promises of God’s word.