[Some items are too important not to post. This article was sent out February 9 to all on our ministry newsletter list. I wanted to be sure that those who come to this blog would see it as well.]
A minister friend of mine has recently been active in missionary work in Africa, and I along with others am thrilled as we hear reports of God working through his actions there.
From time to time our ministry has been invited to partner with startup and existing churches in Africa, in India, in Pakistan, and elsewhere, and to come and hold crusades there. But when I some time ago prayed about going to minister in one of these places, I received clear guidance that our ministry is here, in the US (at least the “in person” ministry for now. Our CDs and newsletters and the web site of course go around the world.).
And that has all led me to thinking. So many of the serious believers correctly get very excited and also concerned about all those around the world who have not heard the good news. Some become active in international missions, whether going themselves or supporting the efforts of others. But one thing people forget – a huge number of Americans are also not currently in line to join God in Heaven, in the Kingdom, whether in the rapture or through death. Large numbers of Americans are just not genuine believers. Now of course you know that about people who clearly just don’t know God at all. But I’m here to tell you that huge numbers of others as well are certainly not currently lined up for Heaven.
We all see or hear those polls that say large percentages of Americans believe there is a God. So people like to say that a high percentage of Americans are believers. Large numbers also say they are Christians, and large numbers go to brick building churches on Sundays. But saying there is a God or that you believe in God does not get you into the Kingdom of God, into Heaven. Saying you are a Christian or going to church on Sundays does not get you there either.
Jesus and others such as Paul very specifically pointed out the requirements to be in the Kingdom. For example, Jesus said a person must have a spiritual rebirth (“born again”) just to see the Kingdom of God and must be born of water and the spirit in order to enter the Kingdom. Large numbers of churches in America never get into focusing on the spirit at all. It’s a part of the Bible they have overlooked.
Paul said that if a person confesses with his mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in his heart that God raised him from the dead, then he is saved. Saying that Jesus is Lord means you have made him Lord of your life. That means that you obey what he says. What does he say? As a minimum, all he said in the Bible. For example, I recently saw a prominent poll that said that half of all people who say they are Christians don’t believe the devil is real. But Jesus talked about the devil. He warned about the devil. He knew the devil is real. If a person does not believe that, then they are not believing Jesus. They certainly haven’t made Jesus Lord of their lives.
Elsewhere Jesus talks about just believing. Believe he is who he says he is and that he did what he did. That type of belief is absolute, like your believing there is enough air in the room in which you are reading this now so that you will stay alive (otherwise you would run out!). Absolute, genuine belief.
Jesus really is the Son of God. He really did come to earth and be born as a human being – actually his mother was a human but his Father was God himself. Jesus is alive, really alive. Currently he sits at the right hand of the Father. All things are under his feet. He is the King of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus himself made the point that few are they who find the way to life (e.g., to be in the Kingdom of God, to life eternal with him and his father). This point is made more than once. Few. That is way less than half. Few.
Clearly there is great room for ministry and mission work to those who live in the United States as well as elsewhere. Watch what happens around you in your town, neighborhood, city, nation – on TV and in person. Scan the front page of the local newspaper. Lots of lost and confused people. Listen to the entertainment celebrities, the politicians, the reporters. How many of those people have any idea who Jesus really is? Talk to ordinary everyday people. Let’s face it - huge numbers of Americans are not genuine believers in Christ.
You can try this test yourself. Go ask random people in your neighborhood or business or school how people get to Heaven. Jesus said he is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by him. Jesus is the only way. In this confused age of political correctness, you will hear many say they believe there are many ways to God. And you will see they are accepting of many false religions. Right away you know those people are lost.
Or you might ask people who goes to Heaven. You will hear some say that everyone goes to Heaven. Again, lost people.
A few years ago a man came to our office. He asked about our ministry. After some discussion, I remarked that he was not from the US. He replied that he was from Africa. I said I had been to Africa. After some discussion we found I had been to the city he had come from. So we had a good relationship. He mentioned that in his country people are healed by God. I said that we had divine healings in our ministry. He found that hard to believe, but I assured him it was true. He finally came out and said that he was a missionary sent from his country to the US, a Christian missionary. And he offered his views on why so many in America don’t see such things as healings by God. Since then I have found there are other missionaries from other places here to speak to Americans.
The US is a mission field. Yes, there are thousands upon thousands of big and small church buildings. The country does not need any more church buildings. Those funds could be used for far greater works. What the country needs is people to present the full power gospel of Jesus, whether in buildings or in home groups, and for people to actually believe and act on the truths of the gospel. People need to know and to obey the words of Jesus. What is being presented in many churches is a narrow and watered down gospel, a cultural gospel of no power. Jesus took care of everything that separated people from God. Yes he served as a substitutionary sacrifice for us, to pay the debt we all owed God for our sins. And he overcame that so that if we truly accept him we are forgiven and we have life eternal with him and his father. But he also took upon himself all our pain and sicknesses and disease, and by the horrible beatings he suffered, we are healed and made whole. He became a curse for us on the cross, so that we are free from curses of the law. He overcame evil, overcame death, overcame the world. And in him we do the same. He became poor that we might be rich. And on and on. So much more than is taught almost anywhere. Most people who say they are Christians have never heard most of what Jesus did, and they are not aware of who they are in Christ or that they have a power gospel. Rather so many sit like bored sheep on Sunday mornings and hear narrow, limited sermons, leaving with no revelation and no power. And they are lost.
Jesus Christ is coming soon to collect his CHURCH, that body of people who truly believe in him no matter where they are in the world.
Will he find faith on earth? Will he find it in you, in your house, in your neighborhood?
Just who is he really going to take with him?
