Roots and Foundations: Preparing for Your Calling
As we go to new nations and begin ministry there, the idea of fruitfulness is on our minds. We imagine the impact we can have and the lives that will be changed because of us being there. This is a noble thing. We should desire fruitful, impactful lives.
In John 15, Jesus, talking to his disciples, gives us the biggest key of all to bearing fruit. It isn’t some complicated tool or clever missional approach. Instead, it is as simple as it can be. “Remain in me”, He says, “you will bear much fruit.”
“ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
Jesus
He gives the powerful illustration of Himself as the vine, and us as branches attached to the vine. If you have any experience farming or gardening you know this. If you remove a branch from it’s connection to the vine it becomes useless.
It will slowly die, and fade away. It has lost its purpose.
Even if that branch wanted to, it has no way of producing fruit. Why? It has no connection to a root system that will give it nutrients, the things which give it life, and make it healthy.
Powerless to Produce Fruit
Jesus says that the same is true of us in both our life and pursuit of fruitful ministry. We are dead, when separated from Him. We have no power within ourselves to produce fruit.
God has given us many gifts to use for His Kingdom. We may have done much to prepare ourselves for mission and developed skills to help us have an impact. These are great, but mean nothing if we are not rooted in Jesus.
What Does It Mean To Be Rooted?
To be rooted in Jesus, simply refers to our ongoing connection to Christ. It is about our relationship with Him.
There should be no greater priority in our lives or ministry than our intimacy with Jesus. It’s such a simple key to fruit-bearing! Yet in a busy, demanding world, it’s so easy to lose focus, to be distracted, and have our time with Jesus squeezed out.
That’s only avoidable when we make it a great focus, when we consistently create space in our day that is for our Lord. We must make Him a part of every aspect of our lives.
“Jesus taught that your highest priority must be your relationship with Him. If anything detracts you from that relationship, that activity is not from God. God will not ask you to do something that hinders your relationship with Christ.”
Henry Blackaby
Check Yourself
It’s good to evaluate your relationship with the Lord. There are three core areas essential to a healthy, intimate relationship with Jesus. We will call these the triple-core.
Often we gravitate to one of these more naturally. Another is more challenging. If we do not have all of these elements present in our walk of faith, we will find our relationship with Jesus unbalanced.
The triple core is:
1) the Word (reading, studying memorizing or meditating on, scripture.)
2) prayer (conversation with God.)
3) worship (praise and adoration of God.)
We need to know the Word of God. It is the foundation of truth and necessary for relationship with Him. We need prayer because it brings us from a faith based on knowledge into an actual relationship with God. Worship is needed because as we discover more of God’s nature and character, it is the only true and right response to Him.
Take time often to evaluate these three areas of your walk with God. The depth of your relationship with God is a key ingredient in your journey into missions. It is always God who puts in our hearts a desire to share our faith. It is always God who puts in our hearts a desire to go to the nations. It is always God who puts in our hearts a desire to see communities transformed.
He was the one who has called you into missions and He wants to be a part of every step of the journey to get you there. Be assured that God is not in a hurry to do this. His relationship with you is His top priority for you.
He is not a military general rushing you out to war. He is a loving Father wanting to work together with His children to expand His family.
Those of us who have more driven, task-orientated personalities, can find ourselves running ahead. We charge into the next task while forsaking, or at least minimizing the relationship.
For God, every moment spent with you is precious. Everything you do in preparation to “get there” is important to Him, as important as what we do when we actually “get there”.
Jesus shares a story in Matthew seven about a wise and foolish builder. You probably know the story, it’s a staple of children’s ministry programs worldwide. The foundations that the builders lay affects the ability of the house to withstand the coming storm.
I guarantee that if you are in ministry for any length of time, you will face storms. Living on the mission field magnifies both the intensity and frequency of these storms.
Building Foundations Takes Time
A good foundation takes time to build. Foundation building is the season you are in as you prepare for ministry overseas. Because God is relational, there is no formula for how long this might take or the steps that He may have us go through. Look at some of these examples of God’s preparation for calling found in the Bible:
Moses was raised as a prince, a grandchild of Pharaoh. But it was not from this position that God called him to free the Israelites. After murdering an Egyptian, Moses spent forty years exiled in the wilderness. Only after this, He was ready to step into his true calling. It was then that God dramatically encountered him through a burning bush.
David was anointed by Samuel, the chief prophet of Israel at the time, to be King of Israel as a young boy. We do not know the exact age but theologians believe it was between the age of ten and fifteen. He did not become that King until he was age thirty. He spent 15 (or more years) shepherding, serving King Saul, and then fleeing from him. This happened before God released him to fulfill his calling.
When Paul was saved by one of the most dramatic conversion experiences of all time, one would think he would start ministry immediately. That’s not what happens. The Bible is remarkably quiet on what happened in the first twelve years after Paul’s salvation. We know he spent two years in Arabia. He preached for a while in Jerusalem, where he faced some persecution and fled to Tarsus for nine years. God was preparing Paul for effective ministry and his true calling as a minister to the Gentiles. He would become the greatest evangelist to ever walk the earth.
Elisha, the prophet, was a young man when Elijah adopted him as a son, threw his mantle on him, and in doing so, called him into the position of a prophet. Yet for the seven or eight years, he served Elijah, no events involving him are recorded in Scripture. He reenters the story only as Elijah is about to be taken to Heaven. He famously asked for a double portion of the inheritance. What was God doing in this season to prepare Elisha for his ministry to come?
Although Jesus was the son of God and was divinely born on earth, it wasn’t until he was thirty years old that Jesus was released into ministry. We know surprisingly little about Jesus’s childhood and early adulthood. We know that he grew in “wisdom and stature, and favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). How was God working in Jesus to prepare Him for His calling in this period?
It is interesting that in most of these stories, we do not know what was happening during these seasons of preparation.
Set Up to Be Fruitful
It is the journey with God that sets you up for fruitfulness. Do not rush this process. Do not take it slowly either. Seek the Lord and follow His timing, obeying every step along the way.
Sometimes this guidance will be clear and the steps will have an obvious purpose. At other points the waters will be more murky and you may not even know the reasons why you are taking a step forward. Filter every decision through your calling, but always obey the voice of the Lord when it is clear, even if you do not understand the reasons why.
I want to end this aricle by reviewing these two important points.
1) The season of deepening our spiritual roots is never over.
2) God is always preparing us for things that are to come.
We are not talking about a season of preparation and then a life of fruitful ministry. The preparation season we are talking about is a unique season to ready you for the field. It doesn’t stop there though. There are always new levels of depth with God.
The next vision or call released from God will require new foundations and yet deeper roots. We do not ever want to think that we have arrived. We also don’t want to think we need to have reached a certain level before we are ready for the call of God.
Discussion questions:
- Which of the three areas in the triple-core of our relationship with God (word, prayer, and worship) are you more naturally drawn to? Which is the most challenging for you?
- How is God asking you to strengthen your relationship with Him in one of those areas?
This week, set a goal for yourself in each of the areas in the triple-core that will enhance your spiritual growth. We’d love to hear what that goal is in the comments below or on the Missionary Life Facebook page.
This week’s blog was written by Andy Yaxley.